Sonlight Homeschooling Blog

Sep. 17, 2018

Jumping Dolphin Craft Plus More Extensions for Dolphin Adventure

As we progress through HBL A, I’ve been creating a series of activities to go along with each of the Read-Alouds. Although I’ve never been a very crafty parent, I find myself wanting to get involved with these extension projects! Here are my ideas, chapter by chapter, for Dolphin Adventure by Wayne Grover, culminating in a jumping dolphin craft made from paper plates.

A Special Day: Chapter 1

The story starts with pelicans looking for food along the shore. Depending on where you live, your children might like feeding the birds. My girls loved feeding the ducks around a pond near our house; you can also feed birds around the ocean or even in your backyard. While you are feeding the birds, you might wish to discuss why we must pick up trash around the area to protect the birds and other animals from eating things that might harm them and to keep trash from polluting our water and harming animals such as dolphins.

The author takes a boat trip to go deep sea diving. My husband has a great ability to make paper boats out of newspaper, so I handed him some paper! They spent the next hour folding paper to make their own boats which we later floated in a large tub of water outside.

During reading time, one of my girls asked how the Gulf Stream pushed people around in the ocean underwater. To quickly illustrate how this worked, we added a hose to our tub of water with the boats in it and practiced pushing them around with the hose water until they started to fall apart. Then we practiced using the water to push other things around underneath the water such as small pebbles and toys.

Down Into the Blue Sea: Chapter 2

The book progresses into a lovely bit of description of life under the sea. We did a bit of “deep sea diving” ourselves by getting snorkels, flippers, and plastic fish we used when we mapped Wild Island from My Father's Dragon and explored the fish underwater in the bathtub. Later we took them outside and practiced moving them around with our “ocean currents” hose.

We then visited a pet store to watch different types of fish swimming around. The pet store owner did allow my girls to help sprinkle a bit of food for them after they asked politely. If you have an aquarium nearby (or even Sea World) you might consider looking at bigger fish or even dolphins.

A Strange Feeling: Chapter 3

We didn’t make a float ball as described in this chapter but we did go out to our over-sized tub of water and drop in a dozen or so assorted items to see which ones would float and which wouldn't. We found out that one of the items that floated was a wiffle ball, so I tied a pieces of string to it and then tied the other end to one of our ocean animals. I had my girls take turns closing their eyes and then finding the ball. Then they tried finding their way to the end of it and finding the animal by feeling along the string.

We then did a quick online search and watched a few videos about dolphins and how they speak to each other, including what the clicks sound like.

The Dolphins: Chapter 4

I had run out of ideas in this chapter but happened to have a set of dolphin stickers and a tiny 3" x 5” notebook. My girls came up with the idea to compose and illustrate a story about a baby dolphin and his parents with the stickers and blank book.

I Try To Help: Chapter 5

In this chapter, the baby dolphin and his family try to communicate with the author. As a parallel, we practiced the bit of sign language we knew. Then I had my girls pretend they were dolphins and act out ways they could convey different messages without speaking or using their arms.

During their bath later that evening, my girls took turns trying to see how long they could hold their breath like dolphins.

Surgery on the Seafloor: Chapter 6

This chapter was a bit hard for my girls. They don’t like to see anyone hurting. But in order to save the dolphin, he had to be fixed. This seemed like a good time for role play. We used felt dolls and a dull-tipped plastic needle with yarn. We practiced gently stitching up places their dolls were hurt. Later we were able to remove the stitches and see that they were healed although the stitching did leave a little scar behind.

If dolls don’t interest your children, you might consider using lacing activities or sewing cards.

The Dolphin’s Thanks: Chapter 7

I truly had run out of ideas by this chapter, but my oldest daughter came to my rescue by suggesting we make models of dolphins with a lump of blue clay. I then looked up pictures online while we pointed out dolphin anatomy:

the blowhole for breathing
the gills
the flippers
the fins
the tail

My girls then insisted on reworking their dolphin creations to show more of those areas.

The Dolphins Return: Chapter 8

As we said concluded Dolphin Adventure, our final project was a craft of dolphins who could jump out of the water and say goodbye to us.

Supplies for Jumping Dolphin Craft

2 paper plates
paint
paint brushes
construction paper
paper fasteners

Directions for Jumping Dolphin Craft

Leaving one paper plate whole, we cut the other plate about into 2 pieces—one measuring about ⅓ of the height of the plate, leaving the other at ⅔ of the height. Using the larger portion, we cut waves into the flat plane where we cut. We painted both plates in different shades of ocean blue using our paintbrushes. Using construction paper of each girls’ color choice, we cut out a dolphin shape for each child.

Once the paint was dry, we glued our dolphins to the larger plate. When the dolphin was also dry, we placed the smaller plate over the larger plate and fastened it in the middle using our paper fastener. Now our dolphin could spin, and we could watch him jump in and out of the waves.

After the Story

We also watched a few ocean-related movies for kids, including Flipper, Free Willy, and Finding Nemo. The sequel to Dolphin Adventure is scheduled later in this same HBL, so we have that to look forward to!

Sonlight History / Bible / Literature A — *Dolphin Adventure* is part of History / Bible / Literature A

To find out more about Sonlight's unmatched Read-Alouds, and our complete book-based homeschool programs, order a complimentary copy of your catalog today.

Tagged crafts, dolphin, extensions, HBL A, kindergarten | Leave a comment

Sep. 14, 2018

Experience India and Give Your Kids the Same Advantage Mine Have

By Heather Mills Schwarzen

My children have an advantage. I don’t mind telling you what it is.

My children have experienced life in a culture devoted to the worship of false gods.

They have watched families with dirty, barefoot, sunken-eyed children crowd around a rock splattered with red paint, offering up to an idol what may well have been their last handful of rice.
They have witnessed neighbors bowing to their car, setting a bowl of fruit on the engine block and sprinkling rice in an effort to assuage whatever deity they think provides safe travel.
They have seen people stringing prayer flags on balconies not because they are colorful and ornamental, but because they truly believe that the scraps of fabric will hasten their prayers to the ears of an otherwise deaf god.

Grasping Lostness and Loving Lost Souls

Why do I think this is an advantage? Because my children know what the faces of unbelievers look like. They know the bondage unbelievers face, and the fears they live with. They know how precarious life is when you are at the whim of a god who demands constant sacrifice, or what it’s like to be tied to a tradition that strangles your family into a hopeless way of life.

This advantage, I think, has done more for the spiritual life of my children than nearly any other experience they’ve had as young Christ-followers. Knowing the faces of the people for whom you’re praying, understanding the culture that is based on false religion, and grasping why those in power are so keen to oppress the Good News of the Gospel of Christ has made my children stronger and more passionate in their own faith.

Using Sonlight to Raise Mission-minded Children

What if I told you that you could sow those same seeds in the hearts of your own children? Not everyone can travel as missionaries into other nations, but it doesn’t take a first-hand experience to bring to life the reality that many in the 10/40 window wake to daily.

Long before our family ever stepped off the tarmac in Southeast Asia, we read about those who had never heard the name of Christ through Window on the World, Catching Their Talk in a Box, and countless other Sonlight titles.

Sonlight helps us raise mission-minded children and teens. We learned to pray for people groups we’d never heard of before, consider their cultures, and find ways to support those working to bring the Light into the terrible darkness of unbelief.

Contributing to Missions

Guess what? We’re still doing it. This year, our family has signed on to Sonlight’s 2018 Giving Campaign: Experience India with Mission India. We’re looking forward to learning more about a country we haven’t yet visited and meeting people whose work prepares the harvest in a land where the Christian population is radically small and often violently oppressed. God willing, we’ll be raising money to support the Children’s Bible Club effort, partnering with Sonlight as they match up to $100,000 in donations.

My children have an advantage, but in truth, your children can have it, too. They can be a part of preaching the Gospel and of setting the prisoners free. I promise you’ll see fruit in their hearts as they gain a new understanding of the Great Commission, and the privilege they have in knowing Christ. Sign up today.

Sonlight has teamed up with Mission India to bring you Experience India—a FREE, four-week, virtual reality (VR) adventure online—focused on how Jesus’ final command, the "Great Commission," is being lived out in India.

We hope Experience India will develop in your kids a heart for the unreached by providing a fun and easy way to participate in the Great Commission.

We’ve set a goal of raising $100,000 for Year-Long Children’s Bible Clubs through the Experience India adventure—enough to enroll nearly 4,200 kids in India in Bible Clubs.

But, there’s more....Sonlight will match, dollar-for-dollar, all the money that's raised through Experience India—up to $100,000!

That means nearly 8,400 kids can learn about Jesus in Year-Long Children’s Bible Clubs this year! Will you join us in helping reach thousands of children with the Gospel?

SIGN UP HERE

NOTE: Experience India is an educational fundraiser, but there is no cost or obligation to participate.

Tagged charitable giving, giving, india, missions | 1 Comment

Sep. 12, 2018

Making Lunch a Bonus—Not an Interruption—to Your Homeschool Day

By Veronica Soto

When homeschooling, it’s easy to think of learning as the main event, while mealtime is more distraction than necessity. Lunch can interrupt the daily flow, making it hard to get back on track with lessons again afterward.

Meals are Almost as Important as Curriculum

When we delay, skip meals, or rely on snacks to fill up rather than a balanced meal, it feels like we are saving time and energy. But in reality, children (and adults) need those nutrients to keep their minds working well. While you might not feel the effects of delaying a meal by an hour or two, your children might.

The signs might be subtle, but they include

difficulty paying attention
trouble remembering what they are learning
struggling with fine details
mild headaches
mood swings

While there are many reasons to have a strong breakfast to start your day off right, lunch is just as important for those hard-working brains. Here are some ideas to make lunch a natural part of your homeschool day instead of an annoying interruption.

1. Make Lunch the Homeschool Lesson

So many skills go into making of meals that I can make many of my meals a part of the lessons itself. Instead of viewing lunch as an pause in the learning, use it to expand and review what your children are learning.

Here are just a few things you can teach your children about meals that take little or no extra effort.

food safety
kitchen safety (safety with knives, hot oil, etc)
budgeting
fire safety (what to do if there’s a kitchen fire, how to use a fire extinguisher, never put water on a grease fire, calling 911, etc.)
different cutting techniques (dice, slice, julienne, etc.)
nutrition
meal planning
cuisine from around the world

2. Involve the Children in Lunch Preparation and Cleanup

If you have multiple children, one of your older children might like to help by doing meal prep while you work with a different child. Children as young as 5 or 6 (sometimes younger!) can help make sandwiches, pull out ingredients, or set the table. Older children can make complete meals, stir the food so it doesn’t burn, or chop the vegetables. This can be part of their daily homeschooling, filed under Home Economics. They might even like being in charge of deciding what to make each day.

3. Combine Meal Time with School Time

With a little forethought, meal times can also be times of learning.

Discussion Questions

Leave the discussion questions from your Sonlight Instructor's Guide until lunch. While you are eating, hold a family discussion about your Readers and Read-Alouds. With a relaxed lunch discussion, your children have leisure to express what they are learning beyond (or instead of) the discussion questions.

Stagger Your Meals

When my children were younger, I would stagger meals, giving my younger children (infants, toddlers, and preschoolers) a snack and letting them play while my older children ate. Then, when the older children were finished eating, I’d feed my younger children and myself while the older children worked on math, phonics, handwriting, and other independent table work.

Read-Aloud Meals

Another trick that works for me is to read Bible while my children eat breakfast and read History during lunch. Because the toddlers have their hands and mouths full, they are less disruptive. Once they finish eating, I eat by myself while the older children tidy up.

Musical Meals

If eating with your children is important, or it’s hard to have mealtime separately, you can play a custom homeschool playlist during your meals to sneak in learning during breakfast or lunch. Here's what our lunch playlist includes:

songs from Sing the Word Scripture-memory albums
a few random Bible songs from various sources
a few selections from the Wee Sing from HBL E
songs from the Beethoven’s Wig (classical music with funny lyrics)
songs from Lyrical Life Science, an optional add-on for Sonlight Science D
several skip counting songs
a few English grammar songs
songs from the Geography Songs from HBL C

4. Categorize Your Lunch Options

One of the hardest parts of meal time for me is menu planning. Since I have a hard time committing to one food item weeks in advance, advance meal planning is hard for me. Instead I categorize lunches by day. Each day of the week corresponds to a category, and I stock up on ingredients so I usually have enough to make several different meal options in each category. When meal time comes around, I’m choosing between a couple of options rather than a few dozen.

A simple way to do this is to think of the different things you'd usually make. But instead of having the same meal week after week, try these options to keep your choices fresh and interesting. Menu categories in my regular rotation are soups, sandwiches, salads, pasta, slow cooker recipe, and baked potatoes.

Add a Twist

If we have soup once on our rotation, that means we have it once a week. But we have a different type of soup each week, so it’s always something new. We might have lentil soup one week and corn chowder the next.

New Ingredients

When having sandwiches once a week, it’s easy to fall into a rut. But one of the fun things about sandwiches is that they are so flexible! You can liven them up with different types of bread: wheat, poppy seed bagels, English muffins, Italian, French, rye, pumpernickel, flatbread, tortillas, sourdough, pitas, lettuce wraps, etc.

Rotate toppings, too: cream cheese, peanut butter, other nut butters, various flavors of jelly, assorted lunch meats, egg salad, tuna salad, turkey, different types of cheeses, different condiments, and more.

This type of mixing and matching and rotating new foods can continue through other categories. For example, with salad, try using various greens, then mix and match toppings: cranberries or other fruits, various types of croutons, different styles of dressing, different meats or cheeses, and different veggies.

5. Prepare Ahead for Smooth Homeschool Lunches

There are several ways you can prepare your meals ahead of time so you have less actual cooking to do during school time.

Once a Month Cooking

There are several cookbooks and websites with meal ideas, but the basic premise is that by taking one full day a month to do advance preparation, you can make enough meals to last an entire month with very little work on each individual day.

Slow Cooker Meals

By simply throwing your ingredients into a slow cooker the night before, all you need to do is wait until lunch time, and your meal is ready to go. Clean-up is also a breeze with one dish meals like these.

Lay Out Lunches

Make the full meal ahead of time, and then lay it out so it’s grab and go. Make a school lunch like the cafeteria in a brick and mortar school. When lunch time comes around, there’s nothing to do but eat.

When I stopped looking at lunch as an interruption to our day and starting working with lunch as an important part of our lifestyle of learning, it was easier to take the effort to add balanced meals to our busy days. Later, when I started planning ahead and getting a lot of the prep work out of the way or delegating it to my children, I was able to keep our rhythm flowing right through mealtime. And by keeping our options fresh and interesting with my category rotations, we stay interested in the meals so we always look forward to our homeschool lunchtime.

Want to know how Sonlight can put your daily routine on autopilot? Start by taking an inside look at a Sonlight Instructor's Guide.

Tagged Homeschooling, lunch, meal planning, routines, schedule | Leave a comment

Sep. 10, 2018

Sonlight is Overwhelming!

By Sonlight

"I'm looking for a curriculum, but Sonlight seems so overwhelming! I can barely get everything done now. The book list is intimidating!"
"I just got my Sonlight order, and while Box Day was fun, I feel totally overwhelmed!"

Ah... the yucky feeling of being overwhelmed. It's a common concern about Sonlight’s comprehensive, book-based homeschool programs. Is there truth in the claim that Sonlight is overwhelming? Yes, in some ways, perhaps, Sonlight is overwhelming. But in other ways, Sonlight is the farthest thing from overwhelming—once you understand how it works.

Okay, Sonlight Can Seem Overwhelming

1. Sonlight Takes Up Space

Yes, it is true that a 60-pound box of materials is physically impressive and can be overwhelming. Box Day is like a fantastic Christmas Day that ends in satisfaction but also requires finding space for all the new gifts.

The sheer physicality of the product can be overwhelming.

2. Sonlight Takes Time

Yes, you are going to be present with your children more. Sonlight parents read to their children often between one and three hours a day, and do math, spelling, handwriting and other one-on-one tutoring besides that.

The reality is, if you spend two extra hours a day reading to your children, that comes to ten hours a week, or about six percent of the total hours in your week. A sacrifice, yes, but so very worth it in terms of academic achievement and parent-child bonding.

Where can you find those ten hours for reading to your kids? Here are a few places you may be able to carve out extra time. Added together, you can find your 10 hours per week to fit in Sonlight Read-Alouds.

Spend less time on social media. (Regain 30 min. per school day = 2.5 hours a week)
Relax your housekeeping standards, assign cleaning as schoolwork, or hire a house-cleaner. (Regain maybe 4 hours a week)
Ask your spouse or a grandparent to read to the children before bed. (Regain another 30 min. per school day = 2.5 hours)
Watch one fewer movie, or three fewer television shows, per week. (Regain about 1.5 hours)

There’s your time to read! Of course, your list will look different. The point is: six percent of your week is not that much time. Most people can find it, even without cutting back on sleep.

So, yes, Sonlight can seem overwhelming at first on Box Day and especially if you aren't used to so much one-on-one reading time with your children. But in several meaningful and wonderful ways, Sonlight is not overwhelming at all.

But Really, Sonlight is Not at All Overwhelming

1. Sonlight Requires Zero Planning

No, Sonlight is not overwhelming because there is zero planning required. Open your Instructor’s Guide and do the next thing.

This is the prep work each week: the parent calls the children to come. As the children are gathering, the parent locates the one or two new books for the week and opens the Instructor’s Guide.

That’s it.

2. Sonlight Requires Zero Preparation

No, Sonlight is not overwhelming because you don’t have to assemble anything or gather anything.

You don’t need to go to the library or make inter-library loans. (No late fees, either! The books are yours.)
You don’t need to print worksheets.
You don’t need to locate copywork passages.
You don’t need to sift through hundreds of books to find the ones that will appeal to your family.
You don't need to crowd-source resources in Facebook groups.

All that’s done for you. <Insert huge sigh of relief.>

3. Sonlight is Truly Enjoyable!

No, Sonlight is not overwhelming because you spend your time and energy doing meaningful things:

reading beautiful stories
talking with your children
discussing new thoughts
making connections

It’s not spent grading endless papers or enforcing busywork.

Basically, you can choose whether you’d rather spend your time grading, assembling, planning, seeking, or spend that time reading, laughing, talking, learning.

For Sonlighters, there’s no comparison.

Want to know more about Sonlight’s not-overwhelming way of learning? Start by taking an inside look at a Sonlight Instructor's Guide.

Tagged homeschool, overwhelmed, Sonlight, Time Management | 1 Comment

Sep. 7, 2018

Extension Ideas for "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?"

By Deana Wood

Have you ever finished a book and found that you weren’t quite ready for it to end? Maybe the book was so good that you just don’t want it to be over, or maybe the book sparked so many questions in your mind that you feel the need to satisfy your curiosity.

My family loves to take intriguing books and explore the ideas and themes to the fullest extent. This last year, my older kids and I went through the book Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? It quickly became one of our favorites of HBL F, and my kids were eager to extend and try out some of the ideas they encountered in the book.

The great thing about book extensions is that they are not necessary, so don’t ever allow add-ons to be a source of stress. If you aren’t enjoying the extensions or your kids feel no desire to go farther, just trust the book to be enough and move on. Sonlight books are perfect as-is.

But if your family is like mine in that you love diving deep into thoughts and ideas, extensions are an ideal way to satisfy that extra curiosity. I’ve included a chapter recommendation for each extension, but feel free to do any of these ideas any time during or after the reading of Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

Money, Coins, & Paper

Explore the changes in our paper money system over the years. Study the changes we have made to make our money more secure. (Chapter 1)
Study the two-dollar bill. What are these bills worth and why? Are they still in print? Watch this short clip to learn more. (Chapter 1)
Study unusual coins and bills such as the Sacagawea coin and antique currency. Visit a coin collector as a field trip. (Chapter 1 & 4)
Start your own coin collection. You can start simple and collect quarters from all 50 states, or start a collection of coins from 1920 and earlier. (Chapter 1 & 4)
What does a trillion dollars look like? Check out this link with your kids to see. (Chapter 11)

Bartering

Try a bartering system simulation with a few friends. Each friend should bring a few items to trade. Can you trade until you have an item more value than you had when you began? (Chapter 4)

Inflation

Study the rate of inflation in the United States over the past few years. If the trend continues, what will the price of a soda be in ten years? In twenty? (Chapter 3)
Explore the family budget. Making sure to explain that the project is all in fun and learning, appoint one child as mayor of the family for one month. Let them know that if the family is unhappy with their performance, they will not be mayor of the family next month. Give your child a monthly amount that must sustain the family. Take out all the necessary expenses first. Then, hold a “town hall” meeting to discuss how the remaining money should be spent. The child must decide how to spend the remaining money to keep their family members happy, so they can be mayor of the family again. The idea here is to feel a small amount of pressure that a politician might experience and to consider what leaders in our community face in economic-related issues. You can keep this activity simple or make it more challenging by considering taxation on your family members to pay for the wants and needs of the family. Of course, be sure they consider how would that affect their re-appointment as mayor of the family. (Chapter 8)
Interview grandparents and great-grandparents. Ask about the price of sodas and cars when they were younger. How much did they earn per hour? When did they begin to notice inflation taking place? How did inflation affect them directly? (Chapter 4)

Wages

Discuss wages. Hire your child to complete a job, such as baby-sitting or housekeeping, and pay them an hourly wage. Determine the minimum wage for your job and the hours required. Also determine how you will compensate overtime. Have them calculate what they will earn in one day of work? One week? What will happen if they take a 30-minute lunch break opposed to an hour long lunch break? What will they earn if they work two hours overtime? (Chapter 6)
Discuss the national minimum wage. Based on the current federal poverty level, how many hours do minimum wage workers need to work to rise above poverty level? Consider employers. How much does a fast food employer pay a minimum wage employee for eight hours of work? If they raised their hourly pay by 6%, would the take home difference make a noticeable change in their income? How much would it cost the employer to give each employee a 6% raise? Could the employer save money by purchasing an automated kiosk instead of a paid worker? If you are able, interview a minimum wage worker and a minimum wage employer to hear varying perspectives on this issue. (Chapter 6)
Explore what might happen to a given area when a farm that employs a few hundred workers switches over to mostly automated equipment, eliminating the need for much of the manual labor. How would that affect families and cities? (Chapter 6)

Recessions and Depressions

Interview people who lived through The Great Depression. How did it directly affect them? What were their thoughts during that time? How did they survive? What was the hardest part about the Depression? (Chapter 7, 10, 13)
Study the Recession of 2008. What caused it? How did it affect American families? What industry suffered the most? Why is that? Did the government take the appropriate steps to correction or would you prefer a different approach? (Chapter 13)
Conduct a mock stock market exercise. Study the stock market pages in the newspaper. Discuss abbreviations and meanings. Give your child a set amount of pretend money and have them choose a few stocks in which they would like to invest. Have them watch the activity on their stocks over a few days/weeks. Have they earned money or lost money? What stocks are performing well? Why? (Chapter 10)

Supply and Demand

Study the law of supply and demand. Chart gasoline prices over a period of time. Notice the times when gasoline spikes in cost are many times around high demand seasons, such as vacation season or holiday season when there is a lot of widespread travel. Coincidence? I don’t think so! (Chapter 6)

Federal Reserve and National Debt

Write to explain your opinion on the government printing money as needed, rather than keeping money “gold-backed.” (Chapter 4)
Compare the national debt of the United States with the debt of other countries. Look for trends in the national debt. Was there a time when the debt spiked? Did it drop? Research contributing factors. (Chapter 11)
Research the current Index of Economic Freedom and rank countries accordingly. Discuss why countries fall where they do on the Index. (Chapter 12)

Velocity

Research velocity for five major countries. Which country has the healthiest economy based on velocity? Which has the most unhealthy economy based on velocity? According to your research, is velocity a good indicator of economic health of a country? Why or why not? (Chapter 8)
Consider an allowance experiment. Give your child a small one-time allowance. What are their thoughts on spending the money? Do they want to run out and buy the first thing they think of? Or do they want to save at least some of it since they aren’t sure when they will get more money? How does this change when they receive a reasonable weekly allowance? What factors might make velocity go down in an economy? What factors might make velocity go up? (Chapter 8)
Let your child do the grocery shopping for a few weeks. Give them a budget and guidelines for the project (they must get a protein for each day, etc). Let them know that they can keep up to 5% of the budget if they are wise with their purchases and have that amount left over. Introduce them to the sales circulars and discuss how waiting for a price cut can be beneficial when you are able. Assist your child in deciding when to wait to purchase an item and when to stock up. Explore how this exercise illustrates velocity in a large economy. (Chapter 8)

Feel free to pick one or two fun ideas, or if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, challenge yourself to try them all. For even more learning opportunities around money, finance, and economics, check out The Federal Reserve Education website.

To find out more about Sonlight's unmatched Read-Alouds, and our complete book-based homeschool programs, order a complimentary copy of your catalog today.

Tagged activities, economics, extensions, extras, finance, HBL F, money, reading, supplements | Leave a comment

Sep. 5, 2018

How Homeschooling Gives Young Athletes a Massive Advantage

By Amber Smith

What do Tim Tebow, Serena and Venus Williams, and Bethany Hamilton all have in common? All were young athletes who took their skill to the highest level possible, excelling beyond peers in their chosen sport.

But what places them in a unique group among many other professional athletes and Olympic medal winners?

They were all homeschooled.

To professionally compete, student athletes need the flexibility to train, travel, and study. Homeschooling offers exactly that kind of flexibility so children can balance the demands of athletic goals with academic requirements.

Homeschooling is a natural choice for many parents whose children are pursuing mastery in competitive athletics as an alternative to turning their child over to a coach and trainer.

With Homeschool, Travel for Competitive Training is Easier

Professional athletes need extensive coaching input. When your child reaches the level of traveling for training, for camps, or for extended coaching, their school does not need to get put on hold. A homeschool curriculum can travel with them. This can give your child the competitive edge since they no longer have to fit training into the summer months.

It is no surprise that many Major League Baseball players come from cities near the equator. Optimal weather means they can train year round. This geographic advantage can mean the difference between getting drafted or passed up for a player with more training time.

The same advantage is available to homeschoolers who understand the training demands it takes to becoming a upper level competitor. Education does not have to impede nor be sacrificed for your kids to train, but as a parent you don’t have to step completely out of the picture. I love that homeschooling has kept us central in our kids lives even as they have spent many hours under the training of other coaches.

Homeschooled Athletes Can Create a Schedule That Fits Their Life

I’ve read that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to reach a master level with a musical instrument. I can assume that the same can be said for athletics, competitive sports, and any other area of intensive study. For a student athlete, that's three hours of daily practice for ten years.

Given travel, schooling, sleeping, and eating, fitting in the roughly twenty-one hours a week of practice is a challenge. Being able to shift our school schedule to fit our life—through homeschooling—has been a godsend.

We chose to use Sonlight’s four-day option. In the beginning, we had longer school hours for four days and one day off to have outside lessons. As travel for athletics began to take up more of our days, we continued with a four-day week, doing our main subjects on four days and science, projects, and electives on the fifth. This schedule helped us keep our school days shorter while staying on track for all the required subjects.

The families I’ve spoken with, who have multiple athletes training at the same time, often bring their school to the gym and study between sessions. There is no shortage of curriculum setups that will fit your students learning style while giving you the flexibility to meet their goals. With Sonlight, we take the day's reading selection with us when we have a long drive, a competition, or an early game.

Since homeschooling takes considerably less time than conventional school, we can actually finish our school before lunch time even on the road. With no homeroom, assemblies, class switching, or bloated electives to fill their open hours, our students complete all of their academics in under four hours. There is no need to fill their schedule with electives because your student is living them.

If Your Student is Thinking About Training Professionally

Homeschooling is a great way to chase you child’s goals while keeping your family connected. For our family, athletics has always been a priority. The older boys continue to play baseball in college. I will never regret the crazy life we lived to make sports a priority for them while balancing school and home life.

Athletics can demand a huge amount of time. One summer, between three boys, we were washing jerseys for seven teams. My husband was coaching three of them. The seasons were long: spring league to fall ball with winter hitting in between. These were the events that turned the pages of our family calendar. With all of the driving, hours of practice, and Dad playing the role of coach, homeschooling gave us the right amount of flexibility to still function as a family while letting our boys pursue their athletic dreams.

Enjoy Life on Your Terms as a Sports Family

By homeschooling, the boys had the chance to become athletically competitive while developing the depth of character that will carry them throughout the rest of their lives. Homeschooling helped us to build strong athletes and great men. These are the reasons student athletes, Olympians, and young hopefuls alike are turning to homeschooling to help them achieve their goals without sacrificing their education.

Take advantage of our 100% guarantee. No other homeschooling company can match our Love to Learn, Love to Teach™ promise. You can order with confidence that either you will have a great year, or you will get a full refund.

Tagged academics, athletes, athletics, flexibility, sports, travel | Leave a comment

Sep. 3, 2018

Homeschooling as a Way to Genuinely Mainstream Special Needs Kids

By Heather Mills Schwarzen

My 11 year-old son, Phineas, has significant learning differences. The classroom model of schooling might possibly be stretched far enough to mainstream him with his peers. But his specific challenges mean that full-time inclusion in a group of students presented with fifth grade-level work isn’t best for him or them.

Our local district utilizes resource rooms for special education that would bounce Phineas between a traditional class setting and a targeted group of students, seeing special teachers and therapists on a rotating schedule throughout the week—far from the ideal solution for a child who needs strict consistency to integrate information at all.

As he will soon be aging out of elementary school, the picture gets even more muddied; special education options narrow as children age, with a pointed focus on life skills and employment training.

The Wider Gate Homeschool Offers Special Needs Children

Interestingly enough, just as the professional school system would begin the process of pointing my son away from a more well-rounded education, Sonlight’s literature-based learning is opening the doors to something much richer for Phineas.

While he still spends plenty of hours each week learning and reviewing previous information and trying to meet new baseline learning objectives, he also has the opportunity to be immersed in a rich variety of subjects:

folk tales
classical music
Scripture memorization
missionary adventures
whole-world geography

Special education departments in public schools cut these areas in favor of time spent drilling information that can be measured on end-of-year tests and held up to IEP goals.

But quality of life, truly, cannot be measured. For example, Phineas has developed a love for poetry through exposure and joyfully sings bits of Scripture he memorized in song thanks to Sing the Word. Neither of those count as skills, but they certainly count as something that will contribute to his joy and character as he grows!

Truly Mainstreamed with Homeschooling

In the artificial environment of a classroom, a teacher (and an aide specially assigned to my son) is tasked with creating an inclusive environment for Phineas. But that means he's tied to

textbooks he can’t read
worksheets he can’t fill out
activities he can’t follow

The school calls this mainstreaming.

In contrast, homeschooling is true mainstreaming—an actual picture of what it means to be folded into a group of diverse students. Learning together from the same book—whether it’s a beautiful fictionalization of history or a detailed look at the flora and fauna of a far-off country—is a great leveler. All ears tune to one thread of information, and that thread weaves the listeners together. At the end of the day, that shared experience bubbles over into creative play and exploration that all can share, regardless of cognitive differences.

A poignant example of this truth happened recently when my family revisited The Boxcar Children as a part of our newest kindergartner's Sonlight experience. While my intended audience was one child, five gathered. Phineas was among them, and he sat in rapt attention as the story unfolded over the next several days.

Each afternoon, I watched all five children, ages 3 through 11, work tirelessly on the boxcar they were assembling in our yard.

They problem solved.

Mom shot down our idea to bring actual dishware outside, so how can we improvise?
If we needed to wash things here, where would we go?
How long do you think we could stay out here if we had to?

They discussed characters, emotions, and behavior.

Do you think Benny was scared?
Why didn’t Dr. Moore just tell Henry everything he knew?
What would have happened if Henry had told the truth about his name at the race?

They lugged logs and swept dirt floors.

Together. With no aide running interference to help Phineas synthesize the information, and no written test for everyone afterward.

The Purpose of Learning

As the mother of a son with severe special needs, I understand the pressure to push for opportunities that allow every child to meet his or her full potential. I understand the tug of the school district’s special needs program or the workbook-based curriculum that will hit, over and over, on the basics.

I understand the pull to focus on those box-checking skills, like writing, counting, and reading. But I also know that an education which focuses only on those things—an education that leaves out the real heart of life—falls short of the joy that is real learning: being able to more fully appreciate the beauty of God’s world.

Every child deserves that gift—regardless of learning differences.

To find out more about Sonlight's flexible, book-based homeschool programs, order a complimentary copy of your catalog today.

Tagged Homeschooling, inclusion, mainstreaming, special needs | Leave a comment