“The fourteen-toed sloth crossed the Mississippi River in a neon orange battle tank. Just so he could taste the wild palm trees of Nebraska.” While this may seem like comical nonsense, Mad Libs® educate children, and let’s be honest, adults, too! This silly way to introduce grammar practice into errand running, down time, or scheduled grammar time is a game changer for students.
Our language skills progress as we grow, mature, and learn. Squiggles turn to letters, to words, to sentences, and before we know it, we are writing essays, papers, and reports! The written word allows us to express our ideas, understandings, and findings to others. As this skill develops for your young students, a new skill needs to emerge in your personal teacher toolbox: the ability to evaluate, assess, and grade our students’ writing. So, where do you start?
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.
In my previous artilcle, we considered the benefits—both practical and experiential—that cooking together as a family offers. Let’s take this a step further and consider how we, as parents, can breathe life into our history and science lessons using the power of food!
Cooking together promotes family relationships, self-confidence, and healthy eating habits. Not to mention the practical application of mathematics, vocabulary development, and social skills. I might also add that it is fun! In this two-part series, let’s look at mom and child-friendly ways to incorporate cooking into the homeschool day.
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!
Election year gives you a special opportunity to teach your student the process America goes through to pick a president and other elected officials. There are many ways to help students learn about state, local, and federal election processes, understand the power of their voice and the vote, and become engaged participants in our nation’s constitutional republic. Discover how to incorporate the topic of elections into your school year!
Teaching our children to read is one of the most rewarding things we will do as homeschool parents. And it is an accomplishment we should celebrate with our children. But as phonics are mastered and we shift our focus to the other English language arts skills like spelling and grammar, I want to encourage you to take time to help children find joy and purpose in reading. The helpful acronym "LEADER" highlights 6 key benefits of reading for children!
Rainbow Resource Center is located in the heart of the Midwest, and staff members experience the beautiful season of fall with cool temperatures and colorful trees. It is a favorite time for families to enjoy harvest parties, hay rack rides, bonfires, orchards, smores, and caramel apples. Nature hikes include crunching around in the newly fallen leaves and collecting many different vibrant colors. These outings present a great opportunity to explore or discuss science with your students!
Something we often hear from parents is how much they are learning about history when homeschooling their children. We offer some amazing options for history in a variety of formats. But is that the difference? Is that what is speaking to you? Or is it that you have more life experience and are applying your context to the content being taught. I would argue the latter. So, how do you make history relatable for your students?
