As a former high school math teacher, I am a big proponent of using living math. With that said, I believe that a “living” math book is a book that presents mathematical concepts in real life context, which is relevant to the reader. A living math book is not a text book; rather it is a book…plain and simple…a book…with a storyline, which happens to have math skills integrated within the story. Such books can be used to teach and/or reinforce many mathematical skills and concepts. By this definition, most (though not all) of the books found on this list can be considered “living” math books used to address the mathematical concept of multiplication.

Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream by Cindy Neuschwander

Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar by Masichiro & Mitsumasa Anno

Bats on Parade by Kathi Appelt

Bunches and Bunches of Bunnies by Louise Mathews

Each Orange Has 8 Slices by Paul Giganti, Jr.

Multiplication Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin by Pam Calvert

Stacks of Trouble by Liza Woodruff

The 12 Circus Rings by Seymour Chwast

The 329th Friend by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

The Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Multiplication Book by Jerry Pallotta

Too Many Cooks! by Andrea Buckless

Too Many Kangaroo Things to Do! by Stuart J. Murphy

Jennifer is a happily married, Christian, homeschooling mama of five little ones (ages 7,5,5,3,3). Yes, two sets of twins! She has a BA degree in Mathematics and holds a masters degree in Education. A former high school math teacher, she now uses all her education to teach her own kids!  In her “spare” time she enjoys scrap-booking, though blogging seems to be taking its place. She currently has five blogs. Mama Jenn is her main blog. Education Cubes features customizable learning blocks. The Homeschool Resource List is a collection of free online resources. The “Brown Like Me” Book Review showcases books featuring “brown” characters. The Living Math Book List is a collection of living math books.

Have you ever been so excited when new curriculum arrives at your door?  You have spent hours patiently looking over catalogs marking the things that look exciting and interesting.  You have posed countless questions to your homeschool companions about what curriculum they use; what they found that worked for them.  You have visited numerous curriculum fairs to the point that the vendors know you by first name.  Then you finally make the choice and wait for the package to come.  And when it does, you eagerly open it like a child opening their presents on Christmas morn.  The first day of school approaches and you begin to delve into the contents only to hear your child say, “I hate this!”

What happened?  Didn’t you do your homework?  Why wouldn’t your child love this when others you know do? Don’t feel bad or blame the curriculum. Along with knowing the brain and how it works, one must also know the learner and how he learns. Learning styles are the way your student processes and expresses information most easily. Knowing how you learn best is key to helping you learn throughout life.  Several models have been designed to help explain Learning Styles. One model is from Rita and Ken Dunn (1987) that classifies learning styles as auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic and tactile/kinesthetic.  Describing these types of learning styles and how can you incorporate them into your lessons is the focus of this article.

Do you have a student who loves to listen to stories?   Or one who can hear something and remember it?  They are probably auditory learners.  Auditory learners absorb the spoken word more easily than by reading it.  They enjoy variation of pitch and voice inflections.  Auditory learners love to discuss and debate the information they have just processed. If you have a student who seems to fall in this category, use that to their advantage. Have them listen to audio books; instead of writing assignments,  from time to time, have them narrate an assignment. Engage them in debates and open-ended discussion about what they have just learned. By playing to their learning style, you are giving them a chance to be active learners in their schooling.

Perhaps, your student is constantly doodling on paper. Or your student may be able to look at an illustration or diagram and glean meaning. These are visual learners. Visual learners gather their information from what they see and read. These types of readers do best when the text they are looking at has illustrations, maps, diagrams, and charts. Color is the key to these learners. Have visual learners create graphic organizers to use as tools in their learning. Again, by determining which style your learner is using, you can tailor  the way they process.

He just won’t stop moving! That’s right, kinesthetic learners don’t seem to stop moving. That’s because they are learning.  Kinesthetic learners learn though movement and doing. They need to be physically involved to make the learning meaningful and relevant. So, if you have a kinesthetic learner, think of ways to involve learning like a Twister version of the parts of grammar or create multiplication hopscotch. Use movement to your advantage.

The last style of learning is the Tactile/Kinesthetic Learner. These learners need to be physically involved as well as having their hands physically involved. Role play and simulations help these learners gain the opportunity to learn more freely.  Paint a picture relevant to the lesson while you listen to an audio book. Use sand or finger paint to write spelling words or to practice math drills. By using the sense of touch, these learners are incorporating other senses into their learning. They are active.

Now wait, I hear you say, what happens when they come across learning that requires them to learn in a different way? That’s the neat thing about learning styles. While one has a predominant style, everyone has a little of each in them. So don’t fret if you make your visual learner do an auditory activity. They will survive; just realize they might not be able to write a term paper on the information. Determining your student’s learning style will allow you to figure out what curriculum, activities, and assessments will work best for your student and reflect best their understanding of the concepts.

Michelle has two children, ages 15 and 13 (one boy and one girl).  She has been homeschooling since her son was 4 years old, and prior to that, she taught as kindergarten at a private Christian school for seven years.  Michelle graduated from the University of the State of New York at Binghamton with a Bachelor of Arts in history.  Her focus was on American history and Political Science.  She attended Mercer University in Atlanta to complete her elementary teaching certificate.  She is currently certified by the state of Georgia with a T4 certificate.  Michelle teaches elementary history at Artios Academy Arts and History as well as history and Chemistry at Artios Preparatory.  She directs the Artios Preparatory of John’s Creek, Georgia.   Michelle stresses how important it is to get involved in your world—both past and present.  By using multiple learning styles, Michelle believes all children can explore their world.  Michelle and her husband, Scott, have been married for 21 years.

Middle school can be tough, even for parents trying to find appropriate homeschooling curriculum choices, including Bible study. Kids that are middle school aged are really too old for a Bible study designed for younger kids that might include coloring pages, word searches or some other activity that a middle schooler might deem to be “babyish.” On the flip side though, kids in middle school really aren’t old enough for some of the teen Bible studies that might include some very “adult” topics.

Stepping into those precious middle school ages is Hearing God’s Voice: Journal for Students by Tim and Michelle Eichner.

The Eichners specifically created Hearing God’s Voice for middle school aged kids. The journals are designed to meet ‘tweens right where they are at. Each journal is a 12-week Bible study where kids read one Bible chapter per day. Upon reading the daily Bible chapter, the middle schooler answers the same particular questions each day. The questions included in the journal are open-ended and insightful, allowing kids to adapt the Bible readings to their own life experiences.

Visually, the journals are really eye-catching. The pages are colorful and hip. Blank pages are also included in the journal to give kids room to record their daily thoughts and prayers. At the end of each week is a summary page that allows kids to reflect on lessons learned throughout their journaling. To sum up the entire journaling experience, kids will find a special activity page in the back of the journal. This conclusion activity would be a great project to allow kids to outwardly express what they have learned over the 12-week Bible study.

A Leader’s Guide is also available for Hearing God’s Voice. While the Leader’s Guide is small, it is an important addition to the journaling process. The Leader’s Guide is filled with suggestions on using the journals with your middle schooler or in a small group session for a middle school youth group. It also explains the Eichners’ purpose behind the journals and contains questions to help lead middle schoolers in positive discussions.

In my house, it really did seem that these journals are perfect for the middle school years and perhaps even into high school. Both my middle schooler and my high schooler loved the open-ended questions and the hip look of the journal. Homeschoolers could use these journals as a Bible study curriculum, plus these journals would also be great for use in a small youth group.

If you are looking for a Bible study for your middle schooler, take advantage of this learning opportunity designed especially for the important ‘tween years!

More information on the journals and the Leader Guide is available at the Eichners’ website, Leading God’s Generation.

Journal sample pages can also be viewed online.

JOURNALS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE:
Hearing God’s Voice – Proverbs and Psalm 119 — suggested first study
Thinking God’s Way – Philippians, Romans 12, Sermon on the Mount

COMING SOON:
Doing God’s Will – James and topical passages
Knowing God’s Word – Ephesians, Psalm 139
Claiming God’s Promises – Topical passages
Having God’s Heart – Character study of David

Pamela has been homeschooling her kids since 2005. She has visited 41 states and 16 countries and now calls the beautiful Pacific Northwest home. You can find her writing about homeschooling, books and downsizing her life at I Read. Do You?

 

Pamela received this product complimentary in exchange for an honest review but the opinion is all hers.

Part notebook, part scrapbook, portfolios offer an ongoing and natural way to assess and record the abilities of our students.  They not only remind us how much each of our children have accomplished over a school year, but they also provide a vehicle for our students to reflect upon their own learning and recognize their growth.  They can also be a useful tool in helping to increase the understanding of family members and nay-sayers who question what we do with our homeschooled kids every day <wink, wink>.

What is a portfolio, and how do you organize one?

A portfolio is a representative collection of a student’s work over time. I have tried many different methods for organization over the years, and as in most aspects of homeschooling, there is no one right way to keep portfolio work.  One of the simplest formats in a homeschool setting is a 3-ring binder. You can organize the binder by quarters, semesters, or subjects. Older students may enjoy coming up with their own method of organization, such as by character traits represented within their work. Our family uses a 3-ring binder for each child, and because we take an integrated approach to most of our studies, we like to organize by quarters or units.

How do you select the work to be included in your portfolio?

Our family takes a two-pronged approach to selecting our work. First of all, we try to sort and organize all of our work on a monthly basis. I have my children help with this task…after all, being able to organize by subject and date are fantastic skills to learn! As they’re sorting, I have them look for work of which they are especially proud. Then, I go through their work and choose things that I think are representative of either skill mastery or great improvement, and I discuss those with them as I make selections.  At our house, most writing projects are included by default.

What do you do with the rest of the work?

Depending on the homeschooling laws for your state, you may have several options. Since your work is already organized, you can simply file it away and then store it at the end of the year. I have heard of some people who toss the remainder of their work at the end of the year; however, I must admit to all of the internet that I have kept every single piece of paper schoolwork that my children have ever touched, organized neatly in boxes by year and child. I like to think that’s perfectly normal, too; however, with 3 children, I’ll also admit that those boxes now take up the better part of one of our storage areas.

What do you do when your portfolios are finished?

Why, you put them on a shelf and pull them out when you’re feeling nostalgic, of course! Okay, perhaps there are more uses than just that one. Reviewing the work that a student has done over the course of a year can provide a great way for them to practice self-reflection and take ownership of their work. It can also encourage a child who is struggling with a particular concept or skill to look back at other areas where they may have struggled and yet mastered in previous years. My kids will pull them out and flip through them and say things like, “Mommy, remember when I was just a baby and I didn’t know how to spell elephant?” or, “Hey, I remember when we visited Ruby Falls! That was so much fun!” Yes, I realize this means that at the end of their schooling, you may have a whole shelf of portfolios for each of your children, but what an amazing testament to a homeschooling journey to be able to glance over and see a comprehensive representation of your years of educating at home.

Some ideas to make portfolios creative and functional:

*Keep a reading list in the front of your portfolio. This will be particularly handy when preparing reading lists for college applications.

*Take pictures of artwork or projects that are too large to keep. Add a plastic picture insert into your portfolio to store these.

*Keep programs and brochures from plays, museums, and field trips that you’ve taken throughout the year. Page protectors make an easy way to display these items.

*Have your children set written goals for themselves at the beginning of each year and then self-evaluate at the end of each quarter or semester. When we have used this tool, I have encouraged my kids to set two goals each for personal, academic, and family areas of their lives.

*Write a letter to your children at the end of each school year, sharing with them the areas in which you’ve seen them grow throughout the year, and times during which you’ve seen evidence of God’s protection and guidance in their lives. Some states require a written assessment at the end of each school year, and those work nicely here, too.

These are just some basics to help you get started on using portfolio assessments in your home. I’d love to hear some of your ideas, too!

  Alicia has been a homeschooling mom since 2001. She is married to Charles, a software engineer, and they have three mostly-fantastic children, ages 15, 8, and 6. She holds a degree in Early Childhood Education, as well as a current Georgia teaching certificate, and also studied American Sign Language and Literature during her college years. Alicia acts as Director of the Academy of Arts and History for Artios Academies Gwinnett, where she also teaches Elementary Drama and Elementary Language Arts, and directs the Elementary Drama Club.

In addition to her work at Artios, Alicia also provides tutoring to other homeschoolers. She enjoys curriculum design and integration and frequently consults with other homeschooling parents to assist them in implementing a program that is most beneficial to the learning styles and goals for their individual children. When not busy with the education of children, Alicia serves growing families as a Certified Labor Doula and Certified Childbirth Educator. Every once in awhile, she sleeps.

Spring is in the air! Can you smell it? Flowers are blooming, birds are singing and the sun is warming our days.

W can take advantage of this teachable moment to introduce or review some color words  in Spanish. I made a domino to review colors with my niece and a set of Spanish colors posters for you!

My goals for this lesson:

• To introduce and practice colors in Spanish
• To relate colors in their oral and written form

Tell children they will learn the Spanish form of these words:

Red / rojo

Blue / azul

Yellow / amarillo

Orange / naranja

Green / verde

Purple/ violeta

Light blue/ celeste

Pink/ rosa

To prepare the posters you need to print them onto cardboard and laminate for durability. Then..

*Go for a color hunt around home or class.

*Let kids cut and paste pictures from old magazines and make a collage. Ask them about the colors they can see in their pictures.

*Play “I spy” using the posters.

*Invite children to sort manipulatives according to color.

*Make a mural using their favorite color.

* Ask and answer “How many red/ rojas things can you see?”

* Using commands..”point to a yellow/amarillo flower” “pick up a green/verde crayon”

Teachable moments are waiting for you! Happy teaching!

You can download the posters here.

Analia Capurro is the designer and owner of Ingles360.net® and the author of all the educational resources sold in her website. After 20 years of teaching children she found that the only way children love learning is if teachers love learning and teaching, too. Promoting a learning environment where laugh, fun and friendship and companionship are as important as any language structure, are the things she had in mind while designed her bilingual resources.

This fall officially marks my twenty-first year as a mother and my sixteenth as a
curriculum-purchasing homeschooler. I am also a renegade at heart, which means I’m
hesitant to do what I’m told, what everyone else is doing, or anything that comes in a
box. I also spent a year as a curriculum reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse magazine.
Those facts mean I’ve had quite an opportunity to sample many homeschooling products
over the years.

Here’s your upcoming problem, as I see it. You will open the homeschool magazine,
or curriculum catalog, or the door of the convention vendor hall, and your eyes will
automatically glaze over. All the books will be shiny. There will be no bent pages, pencil
marks, or baby spit on them. The children in the advertisements and banners will have
clothes on, and their hair will be combed. They will be sitting with their hands folded,
looking adoringly at their mothers, as if to say, “Oh yes, dear mother! Please tell us more
about the avoidance of dangling participles!”

“Sounds good,” you say! “What’s the problem?” you ask!

I’ll tell you the problem: you do not live in a curriculum ad or vendor hall. You live in
your home, with your living, breathing, mess-making, sinful children. And they don’t
read curriculum catalogs.

So … what’s a mom to do in the face of all the shiny promise of advertisements which
sing their siren songs every spring? How are you to determine which curriculum will be
right for your family, come the reality of fall?

I’ve come up with a few simple hints which can help. Whether you’re talking grammar,
math, science, history, or any other subjects’ curriculum, I believe these tips will steer you in
the right direction as you navigate the upcoming storm:

• If it makes you squeal when you see it, buy it.
• If it makes your children smile when they look it over, buy it.
• If you can use it with more than one child, buy it.
• If you can use it for more than one year, buy it.
• If it points your family to Jesus, buy it.
• If you can use it with a group of moms and children you love, buy it.
• If it fosters creativity, imagination, and deep thinking, buy it.

This next set of tips is to tell you which products to steer AWAY from:

• If lots of your friends are using it but a look at the teacher’s guide makes you cry, put it back.
• If you’ve used it three other times and always ended up pitching it, but it’s highly reviewed and you’re tempted to try it one more time, put it back.
• If the price makes steam come from your husband’s ears, put it back.

• If you wouldn’t want to read or use it if you were a student, put it back.
• If it calls for expensive, elusive, extensive, or exclusive equipment or materials, put it back.
• If the author claims it’s the only product in that category which is guaranteed to work, put it back.

All these are (slightly) tongue in cheek, of course. Your very best guide to what’s
right for your family is your knowledge of each individual child plus the Holy Spirit’s
guidance. He will steer you in the truly right direction—just make sure to ask … and
listen!

See you in the vendor hall, friend! Happy Shopping!

Misty Krasawski is the overly-blessed mom of eight children whom she homeschools in sunshine-y Florida. She has been clinging ferociously to the hand of her Lord since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, homeschooling for the past thirteen years, and has eighteen more years ahead of her with the children who are glad she will have done most of her experimenting on those who went before. Her wonderful husband Rob has much treasure laid up for him in heaven for having been called to such a daunting task. After the house goes to sleep she can sometimes be found gathering her thoughts at www.encouragingheartsathome.com.

As a former high school math teacher, I am a big proponent of using living math. With that
said, I believe that a “living” math book is a book that presents mathematical concepts in real
life context, which is relevant to the reader. A living math book is not a text book; rather it is a
book…plain and simple…a book…with a storyline, which happens to have math skills integrated
within the story. Such books can be used to teach and/or reinforce many mathematical skills
and concepts. By this definition, most (though not all) of the books found on this list can be
considered “living” math books used to address the mathematical concept of money.

26 Letters and 99 Cents by Tana Hoban

Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst

A Quarter from the Tooth Fairy by Caren Holtxman

Benny’s Pennies by Pat Brisson

Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells

Deena’s Lucky Penny by Barbara Derubertis

How the Second Grade Got $8,205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty by Nathan Zimelman

Jelly Beans for Sale by Bruce McMillan

Learning About Coins by Rozanne Lanczak Williams

The Lunch Line by Karen Berman Nagel & Marilyn Burns

Max’s Money by Teddy Slater

Monster Money by Grace MacCarone

Pigs Will Be Pigs by Amy Axelrod

Sluggers’ Car Wash by Stuart J. Murphy

The Case of the Shrunken Allowance by Joanne Rocklin

The Great Pet Sale by Mick Inkpen

The Penny Pot by Stuart J. Murphy

The Purse by Kathy Caple

The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill

Tightwad Tod by Daphne Skinner

Jennifer is a happily married, Christian, homeschooling mama of five little ones (ages 7,5,5,3,3). Yes, two sets of twins! She has a BA degree in Mathematics and holds a masters degree in Education. A former high school math teacher, she now uses all her education to teach her own kids!  In her “spare” time she enjoys scrap-booking, though blogging seems to be taking its place. She currently has five blogs. Mama Jenn is her main blog. Education Cubes features customizable learning blocks. The Homeschool Resource List is a collection of free online resources. The “Brown Like Me” Book Review showcases books featuring “brown” characters. The Living Math Book List is a collection of living math books.

I’ve wistfully contemplated nature journaling – beautiful, romantic, sweet, beyond my grasp. Life is too busy to just sit, relax, observe, be? Whenever I head outside, I grab my gardening tools. Or furtively check emails on my iPod while pushing my daughter’s swing.

And my little girl? She’s too young to enslave with a pencil and paper, I’ve thought. She needs to be free to run, roam, explore, discover.

No longer. I’m tired of coveting others’ journals. And I’ve been reading how nature journaling, rather than restricting freedom, can be an avenue for focused exploration, discovery, and expression. A way to be amazed by the littlest details of this world God has made.

So this summer, as the weather improves, we’re changing things up. I’ve bought a couple of notebooks – one for each of us – small, easy to carry, with a little pocket to store the scraps and snippets of our adventures.

And I’ve stocked up ideas to fill my little beginner’s journal. Here are a few:

Five Senses Journaling: Stop. Breathe. Describe what you’re taking in through each of your senses. Maybe just a word, maybe a paragraph. I’ll write my daughter’s dictation if she’s not in a writing mood.

Plant Rubbings, Stamps, and Stencils: Bring out the peeled crayons and have your child collect interesting leaves and flowers, creating crayon rubbings in her journal. Dip flowers, rocks, and pine cones into paint to make stamps. Paint over a fern or leaf for a stencil effect.

Photo Journaling: Set the camera on auto and hand it over. My daughter comes up with some amazing angled photos. Drawing is often too stressful for her perfectionistic personality, but she’ll happily cut and paste her photos instead.

Poetry Journaling: Bookmark nature poetry to read in the shade of your big trees. Photocopy favorite quotations to glue in the journal, and bring out the markers to illustrate the words with doodles or drawings. A perfect fit for our country yard is this verse by Richard Le Gallienne.

Pressed Flowers (and twigs and leaves): We don’t have much of a garden, but we do have lots of flowering weeds! We’ve made some gorgeous art with pressed petals, and I’m thinking they’ll add a lovely touch to our journals this summer.

Scavenger Hunts: Esmé is always up to a scavenger hunt, and some lists go well in a journal; e.g. a photo color/shape hunt or a pressed flower/leaf hunt.

Lists: Suggest a topic for lists. My daughter isn’t a big fan of writing yet, but she does enjoy making shopping lists, so I’ve been thinking a bird or insect list might be up her alley.

Recipe Pages: We often have some amazing mud pies and flower petal salads in our yard. Have your child dictate the ingredients and document them in “official” recipe format.

Bug Observations: Capture a bug or other creepy crawly in a glass jar and observe it for a while. Encourage illustrations and offer to take dictation of your child’s “pet” observations.

Above all, it’ll be not stressful, not a task to accomplish, but a time to share observations, to create memories both tangible and intangible, to be still and see God.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” Romans 1:20 NIV

When she’s not battling too-sticky play dough and untangling herself from the hot-glue webs surrounding her too-cute felt ladybugs, Jane contemplates how to instill in her four-year-old daughter a heart to change the world for Jesus. Her family has circled the globe and landed in rural Oregon where the grass is green and the sky is blue, though not usually at the same time. Their eclectic homeschool adventures are chronicled at Mozi Esmé.

We serve an awesome and powerful God.  He created us in His image and therefore our brains are designed to follow His design for our lives.  Sometimes we forget that each of us must follow our own separate path, especially when it comes to schooling our children.  They are following and learning along the path that God has placed them.  So, I would like to take a few moments and focus on this amazing brain we have been blessed with to help us in our journey of teaching and reaching our students.  Technically, the brain weighs three to five pounds; this cauliflower looking object is made of 78% water, 10 % fat, and 8 % protein. (Teaching with the Brain in Mind, page 8)  This unobtrusive organ doesn’t sound like much.   And yet, this brain controls everything our bodies do and retains what we learn to help us along our journey.

Our brain is adaptable.  It changes constantly due to the environment and the life we lead.  According to Jay Wile of Apologia series (General Science), one of the criteria for life is adaptability.  Our brains are creating new connections everyday to process the things we learn.  Along with creating new connections, our brains are generating new cells to replace old, worn out ones.  So, even if you feel like you’re losing your mind on certain days, don’t worry.  God has provided a way to regain it.  Our brain also categorizes and organizes information based on what we do in a purposeful way.

What are the benefits of realizing that our brain is constantly adapting and forming new connections?  When it comes to schooling, we can look to the brain for answers.  Kurt Fischer from the Harvard School of Education states that “two growth spurts occur during the schooling career.  The first spurt happens around 6 or 7 years of age and the second around 11 or 12.”  (Teaching with the Brain in Mind, page 29)  The child’s brain grows cognitive skills of reasoning, understanding cause and effect as well as abstract ideas.  Opportunities to explore and exposure to new activities add too this growth spurt of the brain.    During the teenage years, the brain experiences massive structural change.   The synaptic connections thicken as the child’s world experience increase.  Just like the farmer prunes his grapes to increase the fold, the adolescent brain begins pruning these connections to streamline decision making skills.  So take heart, your teen hasn’t lost his/her mind, it is just under construction.

So how can we incorporate the way our brain grows and learns into everyday practical solutions?

Keep the brain focused.  By cutting the focused attention time needed into manageable amounts, the brain has the opportunity to process and rest after learning.  Ever wonder why your student doesn’t remember something you have just gone over.   Sometimes we as parents and teachers get caught up in trying to cover all the content at one time.  The brain doesn’t focus that way.  Your Kindergarten’s brain doesn’t have the ability to focus on a lecture or activity that lasts 45 minutes.  Instead, break up learning time into manageable chunks of 5-8 minutes.  This will allow their brain to make connections and rest before it beginnings processing again.  It will also decrease behavioral problems too.

Some guidelines of time for new content instruction are:

• K-2:  5-8 minutes
• Grades 3-5:  8-12 minutes
• Grades 6-8: 12-15 minutes
• Grades 9-12: 12-15 minutes
• Adult learners:  15-18 minutes

Relevant Tasks:   How many times do you hear or have said yourself; “Do I really have to do this?”  Busy work is just that- work that keeps students busy and doesn’t help them learn.  The end result of learning is to make sure that the student has understood and related the concept in their brain to other information.  The concepts become part of them.  How is that accomplished?

• Goal set for your student or allow your student to create their own goals.  By setting goals, the student is involved and has an endpoint in mind.
• Compare and contrast material learned.  Review past material by comparing and contrasting past material with new material.  An example of this: multiplication is another form of addition.
• Group and regroup material.  By grouping and regrouping material, the brain creates stronger connections based on classifications of similarities and differences.
• Critique and analyze material.  According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, this higher level learning skills requires the brain to make connections to the information learned and the student’s experiences.
• Use graphic organizers.  Many websites provide free graphic organizers.  Graphic organizers allow the student to visualize as well as verbalize what they learned.
• Summarize or retell material from another point of view.  Another form of higher level learning skills that requires the brain to rationalize and relate to the material learned.

Repetition:  Another way to strengthen the brain’s connection is through repetition.  By doing things over and over again, concepts go from short-term memory to long-term memory.  While repetition is perceived as an old way of learning, its value is not out-dated.  There are many ways to repeat instruction.

• Pre-exposure.  Prepare your student for future learning days, weeks or months in advance.  The teacher doesn’t spend too much time on the information or assess this information until it is thoroughly developed.  You are just planting a seed.   An example: if the student is studying General Science, you can refer to concepts they will be learning in Biology and Chemistry.  Pre-exposure gives a frame of reference for students later.
• Previewing.  Set up the content with an overview.  Just like we see a preview of a movie that shows the highlights and gets you interested in seeing the show, so can previewing a concept in the academic realm.
• Priming.  Allows for structure and hierarchy to occur.  Just like your prime your walls for paint, you can days or weeks before prime your student for new learning.

Some practical ways to pre-expose, preview and prime are:

-Use vocabulary words to prepare and prime.  Create a vocabulary notebook.
-Show a video about the topic
-Participate in a field trip to connect a topic
-Introduce works of art, music or famous people

• Reviewing.  Just like it sounds, review what your student has learned.  Often, we teach a concept and then move on.  Make the connection to the brain by reviewing the content they have covered or refer to it when moving forward so it isn’t lost.
• Revision.  Reconstruct what you have learned not regurgitate.  Revisit old information from time to time.  Sometimes, student’s recall information that isn’t correct.  By revisiting and revising, that memory is corrected.

Some practical ways to review and revise:

-Have students create their own review sheet or vocabulary quiz.
-Summarize what they learned in sentences or paragraphs depending on your student’s ability that they   will share with a peer.
-Design a graphic organizer to create a mind map

As you can see, our brains are magnificent.  Our God designed them with special abilities to understand the world He created.  And we in His image are commanded to create as well.  By failing to see just what a powerful gift we are given, we do a disservice to ourselves, our children and students.  Remember to keep the brain focused, assign relevant tasks not busy work and utilize repetition.   I pray that the information in this article will help you in your endeavor to educate your student.  For further information on the brain and its function, check out Eric Jensen’s Teaching with the Brain in Mind, (2005) published by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Next time, we’ll look at what learning styles are and how to incorporate them into your lessons.

Michelle has two children, ages 15 and 13 (one boy and one girl).  She has been homeschooling since her son was 4 years old, and prior to that, she taught as kindergarten at a private Christian school for seven years.  Michelle graduated from the University of the State of New York at Binghamton with a Bachelor of Arts in history.  Her focus was on American history and Political Science.  She attended Mercer University in Atlanta to complete her elementary teaching certificate.  She is currently certified by the state of Georgia with a T4 certificate.  Michelle teaches elementary history at Artios Academy Arts and History as well as history and Chemistry at Artios Preparatory.  She directs the Artios Preparatory of John’s Creek, Georgia.   Michelle stresses how important it is to get involved in your world—both past and present.  By using multiple learning styles, Michelle believes all children can explore their world.  Michelle and her husband, Scott, have been married for 21 years.

We are starting our last unit study of the year this week. While we’re moving through some early American History, I’m also working though my usual checklists to make sure we’ve covered our subjects, filled in all the gaps, completed what matters and have something to show for it all. Rather than go to a pinning website for new ideas, I’m digging in the archives of my memory to resurrect some fun, classic, tried-and-true projects to end the year with. Spice up the end of your school year with some of these old-school ideas.

1. The Shoebox Diorama. Really — every child needs to make 1 or 5 of these. Whether you re-create the setting of your read-aloud, create a science habitat, or illustrate a particular time in history, just pull out a shoebox and let the kids create a miniature world.

2. The Play. Take a deep breath and just let your little extroverts do it. They can recite a poem in character, act out a scene from a novel, re-enact a battle, or demonstrate the circulation of the blood. Let them into your closet, the craft cupboard, and the recycle bin to create their props and costumes. Yes, it’s chaos but another year will soon be over and you still won’t have at least tried this.

3. The Cardboard Tube T.V. I remember making these in Sunday School as a very young child. There is an Instructables.com tutorial here for a small version of what I remember. In essence, take your own roll of butcher paper and find a box slightly wider than that. From the side of the box, cut out a square about 12 x 12 or so to create your big screen. Use some paper towel or wrapping paper tubes for the rollers and spear them through the box above and below your screen hole. Roll out the paper and let your kids draw scenes from the life of Abraham Lincoln, make up their own illustrated story, or create their own “how-to” instructable slide show.

4. The Travel Brochure. Everything we study has a setting. Finding out more about it can be interesting but you really learn it when you try to sell it to someone else. Have the kids make a tri-fold travel brochure about any location (it’s okay to start dreaming about summer vacation) and market it so that people will want to visit. Do it all by hand or let your kids use computer software.

5. The Salt Dough Map. You knew this was coming, right? The recipe is 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and about ¾ cups of water. Craft it into any terrain you like such as a state, country, or deep-sea trench. But if you don’t want to re-create the Rocky Mountains know that salt dough also makes nice wreaths, ornaments, beads, crowns, or can be the flat base for a bean mosaic. Let air dry, paint if you desire, and coat with varnish if you want it to last.

6. The Video Show. When I was a child, we used tape recorders with background sound effects to give oral book reports. When I was in high school we wandered the halls interviewing fellow students with super 8 mm film cameras. In the digital world, this kind of techie project becomes even easier. You can design any kind of show you like. My kids have enjoyed making our own old-school “Reading Rainbow” shows. They read a book aloud while filming each page, go in a field trip, do read-alike book reviews on camera, and demonstrate related experiments. My son edits everything together on Windows Movie Maker but you may have other software that will work as well.

7. The Diary of a Character. If they’re learning about a specific person it’s fun to walk a bit in their shoes. While acting as a historical or fictional person the kids can write about how they’d change the course of events, have a different conversation, or pursue a missed opportunity. What made this even more fun was
to make our own paper-bag journals and burn the edges to make them look old.

8. The Sugar Cookie Anything. The sugar cookie can become the medium for learning just about anything provided you have the right cookie cutters. You can practice numbers, letters, spelling words, and times tables. Put the cookies on a lollipop stick and decorate them into puppets. Construct the Sears Tower, Scarlett O’Hara’s Tara, or your neighborhood. Cover cookies in fondant and paint or stamp on them with edible ink. Color the dough to learn the order of the rainbow, the magnitude of stars, or the parts of a flame. Don’t think of it as a cookie. Think of it as a canvas.

You can search any of these ideas on the Internet to get some visuals and even video instructions. These are meant to be open-ended, creative, kinesthetic experiences that everyone can be involved in and personalize to their own tastes. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. Next, month I’ll have seven more projects you can add to Old-School Projects list. As you begin to remember your own favorites from when you were a child be sure to share them with your children. When they see your excitement bubbling up, they’ll get excited too.

Debra Anderson has three sons ages 11 and younger. Her passions are education, mentoring, her husband, writing, church ministry and missional living — not in that order. She has her seminary Masters degree in Christian Education, is married to her pastor-husband of 16 years, and resides in their newish home in Denver, CO. In spite of moves between four different states, she has always home educated her boys — even on the hard days. She maintains a blog at www.emergent-homeschool.blogspot.com.