Posts Tagged science
Homeschool Records – Preparing for College
Posted on October 17, 2011 | Home Schooling.
Saving samples and records of your high school students work is an important aspect of preparing for college. Our recall is not always the best and being able to remember what your child did as a freshman could prove to be quite difficult without good record keeping.
When saving your student’s homeschool records it is a good idea to have a place to put each subject area that you teach and to put any papers there that you can find. If your student is writing something for English, it is hard to know what class it is eventually going to go into. It doesn’t really matter where you put it; what matters is that you put it somewhere.
Having a notebook with a subject tab is beneficial because it helps you figure out what subjects are lacking records. Colleges may ask to see work samples, but you never know what the colleges are going to ask for. Some colleges may want to see a lab write-up from a science class. Others may want to see a math paper or a math test. They may want to see the student’s own handwriting on the paper. One of the colleges that we applied to wanted a graded English paper.
I wrote a course description for each of the classes as we went along. I wrote it as a paragraph, listed the things we did or used, wrote every possible way that I evaluated them and put that on the bottom.
It’s important to know that the way you evaluate your children is not all about testing. Testing is a very small piece of how we evaluate our children. The kids in public schools are not solely evaluated on tests, either. When they go to school, they might be given a grade that’s based on many different things. If you, as a homeschooler, are only giving a grade based on your end of chapter tests, you’re putting them at a disadvantage against every other student.
Sometimes colleges will ask for other things from people as well. They will occasionally ask for more from a homeschooler, like a written paper. I’ve talked to a lot of colleges and they’re very frustrated at the state of education in our country. How they can have four years of English and come to college without the ability to read or write? Most college admissions will ask for samples from everyone, not only homeschoolers.
Preschool Curriculum – How to Find a Quality Curriculum
Posted on September 20, 2011 | Home Schooling.
An effective preschool curriculum is not just a day care center for little kids, but a quality, learning experience that can give your child a head start on grade school. The challenges of preschool should be sufficient to let the child learn and grow in an atmosphere productive to learning, while not be so demanding that the child will get discouraged and fall behind.
There are three main aspects to a preschool curriculum that are recognized in the US, they focus on the mathematical, reading, and science disciplines. These goals are accomplished though visual aids and hands-on learning experiences. Also, the preschool environment should allow for social development of the child with others their age.
Recently, there has been a new standard written known as the international preschool curriculum. This was founded by instructors and educators from around the world in forming a basic curriculum for preschool students that harmonizes the differences between nations to form a common ground for learning.
The international preschool curriculum, in addition to the above mentioned disciplines, also offers international themes and bilingual education as well. This type of curriculum helps promote cultural diversity and awareness that will familiarize preschool students with the various cultures that populate our planet.
Plenty of preschool activities help children grow and learn together, especially when visual aids are used to help explain the subject matter in an easy to grasp fashion.
But the basis for all effective learning at the preschool age starts with the parents. Having the parents informed on what the child is learning and getting them involved in some of the activities makes for a more productive experience. Add to this regular assessment on the child’s progress that can trace any potential learning difficulties in the future. This can be vitally important in addressing these issues early on, when they can be dealt with more quickly and with more effectiveness.
All learning begins with the child’s ability to read. This is usually the primary focus of the preschool curriculum and helps not only with basic reading skills, but it broadens their vocabulary and allows them to pronounce words more exactly. By the time they enter kindergarten; a child will know almost 5,000 words and can form complex sentences. The preschool curriculum should give that child every chance to expand those skills.
Basic mathematics is also taught in preschools, usually using visual aids or easy to understand examples. They should be able to understand the basic number of similar objects, count to 10 or above, and can add together objects as well, such as if John had two oranges and Sally one orange, how many oranges do they both have together?
The learning of science begins by demonstrating what different objects or materials are, their sizes and shapes, and even what color or colors they are. The proper preschool curriculum expands a child’s knowledge of the world around them, including plants and animals. The different cultures that exist and how they can gather information about them.
Reading, science, and math are the three foundations to the international preschool curriculum. There are other aspects as well, almost twenty learning areas in total. Be sure to fully vet your local preschool to make sure they follow the correct guidelines to give your child the best head start to their education.