Welcome to the beginnings of the TNH Big Book of Homeschooling, our first collaborative writing project. Here's how it works:
Books at TNH are basically pages organized in an outline format. If you are a registered user, you can add to these pages; just look under your name, click on "create content," and choose to create a book page. (DO NOT ADD CONTENT TO THE BOOK IN A "COMMENT" PLEASE. Sorry to yell, just trying to make sure you're paying attention.) On the creation page you'll be asked what the "parent" of the page is; this page ("The TNH Big Book of Homeschooling") is the one you should choose. If the sole content of your page is a link to someplace else, please submit it as a weblink and send me a note; I'll make sure it gets organized into the book. Also be sure to notify me if you see a particularly good forum post or journal entry that should be added to the book.
I am going to keep track of what's entered here and keep it organized and edited. But it will be OUR community book!
Giving children a strong foundation in reading is one of the greatest gifts you can offer them. Much of future learning depends on reading skills.
Lately there has been much made of the so-called reading war in which proponents of phonics (teaching sound-letter relationships) and whole language (immersing children in words) have squared off. In my 12 years' teaching experience I have found the greatest success using a blend of the best of both systems.
As far as teaching phonics skills, I have never used a better product than Saxon Phonics. It is very comprehensive and designed be incremental, which means skills are mastered a bit at a time and added on to as you go. The phonics system uses coding to teach phonetic rules and includes spelling, vocabulary, and fluency as well. Saxon is a bit pricey, but a true value considering how user-friendly it is for parents and children; the homeschool kits include everything you need.
So many studies have proven that explicit phonics instruction is the most effective way to teach children to be strong readers and spellers. However, maintaining a literature-rich environment is essential to help children love to read. Reading to your children is a wonderful way to help them. When children hear someone reading with expression, and they are immersed in literature far above their own reading level, their fluency and vocabulary increase. Here are a few of the favorite read-aloud books I have collected over the years:
Young Children (2-6 years)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr and Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
The Mitten by Jan Brett
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
Good Night, Fairies by Kathleen Hague
As They Grow (4-7 years)
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Sleeping Beauty by Mahlon and Kinuko Craft
Cinderella by Mahlon and Kinuko Craft
King Midas and the Golden Touch by Charlotte and Kinuko Craft
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Marianna Meyer and Kinuko Craft
Pegasus by Marianna Meyer and Kinuko Craft
Rotten Teeth by Laura Simms
Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
From Dawn til Dusk by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock and Mary Azarian
The Poetry for Young People Series are beautifully illustrated poem collections from many famous poets.
Ready for Chapter Books (4-20 years)
The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
The Time Quartet ( A Wrinkle in Time is the first one) by Madeline L'Engle
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien
The Dear America Series from Scholastic--great historical fiction written in a journal format
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Another wonderful way to maintain a literature-rich environment is to play story tapes. You can often borrow them from the library or rent them from the bookstore. Some of my favorites are:
Any of the tapes by Jim Weiss.
Any tapes by Odds Bodkins, especially The Odyssey for older kids.
Learning poetry, beginning with nursery rhymes, is very helpful for developing phonemic awareness, long-term memory, and vocabulary. The What Your [Kindergartner, First Grader, etc] Needs to Know series by E.D. Hirsch has a great collection of age-appropriate rhymes, poems, and sayings at a reasonable price.
Once your child is reading fairly fluently, consider the wonderful Junior Great Books program. Although this would be harder to do with a single child because of the shared inquiry discussion component, I highly, highly recommend it for homeschool groups. Each grade from 2-8 has an anthology of short stories that cost $14.95 each. The teachers book with all the activities and questions in it is $23.95 per grade level, and there is also a companion writing workbook for $6.95. The program has 5 days worth of activities for each story. The first day the teacher defines vocabulary and reads the story out loud as the students read along. This is to model fluent, expressive reading, and to allow children to access text that might otherwise be too challenging. The next day the students read the story to themselves, and as they read they mark passages according to a direction from the teacher, such as when they feel sympathetic toward a character. The third day is a shared inquiry discussion (this is where the group becomes necessary). Students and the teacher together explore a question about the story with two or more possible answers, depending on how the reader interpreted the text. Students are asked to reference what they read in the story that supports their answer to the question (On page 23 the tailor told the giant that). The last two days are for writing activities connected to the reading. It is a wonderful program that really helps children to think critically and become comfortable expressing and supporting their ideas. You can find more details at:
http://www.greatbooks.org/programs/junior/index.shtml
Don't be surprised if some children, especially boys, go through a period of only wanting to read non-fiction. Its a typical stage, and doesnt mean he will never enjoy fiction. Magazines are a terrific motivator during this time, and I recommend these, which might be found at your library:
Muse Magazine (from Smithsonian)
National Geographic for Kids Magazine
Some good websites for finding discussion questions and activities to support books your child may be reading are:
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/
If you can’t spring for the Saxon Phonics program, you can improvise on your own. Here is a sample progression for teaching phonics. The only real materials you need are pencils and paper, some index cards or magnetic letters, and patience.
• Teach the names of the letters, and how to write them, upper and lowercase. Some children do better learning all uppercase first, and then lower, and other do best learning both together. By the way, there is a great computer program you can buy which allows you to create your own handwriting worksheets. You can do print or cursive, and customize it with words or spelling rules your child is learning, and his or her name, or really anything you want! It can be found at www.startwrite.com A great multi-sensory approach to help learn letter shapes is to write them on a table in shaving cream or salt on a cookie sheet. You could also have them shape letters out of playdough ropes. This helps the information to go in to the brain through more senses, so it is retained more easily.
• Teach the sounds of the letters. Start with the regular consonant sounds: b, c (as in cat), d, f, g (as in goat), h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q (which always goes with u and sounds like kw), r, s (as in snake) t, v, w, x (which sounds like ks) y (as in yellow) , and z.
• Teach the vowel sounds. Each vowel has two sounds. First teach the short sounds as in apple, elephant, igloo, ostrich, and umbrella.
• Now show them how to blend those consonant sounds with the short vowel sounds to make words like am, is, it, if, us, on, up, an, and, bad, dog, hug, kit, lip, mad, not, pig, run, top, van, wig, quit, Bob, Jan, Max, Dan, Jim, Sam, and so on.
At this point it is fun and very helpful for solidifying these sounds to play the phonics riddle game. Ask your child to say the word bat without the b (at). Then put a c on the beginning (cat). Take off the t and put on a p on the end (cap). Another great game is to make little index card letters (or use magnetic letters on a cookie board) to make as many words as you can. Have your child write down each word he/she makes. Then have him/her read the list to you. It is amazing how many 3-letter words they will find and will be able to read!
• Next is regular consonant blends, where you hear both letter sounds, like br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, st, str, and so on. Great words to use for this are: brag, crib, frog, grip, trot, blip, clasp, flag, glad, plum, slug, stamp, strap.
• Now, I would teach the first set of “sight” words. These are words that can’t be sounded out and must be memorized. They are also words that appear frequently when you read and write. The first group is: the, said, of, were, what, you, love, friend, was, are. If you think your child is interested, it is valuable to have them memorize the spelling of these words. Make flash cards for each word, and if you want to, handwriting practice sheets. Have the child say the word, say each letter as he or she is looking at it, spelling out loud, or writing it, and then say the whole word again.
• Now do the other vowel sound- long or “name sounds” as in acorn, equal, island, orange, and unicorn. I usually do this by teaching the following “open” words (they end with a vowel, and therefore the vowel has the long sound) I, a, be, me, he, we, no, go, so, hi. Now is also the time to introduce the concept that the letter y is sometimes a vowel. At the end of some words it has the long I sound (such as by, my, dry, cry, and so on) and if it’s found in the middle of a word, it usually sounds like short I, such as the word myth.
• Next, I teach the silent e rule. I write down and read these pairs of words and ask the child to describe the pattern: kit/kite, bit/bite, Sam/same, cut/cute, strip/stripe, grip/gripe, glad/glade, rat/rate, slim/slime, and so on. The “magic e” at the end of the word changes the vowel sound, but does not have a sound of it’s own. If your child is a visual learner, you can write the silent e shorter and lighter than the other letters, to make a visual reminder that it is silent. The coding sign is drawing a diagonal line through the e to show it doesn’t have a sound.
• Then, teach the consonant digraphs. A digraph is two letters whose sound together is different than individually. These digraphs are: sh, th, ch, and ph. Words to use are: she (open-ends with a vowel, so the vowel sound is long) ship, shot, shape (silent e), thin, this, that, thump, chop, chip, chat, chum, chest, phone (silent e again), graph.
Now your child can read most of the Step Into Reading type books. These are great for boosting confidence, when they can read a whole book independently, they really see themselves as readers. If you want to get them reading book even earlier, the “Bob Books” are a wonderful resource for creating confident kids. They are very short and repetitive, but children get so thrilled and proud when they have success at reading a whole book. The Bob Books use consonant-short vowel-consonant words and basic sight words such as said, and, was, and the.
To be honest, when I first started researching this topic, nigh on almost three years (has it been that long already?), there wasn't much out there to find. It took me almost as long to formulate in my mind something coherent enough for other people to understand even the concept of homeschooling a child who isn't normally considered old enough to be "schooled."
I'm going to tell you now, in the second paragraph, exactly what it is without making you read to the bottom of the page. Ready? It might knock you over.
Homeschooling your baby or toddler means doing those things that you would normally be doing with them anyway, except in a concientious manner.
Got it? Still not sure what I mean? Well, here's some ideas to incorporate into your day.
1. Read to your child. I can't stress this one enough. Reading to them helps them learn how to read on their own. It shows them that information can be found in a book, and not just by asking mommy "Why?" for the zillionth time. Or you could do double-duty and get an older child to read to your younger child. Great for them both!
2. Have materials readily available. I don't really mean have everything within an arm's reach at all times. Sheesh, you'd be doing nothing but clean-up time all day! Rather, things like art supplies and materials should have a special spot that is easy to get to (after asking Mommy), and a nice space to use them in. Paper, used one side even, crayons, markers, paints, safety scissors, glue stick and anything else you can get your hands on are a good start. The kids will think up the rest. Maybe out of those books you read to them!
3. Talk to your child. I admit, I felt pretty stupid with kid #1 and I alone in the house, and me talking away. I mean, it's not like he talked back. Not yet. Eventually, he giggled and gurgled and realized this was a new way to communicate with Mommy. I talked about what I was doing, what he was doing, the clothes I was putting on him, and the things around him. And not just talking, ask your child questions. What do they see out the bus window as you ride downtown? Can they see a car? A tree? How about when you are doing chores? Can they show you a big sock in the laundry basket? How about a small sock? Over dishes, can they pick out the blue plate from the sink and give it to mommy? This is learning and reinforcing concepts in everyday life.
4. Let your child ask questions. And answer them. Sure, I got pretty tired of the endless "Why?"s myself, but I did find a way to turn it around. "Why what?" I would asked, encouraging them to expand on what they wanted to ask, to express themselves. Pretty soon they were asking more particular questions. "Why is that bug carrying that leaf?"--so I'd answer briefly. He's taking it home for food. As the questions got more involved, or beyond a quick one-sentence answer, I went with the child to look it up in a book, showing them how to find the information and reading it out loud to them. Sometimes I had to clarify or condense what was in the book, but you get the idea. I remember a day when one child asked me what was hard inside her arm. We looked up bones and the skeletal system and explained how it helped hold up her body.
5. Be active with your child. When the big kids were little, everything was a song and dance. When we talked about toes and knees and shoulders and heads, we sang a song. We sing silly songs. We sing hand-clapping songs and laugh. We sing jumping songs, on the bed of course. This includes playing games, even games you think your child might be too young for. (use caution though) Emma (2yrs) has recently learned how to play "Red Light, Green Light" even though she doesn't really understand most of it. Just try something you remember from your own childhood.
6. Be pro-active in your tv watching. I'm not going to say tv is bad for kids, especially when my own is on all day, every day. What I am going to suggest is watching tv and participating in what is on the screen, instead of staring slack-jawed and glossy-eyed. If the fuzzy puppets on the screen sing a song and dance, join them. If someone counts, count with them. If someone shows a happy face, be happy. Pull a sad face when they frown. In other words, watch the show with your child. Talk about it. Act on it. You can also encourage the child to tell others about what they saw.
7. Show AND tell. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand big words. If your childlikes her toy car, she may also like big cars, car shows, motorized little cars, transforming cars, going for a car drive, car books, car diagrams and.. well, you get the idea.
8. Keep it simple. They're kids, not little adults. You want to have fun while they are still young enough to feel that learning is fun. Most preschoolers are quite happy with learning colors, shapes/sizes, opposites, various animals and sounds, body parts and names, numbers and letters (although I would prefer to teach them the sounds of the letters first if I could), and various names of all kinds of objects. If your child is really interested in something specific, just make sure they have access to more information, like books from the library, videotapes and maybe a related art project. They'll do the rest and let you know when their brain is full.
In short, you don't really need any sort of fancy curriculum, or any at all. It depends on your specific needs, your child's needs, and how much you can afford.
Books I found helpful:
Slow & Steady Get Me Ready: I actually bought this one since I heard so much about it. It has weekly activities from birth through five years of age. I tend to skip around and pick and choose rather than follow it religiously.
Baby Games: I found this at a yard sale. Twice. Has all the words to the songs you can't quite remember from when you were a kid. Lots of hand-clapping games and everything! All the crafty recipes you would ever need are here too.
How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence: Sounds odd, but this was a real eye-opener for me. I check it out of my local library every few months for a re-read since I get more out of it each time. They have a website too.
What to do When There's Nothing to Do (out of print, but you can get it used)
Teaching Montessori in the Home - I don't really use this method, but it has great practical things to make and do so your preschooler will learn the basics from all learning styles.
Baby Signs - I didn't read the actually book for this, but I did read a lot about it online and looked up a few signs for our baby. A great idea.