I should have done this a long time ago!

A  from-the-bottom-of-my-heart thank you to those who took the time to take my survey!  After about a hundred responses, it is time to let you know a little about what you said you needed and wanted to read about on this blog.

But before I tell you that, it is obvious from many of your comments that a  number of you are in desperate need of a bit of  motivation and encouragement.

Let me give you some.

You are doing a very. hard. but. valuable. thing. in home schooling your children.

Home schooling is NOT easy, or painless, or without major self-sacrifice.

Please stop comparing yourself with other people who make it look easy.

You know who I’m talking about.

• The denim-jumpered ladies who grind their own wheat to make whole grain bread and make all their kids’ clothes.
• The ones you run into at Wal-Mart, wearing make-up, who have nine nicely dressed, perfectly quiet children walking in a line when yours don’t have clean underwear on because you haven’t been able to do laundry* and you have bribed them to behave with the promise of a treat later backed up by several nasty looks.
• The ones who not only have a neat colored-coded schedule for every day but who actually follow it for more than a day and a half.

*true story

And realize that the advice and coaching you get from this blog comes from what we have learned from doing things wrong as well as from doing things right.

I can tell you, though, that homeschooling has been a wonderful thing for my own spiritual growth as well as that of our children.  There is nothing like seeing yourself in your kids’ less than perfect behavior to give you a picture of what our Heavenly Father so often sees in us!  Ouch!

It has been an even more wonderful thing enjoying the fruit of God’s grace and our home schooling labors in seeing children who love the Lord and are working hard to walk in His footsteps.  Home schooling  is oh, so worth it.

I am also thankful for those of you who took the time to answer the last survey question about what you are struggling with the most. Some of you really poured your heart out, and I appreciated your candidness and your trust in me. I plan to address many of those issues in the weeks and months to follow.

Survey Results

Before I give you a peek at the results, let’s look at the basics of who replied (and I’m rounding):

• 12% of you have home schooled under a year

• 24% from one to three years

• 22%  from three to five years

• 42%  for over six years

I don’t know about you, but I am encouraged that so many of you have home schooled for that long, and I hope this blog will support your efforts and give you some practical tools to keep going!

First Things First

1.  Now the interesting and inspiring part of the survey. The single, most important thing to over half of you (51%) was to read about Christian parenting – how to disciple and mentor your children.  That is SUCH an encouragement to me, as this is what we are called to do, even before academics!  And if you have read this blog for a while you know that this is a topic close to my heart!  If you are new around here, you might be encouraged to read a few of these older posts that relate to Christian parenting:

• Six Tips to Start Second Semester begins with a personal inventory – the most important place to start before we ’start on’ our kids!
• Want to be Wise? is another post written from the perspective of getting yourself in the correct frame of mind first, beginning with prayer and listing specific scripture on my prayer list as I approached the second semester of this school year.
• Using Habits in Personal Training is listed under our Charlotte Mason posts, but it describes how children need to be taught, from the beginning (!), that they are not ‘their own,’ but live under a greater Authority – what a contrast from our current child-centered culture!
• Teaching Character through Poetry Part I and Part II are two of Beth’s posts with great ideas for  incorporating character training into poetry studies.
• Cultural Creeping warns that  we need to be constantly aware of how we and our children are bombarded by our culture’s non-Christian worldview and the need to combat it.

The Rest of the Very Important Stuff

2.  How to Teach Different Subjects (44%)

3.  Teaching High Schoolers (39%)

4.  Ideas for Lesson Plans (39%)

5. Charlotte Mason Methods (38%)

6. Teaching Middle Schoolers (33%)

What You Considered Important

1. Home Schooling Support and Encouragement (47%)

2. Description of Epi Kardia Curricula (46%)

3. Planning and organization (45%)

4. Hands on Learning (44%)

5. Ideas for Lesson Plans (39%)

Lesson Plan Ideas

Because so many of you considered lesson plan ideas important, before this post gets any longer I want to list some of our pertinent posts in one place for those of you who are newer readers:

• Writing a Book Review – Writing a book review for the purpose of encouraging someone else to read a well-loved book is a lot more interesting to write than the traditional report.
• Make a Middle Ages Dictionary! will give you detailed instructions and resources to make a book, taken from our middle school lesson plans, that can be adapted for younger or older students studying this or another time period/subject.
• Make a Lapbook! Identifies the benefits of using graphic organizers and includes photos and MANY ideas and resources for making mini-books and lapbooks.
• Picture Study – Ever wondered how to incorporate the study of great art into your homeschooling? Read about this painless way to do so!
• Picture Study for Older Students -A continuation of the post above, this article contains additional ideas appropriate for your older children.
• The Question Box – This creative, hands on idea can be used to review or to incite interest in studying all kinds of topics.  The lesson example given in on the Middle Ages and can be used with students of all ages.

OK, this is WAY longer than I intended!  But I do want to assure you that I will respond to your preferences  as I plan and write this blog.  And for those of you who asked me to answer particular questions, I will address those very soon.

Many Blessings, Sisters!

P.S.  THANK YOU for some of your very encouraging comments!

On Monday night Beth had the opportunity of presenting a workshop on mini-books and lapbooks, types of graphic organizers, to our homeschooling support group.  We were pleased to have such a good turnout and spent a delightful evening with old and new friends.  It was especially enjoyable to see some ‘textbook’ moms learn that hands on projects such as mini-books and lapbooks were not only fun, but also educational!

What is a Graphic Organizer?

For the benefit of those of you who were not present, a graphic organizer is any tool that allows your student to organize his thoughts and record what he’s learned in a visual way.  Examples of common graphic organizers include:

• Charts and Graphs
• Venn Diagrams
• Scrapbooks, Lapbooks and Mini-books
• Library Pockets and Envelopes

We made two different types of mini-books at our workshop – an accordion book and a layered-look book, and we showed  examples of mini-books and lapbooks that had been made by our children as well as some we had made in teaching a Reluctant Writers class a few years ago.

For example, here is a very simple mini-book that can be made by an elementary aged student:

Directions:

1.  Using one single piece of 8 1/2 x 11 inch colored paper, hold the base piece of paper vertically, then fold it in half lengthwise.

2. Out of contrasting paper colors, construct a simple flower clearly showing the petals, leaves, stem and roots, as shown in the picture on the far left.

3. After gluing the flower to the top half of the folded paper, cut through the flower and the top half of the paper, to the fold.  Make three cuts so that the flower, leaves, stem and roots each have their own section.

4. On the inside of the flaps, label each section, as shown.

5.  Write a short description of each flower ‘part’ opposite each label.

What is a Lapbook?

A lapbook is a innovative, visual, creative, kinesthetic, way to organize information.  Examples abound of lapbooks online (and see our resource list at the bottom of this post), but on the right is an example of one my son made a while back about space.  The base is simply made from two file folders glued together.

Directions for making the lapbook:

1.  Take two file folders, laying vertically open on the table in front of you.

2.  One at a time, take the outside edges of each file folder and fold them in towards the center fold.  Crease well, then let them open.

3. Glue together the sides of each folder that are next to each other.  Voila!  That is all there is to it – you can make lapbooks bigger by gluing on more folders or attaching additional flaps inside.

At the left is a photo of the inside of the lapbook.  There is space for vocabulary, illustrations, charts, book reports, clip art and anything else your study included.  The multicolored mini-book is a favorite of ours, the layered-look book.  It allows students to do a fair amount of writing, depending upon the number of pages it contains, but is much less intimidating than that dreaded big, blank sheet of paper because it is divided into many different sections.

Lapbooks are not only fun to make but:

• they are kinesthetic and visual, maximizing other learning modes
• they beg to be shown to others, giving students an automatic and painless review of the material contained in their lapbook, every time they show it to someone else
• they can be used for studying almost any subject and easily may integrate several subjects, maximizing learning
• they are great at enticing reluctant writers because they are divided into many smaller sections
• they can also be used as an assessment tool, especially when assigned with an accompanying rubric outlining what is to be included in the lapbook
• they can be used for all ages, kindergarten through high school

As with all graphic organizers, anytime your elementary student is organizing information, he is building a foundation for learning more advanced writing skills as well as for learning how to take notes.

At every grade level and in every type of curriculum we have,  Epi Kardia curricula uses mini-books, lapbooks and graphic organizers!

Online Resources for Mini- and Lapbooks

Here is a resource list for mini- and lapbook resources including instructions, ideas and even free lapbooks:

• This site has every type of mini book imaginable as well as  free templates!

• This site has guided reading materials and  MANY mini book ideas and resources for elementary ages.

• This is one of our favorite original sites with great instruction and ideas. Check out the blog for this site as well.

• This has an array of lapbook information for all ages. In fact, at The Homeschol Lounge (highly recommended!) you can join a group of homeschooling moms who share lapbook ideas and resources.

And for those of you who want to incorporate notebooking and scrapbooking into your homeschooling (or you like to scrapbook yourself):

• These are resources and other links for educational scrapbooking.

• This is a free software download (full version) to begin digital scrapbooking immediately.

If you read our last post, Six Steps to Start Second Semester, mini- and lapbooks might be just the thing to add some pizazz to your homeschooling this semester.  Even if you use a traditional curriculum, please give your students a chance to do some thing hands on, colorful and creative!  Enjoy!

In His Service,

P.S. If you have a reluctant writer or two at your house, in addition to trying mini-books, you might find our reluctant writer series helpful.  See Reluctant Writers – Part 1 The Early Years, Reluctant Writers – Part 2 The Middle Years and Reluctant Writers – Part 3 High School and Beyond.

Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education.

The foundation of a Charlotte Mason education is regular feeding upon superior, living books: books that endow children with excitement, with new ideas, heroic ideas, which shape their minds and expand their spirits.  As opposed to textbooks which contain compilations of dry facts, we want living books abounding with stories.  Both children and adults have trouble remembering lists of facts; but stories are memorable; they incite the imagination; they can be life-changing.

Charlotte does not stop at just reading the stories, however.  She believed that knowledge is not appropriated by the student until it is told back, or narrated.  Beginning with short snatches of captivating stories, teachers are to read a paragraph or so, once, and then have students narrate what they have heard.

Narration, according to Ms. Mason:

• is a natural ability inherent in children that is awakened by excellent literature
• engages children’s minds such that information they read is considered, meditated upon and then is given back with some of the children’s own thoughts (assimilation)
• helps students understand and retain information about which they read
• should be used as a primary method of learning across the subjects

When to Start

When the child is six, not earlier, let him narrate the fairy-tale which has been read to him, episode by episode, upon one hearing of each; the Bible tale read to him in the words of the Bible; the well-written animal story; or all about other lands from some such volume…

Ms. Mason believed that short narrations should start by age six, over lighter, but classic, short episodes of literature, including the Bible.  Perfect literature for this purpose would be the short episodes of Aesop’s Fables (Stories for Young Children).
Start with a paragraph at a time, and make sure to read through the selection consecutively.

The next day, before starting the next narration/lesson, engage your student in a brief chat about yesterday’s lesson, affording the student a short period of review.  She suggests a few anticipatory comments about today’s lesson as well, to encourage your child to be ready to eagerly listen to what will be forthcoming.

As students grow in practice and maturity, they may be able to begin to narrate a short chapter in a history or science book as they reach ages eight and nine. At that age, a few comments after the narration may be helpful to identify and emphasize the moral elements of the passage. In the case of history or science reading, perhaps a chart or diagram might be drawn on the board to identify or clarify the elements to remember from the passage or to illustrate a scientific principle covered.

If narration is a new activity in your home, it is important to allow for a learning curve.  It is not necessary for your child to narrate every passage that he reads or is read to him. Often it is preferable to read a chapter or two of a book before beginning narrations on it, to build interest and aid your student’s immersion into the story.  If your child does not want to narrate, well, we all have to do things we don’t want to do, right?  Stay positive, enthusiastic, encouraging, and keep them short. J

Do I Correct Faulty Information?

What do I do when my child narrates incorrectly?  This is a common question!  A few strategies for dealing with it are listed below.

• It is preferable not to interrupt a narration with corrections.
• Only after praising what was positive about a narration and after encouraging a child for his efforts, gently make necessary corrections.
• If you notice a repeated grammatical error, such as a double negative, incorrect subject-verb agreement, etc., make a note to cover that area later during a language arts lesson.
• If your student has many details to remember, such as difficult names, dates, or places, it may be helpful to put those items on a white board before the narration.

Other Forms of Narration

Fortunately, there are other forms of narration other than oral ones, although it is preferable to begin with oral narrations for the younger children. Although it is certainly admissible to have a younger student draw a picture illustrating what was just read rather than an oral recitation.

Another option, especially for the older student (10 or 11 on up) is to provide a written narration over what they have either had read to them or over what they have read independently.  Sometimes the easiest way to start written narrations is to have students not worry too much about grammar and punctuation until they have written down everything they remember. Then during their next day’s writing lesson they can go back and clean things up a little.

Children can narrate not only from books, they may also narrate over art work and music.  As with all narration, this may be either oral, written or in picture form.  Some ideas about picture study narration can be found here. Narration over music can be accomplished merely by playing a stirring piece of music and then asking your student to tell about what story they could imagine taking place in the music.  Equally, they could also be asked to draw a picture over what they heard in the music.

An added benefit of regular narration in those early years is that it helps order children’s minds and prepares them for formal composition lessons once they reach the appropriate age.  The more exposure they have to hear, read and narrate excellent children’s literature, the more prepared they will be when it becomes time for them to write.

Happy Narrating!

Blessings,

Picture Study for Older Students

Although not addressed directly in Charlotte Mason’s original Homeschooling Series, Picture Study is valuable for older students as well our younger ones.  Through consistent observation and enjoyment of a variety of artists’ work in the younger years, older students are ready to take on a little more detailed and guided study of art work.  Even if you have not been regular in your picture study, it is never too late to begin!

We organize our research of artists and their work chronologically according to which unit in history we are studying. Charlotte Mason suggests studying six or so works of one artist during a term, and although we usually recommend following that tried and true pattern with younger children, with older ones we sometimes study more than one artist at a time.  Charlotte’s primary goal was for students to experience art for themselves, not become experts on the artist or a particular piece of art. For older students, however, especially for students who are particularly interested in art, a more structured approach might be helpful.

If  picture study is a new addition to your academic education, take a look at last week’s post to help you begin.  If you have older children, say middle or high school students, a little guidance might be what you need to get started. (The following  is taken from our Middle School Lesson Plans.)

How to Critique and Write About Art

This method is simplified from Edmund Burke Feldman’s method of evaluating art, commonly known to the art world as Feldman’s Method of Critiquing Art. You may use this as a guide in having your students study and write about art.  Always remember you may tailor this to the level and interest of your students; you may want to choose just a few questions for your student to write about if it is the first time he has studied and/or written about artwork, or you may just use these questions as discussion prompts. If you decide to use this guide, it may help for you to talk through it a few times before you actually have your student create a written interpretation.  If you choose to have him write, have him respond in paragraph form in complete sentences.

We will work through this critique together using this painting by Diego Velázquez:

1.  List

State the name of the artist, the title of the piece, and, if you know it, its current location.

This is Diego Velázquez’ Equestrian Portrait of King Philip IV, currently located in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

2.  Describe

Describe the work to someone as if the person you were talking to could not see it.  Stick to the facts, listing everything you see in the picture.

Answers will differ here—if your student is new to this, please be positive about his or her answers.  If needed, it is okay to ask questions to help him, such as, what do you notice about the background?  What is in the foreground of the painting?  What else do you notice in the painting other than the horse and rider?

Example:

In the center of this picture is a man on horseback.  They appear to be on a hill or on the side of a mountain, as you can see small trees in the background and one behind the man and horse. The man is dressed ornately and he is looking straight ahead; from the title of the painting he must be King Philip.  The horse looks strong and he is standing on his hind legs. There is not a lot of light in the picture; it looks as if it is very early morning or late afternoon – or perhaps it is an overcast day. On the left hand corner of the painting it looks as if there is a open piece of paper that had been folded in half.

3.  Note First Impression

What is your very first reaction to the piece?  (Note:  There are no right or wrong answers here!)

The king looks strong, serious and determined.

4.  Analyze the piece

Here you want to look at what the artist has done to achieve certain effects.  You could refer to your first impressions and try to figure out how the artwork caused you to have that reaction.  Possible questions:

• How are the elements of art (color, shape, line, texture, space) and the principles of design (balance, contrast, emphasis, movement/rhythm) used in this artwork?
  • Questions you might ask in discussion here to help your student include process this:
  • What colors did the artist use in this painting?
  • Did the artist use color to lead you to look at some particular object in the painting?
  • What do you notice about how the artist uses light in the picture?
  • Do you see any kind of movement in the picture?
  • What strong contrasts to you see in light and color in this picture?
• What do you notice about the artist’s choice of materials?
• What grabs your attention when you first look at the piece?

Example:

In this portrait of King Philip IV of Spain, King Philip on his horse is obviously the most important part of the painting because he is painted so largely and in the middle. The horse is moving; he is standing on his hind legs.  He looks spirited and powerful,  but the King on his back looks even more powerful than the horse.  The artist uses light to balance the king’s glistening armor with the horse’s glistening coat. King Philip looks very serious.

5. Interpret the piece

All art is about something. It may be about light, color, the subject matter, or even a political statement of some kind.  Some art is easy to figure out and some is more symbolic.

• What is the theme or subject of the work?
• What is the work about; what do you think it means?
• Why do you think the artist created this work?
• What do you think the artist’s worldview is? (this question may or may not be relevant to all of the artwork you evaluate…)

Example:

The King is painted high on a hill.  Everything else is literally beneath him. He is confidently looking straight ahead, in control of his powerful and spirited horse, ready for whatever is ahead of him.  His expression looks pensive and serious, rather than frivolous, for example—the kind of look you would want to see in your leader. (In fact, it was customary at this time to paint royals on horseback, which was a symbol of authority.) Perhaps the purpose of this painting was to help King Philip’s subjects to have confidence in him as a strong leader.

(By the way, the paper painted on the lower left would have been the place where Velázquez presumably had signed the painting.)

Helpful Resources

For some help in learning more about art, I recommend the Art for Children Series, by Ernest Raboff.  Although it is out of print, used copies are readily available from Amazon.com.  Each book offers full color, large scale copies of each author’s work, as well as interesting and pertinent facts about the life of the artist and background and study of each featured work.  I learned tons from these books.  (As every homeschool mom knows, the best way to learn about anything is to read a kid’s book about it, right?)

Albrecht Durer (The Art for Children Series)
Henri Matisse (The Art for Children)
Frederic Remington (The Art for Children Series)
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Art for Children)
Paul Gauguin (Art for Children Series)
Rembrandt (Art for Children)
Leonardo Da Vinci (Art for Children)

Have fun!

You can register your student today for any of my online courses listed below. Classes begin September 9th and are taught using a secure online forum. For the literature and history courses, students not only receive assignments and evaluations online, but they also participate in discussions twice a week to evaluate comprehension of material. Best of all, Epi Kardia curriculum and materials are used for these courses! Please note that there are a limited number of spots available for each course.

Detailed course descriptions are available at www.epikardia.com. Classes for the 2009-2010 school year (all courses are full year):

· High School Writing Prep (7th – 8th grade) – based on my years of teaching Essay Styles, the first year high school course, I discovered that many high school students are still making the same errors in writing repeatedly. This course troubleshoots those specific areas allowing students to enter high school courses with a distinct advantage in writing skills!

· Essay Styles (high school) – our recommended first year course for high school students covering the five basic essays.

· British Literature (high school) – discover great British authors and poets from the Middle Ages to Modern.

· American History I (high school) – whole books, timelines, research projects and more are incorporated to discover American history from Colonization through the Civil War.

· American History II (high school) – covers Immigration and Modern historical time periods.

Other important details:

Tuition for online courses: $320 per year with a monthly payment plan option of $40 per course, per student, for a total of 8 months. Parents are committed to pay for the entire course except in extreme cases of job loss or serious illness.

Tuition discount: For families with more than one student and/or students taking more than one course, the second student’s courses or any courses for the same student beyond one cost $280 per year or $35 monthly.

Curriculum: Students will need to purchase the appropriate Epi Kardia curriculum but will receive a 25% discount.

Registration:  Students may be registered by email (send to beth@epikardia.com) by submitting the following information.

· Student name

· Parent name

· Grade/age

· Course(s)

· Email addresses (parent and student)

· Physical mailing address

· Contact phone number (parent) – this number is only for extreme cases when a parent or student is not responding to email

Important note: Email registration is considered a commitment for completing the course.

Please contact me personally at Beth@epikardia.com if you have any questions or would like to register your student. I’m looking forward to a year immersed in wonderful literature and fruitful discussions!

God bless your school year!

Beth

Have you heard the term project-based learning lately and wondered what all the buzz is about?  Project-based or project-led learning is a term coined to describe the learning that results when students are working to solve real world problems and challenges.  It is doing something with a purpose, and it absolutely engages students.  We said in our earlier series concerning teaching middle schoolers that middle school is not the time to discount activity-based learning, and that especially applies to those wiggly boys you have!

Does this mean there are no more books?  Absolutely not!  It just means designing activities to illustrate and demonstrate what students are learning-and if the project has usefulness beyond ’school,’ the more valuable and long-lasting the learning tends to be.  This is also a fantastic way to expose your students to different types of activities-sometimes the very best way to discover the types of activities that inspire your student.  Let’s look at some examples.

What kinds of projects?

• Let’s say your student has shown a little interest (or you have the interest) in woodworking.  This would be a great project to tie into a study of Colonial History or the Westward Expansion period, when many people made their own homes and furniture.  How about building a chair that can actually be used by your student or someone else?  Or perhaps a workbench that could be used by the family or a little brother or sister, depending upon the scale?  Of course, the student would be involved in researching how to accomplish this task (language arts), figuring how much of what materials would be needed (math), perhaps observing others involved in this endeavor (social skills, field trips), reading about how others in history built their own furniture (language arts, history), learning how to use building tools (science and technology), journaling his or her building progress (writing, photography).  Perhaps this activity is enjoyed so much it turns into a side business!  (Then MANY other things can be learned!)

• Another project suggested during our Middle Ages unit is to study gardening and create a garden, as herbs were used during that time for everything from perfume to medicine.  Growing herbs to be used in the family’s cooking or to sell to the neighbors or at a farmer’s market would be a wonderful project and involve reading, writing, planning, logical thinking and more, not to mention the regular discipline the maintenance of a garden would require.

• Making corn husk dolls, hand-dipped candles or rag rugs also fits nicely into a Colonial unit and have obvious uses as Christmas or birthday gifts.

• Learning how to take care of a car fits nicely into the Immigration unit and could involve studying the history of cars, the technology involved in their production and maintenance, and the costs involved in car ownership.  Very practical stuff!

Let’s take advantage of the time and freedom we have homeschooling and give our students the opportunity to do some real world learning.  When your student’s time and attention is captured by an activity he truly enjoys,  you will be amazed at what learning takes place!

We would love to hear what kind of projects your kids have enjoyed while you have been homeschooling!

Blessings on your home school,

Greetings!

You may have noticed we have been quiet lately!  As many of you, Beth and I are up to our eyeballs finishing school, catching up on recordkeeping, working on upcoming high school classes and more.  In the meantime, enjoy this insightful post from a homeschooled teen currently living in Finland.

Blessings on your week,

10 Thoughts on Encouraging Independent Learning

Learning to be independent is a complex task we all deal with as we get older. On top of their own experience growing up, parents have to go through the process with each child. For most parents it’s easy to let schools do the talking, but for a lot of homeschoolers the ultimate goal in educating their children is teaching them how to learn on their own. The process is gradual, usually taking most of the child’s at-home life.

Here are a few tips to encourage independence, self-education, and bonding as a family: three things needed to be a responsible and aware learner. Many of these tips can be used while deschooling as well, should you only recently have pulled your child out from the system.

Note: These tips have been compiled for homeschooling teenagers, but the word child/children has been used in most cases to ease adjusting the tips to children of all ages.

1. Discuss important topics whenever possible, whether it be news, history, important people, buildings around you, plants you see, anything! Encouraging conversation without a predefined structure will make learning come more naturally. It awakens curiosity and helps everyone share their knowledge. It can even lead to looking up information together, should you come to a point in the conversation where no one knows the answer to a question or comment. It even comes with a bonus: you get to know each others’ levels on certain topics. Best of all, natural conversation with an adult will help children of all ages understand that adults are human, too, and make mistakes just like kids do. Discussion is important for bonding, sharing morals, and teaching your child by example. Even babies should be talked to: the younger children make connections in their brains the better their learning experience will be later on in life.

2. When discussing with your child bring up their interests and goals, no matter their age. It’ll make it easier to supply them with what they need as well as open up your child to the thought of making goals and reaching them, an important life skill. Encourage them to keep track of what they want to do on their own, as well. Should they be more actively academic a good idea is listing off what they would still like to learn.

3. Make a day trip to the local library and encourage your children to take out whatever they’re interested in. If they’re reluctant you could help them: ask what their favorite things to do are, what they’re interested in, and go on from there. Librarians would most likely be at hand to help you, as well as direct you to the correct area of the library. There should be computers available for browsing the contents of the library, and there could possibly be a map of the library somewhere within the building (just ask the librarians ).

4. If your child absolutely refuses the idea of libraries try this: leave books around the house on topics you know your child is interested in. No matter how academic (or nonacademic ) the material, encouraging reading is an important step in self-directed learning. For example if they like comics you could encourage them to read about the maker of their favorite comics, how comics are made, and similar topics. Creative twists to broaden topics are always out there, feel free to brainstorm!

5. Smothering a child with too much structure isn’t going to support their independence, and will in fact make them lean more and more on you as time goes on (sound similar to a different educational system? ). Teenagers especially will need space and if they don’t get enough will react negatively and rebel to express frustration. In a library, for example, you could give them a tip about asking the librarian if they need help, and then let them handle it on their own while you observe from afar. If you don’t give your child an opportunity to test their independence they will never achieve it. It’s also important for them to break any connections between forced, boring, and learning, and make new ones based on their experience of choosing and studying on their own. They might not even directly realize they’re learning!

6. Take “negative” words and labels according to today’s schooled society, and make them positive. Nerd, geek, dork, weird, etc are good examples. Children need to understand that being knowledgeable or interested in something considered academic, intellectual, nerdy, geeky, etc isn’t a bad thing. What’s so wrong about knowing something? The only problem there is is that people that feel less knowledgeable will usually respond with hostile jealousy. Having that understanding will help remove obstacles between your child and them taking initiative in their education.

7. Starting out with unit studies is a good way to encourage curiosity and broaden the child’s understanding of how things work. When you cover a topic deeply enough you’ll help the child understand that academic subjects are mostly arbitrary – making it easier for them to pull together information and make better connections in their learning. They’re covering all the subjects in a natural manner, in a way that makes sense. Natural learning environments will indirectly teach the child how to handle new information in the future. The easier their learning is, the happier the child will be to continue to broaden their knowledge.

8. Keep kids away from mindless video games when they’re younger ( don’t buy game consoles! ), and use the time to teach them about responsibility and priorities. A positive view of self-enrichment will stay with them, making them able to be responsible with gaming as they’re older. Should they really want the gaming experience it’s possible to make a lesson out of the game: money management within the game, new vocabulary from the game manual and instructions, reading reviews and the wikipedia article before purchasing, earning play time with work/chores, etc. A new twist to the situation could be having them teach YOU about the game: encouraging conversation, bonding, and most importantly a little bit of fun. On the other side of gaming: educational games can be a great addition to learning and usually won’t need encouraging.

9. “Traditional” games such as word searches, Sudoku, board games, etc. are usually good things to have around the house. Most of the time people don’t even think of the intellectual value of such activities. You could keep a “boredom corner” in the house and direct your kids there should they ever complain about not having something to do. Art materials, brain teasers, a camera, and objects good for building Goldberg-style “machines” are all great to include. Creativity is a very important factor in learning, no matter the subject.

10. And far from least: As many of these tips suggest it’s important to encourage any sort of independence. Confidence, knowledge of oneself and one’s abilities, and the experience of self-directed activity will eventually lead to learning. We learn in all activities we do, and the more experienced we are in exploring the world around us the more valuable we see knowledge. Self-directed activities your children already do might not exactly include mowing the lawn or reading a book on calculus, but any project or activity your child does on their own is bringing them one step closer to independence: both in learning and in life.

And as a bonus! >> Be a self-directed learner yourself, and teach by example. Never got around to learning French like you always wanted to? Keeping putting off that self-instruction course on gardening for later? Now’s the time, your children are keeping a close eye on you.

Good luck, and happy learning!

——-
Anna H. (adversarian) is a gifted and talented teen homeschooler residing in Finland. She fills up her time with writing, reading, and learning. Read more on her blog.

Make a Middle Ages Dictionary!

Part 1

Learning a subject’s vocabulary is an essential part of learning about a subject.  This project will greatly enhance your student’s understanding of the Middle Ages and can be applied to many other time periods or topics as well.  There are many terms in Adam of the Road that relate to items or activities specific to the Middle Ages. Each time your student discovers a medieval term in his reading or vocabulary word lists, have him include it in his dictionary.  You might challenge him to find as many words as possible and offer a small incentive if he reaches a certain number of words. If you are teaching more than one student of similar ages/abilities, you might even have a contest for the most words included.

This project can be as simple or elaborate as you like. If you have a student who is adamantly not artsy craftsy, you may have him simply make this dictionary as a list on regular notebook paper and keep it in his history notebook.  OR, you may choose to have him incorporate art work, computer clip art, or even make a cover for it.  (See directions below in Part 2.)

Many of the time-specific words encountered in Adam of the Road and other Middle Ages reading can be found in a regular dictionary, but some of them require a little more research.  An online encyclopedia or the following links to online medieval glossaries may be helpful. Try here.

Note that we have not checked out every word in these glossaries and we always advise you to supervise your students on the Internet!

Your student may use lined or unlined paper for this project, or, if he can type, he may key in his words and definitions into a spreadsheet program where they then could easily be sorted into alphabetical order.  If that is not an issue or if your student would rather write, decide how you want to break up the alphabet—maybe two pages for A-C, D-F, etc. Notebook dividers or tabbed cardstock can be used to separate sections.  As your student completes his daily reading for this unit, have him keep an ongoing list of medieval terms and their definitions.

In the first chapter of Adam of the Road, many words are included describing monastic life including: nones, matins, prime, (times of prayer), abbot, and abbey. Also, if you are using Epi Kardia’s Middle Ages-1 Lesson Plans, have your student include words from his vocabulary list:  surcoat, mantle (clothing items), minstrel, heraldry…  There will be words throughout the book and other reading selections that could also be included in your student’s dictionary.

If your middle-schooler enjoys hands on projects, encourage him to make a more elaborate book. He may want to intersperse his book with drawings pertaining to the middle ages, such as:

• drawings of a knight, king, queen, monk, minstrel
• illustrations depicting scenes from Adam of the Road or other reading
• diagram of a castle
• illustration of some of the words included in his dictionary

After all the words have been added to the dictionary, it is time to make the cover!

Part 2

If you are choosing the the simple approach but want to have some kind of a cover, just use a 1/2 inch 3 ringed view binder and have your student decorate the cover insert with a drawing or computer clip art. Search for more clip art by using other terms such as knight, castle, monastery and medieval.

If your student would like to create a more involved cover for his dictionary, he could start with two thick pieces of stiff cardboard measuring about 9″ x 12″ and a piece of contact paper measuring 21 inches long by about 15″ wide.  (He will also need glue, two pieces of blank 8 1/2″ x 11″ white paper, a ruler, scissors and a stapler. If a heavy-duty stapler is needed, have your local Office Depot or Staples help with that part.)

1. Fold the contact paper in half loosely (before removing the backing!) to find the middle.
2. Open the paper again and lay it out lengthwise, with the colored/patterned side down.
3. Place the cardboard side by side on the wrong side of the contact paper, in a portrait (not landscape) fashion, allowing about a pencil width between the the pieces of cardboard.
4. The cardboard should have about an inch margin of contact paper above the top and about two inches on the bottom.  Trim the four corners of the contact paper to make neater corners once they are folded.
5. Remove the cardboard and carefully remove the backing of the contact paper.
6. Lay the contact paper out as before, with the right/patterned side down, and place the two pieces of cardboard evenly, side by side on top of the sticky side of the contact paper, with a pencil-width margin between the pieces.
7. Carefully and neatly fold the top and bottom margins of the contact paper over the cardboard. Start with the middle and work your way out to the sides.Carefully and neatly fold the side margins over the cardboard.
8. Glue a blank sheet of unlined white paper over the ends of the contact paper inside each side of the bookcover. (These are called endpapers.)
9. Take the stack of dictionary papers and make sure they are in order. Line up the stack, and place it in the middle of the book, centering it top and bottom with the cardboard pieces. Make sure the left margin of the stack is in contact with the center margin of the contact paper.
10. Close the book cover and staple at least three times down the length of the fold, making sure you are stapling all of the papers inside the book.
11. Decorate the cover of the book by writing a title in permanent ink and adding stickers or gluing on beads/yarn, etc.

Read about medieval books and look at some pictures here for inspiration!

Whether you use this lesson or not, we would love to see pictures of the books you make with your students!  Send them to dana@epikardia.com and we will post them!

Blessings on your school week!

The idea of writing about books is not new –remember those boring book reports (snore!) we had to write? However, writing a book review of a well-loved, exciting book in order to convince someone else to read it is much easier to sell and much more fun to write.  For some students, posting the review on Amazon.com afterward makes it even more enticing!  This lesson is excerpted from the Ancients unit of our Middle School-1 lesson plans but could be adapted for younger or older students:

(Note: for many students, especially younger ones, it is very helpful to talk through the answers to these questions ahead of time. Either the student and/or teacher may take notes for the student to use when actually writing the review.)

1.  The first paragraph should be an introductory paragraph, including the title of the book and the author’s name. This should be followed by a few overview sentences stating why another student would want to read the book.  (i.e., It was one of the most exciting stories…/…had one of my favorite characters/…had an inspirational ending/…was about my favorite subject or period of history, etc.)

2. The next paragraph should tell what the story is about and include the main conflict, or problem, of the story.  (An example from the book Hittite Warrior: A young Hittite, Uriah, makes a promise on his father’s death bed and has to travel alone to foreign lands in search of a man named Sisera, whom Uriah hopes will take him in.)

3.  In the following paragraph, your student should tell about his favorite parts of the book. A few incidents will be enough–caution him about writing down too many parts or going into too much detail here.

4.  The last paragraph should include the main message of the book and should restate what the book meant to him or what he learned from reading it. Your student may want to add one final statement about why someone else would want to read this book.

Additional points:

For more ideas about teaching writing, review our Reluctant Writer series.

Happy Writing!

Dana

Dear Friends,

It’s not uncommon for us to receive questions about Epi Kardia curriculum particularly concerning how to use it properly. Occasionally, we get questions addressing specific learning and/or teaching issues. We believe that the following question and answer may be beneficial to many moms, so we’re publishing it as a blog. Many thanks to the mom who graciously agreed to let us share her concerns in order to help her fellow home school moms.

Question:

Hope you are both well.  I am hoping that you can help me with something…  

My daughter struggles with information retention.  As you both know, we have been using the Epi Kardia curriculum this year and I am finding that she just isn’t remembering things that she is reading.  For instance, only 2 weeks ago, we spent at least an hour reading about the Parthenon, looking at the pictures in the book, discussing how it might have been built, et cetera. Today, I mention the Parthenon and she says, "What is that?  I have never heard about that."  I am getting increasingly frustrated.

Now, if it is something she sees in a video, she can remember it for the ages. She knows every creature, habitat, and name in the Jacques’ novels – The Redwall Series, but she can’t remember what she read in her Ancient Greek book yesterday.  I think it is selective retention and her natural tendency to speed read, but don’t know how to improve it other than reading everything that she reads and making worksheets – which would drive us both crazy.  If I make her read aloud, she reads slower but does not retain any better.    

Do you have any recommendations?  She gets extremely defensive if I ask her ANYTHING about what she just read.  For instance, I asked her to complete the Venn diagram today comparing Sparta/Athens and she simply said ‘It isn’t necessary.  I know it all already."   When we sat down to do it, she did know some things, like their differing forms of government, but she said that was insignificant and not worthy of putting in the Venn diagram.  ;-)  I don’t think she is being disrespectful – she simply does not retain the important things – but she can tell you if they had cats in Greece!  or every type of land animal in Europe at that time.  She thrives on projects – things she can make with her hands but I can’t turn every book we read into a project – or can I?  

She is 11, tested in 90th percentiles last year on SAT, and is my artsy kid (5 years in Montessori school when I worked full time), learns best on the floor of her room, and thrives in chaos.  Maybe I am making more of this than I should but I am really concerned that she just does not retain info.  She is a poor speller, too.    

Suggestions?

Answer:

What you’re experiencing is really not uncommon at all, especially for an 11 year old. I know that I went through very similar responses from John Paul and it wasn’t until a couple of years later that he really matured enough to realize that I was doing this for his benefit!  As you probably know, children have different learning styles or some combination of learning styles. We do cover this in the Epi Kardia manual (www.epikardia.com/teacher_s_manuals.html), but let’s look at in light of your daughter, specifically.

1.     She clearly isn’t an auditory learner. If you find that discussing material is not enough for her to retain it, then it’s not her strength. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t discuss the books, it just means that you probably shouldn’t spend the bulk of your time discussing the books. It is easier if your child is an auditory learner because you just have to say things (and a lot less messy too!), but it’s not uncommon for a child to not learn through audio processes exclusively, even for a time. Just don’t rely right now on teaching her something when listening is the primary source of learning.

2.     This age is extremely dedicated to what they’re interested in. Even when I taught in the classroom, I noticed immediately that children learn more about what they find fascinating. Sometimes that fascination comes from curiosity; sometimes it comes from your enthusiasm or may even come from seeing the same thing or concept in various places (in a book, then on tv, etc). The reason your daughter can remember everything from Redwall is because she loves it and she doesn’t think of it as school. Again, pretty normal. That’s why it’s so important that parents monitor their kids’ tv viewing and extracurricular reading, which you obviously do. Don’t despair over this…history has many interesting topics but we sometimes have to search with our children for them. One idea is to go over the general topics for a time period and ask your daughter what she’d like to study most. Is she more interested in people than buildings and events (many young girls are more relationship oriented)? You don’t have to completely overlook everything that she doesn’t seem particularly interested in, but definitely spend more time on areas in which she shows interest. Don’t worry about being off balance in what she’s studying as it all comes together by the time she’ll graduate. Also, girls at this age like to think of themselves as more mature, so seeking her opinion could be a powerful tool. It certainly was with Ally. She loved the historical fiction and didn’t get into the non-fiction so much at 11-12 years old, so I made sure that we were reading some really interesting historical novels or fiction in every unit and lessened the load on the non-fiction that year. She learned a tremendous amount because the historical fiction is packed with great material that is just presented in a different way.

3.     The next recommendation you basically made yourself. You refer to her as “artsy”; she’s obviously bright and you can have her do as many projects as you can fit into the day. Projects are such an awesome way to help hands-on kids retain what they’ve learned. The key is to make sure the project is relevant and that she can actually tell you why it’s relevant to what she’s studying. Lap books make ideal projects for hands-on learners because they incorporate skills such as writing and organization, but also allow for unlimited creativity.

4.     Don’t fret over the spelling. Do check her written work and maybe even keep a list of words that she commonly misspells in her notebook, referring her to this list as she writes. John Paul just started spelling well this year and it’s only because he got tired of me making him correct spelling and now uses spell check faithfully. There are many skills that will carry your daughter successfully through this life, but personally I’m not sure spelling is one of them. Oh my, and that’s coming from an English teacher!

5.  Finally, I personally feel it’s important to address situations when a child feels comfortable determining whether an assignment is significant or not. I am not implying at all that your daughter is disrespectful, but young ladies do often feel that they know a great deal more than they actually do. I think sometimes it’s necessary to gently point out to a child that while she may be exceptionally bright, she’s not really qualified at this point to determine the relevance of an assignment. You could use your relationship with God as an example. When we make decisions in life, feeling confident that we know what’s best, sometimes those decisions aren’t really for the best because we don’t see the whole picture the way God does. That’s why it’s so important that we read His Word, listen to Him through prayer (and other wise people) because He has a bigger view and definitely more experience and wisdom. At the same time, we can be confident that God loves us and therefore, all decisions that He makes for our lives are in our best interest. Transition to the point that God put you in charge of your daughter’s education because you see the bigger picture for her, have more wisdom and really want the best for her in all things. If you can get her to accept that premise or line of thinking now as your child, she will be much more likely to conform to it in her relationship with the Lord as an adult.

I am always so impressed with your comments and concerns for your children. You definitely should be concerned if you feel any of your children aren’t getting the most out of their learning experiences. Just remember that the most valuable learning is actually a result of a layering effect and over time, even things that your daughter doesn’t seem to remember at the moment may very well come to her a year from now. The brain is an amazing creation but rarely seems to work for our convenience.

I remember being where you are and I have total empathy! I’ll be praying for you and your daughter and look forward to hearing about her progress.

Many blessings,

Beth