Several months ago we published a blog about how to do hymn studies with your children. This month we wanted to show you how to apply hymn studies to a popular Christmas carol, “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen.” This carol is a great one to study with your children, because it follows a passage of Scripture and requires them to discover the meaning of some obscure words.
6 Time Management Tips for Your Homeschool
As a homeschool parent you juggle teaching, housework, cooking, shopping, loving your family, and working from home daily! Perhaps you want to be better at time management, but you don’t know where to start. Time management is not as far out of reach as you might think. Here are a few tips you can implement into your routine to help you manage your schedule better.
Tips for Teaching Left-Handed Writers
If you have young lefties, you may be unsure of how to teach left-handed writers. But don’t worry! At first their natural tendencies may appear backwards or confusing to you but teaching them writing is very similar to teaching a right-handed child. There are just some important things you should keep in mind when you start teaching them.
Mastery vs. Spiral Learning
We hope that what we teach our children sticks with them, and that they build on that knowledge for the rest of their lives. But traditional approaches to education often fail to help children retain the material. Short units that focus on good test performance succeed in short-term retention, but do not result in learning that sticks with students long after they’ve finished the unit. However, different approaches that emphasize mastery of concepts help students retain material longer. Two dominant approaches for learning that sticks, specifically in math, are mastery and spiral learning. These learning strategies are tools you can use to choose and adapt curriculum to best support your children.
Why We Study Literature
When I was in elementary, I spent hours hiding away in libraries, reading as much as I could before my parents made me leave. Looking back on my life, I can see how certain books shaped who I am today. Most people have at least one book that has profoundly influenced them. If reading has this much power, then learning to study literature is one of the most important parts of a child’s development. Reading is so much more than just understanding what words mean. It has the ability to shape children’s minds and experiences in positive ways.