Do you ever feel alone?

Like you just don't fit in with the crowd?

When we hear comments that challenge or ridicule our home education efforts, we can feel especially different. It can make us question if this is really a good idea. Then we start comparing. That's our downfall.

Remember that comparing what we are doing with what someone else is doing, or what the school is doing is a fatal exercise. Invariably we are comparing the externally visible strengths of someone else to our own weaknesses. We can't help but come up short.

This played out for me in an experience some years ago. One day each week we met with another family and did "team teaching", their mom taught all the kids certain subjects and I taught all the kids other subjects. The first day was nearly a disaster.

She started with English, asking the children to name the 8 parts of speech. Her kids named them off easily, quickly. My kids looked confused and said, "What?"

Then came geography... Down to her 5 yr old could list off the major oceans and seas. My kids said, "Um, what?" (I was having cold sweats in the corner.)

The capper was when asked, down to their 5 yr old could name the Roman emperors, in order!

Feeling completely defeated, I was ready to crawl under a rock, send my kids to school where they'd actually learn something! I nearly packed up the kids and left, but my brain was so addled I just couldn't come up with a quick excuse to go.

Then it was my turn to teach Biology, a favorite subject for me. We went over the differences between bacteria and viruses. To my utter shock... the tables were turned. Down to my 3 yr old knew the differences and could explain them, up to her older teen didn't know for sure.

That gave me much to think about. Not to say one area of knowledge is more important than another, we all prioritize according to what we think is more important. But more that if I had actually managed an excuse and left, I would never have known that I was comparing her strengths to my own weaknesses (or just areas that we hadn't covered yet). If I had left, I would have stayed defeated.

As hard as it is, don't compare. Instead, enjoy being unique!

Missoula/Bitterroot Homeschoolers!

The Missoula/Bitterroot Homeschoolers
Used Book Sale is scheduled for June 1st, 2009
at King's Christian Church, Hwy 93, Lolo, MT

Open to the public 1:30 to 4:30 pm

For questions or table reservations call:

Cathy Anderson 626-5534, or email me

or Cheri Perez 777-2570

I'll be there with my Sonlight materials so you have another chance to see things if you missed the MHEEC Convention in Kalispell this month.

Calling all Juniors!

If your student will be a high school Junior this fall, this is the year to take the PSAT. The PSAT is a Preliminary SAT exam. It is used as practice for the college entrance SAT exam, and as the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship competition.

The test is given once a year in October. Now is a great time of year to contact a local public or private high school and ask that they order a test for your student. The cost is approximately $13-$15, the school can set the exact price. The test is quite similar to the SAT, but does not have an essay portion.

Although the Junior year is the one that "counts" for the National Merit Scholarship, your student can take the test for practice in the 10th grade year as well. For the scholarship, it is the total score that is considered. While only the top few percent of students will receive any official recognition for their high score, the PSAT is well worth doing for the practice and allowing your student to become more familiar with standardized test formats. Feel free to use a "prep" book to help your student know what to expect.

The first time we considered having our 10th grader take the PSAT, I didn't realize I should have called well in advance. I found myself calling around to every local school, in a panic because September was too late to find a spare test available. One person finally explained it was only the 11th grade year that is considered for the scholarship competition. We waited until the next year for that student, and for subsequent students I knew to call early!

There is a homeschool code that your student will enter into a designated spot on the test form that will allow the test results to be sent directly to your home address. The score report will arrive around the first week of December.

For more information about the PSAT: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/about.html

Summer's coming! Now what?

The warmer weather is here, finally! This has seemed like a very long, slow process to me, but summer is right around the corner.

Now what??

Some families do school year-round, some take the full summer off, and others, somewhere in between.

We have actually done all those things in different years. Each has advantages but "real life" certainly affects what we might choose.

Initially, we did 2-3 days worth of school over each week in the summer. It wasn't an arduous schedule, but allowed us to rack up some time toward our annual goal of hours or days. My kids didn't mind starting before their public school friends, but they had a passion to finish the school year before them!

Over the years we did 4-H, we tended to do less school in the summer. Time is short and precious when you are doing livestock projects! That is of course, an education in itself, and requires some flexibility during the year. We took shorter holiday breaks to give us time to take off for lambing in February, for instance.

Summer can be a great time to do Science. You can do some or even all, of your Science for the year over summer. We like to do some Math at least, which means we don't have as much review time needed as we start up our full school year. It can be a wonderful time for art, craft projects, cooking, gardening, and of course, reading aloud.

Remember, you are in charge of your school and schedule. You needn't do school "the way we've always done it", or the way the public school does it. You have flexibility, take advantage of it to meet the needs of your children!

It was wonderful to meet so many of you at the MHEEC convention, thank you for stopping to see me! More on high school in the next post....

High school: The OTHER scary part...

People have often told me the two scariest times in their homeschool experience are teaching reading and homeschooling high school. We've talked a little bit about teaching reading, let's look at high school.

First, deep breath, maybe have a cup of tea, calm those trembling hands and shaking nerves. You can do this.

A great first step (after your tea) is to make sure you are familiar with the homeschool law in your state. This will help you know what you need to comply with, such as keeping a basic log of hours spent, topics taught, etc. More about records in another post.

Before the beginning of high school, I strongly suggest you make a simple chart. I like to list the courses down the left side of my page and the years across the top, 9th, 10th, and so on.

As you fill in "X's" in the intersecting boxes, you are planning out your student's high school years. Remember this is a general plan. You can list "English" on the left. It's usually done, in some form, each year, so place X's in all four years. That's fine, even though later as you plan in more detail, one year might end up, "Poetry" or "Composition 1" or "Creative Writing".

This will help you plan out the pace of the four years so your student isn't twiddling his thumbs one year, or hearing; "Honey, guess what, you're going to earn 32 credits this year!" Along with the overall pace, you can plan out courses that need certain courses done first. For instance, Algebra 1 is usually a prerequisite, a "do-first" (or at least a co-requisite, a "do-at-the-same-time) for Chemistry.

If that sounds awfully organized, I'll let you in on a couple of secrets: I do this in pencil, not pen, and I've lost that master chart at least once for each child. You can re-create that chart if needed (because you not only lost it, but didn't find it again. Ask me how I know!).

Where do you get the courses? I've looked at the Office of Public Instruction website and the Montana state law to make sure I am exceeding that. Then at lots of college websites for admission requirements. I made sure to look at a range of large and small, public and private colleges, and a wide variety of geographic locations.

At first glance, this might seem daunting and very rigid. Keep in mind that most of those places listed something like: "Engligh, 4 yrs, must include composition and literature". As I mentioned, you have lots of freedom to both meet the student's needs and satisfy his interests, Poetry, Creative Writing, American Literature, English Literature, etc.

We've just scratched the surface! I have lots more to offer, stay tuned here, and I hope to see you at the Montana Homeschool Convention, coming up this weekend!

Helping your struggling reader

When I began teaching reading for the first time, I had thought that we would introduce and practice a letter sound 20-30 times, and my budding reader would have it down. Wrong! Instead, it was more like 2 or 3 hundred times! I had no idea it would be like that.

When you are going over anything that many times, you need a little variety. We played many games and worked with those pesky letter sounds in as many ways as I could think of. Remember at this point, you don't care if the student knows the letter names, you are after the child knowing letter sounds. Here are a few games you can try:

Make a list of letters, only say, 6-8. A mix of letters the child knows well with only a few that are newer to him. Using that list, dictate those sounds and have the child write them down. Let him compare your list to his, "reading" the sounds to you. Then the real fun, let him take your list and dictate those sounds to you. Again, let him compare your original list to your dictated copy. My kids loved the whole idea of "testing" me to see if I knew my letter sounds.

With this and other games, the best strategy is using a few at a time and a mix of known and new letters.

We wrote letters on index cards and used those to spell short words and practice reading them, cat, hat, pen, can, etc. (You could use Scrabble tiles to do this too.)

You can use those same cards to play a concentration game. You'll need 2 cards of each letter. Mix them up, lay them face down and let the child work on finding the matches. When he has matched all of them (remember, only 6-8 at a time, not all 26 letters!), let him read the sounds of all the pairs to you.

We enjoyed the Sonlight Language Arts games, Go A to Z and Alphabet Sounds Bingo.

A favorite game is a wonderful whole body reinforcement of letter sounds, but it does get wild and silly. I wrote a single letter on each piece of paper. Lay out 9-12 papers with different letters on the floor. Call out a letter sound and let the child jump onto the page with that letter. This is great for kinesthetic learners especially, but all of my children enjoyed it. Those papers will slide on the floor and between jumping, falling, and giggling, it does get pretty loud!

Encourage even older struggling readers to play these games. An older student can play them with a younger student as your "teacher's aide". It's learning for the younger child and review for the older one.

It takes a lot of work to become fluent with reading. Variety will help relieve the monotony of practicing the same thing over and over.

Now, go play a game!

"I can't read!"

Has your child said that? Mine did. I winced painfully as she said this point blank to a lady, in of all places, a bookstore.

Especially if you are a parent who loves to read, it can be mystifying and frustrating if your child struggles or doesn't enjoy reading. There is hope!

Encourage any effort your child does make, pay attention when the child reads to you, talk about the story, tell your child your favorite part and ask what his was.

We kept a book list on the refrigerator for each young learner. I let my children list each title as they finished the book or story, and I let them list it for each time they read it. If they read the same story 4 times, they could list the title 4 times.

Every 10 titles, we would do some small special thing. A small, one-scoop ice cream cone after lunch, the child gets to pick what is for dinner from 2 or 3 options, we go for a walk and picnic, there are lots of possibilities!

One of my children liked to list not only title and author, but also number of pages in the book. At the bottom of each page she would total the number of pages she'd read.

Your children will get farther, faster with their reading skill by reading more books at a level that is relatively easy for them, rather than dialing up the challenge each time they complete a story. I know this seems counterproductive, and it's agonizing when your older learner is still reading at a level below their age-mates.

While there are times, of course, that issues such as learning disabilities, vision, etc. affect learning to read, keep in mind that each child is unique. Each will need "X" amount of practice before gaining fluency, and we really don't know how much "X" is for each particular child.

Know that others have trod this road as well, and it is a difficult one! The pressure from friends and family can make you feel you have failed your child. Don't go there. Explore creative ways to help your child practice letter sounds and reading, and be patient! The day will come when your child surprises you by pulling a book of the shelf (voluntarily!) and says, "Mom, I'm going to read this." And he does.

(More on Language Arts games and creative ways to practice in the next post!)