• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

BJU Press Blog

  • Home
  • Shop
    • Shaping Worldview
  • Simplified Homeschool
  • Successful Learning

lapbooks

Homeschool Terms Explained

March 6, 2018 by Jenna

a field of homeschool terms
Just like people in a specialized business or career field, homeschoolers can sometimes have their own special language. For example, there are homeschool terms for styles and for particular tools. If you’re considering homeschooling or haven’t been homeschooling for very long, these terms may still be a mystery to you.

Here are some popular homeschool terms you may be hearing.

  • Traditional Homeschool

Traditional homeschooling is the homeschooling style that most new homeschoolers may be most comfortable with. It emulates a traditional school experience to some extent. It relies on a regular curriculum and usually a schedule of some kind. But parents may set their own schedules and choose a curriculum that works with their children’s learning styles and personalities.

  • Charlotte Mason

Charlotte Mason is a homeschooling style that focuses on every aspect of children’s lives—from their home life to their habits, to how and what they study. The style relies on living books, which I will discuss next, and repetition for learning. But the style doesn’t require dry, meaningless repetition for memorization. Rather, it involves repeating ideas in children’s own words for retention. It’s a liberal arts style in that it encourages studies in all the academic disciplines, as well as electives and crafts. The more children can be exposed to, the better they will be able to determine their own interests.

  • Living Books

An essential aspect of Charlotte Mason homeschooling, living books may also be used by unschoolers or traditional homeschool styles as supplements. Living books aren’t informational textbooks. Instead, they inform through narration. The goal is to get children to connect with the subject of a book on a personal level. There’s no set definition of what a living book is. Ideally, they’re written from a single point-of-view, have a witty and engaging style, and don’t belittle children’s ability to understand. One veteran homeschooler suggests The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjery Williams (for younger children) and The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day by Scott O’Dell (for teens).

  • Classical Education

Classical is another homeschooling style that guides children through three stages of learning, called the trivium. The stages don’t relate to traditional grades; they’re more like levels of preparedness. The stages are grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The grammar stage relies on the idea that young children mostly enjoy learning academic rules, repetition, and memorization. At the very least, they’re good at it. In the logic phase, they explore cause and effect and the question “why?” Then in the rhetoric stage, they apply the rules and inquisitiveness from the first two phases to creativity. Classical systems encourage children in the rhetoric stage to begin pursuing their unique interests.

  • Unschooling

Another homeschool style, unschooling is radically opposite in execution from traditional or classical. It doesn’t rely on schedules or a structured curriculum to accomplish learning. Instead, it encourages children to experience and do things that interest them. Their interests should lead them to pursue literature, science, math, or history, rather than the subjects leading them to their interests. A key element of unschooling is that it can look completely different from family to family. One family may be completely schedule free, while another may consistently rely on a mixture of unit studies, which I will discuss next, lapbooks, living books, and, rarely, traditional textbooks to delve deep into an interesting topic.

  • Unit Studies

Yet another homeschooling style, unit studies combine all the academic disciplines in the pursuit of a single topic. For example, in doing a unit study about hurricanes, children might explore historically significant hurricanes, read novels featuring them, research the meteorology behind them, and determine the rate of frequency of hurricanes in a certain area. Unit studies allow families to pursue one topic together, with each child completing work at an appropriate level.

  • Lapbooks

As a method children can use to store or study what they have learned, lapbooks work with almost any homeschooling style. They’re usually a series of smaller books stored in a larger manila folder that folds out onto their laps. Children will represent in some way—whether by crafting, drawing, or writing—what they have learned on a topic or subject. Working with the information in this way encourages retention.

Where Does BJU Press Fit in Homeschool Terms?

Though several of these styles could be combined with BJU Press curriculum, it would work best if you thought of BJU Press’s approach as its own homeschooling style. You as the parent are the key to your children’s learning. You have the freedom to choose a schedule and a teaching style that works best with your children. Your children should be able to focus on enjoying learning and gaining a mastery of each concept. BJU Press offers hands-on activities that make learning come alive and develop understanding, while inductive questions boost critical thinking skills.

Hopefully, I’ve been able to explain some of the lingo of the homeschooling world. Good luck on the exciting journey you have ahead!

Filed Under: Simplified Homeschool Tagged With: charlotte mason, classical education, homeschool terms, lapbooks, living books, unit studies, unschooling

An Activity for Making History Memorable (Printable)

January 24, 2017 by Jenna

You never know when a fun little activity might become one of your child’s favorite memories. And what mother wouldn’t be pleased if one of her child’s favorite memories turns out to be about learning something new?

Recently I sat down with Michelle Jarrell, one of our Distance Learning teachers, to talk about the file folder games that she developed for her Heritage Studies 2 class. As we were talking, I couldn’t help but remember something I did when I was a kid. One day I got into the filing cabinet where my mom kept all the homeschool supplies and pulled out the laminated file folders she used to teach numbers, colors, and shapes. There were labels where the shapes and numbers went, and each piece had Velcro on the back. Now I laugh about the fact that at the time I was more fascinated by hearing the ripping sound than by putting the shapes where they belonged.

Mrs. Jarrell’s file folder games give a visual and hands-on element to heritage studies, which can be a not-so-visual and hands-on subject. A bit like lapbooks, file folder games focus on specific lessons rather than on broad overviews. And, they’re a lot of fun to make and to play.

The first few chapters of Heritage Studies 2 focus on the creation of the universe, basic geography, citizenship, and leadership. Chapter 5 onward covers the journey of the Pilgrims to the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence. In her class, Mrs. Jarrell gives her students the option to either complete an Activity Manual page that contains four to six dates from the chapter or add four to six dates to the master timeline that she designed. Here’s how you and your child can put together your own master timeline from AD 1000 to 1800.

Master Timeline Activity

Things you will need

  • Three file folders
  • Hook-and-loop fasteners (like Velcro®) or adhesive putty (like Sticky Tack)
  • Tape
  • Glue
  • Master timeline activity (printable)

Directions for timeline

  1. Print out the master timeline activity.
  2. Open all three file folders and line them up, side by side.
  3. Tape the folders together to make a single sheet approximately three feet by one foot.
  4. Cut out the timeline strips and glue them onto the folders, starting with 1000 at the top.
  5. Cut out the date and event tiles.
  6. As a review or as your child encounters new events in the history textbook, have him stick each tile where it belongs on the vertical timeline using tape, adhesive putty, or a hook-and-loop fastener.

Take a look at some of the other fun file folder games your child will find in Heritage Studies 2!

Filed Under: Successful Learning Tagged With: activities, file folder games, heritage studies, history, lapbooks

Primary Sidebar

As parents, teachers, or former homeschool students, we are passionate about homeschooling from a biblical worldview. We hope these teaching tips, fun activities, and inspirational stories support you in teaching your children.

Email Signup

Sign up for our homeschool newsletter and receive select blog posts, discounts, and more right to your inbox!

Connect with Us!

                    Instagram     

Read Posts on Specific Subjects

Early Learning
Foreign Language
History
Language Arts
Math
Science

Footer

Disclaimer

The BJU Press blog publishes content by different writers for the purpose of relating to our varied readers. Views and opinions expressed by these writers do not necessarily state or reflect the views of BJU Press or its affiliates. The fact that a link is listed on this blog does not represent or imply that BJU Press endorses its site or contents from the standpoint of ethics, philosophy, theology, or scientific hypotheses. Links are posted on the basis of the information and/or services that the sites offer. If you have comments, suggestions, questions, or find that one of the links no longer works, please contact us.

Pages

  • About BJU Press
  • Conversation Guidelines
  • Terms of Use & Copyright

Archives

Copyright ©2019 · BJU Press Homeschool