When we made the decision to homeschool for our young children we were nervous I believe as most parents are. Will they be learning enough of the "right" studies/categories that we learned in school? Will they be socially awkward? What happens when they hopefully excel further than us and have need for advanced help?
Every year we will buy backpacks and take the first day of school photo, just because we are not in a physical school building does not mean we don't know and hold true the value of tradition.
Here are a few programs that we take advantage of and can see a difference in our children when we implement them.
MUSEUMS
Use your local museums. They are amazingly interactive and usually have a free craft area or learning experience that you can partake in.
Plus there are always other families there to help with their social and sharing skills.
ONLINE
This one is an online course and it is called Happy Numbers. Our 5 year old loves this interactive program. When you first upload it they will have your child take a placement test to see where they are ranking in Mathematics. Once they take the test then the classes and activities begin. They use encouraging words as we do at home like excellent, perfect, good job. These words may seems like nothing to an adult but to a growing child they are everything. Our children always have a better attitude and are more willing to learn with a positive environment.
The program has different levels and they are planets and worlds that he gets to explore. After meeting his goals for each planet he gets to hatch an egg and meet a new space animal. It makes him excited to complete the next level. We usually do one level every other day but many times he asks me to keep going so he can see what animal hatches out. He is 5 and is currently learning equations like 1+2=3, 2+5=7, 8-3=5, 8-4=4. I am very proud of him and love the program. If they input the wrong number it will turn red. If they get it right number the green ball at the top of the page goes from left to right. After all of the balls are to the right that means they have achieved the next level.
LOCAL SKILLS PROGRAMS
These programs that we use that are out of the home are extracurricular and do cost something..from 20-125 per class. They consist of one class per season to interact and learn with other children. In the past we did a swim class, a gym class, and they just finished a gymnastics class. They love not only playing with other children but seeing that they are achieving a goal set in place by the teacher. When they walked on the high beam with no help.. the biggest accomplishment.
LOCAL HOMESCHOOL GROUPS
We also joined a homeschool group and do fun activities with other children. This month was a pumpkin patch day.
THE LIBRARY
During the fall and winter months our local library is a place we call home at least once a week. They offer a learning computer for children, tons of books(Elias loves science books), they have a toy area and usually there is a few other children there to interact with.
They offer free coloring pages and crayons and usually weekly they have some sort of scavenger hunt that you can partake in. The best part is that the drive is only about 5 minutes from us so even on a bad wintery day we can still get out of the house to a new environment for a small amount of time.
What local and online classes could you be taking advantage of for your children in your community? Wilson Wonders
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