Last minute gift ideas for homeschooling families

If you have a family on your Christmas list who are homeschoolers and don’t know what to purchase them, this list will help: Case of Printer Paper: Homeschoolers go through a great deal of printer paper as they research things online, and print them for future reference. A case of printer paper will go a long way in making their life easier. A case of paper can cost from $20.00 to $45.00. Case of notebooks: Homeschoolers use notebooks for journals, handwriting, and to study certain subjects. You can purchase one subject notebooks for $1.00 each. Box of art supplies: Go … Continue reading

Homeschooling in December

December is a difficult month for homeschooling. Home life is all but disrupted from Thanksgiving until January first with family dinners, outings and friends stopping by. So, it is nearly impossible to keep a homeschool routine and keep the lessons going. In past years, I have gone as far as to declare a winter vacation from homeschooling. In other years, my kids have declared a holiday and refused to look at a book until January. During those years, we just added the lost time at the end of the school year giving us a one month winter break and a … Continue reading

Christmas Gifts to Help Your Family Stay in Touch

If you live far away from your relatives, Christmas is a time that can bring you closer together. As parents you may be looking for gifts that will help your children connect with their grandparents. Technology has opened many new doors to make this a much easier process. Here are five gifts that you can give to help your family stay more connected. In later blogs I will list specific suggestions on how to better utilize these gifts to stay in touch with each other. 1) If you do not already have a web cam this is a great gift … Continue reading

Homeschooling Talented Children: Nurturing Talents

In my last blog post, I wrote about identifying the talents of your homeschooled children. I distinguished between what I believe to be gifts and talents, and explained that while small minorities of children are considered gifted, I believe that every child has a talent. Once you identify your child’s talents, it is your responsibility as a parent to nurture the talents of your children. Nurturing your children’s’ talents takes time and money. There is a huge debate right now that children are in far too many activities and are becoming exhausted. Homeschoolers however have a unique benefit in the … Continue reading

Homeschooling Talented Children: Identifying Talents

There are gifted children, and there are talented children. I believe that every child has a talent or a gift. It is our duty as parents to discover and harness those talents and gifts. In schools, the terms ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ usually go hand in hand. Schools like to categorize and label don’t they? There is however, a distinctive difference between the two. Gifted children have exceptionally high and measurable intelligence. Meanwhile, talented children may have a propensity or natural inclination toward a particular activity. This propensity may be clear or ambiguous. Valorie Delp has written a few articles on … Continue reading

2006 in Review: Homeschooling Blog at a Glance

As a new homeschooling blogger at Families.com, I wanted to know everything that has been discussed to date. In response to my own curiosity, and in an effort to make perusing our articles easier for you, our readers, I have compiled all of the blogs for the year 2006. Deciding to Homeschool Why homeschool Am I qualified for this? Reasons that Homeschooling Works! My Most Important Advice for Homeschoolers. The Cost of Homeschooling Instead of standing up for their own kids, why not stand up for all kids? Disclaimer: I am hardly an expert in education. Did You Know? ‘Empirical … Continue reading

The Homeschooler’s Advent Calendar: Crafty Activities at Families.com

Do you tour this website? I have to admit that I check out a few blogs regularly, but if I’m searching for something I often go to the forums to get people’s opinions. However, when I was thinking about today’s Advent calendar topic, I thought I’d take a good look around at what Families.com has to offer. Obviously the blogger in fun or kid’s crafts doesn’t blog in homeschooling–but which of us homeschoolers doesn’t like to get out the craft boxes every so often? In reality, I found many ideas that I can use for our Christmas celebrations during homeschool. … Continue reading

5 Great Christmas Gifts for the Homeschooling Family on Your List

I am always looking for something that’s educational but is not the equivalent of getting socks and underwear to my kids. This is no small feat, but it can be done. Consider putting the following in the stockings or under the trees of the homeschoolers you love! 1. Educational Games Everyone loves a good board game. So why not pick up a gift certificate for an online store like Fun Again.com? Too many choices? I am personally partial to plunder chess. Leap Frog has also come out with a series of board games that help teach early learning skills. 2. … Continue reading

Parents: Considering Homeschooling?

It’s that time of year. Parents are wrapping up another school year with their kids. Hopefully this was a fantastic year but sometimes parents are faced with the challenge of making difficult educational decisions for their children’s future school career. Perhaps your child is struggling to keep up. Perhaps the social experience of school was painful and difficult for your child. Perhaps your child has shown gifts that their current school is not prepared to support. Maybe your child has been diagnosed with a learning disability or ADHD and you question the diagnosis or the treatment. There are many situations … Continue reading

Free Stuff for Teachers

Are you a teacher or do you know one? If so, you might want to keep reading. Now is the time for teachers (including homeschooling teachers in many cases) to take advantage of all of the freebies and discounts that are available. Many name brand stores are featuring teacher appreciation days this week. During a teacher appreciation day, teachers can come into a store and be showered with all sorts of free gifts, coupons and discounts on school supplies. Teacher appreciation days are a great way to help balance the budget, when you are a teacher and are faced with … Continue reading