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Posts Tagged ‘homeschooling’

Learning Speed Reading

July 6th, 2011

What have you been reading lately? In a gathering, you can tell who the broad-spectrum readers are. Wide readers often think and speak well. They win the admiration, respect, and good opinion of others. After all, reading expands the mind. In fact, many people consider it one of the most satisfying pleasures of mankind, combining, as it does, mental agility and physical relaxation way above the scale of television.

Reading is primarily a mental activity, as you read with your mind and use your imagination to paint the setting of the detective thriller you are reading. You use your mind to imagine the pain that the main characters in the story are experiencing as the plot unfolds; or you contemplate the various arguments and ideas introduced by the author in that self-help book you are studying.

Reading effectively helps you to develop an extensive range of vocabulary by reading different kinds of books. A skillful reader recognizes a wide range of vocabulary. The reader may not understand exactly what every word means, but he/she will have a good idea of what the sentence is trying to say.

The act of reading makes you more aware and more curious about new words. Some readers even like to employ 'the dictionary habit', which means that whenever they find a new word, they attempt to work out what it means from the context. If they cannot do this, they refer to a dictionary.

Similarly, reading develops intellectual curiosity by exposing the reader to different subjects. He/she learns to read by reading books of increasing difficulty and variety. Just as in other forms of education, he/she is learning by actually doing and while he/she is reading he/she is automatically learning about the subject matter of the book too - a free by-product!

Reading trains you to have an active and open mind. Merely understanding the writers idea is not enough, you have to make a positive response to what you read. Be an active, not a passive, reader. Develop the habit of drawing your own conclusions, the habit of active thinking, of agreeing or disagreeing with the author. Always keep your mind open; understand and weigh the ideas that you read. A practical part of active reading is the drawing of conclusions.

Now let me introduce you to the idea of speed reading. All of the above applies three, four, eight, nine, even ten times over, because speed readers can read that much faster than the average reader! Imagine that ... being able to read, comprehend and remember all those books. You would certainly become well-read in your subject far more quickly than others. Just think how that could help you at work or in school or college ...

Now, let me tell you the four primary rules for better reading and better comprehension:

1) Try to read more and more every month. Remember that practice makes perfect. 2) Learn the habit of reading the main ideas, ie look for the subject and predicate - the principal ideas 3) Learn to read with focus and concentration. Good readers read with understanding. 4) Learn to budget your time. Experiment with your reading time. Try to read faster. Give yourself a time limit for the specific article that you are reading.

Reading is a wonderfully stimulating mental activity. It expands your understanding and capability. You have so much to gain by discovering the joy of reading. So, go on and take down a book right this minute.

Are you interested in speed reading for yourself or a loved one? If so, please pop along to our website focusing on Speed Reading.

When Fear Is A Part Of Life At School

April 30th, 2011

Do you have happy memories of your school years? Do you have happy memories of teachers and school friends? If you do then you were lucky, because some kids hate every minute of being in school and not because they are no good at it either. Often it is the clever children who are bullied for being swots and teachers' pets. They are safe and sound in the class, but the travelling to and from school and the school breaks can be nightmares.

However, it is not only bullying from other children that causes fear in school children. There are other reasons for fear in school as well. Occasionally, children think that a certain teacher does not like them and sometimes children are just frightened of failing or doing badly. Occasionally teachers are frightened of doing badly as well. It can all lead to an atmosphere of fear at school. It makes you ask yourself how anyone could have enjoyed their school days, does it not?

This atmosphere of fear can become greater in state schools because the teachers are subject to success charts and the children are more open to bullying. Furthermore, all of the school shootings in the world have taken place in state run schools.

However, the most insidious kind of fear in school comes from teachers who are scared of missing the targets set by the state, because that will cost them their jobs. This fear is passed on to their students. The regime of fear is exacerbated by over-sized classes. Why?

Because teachers can hold the attention of only so many pupils - as we all can in normal discourse. Therefore, if the class is too large, the teacher will have to switch roles from being a teacher to a controller. When this occurs, education suffers for the sake of keeping order.

For all of these reasons and more, many parents are turning to home schooling. Some of the reasons why parents are deciding to educate their children themselves are: distrust of the state education system; fear of bullying or worse of their children; a desire to teach their children in a more conventional or religious manner.

There are education packages that parent-teachers can buy to give them a course of action on what to teach. There is also a lot of help available on the Internet. The problem facing any parents who wish to educate their own children is providing a rounded education.

People have a natural tendency to specialize in one subject or group of topics like, say, astronomy or the sciences, which is why schools supply numerous teachers, so that every one can teach his or her favourite subject. However, if you are the only teacher you will have to teach all the subjects yourself.

This is why it is best to have a course or set of guidelines to follow. It is difficult to teach maths if you have no talent for it, so look at your strengths but also your weaknesses before you take the considerable decision to withdraw your children from school and educate them themselves

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on numerous subjects but is currently involved with Fear At School and Home Schooling. If you would like to read more, please go over to our web site entitled Home Schooling.

Learning History At Home Schooling

October 2nd, 2010

Do you think that passing time in traditional classrooms is a waste of time? For some people, that is probably true. For example, an exam is due and the students are asked to memorize a lot of dates and names. However, after taking the exam, they will definitely forget 90% of those dates and names. That's what the majority of students do every time they have tests. If you are one of these people, you will find traditional history lessons boring, so home schooling, which concentrates more on the history of the world, will probably interest you more.

Simple memorization is not enough to know the importance of famous people and important events. Through home schooling in history, you can learn about the different cultures of the past in a unique, but interesting way - your own way! Through the study of history, you will also understand the current situation of the world today.

If you think that home schooling is the most effective option for your child's learning, you should also be prepared to take on some responsibilities. Since there will be no teacher physically present, you will have to supervise your child's educational progress yourself.

Let's just suppose that your child is interested in a particular sport. Through combining history and home schooling, you can start by simply putting a map on the wall of your child's bedroom and mark the location of his favourite sports team. Make sure that you track all the team's activities and schedules. Then, you could return to history lessons by reading biographies of the various athletes, who had been popular in the particular sport that your child follows. Apart from that, you could also study the history of that particular sport and discover where it started, its inventor, and the other things happening in that particular time in history.

For instance, if your child likes baseball, you can teach your child about the history baseball, government hearings on the use of steroids and other favourite hobbies during that period in time. But remember that you can apply this method to any interest such as dancing, cars or any invention. You can also have conversations with your child about current affairs or read interesting historical documents and other books. Aside from that, you could also watch documentaries together with the rest of the family. There are various resources that you can use while home schooling, like TV, maps, newspapers, books, a globe, an atlas, and encyclopedias. Because of the exciting adventures that you and your child will read about and see on film, your child will find it easier to remember the names and dates of the history lessons. After all, education is best when it is done in an interesting way.

These methods are recommended for when the child is still young, but once your child is older, you must choose an appropriate home schooling program that is suitable to his/her age group. The programs are available at the elementary, high school, and even college levels. You just have to search online for these different programs. A good thing about these programs is that you can tailor them to fit the needs of your child. However, you must ensure that all the lessons are followed by your child.

Once you and your child have decided to go for home schooling, you must be prepared for some changes to take place in your life. The learning environment will now be your home not a school and through the various resources that you can use including the computer and Internet.

If you are interested in Home Schooling then please visit our website at Home Schooling Information

Home Schooling and Computer Learning

March 30th, 2010

There is access to a computer in nearly every home in the West nowadays and the rest of the world is catching up very quickly. So, it is extremely important for you to have one at home too, because of the many benefits it can bring, especially if you have an Internet connection. Nowadays, you need to have have some computer experience, if you want even a reasonably-paid job, so learning how to use a computer must begin at school. You and your children can have a interesting educational experience with a computer at home. Children of today should learn about this extremely important device at the very earliest age possible and one of the best ways to do that is through home schooling computer programs.

These days, even pre-school children are being taught how to use computers and their associated resources. If you opt for home schooling, you and your child will also spend most of your time making use of a computer and the Internet. Educating your children will be much more efficient when done online, because of the diverse resources available there. Your child will be provided with exceptional educational resources, from which he/she will benefit hugely not least since job market trends today involve the Internet.

One of the largest ethnic groups who prefers to make use of home schooling is the African Americans because some see certain society problems and they can keep themselves informed about their own heritage by home schooling. The parents of children from minority groups can assist their offspring learn more about their history by having an Internet connection at home. Children's education can be better encouraged by parents and they can also assist in improving the mindset of their children too. Parents can educate their children about their own particular heritage by means of the various online resources.

It is important to remember that home schooling only works if the parents are willing to support their kids all the way. They must also be committed and prepared for the challenges that they will come across. The parents should look for a good computer program or book that can help their children learn about using computers. Frequently, the lessons are divided into various parts or series so that the children can cope with them easily. Children have different learning capacities and since too often children are not given much chance in traditional schools, the use of computers is an ideal opportunity to bring out the best in them.

Home schooling is no longer new, so if you think that your child is not doing well in school, talk to his teachers and get some information regarding your child. The guidance counsellor can also assist you to select the best education for you child. Home schooling is already accepted and perhaps it can help your child to learn more in the safety of your own home.

If you are prepared to commit yourself to home schooling, you will need to discuss the matter with your child. You could start by asking your child about his performance in school and then bring up the subject of home schooling. See how your child reacts to the idea. Explain its advantages. Say that computer learning will be easier. It's better if you and your child both agree to home schooling, since you have to work closely together. It might not be easy to persuade your child to give up traditional schooling, where he has all his friends, so you will have to spend time with your kid and know his/her interests. Explain that computer programs in home schooling can help a lot. Tell your child that they can learn more about their particular interest, if they know how to use the computer.

So why not start looking for the most suitable home schooling computer program now? You could talk to your friends, ask at the library or / and go online and do your research. There are lots of home schooling programs to choose from and it could take several weeks before you can find the right one.

If you are into home schooling then please visit our site at http://home-schooling.the-real-way.com

Speed Reading - The Early Stages

November 6th, 2009

No one really knows when speed reading was first used, but it might have been a long while in the past. For hundreds of years, reading was the privilege of a minority of the most highly-educated people in the world, the overwhelming majority of whom were monks and priests. This small, select group of men protected their privilege and were loathe to coach the general populace to read. Furthermore, during those hundreds of years there were relatively few books to read compared with today. Books were also very costly as they all had to be copied out by hand. Possibly the only fact that has not altered is that the Bible was the most common book in existence and even now the Bible is the most prevalent book.

The world is quickly becoming a place where individuals are slowly but surely giving up on books and becoming fixed in front of monitors or television screens. In such a world, parents must not ignore the importance of developing a zeal for reading in themselves and their children. Reading is a habit that should be established when the child is fairly young, so what can you do to engender this habit?

Well, there are a number of strategies you can employ, although one of the best to lead by example. Read with your child every day, even if its only for 10-15 minutes. Permit your child to see you reading. By this I mean, don't only read in bed before you go to sleep, but in place of watching television from time to time and read your children a bed-time story. Encourage them to read too. You could also:

Enroll your child for reading classes, if you really don't have any time or your child is a little slow at reading. There are many well-structured after school reading classes that endeavor to make books more appealing to children. They help children with enunciation, idioms and metaphors. These lessons can be pleasurable with animated characters and pictures, especially for young children,. They often use picture books, rhymes, comical songs and short stories to fire up the imagination of younger children.

You will have to find out how to kindle your child's interest. If your child has a favorite character, pick a series of books that include this character. Attempt to encourage your children to read real books not comics. The language in comics frequently leaves a great deal to be desired with its slapdash English and street slang. As an alternative, go for series of books like Harry Potter or Tarzan.

You should build yourself a library of your own books. This may sound a little impressive, but after all, a library is only a collection of books. Begin with a good-looking bookshelf that you can easily build on. A skill like reading cannot be learned in only one place, so you cannot afford to leave all the difficult work to the day-school or even the after school curricula. You have to collect books that you believe your child will enjoy too. Use the Internet as a source for learning about the modern reading games that will attract little children to the superior and ancient art of reading,

When you child is interested in reading for its own sake, you might read up on speed reading. Speed reading is best suited for informative learning and background reading. It's immensely suited to cramming or studying for examinations. It is ideal for school and university. However, the first job, before you can think about speed reading, is to get your child reading in the first place.

Are you interested in speed reading for yourself or a loved one? If so, please pop along to our website called Speed Reading.

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The Seton Study Course For Home School Who Are Catholic

November 3rd, 2009

The Seton home schooling program was initially designed as a Catholic home education course out of the all-catholic Seton High School in Manassas, Virginia. The Catholic home school society grew fast and demand for the school's new home curriculum course was high.

The school's organizer, Dr. Anne Carroll, determined to have the teachings taught at the school to be offered by mail. She recognized the reality that many parents didn't have the income to lodge their children at a private educational institution. This was at what time the Seton Catholic home-schooling course began. The Catholic home-schooling concept gelled and out of it came the Seton home-schooling lessons in 1980. It was further enhanced by Dr Mary Kay Clark in 1985.

Nowadays this religious based curriculum is utilized by more than 10,000 principally Catholic students all over the world. Seton has in addition turned out to be the chief Catholic publisher in the United States for school-aged students. The home education school with its numerous home school books is famous worldwide.

You can be certain that Seton Home-schooling Prospectus is not a part of a "diploma mill" but is accepted universally as an accredited educational curriculum for home school students. It meets all the educational standards of a bona fide, quality, completely accredited educational organization recognized by the US Department of Education. Accreditation will aid your home-schooled student once they decide to go to college. It even helps cope with special needs children.

For Seton home-scholars, they will understand the educational fundamentals of English, Math, Science while also discovering more on the subject of the Catholic culture and its biblical studies. The lessons give a moral foundation of Catholic instruction to enhance the abilities of the parents to be the primary teachers of their own kids with home-based education. Pope John Paul II explained the thought process in his Letter to Families: "Parents are the first and the most important educators of their own children..." It is easy to see that you can say this excerpt from the former Pope summarizes the complete philosophy of the Seton Home Study School.

The Catholic Church has continuously taught to go ye into all the world, but Catholic home schooling parents can firstly evangelize their children in a spiritual residence through catholic home-schooling instruction from K-12. The entire emphasis is on the eternal good of the young person.

So if you are a Catholic and want to make a true difference in the child's value system, think about home-schooling. Seton is in simple terms the best option. You will be happy you chose it.

Find out more about Best Curriculum Home School at Catholic Homeschool Curriculum.

Learning History at Home Schooling

July 5th, 2009

Do you consider that spending time in traditional classrooms is a waste? For some people, that is true. For example, an exam is due and the pupils are asked to memorize a list of dates and names. However, after sitting the test, they will probably forget 75% of those dates and names. That's what most students do every time they have tests. If you are one of these people, you will find traditional history lessons boring, so home schooling, which concentrates more on the history of the world, will surely be of more interest to you.

Just simple memorization is not enough to realize the importance of historical, famous people and fateful events. Through home schooling in history, you can learn about the different cultures of the past in a unique, but interesting way - that is your own way! Through the study of history, you will also realize the current situation of the world.

If you think that home schooling is the best option for your child's learning, you should also be prepared to take on some responsibilities. Since there will be no teacher physically present, you will have to supervise your child's educational progress yourself.

Let's just suppose that your child is interested in a particular sport. Through combining history and home schooling, you can start by simply putting a map on the wall of your child's bedroom and mark the location of his favourite sports team. Make sure that you track all the team's activities and schedules. Then, you could go back to history lessons by reading biographies of the different athletes, who had been popular in the particular sport that your child likes. Apart from that, you can also examine the history of that particular sport and discover where it started, its inventor, and the other things happening at that particular time in history.

For example, let's say your child follows baseball, you could teach your child about the history baseball, government hearings on the use of drugs and other favourite sports at that period of time. But remember that you can adapt this method to any interest like dancing, flight, cars or any invention. You can also have conversations with your child about current affairs or read interesting historical documents and other books. Aside from that, you can also watch documentaries together with the rest of the family. There are various resources that your child can use in home schooling, like TV, maps, newspapers, books, a globe, an atlas, and encyclopedias. Because of the enthralling adventures that you and your child will read about and see on film, he/she will find it easier to remember the names and dates of the history lessons. After all, education is better when it is done in an interesting way.

These methods are recommended if the child is still young, but once your child is older, you must choose an appropriate home schooling program that is suitable to his/her age group. The programs are available at the elementary, high school, and even college levels. You simply have to search the Internet for these various programs. A good thing about these programs is that you can tailor them to suit the requirements of your child. However, you must ensure that all the lessons are followed by your child.

After you and your child decide to try home schooling, you will have to be prepared to make some changes to your life. The educational environment will now be in your home not at a school and through the various resources that you think best, such as a computer and the Internet.

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Home Schooling and its Effects on the Family

June 17th, 2009

If a survey by the National Center For Education Statistics is to be believed, roughly 1.1 million children underwent home schooling in 2005 alone. That's a great deal of children. Once upon a time, homeschooling used to be an extreme statement - something like a declaration of independence.

It was the (right-wing|conservative Christians who pushed for homeschooling in the '80s and legalized it in every State. But the typical homeschooler of today is not religiously motivated.

More recent surveys indicate that parents are really fed up with the public school system where much of the learning is superficial and compulsory. They are also concerned about the negative environment in school, ranging from drugs and abuse to negative peer pressure.

Because of this, we have a surprising mix of people who form the homeschooling world of today. They cut across all religious creeds and all regional borders. Their main aim is providing meaningful and productive education through a method that strengthens the bond between the various members of the family.

All these families have one main thing in common - a long enduring commitment to the sanctity of childhood. The children in these families are accorded a primary position. Many believe, and, I think, rightly so, that home schooling allows parents to bring up their kids in a more natural and caring environment.

Public schools can make a child nervous, diffident and downright mean. Children who get their education at home are protected from these damaging, negative influences until they attain an age where they can deal with them.

Home-schooling draws the whole family into the almost religious task of teaching. Everyone has a role to play. The parents together form a bond with the children. Any experience can be turned into an educational experience. Both the parents are aware of exactly what is going into their child's head.

Parents also have a greater say over the kind of religious and moral values that the child is learning. Even watching a film together can become an educational experience. Trips to the libraries, zoos, museums and other places become educational as well as recreational.

A home-schooling family is usually dependent on the income of one earning member. That means that often spending has to be curtailed and proper planning of expenditure is a must. This helps to bring the family members together and everybody becomes involved in the task of saving money.

Just having a parent at home to supervise, to nurture and to care for the children brings with it a lot of love and caring. Even the husband chips in and there just is no room for boredom.

All right, problems do crop up, and there will be many misgivings in your mind, but when you know that your kids can always count on you, and your kids know it too, then homeschooling becomes a richly rewarding experience.

About the Author:

Learning Speed Reading

May 31st, 2009

What have you been reading lately? In a gathering, you can soon tell who the frequent readers are, since frequent readers are often quick thinkers and good public speakers too. They quickly win the adulation, respect, and fellowship of others. After all, reading expands the mind and many people see it as one of the most satisfying pleasures known to mankind, being a combination, as it is, of mental agility and physical relaxation well above the level offered by television or the cinema.

The act of reading is primarily a mental activity. After all, you read with your mind and use your imagination to paint the setting of the action thriller you are reading. You use your mind to imagine the pleasure that the main characters are experiencing as the story unfolds; or you bring into play the different arguments and ideas brought up by the author in that self-help book you are reading.

Learning how to read properly helps you to develop (an extensive|a wide through reading various kinds of books. A skillful reader recognizes a wide range of vocabulary. The reader may not understand exactly what every word means, but he/she will have a general idea of what the sentence is trying to convey.

The act of reading makes you more alert and more interested in hitherto unknown words. Some readers even develop 'the dictionary habit', which means that whenever they come across a new word, they attempt to work out what it possibly means from the context. If they are stumped, they refer to a dictionary.

In the same way, reading develops intellectual curiosity by exposing you to different subjects. You learn to read by reading books of increasing difficulty and variety. Just as in other types of education, you are learning by actually doing and while you are reading you are automatically learning about the subject matter of the book too - like free by-product!

Reading teaches you to have an active and open mind. Merely understanding the writers idea is not enough, you must make a positive response to what you read. Be an active, not a passive, reader. Develop the habit of drawing your own conclusions, the habit of active thinking, of agreeing or disagreeing with the author. Always keep your mind open; understand and consider the ideas that you read. A practical part of active reading is the drawing of conclusions.

Now let me introduce you to the phenomenon of speed reading. All of the above applies three, four, eight, nine, even ten times over, because speed readers can read that much faster than the average reader! Imagine that ... being able to read, comprehend and remember all those books. You would certainly become well-read in your subject far more quickly than others. Just think how that could help you at work or in school or college ...

Let me share four primary rules for effective reading and better comprehension:

1) Try to read more and more every month. Remember that practice makes perfect. 2) Learn the habit of reading the main ideas, ie look for the subject and predicate - the principal ideas 3) Learn to read with focus and concentration. Good readers read with understanding. 4) Learn to budget your time. Experiment with your reading time. Try to read faster. Give yourself a time limit on the specific article that you are reading.

Reading is a wonderfully stimulating mental activity. It expands your reality and capability. You have so much to gain in discovering the joys of reading. So, go ahead and get down a book right now.

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How to Avoid Burnout in Home Schooling

May 16th, 2009

It does not matter whether you are learning in a traditional school or in a home schooling program, there will be a time when you will come across burnout. This is something that you must prevent so that your educational progress is not affected.

Here are a couple of useful tips that you can make use of to prevent possible home schooling burnout:

Be aware of your limitations. From the very start, you should already know your limitations and your child's limitations. You must be capable of taking things slowly sometimes, especially if your child is still young since you have to consider your child's learning capacity. Most students are average learners, obviously, so you have to take the lessons based on your child's learning pace. Never expect your small child to read complicated reading selections nor your teen to ace SAT exams.

Try not to adopt rigid schedules, as this could put undue pressure on your child. You should simply set an interesting routine for your child to follow. Children spend most of their time doing routine activities like getting up, eating hearty breakfasts, reading books, practising writing, doing light jobs about the place, etc. You must insist that they complete their routine activities before they can go outside or play with the computer. Even these routine activities change from day to day, but you have to ensure that your child completes these routine activities. You can add in occasional incentives or fun activities if they finish their routine tasks early.

You should enjoy home schooling with your child. This is one way you can develop a good relationship with your child and if you and your child can relate to each other, you will find it very easy to handle curriculum struggles and motivation problems later. Aside from motivating and guiding your child, you can also pursue some of your own interests like gardening and cooking. If your child sees you pursuing your own interests, then he or she will also be motivated to do the same.

Since your child is in a home schooling program, you should not attempt to imitate a traditional schools environment. Try to use non-conventional means when teaching your child. Home schooling is also about flexibility and creativity, so if you can achieve an easy-going but firm atmosphere, you can more than likely avoid burnout.

Just always try to remember that with home schooling, you don't have to structure your teaching methods in the traditional manner. You can simply do things in an enjoyable way especially when teaching very young children, so that they learn easily. Ensure you keep the day in the right balance to prevent burnout. Although your children might forget some of the day's lessons, that's all right too because somehow children develop their intelligence as well as their physique.

For sure, your children will always look back on your moments together and remember fondly how well you treated them. The old song goes: "... there's no place like home" and for little pupils, home is the best place to learn the first lessons of life. If your teenagers are already in high school or in college, they can still pursue home schooling if they want to. That would also a good decision because you'd get to monitor your offsprings' performance.

Parents always try to look after their children's best interests, so, if after careful consideration, you still reckon that home schooling is the right option for your family, then run with it. Just follow the advice stated above in order to avoid burnout. Make time for enjoyable activities from time to time in order to prevent monotony, which may lead to burnout.

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