Tag: <span>Homeschool</span>

Homeschool Math – 6 Key Techniques to Know on How to Teach Math and What to Use?

Posted in Education by anshbookstore on September 7, 2022 @ 1:21 am

If you struggled with Math at all when you were growing up, you probably don’t feel adequate to teach home school Math. The truth is, though, that we use Math all the time in our day and you can use those opportunities to share Math with your children. Help your children develop a love for math using these tools:

1. Play games – Card games and board games are great tools to use to teach number concepts. You don’t have to say anything about numbers or math, just play the game and have fun.

2. Use your time in the kitchen to work with numbers. Have your children count silverware, cut pizza into fractions, measure liquids and solids in a recipe, skip count items that come in packs, subtract items from a group as you eat them, and count anything else that they may see there.

3. Show them in daily life how math affects them. Show them how to look at a calendar and count the days until a special day. When they receive money help them know the value of the coins or dollars and show them how to count it. You can even divide the money into different envelopes with them.

4. Teach them that counting by one is not the only way to count. They can use skip counting to count by twos, threes, fours, fives and more. We have made up our own skip counting songs with popular children’s songs that we know. Now my 6 year old knows how to skip count by two, three, four, five and six, not because he is a super intelligent child, but because those numbers have been put to music in a fun way.

5. Read books that enforce math concepts. Books like “How Much is A Million” and “How Much is a Billion” can show children how enormous numbers can be in a fun and entertaining format. For younger children there are many counting books that you can get from the library that teach them about numbers.

6. Use the calculator to show them how large numbers are added. They certainly need to know how to do the basic concepts of math operations, but they can also have fun using a calculator occasionally for large numbers.

Use as many senses as possible to teach math. Different children will understand certain concepts of math using different methods than others. You can use workbooks, manipulative, math games, real life, computer software, and more. Attitude is everything. If you have a positive attitude about Math, then they will be more likely to accept that attitude.

Source by Heidi Johnson

15 Jun

Random Facts Versus Whole Science Approach to Homeschool Teaching

Posted in Education by anshbookstore on June 15, 2022 @ 12:17 am

When it comes to learning science, most of us were taught in the public school system, which is a big proponent of the random fact teaching methodology. In other words, science was a single subject taught in a vacuum separate from other subjects. When it comes to teaching difficult or complex subjects such as science, it makes more sense to take a holistic approach. Here’s why.

The Science Random Fact Junk Drawer

There has been much news lately about the American education crisis in regards to a lack of interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) disciplines. The United States is falling behind other developed countries when it comes to new technologies and discoveries, mainly because it is producing fewer graduates with related degrees.

One of the reasons for this lack of interest in STEM disciplines is due to the way kids are taught. Students often learn a bit of science here and a bit of science there without being provided any logical way to connect the dots. This collection of random facts can be likened to your junk drawer at home – you know there’s a screwdriver in the midst of all those rubber bands and paper clips and batteries and gadgets somewhere, you just can’t find it amongst all the clutter.

The same holds true for kids learning science. For instance, if a child learns a little something about the earth and the moon and how the shadow of our planet can cause a lunar eclipse, that’s an interesting, but random, fact. You might also have taught your child some astronomy concepts and explained how the moon affects the ocean’s tides. Perhaps your child has also learned something about gravity and the moon’s gravitational pull. But if you are using many mainstream homeschool science curricula, those facts were never pulled together to show the student how the moon is at the core of all these facts and they are interrelated. That’s why it’s so difficult for many kids (and adults alike!) to make the leap between one science fact and how it impacts so many other areas of the world around us. This also makes it very hard to extract a random fact later because the child must rely on rote learning.

The Whole Science Teaching Approach

A better, more effective way to teach homeschool science is through an exponential approach. By helping kids make their own connection between subjects, they are much better equipped to draw broader conclusions. This is also a great way to encourage their natural curiosity and develop hands-on experimentation that offers exciting new discoveries in the child’s mind.

The whole science homeschool teaching approach is all about extrapolation. Once your student has assimilated some core concepts they are prepared to expand that knowledge and apply it to different, everyday situations.

For instance, let’s go back to that random fact about the moon’s gravitational pull on earth. That’s a physic concepts and that explains much about a lunar eclipse, which is a topic generally brought up in astronomy. Those same gravitational forces are at work when it comes to oceanic tide cycles, a topic that may be part of biology learning. By painting the bigger picture, a student can connect the dots between physics and astronomy and biology herself and become excited about learning more.

This approach also compartmentalizes and organizes bits of information so they can easily be retrieved at will and on demand. And it aids the homeschool science teacher, who often doesn’t understand the information herself, present complex concepts and help the student come to a conclusion that need not be foregone.

When it comes to teaching a difficult subject such as science, the homeschool teacher would be wise to use a whole science approach rather than relying on a random fact methodology.

Source by Dr Rebecca Keller

16 Nov

The Art of Teaching Homeschool Science

Posted in Education by anshbookstore on November 16, 2021 @ 8:11 pm

When it comes to homeschooling your kids in the subject of science, is there a cut-and-dried formula? While many parents have been led to believe there is, the reality is that it’s more beneficial to treat the process as an art than a science. It’s important for kids to use their natural curiosity to explore the world around them and truly enjoy science class. The following artful tips will help you teach homeschool science in a way that makes it fun and engaging.

Active Learning Through Open Inquiry

There are lots of scientific facts and data to be learned. But rather than have your child passively learn via memorization, science becomes interactive through the process of open inquiry. Encourage your kids to think about how things might work before telling them how scientists have discovered they actually do work; encourage them to question.

Kids are born with natural curiosity and will ask questions in the natural course of their learning. Rather than answer their queries with rote facts, answer them with questions of your own that make them think more deeply about a subject. If your child asks, “Why is the sky is blue?”, counter that with, “What do you think there is in the atmosphere that produces the color blue?” That’s open inquiry that encourages exploration and discovery.

Science Should Be Explored

There is a way of teaching that chokes off a child’s natural curiosity and then there is a way of teaching that encourages inquisitive minds to further explore scientific theories and facts.

If you think that science is a “hard” subject to learn, it’s probably because you were taught to memorize random facts or complicated equations. This is not the most effective approach to teaching science. Just knowing random facts about something doesn’t mean you understand it.

The same is true for your child. Don’t worry about having her memorize a set of facts, but encourage her to ask questions that come from her innate sense of curiosity. So rather than asking her to learn the Latin names for each species of North American bird, for instance, help her find the answers to things she wants to know, such as how birds are able to fly and how they communicate with each other and what types of food they eat.

Break the Rules of Experimentation

Performing hands-on experiments is a vital part of learning science. But rather than insisting that experiments follow a prescribed set of steps or rules, allow your child to dive right in and maybe even make mistakes. Guidelines are good but there’s no reason you can’t break the rules and, in fact, you should do so regularly. This encourages lots of questions and further experimentation to see what might happen if… if a variable is changed or if the experiment is moved or if the same results would occur with other variables. You never know, you and your child might just discover something new.

Teaching your kids science is about more than just following a prescribed curriculum. Every now and then you should step outside the box and see what happens. Have your kids think about broader possibilities and help them discover answers to their questions on their own. All science is really an art; it’s not black and white but shades of gray that color the results of those who dare to be curious and explore the world around them.

Source by Dr Rebecca Keller