Articles by Ruth Tennis
Hi! My name is Ruth Tennis.
For me, home educating was a way to encourage my children to look for and glorify God in what He has created through subjects like science, language, and art. We might find ourselves stopping “school” to examine a newly found toad, enjoying lunch with a good read aloud, or drawing while listening to different types of music. God builds into each of us a curiosity. It is that inquisitiveness and excitement that is important in teaching children. You can teach a child innumerable facts, but if you can get them excited about learning, and most of all, reach their hearts for God - there's the joy!
Living in the country provided unique learning experiences in my homeschool. We raised chickens, gardened, and learned how to chop and split firewood. My sons apprenticed with a local luthier as part of woodshop class we created, while my daughter learned to sew from a talented friend. We took opportunities to participate in area ballet, fencing, and art classes, and in homeschool co-ops, speech, debate, and science lab classes. We intentionally spent time learning about other cultures, their languages, and their contributions to society. As adults now, my kids are working in multimedia, engineering, and healthcare and live in the Midwest and East Coast.
We live in an age of distractions - from phone alerts to unexpected interruptions - making it hard to focus on what's important! This is a common struggle, especially in a homeschool environment where school tasks can easily get derailed. But what if there was a simple way to reclaim your focus and boost productivity? Let's explore the Pomodoro Technique, a proven method for training your brain to concentrate. Learn how using this simple technique in your homeschool can help both you and your children overcome distractions, manage time effectively, and celebrate accomplishments!
I fear our culture has forgotten the great benefits of kids experiencing a proper amount of risk. It’s a way to strengthen problem-solving skills! When we’ve worked out a problem and succeeded, the result is great satisfaction. Let's talk about risk-taking play as a way to introduce kids to activities that have uncertain outcomes. Dealing with this uncertainty will help them learn to operate outside of their comfort zones!
Evaluating essays can pose large challenges for parents. For multiple reasons, we can become discouraged and challenged with responding effectively to student writing. What should be “good” for student and parent instead becomes “the bad and the ugly.” Don’t wave the white flag! Evaluating your student’s writing and encouraging them in this process is important, doable, and can provide wonderful results.
As home educators, we want our children to learn facts and information. But truly, our goal is not just for them to hoard information, like we’re filling some giant pitcher with water. Very simply put, we learn stuff to apply it in context. We want our children to take that “pitcher of knowledge” and skillfully use the contents to grow things. Learning is, in actuality, using what we’ve learned to discern, analyze, create, build… We want our kids to be excited to say, “I know stuff and I can do things!”
Learning to read isn’t about speed. It’s slow and challenging work, particularly at first, when the goal is learning how to read. Novice readers will read slowly, and it’s important that we remind them and ourselves that the end goal (fluency) is worth the hard work. Skills take time!
Every November the Christmas catalog would arrive and my kids would circle and label their top picks. But now, decades later, what we remember best are not things but rather the experiences we shared. As homeschoolers we have a lot of time with our children. But the holidays are great times to invest in ourselves and community. Try the gift of doing together!
Why not introduce mysteries to your children—particularly if your children are still finding their feet in reading or are struggling to enjoy the process? Children’s mysteries don’t include the problems that seem to dominate adult mysteries, yet they can be just as engaging—and a compelling competition to screen time. Here are some practical benefits mysteries provide for all types of readers!
Are you a parent of a reluctant reader waiting for your child to find reading fun? Don’t give up! This perceived delay may not be about reading difficulties but more about your child recognizing the joy and the why of reading. As I talk to parents who are concerned about a child reading, we have found that nonfiction leveled readers will repeatedly open that door for their reluctant readers.
There’s more than one way to help children find the joy in reading. Often, to encourage a student in reading our first go-to is fiction. Not every child, however, responds well to that genre. If that's the case for your child, try biographies! Biographies can open the door for some real-life exciting reading. And, research show that this genre benefits a reader well beyond just the reading itself.
Everywhere we go, there are instructions—a process. As parents, we direct our kids and as home school teachers, we give assignments. As adults, many of our tasks are intuitive. However, giving directions and helping our children learn how to follow them presents challenges. How do we help our children learn how to follow directions and complete tasks?
