Welcome to Home School Tips

Homeschool History And Literature

Sonlight Curriculum Tip: Homeschool history would not be complete without reading biographies. When you have your child read a biography he gets to see history from the perspective of someone who actually lived it. Having your children read biographies (or reading them to your children) is the quickest and easiest way they can learn and become intimate with history.

Homeschool History And Community Events

One of the best ways to supplement homeschool history is through Living History Days. Take your children to reenactments of popular battles, speeches and parties. Let them be an eyewitness to history and it will most certainly make an impact on their minds. Living History Days can be found in most communities. Check your local newspaper and library for postings of the next event in your area. Pack a picnic and go learn!

How To Liven Up Civil War Homeschool History

The American Civil War is often studied in homeschool history. To make the subject more lively and interesting for your students teach them all about “Civil War Slang.” Find a listing of slang terms at boonebunny.tripod.com/hubbub.html. Find out if “goober grabbers” was an offensive or polite term for Georgia troops, or if you would want to eat “ginned cotton.” These slang terms are quite funny and will make studying the American Civil War more interesting to homeschoolers.

Yucky, Gross, and Cool Body

Trying to homeschool yourself or your child about the human body? Discover Kids has a website about your "Yucky, Gross, and Cool Body" that has everything you wanted to know and more about things like bad breath, the brain, ankle sprains, skin, and so much more!

The web site can be found at: http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/flash/body/pg000029.html

Homeschool History And The History Channel

The History Channel Classroom is a great place for you to find educational material for your homeschool history program. This classroom is a service that The History Channel provides for teachers and they welcome feedback. If you are studying a particular historical figure or event in history, check out the calendar to see when your subject will be documented on The History Channel. This classroom program gives permission for video taping and they also provide study guides to their documentaries which can be found at The History Channel Classroom website. Download their calendar today so you can plan to tape the shows for your homeschoolers.

1st Grade Science

First Grade Science

*Grouping and classification
*Living and nonliving things
*Animals
*Pets
*Farm animals
*Zoo and circus animals
*Woodland animals
*Common birds
*Plant and animal habitats
*Seeds, bulbs, plants, flowers
*Weather and seasons
*Day and night
*Solids, liquids, gases
*Air and water
*Magnets
*Fire and temperature
*Sun, moon, stars, planets
*Simple machines
*Beginning experimentation
*Scientific method and scientific inquiry

Courtesy of: http://www.worldbook.com

How Stuff Works!

This site will tell you... well... how stuff works!!
And, when they say stuff, they mean stuff!
In the "Super categories" you will find links to find out how just about anything works!

* http://www.howstuffworks.com/

The Day After The First Day

Most parents feel most comfortable using a prepackaged home school curriculum for the first year or so. Then, they switch to a more customized approach. A prepackaged curriculum comes with virtually everything that you need to begin work immediately - a textbook for each subject, workbooks, supplemental books, and any materials referred to in the year's lesson plans. Each package includes a detailed teacher's manual that tells you exactly what to do and how and when to do it. Some even tell you what to say! The texts, however, are often written for classes of 20-30 students, so beware. As you get more comfortable, you may want to begin searching for materials that are better suited to your children.

During your week(s) of transition, get a spiral notebook to be used exclusively for your home schooling. On scratch paper, begin arranging your week. Figure out what you want to teach and when you want to teach it. Look at the lesson plans in the prepackaged curriculum; you need not follow it to the letter if you would like to do something different. Once you have roughed out a week's schedule, copy it in pencil into your notebook. This will help you keep attendance and daily progress records. If your child is in high school, this type of record will serve as the basis for your homemade transcripts when the time comes.

A typical day is generally based on the schedule that you and your child find most comfortable. For example, my youngest son is an early riser and chomping at the bit to go at about 6:00 A.M. However, my older son likes to get up and take time to wake up before he gets going. This really can be a strain when we try to begin with taxing work first thing. Instead, to give my younger son something to do and to give my older one time to wake up, we begin simply by copying the memory Bible verse for the week and doing a simple devotion (from Patch the Pirate). This way, both are engaged, which gives me time to get showered and dressed and do a little housekeeping before they begin work that needs my direct supervision.

Out-of-the-Box Thinking on Homeschool Curriculums

A well-rounded homeschool curriculum does not only cover the courses and subjects that come in a box. A quality education requires us to give our children more.

Some examples of how you can round out your student's education are music lessons, civic or church volunteerism, sports involvement, computer science, and woodworking. Don't be afraid to act on your child's passions. It will keep that student an enthusiastic learner.

Making Butter

Making Butter
Young kids love trying to figure out "what happened" to the whipping cream!
Fill baby food jars half full of whipping cream and screw the lids on tightly. Let kids take turns shaking each jar.

After about 5 minuntes the cream will be whipped, and after another minute or so, lumps of yellow butter will form. Rinse off the liquid whey and add a little salt, if desired. Then spread on crackers to taste!

5th Grade Science

Fifth Grade Science

*Biological adaptations
*Biotic communities
*Animal and plant classification
*Fish
*Reptiles
*Bacteria
*Molds
*Trees
*Plants and their food
*Conservation
*Cells
*Human body
*Landforms
*Properties of air and water
*Time and seasons
*Temperature and thermometers
*Magnetic fields
*Use and control of electricity
*Conduction and convection
*Light and optics
*Force systems
*Chemical systems
*Sun and solar system
*Space and space exploration
*Scientific method and scientific inquiry

Courtesy of: http://www.worldbook.com

9th Grade Science

Ninth Grade Science

*Earth´s history
*Earth science
*Ecology and environment
*Weather and climate
*Air and air pressure
*Air masses and fronts
*Water and its uses
*Erosion
*Air and water pollution
*Heats and fuels
*Electricity and electronics
*Solar and nuclear energy
*Nature and uses of light
*Simple and complex machines
*Atomic structure
*Chemistry of matter
*Molecular theory
*Nature and use of chemicals
*Metals and plastics
*Space and astronomy
*Space travel
*Nature and causes of disease

Courtesy of: http://www.worldbook.com

Planning Ahead in Your Homeschool Lesson Plans

If you are creating your own lesson plans, try to plan them on a weekly basis. That way, if you fall behind on time, you don't have to worry about the next day's lessons.

Doing lesson plans in blocks helps you see a fuller picture and allows you to set goals that are a bit more well-rounded than when you make them one day at a time.

Homeschool History Can Encompass Other Subjects

Not only can you do homeschool history using literature, but you can also use the literature for other subjects, too. Take words your child may stumble over during reading and make those this week’s spelling words. Make words your child does not know the meaning to and make those this week’s vocabulary words. Prepare a food dish from the time period your child is reading about and call it home economics. Make a map of the area your child is reading about for geography. Literature based programs can go far in encompassing many subjects.

Garden Kits!

One year, we had a "Welcome Spring" party. As party favors, we gave garden kits. To make the garden kits, I used colored lunch bags (you could also use brown lunch bags and have the kids decorate them) and filled the bag with the supplies to make a *storybook garden*.

Supplies include:

• seeds
• small pots (you could use terra cotta, peat pots or even the peat disks available!)
• a plant label (we use popsicle sticks) and the storybook of choice
• also add any small garden items you can find (like stickers)

Themes can include:

• Peter Piper (pepper seeds)
• Mary, Mary, quite contrary (Wildflowers)
• Jack and the Beanstalk (Pole Beans)
• The Princess and the Pea (Sweet Peas)
• Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater (Mini Pumpkins)
• The Enormous Watermelon (Giant Watermelon)

Neighborhood Schience Programs

Often, our neighborhood parks and recreation facilities might have nature or science programs that homeschool kids can participate in. And, even in summer, any nature or camping experience can be turned into a science experience.

Don't overlook those organized hikes, bird watches, or astronomy club events being held right in your own backyard.

Stanford Solar Center

This site presents a collection of fun educational activities based on Solar Oscillations Investigation (SOI) and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) data. Students can explore the Sun's tangled magnetic field, its turbulent surface motions, the dramatic sunspot cycle, and even what magic happens in the solar interior where instrumental eyes cannot penetrate.

* http://solar-center.stanford.edu/index.html