BJU Press Blog

homeschool

How to Use Teacher Editions in Your Homeschool

by

using teacher editions

Like many of you, I am in the process of figuring out my homeschool curriculum order for our next school year. I’m trying to decide what Distance Learning subjects and textbook kits we want to order, what textbooks and teacher’s materials we can reuse from older children, and what “extras” we need. But there’s something that’s definitely going in my order—the teacher editions for any subjects that I plan to teach myself.

I don’t buy printed teacher editions for every subject. My children use Distance Learning Online for many of their subjects, so I have access to the digital teacher editions for those courses if I ever need them. But I teach Reading 3 to my second daughter and Focus on Fives to my third daughter. I have found the teacher editions for those courses to be invaluable.

Let me walk you through my Reading 3 Teacher Edition to show you why I love it so much.

Clear Planning

Like all BJU Press teacher editions, Reading 3 includes a Lesson Plan Overview in the front of each volume. The Lesson Plan Overview gives me a bird’s-eye view of the course. I can see how many lessons we’ll spend on any particular selection and what skills we’ll be focusing on. I use this to help me build my homeschool calendar, but I always end up making adjustments. Sometimes I end up combining lessons or skipping lessons altogether (yes, it’s okay to skip lessons!) based on what else is happening in our homeschool.

Individual Lesson Guides in Teacher Editions

Every lesson in Reading 3 has been carefully thought out. When I open my teacher edition to an individual lesson, I have everything that I need to teach effectively.

Objectives

A glance at the top of the page tells me what pages we’re going to cover in the student textbook or worktext. The lesson objectives are clearly stated so I know exactly what my daughter needs to know by the end of the lesson. And I can clearly see what materials I need for the lesson and where I can find them.

Routine

Each lesson has a routine. We start with going over the vocabulary words that my daughter will need to know in order to understand what she’s reading. Each vocabulary word is presented in context so that my daughter will learn how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of unknown words when she comes across them in her own reading.

Reading Focus

Next we move on to our reading focus, which is the literary skill that the lesson is focusing on developing (like recognizing how the setting impacts the story).  Here, the teacher edition provides instructions on how to introduce these skills and questions that I can ask my daughter to make sure that she understands the instruction.

Reading Selections

Then we jump into the selection itself. The teacher edition provides me with reduced student pages, so I can see exactly what my daughter sees in her student textbook. But I get a few extra features. All the vocabulary words for this particular lesson are underlined in the text so that I can make sure my daughter understands them. I also get some additional notes that help me with biblical worldview shaping and text enrichment.

Guiding Questions

The biggest help for me is the questions and answers that the teacher edition provides. These questions, as I wrote in a previous post, help me develop and assess my daughter’s reading comprehension, and they also help me lead my daughter to have a deep appreciation for the selection. I know from experience that I would not be able to come up with questions like these on my own. Do I ask every question? No. Some we skip because of time. Some I end up expanding because of my daughter’s interest. Remember that the teacher edition is just a guide—you don’t have to do everything. You don’t even have to ask each question exactly as written. You are in charge. The teacher edition is just there to provide support.

Phonics Review

By the time you teach Reading 3, your child should have a good foundation of phonics knowledge. But many third graders (mine included) still need additional phonics practice. So every lesson in Reading 3 includes a review of a phonics principle, and most worktext pages assess that same phonics skill. Don’t feel as if you always have to teach that portion of the lesson. If your child breezes through that portion of the worktext page without mistakes, just move on.

Grading Resources

The teacher edition does include reduced student pages of the worktext pages (with answers), but they are very small. A digital copy of the worktext answer key is included on the CD that comes free with the teacher edition and a printed edition is available for separate purchase.

The CD contains a few other grading tools. The most valuable to me is the rubric that helps me assess my daughter’s oral reading.

Other Resources in Teacher Editions

The CD that comes with the teacher edition contains a wealth of other resources such as teaching aids and additional activities. These are particularly helpful for multisensory teaching. Find the ones that are useful for you and your child and ignore the rest.

While we have been focusing on the teacher edition for Reading 3, all BJU Press teacher materials include the same kinds of helpful resources for teaching your children. Some include a resource CD, some offer multiple volumes of teaching material, and some have online resources available. A teacher edition is one of the most valuable tools that you will find in your homeschool toolbox. But don’t feel bound to it. It is designed to help support you, so make it work for you and your homeschool situation.

If you are interested in previewing any of BJU Press’s teacher editions online, just click the Look Inside button at the bottom of the product image.

Labs That Get the Right Results

by

get the right results from your labs
What do I smell? What was that noise? Why is the water so cold? Can we build a tall, tall tower? My toddler is full of questions about her world. You probably remember those days. So many questions! When we think about all these questions, science naturally comes to mind. But science is not about knowing the right answers. It’s about finding ways to answer the right questions. Children are naturally curious. One of the reasons you might homeschool is to focus attention on what your children find interesting. What better way to get hands-on experience answering questions than with labs?

It may be tempting to let your kids read about lab experiments. You may think that watching a video will teach them the answers just as well. But there are three main benefits to doing the labs.

1. We learn better by doing.

To learn any new skill, you have to try it yourself. Lab exercises in science class are not just teaching your children answers for a test. Labs are about building new skills. When I was a biology student, I didn’t particularly enjoy dissections. Why do I need to cut open a preserved animal to learn where all its parts are? I remember sitting in Human Anatomy and Physiology lab in college. We were dissecting cats. On this day we were trying to find blood vessels. I was stuck on one site where a branching vessel should be. It just wasn’t there. I finally sought help. My professor cut a little further down and found the branch. He was so excited that he called over every student in the lab to see it. I was learning how to think about three dimensional objects, or spatial reasoning. But I was also learning that not every specimen follows the rules. Imagine how useful that experience would be to a future surgeon. Spatial reasoning is also critical for engineers, athletes, artists, and more.

2. With labs, we learn to ask the right questions.

During my dissection, I was asking “Why isn’t the branch point where it’s supposed to be?” If I had asked, “Where is it?” I would likely have kept looking until I found it. When doing a lab exercise, your child may get stuck. Encourage her to ask a different question. Over time, and with experience, she will get better at asking the right questions. Questions are the inspiration of science. You can’t have a hypothesis without first having a question. If it’s a good one, it will motivate the pursuit of answers. When you use a lab manual, encourage your child to ask at least one question beyond the manual. Then see if you can find an answer together. A child pursuing his own question will retain more knowledge.

3. We learn to think critically about results of our labs.

The goal of a lab exercise should not merely be getting to the answer. If that were the goal, watching a video would be just as useful. It’s about the process leading up to the result. I recently saw an article on social media about a handwashing experiment. The headline said it was “just in time for flu season.” But the cover photo of several slices of moldy bread made me cringe. We can all agree that handwashing is important. The experiment seemed to support that idea. So why did I cringe? The headline implied that the experiment showed how to prevent the spread of the flu. But the flu is caused by a virus. In fact, most of what makes us sick is viral or bacterial. But a virus and bacteria won’t grow on bread. The experiment actually had nothing to do with the flu or any illness.

What does the experiment tell us? It tells us that there are organisms, including bacteria and mold spores, on our hands and other surfaces. And washing our hands is the best way to get rid of these. Though the headline and cover photo were misleading, mold was still an effective, even stunning and disgusting, way to get that point across. A lab exercise like this one gives students the opportunity to recognize limitations. With the right guided discussion about what an experiment actually reveals, those limitations can be a hidden strength. They teach valuable thinking skills that just watching a video may not be able to teach.

Getting started at home

Laboratory experiences don’t have to be expensive. Many chemicals needed for experiments are already in your home. For example, you probably already have containers of baking soda, vinegar, table salt, and hydrogen peroxide. It’s possible to extract DNA from a strawberry using dish soap, a coffee filter, and rubbing alcohol. An experiment like this is ripe for questions and critical thinking. Can I extract DNA from a different fruit? What about table salt? My cheek cells? Why do I get different amounts of DNA out of different fruits or the cheek cells? What if my DNA extraction from cheek cells is no more productive than the table salt? What might have gone wrong? Can I try a different technique to improve my results?

You may be surprised how long your children will keep going if they are asking the right questions. Personally, I love it when my toddler is just having fun, but I know she’s learning. If you pay attention to what your child is naturally curious about, you can reap the most benefits.

• • • • •

Valerie is a wife and a mother to a very busy toddler. In her free time she enjoys reading all kinds of books. She earned a BS in Biology from Bob Jones University, minoring in Mathematics, and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from Ohio State University. Valerie has 15 years of experience working in research laboratories and has coauthored 8 original research articles. She has also taught several classes and laboratories at the high school and college levels. She currently works as a data analyst and a freelance writer.

Learning Together: The Heart of Teaching

by

learning together is the heart of teaching
Go back in time with me. Remember that moment—it may have been 20 years ago, or maybe it was a few months ago—when you started to seriously think about what this crazy homeschooling thing would look like for you. You had a picture in your head of you and your kids learning together. Maybe you saw your children huddled in your arms as you read to them. Maybe you saw books scattered on a table, forgotten, as you talked over the moral implications of the Civil War. Or maybe you saw yourself on a nature walk with your children, looking at birds, flowers, or the shapes of clouds together.

When that image came to you, you probably weren’t thinking about why you homeschool or what you hope to accomplish in the next twelve or more years. It was just a little dream of what your journey might look like day-to-day. And you know what the most important part of your dream was? You and your kids working together to learn something. That’s really all that education has ever been—teachers and students learning together.

But the problem is, there’s usually only one of you. When looking for solutions to their homeschool needs, many parents believe that the best resources are ones that their children can use completely independently. Just give the kids the textbook and let them go. Textbooks can be a key part of your homeschool, but they’re not the most important piece. A textbook just can’t replace what you can offer your children as a personal, involved teacher.

Children miss out when they only have a textbook.

You hear a lot about learning styles and customizing your children’s education to their needs. But the truth of the matter is, there’s no magic formula or combination to tell you how your child learns. No child is strictly a tactile learner, strictly a verbal learner, or strictly an auditory learner. Some kids are genuinely good at learning by reading from a textbook, but not all are. In fact, few can learn well from using only a textbook.

Most kids can’t just sit down with a book and siphon up information. They have to work with it to get it. They need to squish it through their fingers, taste it on their tongues, watch it bounce around, and hear what other people think about it. And a book can’t do all that. A book can present information, ask questions, give assignments, or even suggest activities. But it can’t hold a conversation or let a child really experience the information. Even a well-designed textbook will leave your children wanting if that’s all they have for their education.

If you’re involved in their learning process, you can customize their education. When you’re working one-on-one with your children, you’ll know which activities will help them learn and which won’t. It’s not about assigning every activity and hoping that doing them all will help them learn. It’s about picking the ones that are best for your child.

You can encourage understanding through communication.

When I was in high school, I remember moments when a teacher would misspeak or write the wrong number up on the board. Or there were times when students misheard or misunderstood something. When the class was comfortable and open with the teacher, the misunderstanding was usually something minor to fix. All we had to do was ask a clarifying question and we could move on. But there are some students who don’t feel comfortable asking simple questions. Who don’t want to interrupt no matter how confused they are.

Children need someone guiding them through their lessons to help them through moments of confusion. Someone they trust, who they can communicate with easily. My teachers weren’t always good at recognizing when they’d lost a student, but when you’re working directly with your children, learning together, you can usually tell when they’re following or when they’re still two pages behind.

It’s time for a reality check.

Now, we’ve been talking about an ideal—how things should be, and how things are meant to be. But we need to take a good hard look at how things are. Is this one-on-one teaching really possible for you? How many students are you teaching? How much time do you really have to devote to teaching your children yourself? If you’re going to have to spend 20 to 30 minutes teaching per subject and per child, then there’s no way you’ll have time for much of anything besides teaching, especially if you’re teaching more than 3 children. And that’s why you might want to allow your kids to work independently sometimes.

But remember that this isn’t school at home. You’re not confined to teaching specific subjects to specific children at specific times. You can shape your homeschool so that you can realize that dream you had when you started. And so that you and your children can go forward learning together. What will that look like? That’s up to you. It could mean year-round homeschooling. Or it could mean supplementing your teaching with video courses. Maybe it means forgetting about grade levels and teaching everyone together. The point is, it’s up to you how you make it work.

One-room school houses didn’t work because of government regulations and state standards. Having the right rules in place has never been the thing that makes classrooms work. They work because there’s a teacher invested in the lives of the students. At the end of the day, a textbook is just a tool. What children really need is for someone to direct them and partner with them in learning. And who better than you?

Tips for Keeping Kids on Task

by

keeping kids on task
Keeping your children on task in their schooling can be a challenging job, but there are ways to encourage productivity that will help both you and your children. A couple weeks ago, we asked moms on our Facebook page to share their tips for encouraging their kids to stay on task during the school day. We thought we’d share some of their suggestions with you here!

Keep Them Accountable to Each Task

Some children may struggle to focus if you are not beside them. One mom commented on our Facebook post that her daughter works better when she is not alone in her room. She says, “Mine usually does her work . . . with me while I am working and she zips right through it. In her own room she gets distracted and it’s harder.” Another way to help them be responsible for their own time management is to schedule checkpoints throughout the day when you will review their progress. You can set specific goals for them to work on in between check-ins so they know what to expect. If they’re not making those goals, you can also see if they’re struggling. You’ll know when they need help and encouragement to continue.

Remove Distractions

We all know that distractions eat away at a productive school day. Electronics, toys, siblings, pets—all of these can become distractions. How do you eliminate screen-related distractions if you use screens for schoolwork? One way to remove distractions for children who do school on electronic devices is to block pop-up notifications on the screen they are working on. You can also add accountability by making sure the screen they’re working on faces the center of the room. Other distractions such as as toys, games, siblings, or pets can be just as disruptive as electronics. Instead of removing these distractions entirely, offer them during breaks as rewards for hard work. Some moms encourage these other interests by incorporating their children’s favorite games or topics into their lessons.

Offer Regular Breaks

We’ve all had that day when things never seem to stop or slow down. At the end of the day, we may actually scream if anyone asks us to do one more thing. Children will feel the same way when endlessly confined to school work. Downtime is an important part of everyone’s day. One mom shared how she breaks up her kids’ days, “For every 3 items on their list (they have a daily checklist showing all the school they need to do that day) they get a break to play. They seem to focus and stay on task so much better knowing exactly how much they have to do before each break.”

Try setting goals and tasks to work on in short intervals and then give a short break before working again. One productivity method recommends 25 minutes working hard without distractions and then a 5 minute break. During breaks, encourage your kids to stretch, eat a snack, go to the bathroom, or anything else that makes them get out of their seat. I use this method frequently to stay on task and get more done in a shorter amount of time.

Offer Encouragement for Completing a Task

In addition to suggesting frequent breaks, one mom recommends “words of affirmation and snacks they enjoy during the hard parts of the day like Math and Science.” Encouragement can be a powerful tool for keeping your children on task! My piano teacher would give prizes after her students gained points from practicing, passing songs, and playing in front of people. I looked forward to reaching those prizes and would work harder to get there. Remind your children that you recognize and appreciate their hard work. Along with verbal affirmation, rewards like snacks will encourage them and help them focus! Another mom told us she gives her daughter something to look forward to at the end of the day. She says that, during the winter months, getting “to play outside—sledding, skating, skiing, building snow forts, etc.—when the work is done” is “good motivation.” Setting specific goals for your children to meet and then giving them incentives for reaching them can be very effective.

Children may struggle to stay on task no matter how hard we try. But don’t be discouraged! You know your children and their needs. Embrace the journey and remember that homeschool education is about your children and not a to-do list.

Treating Cabin Fever with Scriptural Truths

by

treating cabin fever
Cabin fever. We’ve all had it—that awful sensation that the walls of our home are about to close in on us or maybe even collapse altogether because of the noise level of our children. Our family experienced it last winter when we received heavy rainfall for nine days in a row.  You may even be experiencing it now because of the weather, prolonged sickness, or other challenges.

Unfortunately, cabin fever often brings out the worst in us and our kids. We become impatient. We complain, act with selfishness, and stir up strife. It gets pretty ugly.

How can we cope with cabin fever?

There’s a lot of practical things we as moms can do. We can hop on Pinterest and collect ideas for all kinds of indoor crafts and games, or we can search online for local indoor events. We can fill the time with read-alouds, technology, and enrichment activities. We’re homeschoolers—we’re good at that kind of thing.

But simply filling the time doesn’t fix our problem. Because at its core, our problem is not due to our circumstances. The problem is not the nine consecutive days of heavy rainfall. The problem is the discontentment festering in our hearts and in the hearts of our children. And only meditation on the truths of God’s Word will truly help us. Here are a couple of scriptural truths to remember.

1. God is in charge of the weather.

Psalm 135:6 states, “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.” Dr. Layton Talbert, in his book Not by Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God, writes:

In all these various spheres, the elements of earth are the tools of providence. He controls the clouds, the lightning, and the wind for His ends (Psalm 135:7)—fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds all fulfill His word (Psalm 148:8) and respond to His commands (Psalm 147:15-18). Do you suppose that has any practical relevance for our attitude toward the weather? (p. 11)

2. God sends periods of affliction for our benefit.

A couple of months ago, my family was housebound for almost two weeks because of a relentless stomach virus. It was miserable. But it was also a time of unexpected blessing because during those long days, I was very aware of God’s grace to me personally.

Psalm 119:71 states, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”

God often sends periods of prolonged sickness or other difficulties into our lives in order to teach us more about Himself. Rehearse those lessons to yourself and to your children. They will surely brighten your outlook!