Archive for June, 2011
Are you considering whether or not you should home school your child? You may not be certain that your lifestyle, current situation or your child can handle homeschooling. Below are a few tips for determining if homeschooling is right for your child.
1. Determine Why You Want to Homeschool. It’s important that you take the time to explore the reason(s) why you want to homeschool. For example, is it because you disagree with the governmental policies regulating mainstream education? Do you want to incorporate your religious beliefs into your child’s education? Does your decision have something to do with your childhood school experience?
2. Are You “Tough Enough” to Handle It? You have to be mentally tough if you make the decision to homeschool. Why? Because those who homeschool are under constant criticism by those who don’t understand it. So, you need to make sure you are mentally tough enough to handle the misunderstood and opinionated views that others will express to you.
3. Do You Have the Time? When you make the decision to homeschool, you will be making the decision to give up some of your time. The question is, do you have the time available to give up? It’s a great sacrifice to make, if you can. Just realize that it takes time to plan, teach and grade.
4. Do You Have the Money? While homeschooling isn’t going to cost you a fortune, you need to understand that it will cost you some money. You will be out money for the curriculum and school supplies on a yearly basis. You will also have other expenses arise along the way. For example, if you decide to take your children on a field trip to the zoo, museum or aquarium…these all cost money.
5. How Will Your Child Interact with Others? Since your child will be homeschooled, he or she won’t be around other kids on a normal basis…unless you get involved with another homeschooling group in your community. You can also get your child involved in other child-related groups such as youth sports like Soccer and Little League Baseball. There are also clubs like 4-H, Boy/Girl Scouts and church activities as well. This is important and worth consideration.
6. What Level of Education is Your Child At? Many parents make the decision to homeschool because their child is at a different academic level than his peers at school are. This may mean they have a learning disability or are exceptionally smart. Regardless of which it is, if your child is at a different academic level than his classmates, homeschooling may be the best way to give him the unique education he needs.
Children spend hours creating exciting designs.
Explore our children’s toys on our website, All I Can Imagine.
Did you ever notice that when you are sitting with you baby and trying to get him interested in playing with several different toys and it is just not “working”? Sit back and relax; let him explore his surroundings and or nearby toys and see what happens.
More likely than not he will find something that catches his eye and he will get his own object or toy and begin to play all on his own. Watch him and you will see his creative little mind at “work” with newly created activities you would probably not thought up yourself.
A child who finds his own “toy” will quickly wander right into his own little world of magical play; he will be happy and involved in his own world for quite a while. You very likely will not have to direct his play and you can sit back and just enjoy watching your child enjoy himself – maybe even get a few quick pictures to send your husband at work.
Even if an activity seems meaningless to you as a parent, it can have great purpose and significance for your infant and young child. Therefore, it is important to lend support and encourage self-directed play activities that your child makes up.
These made up activities are not random – they will have a pattern to them as well as organization in keeping with the child’s mental ability level. When you allow your child time and freedom to complete his activities to his own personal satisfaction your child’s powers of concentration and attention will be nourished.
So that your baby has the opportunity for creative play you will want to have many baby toys on hand for him. They should be safe toys with no sharp corners, age appropriate and if wood, must be painted with non-toxic paints.
Wooden clutching toy available in four pastel colors.
Supply him with baby toys and wooden baby rattles with a variety of bright colors and different shapes and you will have a happy baby that does not easily get bored. Explore our website, All I Can Imagine, to get a few ideas of some wooden toys. Our clutching toys are unique and available online.
Children, after the age of about three, will have developed pretty good language skills as well as a reasonable amount of motor skills. Although some exposure to computer programs can be educational as well as fun will you be providing your three year with a computer?
If you decide to do so you will want to be sure the programs on the compute are age appropriate. And, of course, you will have to decide ahead of time just how much computer time you will be allowing your child. Setting time limits right from the beginning will cause fewer problems as the children grow and want to spend more and more time in front of the computer.
When selecting computer programs you could ask yourself, is this really necessary? Will the program fit in with your educational goals for your child? The program may seem fun but can it also be used as teaching tool?
Computers and the available programs may be enticing, but there is nothing an infant or young child cannot learn from other sources such as books and games. You probably do not want your child to prefer to be glued to a computer screen rather than sitting in your lap looking at a picture book together.
You can create more memories with one-on-one personal time interacting with your child. What better way to bond than with individual attention given your precious child. Not only will you get to know your child better you will have more control in teaching him the values and lessons you want him to learn.
Providing your children quality children’s toys will enhance his creative play time. There are many unique and fun toddler learning toys on the market today that will give your child the experiences he needs for building eye hand coordination, social skills and other benefits.
Besides reading or playing a game you could sit on the floor with a pretty 3d puzzle and talk about the animal – pictured here is our dog family puzzle.
Six dogs for individual play – chunky pieces are easy to handle.
Have your child trace several different animals, cut them out, and color them. You could make magnets out of them, or even a mobile. Your child may likely come up with some ideas of his own.
So if you do decide to get your three year old a computer remember to also incorporate plenty of educational wood toys for most of his other play time.
There are four tips here today for you to implement if you are a working home school parent. The first part of this article was posted on May 30th.
Make Smart Use of Your Daily Drive – There are a lot of people who home school and commute to work every day. One of their secrets is making smart use of their daily drive to and from work. Instead of making extra trips to the art supply store or library with their kids, they take the time to run these errands as they are going to or leaving work.
Assign Lessons to Children During the Day – Obviously, if you and your spouse are working daily jobs, then someone has to be at home with your children. You can assign your children lessons to do during the day and ask your childcare professional to oversee the work and make sure that it gets done.
Home school at Night – How many college students take night classes? There are many that do, so why can’t you home school your children at night after you get home from work? You can easily go over lessons at the dinner table or a couple hours before bedtime.
Always Plan – For those who work outside the home and want to home school too, planning is essential. You need to make a weekly schedule that clearly dictates when lessons will take place. This will save you a lot of time and make homeschooling go much more smoothly.
If you have toddlers that need a quiet type toy to play with while you are teaching your older children browse through our baby and toddler toys. You will love exploring all our beautifully crafted wooden baby and toddler toys.
Kids love pop up toys. This is our wood school bus.