BJU Press Blog

homeschool

7 Energy-Busting Activities for Your Homeschool

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energy busting activities
I live in South Carolina, and lately it has been very, very wet around here. And since my four young children do not particularly like sitting still, my 1700-square-foot home has been extremely noisy. That makes homeschooling challenging because, with so much pent-up energy, my school-age daughters have had a difficult time focusing. Sometimes, we just need to do some activities to keep us going.

Physical activity is important to mental health. My brain, like the brains of my four children, performs much better when we’ve had some kind of physical exercise. Below are ideas for some quick physical activities that you and your children can do together. Not only will they help you release some of that built-up energy, but they will also improve your focus for a better homeschool day.

Indoor Exercise

Technology can be a great help for quick, kid-friendly workout routines. Here are a few technology-aided workouts that we enjoy:

  • Animal Workouts (Alexa® Skill): If you have an Alexa-enabled device in your home, try the Animal Workouts Skill. Your device will lead you and your children through a routine in which you all pretend to be different animals. For example, you’ll be running in place like a jaguar, swinging your arms like a monkey, and hopping around like a kangaroo. My kids think it’s hilarious.
  • Home Workout (available on Google Play™): This app is geared more toward adults, but my fitness-loving second grader doesn’t let that stop her from using it. Most workouts take less than 15 minutes, but they are pretty intense.
  • Sworkit Kids (available on Google Play™): This app is similar to the Home Workout app but is more geared towards kids. I like that you can customize the workout based on how much time you have.

Outdoor Exercise

Some days, the kids just need to get outside, even if it’s raining or freezing cold. Here are a few of our favorite fresh-air exercises:

  • Taking a walk: Walking is a popular exercise in our family. If you enjoy walking with your kids, you may want to check out a post I wrote about how walking can also be an outdoor learning adventure.
  • Running around the house: Sometimes, when I notice that one of my daughters is having trouble concentrating, I send her outside and tell her to run around the house a certain number of times as fast as she can. It’s amazing what five minutes of running can do to sharpen her focus!
  • Timed races: Like many kids, my daughters are a bit competitive. They love to “win” even if they are competing against themselves. I often time them as they run down the driveway, race their bikes around the block, or roller skate to the mailbox. The presence of the stopwatch encourages them to try their hardest.
  • Puddle-jumping: Every once in awhile, after it rains, the kids pull on their rain boots, and we take a walk. The kids jump in ever puddle they can find and hold contests to see who can make the biggest splash. It’s a good mental and physical break for everyone.

These are just a few of the ways that we release energy to improve our focus. What are some of your homeschool’s favorite energy-busting activities? We would love to hear about them in the comments below!

Introducing Our New 2019 Homeschool Catalog

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2019 homeschool catalog
Our 2019 homeschool catalog is hot off the press and will show up soon in your mailbox! We brought back the Homeschool in Action Photo Challenge and had twice as many participants this year as last. The competition was close, with so many incredible pictures of your homeschool experiences. We included as many pictures as we could in the catalog, but here are the winners.

New Distance Learning Courses

As a homeschool dad, I’m thrilled to see how the self-paced video courses enable my daughters to take ownership of the learning. My wife and I still have final say over the activities and the grades, but with a flexible roadmap, our fourth grader and second grader can learn on their own and at their own pace. Plus, our four-year-old is enjoying the K4 videos with Mrs. Lawson, Mrs. Liston, and all their puppet friends. She gets exposed to important concepts in a fun way that will help her when my wife starts to teach her how to read in K5.

This year BJU Press is rolling out five new Distance Learning courses. You can see sample lessons for each course on YouTube.

K5 Math

Children learn about math through experience with Mrs. Rulapaugh. Through the farm family and their pet mouse, your child will see how math can be used to help in meaningful ways. This 180-day course introduces children to simple math concepts through hands-on activities and engaging on-screen demonstrations for visual learners.

Reading 2

This amusement park theme of the course keeps your children eagerly anticipating the next story. Mrs. Walker encourages children to think deeply by asking higher-order thinking questions. She also continues to build their phonics and vocabulary skills. They will love reading the lessons in this 180-day course.

English 2

Mrs. Jarrell invites children to learn grammar concepts and apply them to their writing. Children will love the special segments she uses to enhance learning. In the “Super Marks” segment, super punctuation marks will dispel confusing communication. This is a 180-day course.

Physics

Physics is only available through Distance Learning Online. Since physics can be an especially challenging course, Mr. Harmon offers optional tutorials on particularly difficult physics problems that students will encounter. Distance Learning Online is the best way to keep the optional format of these tutorials organized. This 180-day course will challenge your twelfth grader’s science and math skills and prepare him or her for college-level study.

Economics

In this capstone heritage studies course, Mrs. Bullock walks students through the fundamentals of economics. Mrs. Bullock suggests you do this 90-day course in the spring of the senior year as a follow-up to the American government 90-day course.

New Online Testing Option

Now you can take the Iowa Assessments™ Form E achievement test from the comfort of your own home! BJU Press Testing & Evaluation is offering faster results with fewer requirements for Grades 3–12. By testing online, you get

  • testing results in ten days,
  • no shipping costs,
  • year-round testing,
  • and an approved test administrator provided by Testing & Evaluation.

Learn more about this option. 

Download a PDF of our new catalog or order your own free copy!

Take Advantage of Homeschool Stability

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working with homeschool stability
If you’re at the beginning of your homeschool journey, you might think of the serenity prayer often seen on magnets and signs: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Despite the flexibility of homeschooling, there are still some things that you cannot—or should not—change. In fact, here are five unchangeable elements that will shape your family’s homeschool journey. It’s important for you to be familiar with these elements at the outset because they will give you stability in the years to come.

1. State Regulations

All states have regulations for how children are educated, and most have specific rules concerning home education, ranging from low to high in restrictiveness. These regulations may seem like an imposition, but they’re intended to ensure the well-being of your children. The best way to follow your state’s regulations is to keep detailed and accurate records of the classes your children have taken and to regularly participate in achievement testing.

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) offers a helpful summary of each state’s regulations for homeschooling. Knowing your state’s rules is a key first step for homeschooling. You don’t want to be taken by surprise by requirements, such as submitting test scores or academic records by a certain date.

2. Commitment

No parent just wakes up one morning and decides to start homeschooling. It’s a long and often difficult journey that involves many sacrifices. Carefully consider the reasons behind your decision to homeschool. Do you want to homeschool to more effectively disciple your children? Do you want to lay a solid foundation for a biblical worldview? Are you protecting your kids from bad influences? Do you want to make sure that they’re getting what they need academically? The factors you based your decision on drive the commitment you make to homeschooling. This commitment effects both the goals you set for your children and the curriculum you choose.

3. Joy

In a traditional school environment, much of the potential of learning gets lost. Everything is textbooks, tests, strict rules, lining up, raising your hand, and just ten more minutes until lunch. With one teacher to every ten to fifteen students, that rigidity is what keeps the school going. But at the end of the day, the joy of learning often gets lost in the humdrum moments. Learning should be fun because every day is packed with new ideas and new ways of looking at the world.

When it’s just you and your children learning together, you have the freedom and opportunity to bring out the joy of learning every time you find it. You can set the rules that are important to your family. This one-on-one experience with your children lets you chase learning wherever it may lead.

4. Homeschool Support System

Remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Every homeschooling group is a community of like-minded parents who are as committed to the homeschool calling as you are. These communities are digital, local, regional or state, and networks. Digital communities are groups of bloggers that offer quick answers to homeschool problems as well as numerous resources for parents. Local communities, or homeschool co-ops, give you a chance to join forces as you teach your children. Co-ops share the burden of teaching and planning field trips and give children a chance to develop healthy friendships outside the home.

Regional or state homeschool support organizations give families a place to turn to in navigating their journey. In addition to offering conventions and conferences, they keep track of state regulations on homeschooling, and some have consultants who work with families as they get started and can connect them to local co-ops. HSLDA functions as a countrywide support organization and maintains a list of state organizations on its website.

Another good option for getting some personalized support is connecting with a consultant from Homeworks by Precept, a nationwide network of independent curriculum consultants who have plenty of homeschooling experience. Establishing a relationship with a HomeWorks consultant could make your first few years of homeschooling much easier.

5. Time

Education takes time. Both you and your children will need to devote time to lessons and schoolwork. But that doesn’t mean you can’t homeschool if you’re a single parent or running a home business. How you use your time is still up to you. There are many different options available to busy homeschool parents that can work with the time they have available, such as self-paced video courses or online classes. Time-strapped parents will also appreciate a curriculum that includes as many supplemental resources and activities as they may want so that they won’t need to come up with these on their own. Knowing how much time you can devote to homeschooling will help you narrow down your curriculum options.

Eager to learn more about your homeschooling journey? Please sign up to receive our free eBook, A Guide to Homeschooling, to learn more about the road ahead of you. Be sure to fill out the homeschool preparation checklist at the end, and feel free to ask questions in the comments section below.

Teaching Your Kids to Make Christmas Gift Budgets

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setting Christmas gift budgets
Christmastime can be overwhelming not just for adults but for children too. “You want this! You need this!” scream the ads on TV, on the radio, at the mall, in the mail—and it’s all designed to incite greed and the desire for more. Sure, we love to see those happy smiles when our kids get something precious they’ve longed to own, but Christmas is primarily about the blessing of giving. By teaching your kids how to develop their own Christmas gift budgets, you’re reinforcing that focus on giving and encouraging financial responsibility at the same time.

Making a List

Sit down with your kids and create a Christmas list together, not of things they want to receive, but of people they love—close family members, other relatives, neighbors, teammates, and friends. For some of the people on the Christmas list, each child will want to make or purchase a separate, special gift. For others, the gift could be a joint one from your whole family. You could have your kids color code those who will receive individual gifts and those who will get a joint gift.

Setting a Total Amount for the Gift Budgets

Whether your children are planning on buying the Christmas gifts or making them, they’ll need a budget. Explain that even a handmade gift costs something in time, effort, and supplies. Since your kids may be new to this concept, suggest a total budget amount for each child. This amount could be money they earn or money that you give them to spend.

Dividing Up the Funds

Here’s where the math comes in! Ask each child to divide the total amount of his or her budget by the number of people on the Christmas list. The result is the per-person Christmas budget. You could also suggest that your kids spend a little more on the people closest to them and a little less on others. Younger kids need help with this part, but the older children can figure out the math on their own.

Making the Purchases

As your children are shopping for gifts or supplies, they’ll probably be tempted to overspend or to buy something for themselves. Encourage them to stay focused, stick to their per-person amount, and look for items of decent quality. It’s all about planning ahead and resisting the impulse buy, yet still finding or creating something that shows love.

Are you ready to refocus your children on giving rather than getting? You’ve got two months before Christmas—plenty of time to help them work on a budget, make some gifts, shop strategically, and enjoy the sweet spirit that comes with thinking more about others and less about self. After all, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

• • • • •

Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

3 Go-To Activities for Homeschooling Phonics

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homeschooling phonics letters
Last week my four-year-old and my nine-year-old were arguing over the ownership of a toy. Unlike many toys in our house, this one was clearly labeled with the owner’s name. But my four-year-old can’t read yet. She is, however, learning to recognize letters, so I decided that this was a good time to introduce her to letter-sound associations. Our conversation went like this:

Mom: (pointing to the first letter of the owner’s name) What letter is this?

Four-year-old: E.

Mom: Do you remember some words that start with E?

Four-year-old: Eggs, elephant, elbow.

Mom: That’s right! E makes the /ĕ/ sound like in elephant. Does your name start with the /ĕ/ sound?

Four-year-old: (shakes her head)

Mom: Do you know someone in our family whose name starts with the /ĕ/ sound?

At this point, my daughter knew who the toy belonged to. And she had used phonics to figure it out. Our impromptu lesson was a success!

Phonics is a term that refers to the association between the printed letter and the sound that letter represents. Most reading curricula include phonics instruction—without phonics, we would have difficulty reading unfamiliar words. But phonics instruction can get really complicated; the English language has only 26 letters, but they represent 44 distinct sounds. That’s why most phonics programs (including the one from BJU Press) begin by teaching children the names of the letters and then the sounds that the letters make at the beginning of words. Later they will listen for sounds at the end and sounds in the middle of the word.

How can you as a homeschool mom help your pre-reader learn those beginning sounds and get a good foundation for future phonics learning? Here are a few ideas.

Read to Your Child

The importance of reading to your child cannot be overemphasized. Every time you read to your child, you’re helping him or her develop several key pre-reading skills, including phonemic awareness, print awareness, vocabulary development, and more. Reading alphabet books such as the following may specifically help with letter-sound associations.

  • I Spy Letters (by Jean Marzollo)
  • Seuss’s Alphabet Book
  • The Alphabet Book (P. D. Eastman)

Play Letter Games

Games can make learning fun. Here are a few phonics games that all my children (even the older ones) enjoy.

  • Alphabet Bingo: Years ago, when one of my daughters was having difficulty with phonics, I picked up an inexpensive alphabet bingo game similar to the one on The Measured Mom. My kids still enjoy playing it!
  • Give your child several alphabet flash cards (a few at a time) and name an object that starts with one of the letters. See if your child can identify what letter the word for that object starts with.
  • Play a letter-sound matching game with this free printable from Totschooling and letter magnets or puzzle pieces.

Consider a Pre-Kindergarten Curriculum for Homeschooling Phonics

If your child is four (or close to it), you may also want to check out the K4 Foundations Distance Learning homeschool program from BJU Press to teach your child pre-reading and math skills as a preparation for kindergarten. We’re using it for the first time with our four-year-old daughter, and she loves it. She enjoys doing “school” like the older girls, and she’s learning a lot of foundational skills that will prepare her well for a future of learning.