Homeschool Share: A Fantastic Resource

If you are homeschooling, you know that it can be difficult to constantly come up with new ideas to make your teaching interesting.  There is a website that can help.  Homeschool Share is a great website and an invaluable resource for homeschooling parents.  Basically, it's a forum for homeschoolers.  There are a ton of free resources with different study units appropriate for different ages (particularly for preschoolers and elementary school, or infants school).  Parents can contribute high quality units that they have created, so their collection is constantly growing.  If you homeschool, I highly recommend checking this site.

To visit Homeschool Share, click here.

Creative Writing Classes at Furzey Gardens

the Lake at Furzey Gardens, August 2010

I am a firm believer in community education programmes and have had some great experiences with it.  I'm particularly excited about the new classes starting at Furzey Gardens.  Furzey Gardens are a beautiful and unique garden in the New Forest in Southern England.  This autumn they are starting to host some creative writing classes.  These will combine a great feeling of community, a fantastic learning and networking opportunity for writers, and an unparalleled setting.  The first workshop is on the 15th of October, 2010.

If you're interested (or know someone who might be), please contact Furzey Gardens.

Lady Gaga

This is not strictly an educational post.  However I do feel that it is relevant here.

If you are homeschooling, you probably spend A LOT of time around your child(ren).  This means not only being in charge of their education, but also being much more involved in their social life, hobbies, entertainment, etc. 

One name that may have come up is of the singer/entertainer Lady Gaga.  I'll let you form your own opinion of Lady Gaga, but here's some information for you.

Here's an article on "What Parents Need To Know About Lady Gaga."

Here's a link to Lady Gaga's Official Website.

Children's Magazines

Never underestimate how useful non-school resources can be.  Just because something isn't labelled as a textbook, it doesn't mean that it can't be educational.  One unexpected tool can be children's magazines.  These can be both a great learning tool and fun.

To find out more about the benefits of children's magazines, click here.

My daughter's favourite magazine is Charlie & Lola.

Albert Einstein

 Albert Einstein was not only one of the most influential scientists ever to have lived, but also a fascinating individual.  In my experience, young people are eager to learn more about Einstein.  When I asked a Year 9 student what she would like to research (with no limitations), she said that she would like to learn more about Einstein.

A research project on Einstein is a great cross-curricular project.  It develops research and organizational skills, can be used to teach English and essay writing abilities, is obviously applicable to science, and can also be tied in to religious studies and history.  I also required students to give a presentation on their research to develop public speaking skills.

Here is my research assignment on Albert Einstein (could be used for middle and/or high school students): Albert Einstein Research Assignment.

To make expectations clear to the students and grading easier for the parents/teachers, here's a Grade Sheet for the Albert Einstein Research Assignment.

Free Homeschooling Resources

I can not tell you how many times I have found teaching resources on the internet only to discover that you have to pay to use them.  In some cases you have to pay to even join the site or view the resources, so you're not even sure how useful they're going to be.

The good news is that there are lots of good free homeschooling resources on the internet.

If you homeschool, here's a writer who might be of interest to you.  A. Hermitt is a freelance writer who homeschools her kids.  She's written a lot of articles on Associated Content about homeschooling.  I think that her articles about homeschooling high schoolers are the most useful, but she has articles about teaching different age groups from kindergarten to college admission.

To view Hermitt's articles, click here.

Reasons for Homeschooling

I would really be interested to find out why all of you have made the decision to homeschool.  Please comment and share your story.