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Guest Writer

How to Encourage Self-Motivated Learning

February 28, 2017 by Guest Writer

When I was growing up, I did my schoolwork in my parents’ bedroom, sitting at a cheap desk whose fake wood-grain pattern I can still remember today. Once I was past the early grades, I watched my video classes, did the reading, and completed assignments mostly on my own with some help from my mom if I needed it. When I reached college, it wasn’t a problem for me to prioritize time to read, study, and complete papers because I had already mastered the art of self-motivated learning. My mother inspired my siblings and me to enjoy learning on our own, and that eagerness for education has stayed with all of us to this day.

Natural Motivation

When kids are little, they are naturally eager to learn. Every part of their being is learning, whether they’re playing, running, jumping, reading, or helping around the house. As children get older, other things begin to compete for their attention. How can a parent keep this early motivation from slipping away? And once your child has lost that motivation for learning, is there a way to bring it back?

Whole-Family Activities

One way to develop motivated children is to present lots of opportunities for learning in various settings. I’m not talking about Mom serving as the chauffeur, dropping everyone off at different places for different pursuits, but about the kind of activity that involves the whole family, with everyone participating together at church, serving in the community, or just having fun.

A Listening Lifestyle

Motivation thrives in a home where the parents listen attentively to their children. Having regular family gatherings gives everyone time to present feelings or problems and share possible solutions. Talking together frequently as a family generates an atmosphere of trust and openness that gives kids the confidence they need for self-motivated learning.

Reasonable Expectations

Every parent wants his or her child to excel, but if a parent sets the expectations too high, the child may become discouraged and give up altogether. High expectations are good, but unattainable expectations are more harmful than helpful. When you let your children know that you believe in them and love them unconditionally, you may find that they’re more likely to take risks and push themselves harder to achieve their goals.

Work as Fun

Do you enjoy work? Maybe not, but there are ways that you can add in the fun factor, especially when you’re doing work with your kids. By your example, they will learn that work is essential but that it can also be exciting and rewarding. You want them to know the joy of completing a hard task because that sense of accomplishment is a key ingredient for future motivation.

Skillful Management

Time management and organizational skills are vital tools for motivating your children. You’re helping them succeed by setting expectations, creating deadlines and schedules, providing organized materials, and supplying opportunities for interactive learning. Learning can happen anywhere, but in the homeschool setting it should be well planned and enjoyable rather than chaotic and frustrating. Especially during the early years, kids need structure and direction to give them a foundation for self-control and independence later on.

How do you know that your children are motivated learners? When they ask you thoughtful questions, when they seek out answers on their own, or when they come to you with beaming faces to show off a completed project, you’ll know that the love of learning has taken root.

• • • • •

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.

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: expectations, independent learning, motivation

Getting Through College Sooner

January 19, 2017 by Guest Writer

As a mom, you’re always looking towards the future, thinking about the timetable of the next twenty years. Traditionally, kids are expected to be done with high school at 18, done with college at 22, finished with the master’s degree at 23, done with the doctorate at 26. We all know that the perfect timetable is just a general guideline, not a hard-and-fast rule that can be applied to everyone. Some children take more time to complete certain grades or phases of school. For others, education can be accelerated. Have you thought about encouraging your child to finish with college in just three years? Discover some ways that you can help your young adult move through those years of higher learning more swiftly.

Advanced Placement 

With Advanced Placement (AP), a high school student can take a course and receive college credit. After the course is complete, your teen takes a standardized AP exam, administered by the College Board organization, to verify that he has done college-level work. Check the AP website for more information about exams in areas such as science, math, English language and literature, foreign languages, social studies, and fine arts. Under each of those categories, you’ll find exams for specific subjects, like biology or computer science.

College-Level Examination Program 

The College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) is similar to AP, except that your teen doesn’t have to take a course. This type of standardized exam gauges proficiency. Basically, if your student already excels in a particular subject, he or she doesn’t need to study that same material again at the college level. CLEP exams are available in all the subjects for which AP is available, plus several others such as accounting, marketing, and management. Visit the College Board website for more information.

Summer School

Summer school is a popular way of shortening a student’s time in college. Students stay around on campus after the school year ends to continue their education over the summer. Since the cost for summer courses is usually lower than those taken during the school year, this is a great way to save money on tuition, room, and board.

Online Courses

Many colleges and universities offer distance-learning courses. Not all courses are available in this form, of course, but your student may be able to check off several classes by completing them remotely from home. Plus, taking courses online typically allows schedule flexibility so that your student can keep working on his education while still earning money from a summer job.

Considerations of Maturity and Responsibility

Before you encourage your teenager or young adult to pursue summer school, online courses, CLEP exams, or AP classes, consider a few important factors. Maybe your son or daughter has the intellectual prowess to churn through college at a faster rate, but does she have the emotional maturity to handle the extra pressure? Does he have the mental maturity to really take in what he is learning and benefit from it, or is he becoming burned out? Sometimes, a teenager may simply be too young to handle the rigors of an accelerated schedule, and that’s okay. Young adults develop at different rates. In fact, older college students tend to take learning much more seriously than the younger ones. They often apply themselves more diligently and spend less time on other pursuits.

Colleges and universities are about learning, but there are also extracurricular activities involved. Students who accelerate through high school and arrive at college at age 15 or 16 may have limited opportunities for certain sports or other team activities because they’re simply too young, too inexperienced, or not as strong and tall as the older students. This issue is not an insurmountable roadblock to the idea of accelerated education, but it is something to consider.

Young people in America today have lots of options, and accelerating college is just one of many. For some teens or young adults, it may be wiser to take life more slowly and to mature gradually, both intellectually and emotionally. For others, moving quickly through college may be ideal—the right way to begin a life of glory to God and service to others.

• • • • •

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.

Filed Under: Simplified Homeschool Tagged With: accelerated education, advanced placement, AP courses, CLEP, college, distance education

5 Fun Things to Do on Your First Day of Homeschool

August 4, 2016 by Guest Writer

5 Things

Are you ready to jump back into homeschooling? Summer is fun and relaxing, but for busy little minds it can eventually become boring. Your kids are probably eager to hold their new textbooks in their hands and start on new projects. Here are some ways to feed that excitement and make good memories on your first day of homeschool.

1. A Special Breakfast

On the first morning of the homeschool year, you’ll have a lot of things to do, but make time to eat a nutritious breakfast together. Whether you add extra bacon to the plate, indulge in doughnuts or cinnamon rolls alongside the scrambled eggs, or whip up some pancakes in unique shapes, the breakfast becomes special and memorable. You could even make a breakfast casserole the previous evening and warm it up in the oven that morning.

2. Annual Photos

Many families take a few pictures before the first day of school begins, and  you can do the same thing with your kids on the first day of your homeschool. Gather everyone on the doorstep, in front of a big tree, or in the driveway, and snap a photo. If you take your “back-to-school” photos in the same spot annually, you’ll be able to look back at the pictures someday and see your kids’ growth from year to year.

3. Journal Entries and Surveys

Are your kids involved in journaling? Have them write an entry about their interests, expectations, and dreams for the year. Save the entries in a special envelope or notebook and read last year’s entry at the beginning of each new homeschool year. Another way to do this is to have the children take the same survey every year and record their answers.

4. Surprises and Gifts

Is there something useful or educational that your children want? Maybe you can give it to them on the first day of homeschool. The surprise gift could be as simple as binders with their favorite characters on them, or as complex as a science kit or an art set.

5. Games, Crafts, and Scavenger Hunts

Remember that the kids are transitioning from a summer of outside learning fun. You can keep the workload a bit lighter on the first day by including an exciting craft or an educational game or two. A “back-to-school” scavenger hunt for their supplies or their new textbooks is another way to keep the summer spirit alive as everyone eases back into the homeschool routine.

Share some of the traditions that your family enjoys on the first day of your homeschool!

• • • • •

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.

Filed Under: Simplified Homeschool Tagged With: first day of homeschool, first day of school, homeschool

Remembrance in Action: A Memorial Day Project

May 24, 2016 by Guest Writer

American flag

Memorial Day blends sadness with gratitude as we remember those who died in the service of our country. Unlike Veterans’ Day, which honors the soldiers who served and returned, Memorial Day recognizes those who gave up their lives fighting for freedom. Keeping Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day straight is difficult for kids, but doing activities and writing about the day will help them understand its meaning.

Step 1. Adopt a Soldier

About a week before Memorial Day, choose a soldier to remember. Perhaps there is someone in your family who gave his or her life while serving in the armed forces, or perhaps you know of a family friend or a neighbor who lost a loved one in war. If possible, choose someone whose grave is in your area, so that you and your children can visit briefly as part of your Memorial Day project.

Step 2. Do Some Research

Once you have chosen a soldier to remember, it’s time to do some research about him or her. The individual’s birth date, date of death, hometown, place of service, and other details are all helpful pieces of information that you can find out online or from the soldier’s family members. Learning a little bit about the soldier will make him more real to your children and deepen the meaning of his sacrifice. While they research, kids can take notes using this graphic organizer.

Step 3. Write About It

Younger children can write a few sentences about what they have learned, in the form of a short narrative or a timeline. Visual learners may enjoy drawing some illustrations to go with the written part. Older kids can turn their research into an essay about Memorial Day or the price of freedom; or they could design a timeline with information and illustrations to celebrate the soldier’s life. Posting photos of the project on Facebook, gifting the illustrations to the soldier’s living relatives, or reading the essay aloud to a group of fellow homeschoolers are just a few ways that your children can share their projects.

Step 4. Make a Stars and Stripes Wreath

To adorn your soldier’s grave on Memorial Day, you and your kids can make a red, white, and blue wreath reminiscent of the American flag. You’ll need the following supplies:

  • Red, white, and blue bandanas from a dollar store or thrift shop
  • A wreath form from a craft store
  • Twist ties
  • White felt
  • A hot-glue gun

Wrap blue bandanas around the left side of the wreath, securing them with twist ties and leaving the ends free. Once you have done about half of the wreath, wrap the remaining portion in alternating red and white bandanas. Cut a couple dozen five-pointed stars from the white felt and hot-glue them onto the blue bandanas.

Step 5. Decorate a Soldier’s Grave

On Memorial Day, take the kids to visit their soldier’s grave. Check with the cemetery to make sure it’s okay for you to leave the wreath at the grave to honor the soldier’s memory.

What other activities have you done to teach your kids the importance of Memorial Day? Share them with me in a comment.

• • • • •

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.

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: activity, family, history, homeschool, language arts, Memorial Day, Memorial Day project, writing assignment

Cycle of Life, Circle of Love

May 5, 2016 by Guest Writer

When you first imagined motherhood, you may have envisioned glowing, beautiful moments—rocking a soft, sleeping baby in a lovely nursery, or leading a wide-eyed toddler through a world full of wonders.

Then the tiny human arrives, and you feel waves of powerful love, more love than you knew you had. At the same time, your life gets very, very hard. You live from moment to moment—struggling to stay awake during yet another midnight feeding, or carrying a protesting toddler out of the grocery store for yet another lesson in obedience.

You want to freeze your little ones in time so that you can enjoy their sweetness forever; yet you can’t wait for them to grow up a little so that you can have a few moments to rest.

Time inevitably ticks away.

Your daughter dissolves in tears over a squabble with a friend, and you comfort her. Your son becomes frustrated over a tough subject, and you encourage him.

"Time goes by--minutes inching and rocketing past. You laugh and learn and make memories together."

More time goes by—minutes inching and rocketing past. You laugh and learn and make memories together.

Sometimes she rolls her eyes at you, and you keep loving like Christ. Maybe he mumbles a half-greeting on the way to his room, and you keep trying to communicate and connect.

They leave for college, for a job, or for an adventure. It feels horrible and wonderful at the same time—because you miss them so much, and yet you’re so proud of them.

You realize, at some point during those years, just how much your own mother did for you. Maybe she failed you in many ways, or maybe she was nearly perfect. Either way, she gave you life, and probably much more along with it.

When you become a mother yourself, you realize what your mother needs from you.

This Mother’s Day, tell her that you finally understand. Tell her that you’re grateful for everything she did for you, every minute of every year. Let her know that you love her.

Maybe you’ll buy her a card, some flowers, some candy, or a special gift. Just don’t forget to give her your gratitude, your love, and your time. That’s what you want from your kids, and she feels the same way.

If your mother has passed on, take some time to remember her on Mother’s Day. Share a memory, read her favorite Bible verse, or sing her favorite song. Maybe you are blessed with a legacy of godly grandmothers whom you can honor in memory or in person.

If you’re feeling weary in well-doing as you face the challenges of motherhood yourself, find some encouraging spiritual resources to sustain your soul for the journey ahead. One day, your own child may come back to you and say, “Mom, now I understand how much you love me.”

Sign up for our Homeschool Solutions eNews to receive news about a special Mother’s Day surprise we’re planning!

• • • • •

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.

Filed Under: Simplified Homeschool Tagged With: family, gift, honor, Mother's Day, motherhood, time

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