- Awareness, Books, Creativity, Culture, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Love, Parenting, Relationships, Slideshow
Teaching Our Children About Civil Rights
My kids play with anyone without question. No matter what color hair or skin; regardless of their parents’ preference to vaccinate or choice of religion or method of education. They don’t care. What they care about is that the kids they play with are friendly and inclusive and compassionate. As I prepare my research for a forthcoming children’s nonfiction book about the Civil Rights Movement I am reminded that there was a time when it was commonplace to draw dividing lines based on skin color. When schools were segregated and children were limited to friends who looked the same. We made so much progress. Sadly, too often, I find…
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March 14 is National Pi Day! Ways to Have Fun With Math
If you take a few minutes to do a Google search about the most popular subjects in school, you might be surprised to find that math receives an overwhelmingly popular vote. Elementary-aged students seemed to be especially fond of the subject. If you dig deeper you’ll also find it gets a lot of negative votes, and those thumbs-down seem to be ever-increasing as common core curriculum is forced into classrooms. Last year, my then-kindergartner went to the library with his class and chose a math book to bring home for the week. During his reading buddy time with a 4th grader, they generally finished their reading early. I asked him…
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Education :: Improving Spelling Skills with All About Spelling
Image courtesy of Flickr If you are a parent looking for a better way to help your child learn to spell, I’m here to share something great with you! I homeschool, and was on the lookout for new material to add to our language arts curriculum. At the beginning of the year we purchased some language arts workbooks from Houghton Mifflin, but they ended up just being “busy work” worksheets for my son. I didn’t feel like he was learning anything new, and the workbooks didn’t give me any tools to help teach him. I found a company online called All About Learning Press. Created by…
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Homeschool At The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach
The Aquarium of the Pacific Offers the Perfect Educational Experience: As a homeschooling parent, I am constantly on the lookout for fun and educational adventures to go on with my kids. So last week, we went on our first official field trip of the school year – to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Normally, we wouldn’t have done this on a school day, as admission for three is well over $50. But, on a handful of select days throughout the year, the Aquarium holds online sales for homeschoolers to pre-purchase tickets for these select dates at the deeply-discounted student rate of $6 per person. Score! The Aquarium…
- Awareness, Creativity, Culture, DIY, Get Organized, Life Management, Parenting, Plan, Play, Relationships, Slideshow
Learning About Home Education at the 2014 CHEA Convention
We’ve decided to begin homeschooling our children in the fall and I’ve been diligently doing my research and getting to know the various big-names associated with homeschool education. In May, the Christian Home Educators Association (CHEA) hosted their 31st annual convention at the Disneyland Hotel. As part of the convention, new homeschoolers were invited to attend the first day free to take part in the Introduction to Homeschool conference and get a preview of the vendors in the exhibit hall. The conference was informative and covered a lot of the concerns about the legal issues involved and the steps you need to take to get started. …
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The Ups and Downs of Homeschooling: A Newbie’s Perspective
More than one million children are being homeschooled in the United States, and it seems that number is growing. While the motivation for homeschooling varies from one family to the next, there’s no doubt that it is becoming more common, and more accepted. I have a son in kindergarten that is lucky to be at one of the best schools in the district. However, as our experience with the public school system grows, we are leaning closer to the decision to homeschool in the fall. So what are the benefits and disadvantages of homeschool? As I dig deeper into my research I find that the biggest disadvantages are determining…
