I'm an Unschooling mom in Las Vegas, NV. I have all boys! A 14 yr old, a 6 yr old, a 1 yr old and 2 teenage stepsons.
4 of the 5 have some special need or another, and the 5th would be termed "gifted" if he was in school. They all have their own interests and abilities.
Join me as I blog about our Christ-led learning approach..things that work, things that don't, and the antics of family life!
1. Welcome from the Editor
2. 200+ Ideas for Summer Fun by Deborah Taylor-Hough
3. Educationalese by Jeanne Musfeldt
4. Foundation for Online Learning
5. Contest: share with us your kids wacky interests!!
6. Links: Creation Science for Kids
7. Math Help For Homeschoolers...iMath wants to encourage us in math!
8. Closing letter from the editor
9. Subscription Information
10.Reprint Information
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
1. Welcome from the editor
Hi all, hope this newsletter is received in the manner it was
sent...in love and through God!!
Aren't our kids just amazing? We are so blessed to be able to see
their growth, their brains inner workings, their love for God and
us. I am just in a "praise God for His work" mood. Kids just seem to
prove how mighty He is. They are MADE within us...come out as
wonderful little creatures, and just keep growing. What a miracle and
what inspiration.
How, without God, could these new lives ever be possible??? Sometimes
I wonder how people could NOT believe in God as a creator of
everything..how else could all these things that WORK, work? How
could the trees have roots to sustain their lives? How could fish be
able to breathe underwater? How can our bodies be so intricate, with
blood running through them, waste leaving our bodies, milk being
generated to feed new lives....the list just goes ON!!
You can look up creation, Creator in the Bible and see many verses,
but do you know what struck me the most? The fact that Creation is
always going on, anew in our lives...either through births or through
OUR rebirths, accepting Jesus Christ as our own.
2 Corinthians 5: 17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come!
Keep reading.....below I will post some "new" creation links that can
be explored with the children!
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
2. 200+ Ideas for Summer Fun
Deborah Taylor-Hough
Since we don't use the phrase "I'm bored!" in our home, we never hear
our kids complaining about being bored during those long days at home
during the summer months. But ... I have to admit that we're still an
incredibly normal family. Even without the "b-word" in their
vocabulary, there are still those times when my three children (ages
13, 10 and 5) just seem to be at a total loss for something
constructive to do.
On one of those "I-can't-think-of-anything-to-do" days, I had my
children sit down and make a list of everything they could do
completely on their own without parental help. After they
brainstormed about it for over an hour (which was a good anti-boredom
activity itself), the kids had a list of about fifty activities.
Surprisingly, they even included a few household chores like dusting
and weeding! I decided to ask for input from some other moms, and now
my children have a list of over two hundred ideas to beat summertime
boredom, and the list just seems to keep growing.
Thanks to the suggestion of one mom, we've put each item on this list
onto individual pieces of paper, placed the papers into a container,
and when the children need inspiration for an activity, they draw two
or three papers and then decide which idea they want to do, either as
a group or individually. The mom who suggested pulling ideas out of a
container told me she found this method more helpful than giving the
kids a huge list of possibilities. By narrowing the choices down to
just two or three, it was easier for the kids to pick out the one
that sounded the best to them.
----------------------------------
When people ask me how to unschool, one of the first things I say to
them is to journal! Here is a list of some of the things my children
have done recently, and what they are in educationalese.
playing in the dirt= earth science
playing scrabble=language arts
playing monopoly=math
biking=PE
going to the library=language arts
watching Discovery Channel= science
going to the beach=marine biology
playing card games=math
being punished= character training
crafts=art
cooking=math and reading
stamping=art, language arts, and citizenship
scrapbooking=art and family history
rollerblading=PE
emailing friends=language arts
doodling= art and creative thinking
meal time= health, learning the food pyramid
running errands (grocery store, gas station)= math skills, life
skills, reading
playing tag= PE and social skills
taking care of baby sister/brother= child development
helping Dad change the oil=auto mechanics, life skills
So there you have it! Learning is all around us, in the day to day
things we do together as a family. It is a very natural process and
great fun!
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
4. Foundation for Online Learning
You are invited to visit The Foundation for Online Learning at http://www.netcollege.org/instructor/fol. We are a fairly new
organization created by home educators and we have had wonderful
responses from people who have joined us. The best part of FOL is
that there are absolutely no fees involved in taking our courses. The
only cost to you is your time! The classes are free of charge.
Our organization is a safe cooperative learning environment on the
web for folks who enjoy teaching children. The majority of the
participants in these classes are home educators. We have a few
teachers who are not home educators, but they willingly extend their
abilities as teachers within our group. The idea is for a
parent/teacher to choose a topic that they would like to teach, and
then teach the course using the Internet method of their choice
(i.e., BBS, Email, ListServ, Website, Chatrooms, etc.). We will help
train and/or give guidance on how to effectively use these methods of
teaching, but the teacher has the freedom to choose their own course
topic and teaching method. We will give suggestions and mini-training
courses for any teacher who would like to learn more about how to use
the Internet to teach a course.
At the appropriate time, you will be asked to submit a teacher bio
form, giving general information about yourself. Next, you will fill
out a teacher's registration form, giving general information about
the course that you will be teaching. Those bios and courses will be
posted on the FOL website. We run on a semester basis. Your
commitment is made one semester at a time.
Each semester that you would like for your children to participate in
the Foundation for Online Learning (FOL) courses, you MUST be willing
to teach and complete a six week course on the subject of your
choice. Teachers who do not fulfill the requirement of completing the
class they are teaching will have their children removed from the
classes in which they are registered. This is a balance we must keep
to make it fair for everyone and to ensure fulfillment of
commitments. Emergencies are always considered. By doing this, we
hope to keep disappointments to a minimum. If you feel unsure about
this type of commitment, you can consider co-teaching with someone,
either from the list or a friend you would feel comfortable sharing
this arrangement with. This will allow for more continuity for your
class throughout the semester. It is a great way to get a feel for
how this all works and have even more support between people. We have
had several people do this and it has worked very well for them. Both
teacher's children may take classes during the semester that they are
co-teaching.
We keep teacher/parents and kids safety at a high priority. We have a
personal reason as well as a public reason; our kids are taking these
classes also! Therefore, any rude/demeaning remarks, profanity or
anything similar toward anyone on this list is NOT PERMITTED! There
are moderators who are actively watching this list and will handle
any situations in a way that they deem appropriate. The moderators
can remove anyone from this list and/or classes, without notice, if
they do not follow the rules put in place by this organization.
The Foundation for Online Learning is open to all people. We are an
INCLUSIVE group. All we ask is that our rules be followed. You are
welcome to teach from a Christian perspective, or any other religious
preference. However, if you will be teaching a class with a tendency
toward a specific religion/philosophy you must state this in your
class description at the time of teacher/class registrations.
Descriptions must be clear and concise for this purpose. By doing
your part in keeping this very clear from the beginning, you will
help prevent any misunderstandings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you would like more information you can follow the subscribing
directions below. There is not any commitment for subscribing to the
HS-FOL list to find out more about us. You can easily unsubscribe at
any time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To SUBSCRIBE to the HS-FOL mailing list, go to: http://www.egroups.com/subscribe.cgi/HS-FOL
From this website you can follow the prompts to easily register.
If you are unsuccessful, please contact:
Teresa Downey at: ttdowney@mediaone.net
We look forward to hearing from you.
Write in and tell us some of your kids wacky interests and how you
fuel the fire!! Be sure to include how they came to love these
interesting topics!
Winner will be announced in September's edition of Seedling and will
win a years subscription to HELM: Home Education Learning Magazine; a
bimonthly print publication focusing on independent learning and self-
directed education. Read more about HELM at: http://www.helmonline.com/
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
7. Math help for homeschoolers
iMath has been working with math instructors to provide them with
Internet tools, but I am wondering whether home school instructors
need any Internet tools for delivering and managing their lessons and
students.
At school students benefit from interaction with other students, how
do home school students interact with others about math? What
communities supporting math notation, computation and visualization
can they participate in?
We have a made available a tool and service to facilitate individuals
freely communicating, discussing, publishing and storing math. Soon
this service will also provide free individual use of computation and
visualization. Institutions affiliate or license iMath to deliver and
manage their online courses. If there were some services that a home
school instructor needed, we would be happy to provide these for free.
Home school math instructors let me know whether there is something
you would like us to make available for you.
New to our website...a search engine!! We hope this will make it even
more user friendly...be sure to check the box for "this site" and
then just type in a keyword, ex: ADD, takes you to the special needs
page....biology, takes you to the science page...pretty neat!
Our publisher has told us that a November date was perhaps a bit
premature, there are all sorts of "backstage" stuff that needs to be
done.To that end, Teri and Elissa are doing all they can to expedite
the process. As always, we will let you know whenever we know
anything!
Elissa is in the process ( longgggg process) of updating the website.
First on the list is the states....support groups throughout the
country. Please, if you have the time, head over to your state's
page ( http://www.inspirit.com.au/unschooling/states/states.html )
and see if your group(s) are listed and if the information is
accurate. Drop a quick email to Unschoolr@aol.com with any updates!
This is a very important section, and we thank you for any time
taken!!!
Next month we will have a topic...aging and death...please write in
with any thoughts on the subjects, or how you have helped your
children understand death. Other topics are still needed, we will
hold all submissions for following issues!!! (hint hint hint)
Think that's about it for this time folks! Have a great month!
Individual authors herein retain their own copyrights. You may
freely copy this entire newsletter or material from this newsletter
in other nonprofit publications (unless otherwise marked in the
article), but you MUST include the author's name and this entire
notice:
