BJU Press Blog

Successful Learning

You want your children to succeed in their education. We do too. We offer practical tips for teaching your children math, science, writing, and more! These tips can be applied to any homeschool curriculum. There are also highlights of our new textbooks with examples of how our curriculum trains your children to have success in their learning.

Start here:

Homeschool Resources: What Are They For?

by

homeschool resources - visual and manipulative packets
Manipulatives and visuals, oh my! If you weren’t sure what all those books are for, then chances are you’re also not sure about all these extra homeschool resources, either. Do you really need them? Are they worth it?

Let’s take a look at some of the homeschool resources you might need on your homeschool journey.

Manipulatives

Manipulatives are perhaps the most essential “extra” resource you can get. They’re incredibly important for young learners. Manipulatives give students a way to physically experience a concept that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see, touch, or interact with. They give children an opportunity to experience a concept with all their senses. In other words, they’re using multisensory learning. For instance, how do you teach a child that one and one makes two? Most of us might take one pen, then get another pen, and then count again to find that we have two pens. Those pens become manipulatives that give meaning to the numbers. In math, manipulatives are a key components for helping children develop number sense.

Manipulative packets are specifically designed to match the scope of concepts taught in a particular course. They make life easier for you because, when you get to a new concept, you already have the manipulatives on hand and you don’t have to find things to use. BJU Press offers manipulative packets for math from K5 through Grade 6. Manipulatives also apply to other subjects, but on a much smaller scale than math. Cutouts and suggested items to use as manipulatives are available in the teacher editions and activity manuals rather than being available for separate purchase.

The most important thing is having manipulatives and using them regularly. That said, can’t you just use any old thing in place of the items in a manipulative packet? You could, but it will get harder and harder to find objects to use as manipulatives. What will you use for groups of hundreds, fractions, or unusual shapes? You may be able to save a little bit of money by not buying the packets, but you might lose what it was worth in time and effort.

Visuals

Visuals may seem self-explanatory, right? They’re things for your students to look at as they learn. It’s another aspect of multisensory learning—learning by sight. But a visuals packet isn’t just a bunch of pictures that explain a Bible lesson or illustrations for a reading lesson. They’re packets of charts, graphs, and other visuals that help students interact with concepts in a different way.

For example, BJU Press’s Phonics and English 1 includes visuals for the phonics characters—the Shorts, the Longs, and others. The visuals packet introduces the student to the character and what the character represents. Then as they go through their workbooks, they’ll see those characters again to remind them about the different phonetic rules. Children often find it easier to remember stories than lists of rules. The visual characters weave together a story for them to use as they’re learning phonics. Other visuals might give a plot diagram for a story, a chart for creating paragraphs, and so on.

Most visual packets come with a subject kit automatically, but do you really need them? You’ll have to decide based on what you know about how your child learns. But remember: children don’t always learn just one way, and sometimes they learn different concepts in different ways. You might need visuals for one lesson but not the next. It’s important to have them available even if you don’t always need them.

Unlike the books, these homeschool resources aren’t typically core materials that you’ll need every day. And not every curriculum provider offers them. Whether or not you should purchase them depends on what you need to do to teach a concept effectively. And that’s a question only you can answer.

Learning Styles and Multisensory Learning

by

learning styles and multisensory learningWhat kind of learner is your child?

I remember being asked that question as a first-time homeschool mom when I was attending a homeschool convention. It was a moment of panic as I realized that I didn’t have an answer. But surely after a few weeks of homeschooling, I will know, I thought. But I didn’t. Fast forward several years, and I still don’t have a neat answer. I know my children better than anyone else, but I’ve found that learning styles aren’t as big of a deal as some people think.

Defining Learning Styles

What exactly are learning styles? According to educational experts, the four basic learning styles are: auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and read/write. (They’re sometimes referred to by the acronym VARK).

Visual Learners: Visual learners need to see pictures. If your child is a visual learner, use plenty of pictures, graphic organizers, maps, and so on to help him or her grasp new information.

Auditory Learners: If your child is an auditory learner, he or she will learn best by listening to someone (through a lecture, audiobook, video with sound, etc.). In order to remember information, these learners often repeat it out loud, set it to music, or perhaps even make up a short poem about it.

Read/Write Learners: Some people learn best by reading information or copying it down. If your child is a read/write learner, provide lots of books and encourage taking notes.

Kinesthetic Learners: Kinesthetic learners are tactile learners. They need to touch, and they need to move. Hands-on activities and experiments are great for learners of this type.

The Limitations of Learning Styles

I’ve found that  even though it’s helpful to know your child’s preferred learning style, it isn’t essential. What you should be aware of, however, is that most children don’t fit neatly into a single category. For example, one of my daughters seems to use three of the four learning styles at different times. She does great with hands-on activities and moves almost constantly, but she also learns well when she can see pictures, when someone asks her questions out loud, or when information is set to music.

To further complicate things, often a child’s learning style will change over time. Most young children need a lot of hands-on learning, but as they mature and their brains develop, they may do better with another learning style.

The Strengths of Multisensory Learning

So what does all this mean for the homeschool mom? Homeschooling is all about being able to give your child the individual instruction that he or she needs to excel. So pay attention. When your child struggles to grasp a concept, try a different approach. But instead of trying to tailor all your teaching to a specific learning style (and exhausting yourself in the process), consider using a multisensory approach instead.

A multisensory approach, as the name implies, incorporates multiple senses into the learning process. Experts believe that children taught with a multisensory approach retain information better because they have more opportunities to connect with what they are absorbing.

Examples of Multisensory Learning

This multisensory approach to learning is one of the strengths of the BJU Press curriculum. It isn’t designed for only one type of learner—it’s a curriculum for all types of learners. I’ve taught three (very different!) children with the BJU Press curriculum, and it has fit each of them

For example, this year my kindergartner is using the K5 Math digital learning program from BJU Press. The first lesson was about identifying a circle. The teacher showed examples of circles (visual), described what a circle looked like (auditory), and invited students to finger-trace circles (touch). This multisensory lesson was exactly what my daughter needed.

BJU Press also recognizes that multisensory teaching is particularly helpful when teaching reading to young children. At this age children still think on a very concrete level, so getting their senses involved will help them better understand what they are reading.

For example, last year, when I was teaching Reading 2 to one of my daughters, I noticed that she was struggling with a particular selection titled “Philip and His Pets” because she had no experience with some of the types of pets mentioned in the story. So we went to the pet store and observed all those animals. It was an extremely helpful experience that increased both her understanding of  the story and her appreciation of it.

If you’re interested in more examples of multisensory learning in math, science, and history, be sure to check out some of our previous blog posts.

Homeschool Curriculum: Going Beyond the Books

by

homeschool curriculum
What are all these books even for?

Have you ever caught yourself thinking that as you unpack your boxes full of homeschool curriculum for the year? Especially if you’re teaching the material yourself, there’s a lot of stuff in those boxes. Mixed in with the excitement for the coming homeschool year, you might find yourself asking, “Do I really need all this? What do these books do?”

Teacher Edition

If you really want to teach your children yourself, you need something that’s more than a glorified answer key. A good teacher edition will give you valuable resources that equip you to teach each lesson in a way that enables your children to understand the content.

You don’t have to be a subject expert to teach your children. And, as a parent, you’re probably already an expert or becoming an expert on how your children learn. What you need in your homeschool curriculum is a resource that equips you to create a learning experience that your child needs—without long, fruitless Pinterest searches.

BJU Press teacher editions offer strategies for presenting the content in ways that will bring children into the lesson. Those strategies may use hands-on learning, visual learning, discussions, or even storytelling. For example, you don’t have to go find resources for your study of light in Science 4. The Science 4 teacher edition offers additional resources for you, including directions for creating a shadow box theater or a kaleidoscope.

To get your children really thinking about what they’re reading, you need to ask questions. But what kind of questions? Which ones will get your kids really thinking about the content? Discussion questions and worldview development strands that you can choose from get your children thinking about the content. Additionally, they help them know how to think about it from a biblical worldview.

Besides teaching strategies and discussion questions, teacher editions also include lesson guides, background information, rubrics, answers, lesson plan overviews, and suggested schedules for the year. A teacher edition is truly a teaching resource.

Student Edition

The student edition or student worktext will be the most familiar piece. You might think of it as the core of your homeschool curriculum. It’s the book your children go to every day—or most days, depending on your schedule—to read lessons and complete assignments. Some textbooks may give you flashbacks to your high school days or make your homeschool feel like you’re just doing “school at home,” but a good textbook goes beyond the stereotype.

Textbook material will often be the first informational texts that your children read. Reading informational texts is an important skill for kids to develop because they will be reading and interacting with informational texts throughout their school days and as adults. When was the last time you read an instruction booklet, a news blog, or a how-to article? What about a devotional book or a sermon transcript? Even this post is an informational text. Information is all around us, and children need to learn how to read it, think about it, and respond to it appropriately. That’s why every BJU Press textbook is designed to help students as they work with informational texts.

Activities

An activities book seems kind of self-explanatory, doesn’t it? It’s a book full of activities. But what do those activities do? Many of them will be simple exercises that require just the book and a pen or pencil. Even though these activities seem simple, they give your kids a chance to review what they’ve learned so that they can develop mastery with the content. Other activities, especially in science, will be important for approaching the content in a different way. Not all children learn the same way, and your children may need to receive different kinds of information in different ways. So BJU Press activities also give your children the opportunity to draw pictures or diagrams of the content, to create models of it, to act it out, and so forth.

Assessments

Tests may be the bane of most students’ existence, but they do serve the vital function of giving you a way to evaluate whether your children are learning the skills they’re supposed to be learning. You may not plan on keeping track of all their scores, especially if you don’t have to submit grades to your state or a homeschool organization. But even if you don’t use the grades—because the numbers don’t really matter anyway—you can still use the information. Are your children showing that they can comprehend what they’re reading? Are they able to use reasoning skills as they answer questions? Can they think critically about the information? Are they drawing valid conclusions about it? Your children aren’t so much acing or failing tests as they are showing successes or weaknesses in their learning.

Do you know what all these homeschool curriculum pieces have in common? They’re all designed to do exactly the thing you want to do in your homeschool—teach. They give you manageable lessons so that you don’t have to go looking for lessons or create your own. Learn more about our textbook kits to find the perfect fit for your family!

Read Out for Oral Reading Skills!

by

teaching oral reading skills
An important part of teaching your child to read includes developing oral reading skills.

Mrs. Walker, who teaches reading for BJU Press Homeschool, has created more online videos to help demonstrate the value—and fun—of reading out loud! Here they are with a summary to introduce each one. I’d encourage you to watch them all and find out more about the importance of oral reading.

When Is Oral Reading Important?

The blog recently focused on silent reading as a valuable skill. The videos linked there show how silent reading helps your student focus and fully understand what he’s reading. But what about reading things out loud? Why is that important? And when’s the best time to do it?

While silent reading will help your student form his comprehensive skills, oral reading will help develop his communication skills. Reading a piece out loud will help your student take what he’s just learned and communicate that to someone else. It’s been said that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. Having your child read aloud will not only help him communicate, it will also make sure he understands what he’s reading!

Save oral reading until after your student has read at least once silently. That way, he has already had time to engage with and process the material. Then he can work through sharing that information with others.

How Do I Grade Oral Reading?

As your student begins reading aloud, you’ll want to grade and record his reading. Tracking his progress helps you determine what areas he might need a little more help with. BJU Press has provided multiple oral reading assessments to help with this—along with specific things to listen for as your child is reading.

Again, we recommend you let your child read the material silently first. You may even want to ask him a few questions to make sure he fully understands what he’s reading.

When he’s ready, listen for the criteria listed on the rubric. Be sure to rate each item honestly but fairly, and give your child positive comments on the things he does well. Oral reading is a difficult skill that requires speaking, pronouncing, and communicating the author’s meaning. He has to do these things all at the same time, so be sure to work through the reading with your child lovingly and patiently.

Why Is Poetry for the Ears?

Poetry is a one form of writing that is well-suited for reading aloud. It’s a creative means of communicating information in a way that’s more memorable, more pleasant to listen to, and potentially simpler to understand. Many familiar songs are poems that express important truths in ways that stick with us and compel us to look at those truths in new and fresh ways.

Even though poetry is not a heavy component of BJU Press curriculum, we include it because we believe it’s important. Your child will likely encounter it regularly as he gets older. Large portions of Scripture are poetry, and we want students to be able to understand it and glean truth from it.

How Do We Perform Dramas at Home?

One more genre that’s meant to be both read and heard is theater! Performing dramas at home is a fun way to teach your student many important skills that he will use for the rest of his life. Public speaking, job interviews, and singing in a choir are all opportunities that doing theater at home will prepare him for.

Theater can also teach your child empathy. As he gets ready to be in a play, he’ll have to learn his lines, create a character, and explore why the character made the decisions he did. Being able to understand a fictional character’s motives will help your student interact with others.

You may also want to have your student go off-script and put things in his own words—which will demonstrate whether your child really understands everything that he’s performing!

We hope these videos have made it clear why reading things out loud is such an important life skill for your student. The more he is able to both understand and communicate what he reads, the more prepared he will be for communicating effectively in whatever positions God is preparing him for.

• • • • •

Matt recently graduated with an MA in communication studies and currently works as a freelance writer. He attributes the wild variety in his current opportunities to the exploration his parents gave him through the homeschooling experience. He enjoys theater, the gym, and choral music and will rarely say no to a cold glass of sweet tea.

Encouraging Silent Reading

by

encouraging silent reading
We are thrilled to announce that Reading 2, a new Distance Learning course taught by Mrs. Walker, is now available! Mrs. Walker has also recorded a few online support videos to give you tips on guiding your child’s reading. Find out what she has to say about silent reading in the videos below.

Why Is Silent Reading Important?

A primary focus of your child’s elementary homeschool education needs to be his ability to read silently. Reading silently is something that all of us do every single day. Imagine how tedious it would be if we were required to read every product tag, highway sign, blog post, and book out loud! But what is the value in teaching your child to read silently? Why is it worth it for him to learn it?

Practicing silent reading skills will enhance your child’s speed, comprehension, and focus in reading. It will activate his imagination and allow him to visualize what he is reading in his own mind. Reading silently will also enable him to engage with what he’s reading. If he has engaged with the content, he will be better able to discerning the author’s level of skill in writing and to discover the author’s intended message. Then he can ask meaningful questions and work to understand the material at a depth he can discuss with you instead of merely repeating back to you what he has read. Finally, reading silently will clear away distractions for your student and help him fully focus on what he’s reading. The more he is able to focus, the more he will get out of what he reads, and the more obvious the applications for his life will be.

In an age when the volume of information is constantly increasing, your child needs to be able to fully understand the content in front of him so that he can evaluate it from a biblical worldview. Training your child to read silently will empower him to work through the large amounts of information he encounters on a daily basis.

What Is Sustained Silent Reading?

Sustained silent reading involves giving your student large blocks of time to dedicate to reading silently. Scheduling times of the day for your child to do nothing but read will clear away the distractions and help your child engage with the content in a meaningful way. Sustained silent reading will also lengthen your child’s attention span, which will enable him to process large amounts of text into applicable truths for his life.

So how can you get your child ready for sustained silent reading? First, be intentional with what you put in front of him. Give him a selection to read that he will find both easy to understand and interesting. Also, make sure you’re available to help him with any difficult words and answer any questions he has. You can also include topics in the selection that cater to your child’s specific interests. Maybe he has specific genres he prefers or certain topics he likes to explore. Giving him things to read in those areas will encourage him to learn more about the things he already loves. Finally, you could set aside a designated spot in your home for him to read, such as a reading nook or a special chair. This way, your child will always know that any reading done there will be both peaceful and focused.

While advertisements and social media typically give us shorter messages, your child can definitely expect to encounter larger amounts of writing in everyday life. Creating long periods of time for your student to read silently will enable him to handle and process larger chunks of information.

How Do You Assess It?

Every skill your child is learning should be measured so that you know how he is growing. But silent reading can be a difficult skill to measure. So how can you evaluate it?

BJU Press Homeschool has provided numerous tools for assessing how well your student is doing with silent reading. Each worksheet contains several components to help you get a feel for your child’s strengths and weaknesses in reading. They provide a goal for your child’s reading—which will help him read both proactively and reactively. The worksheets contain a series of comprehensive questions to make sure your child is thoroughly understanding what he reads. Finally, the worksheets will build up to more difficult questions to stretch your student’s critical-thinking skills, appropriate to his reading level. The ability to measure where your child is with reading silently will help determine where your student needs to grow and encourage him in areas where he already excels.

Hopefully these videos have made it clear why silent reading is such an important practice for your student! And be sure to check out the new Reading 2 course and its exciting amusement park theme. If you purchase the online course, you will have access to it immediately; if you choose DVDs, you can expect your order to ship by August 1. Happy reading!

• • • • •

Matt recently graduated with an MA in communication studies and currently works as a freelance writer. He attributes the wild variety in his current opportunities to the exploration his parents gave him through the homeschooling experience. He enjoys theater, the gym, and choral music and will rarely say no to a cold glass of sweet tea.