To introduce students to the big picture of history and nurture your budding historian, the spines from various History / Bible / Literature programs are a wonderful starting point. A history spine is a reference book that is used for many weeks of a curriculum and serves as a foundation for your study, guiding you chronologically through your studies.
Continue readingMy enthusiasm for the subject of art withered during art classes at a public high school in England. It took years to reinvigorate it. Now that I'm a homeschool dad, I think quite a lot about how to avoid smothering the budding passions of my children. In fact, I want to nurture my budding historians!
For example, history is my seven-year-old’s love. I want to open every door for her expansive curiosity. With museums and home education groups closed, I’m getting creative with these history-boosters to encourage my budding historian.
On a walk with a church friend, I noticed he had a keen understanding of ancient Mesopotamia. Not his subject at university, he said, but a long-time interest. I invited him over for dinner and for discussion with the kids.
Over pasta, I told him I was confused about Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Persia. He helped us with the use of our whiteboard in front of which his dinner chair was strategically placed. My budding historian daughter didn’t enter the conversation, but the value in her seeing that the subject is meaningful for two adult believers is not to be underestimated.
A timeline is a precise thing, granted. But when we give no margin for error in our Timeline Book, it tends to come across as an object of the parent’s obsessive exactitude, rather than the child’s learning project.
Here are some activities to help budding historians interact with their timelines and consider it their own.
Pick a common subject, like Greek mythology, and create a bingo card for every player. On the cards, write six categories, such as “A book beginning with T,” or “A book with grey on the cover.” The game is to find the subject of Greek mythology somewhere in books that fit the respective categories.
Budding historians will need to know how to use the index for most of these. The first player to find Egypt for all six categories (or for a row) wins. If you lack the relevant material for a subject, try playing at the library.
Don’t let formal learning push out role play and acting out. The brain maps information onto our physical context. Let’s build a little creative world onto which history facts from our History / Bible / Literature curriculum can be projected like a theater. Budding historians can watch the projection back as they recall the dramas they took part in.
I have noticed that the students who care least about history are the ones who cannot see the shape of history. Instead they see an amorphous stream of historical factoids. I want to make sure that my budding history enthusiast is not just running into a lucky crop of appealing factoids, especially when she gets to high school. I want her to see a coherent structure that will outlive her current interests.
Herodatus tells a flawed history. Homer tells a fireside fiction that made history. The Bible tells true history with true poetry. Tolkein uses the tools of these ancient genres to get at something underneath history. The skill of connecting and distinguishing these not only builds a memorable big picture, but actually amounts to the skill of distinguishing truth in general.
Not all historical accounts are created equal. Some are more significant and some yield more truth. Watch out for when a writer has a vested interest in his own story or for when he is the only source.
History is fun, but that’s not why we study it. There is one historical question in particular that is a matter of life and death: Who was Jesus? If our time with Sonlight literature does nothing but build the type of mind that can answer that question truthfully, it will all be worth it.
I want my budding historian to flower into a truth-teller. I want her to serve the world with her discoveries, not just consume factoids. It all starts with the kind of experimentation and play that will help her connect the dots and to hear the ring of truth.
It’s a common misconception that a literature-rich, playful, self-directed education becomes obsolete once exams loom in upper grades. As I reached high school age, however, I was growing into Sonlight, rather than growing out of it. Though we made less use of the Instructor’s Guides, it was the Sonlight skill-set that got me through college entrance exams and later allowed me to flourish as an undergraduate. Here’s how Sonlight made me a book lover in high school.
In school, students are usually assigned books based on principles that are unknown to them. They seem to be curated simply for the sake of academic performance, or occasionally for an abstract political point.
This was not my experience as a high schooler. Books were chosen carefully by my parents to stand for the causes of our household. I knew exactly what those causes were. They wanted me to be a wise ambassador for Christ, and that’s what I saw when I saw Sonlight on our bookshelf.
Books were not primarily an assignment, they were a life I grew into. They were an invitation into adulthood.
Because I saw the purposes of my parents in the literature they curated for me, I read more and more as I adopted those purposes. I wanted to reach the world for the glory of God, and I had to understand the world in order to reach it.
As I turned fifteen, I was reading Sonlight books of my own accord, sometimes even buying them with pocket-money.
I read because I believed the books I was reading. I wanted the adventure that my parents saw in these books.
It’s hard to read books when they don’t have a rhythm. Even great non-fiction has a sense of poetry to it. Grammar itself is an attempt to share a system that breaks information into predictable yet progressive parts, not unlike poetry. I was able to read fast and accurately because I had a sense of this rhythm that had developed from the earliest moments.
My mother read to me endlessly: poetry, stories that ran beautifully, and non-fiction that was crafted with love. I became good at hearing the magic in sentences, not just the facts contained there. It meant that I could be carried along in that magical flow rather than toil over decoding. Reading was enjoyable because I had heard so much of it.
One of the reasons people think a literature-rich education is all but useless for STEM oriented pupils, is that literature is considered a subject. In this misconception, English Literature is a course with its own rules and norms which are not applicable to other subjects.
The truth is that literature is a window into all other subjects.
Math, you’ve heard it said, is a language with which to speak about all of life. But math does not consistently light up a love for other routes to understanding all of life. Generally speaking, math leads to more math.But reading is a portal to the joy of mathematics, of engineering, or of politics.
That’s why I kept reading after my focus was not in English Literature. It’s also why I choose Sonlight for my budding engineer of a son. Great literature is the crossroads at which meaningful learning pathways are seen and chosen.
Literature does not stop working in high school. Carefully curating your book-culture it is crucial for how high schoolers will find their way. I’d be a different person if Sonlight hadn’t filled my shelves as I entered adulthood. I prize truth and justice because of it.
For many homeschool parents, half of the struggle is finding the time to do everything: reading and spelling and changing the baby and cooking meals... The list is endless.
Especially when young children are involved, disruptions are common and can quickly compile and escalate until you’ve spent half the day putting out fires and very little time homeschooling. Here are seven helpful hints to help you get through your day more efficiently so you have a smoother homeschool day with plenty of time for what you want to accomplish.
Sometimes the hardest part of getting things done is getting started. And that's why having a place to start can turn a huge problem into a series of smaller ones that are far easier to deal with.
There are a couple of ways to start out your day. You can try sticking to a certain hour of the day. I like to start about 2 pm, although most families are often finished by then. It’s just a great time at our house to get schoolwork done with the fewest amount of distractions. I begin by rolling our homework cart into the living room, and that’s a sign to everyone that our lessons are about to begin.
Other families link starting to an action. Some families eat breakfast, clean up, and then dive right into math. Some families start by reading the Bible during breakfast. Do whatever works for your family.
Finding a way to signal the start of your homeschool day can help your children mentally transition to school and make for a smoother homeschool day.
Once you have started, having a routine can help to reduce the amount of distractions and chaos at break periods and transitions. If your child has learned over the past month that you always do math, phonics, handwriting, and then you have a break, they might start moving from one activity to the next, without needing reminders, to get to that break more quickly. Setting up a routine is difficult at the outset, but once it is established, it really does contribute to a smoother homeschool day.
Even if you can’t plan specific subjects in order, it might help to have a routine of some tablework, then some reading time on the couch, and then a return to tablework.
One nice thing about having a good routine is that even on the bad days, where things get interrupted and you didn’t get very far into it, you’ll still be getting something done.
Many people find it harder to concentrate or relax when the house is too messy or cluttered. For example, when my husband comes home from a busy day, often the first thing he will do is grab a broom and sweep our tiled living room floor. Once the floor is clean, then he can sit down and relax.
Taking a few minutes to tidy up before you begin your homeschool day and then taking quick cleaning breaks through the day helps your day run more smoothly.
I like to assign my children one small area in the living area of our house.
Within 5 minutes, we can quickly turn our place from moderately cluttered to mostly clear.
Also, once a week, we pick one room to go through and remove all the clutter. Each week is a different room, until we circle back around again. By getting rid of the clutter, we have less to clean. It also lets me know when we need a new place to store the things we have, and when chores aren’t getting completely done during the week the way they should.
While cleaning does take away from our school-time, the amount of focus we can obtain from a cleaner work area compensates for it.
School doesn’t have to always be hard. Try to bring a bit of fun and excitement into your schooldays, and you’ll find your children dread it a little less. Having a small snack or a fun art project after schoolwork, can increase motivation.
Turn a difficult subject into a fun one:
You don’t need to add fun every day, but adding some fun activities can help you all to look forward to each day as it comes.
Not every subject has to be done every day. There are some subjects in which students benefit from doing more often. Reading, handwriting, and math are examples—where the repeated practice moves the activities into the long-term memory.
But some subjects, such as science, can be done once a week with no interruption to the child’s learning. Other subjects, such as typing, can be taught over a couple of weeks one summer, rather than every day all year long.
We often use a loop schedule to help us distinguish between daily subjects and subjects that can be done less frequently. With this alternate schedule, we keep on track without sacrificing content. We always have a starting place to pick up from, even if it’s not the same place every day.
If you build into your schedule time to catch up, not only are you more likely to get those things done, but you’re also less likely to get stressed out about being behind.
Some people schedule catch-up time at the end of the day. There might be an hour of unscheduled time, where anything that didn’t get done can get done, and if everything is done, free time is given instead. Children might be motivated by the thought of extra free time, and work harder to get things done ahead of time instead.
Other families offer a variety of free-time activities the child can choose from at certain points in the day. If a child has leftover work, it is done in lieu of letting them have their choice.
Some families schedule their catch-up time weekly. Saturday mornings are a common time to check assignments and see if all the work was done, and if not, complete the missing portions.
Sometimes families ordain every seventh week a sabbath week when they read all those books they wanted to add in but didn’t have time for, and to catch up on projects, science experiments, and coloring pages.
Don’t forget to take care of yourself. If you are feeling fresh and excited, you have a better chance of passing that feeling on to your children. Take care of yourself through exercise, good nutrition, and plenty of time with God. Modeling self-care will pass on good habits that will last your children a lifetime.
Time and experience will help you figure out what methods make for a smoother homeschool day for your family. But you can take a lot of pressure off yourself by building in fail-safes and setting out a basic daily plan of action.
Keep in mind that many families take a year or more to really start to feel more comfortable with their daily homeschool routine and establish a good rhythm. Don’t worry if you aren’t having great success in your first week or even your first month. Instead, focus on setting good habits for long-term success.
One of the many perks of this lifestyle of learning we call homeschooling is the ability to set your own schedule. Even if you are required by your state to fulfill a certain number of school days each year, you still maintain autonomy in where to fit those days into your calendar and whether you choose a four-day or five-day school week.
Although every family's schedule is unique, there are six broad categories of yearly plans. Find the one that fits your children and your family goals by weighing the pros and cons of each.
Continue readingCruising through our local Target earlier this week, I was stopped in my tracks by a bright back-to-school display, marking the end of summer and the start of the school year. I have great fun looking at what's new and improved in Target's back-to-school goodies every year. I will admit, I often browse long enough that I end up tossing a couple of products in my cart. It gets me thinking about all the new and returning Sonlighters, wondering what their shopping carts will look like this month. Have you created your back-to-school checklist yet?
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You've finally decided to homeschool! And you chose your curriculm. Yay!
But it's back-ordered. Or maybe it's delayed due to long shipping or fulfillment times. Boo.
Waiting is always hard. But a temporary delay to your desired first day of school doesn't have to derail your homeschool experience. Here are things to do while you wait.
Maybe your full curriculum hasn't arrived, but you have the math part. Do math each day! You don't have to have everything all at once to start. In fact, a lot of homeschoolers start each year slowly by adding one or two subjects each week. Easing into the routine is a good idea!
Scour your shelves for any kind of material you might have to start right away even before you have everything on hand.
You don't have to follow a formal curriculum to still consider yourself having school. If the kids are learning, count it as a school day.
If you have a friend who has been homeschooling for a while, you're ahead of the game! Ask her what she could loan you to get over the hump to Box Day.
She likely has a wealth of resources on the shelf and will have the exact idea of something to fill that gap for you: an activity kit, a stack of great Read-Alouds, or a set of learning games, for example.
Find out what topics your kids are interested in, and plunge in with a unit study that lasts until Box Day. Don't worry about structuring it like a teacher would. Just explore the topic in a natural way!
Use your wait time to set up the most inviting learning area you can dream up and afford. Whether it's a dedicated room or just a corner of the dining room or den, setting aside a designated space helps kids transition into schooling at home.
Let the kids help you organize it and provide input. Maybe they want beanbags for reading or a long table for working. Does the room need more storage or a bright floor lamp?
Now is the time to get your school area in shape.
If you have toddlers or preschoolers, now is a great time to set up activities for keeping the little one busy so you can focus on homeschool lessons.
Working and schooling at home changes the entire family dynamic. Chores are more important than ever and have to be done more frequently. Before your curriculum arrives, lay out your plan for keeping meals, laundry, and other household tasks running smoothly with everyone pitching in.
Maybe you could spend a few days freezer cooking (also called once a month cooking or batch cooking) where the whole family pitches in to prepare a high volume of meals that are then frozen. Having a stockpile of thaw-and-heat meals will make lunches and dinners easier once your curriculm does arrive.
It's easy to think that school doesn't really count until you're following your Instructor's Guide and checking all the boxes. But as long as learning is happening, you truly can count the days as homeschooling. Remember, your kids have class parties, movie days, field days, and field trips in public school — all of which count as instructional days.
And while Box Day is exciting, it's can also be a tad overwhelming for some parents. Savor this time between clicking the purchase button and getting your delivery to shift your mindset and get your house in order for a new adventure of school at home.
