Sign in or 
Share this
Homeschool Articles
If you are a member writer you may add articles here. If you did not write it, you must receive reprint permission first before adding it.
Older articles will be moved to Archives
Homeschool World: Practical Homeschooling Articles
Older articles will be moved to Archives
Homeschool World: Practical Homeschooling Articles
| Homeschool? by Teri Hoop Oct. 2008 This question comes often, mostly from others (but sometimes from me in a moment of frustration). Why? Why do it? It's so much more work! Why would you willfully choose this extra burden? I use to try and defend myself, pointing out all the wonderful benefits. But then I realized that most people don't agree with me and they definitely don't want to be convinced. So now when they ask me why I homeschool, I simply reply, "Because we love it!" Who can argue with that? I love to be with my children. I am close to them and they turn to me. We have time for family and what's important. We can teach them about Jesus more than once a week, everyday, personally helping them build their character, so that one day my husband and I will get the pay-off for all our extra time and hard work: wonderful, kind, loving, talented adult-children who seek knowledge because they love learning and who know Christ for themselves, powerful instruments in God's hands for the accomplishment of good and the ability to defend principles offreedom because we taught them! This is why I homeschool. This is the goal, this is the reward. And when I ask myself, "why do you homeschool?" The thought of this end-result keeps me going. When I concentrate on the short-term I get frustrated and I wonder if they're ever going to get it, but when I remember the end-product, it puts it all into perspective and I am happy. God loves us and he will help us as we try to fulfill our righteous roles as parents and teach our children, who are also His. God bless you all in your efforts tohomeschool, whatever your reasons! | "Little House" Lessons from Ma by Sara Malone Jan 2009 My all-time favorite series of books as a child was Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series. I thought that Laura was the most wonderful character I'd ever read about. I also enjoyed Mary, Carrie, Grace, and of course Pa. I recently read the series again. This time however, a different character stood out to me. Ma (Caroline Ingalls) always seemed to be in the background of these pioneer stories. I think that being a mother now helped me to see how important she was to her family in many aspects. Ma was definitely the glue that help the family together no matter the circumstances. Ma's life was not easy. She married a man who was by nature a wanderer. Pa (Charles Ingalls) always wanted to move west away from civilization. Ma steadfastly followed him from Wisconsin to Kansas, to Minnesota, to Iowa, and finally South Dakota. She traveled in a covered wagon and lived mostly in small cabins. Through each circumstance she did her best to raise her children in a civilized manner. Ma's life was full of work. She was determined to do whatever needed to be done to keep things going. She cooked, cleaned, sewed clothes, churned butter, made cheese, and many other chores often with very little to work with. She wasted nothing and learned to make do with what she had. She taught her daughters to do the same and to do so without a complaint. In almost every house that Ma lived in she hung a special shelf. On that shelf she placed a china shepherdess figurine. I think this represented some consistency in her life. No matter where she lived, she could provide a civilized home for her family. She taught her daughters manners, educated them when necessary, and gave them the skills and wisdom needed to prepare them for their own lives. Pa and the girls always had a welcoming home because Ma consistently worked to make it so. The life of Caroline Ingalls was filled with hardships. She endured the death of a child, illness resulting in the blindness of a daughter, crop failures due to drought, grasshoppers, prairie fire, the threat of Indian uprisings, and blizzards just to mention a few. Her faith in God and love for her family helped her to move on as life moved on. She moved on with steadfastness, determination, and consistency. I can now see the importance of Ma to the Ingalls family even though she is somewhat of a background character. She is truly someone that I can look to as an example of character for my life. |
| “The Process of Learning” (Part I) By Sam Roper Apr. 2008 The process of education requires two very important things. First, a clear understanding of the mindset, mental faculties, emotional state, and emotional process of the person you are trying to teach. Second, you have to have a clear, realistic goal for both the end of the present lesson as well as the end of the education process. The goals in education can be as varied as the people trying to attain them. As home educators, we all want our children to have a basic education. We also want our children to excel in areas of special interest and expertise, especially in subjects that will help them in their careers. When we set goals, we need to understand and accept that two things will inevitably happen. The goals won’t always be met and the goals will change. This is true with us as adults as well as our children, and should be accepted because it’s just plain part of being human. With that said, I’d like to concentrate more on the understanding of the mental and emotional processes. Understanding these is the key to setting, as well as obtaining, goals for us and our children. Probably the most important aspects of understanding, are observation and correlation. I believe that by observing ourselves, our children, and all of the world around us, we will come to understand that we are all similar, and that certain concepts hold true for people as well as animals. We were all created by the same God. Realizing this we can come to a greater understanding and create more effective ideas and concepts. These, in turn, will make it easier and more pleasant for us to teach our children. Observing Our Children We as parents, know our children better than anyone else in the world. We’ve observed them from the time they were born, we know their wants and needs better than anyone else, and we care about them more than anyone else. This makes us more qualified and compassionate than anyone else when it comes to setting goals for our children. As home educators, this gives us a powerful tool for teaching them during the education process. If we take the time, before a lesson, to observe where the child is at mentally and emotionally and make sure the child is ready for the lesson, it will maximize the child’s learning potential. One emotion that is essential to learning is confidence. One important tool for learning is change. If you find that at the end of a lesson, day, or week, that both you and your child are frustrated and exhausted with the education process, then perhaps you could benefit by observing the emotional state of your child during each lesson. As soon as the frustration begins in your child, he or she is beginning to lose confidence, this is when change is needed. Try something new, maybe a burst of enthusiasm, or take a couple steps back and do some confidence building exercises, or even just a break, but try something new to get the child’s confidence back. All progress is the product of trying something new. Observing Ourselves There are two particular aspects of this concept that I would like to point out. The first is our present emotional state. Just like with our children, we need to observe ourselves before and during a lesson. Are we frustrated or unconfident? It’s just as important for us to be in a proper emotional state as it is for our children. If not, make a change, try something new. It’s okay to vary or change your goals. The second aspect of self observation, that I would like to point out, is observation of your own childhood. This can be a very powerful tool for us because we may not always know exactly how our children are feeling or how they will react to certain situations. By remembering our own childhoods we can see how situations affected us. Doing this will increase our level of compassion toward our children and will also give us insights that will help us influence our children’s emotional state. (part II will be coming soon) | “The Process of Learning” (Part II) By Sam Roper January, 2009 Utilizing the thoughts that follow will increase our compassion towards our children and will also give us insights that will help us to influence our children's emotional state in a positive manner. OBSERVING THE WORLD AROUND US God created us, the world around and all plant and animal life using logical, effective and similar methods. I believe the Savior taught in parables not just to hide the teachings from disbelievers but also to stimulate our minds and open them to learning through correlations. Correlations between our lives and the world around us can be found abundantly and can offer us valuable insights and broaden our horizons. Parables, correlations, and similarities between us and the world around us could go in a million different directions, but I would like to concentrate on one particular aspect because of the great similarities and insights that exist Anyone who has studied horse training knows that in the past few decades there has been great strides in the advancement of a movement which has been termed as the revolution in natural horsemanship. To explain it shortly, the general idea is that by using safe, nonviolent, low stress training practices without anger or frustration on the part of the trainer or the horse, the horses learn more quickly and more thoroughly than with abusive, angry, and ignorant training practices. What a concept! As home educators we have an amazing opportunity that we need to utilize, to have a revolution in natural child education right in our own home. In future articles I will try to bring out many situations where tried and true concepts in horse training can apply to child education and make the process easier and more effective, but for the moment I would like to concentrate on some of the differences between us and horses. THE PREDATOR-PREY RELATIONSHIP There is absolutely no doubt that humans are predators, but not just any predator, we are the ultimate predator. Domestication of prey animals is without a doubt the most effective predator tactic that the world has ever seen, and so it can be said that we have the most finely tuned predator tactics in the world. So, you might ask, what in the world does this have to do with education? There are two predator traits that can greatly inhibit education if WHINING Have you ever sat down in front of your family dog and enjoyed a delicious meal? Without fail he will start by looking up at you with big sad eyes that let you know that the sole secret to his eternal happiness would be just a little bite of your food. When you don't give in his poor eyes begin to water and he lets out a little whining that just assures you that his misery is absolutely complete. What is actually happening? This poor puppy is really exercising predator tactics that are just as effective as the tactic of wolves surrounding their prey to ensure the kill. How does this equate to education? Whining is a very effective tool for a predator to get what they want from another predator which has dominance over them, our children use it exclusively as a tool to get us to do something that we don't want to do. It is very important to train this tactic out of them. Perhaps the best way to do this is to show them that it is not effective. I don't have all of the answers for how to do this but I don't think that it would be unreasonable to suggest that when your child starts whining, imagine yourself surrounded by a pack of wolves and realize that the situation requires immediate action if you are going to survive, or at least maintain your dominance over your children. GOALS If you have ever paid attention to the differences between prey and predator animals, you have probably noticed the most prominent one is the way that the eyes are set in the head. Prey animals have eyes that are set on the sides of their heads. this allows them to see nearly 360 degrees around them but they don't focus well on any particular object. their only goals in life are to eat grass, drink water, and not get eaten. In contrast, predators have eyes set in the front of their face, allowing for them to focus well on a particular object, thus facilitating goal orientation, and the fact that they survive by hunting and killing another animal requires them to be goal oriented. But goals are a good thing right? Consider this allegory. A cheetah once it has chosen an animal to chase will concentrate solely on that particular animal until it either kills it or is too exhausted to chase it anymore. It will even run right past other animals who are standing still or who might be a more suitable prey because it has its eyes fixed on one particular goal which it has chosen. While educating our children, goals are definitely important, they are an act of faith and a motivating force, but keep in mind that when we set the goals for our children, we are exercising a predatory tactic on them, also remember that if we concentrate solely on our goals that we set such as our chosen curriculum, we take the chance on missing opportunities that might further our child's education more easily than the goals that we have set for them. One more thought that I'd like to suggest before moving on is that we might do well to constantly examine ourselves for the use of predator tactics on our children, for perhaps a predatory tactic will induce a predatory response. I.E. setting an unwanted or unrealistic goal for our children and especially enforcing it with aggression might induce the response of whining. In future articles I will attempt to make useful correlations between the extremely effective attitudinal changes and training practices that have now become the industry standard in the horse training world and how we relate to our children as we seek to open their minds and give them the best educational experience possible. I hope that these theories and suggestions are useful to some of you and I will try to offer valuable insights. |
svhe |
Latest page update: made by svhe
, Mar 22 2009, 11:40 AM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by svhe
view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
articles
homeschool articles
homeschooling methods
how to homeschool
Star Valley Home Educators
SVHE
SVHE articles
unit studies
wyoming homeschooling
More Info: links to this page
|
There are no threads for this page.
Be the first to start a new thread.
