Saturday, December 29, 2007

Demographics

United State
Statistically, the typical American homeschooling parents are white, married, home educate their children primarily for religious or moral reasons, and are almost twice as likely to be Evangelical than the national average. They have three or more children, and it is the mother that typically stays at home.

Atypical homeschools may even be found in single parent homes, also known as single parent homeschooling. According to the peer review journal Education Policy Analysis, based on the findings of the National Household Education Survey, of the National Center of Educational Statistics, as early as 1994, 11% of United States homeschools were being led by a single parent, and by 1999, 20.6% were so being led. However, this phenomenon seems to be flying under the radar as the movement does not seem to have significant advocacy from any national agency or organization and the statistics tracking single parent homeschools have currently not yet been posted on the websites of the DOE, the NHERI,or The Barna Group.

There is online advocacy at The Single Parent Home School Website. website sponsored by Morningstar Educational Network and The Work at Home Professional Website.

According to United States Department of Education report NCES 2003-42, "Homeschooling in the United States: 2003", there was an increase in homeschooled students in the U.S. from 850,000 students in 1999 (1.7 percent of the total student population) to 1.1 million students in 2003 (2.2 percent of the total student population).

According to an unsourced National Home Education Research Institute statement, an estimated 1.9 to 2.4 million children were home educated during 2005-2006.

During this time, homeschooling rates increased among students whose parents have high school or lower education, from 2.0 to 2.7 percent among White students; 1.6 to 2.4 percent among student in grades 6-8; and 0.7 to 1.4 percent among students with only one parent.
Race and ethnicity ratios remained "fairly consistent", with 2.7 percent of White students homeschooling, 1.3 percent of Black students, and 0.7 percent of Hispanic students.

As in 1999, rates were highest in families with three or more children (3.1 percent), and higher in families with two children (1.5 percent) than only one child (1.4 percent). There were more homeschool students from families with two parents (2.5 percent) than only one parent (1.5 percent), and students from two parent families where only one parent worked were more than twice as likely to be homeschooled (5.6 percent).

According to a 2000-2001 Barna survey, 41 percent of homeschoolers are White, 29.5 percent are Black and 29.5 percent Asian. (These figures, if true, would be significant, since Whites make up 81.7 percent of the U.S. population, Blacks 12.9 percent, and Asians 4.2 percent). The study indicated that home school parents are 39 percent less likely to be college graduates, 21 percent more likely to be married, 28 percent less likely to have experienced a divorce, and that the household income is 10% below the national average. Barna found that homeschoolers in the U.S. live predominantly in the Mid-Atlantic, the South-Atlantic, and the Pacific states. It found that homeschoolers are almost twice as likely to be evangelical as the national average (15 percent vs 8 percent), and that 91 percent describe themselves as Christian, although only 49 percent can be classified as "born again Christians." It found they were five times more likely to describe themselves as "mostly conservative" on political matters than as "mostly liberal," although only about 37 percent chose "mostly conservative", and were "notably" more likely than the national average to have high view of the Bible and hold orthodox Christian beliefs.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Raymond & Dorothy Moore

Almost simultaneously, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, educational professionals Raymond and Dorothy Moore began to research the academic validity of the rapidly growing Early Childhood Education movement. This research included independent studies by other researchers and a review of over 8,000 studies bearing on Early Childhood Education and the physical and mental development of children.


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They asserted that formal schooling before ages 8–12 not only lacked the anticipated effectiveness, but was actually harmful to children, particularly boys (due to their lag in maturity). The Moores began to publish their view that formal schooling was damaging young children academically, socially, mentally, and even physiologically. They presented evidence that childhood problems such as juvenile delinquency, nearsightedness, increased enrollment of students in special education classes, and behavioral problems were the result of increasingly earlier enrollment of students.[8] The Moores cited studies demonstrating that orphans who were given surrogate mothers were measurably more intelligent, with superior long term effects – even though the mothers were mentally retarded teenagers – and that illiterate tribal mothers in Africa produced children who were socially and emotionally more advanced than typical western children, by western standards of measurement.

Their primary assertion was that the bonds and emotional development made at home with parents during these years produced critical long term results that were cut short by enrollment into schools, and could neither be replaced nor afterward corrected in an institutional setting.[8] Recognizing a necessity for early out-of-home care for some children — particularly special needs and starkly impoverished children, and children from exceptionally inferior homes — they maintained that the vast majority of children are far better situated at home — even with mediocre parents — than with the most gifted and motivated teachers in a school setting (assuming that the child has a gifted and motivated teacher). They described the difference as follows: "This is like saying, if you can help a child by taking him off the cold street and housing him in a warm tent, then warm tents should be provided for all children — when obviously most children already have even more secure housing."

Similar to Holt, the Moores embraced homeschooling after the publication of their first work, Better Late Than Early, 1975, and went on to become important homeschool advocates and consultants with the publication of books like Home Grown Kids, 1981, Home School Burnout, and others.

One common theme in the homeschool philosophies of both Holt and the Moores is that home education should not be an attempt to bring the school construct into the home, or a view of education as an academic preliminary to life. They viewed it as a natural, experiential aspect of life that occurs as the members of the family are involved with one another in daily living.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Beginning of the modern homeschool movement

John Hol

In 1964 John Caldwell Holt published his first work, How Children Fail. A teacher, and an observer of children and education, Holt asserted that the academic failure of schoolchildren was not in spite of the efforts of the schools, but actually because of the schools. Not surprisingly, How Children Fail ignited a firestorm of controversy. Holt was catapulted into American popular culture to the extent that he made appearances on major TV talk shows, wrote book reviews for Life magazine, and was a guest on the To Tell The Truth TV game show. In his follow-up work, How Children Learn, 1967, he tried to demonstrate the learning process of children and why he believed school short circuits this process. Such claims fail to account for the success of many schools, nor allow for the fact that diverse public and private schools in the US have a wide variety of teaching methods and philosophies.

In neither book had he suggested any alternative to institutional schooling; he had hoped to initiate a profound rethinking of education to make schools friendlier toward children. As the years passed he became convinced that the way schools were was what society wanted, and that a serious re-examination was not going to happen in his lifetime.

Leaving teaching to publicize his ideas about education full time, he encountered books by other authors questioning the premises and efficacy of compulsory schooling, like Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich, 1970, and No More Public School by Harold Bennet, 1972 (which went so far as to offer advice to parents on how to keep their children out of school illegally). Then, in 1976, he published Instead of Education; Ways to Help People Do Things Better. In its conclusion he called for a "Children's Underground Railroad" to help children escape compulsory schooling.

In response, Holt was contacted by families from around the U.S. to tell him that they were educating their children at home. In 1977, after corresponding with a number of these families, Holt began producing a magazine dedicated to home education: Growing Without Schooling.

A former WWII submariner, with no professional training in education, Holt's philosophy was simple: "... the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don't need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it." It was no great leap from there to arrive at homeschooling, and Holt later said, in 1980, "I want to make it clear that I don’t see homeschooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools. I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were."

Holt actually wrote only one book about homeschooling, Teach Your Own, 1981, and continued to hope for more expansive reform within education until his death in 1985.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Home Schooling in the United States

Public schools were gradually introduced into the United States during the course of the 19th Century. The first state to issue a compulsory education law was Massachusetts, in 1789, but not until 1852 did the state establish a "true comprehensive statewide, modern system of compulsory schooling."


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Prior to the introduction of public schools, many children were educated in private schools or in the home. During this period illiteracy was common and many children were never properly educated. It was common for literate parents to use books dedicated to educating children such as Fireside Education, Griswold, 1828, Warren Burton's Helps to Education in the Homes of Our Country, 1863, and the popular McGuffey Readers, sometimes bolstered by local or itinerant teachers, as means and opportunity allowed. In contrast, Raymond Moore asserted that the United States was at the height of its national literacy under this informal system of tutelage.

After the establishment of the Massachusetts system, other states and localities gradually began to provide public schools and to make attendance mandatory. In 1912 A.A. Berle of Tufts University, (not to be confused with the Adolf Berle who was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference) asserted in his book The School in Your Home that the previous 20 years of mass education had been a failure and that he had been asked by hundreds of parents how they could teach their children at home.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Homeschooling

Homeschooling – also called home education or home school – is the education of children at home, typically by parents or guardians, rather than in a public or private school. Prior to the introduction of compulsory school attendance laws, most childhood education occurred within the family or community, with only a small portion of the population attending schools or employing tutors. Currently, the great majority of children in developed nations receive their formal education in public and private schools.


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In many places homeschooling is a legal option for parents who wish to provide their children with a different learning environment than exists in nearby schools. Many of these families make this choice on religious grounds. It is also an alternative for families living in isolated rural locations and those who choose, for practical or personal reasons, not to comply with school regulations.

Homeschooling may refer to instruction in the home under the supervision of correspondence schools or umbrella schools. In some places, an approved curriculum is legally required if children are to be home-schooled. A curriculum-free philosophy of homeschooling may be called unschooling, a term coined in 1977 by American educator John Holt in his magazine Growing Without Schooling.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

All Labels you want

Do you need Labels for your products? If you produce any products and need the labels with all type. A label can be made from paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or Sticker. You can print a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. Labels have many uses, such as product identification, name tags, advertising, warnings, and other communication. Special types of Labels called digital labels (printed through a digital process) can also have the special applications such as RFID tags, security printing, and sandwich process labels.


Labels

Stickers Label
Stickers are very widely used when an object requires identification with a word or idea. Brand stickers may be attached to products to identify those products as coming from a certain company. They may also be used to describe characteristics of the products that would not be obvious from simple examination. Nowadays, sticker label be popular for many kind of products, because it easy to use, just pull off and paste to the position you want.

At frointierlabel.com, you can choose many label types which match your product and check for price by instant quote page. Just fill your label details such as size, quantity, Material, etc. Anyway, you can also ask any questions about Labels with their live chat service as well.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Kids Furniture - Creating a Stimulating Environment for a Kids Bedroom

By Mary Engle

Parents know that creating a stimulating environment helps kids navigate the path from helplessness to a child capable of entertaining him or herself, exploring the world, and growing in healthy ways, both mentally and physically. Furnishing a child's room is your unique opportunity to create an environment that provides for such growth. This article offers some ideas to use to create a wonderful kid's room.


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Combine reality and fantasy in choosing kids bedroom furniture. For small kids, it's a fine line, so make the most of it. Use a combination of small and regular-sized furniture, if possible. Kids love a world sized for them, where they are not constantly reminded of being small. There are wonderful miniature foam sofas and chairs available in colorful, stimulating prints that are not very expensive. A side benefit is their ability to open out for guests, just off the ground, so you will be instantly ready for sleepovers. They are lightweight so they are easy for kids to move around. We found that sleepovers were much easier to handle when we were prepared with the right kind of bedding. Any type of fold-out foam furniture, loungers, or sofa-sleepers will make you instantly prepared.

Rockers are wonderful, but chiefly for Mom and Dad. Beanbag furniture is more comfortable for children and is sized for them. Beanbags conform to childrens' shapes as they nuzzle in, supporting lower back, shoulders, and arms simultaneously. Beanbag couches and chairs come in wildly stimulating colors, textures, and prints. They can be furry, lime green, wet-look vinyl, tiger print, or shaped like a horse or elephant. They are lightweight, so they are easy for the child to rearrange at will. With both foam and bean furniture, choose models with hidden, cloth-covered zippers that enable the cover to be cleaned or laundered, but that prevent scratches (on kids and floors) as children move them around. Many beanbag chairs have child safety zippers to ensure that everything stays inside.

Kids need floor space in their bedroom! There they will spread out toys, create fantasy worlds, hold tea parties for stuffy animals, construct toy sets, dump their Legos, and arrange and rearrange their world endlessly. Creating floor space can be difficult when the child gets the smallest room in the house, as is often the case. Furniture that changes shape is, then, the smartest investment for parents.

Futon beds are great because they begin as a couch, creating a comfortable space for parent and child(ren) to cuddle around a book. Later they easily unfold into a twin or double bed. Kids futons are relatively inexpensive because, given the kid's light weight, it is not necessary to invest in an expensive mattress. Kids sleep soundly on the floor, so a cotton mattress will do just fine.

Sitting together on a couch and reading to your child is the best single activity you can do with our children. Reading time is quiet time for focusing, relaxing, relating to each other and to the characters in the book, and for drawing out life's lessons. Reading to your child stimulates a child's imagination, develops vocabulary, and prepares little ones for a lifetime of reading on their own. It is much easier to progress from reading to bedtime than from other activities, particularly the TV. (Leave the TV and the computer in grown-up areas where you can closely monitor what your child is watching).

Once finished reading, the futon couch unfolds, transforming into a cozy bed. A child who has just had a loving, warm time with Mom or Dad is much more relaxed and willing to go to sleep than one who has not. By day, the futon folds back into a sofa to expose all that floor space where brave new worlds will be constructed.

As your child ages, bunk beds or futon bunks make use of airspace to preserve that hard-won floor space. We saw bunk beds as climbing structures where kids could practice climbing in a safe environment. The sleepover stage reaches its peak at pre-teen years, when a child learns to bond with people outside the family. Bunk beds are advantageous as older children tire of sleeping on the floor. Futon bunks combine a single bed on top and a double sofa-bed below. The futon bunk bed is the ultimate space-saver for a child’s room as the bed rises above the clutter while the couch is still available as a comfortable reading space and additional sleeper. All of these make for great kids bedroom furniture.

Mary Engle is a contributor and author for the website Futons and Beanbags

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Free Home School

What is HomeSchool?
Home School is the education of children at home, typically by parents or guardians, rather than in a public or private school. Before the introduction of compulsory school attendance laws in the 19th century, most childhood education in America occurred within the family or community, with only a small portion of the population attending schools or employing tutors. Currently, most children in developed nations receive their formal education at a public institution. So, I would like to tell you a good K-12 Free Homeschool. From k-12freehomeschool.org you can enroll for your child to learning on line. These courses are absolutely free. All courses are offered completely tuition-free for your child from Elementary Home School Curriculum until High School Home School Curriculum. The curricula are delivered through the Internet and includes a combination of online and offline such as eBook, videos, Workbooks.


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Here's how it can be tuition-free.
If you agree with respond to questions, surveys and offers from corporate sponsors, then enroll the application for your child. All children that can be accepting in limited depend on sponsors. The sponsors which donate the tuition for children. More information about your free homeschooling just takes a time and click K-12FreeHomeschool.org Course Catalog.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Tips for Teaching Autistic Children Reading Skills

By Rachel Evans

Teaching autistic children reading skills can be a daunting task. Some children will never read, but many higher functioning children can learn to some extent and can end up being excellent readers.


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Teaching autistic children to read has a very unique set of challenges that requires a parent or teacher to have a lot of patience. It can be like teaching children without autism but with the problems magnified.

Sometimes they can be very cooperative, but for the most part, autistic children have huge problems with attention span, lack any type of motivations to learn to read, and they have problems with figuring out the rules of reading and grammar when compared to children who do not have autism.

Learning to read should be fun for any child, but when it comes to autistic children, you have to reach them on their level, so make sure you chose a method that meets their needs.

For some children sounds are important and using music as a tool to teach musically inclined autistic children to read is a very good move. There are some programs out there on the market that will use music and singing to help a child with autism learn many things. Some also employ the use of games. These interactive methods usually help with attention span and interest, two of the biggest obstacles in this endeavor.

One important thing to remember when teaching an autistic child to read is that most reading requires creative thinking and this is something that many children with autism struggle with. This means that when learning, it is best to focus on materials that are based in reality. Stories about children like them going through their day might be a good place to start. Steer clear of stories that are full of fantasy people like princesses and talking animals.

Continue reading for tips on teaching visual thinkers and sign up for the free Autism newsletter below.

Anyone teaching an autistic child to read should remember that many think visually. This means they are more likely to learn about words and letters through visual stimulation. Almost every child has a special interest, and autistic children are no exception. If they like trains, you may want to use them as a visual guide to learning how to read. If they are interested in the subject matter they are more likely to pay attention for longer periods of time, and are more willing to learn because they will find it interesting.

Each child is different and will learn at a different pace and in a different manner. Don’t be afraid to make use of the reading programs on the market designed with autistic children in mind. These have generally developed either through experience or with strong science behind them. They may be the best way to go about teaching autistic children reading when it seems they have no interest in doing so.

By Rachel Evans. Sign up for a free newsletter for more information on autism. In the newsletter you'll find out more about the signs and symptoms of autism.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Getting Your Toddler Starting To Read Can Be Fun

By Garolyn Bowen

It is a well know fact that young children with an active exposure to language have many social and educational advantages over their peers. One of the best methods to beginner reading is learning at least 100 sight words so that your child can begin to form easy sentences.


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Little Reader Blocks make this "task" both fun and educational. These bright 3" cubes are color coded: green/nouns, blue/verbs, red/pronouns, yellow/adjectives and white/prepositions. As your child begins to recognize several different words you can begin to separate those blocks from the group and have the child make a simple sentence - or you can make up the sentence for him and ask him to read the words.

But, before your child can read independently, he/she will need a set of skills called emergent literacy skills. These skills include - having a large vocabulary of words and knowing how to use them as well as understanding that words are made up of smaller sounds (known as phonemic awareness) and understanding that” marks” on a page represent letters and words. Your child will also need to know the letters of the alphabet. Using these Little Reader Blocks in your child's educational development will help lay a foundation for later independent reading.

As a parent or teacher it is important to never under estimate the importance of books and reading aloud to your child. Sitting down with a child one-on-one or in a group will also help bond your relationship with the child/children. Reading to your child/children will help them make the transition to more advanced reading.

Between the ages of 1 and 3, your child will have triumphs as well as many reading challenges. You, as a parent or teacher, can help your child in this transition as you read stories about other kids and how they handle situations they, themselves, face each day. A child will relate well to another child who also has things that are hiding under their bed, potty training issues, sharing toys and books with other children and much more.

Author: Garolyn Bowen is the owner of this article. Please e-mail me at webmaster@blocksand3dpuzzles.com for permission to use this article.

Garolyn Bowen is the owner of All I Can Imagine, a website that sells the Little Reader Blocks mentioned in this article.

You can reach us at http://www.blocksand3dpuzzles.com/ to view our other educational toys, puzzles, bookends and coat hooks for toddlers and young children.

Retired administrative assistant with an AA in Accounting and diploma in Web Site Design. Owner and operator of All I Can Imagine - a website selling children's learning and fun toys. After retiring in 2006 designed website and became a volunteer with AARP as well as an usher at a local fine arts concert hall. I am an amateur musician.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Keeping Kids Healthy - 10 Health Remedies For Common Ailments

By Hilary Basile

Keeping kids healthy and safe is the top priority for parents. Most parents have experienced numerous trips to the pediatrician’s office and even a few emergency room visits. Outside of a lollipop or a sticker received at the end of the office visit, most kids don’t care to visit the doctor’s office. Following are tips to treat some of the most common childhood ailments to avoid a few office visits (and the corresponding co-pay):



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1. Bloody nose. Nosebleeds are a common occurrence in dry climates but can also be caused by colds, allergies, or an injury. To stop the bleeding, begin by calming down your child and pinching the soft parts of the nose together with your thumb and index finger. Keep their head elevated and maintain your hold for about five minutes. Once the bleeding stops, apply a light coat of Vaseline under each nostril. Use a dark-colored washcloth when wiping their nose so they won’t panic at the sight of blood.


2. Stuffy nose. For those unable to blow their nose, such as infants and toddlers, use a bulb syringe to suction the fluids out of their nose. For older kids, use a non-medicated saline spray and have them blow their nose into a tissue. Use a humidifier during bedtime for easier breathing, and elevate their head with an extra pillow.


3. Cough and sore throat. Soothe a cold by giving kids plenty of liquids, including their favorite soups or frozen treats. Encourage them to drink extra fluids by offering them fun straws to use. To reduce inflammation in their throat, have them gargle a few times a day with warm salt water.


4. Medicine. Use a medicine dropper to squirt liquid medicine into the mouth of an infant or toddler. For an older child who can’t stand the taste of the medicine, ask your pediatrician if you can mix the medicine with another liquid or a small amount of food. For those that must swallow a pill, wash it down by drinking water from a water bottle. The small opening of the water bottle will help guide the pill toward the back of their mouth and down the throat.


5. Eye drops. Pinkeye and other eye infections require eye drops. To ensure the drops stay in your child’s eyes, have them lie down, or have another adult hold them on their lap. Gently pull down the lower eyelid and insert the drops. After the drops are inserted, children should keep their eyes closed for one minute.


6. Soap in eyes. To eliminate the burning sensation from soap in the eyes, encourage your child to wear swim goggles or a sun visor during the next bath to keep the shampoo from running into their eyes.


7. Splinter. Put a piece of scotch tape over the splinter. Most splinters will come off with the tape easily and painlessly. For stubborn splinters, soak the area in warm water for a few minutes and dry before applying the tape.


8. Bee sting. For bug bites where the stinger is still in the skin, remove the stinger by gently scraping the skin horizontally with your fingernail or with the side of a credit card. Apply a paste made of equal parts of baking soda and water. This will relieve the pain and itching.


9. First degree burn. To treat a first degree burn, run cool water over the burn until the pain is relieved then lightly wrap a gauze bandage around the area. Don’t apply ointment or lotion on the affected area. To treat a sunburn, place a cool wet washcloth over the area for approximately 10 minutes. Follow up with a light moisturizer or Aloe Vera.


10. Band aid removal. For pain-free band aid removal, rub a little baby oil around the edges of the bandage. Wait a few minutes and the band aid should slide off easily.


Use these health remedies to treat your child for common ailments.


Hilary Basile is a writer for http://www.myguidesusa.com/ At MyGuidesUSA.com, you will find valuable tips and resources for handling life’s major events. Whether you’re planning a wedding, buying your first home, anxiously awaiting the birth of a child, contending with a divorce, searching for a new job, or planning for your retirement, you’ll find answers to your questions at http://www.myguidesusa.com/

Find parenting tips and resources at http://www.myguidesusa.com/becomingaparent

Saturday, November 10, 2007

What Are Word Families And Why Are They An Important Reading Strategy

By Deanna Mascle

When we consider all the elements that go into becoming a skilled reader it seems a monumental task and yet some how young children learn the many different decoding skills necessary to them and most become proficient readers within the first few years of school.


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However not all young children learn to read with ease and even those who will eventually succeed face struggles on the road to success. One easy way that parents can help smooth the path to reading success for their children is through the use of word families.

Word families, sometimes called phonograms or chunks, can really help emergent readers begin to understand our complicated, and often inconsistent, language by providing some predictable patterns within words. As you and I learned to read, we picked up these patterns effortlessly, and they still help us when we try to decode new words. When we direct our students' attention to these same patterns, they too will be able to untangle the seemingly unrelated sounds of English.

When learning to read, patterns are important. Children recognize word patterns and this makes it easier when sounding out words.

For example, let us consider the "all" word family. First, show "all" to the child and have them repeat the sound. Then show the word "ball" and demonstrate how you can "read" the word by first making the "b" sound and then the "all". Repeat it slowly and then more quickly. Now continue with some other members of the "all" family such as call, fall, hall, mall, stall, tall, wall.

Can you see how much easier this method of using "chunks" of letters is compared to sounding out one letter at a time? We break words into chunks naturally as skilled readers and teaching children this skill can help them learn to read.

What is even better is that once children learn the 37 most common word families in English they will be able to decode 500 words. That puts emergent readers well on their way to mastering the entire decoding process. The most common word families include: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk.

Word families are indeed an efficient way to get children reading. Once children learn these one-syllable phonograms then they will more easily be able to decode longer words, too.

Exposing your child to word families, teaching the use of these language patterns, and reinforcing the knowledge with rhyming games and activities will help your child learn to read.

Visit Deanna Mascle's blog Reading Strategies at YouCanTeachYourChildToRead.com to learn more about Word Families

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Why Do I Need To Know How To Read From A 10 Year Old Girl's Mouth Updated

By Linda Meckler

Do you have children that do not like to read? Do you have children that spend all their spare time on the computer? Do feel frustrated because you know how important it is for your children to be able to read and comprehend what they have read? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, read on.


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I am the author of a children’s book for ages 8-14. I always make it a point to ask children that age this question – “Do you like to read?”

I am sorry to report that the answer to this most important question for the most part is very depressing – “No.”

I want to cry and pull out my hair for such a reaction for our future generations. Reading is not only an important part of each of our lives it is also a necessity.

I wrote an article about a friend of mine who at the age of 95 finally took the first step to achieve a goal that he has found impossible and frustrating to achieve on his own. LEARN HOW TO READ.

If our children do not learn how to read how can they understand computer software. Believe me that is extremely complicated in some cases. Without being able to read and understand how to operate the software even their favorite toy - the basic computer will turn against them.

If you can not read how will you be able to continue in school and function in our everyday world? What kind of job do you think your children will be able to achieve when they become of age to work? I hope they have a strong body, hands and back.

As a parent and grandparent ,I strongly urge you to spend time when your child is a tiny baby throughout their elementary school years and read to them. When they are old enough to read on their own - have them read to you. Then discuss together what the story was about. Have the child make comments on the good the bad and the ugly of the story.

The time you spend with your children reading and talking together is the times that will bond you together for your lifetime. It is a special, precious time and should be anticipated on a daily basis – like breathing.

I hope I never hear these words again from a child’s mouth. “Why do I have to learn how to read?”


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Thank you for reading my article. Please feel free to read my numerious other articles on various subjects.

Copyright 2006 Linda E. Meckler

Linda is the author of her first children's book, “Ghost Kids Trilogy.” Christy, 12 and her Brother Brad, 16 moves into an old house on top of a mountain and meet two Ghost Kids. Become involved with all the characters and all the adventure and mystery.

Then we have a mysterious, magical Blue Vase where Uncle Charlie the villain is trapped. He wants out of the Blue Vase and will exchange information with Christy and Brad where Pirates’ Treasure is Hidden.


Take a walk with Christy and Brad down a dark hall hunting for Pirates” Treasure. You will think were you there right there with them.

Love, Family Values and Charity burst off the pages.

Posted on my website http://www.lmeckler.com/ store are 4 E books. - How to appeal Medical Bills - Appeal and Collection Letters for Medical Providers - Boost Your Self Esteem and Blossom - Computers Cause Pain A Love My Hand Pad will be on sale soon in my website.

Check out my website http://www.lmeckler.com/

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Closer Than You Think Here’s the deal…

I know that when you’re looking for a Missouri car dealer that you want to find the very best quality new and used vehicles. Well here’s the catch…Conklin Fangman, the Kansas City, Missouri used cars experts, has the best selection of all the new and used cars that you’ve been looking for in one great location. Why not check them out today and save yourself time searching other places that won’t have the car that you want anyways. Trust me…you’ll be glad you saved yourself the time.


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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Do you know about Colloidal Silver?

Silver is a metallic element that is mined as a precious metal. It has various industrial uses such as jewelry, silverware, electronic equipment, dental industrial, photographic processing and disinfecting water. Silver has had some medicinal uses going back for centuries. However, more modern and less toxic drugs have eliminated most of those uses. A few prescription drugs containing silver are still available.


Mesosilver


Colloidal silver is a colloid of silver particles in water. Mesosilver® as an alternative-health product that it is a beneficial nutritional supplement. Advocates of colloidal silver claim it to be an useful supplement to their diet, providing them with improved health and well being and a low incidence of colds and flu. Mesosilver® is 0.9999 pure silver in colloidal form and the Most Effective colloidal silver. A true silver colloid consists mostly of silver particles. The silver nanoparticles in Mesosilver typically measure 0.65 nanometers or less in diameter, which is slightly larger than twice the diameter of an atom of silver. Each silver nanoparticle consists of approximately 9 silver atoms. More details of colloidal silver here...

Monday, November 5, 2007

The beautiful Teak Wood Bench

Dear readers,

Who like to buy some new outdoor bench or table? Teak wood furniture is the best choice for you such as teak table set with teak benches that depending on the size of the space you are using.


Teak Tree

Teak wood is a genus of tropical hardwood trees in the family Verbenaceae, native to the south and southeast of Asia, and is commonly found as a component of monsoon forest vegetation. They are large trees, growing to 30-40 m tall, deciduous in the dry season. This kind of wood is saving for termite and weevil eat.



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The teak garden furniture from beautiful teak wood are high quality outdoor furniture at the most affordable prices from many styles and size that fits for your space. There are many teak benches style such as Backless Bench, Traditional Bench, Islands Bench. All products are made with professionally crafted from the finest quality teak wood and are available in
practicable sizes that fit for you. Anyway you can see some teak benches detail from teakwoodpatiofurniture.com.

Fiction Writing Is Obsolete

By Linda Meckler

Are you a fiction writer and never been published? Do you write fiction and self publish your own books? Have you found that fiction is not what the books stores are stocking on their shelves now? If the answer is yes, read on.


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I am the author of a children’s fiction book and I have been trying to market my book. The easy part was writing my book. The hard part is the marketing.

Since my book is an adventure, mystery that is geared for children’s imagination and enjoyment of reading it is not what the retail people are buying.

The publishers and retail stores want non-fiction or historical novels even for children’s books.

Yes I loved to write my book and all my children’s books that are still unpublished and I am very sorry that I don’t feel the criteria for non-fiction - historical books.

I am afraid for all the children in this world today who find reading boring and time consuming. Who spend all there free time playing electronic games which is definitely more exciting than reading a book. What kind of adults will these children become in this complicated world?

So I say to you the retail people of America. Give the new authors a break. Try to find it in your heart as parents, grandparents let fiction live again and let’s start children reading again.

Thank you for reading my article. Please feel free to read my other articles.

Copyright 2006 Linda E. Meckler

"Ghost Kids Trilogy," Christy, 12 and her Brother Brad, 16 moves into an old house on top of a mountain and meet two Ghost Kids. Become involved with all the characters and all the adventure and mystery.

Christy and Brad and Ghost Kid Andrew, 8 and his baby sister Kristal Ann, age 14 months want to be reunited with their parents.

Then we have a mysterious, magical Blue Vase with Uncle Charlie the villain is trapped. He wants out of the Blue Vase and exchange he will tell Christy and Brad where Pirates’ Treasure is Hidden.

Take a walk with Christy and Brad down a dark hall hunting for Pirates” Treasure. You will think were you there right there with them.

Love, Family Values and Charity burst off the pages.

Check out my website http://www.lmeckler.com/

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Online Tutoring for your child

Dear parents,

I would like to present the best online tutor that allows students to gain access tutoring services from school and home. At TutorVista.com have many subjects for choosing which your child needs to learn add such as English Math, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Science and History. There are also having services for schools implement; By-The-Tutor-Hour, or By-The-Student.

By-The-Tutor-Hour

TutorVista team will tutorial for each computer and hour of operation. This model is priced by the tutor hour and there is no limit to the number of students you can work in during these hours. Tutoring is available for any of TutorVista’s standard subjects before, during or after school as long as the school has scheduled a tutor at that time.

By-the-Student

In this model, the school arranges for specific or all students to have access to unlimited tutoring covering all TutorVista non-test-prep subjects anytime and from anywhere, or a specific number of test-prep hours for specific students.

Anyway, you can watch TutorVista featured on NBC's Today Show below.


Students and administers may open the tutoring session using an e-mailed invitation or by logging in with an user name and password at tutorvista.com and launching the tutoring session. Try TutorVista's School Advantage program to get a head-start on learning.



Concepts about print

Understanding print involves recognizing and understanding the mechanics of text. A reader must understand that text contains a message; that it flows from left to right and from top to bottom; that individual words on the page correspond to individual spoken words, and so on. Written English has a structure, and understanding that structure is prerequisite to good decoding skills.


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Again, a children's writing is a good way to reveal their understanding of the mechanics of text. Even children that are not writing well-formed letters can reveal what they know about print - very young children who have some experience with text "write" starting at the top, left corner of the page, writing in parallel, horizontal lines from left to right, and from the top of the page to the bottom of the page. The "words" the child forms are separated by spaces, and may even contain letter-like symbols. Sometimes children even insert some attempts at punctuation into their creations.

A teacher can also observe how the child handles a book, and can assess the child's knowledge about how information is presented in the book. A teacher can determine the child's general knowledge of books (Does the child know where the cover is? Does the child hold the book right-side-up? Does the child turn the pages appropriately? Does the child know that the message of the book is contained in the text?), and the teacher can gather knowledge about more specific details (Does the child have one-to-one correspondence between printed words and spoken words? Does the child know what a sentence is and what punctuation is? Can the child identify capital letters and lower-case letters?).

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Whether you need offshore outsourcing or you need software development, Hundsun is where I would recommend you go. They've been helping companies with outsourcing China solutions for years, and they're experts.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Letter knowledge

The letter is the basic unit of reading and writing in English, and familiarity with the letters of the alphabet has consistently been shown to be a strong predictor of future reading success. While not sufficient in itself for reading success, familiarity with the letters of the alphabet is important for developing decoding skills.



Free Online Reading Assessment!

Typically, testing a child's knowledge of the letters of the alphabet involves presenting the child with a page full of letters, and asking the child to name them. The page usually contains upper-case letters and lower-case letters, and a few odd characters like the two versions of the lower case "a" and the lower-case "g." This is not, however, the only approach to assessing letter knowledge.

Young children who do not know the letter names yet can be given a pile of manipulable letters and numbers and symbols and asked to separate the letters from the numbers and symbols. Similarly, children can be asked to "tell what they know" about each letter - they may not know the name of the letter, but they might know a sound that it represents or a word that starts with that letter. Children that know all the letter names can be further tested by their ability to separate the letters into upper- and lower-case groups, or to separate them into vowels and consonants.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Take a rest on Hawaii beach

Hawaii, no where can make you feel like. There are many kind of water sport and activities for your children as much as you want. Take a look at Hawaiian Vacation Kailua to choose the house rental that fits for your family members.


Kauai Travel Blog


Kauai Travel Blog has details of Kauai local activity or attractive places to go such as seeing native foliage and fauna, native birds, riding a horse, swimming, surfing.


Kauai Vacation Rentals

This picture is one of beach house looking from balcony through the sea. You can choose many houses from Kauai Vacation Rentals. You can also rental some car in this page. The houses are available for choosing by numbers of sleeps, location. By the way you can choose some condo too.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Comic Books Can Be For Professionals Too

By Gideon O.

The most recognizable and triumphant periods in the comic books era were: the Golden age, Silver age and the Bronze Age. We’ve all heard of the saying, “what goes up must come down.” This seemed to apply to the comics industry as well because it didn’t only come down in the mid 1990s, but it came down with a crash.




Lately the comic book industry has been trying to pick itself up through the aid of comic 2 films. This approach has proved to be helpful for titles like Spiderman, X-men, and Sin City in sales but it may have been hurtful for other titles that flopped in the Box office. That is why this is not enough to bring redemption to the industry. One of the problems that led to the downfall of the comics industry was said to be accessibility due to the removal of comics from stores and shops. This can no longer be true for the reason that comics are getting exposure through animations, movies, and the internet. Then why is this industry still struggling? I’ll ask another question, why is anime doing so well? The simple answer is better storyline and the fact that it is made for a broader audience. Japanese comics are usually in the form of graphic novels 60 to 200 pages. As long as comics are seen as a kid thing, or for the unintelligent, it would be hard for major growth in the American industry.

In the past, there were a lot of criticisms about comics making the readers delinquent and depreciating their reading abilities. These criticisms resulted in drafting of the comic codes. Parents believed the claims and criticisms made toward comics and were not elated about their children reading these “picture books.” I intentionally wrote “picture books” because picture books are related to little kids learning how to read.

Many of us read comics when we were kids, but when we hit fourteen we are feeling closer to adulthood. We’re teenagers, young adults. This meant anything synonymous to children had to go, including our comics. The problem was, we knew we couldn’t just stop reading comics or dispose of them, so some of us decided to read our comics in private. We even played the hide the comic book inside another schoolbook trick, going as far as to dis comic books in front of all our friends, to make sure that no one associated us with such “childish things”.

Some of you may have experienced looking at comic books at a store ready to purchase, when one of your friends walk into the store. You are walking to the cashier and notice her walking towards you. You’re now trying to hide the comic book behind your back and talk to her as calmly as possible, praying that she doesn’t see this comic book you’re hiding. You greet each other and chat a little. Unfortunately for you she notices the comic book behind you and asks, “What’s that you’re holding behind your back.” You begin to sweat and all that runs through your mind is “Oh no!” You now begin to think of all the possible excuses you could give to explain why you’re holding a super friends comic book in 2006. Bingo! You’ve got an idea, so you confidently begin to explain to her, “Oh this thing, my little brother likes to read this piece of trash.” Fortunately for you she believed it and your reputation is safe.

Let’s be real, if we saw anyone around the age of seventeen to fifty reading comics we would think to ourselves, “Isn’t he to old for that?” This grown man may be a genius or even a great athlete, but if he picks up a comic book, he’s just another unintelligent geek. The whole point I’m trying to make is comics and adults don’t mix in our society. As I mentioned earlier, it is because of the perception created about comics. Theories like comic-books are picture books for little children or comics make readers delinquent and reduce their reading abilities helped build the perception. And neither has been proven.

If anything, comic books are helpful to readers because it is a form of story telling. The pictures only help one capture the story being told, leading to the creation of a visible scene. Movie makers, coaches, video game designers, Scientists, engineers, etc, all implement this method.

Copyright 2006 Gideon O
I’ve always considered comic books a very interesting and intelligent way of storytelling. This has caused me to research what has made some comic books and characters popular and successful. Check out this info at http://www.comic-book-and-strip-service.com/

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Improve your Website Traffic

Many people think about when they get online for first time, advertising is one of the first things. Driving traffic to your web site is also big problem when get started in internet marketing. So advertising a web site for more website traffic is a best choice for poor traffic or new website.


more website traffic

Getting traffic is the main aim with which we develop a website. A website with no or very less traffic is of no use, as you do not get the opportunity to show your products to the people and build consumers. You should making your website search engine optimized is the best way to get more traffic. Make your web site rich in keywords so that it ranks high on a search engine results page.

SEO generally deal with such areas as optimizing the title, the keywords, the description, and the contents in such a way that when the search engines read the source code of the page, the automatic assumption is that the web page has as its main premise, the idea that the keyword emphasized, connotes. When the search engines see that there are many inbound links to your web page that have similar topics to your web pages they will presume that your web page is viewed by other web pages as being respected as a web page specializing in you are chosen keyword. So use the professional SEO for more website traffic

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Quality Health Care For Your Children - 4 Steps To Ensure It

By John W Williams

Have you ever left the Dr.'s Office feeling like none of your questions were answered? Were you left wondering if the doctor actually heard your concerns? Have you switched your family doctor a couple times in the past few years?


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I was one of those parents a few years ago. I was at the doctor's office several times a year with my son. And every time I left the office I was in a fog as to our next move. I constantly wondered if we needed a new doctor. I never seemed to understand everything he was explaining to me. Often I felt confused and frustrated about the visits. Then one day I woke up and decided it wasn't the doctor's fault. This is something I needed to take hold of, something that I needed to research for myself and stop looking to him for the answers. And so I did.

It was as simple as the Internet. People sometimes overlook the value of it. You need to take the time to research for yourself, before attending a Dr. appt.

Step 1: Search the Internet for whatever the problem is. And don't be afraid to print the web pages and take them along to the doctor. Knowledge is the key.

Step 2: Be prepared. Write a list of questions that you want answered. Or a list of new treatments that you'd like your doctor to look into. Sometimes they are eager to be informed because medicines are changing daily and they may not even be aware of new procedures or treatments. Doctors are just like us, they learn new things in the medical practice everyday.

Step: 3 No Questions in a dumb one. If your doctor speaks to you with a lot of medical terminology, and you haven't a clue ...don't pretend. Ask them to explain it in simpler terms. Doctors deal with nurses & other doctors everyday. They sometimes forget that we aren't familiar with those terms.

Step 4: Get to your appt. early. Try to arrive earlier than your appt. If you do, not only will you have time to think and look over your list. But if the doctor's previous client has a short visit you may get taken back just a few minutes early. Those few minutes may be all you need to get more questions answered and help the doctor to not feel rushed.

By doing those few steps I've found that I can walk out of the office with my head high and a smile on my face. I know that I got the best out of my appointment and I look forward to the next time I get to pick his brain. And the best part of all is I know that I am making a major impact on my child's future health care. It's up to us to ask the questions and have the knowledge to comprehend the answer. Get on the internet and make a difference in your child's health.

John Williams has strong family ties which is what drove him to start his own business. Working long 10 hr days in the Sales Industry proved difficult while raising 4 children. He found himself working more and playing less at home. To enable himself to enjoy more of his wife & family, he put his 13 yrs of sale experience to work. He accomplished himself in the business community with his experience & knowledge he acquired while in the work field. He has since relocated his family to Central PA & become more involved with his children's leisure activities & wife's social gatherings.

John has shown real strength behind Internet marketing as a powerful income producer. He has helped everyday people join the business community and acquired the proper mindset to succeed. With his Internet Marketing Company, he's able to get his team to new levels of success. John knows that Internet marketing success is the way of the future, as a result he ensures his clients master and apply his Internet marketing principles so they all gain success. http://www.cashfolk.com

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Cash Advance or payday loans

Hello Readers,

The emergency cash advance or pay day loans is for use to buy something and you want to Pay next month. A payday loans are a small, short-term lone that is intended to cover a borrower's urgent expenses until their next payday. A cash advance also referred to, as a payday loans is one of the fastest ways to put urgent money in your hands for any emergency that may crop up during the month. Cash Advance and payday loans are made available to individuals who meet some specific basic requirements.


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The basic requirements for Cash advance
  • Currently have a job (or receive regular income)
  • Make at least $1,000 per month
  • Are 18 years of age or older
  • Are a U.S. citizen
  • Have a checking account

When your application approval, your newly acquired funds will be deposited into your bank checking account overnight. On your next paycheck due date, the loan amount plus the loan fee will be automatically withdrawn from your account. The loan term on payday loans typically ranges from 4 to 30 days, coinciding with the applicant’s next payday from his or her employer.

Just click cash advance. If you're planning on applying for pay day loans.

Friday, October 19, 2007

How to Teach Your Baby to Read

By Adwina D. Jackson

Teaching your baby to read? You probably think it's ludicrous. A baby reads? How come?

Well, the answer is: yes, it's possible. You may not realize that babies are smarter than we imagine.

They develop miraculously. Starting from the moment of birth, babies learn to cry and adapt to their atmosphere. They cry when they're hungry or uneasy with the clothes parents put on them.

Later on when they get older, children absorb a lot of information and perform unexpected, funny things we've never thought they would do. And they get the knowledge by reading.

Here's the secret, actually. And indeed, it's the secret which Glenn Doman found out throughout his researches. He believes that parents can teach their babies to read at a very young age, even before they reach the first year of life.


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Who is Glenn Doman?

He established The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in 1955 and began to set up researches about children's brain.

The Institutes, according to the website (www.iahp.org), is the nonprofit educational organization that serves parents and children. It introduces parents to the field of child brain development. Parents learn how the brain grows and how to speed and enhance that growth.

The key to this is to give children visual, auditory, and tactile stimulation with increased frequency, intensity, and duration.

In his book, How to Teach Your Baby to Read, Doman proves how easy it is to teach children to read and how powerful the benefits of reading in early childhood are both for parents and children.

"Reading" to babies here means to stimulate visual ability and not to understand the words and to state them verbally.


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What is This Glenn Doman Method?

It's teaching babies to read by the following steps:

Write one word in big clear letters on one firm white paper

Categorize words in several groups, such as color, fruit, and animal

Put at least five words for each category, for example red, blue, yellow, green, black (first group) and apple, banana, tomato, orange, strawberry (second group)

Read the words in clear loud voice

Read three categories in one day

Do it three times a day for each group

Create other categories for the days to come and repeat the above steps

Those are the steps of one-word teaching. The next ones are: two-word lesson (red book, long time), simple sentence lesson (daddy is writing, jimmy is running), long sentence lesson (michael is eating a green apple, the kid is sitting on the couch), and the last one is reading books.

Remember that you shouldn't perform this process if you and your babies are not in good condition. Make sure your babies aren't hungry or tired at that moment. You have to be cheerful during the time.




Your babies may not be able to read or understand those words yet, but they keep the information in their memory, in the brain, which absorbs any information like a sponge.

Once they can speak, be ready with the way they bombard you with endless vocabulary.

Besides enhancing your babies' intelligence, of course there are other benefits of teaching your baby to read. It creates a special, intimate bond with your babies, develops their imagination, and establishes reading and learning as interests all through your kids' life.

Cherish every moment with your loved ones!

Adwina Jackson is a wife and mother of a young boy. She's also the editor of Inspiring Parenting, an online source of valuable parenting information. Please visit http://www.inspiringparenting.com/ for helpful and free parenting info. Observe your children's health, growth and development by clicking the website.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

How Do Activities Improve Memory?

By Jean Helmet

People are encouraged to keep an active lifestyle, in order to preserve their memory. Some activities improve memory, according to the studies that have been performed. These are either mental activities, or physical activities. The way in which these help is presented below.

Keeping the brain active most of the day will surely lead to an improved memory. The more people use their brain, the better it gets. A proof that activities improve memory is sustained by writing and singing. Writing is known from a long time ago as a method to improve memory. It can be used for creating lists, a fact that leads to an improved short-term memory. In addition, evidence that such activities improve memory is the fact that writing down the notions and deleting them one by one, as soon as they are memorized, helps people to enhance their mental processes.



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Singing enhances memory because most of the songs are complex and require prolonged thinking in order to be memorized. In addition, singing changes the mood, a fact that leads to a decrease of the depression level, in most of the cases. As it is known, depression represents the most frequent cause of memory loss.

In children, the best way to improve memory is to learn new words. This can be done directly or by inventing a trivia quiz. Of course, at the beginning the children do not know the answers to the questions, but repeating them periodically will help them to memorize the notions. Such activities improve memory because they also enhance the reaction time and the long-term memory.

Other activities that prove to be effective in children include reading. By doing this, people transfer the information from the short-term memory to the long term memory. Hence, this activity is also useful in adults, and not only in children. Reading aloud seems to enhance the memory even more. Combining more senses, such as seeing and hearing, leads to even better results.

Physical exercises are also a must for people who suffer from memory disorders. Such activities improve memory by enhancing the blood flow to the brain and by maintaining a certain tonus. Furthermore, the physical exercises increase the energy and determine the depression level to drop. Certain sports may require good reaction times. This fact also leads to an improved memory. Performing more difficult sports that have more difficult rules represents a challenge and also a way to enhance memory.

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Jean Helmet is one of the editors at a collection of nutritional web sites, you can learn more about memory, focus, and concentration at our website - http://www.memory-focus-guide.com/

Monday, October 15, 2007

How to Start Homeschooling

By Lorraine Curry

You are the best teacher your children will ever have because you love them more than anyone else possibly could. Your mandate comes from God, and your "certification" far surpasses what governments or colleges could give. Add a commitment to homeschooling, and you are well on your way to giving your children the best education possible.

But what about skills and knowledge? Although it is helpful to know how to read and write, even these things can be learned, or re-learned, right along with your children. You can teach what you know, and when your knowledge of a subject isn't quite what you think it should be, you can read aloud and learn together, or your children can learn to teach themselves.


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Low Cost

Would it surprise you if I told you that homeschooling can be free or nearly-free? There are options that can keep costs down, if you choose to use them. We spent very little on homeschooling. Each year we have purchased some items, but only because I wanted to, not because we needed them. Spending on curriculum should be done prayerfully, even if you can afford it, because many items are purchased and not used. Books can be resold, but usually for a fraction of what has been paid for them.

The Library

The library can save you a substantial amount of money and offers a cornucopia of books, from non-fiction for science and history to classic literature and biographies, as well as other materials as varied as current events magazines, research volumes, Shakespearean videos and tapes, painting technique videos, homeschooling programs, foreign language tapes, phonics tapes and computer equipment.

Christians are sometimes cautious about the library. But if you read-aloud, you can skip over objectionable parts. Recently I discovered that Charlotte Mason, in her book, A Philosophy of Education, also suggested this skipping of anything not appropriate for children. You could even skip the book entirely. If a book that you are reading has an anti-Biblical view, such as evolutionary theory, you can discuss what the Bible does say. Children need to know opposing thought to better defend the faith and become independent thinkers.

Another fine resource is the library in your home which you can build by finding high quality old books at auctions, garage sales, thrift stores, and library sales or right here at http://www.easyhomeschooing.com/rare-antique-books.htm l! We have been collected for so many years and had such great books here at home that we eventually used our own library more than the public library. I prefer this as it keeps us home and saves us time.

Reading Aloud

The actual schooling process begins with the basics - the skills that your children will need to use almost every day throughout their lives. Professionals' opinions back up our family's experiences - reading aloud gives children the best possible start in education.

An emphasis on the written word at all ages (especially important when very young) rather than on visual stimulation will result in bright children. Reading aloud or reading silently will "exercise" your child's brain as he builds hisvery own "pictures," based on the words that are read. When good books are read, those "pictures" will stir up proper judgment, rational thought and result in wise children with character. Contrariwise, with the visual, the work has been done for them. No need to think; no growth in maturity.

What if your children are not interested in hearing you read aloud, or in reading themselves? In this case, proclaim a fast from videos, TV and computers. Keep reading, and before long they will develop an appetite for good books.

Starting to Homeschool

If homeschooling is started when children normally start school (5-7), there can be an easing into routines. One subject can be taught at a time, staying with that subject until some measure of achievement is reached. Start with phonics, then, none at a time, go on to reading, handwriting, creative writing and finally basic math. This simple technique keeps the pressure off, which in turn keeps a love for learning alive. Moreover, there is only a minimum time requirement. If your child is older and you are taking him or her out of institutional schooling, there might be more time required at first. In order to find the time for homeschooling, you may have to make a decision to eliminate unnecessary activities, wasted time.

Teaching Phonics

All school subjects will be built upon the mastery of reading. Today many parents with children in public or private schools find themselves having to re-teach reading. This shouldn't be, as the school has the child many hours per day to teach this basic of basics. In the schools and in the home, the exclusive use of phonics will result in children who can read well.

There are many tools available for teaching phonics. But most are far too expensive. You can teach phonics for free! Mothers, tutors, and governesses have been teaching this way for hundreds of years. Your tools are a book such as a Bible, a paper and pencil or a black or white board. With your choice of tool, teach the sounds of the individual letters, starting with the short vowels. Then teach the consonants, and finally the combinations ("sh," "ch" and so forth). Then after your children know several letter sounds, use a simple playground slide diagram to help them blend the sounds into words. Write the "ch" at the top and the "at" at the bottom. Then tell your child to make the "ch" go down the slide and run into the "at." Go on to the long vowels. You can also emphasized patterns in groups of words (such as "gate," "mate," "grate" and "plate").

If you want to purchase a phonics course, I suggest Simply Phonics or Alpha-phonics.

As soon as your child knows how to read a few words, he or she needs practice. You can borrow Hop on Pop or similar phonics based books from the library, or use a simple phonics based reader. Don't try to use a Dick and Jane book. These see-say books have too many sight words in them, and will just frustrate your new reader. We used McGuffey's, which we received as an introductory offer from a book club. You needn't continue with reading classes until you have completed the books. I am very much against all the unnecessary work for both teacher and student that some "experts" consider to be part of a well rounded program. Such things as spelling and comprehension do not need to be learned separately. If a child is read to, learns to read phonetically, is read to, starts reading fluently, is read to, and continues to read individually, he or she will learn and learn well all the peripherals of our language.

Writing

Writing goes hand in hand with reading, for a winning "language arts" program. Encourage your children to be storytellers. If they can't yet write, write their stories down for them. If you have a tape recorder let them record their stories, and replay them. Have them draw a picture to go with their story. As soon as they can write, have them write their own stories, but don't pay any attention to errors at this point. You don't want to discourage them! If your children want you to spell the words for them, do it. Eventually they will know several words. Then you can point out those that are misspelled for them to learn. (Your student can either write each word ten times or spell them aloud several times to learn them.) Save all your students' papers, or at least the best ones - they will be treasures someday!

Arithmetic

For arithmetic make your own flashcards for drill. And for all other subjects, first plan what you want to teach over the school year. Then using the library or your own library, read-aloud together. Have your children tell back, or write on what you have read. We gathered for read-alouds sessions even when our children were perfectly capable of independent study.

After all, isn't being together as a family what homeschooling is all about?

If you have been thinking and praying about homeschooling, or if you have been feeling overwhelmed or financially burdened by what you think you must do - or must buy - to homeschool, I want to encourage you. Homeschooling need not be expensive nor difficult. The public schools give us a great example that spending does not equal quality education. A better choice is to use simple, tried and true techniques and reap the fruit of Godly, well-educated children.

Lorraine Curry is the author of 5 Star Easy Homeschooling books. See and link to more articles, FREE copywork, subscriptions, ebooks and more at http://www.easyhomeschooling.com/

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Children's Health

By John Allsop

There may be a lot of literature on kids health but sifting through them for relevant information is a chore by itself. There are several factors to consider about kids’ health like nutrition, daily exercises, mental stimulation, and emotional development. Attending to these things can be stressful to parents day in and day out. Thus, if you have kids and want to stay on top of their growth and progress, it is necessary to maintain good kids' health resources.



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Kids health is basically simple and the requirements of children mirror those of the adults. The basic requirements include a good shelter, good food, loving and caring community, and daily exercise. However, kids require a little more since they are in the development stage. Keep their environment healthy and safe because unfavorable surroundings would have adverse long term effects on their health. Children do not enjoy autonomy and must live with whatever decisions -- good or bad -- that adults make for them. Moreover, kids should be taught early to adopt healthy habits. Habits picked up while young can be carried well into adulthood. Lack of attention to a child’s training and development is often the cause of many adults’ problems.

Since parents only want the best for their children, it becomes necessary to set up a health program for kids. This should really start from the time when parents plan on having a child. At the onset, parents need to be clear as to how they intend to raise their child. Since it is always much more difficult to correct mistakes, it is only sensible to do it right early on. From then on, it will have to be a series of assessments of the child’s wellness and progress and adjustments in the program as may be necessary. Somehow, caring for an infant seems a lot easier than seeing to the needs of a full grown child.

A baby’s needs are simple and they only need you to feed, change, play and bring him to his pediatrician in case he is sick. Older kids have more demands and their needs are more complex. Parents should be able to provide answers to their never-ending questions, and learn how to protect them from potentially harmful influences. Further, parents need to make some difficult decisions in terms of their freedom (TV time, going out, etc.) and disciplinary training. Parents also need to set down rules and standards for rewards and punishments. In other words, parents need to figure out how to best protect their children from the dangers of the world while they are young so parents can prepare them well to cope on their own when they become adults. After all, being a parent has never been easy.

Visit our health articles website for the latest articles covering a broad range of health topics And read our kids health article.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Knowledge of the Alphabetic Principle

Spoken words are made up of phonemes, and written words are made up of letters. However, knowledge of those two facts is not sufficient for developing good decoding skills. Knowledge of the alphabetic principle refers to an understanding that the letters in written words represent the phonemes in spoken words.


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A child's understanding of the alphabetic principle can be assessed very early, even before the child can accurately read or write simple words. The most direct approach is to ask the child to write words that you dictate - even if the child can not write the words accurately, her understanding of the alphabetic principle is revealed by whether or not she writes one symbol for each sound in the word. Young children often represent a whole word with a single symbol (Sometimes the symbol the child chooses is the first letter of the word, so a child might represent the word DOG with the letter D). This reflects their view that a word only exists as a representation of an object. Children who have an understanding of the alphabetic principle, however, will attempt to encode all of the sounds they hear in the word, although they may not use the right letters - in fact, they may not use letters at all. The child who has internalized the alphabetic principle may write the word BALL with three symbols, and ironically may represent the word BOX with four symbols (e.g. BOKS).

Similarly, children's knowledge of the alphabetic principle can be tested in other ways. Children can be presented with two words (written) - one long word and one short word. The teacher asks the children to pick the word they think she is saying (and she would say either a very long word or a very short word; e.g. HIP or HIPPOPOTOMOUS. The words can get closer in length as the child learns the object of the assessment.). Even if the children can not read yet, an understanding of the alphabetic principle will allow them to pick the right word.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Phoneme Awareness

One of the most basic building blocks of speech is the phoneme, and to gain knowledge of the alphabetic principle, a child must be consciously aware that spoken words are comprised of phonemes. Further, that child must be consciously aware of the fact that phonemes can be substituted and rearranged to create different words (e.g. SIGN and NICE both contain the same three phonemes).


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Terminology can get very confusing when talking about speech sounds, but teachers should become familiar with these "phon" terms, and they should know how they differ from each other. We have already discussed phonology (the ability to discriminate between similar speech sounds in different words, such as HERE and HAIR). Now we will discuss two more terms -- phonological awareness and phoneme awareness.

Phonological awareness is a general term, and phoneme awareness is a specific term which is covered by the phonological awareness umbrella. As such, there are many tests that can be described as phonological awareness tests, but only a few of those tests are specific enough to also be called phoneme awareness tests.

Phonological awareness tests measure the child's knowledge that words are made up of sounds (linguists call this a "metalinguistic" skill), while phoneme awareness tests are tests which examine the child's specific knowledge that words are made up of phonemes.

So, to test phonological awareness, one could ask the child to rhyme words (expressive) or to pick words that rhyme out of a set (receptive). The child's ability to rhyme reflects an appreciation of the sounds within words, and an implicit understanding that words are made up of sounds.

Similarly, the child's appreciation of alliteration (words that start with the same sound) can be tested. The child's ability to produce words that start with the same sound (e.g. what word starts with the same sound as the word MILK?), or the child's ability to match words based on alliteration (e.g. which words start with the same sound - MAN, MORE, FISH) also reflect the child's understanding that words are made up of sounds.

Children's awareness of the fact that words are made up of sounds can also be assessed through word length comparisons - a child is (orally) presented with two words, and is asked to determine which word is longer. This assessment is especially effective for young children if the phonemes of one word are contained within the second word (e.g. KING and KINGDOM or PIE and SPY - note that PIE and SPY have the same number of letters and are therefore equal length when written, but SPY has more phonemes and is therefore longer when spoken).

Another test of phonological awareness involves the child's ability to break spoken words up into parts - the child would say the word out loud, but would pause after saying each part. This type of task is called a "segmentation" task, and it can be used in a variety of ways. First, a child could be asked to segment compound words into their parts (as in "BASE (*pause*) BALL").

Similarly, a child can be asked to segment words into syllables (e.g. "PEN (*pause*) CIL"). Also, a child can segment the onset of the word (the sound or sounds before the vowel) and the rest of the word (sometimes called the "rime" - not to be confused with "rhyme"). In an onset-rime segmentation task, the words are almost always monosyllabic, and the child would say each word with a pause after the onset (e.g. "M (*pause*) OON")

The opposite of segmentation is blending, and every test of phonological awareness that involves segmentation can be reversed and used as a blending test. In a blending test, the teacher would say each word with pauses in the appropriate places, and the child would try to figure out what word the teacher is saying. Blending is usually much easier for children than segmentation.

Segmentation and blending techniques can also be used when testing phoneme awareness, but in a phoneme awareness task, the pauses would be inserted after each phoneme (either when the teacher segments the word or when the student segments the word). So in a phoneme segmentation task, a pause is inserted after each phoneme (/sat/ Þ /s/ /a/ /t/), and in a phoneme blending task, a segmented word is blended together to make a whole word (/s/ /a/ /t/ Þ /sat/).

In addition to phoneme segmentation or blending tasks, there are several other phoneme awareness tasks that can be used to show that the child is aware of all of the phonemes in spoken words. For example, a child can be asked to count the number of phonemes in a word (e.g. how many phonemes are in the word PIN?), or a child may be asked to delete a phoneme from a word (e.g. What would PIN be if you took out the /p/ sound?), or add a phoneme (Add an /s/ sound to the beginning of PIN), or substitute a phoneme (replace the /i/ in PIN with an /a/ sound). Also, children can be asked to rearrange the sounds in a word (move the first sound of SIT to the end - Note, children who have been taught "Pig Latin" are particularly good at this task.).

Finally, children clearly have phoneme awareness if they are able to identify a phoneme in different words. Children should know that the words SAT and TOP both contain the /t/ sound, and that GAME and PLAY both contain the long /a/ sound.

Some of these phoneme and phonological awareness tasks are harder than others. Blending is easiest, but can be made more difficult if the word, when blended together, does not form a word that the child is familiar with (e.g. SAZ or VIKE). Segmentation is more difficult than blending, and becomes considerably more difficult if the word to be segmented contains consonant clusters (sometimes called digraphs -- e.g. MASK, SPIN or SLIP). Phoneme addition, deletion and manipulation -- the most difficult tasks -- are also made more difficult by creating words the child is unfamiliar with, and by adding consonant clusters.

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