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Homeschool Resources Tips
Keep Up With Your Child's Homeschool Materials
A great way to keep up with your children’s homeschool materials and to monitor their learning is to have them create portfolios. A homeschool portfolio should be created for each child and contain the information the child has learned. This is demonstrated through poetry, reports, book lists, summaries, semester tests, art work and more. Having your child create a homeschool portfolio is much like making a scrapbook. The child will enjoy doing it and the parent will find it a useful way of demonstrating to others what the child has been doing during school time.
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Through the Eyes of the Young, the World Is New Again
When a family initially begins to homeschool, they should fill the classroom with homeschool books and materials designed to inspire a young mind. While the nature of the homeschool classroom allows for the teacher to seek out learning opportunities in everyday situations and questions, there must be appropriate homeschool supplies to support such curiosity.
For the young learner at preschool and kindergarten age, children have so many questions about the things that happen in each day and the world around them but don’t realize that all things are connected. Having the liberty to create and teach an individualized curriculum allows the parent to focus the learning to the child’s growing interests is the first way to inspire a young mind to want to learn more everyday. Approaching education as an exciting learning activity transforms the drudgery of workbook pages done in the public classroom into the excitement of personalized exploration in the homeschool classroom.
Using life moments as educational opportunities opens the eyes of the student to the wonderful world around us, showing through exciting and educational exploration that everyday life is filled with opportunities to learn more about ourselves and the world around us.
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Homeschooling Materials And Grade Cards
Grade cards are an important part of a student’s life. Homeschoolers can also greatly benefit from receiving grade cards. Not only does receiving a grade card make them feel important, but it is also a good way for you to keep track of your children’s progress. You can download grade cards for homeschoolers for free at: www.donnayoung.org. Not only does this website have grade cards, but it also has many other homeschool materials that you might find useful such as planners, calendars, letters of intent and more.
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Used Book Sales Offer Inexpensive Homeschool Book Resources
If budgeting is a problem in your homeschool goals, seek out free and inexpensive homeschool materials to help create a research and reading library at little or no expense. This is a very easy task to accomplish if you keep your eyes open and watch for bargains. Used book sales are a wonderful way to build up your academic resources without breaking the bank. Private, public and home school co-ops often sell used books at a greatly reduced rate. It is often a good idea to contact each of the schools and school districts in your area in early spring and late summer to inquire about upcoming book sales.
Another key location for used books is the public library. Many libraries sell used books as a fundraiser to purchase newly issued books. Again, another telephone call will provide the dates of sales and the types of books being sold. Many old dictionaries and encyclopedias will provide usable information, even if it isn’t the most up to date. It is often a good idea to scour books prior to purchase to insure that the pages are not torn or missing, but generally the book sales will offer quality used books at a reasonable rate. Many public school book sales will include curriculum materials that are no longer being used by the district, grab these up quickly. A critical eye can quickly go through the materials to supplement your current needs with new ideas and methods of learning. You do not need to use every bit of information; often it is the supplemental ideas and projects that can extend what is already going on in your own classroom. Many different curriculums utilize the same popular books but in different methods, by critically reading what you have you can mix and match to suit the needs of your own classroom.
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Homeschool Books May Not Be Viable For Every Subject
If your student is receiving credit for a class (such as Physical Education) which does not require homeschool books, have documentation on hand for the class. For instance, if your child receives a certificate for completeing a P.E. program, place a copy of it with your child's homeschooling records. That way you are covered if anyone should ever question you about your child's education.
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Don't Be Afraid To Ask Local Businesses For Donations For Your Homeschool Materials
Many preschools, private schools and public schools will often hold public sales or auctions to sell used art supplies, flash cards and other items that the teachers are updating. These auctions can often provide many treasures that might otherwise find their way into the trashcan. Do not hesitate to take them, as you can often clean them up and get many years of use from them.
It is often a good idea to make friends with teachers at your public school, letting them know of your needs within your homeschool classroom. Many may make personal donations to you when they are replacing things in their own public or private classroom. If the teacher is aware of a student need, often many will send it along your way rather than throw it into the trash. Extra copies, school supplies, abandoned workbooks, other classroom items can easily be modified to fit into your home school classroom, and we all agree that free is a very good price. As you seek out homeschooling materials, it is often a good idea to contact art galleries, art supply stores and craft stores. Many retailers have discontinued or opened items that cannot be returned to the wholesale agent and must be sold, it is often possible to purchase such items at a huge discount, thus increasing the supplies you can access within your own teaching materials
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Keep Up With Your Child's Homeschool Materials
The homeschooling materials and records that you will have to keep will be dependent upon which state you are enrolled in as a homeschooler. No matter what your requirements, it is important to keep your child’s homeschooling records up to date. You can simply use a journal to track your child’s progress or you can use an elaborate computer program which will track and record the information for you. Keeping your child’s homeschooling materials and records up to date will keep you from scrambling around at the last minute if you were ever called upon to verify your homeschooling activities.
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Homeschooling Resource: Public Library
If you haven’t tapped into your public library you are truly missing out on a wonderful homeschooling resource. Not only can the library save you money with books, but the library offers many services to children throughout the year. Your children can attend story time, watch puppet shows, listen to special guests, learn to do sign language and more all for free. While your children are taking part in their activity you can browse through the adult books and curl up in a corner somewhere to read.
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Homeschool Resource: Lesson Plans
It is nice to wake up on a homeschool morning knowing what you are to accomplish with your children that day. A homeschool resource that every homeschooling parent should make use of is lesson plans. It cuts down on stress, especially if you are teaching multiple children. You can download copies of lesson plans at: www.donnayoung.org. These lesson plans will work for both standard and non-standard curriculum.
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Current Events Homeschool Resource
If you're looking for quality news and information from a source you can trust, look no further. World magazine and God's World News are two invaluable homeschool resources for both parents and students.
To help students not only stay informed, but learn to understand today's events, schedule time to not only read these magazines, but to discuss their content as well.
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Home Resources for Teaching Life Skills
Discipline, focus, self-esteem, and kindness are just a few of the non-academic skills our home schooled students need to acquire. Teaching by example is paramount but, to augment this are many home education resources that can help.
Programs like Hide or Seek, Life Skills for Kids, and Open Heart, Open Homes teach invaluable life skills to children of all ages.
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Public School Access
For those homeschooling parents who don't feel the need to completely segregate their children from public school contact, there are some activities that your child can still partake in.
Many public schools will allow homeschooled children access to certain programs within the district. So, if your student likes team sports, playing in a band, or belonging to the Honor Society, check and see if your district will allow your participation. Especially if you are a secular homeschool family, the need to draw a complete segregation may not be necessary or productive.
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Homeschooling Books And Transcripts
A transcript should be kept of your child’s grades starting in the 9th grade. To download a free transcript to use for your homeschooler visit www.donnayoung.org. When you are filling out your child’s transcript it is important to do it correctly. Science should be labeled by its title. Instead of putting “science” you would put “biology” or “physical science.” The same goes for all subjects. If you are not sure what course name you should list, simply look at the titles of your child’s homeschooling books.
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A Homeschool Resource To Evaluate Writing Skills
If you find the task of assessing and providing feedback for your children's written assignments daunting, you do have a choice. Let an outside expert evaluate written assignments.
‘My Access' is an online writing development homeschool resource that gives your child age-appropriate feedback to help you teach and track their writing skills. You also get a CD that shows you how to maximize the benefits of ‘My Access'.
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Local Homeschool Resources
It's pretty obvious that everyone's own home town has valuable home school resources you can take advantage of. The library, town hall, a local museum, a historic site, and the courthouse are all home education resource.
Did you know that most local colleges will open their teacher's library to any educator, including homeschoolers? You may need to show proof that you homeschool, and can use your annual intent to homeschool letter.
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Homeschool Books May Not Be Viable For Every Subject
There are just some subjects which you will not truly require homeschool books. For these you will have to look for outside resources. Physical Education is one of those requirements which can be confusing for a parent. A quick way for your child to get his or her P.E. credit is to enroll them in a class at your local college. Many colleges offer classes throughout the year just for homeschoolers. Many of these classes are taught by college students who are working on their physical education degrees.
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Homeschool Resource: Lesson Plans
When you are shopping around for a curriculum, look for ones which are actually a viable homeschool resource. These will come with lesson plans already laid out for the teacher. With less than five minutes a day set aside for planning, you can spend more time actually teaching.
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Homeschooling Resource: Public Library
Cirricula that comes with pre-packaged books are a wonderful homeschooling resource. These books will have been hand picked and chosen for each grade level and will work in conjunction with other subjects.
