AHEA Homeschooling Conference
Are you interested in attending Alberta’s province-wide homeschooling conference? AHEA (Alberta Home Education Association) annually provides a large conference, a great opportunity for Christian support and encouragement! If you come, stop by the Roots booth to say ‘Hi’. http://aheaonline.com/index.php/convention-2012
January 26 2012The Ordinary Homeschooler
By Deborah Wuehler
There is nothing out of the ordinary about our family. We are your average, middle-income, American family. We just happen to have more children than the average (8), and we just happen to have this “against the flow” Biblical conviction to educate our children at home. We have been homeschooling for more than fifteen years and have graduated two from our private school at home who are now pursuing their college degrees. We have one graduating from our high school next year, and then five more students to follow for another fifteen years of schooling in our home. I don’t see any of them as extra-ordinary; in fact, they are very normal kids, and I am a pretty ordinary homeschool teacher myself—nothing special here for sure.
Our family may be pretty ordinary, but there are many stories in the media about those above-average and over-achieving homeschoolers out there. I am amazed and impressed by the academic abilities, civil involvement, and private university material represented by these elite, home-educated students. Although fascinated when I hear about them, I often feel like maybe I am not equipped to produce any extraordinary homeschoolers in my little school. Actually, I know beyond doubt that I am not equipped to perform such a feat. This thought can paralyze me, cause me to doubt my calling to homeschool, motivate me to send my children to someone else to educate, or—on the opposite end of the spectrum—give me great relief. I choose relief, and I’d like to share that relief with you. First, a little more history on a school named Adonai Academy and its very ordinary teacher.
Article continued in document below.
The Old Schoolhouse Fall 2011 - Ordinary Homeschooler
Give Thanks! A Unit Study About Gratefulness
As homeschooling families, we have the opportunity daily to nurture Godly character in our children, both by example and via instruction. Gratefulness is a character quality that is pleasing to God. We know this because throughout His Word, in both the Old and New Testaments, He tells us to be thankful people, to give thanks, in verses such as these:
• “Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.” (1 Chronicles 16:8)
• “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
• “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High.” (Psalm 92:1)
Gratefulness is a demonstration of humility, which God commands us to seek. (See Zephaniah 2:3, 1 Peter 5:5, Matthew 18:4, James 4:6, Micah 6:8, and 2 Chronicles 7:14.) As we express gratitude, we acknowledge the benefits we have received from others, whether those are tangible benefits such as food and clothing or intangible ones such as prayer support. To give thanks is to remove the focus from myself and deliberately to honor others, to highly esteem them and thus encourage them. These are choices that please our heavenly Father and bless others. (See 1 Timothy 2:1, Hebrews 3:13, 2 Corinthians 9:7, and Jude 3.)
Although the possibilities are unlimited, here are a few ways that you could learn about giving thanks in your school.
Article continued in document below.
The Old Schoolhouse Fall 2011 - Gratefulness Unit Study
The Impatient Homeschooler
As a follow-up on Gail’s recent support group presentation on how we as Christians deal with anger, I encourage you to read this article. As Gail wisely instructed us, we need to learn how to deal with our own anger before we can effectively teach our children to deal with their anger.
The Impatient Homeschooler
Teaching Your Right-Brain Child: Plan B By Dianne Craft, MA, CNHP
God has a wonderful sense of humor, I believe. He wants us to grow and stretch. One of the ways He does this is to give us children who are very different from each other. Just as it is very likely that a right-brain person will have a left-brain spouse, so it is that if our firstborn is left-brain dominant, the next child likely will be right-brain dominant.
In my teaching experience, 80 percent of the bright, hardworking, struggling learners I saw were right-brain dominant. Does that mean that being right-brain dominant is a weakness? Not at all! As you know, Einstein was a flaming right-brainer.
Then why the discrepancy? The discrepancy lies in the fact that most curriculum is designed to teach in a more left-brain style. We call left-brain teaching “Plan A,” because it is the most common method used. Workbooks, worksheets, rote memorization (math facts), timed tests, rules-based spelling and phonics, lecture, learning facts for a test, and learning vocabulary by looking up the meanings of the words in a dictionary and writing it out are all left-brain activities. If you have a child at home who is “balking” at or struggling with doing the schoolwork that fits the description above, you probably are working with a right-brain dominant child.
Helping this child become successful doesn’t require an overhaul of your curriculum but rather a change in your teaching strategies for this child. It isn’t as hard as it sounds. In fact, it’s easy, fun, and inexpensive.
Right-Brain Spelling Strategy
Let’s look at the teaching of spelling words. We all want our children to be good spellers and are very frustrated when our methods aren’t working. The most common complaint I receive is that the child learns the words for the test but continues to misspell them in other writing tasks. Why is that happening? It is because most spelling programs teach spelling words using “phonemic patterns” or by requiring the student to write the word multiple times. However, if a child has an auditory processing problem so that memorizing the phonemic rules for spelling is difficult, he will remain a poor speller, particularly with common sight words, unless a totally different method is introduced.
If your child doesn’t have an auditory processing problem, but has a writing processing glitch or a true dysgraphia, then the act of writing the words multiple times does not get the information into the child’s long-term memory storage (housed in the right brain), because so much of the child’s battery energy is going into the writing process (or keyboarding process). This was the situation I experienced when I was teaching my Twice Exceptional (i.e., gifted with a glitch) middle schoolers. Their spelling was so primitive that it was embarrassing to them. Spell-check often couldn’t help them, because they weren’t even spelling the word well enough to have the correct word come up. That’s when I decided to abandon all “common” methods of spelling. In the process, I found that poor spelling is one of the easiest problems to solve, and I have regularly seen three years’ spelling growth in one year, using this simple method.
The Eyes Have It
Have you ever seen a picture of a recent Spelling Bee winner in a newspaper article? If you have, you may have noticed that the student’s eyes were in an upward position. In other words, it looks like the speller is seeing the word he is spelling—on the ceiling. This makes sense in light of the recent brain research that tells us that we can train our right brain (the hemisphere that houses our photographic memory) to become more responsive by looking upward with our eyes. In other words, we use our eyes to help us think, as well as to see.
When the student is looking up, he is “seeing” the word in his head. Because he is visualizing the printed word, he can spell it backwards as easily as he can spell it forwards. You can train your child at home to use this very efficient strategy. Not only will it be painless, but you will find that the right brain is responsible for visual memory and long-term memory, so your child will remember how to spell his words long past the week of the spelling test.
This efficient right-brain spelling strategy is simple.
1. Give your child a pretest consisting of a short list of words from the “most commonly used words” list. (You can request this free list by contacting me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).)
2. For the words that were spelled incorrectly, take the letters that were wrong (or left out), and color them and “weird” them up. (An example: If the child spelled Saturday as Saterday, put the Sat-r-day in black marker on a card, since he knew those letters. Write the u in blue marker, with wavy lines in it to represent water, along with a stick figure diving into the water. You can add a story, like “They all sat around on Saturday and they got bored, so the brothers decided to go swimming.)
3. Hold the card straight up in front of your child so that his eyes must look up in order to read the card. (Make sure his chin isn’t up; only his eyes should point upward.) Have him glance at the card, and then bring it down while his eyes remain looking up, where the card had been. Flash this card in the air, five or six times, until your child can “see” it in the air and easily spell it forwards and backwards. If your child can’t easily “see” it in the air, show it to him a few more times, or put more “mental glue” on it by adding more color or a more detailed picture. (Hint: Putting “blood” dripping from the letter is a sure-fire way to get it to stick with boys!)
4. Each day of the week, for a few minutes each day, review the card using this same visual method. Be sure to require the child to spell the word both forwards and backwards each day.
5. Your child’s “photographic memory” will become stronger and stronger as you use this method. This process can be streamlined as the child’s photographic memory becomes stronger and more efficient.
Remember that your child’s visual memory is his greatest strength. As you help him develop that, using spelling words, math facts, or anything, you will see learning and memorizing become much easier. The success a child feels when he can “see it” is priceless.
We call right-brain teaching strategies Plan B. If you have a child who has underdeveloped memory strategies (spelling, math facts, rules), has an auditory processing problem, or is a struggling reader (can’t remember phonics, sight words, etc.), or if you simply have a child who does not respond well to all the other curricula you have and dislikes schoolwork intensely, you will find that these right-brain teaching strategies are effective tools. They can help the child/teenager get in touch with the “smart part of himself.”
It truly is remarkable to watch students respond to these easy, visual strategies. Dr. Peter Russell, author of The Brain Book, says that there are many more “megabytes” in our right-brain hemisphere than in our left brain. The left brain is auditory, and the right brain is visual.
We often say that a picture is worth a thousand words. That is what the brain thinks too. We can store vast amounts of data and information in our right, visual hemisphere with great ease. Learning doesn’t have to be so hard.
It does not matter if you think your child is right-brain dominant or left-brain dominant. Remember that right-brain teaching is Plan B. If Plan A (auditory, writing, rules, and workbooks) is keeping your child frustrated and he is finding learning to be difficult, it is easy to switch to Plan B.
I used right-brain teaching methods for spelling, vocabulary, phonics, math, paragraphing, and compositions—exclusively—with my bright but struggling learners. At the end of one year, they didn’t need my class any more, because then they knew how to use their wonderful learning strength . . . the right brain!
Dianne Craft, a former homeschooling mother, has a master’s degree in special education and is director of Child Diagnostics, Inc., a clinic located in Littleton, Colorado. For more ideas about how to teach using right-brain techniques, you can order Dianne’s DVD, Teaching the Right Brain Child, at http://www.diannecraft.org. Dianne is the creator of the Right Brain Phonics Program, sight word cards, multiplication cards, and many other teaching tools for parents to use at home. Dianne is currently a Special Needs Consultant for HSLDA. /www.hslda.org/strugglinglearner/
Copyright, 2011. Used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, Summer 2011.
Visit The Old Schoolhouse® at http://www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com to view a full-length sample copy of the magazine especially for homeschoolers. Click the graphic of the moving computer monitor on the left. Email the Publisher at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
September 20 2011
Steve Demme - A Homeschool Journey
Steve Demme—A Homeschool Journey
By Liz Koon
God began leading Steve Demme to homeschool in 1976, even before he had children or was married. A class he attended in seminary led to the beginning of his homeschool journey and eventually his philosophy that a home education is a lifestyle, not merely academics.
Steve’s journey began with a Christian education class. He recalls: “I did a Bible study on everything that had to do with the word teach . . . . When I looked that up, I was convinced that parents were the ones who were supposed to be responsible for their children’s education and the curriculum should be based on the Word of God.”
Six years later when he was married and the father of two boys, he and his wife, Sandra, attended their first homeschool conference. He remembers: “We only had two kids. Ethan was just a baby and Isaac was 2, but we were committed to homeschooling from that point on.”
Article continued in attached PDF.
Steve Demme: A Homeschool Journey
Research Revelation about Homeschooling
Research Revelations About Homeschooling
By Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., President, National Home Education Research Institute
Parent-led home-based education continued to be common, if not the norm, for most of the time for most children’s lives through the nineteenth century. Things changed quickly, however, during the late 1800s and into the twentieth century. Homeschooling was nearly nonexistent, perhaps only 13,000 schoolchildren in the United States by the 1970s. Then a stunning change began around the early 1980s such that just over 2 million students in grades K to 12 were estimated to be homeschooled in the United States during the spring of 2010.
Much of public opinion is very positive toward this private educational practice. However, genuinely curious people and ideological skeptics and opponents of homeschooling continue to ask questions about home-based education. Research continues to answer some of these basic questions.
Article Continued in attached PDF.
Research Revelations about Homeschooling
Families Interested in Joining Roots
Families interested in joining Roots are strongly encouraged to get their paperwork submitted soon. As families are accepted into the program, two things happen. First, they are assigned a facilitator. Roots has a limited number of qualified facilitators. Submitting your paperwork in now gives us the most flexibility in assigning you a facilitator that matches your family the best. Secondly, our welcome packages are ready to be mailed. These packages contain some time-sensitive materials such as registering for some classes. Don’t be disappointed, please get your forms submitted soon.
March 17 2011Independance
http://www.jeanniesjournal.com/2008/09/independence.html
Did you know that homeschooled students perform better in college than their institutionally schooled counterparts? One thing that makes homeschooled students perform so well in college is the fact that they are used to being autonomous and independent in their learning. They are used to self educating. Our job is to give them progressively more autonomy and independence as they age.
How do we foster this independence? Well, once they have learned to read, they should be reading to learn. As they progress through elementary school, we should be using materials that teach the student in the book– requiring less of a human teacher. We should also read aloud less and require them to read to themselves for understanding, comprehension and insight. Most students learn more when they read for themselves and explain in their own words what they learned than if they listen to another read.
Dr. Jay Wile tells us,
“My motivation for becoming involved with the homeschooling movement was the fact that my best university students were the ones who had been homeschooled…If I could point to one thing that made my homeschooled students such good university students, it would be the fact that they were able to learn independently.”
I have often seen that parents are burdened by homeschooling because they have taken too much responsibility upon themselves. They don’t teach their children to become self motivated and independent. Teaching our children to become independent learners requires parents to pass the baton, giving their children a vision for the future and a sense of responsibility over their lives.
My children have been told over and over that the choices they make about school and learning when they are young will influence their entire future. They are completely and fully responsible and in charge of who they turn out to be, what they will do for a living, how they will live, where they will live and what kind of life they will have. They know that even at ten years old, they are making choices that have far reaching consequences or blessings. My children feel responsible for their education. I don’t carry the entire burden; once they learned to read, I passed on most of the burden to them. If they were in school, the burden would not be on the teacher; it would still be on them.
In real life, a self motivated person will always do better than the unmotivated, distracted fellow. In truth, our children are ultimately responsible for receiving their education. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Our job is to help our children see this very important truth - that we are not going to always be taking care of them; one day, they must take care of themselves and others. It is especially important for our boys to know this truth - for they will one day have a family depending on them. Sadly, it is usually our boys that are the least likely to jump at the chance to do school work. Our job is not so much to educate them, as to provide them the tools to educate themselves and instill in them the wisdom to see that their future is in their own hands and they must take it seriously. The tools we provide them are also very important, and that is the last thing I want to encourage you to consider.
Many times, in the fear of “not doing enough” we adopt curricula that actually makes teaching harder and more burdensome for us and our children - unnecessarily burdensome. When choosing curriculum, consider how much time is going to be required of you - the teacher, and how appealing the material looks to the children. Remember, our children should be learning to self educate. Our children will benefit greatly in their future, whether college is a part of it or not, if they are empowered to take ownership over their learning, their knowledge, and their education.
November 02 2010Interviews with Christian Artists - Part 1 & 2
Anna Van Hooft, a TV and movie actor, interviewed fellow Christian artists with the goal of sharing a little of their journeys with Roots families. Since the volume of information was too extensive for our newsletter, she has divided her information into part one and part two, posting a shorter version in our newsletter and the full interviews located on the newsletter page of the website. For the October newsletter, she interviewed a director for Christian documentaries and an opera singer. For the November newsletter, she interviewed an actor and a musician.
Deidox | Lindsay from Deidox on Vimeo.