Homeschool Helper with Charisse Van Horn

Rachel L. a significant California homeschooling decision that makes it illegal to homeschool in the state without being a certified teacher, will go before the California Court of Appeals for a rehearing.  Homeschool Legal Defense Chairman, Mike Farris will close out the arguments before the hearing.  This is a critical time for homeschoolers throughout California and I encourage you to support the Homeschool Legal Defense Association throughout this time.    Mike Farris has worked diligently to get this decision overturned, providing much of the legwork that has led to this rehearing.  If you are not a member of the HSLDA, you should visit their website, find out more about their services, and consider joining.  It truly is a minimal amount for the amount of legal protection they provide.

If you are a  homeschooling family, you need the legal protection that is available through the HSLDA.  You can visit them at http://www.hslda.org

Though the HSLDA is a Christian organization, other religions may be members.  However, they do not accept memberships from same sex couples due to the fact that they work adamantly to protect marriage between males and females.

Here is a phonetic game that you can play with your children.  When your children begin learning short vowel/three letter words like “hat” “cat” “mat” “pot” “tin” etc. make a list of these words that have tangible objects that you can gather together.  Play games that include sounding out each word phonetically, such as have children identify each object and bring them to you after you have slowly sounded out each word phonetically.  For example, you can put the objects on a table and then say to the child, “Please bring me the “puh- oh-tuh”.  This encourages the child to listen to the phonetic sounding of the word and helps them blend the sounds together to identify the meaning of the word.

Learning to read is one of the most fundamental skills that homeschooled children need to develop.  The first three grades place heavy focus or emphasis upon learning to read and a great part of those activities include teaching phonics.  When teaching phonics it is important to understand how phonics works to make certain that the principles are being taught accurately.  There are numerous ways to ensure that students get the phonics reinforcement that they need to advance their reading skills. Using index cards to write words that will be used for drills is a great way to inexpensively create your own phonics tools.  Some of the skills that will need to be taught include phonetic sounds, blending, and ultimately reading.

Now that you know how to make mini books , let me tell you about a project I just made with my kids. One of the reasons I love the mini books from one sheet of paper, is that they are easy to create as well as dispose of. You see, when kids are in public school, it’s great to save all of the work they make in a special folder. Then when they are older you can pull it out and reminisce over when the child first created the artwork or project. However, when you homeschool, you simply can’t save everything- there is just too much. That’s why notebooking and lapbooking are great activities (as well as little mini books.)

Today, I simply folded two pieces of paper and made little books with my two year old, Joshua and three year old, Ariella. Joshua made a counting book. We wrote out the numerals on each page then spelled the number word at the bottom. He put stickers on each page, counting them out as he added them. He was so cute, he kept “reading” his book to me. I wrote “Joshua’s Number Book” for the title, and he carefully read the title back to me as well.

Ariella just made an artbook. She is cutting out pictures and gluing them with her glue stick. She has already mastered letter recognition, but we haven’t formally begun writing yet. I am going to pick up some alphabet stickers this weekend from my local dollar tree and we’ll work on a “letter book.”

Now that you know what a lapbook is, you’ll want to begin learning all of the different folding techniques that will ensure you have plenty of materials and teaching tools to add to your lapbook.  The first fold that I recommend everyone to learn is how to turn a single sheet of 8 by 11 paper into a mini book.  Actually, this is an Origami book, but it works so easily, you can create mini books for your kids in less than a minute!  There is a link that will show you in a diagram, but I will try to explain it as well.  Here is the link: Simple Origami Book.

1. Fold the paper in half lengthwise, then in half lengthwise again, then one time horizontally, to create 8 rectangles. (Open up the paper and make sure there are eight rectangles)

2.  After Opening the paper, fold it in half lengthwise and make a cut from the center fold to the first point where the horizontal and diagonal folds meet.

3.  Now open the paper (there is a slit in the middle of the paper)

4.  Fold the paper “landscape” and you’ll have the slit on top.  Push both ends of th paper together to create a cross section.  By pushing both the right and left sides of the paper, it will automatically create an 8 page book!

Now, let your kids write away!

(here is one more link with graphics, just in case you need further clarification- Think Quest Mini Book 

Notebooking is a method of using a subject notebook to research a topic.  You can choose to use a regular lined notebook to journal in and add cutouts or pictures to your notebook by taping or gluing them down, or you might prefer to use a three ring binder folder where you can add your own notebooking paper and easily add other pages (such as cardstock or picture cutouts) by using a paper punch.  It’s important to use a notebooking method that works best for you, but as you add more imagination to your notebook, you might find that the three ring binder is more suitable for your needs.

You can combine many scrapbooking techniques with your notebooking methods to create stunning and spectacular educational notebooks.  However, the main point of notebooking isn’t in creating a beautiful work of art, but an educational research book that children have created themselves.

Here are some examples to notebooking samples online.

One Child Policy Homeschool

Scrapbooking to Learn shows some amazingly beautiful scrapbooking techniques that you can use with notebooking.

Scrapbooking to Learn: Notebooking

Notebooking Exhibit

If you’ve heard the term “lapbook” around homeschooling circles, but just aren’t certain what a “lapbook” is, you are not alone.  Lapbooking is a popular trend amongst homeschoolers, because it is an easy, fun, and highly efficient way of learning.  Sometimes lapbooks may be referred to as “shutterbooks”, but basically, a lapbook is a book that is composed from a file folder that when opened displays numerous mini books, printouts, and other paper cutouts, etc that enhance a study.

 There are numerous ways to fold paper and create mini books.  By using the different paper folding techniques, you can create lapbooks that are rich with information.  I think the viewing a lapbook is the best way to understand what one is, so I am enclosing some links to lapbooks online.

Links to Pictures of Lapbooks Online

Lapbooks and Homeschooling: The Homeschool Shop

Homeschool in the Woods

Folding Instructions for Lapbooks: This is very indepth!

Have you ever heard of the publishing house Dover?  Well, you can sign up for free samples from Dover.  They have a large number of categories that you can choose from, and each week they will send you an email with a link to free samples.  All of the samples are pages from books that they publish.  Not only are the samples a great way to preview their books, but they are excellent printouts that you can use with your children.  You can sign up for the free samples from Dover here:

Free Dover Samples 

School Express is a fantastic website that provides free worksheets and ebooks to those who sign up for their newsletter (also free).  Here is the current School Express Newsletter.  They encourage those who receive the free newsletter to share it with others.

SchoolExpress Newsletter
Week of June 8 2008
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Welcome to the SchoolExpress Newsletter.

Your may forward this newsletter to anyone you think might want to access these free items.

If you have not subscribed to this newsletter and would like to please go here.
http://www.schoolexpress.com/news_sub.php

Learning about animals?  Visit Animal Corral.
http://www.animalcorral.com

Locate hundreds of educational sites here.
http://www.sitesforteachers.com/perl/rankem.pcgi?id=sylvia

1.  This week we have a free  Activity Fun eWorkbook and about Beavers, and the Beavers Thematic Unit from last week is still available.  Next week is a Thematic Unit about the Planets

2.  Back by popular demand, we have received numerous requests to bring back the Thematic Unit Membership.  It is now available once again.  Download 170+ Thematic Units and 170+ Activity Fun eWorkbooks.  Members have one year to access their membership area.  Members are emailed each time a new unit is added.

Learn more here.  http://www.schoolexpress.com/member01.php

3.  Our full newsletter is located on a web page. Just click on the link below to access it.  If you cannot click through on this link please copy it and paste it into your web browser url field.

This link will change every week.  Watch for your new link every Sunday by noon Arizona time.

http://www.schoolexpress.com/newslettere5gh.php

4.  There are games for young children and older children and adults too in the Funtime area.   Encourage your children to do jigsaw puzzles.  Doing jigsaw puzzles develops several functions of the brain at once. Reasoning, deduction, analysis and logical thought are exercised in the completion of jigsaw puzzles, as well as physical hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness.  Our Funtime area has 100+ online jigsaw puzzles.

http://www.schoolexpress.com/funtime/index.php

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Enjoy the week. 

There is an excellent website called, Free Reading, that provides numerous (and I mean numerous) free resources that will help teach your child how to read. Reading is the most important skill your child will learn in homeschooling, and once your homeschool child is reading independently, the rest of your child’s subjects will follow. Here is a link to the main page: Free Reading

You can use the integrated program to teach phonetic awareness to children in kindergarten as well as in the first grade. It’s a wonderful 40 week program (remember, this is all 100% free) and also contains many links to resources that you can use for the lessons. There are pdf files that you can download to your computer and print out as well. You’ll find that Free Reading.net is an excellent resource that will help ensure your children are reading and are up-to-date with their literacy skills.