Homeschool Basics

Homeschool Basics
By J. E. Burke

It is the first day of the 180 days of homeschool. You've purchased all of your supplies, created a daily or weekly curriculum and you're ready to go. Why then do you have a big lump in your throat and think that you're making a big mistake? Don't worry; you are one of the thousands that have made the decision to leave the comfort of public schools and brave the homeschool frontier. A few homeschool basics will help reinforce your commitment to see this project through. Help is never farther than a phone call to a local homeschooling chapter member or a click of your mouse. Three homeschool basics include finding the right curriculum, finding support and navigating the legal issues in your locale.



Photo: JupiterImages


The Right Curriculum

The right curriculum for your child depends on their style of learning and what you as a teacher hope to accomplish. One of the best ways to choose a curriculum is to attend a homeschool fair in your state. These fairs have lots of vendors and free catalogs, guest speakers with great advice and attending one will give you an opportunity to network with other homeschooling parents in your area. Plan to attend one of these each year you homeschool to keep you on top of the latest news as well as the most current teaching materials. Many parents will agree that you shouldn't buy something until you need it. If you buy a bunch of books but don't have an idea of when you will use them, put off buying them until later. Child-centered learning will lead you in the direction that the child wants to go- you may never have an opportunity to use that Mount Rushmore activity book that you spent too much money on!

Finding Support

Many parents agree that you need support, especially if this is your first go-round with homeschooling. It is easy to get discouraged, especially if your family keeps asking you questions like 'how will your child ever get socialized if they don't go to regular school?' Stick to your guns and explain that children in regular school don't get to socialize constantly- they usually only socialize during lunch and recess. The rest of the time a child spends in school is focusing on the work at hand. Joining clubs, school sports teams or dance and gymnastics classes will help your child make friends and become 'socialized.' If you feel discouraged, contact other homeschooling parents in your area that have done it successfully for a few years and express your concerns.

Know the Legal Issues

Finally, contact your local school prior to the beginning of the school year to find out what the homeschool requirements are. Generally all you will have to do is fill out a few forms indicating that you are homeschooling and what your curriculum plans are. If your child wants to play on a sports team find out what the rules at your school are for homeschooled children. If you follow these three homeschooling basics you will be off to a great school year.

To stay abreast of the current trends, information and resources available for homeschool parents, teachers and students - subscibe to Homeschool Success News. If you need an online tutor, courseware or wish to offer your services as a paid online tutor contact our website.

Magic Learning Systems also provides excellent products to enhance the homeschool experience for teachers and students. Read more about this excellent learning system in our Homeschool Success Newsletter.

Copyright 2005 Burke Publications All Rights Reserved

Dr. J. Elisha Burke
Editor, Homeschool Success Newsletter
http://hsnews.homeschooltutorpro.com/
http://homeschooltutorpro.com/

Dr. J. E. Burke, a college instructor, has been involved in various educational and business enterprises via Burke Publications for 11 years. Dr. Burke is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics. He is also known for his expertise on nonprofit organizations and grant proposal writing. Dr. Burke may be contacted at jeb@homeschooltutorpro.com

Apple iPhone SDK

About Apple iPhone SDK. The SDK will allow third-party developers to create games, business software, and other types of applications for the iPhone. The iphone sdk for iHone and iPod touch and enabling hundreds of new applications for users. You can use this iphone 2.0 application with your favorite phone.




However, for education benefit with iphone that also use with reading and audio software for learning at home. Find more information about apple iPhone SDK, you can join and read the forum about SDK. There are many topics that you can read or ask any question in the forum or chat in the chat room as well. Anyway, you can also find other subjects from Planet-iphones such as iphone sdk capabilities, SDK Install Problems, iphone news, iPhone 2.0 Hacked and more about iphone that you need the find the answer. Let's join the planet-iphones forum and chat with the experts.

Homeschool Program

Finding The Right Homeschool Program
By Mary Joyce

For those just starting out, determining the best homeschool program can be, at the very least, a bit challenging. Probably the single most relevant point on this would be to keep in mind that the eventual best home education program for your situation and style may involve pulling home school resources from more than one home school curriculum.



Photo: acetutoringofusa.com

Many homeschoolers start by using a complete curriculum package. And if you are just starting out on this wonderful voyage, this approach will get you more than started and on your way. The key to finding ‘what is right’ is more of a process than just a decision. Ultimately you may settle in with using a complete curriculum package modified somewhat to fit not only your teaching style (which you may not know yet yourself), but even more importantly, your child’s learning style.

As you gain more experience and confidence, you’ll see that effective teaching is using a combination of educational resources that are readily available (including online home school programs) that round out your personal program and insure your child’s success.

The key to a good homeschooling program is the ‘fit’. Both you and your child have to be comfortable with the homeschool study on an ongoing basis. If you start out with a good base program as a roadmap, you can then tailor it to fit your needs.

Consider when looking for a curriculum that it will provide for a method to determine not only the current ‘grade level’ of your child, but how your child determined their answers. This helps to determine what type of learner your child is, and their ability to apply their skills.

As you now know, a good home school curriculum will draw from many educational sources and will direct the child to discover and learn the material and not just memorize answers. As the teacher, be sure to take a close look at the provider’s support materials. For example, good detail in the manuals and lesson plans, concepts with examples and details, and suggested outside resources and activities.

And finally, good unit testing will communicate to you, not only if your child has grasped each concept, but will also let you know how well you have presented and taught the subject matter and how solid your homeschool program has been.

Mary Joyce is a former educator, successful homeschool parent, and the primary contributor to the Homeschool-Curriculum-4u website. Please visit (http://www.homeschool-curriculum-4u.com/ ) for a complete list of Mary's articles, resources on homeschool, ideas, and curriculum information. Also tips guides and how-to's to help you successfully teach your child at home.

Out of Public School

Homeschooling Takes Your Child Out of Public School --- A Unique Benefit
By Joel Turtel

Home-schooling removes children from public school. That alone makes home-schooling worthwhile. Unlike public-school children, home-schooled kids are not prisoners of a system that can wreck their self-esteem, ability to read, and love of learning.

Home-schooled kids don’t have to read dumb-downed text-books, study subjects they hate, or endure meaningless classes six to eight hours a day. Home-schooled kids won’t be subject to drugs, bullies, violence, or peer pressure, as they are in public schools. Home-schooled children who are “different” in any way won’t have to endure cruel jokes and taunts from other children in their classes.



Photo: JupiterImages

Slow-learning or “special-needs” children won’t be humiliated by their peers if they are put in regular classes, or further humiliated if the teacher puts them in so-called spe-cial-education classes. Faster-learning home-schooled kids won’t have to sit through mind-numbing classes that are geared to the slowest-learning students in a class. They won’t have to “learn” in cooperative groups where other kids in the group do nothing or are not cooperative. Home-schooled children do not have to waste their time memorizing meaningless facts about subjects that bore them, just so they can pass the next dumbed-down test to obey and please school authorities.

Home-schooled kids don’t have to endure twelve years of a third-rate, public-school education that leaves many students barely able to read their own diplomas. The notion that tests tell teachers and parents what children have learned turns out to false. John Holt, teacher and author of "How Children Fail," pointed out that most children soon forget what they memorized for a test as soon as the test is over, so the entire test-taking process is usually worthless. Facts or ideas that are not useful or relevant to children pass through them like a sieve and are soon forgotten.

Home-schooled kids don’t have to study an arbitrary, meaningless curriculum of subjects imposed on them by public-school authorities. They don’t have to be treated like little mindless, spiritless robots that have to learn the same subjects at the same time and in the same sequence as their classmates.

Home-schooled children don’t have to sit quietly in a class of twenty-five other students and pretend they like being in this mini-prison called public school, just to avoid being punished by a teacher for “acting-out” or fidgeting in their seats.

Any adult’s mind would wander if they were forced to sit through a boring lecture for just one hour. Yet public schools expect children to sit still for boring lectures on subjects that are meaningless to them, for six to eight hours a day.

Home-schooled children do not have to be fearful of displeasing a teacher because they get the wrong answers on meaningless tests. They therefore do not have to be fearful of learning and have their natural joy in learning crippled as a result of this fear.

Infants and very young children embrace life and learning with a passion, which is why they learn so fast. Yet, as John Holt found out, by the time these same children have progressed to the fifth grade in school, most are listless, bored, apathetic, and often fearful in class.

Home-schooled children won’t be terrorized by test grades and comparisons to their classmates, and associate learning with this terror. They won’t associate learning with always having to get the right answer that school authorities insist on. They won’t be made to feel that learning means passing an arbitrary test, and that failing a test is a shame or disgrace.

Home-schooling also gives parents control over the values their kids learn. It prevents school authorities from indoctrinating their children with warped values, pagan religions, or politically-correct ideas.

Unlike public-school students, home-schooled children are not forced to sit through explicit or shocking sex-education classes. School authorities also can’t pressure home-schooling parents to give their kids mind-altering drugs like Ritalin.

So keeping a child out of public school is an enormous benefit in itself. Other positive benefits of home-schooling are:

1. Home-schooling lets parents give children a custom-made curriculum that makes learning a joy. Parents can expose their children to many different subjects and ultimately focus on subjects that their children enjoy and benefit from.

Children can also learn about subjects that are not taught in any school, and have time for non-academic subjects like art and music. Parents can choose from a wide range of teaching materials that not only engage and delight their kids, but bring real results.

2. Home-schooled children can learn at their own pace. Slower-learning kids will benefit by their parent’s love and attention. Bright children will progress as fast as they want to. Children will learn to read or learn any other subject when they are ready, not according to a prescribed time-table.

Unlike public schools, home-schooling parents treat each child as a unique individual with his or her own special interests, talents, strengths and weaknesses. Parents can also tailor-make the instruction to each child’s personality and learning style.

3. Home-schooling parents can give their kids a one-to-one teacher-student ratio. This insures that children get individualized attention from a loving, attentive parent-teacher.

In "Public Schools, Public Menace," author Joel Turtel explains 15 unique benefits of homeschooling your children.

Joel Turtel is an education policy analyst, and author of “Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children."

Contact Information:
Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com/ ,
Email: lbooksusa@aol.com ,
Phone: 718-447-7348.

Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel
NOTE: You may post this Article on another website only if you set up a hyperlink to Joel Turtel’s email address and website URL, http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com/

The best Teaching

Teaching What You Don't Know
By Mary Joyce

With out any doubt the best way for any child to learn is with undivided one on one instruction. This definition alone points directly to the child’s parents. Who better to provide such an environment than the ultimate someone who loves and cares for the child and how they learn?



Photo: JupiterImages

Fortunately, the homeschooling parent need not be an expert in every subject matter area. Homeschool instruction goes beyond the classroom setting and takes in the entire world! Homeschool support groups and information is abundant and one doesn’t have to look any further for help than the library, the internet, community centers, and even local colleges. The key is if you don’t know the subject matter, be willing to investigate it and even learn along with your child. And when looking for homeschool resources don’t forget friends, acquaintances, and the business community as a whole.

There are many people that you may come in contact with as a part of your regular day that would be more than willing to take on a bit of homeschool instruction for you. If not, to come by as a guest teacher, most will provide invaluable information for you to supplement your lesson plan. It’s a great experience! And what a feeling of accomplishment!

The key to remember... don’t panic. Resources are everywhere and many are right in your very neighborhood. Children are always learning. If you don’t feel like you can effectively teach a particular subject, set up a field trip, or do a project together. Many outside the home resources are delighted to have a young person, who is genuinely excited and interested, come by for a visit. Many of these folks are more than willing to assist you with teaching a subject you don't know!

And you’ll learn something too!

Mary Joyce is a former educator, successful homeschool parent, and the primary contributor to the Homeschool-Curriculum-4u website. Please visit (http://www.homeschool-curriculum-4u.com/) for a complete list of Mary's articles, resources on homeschool, ideas, and curriculum information. Also tips guides and how-to's to help you successfully teach your child at home.

Casino games at your home

Do you want to play the casino games at home? When you have a free time, you can download online casino game and play at your home, like the vegas casino with many types that you can choose. At 32vegas.com, you can surf their website with your language such as France, African, Korean, Deutsch, Italiano, Romanian, Chinese, etc. From the front page, just download for play the casino games. Click the Download button and follow the guide. It'll install the software for play the games. You can select by "Play Real Money" for play vegas casino or you can test the software by choose the Practice mode. So, do it right away.




Therefore, you can choose the Promotions page for read the promotion offer, Cashier page to see your money deposit or cashing out info, Fair Gaming page, Winner page, etc. After install program you can select the games such as Roulette, Poker, Slots, Craps Blackjack and more casino games.