It was with the support of their local school principal that Ken and Marlane Noster brought home their eldest child, half way through grade 3. The superintendent threatened to charge them with truancy. The late 80’s were rife with inconsistencies in treatment of home schoolers.
In response to the first Alberta Home Education Regulation of 1989, Ken was invited to help a school board develop its program for administrating home schooling. He and Marlane began to pray for an answer to two burning questions: how can a board designed to administrate schools administrate home schooling? and what am I being called to do?
Here’s to new beginnings and a new school year! Don’t you just love the fall! It’s my favorite season. Oh how I fall in love with all of the glorious fall shades, every year.
A kindergartner can also be passionate and enthusiastic towards many things. At this age it really is all about the senses. What can you see? What can you feel? What can you taste? What can you smell? What can you hear? The key to meeting your child to where they are at is to physically get down to their level and emotionally engage in what they are doing.
We are going into our 10th year of homeschooling. Due to my educational background, I often found myself documenting my children’s progress. But the longer I live the longer I realize that there is a difference between thriving and surviving. Don’t get me wrong, there were times that my sons and I thrived, however sometimes I was so focused on checking off the boxes that I forgot to live in the moment. I know it’s not always realistic to have the feeling that you are thriving or succeeding but one can try, right? Homeschooling really is a way of life. Yes, we do have a routine throughout the week but education in our family doesn’t stop when we put the books away. I encourage you to be open to teaching your children when they are searching more or when an opportunity presents itself. It doesn’t have to be formal to get the job done. It can be in the form of a discussion at home or with other adults. I enjoyed encouraging our children to teach other children their own age or younger something that they know or just learned about. One of the best things about homeschooling is that your children often encounter others that are younger or way older than them. It makes them more well-rounded as individuals.
All About Me Questions:
One way to document memories is to ask these questions at the beginning and at the end of the year. Then you can see your child’s personality as to whether their answers have changed or stayed the same.
Here are a few questions to ask & document:
What is your favorite color? What is your favorite number? What is your favorite animal? What is your favorite food?
What do you want to be when you grow up? Encourage them to draw a self-portrait
Have them write their name
(Even if it’s not legible, that's okay. At the end of the year, you will be able to see the progress as they practice writing their name throughout the year).
Leaf Art:
There are so many ideas to use leaves for crafts. You can make animal leaves or people leaves. It’s fun to analyze the different colors and types of leaves that grow. It’s neat to teach Science too! Leaves have veins just like we do. Simply put, the vein in the leaf transfers water throughout it and then sugars are transported out of it to the rest of the plant. At this age I just loved facilitating the desire to learn and increase my boy’s knowledge.
handsonaswegrow.com/kids-leaf-crafts
Bake Cookies:
I just love how baking encompasses Math, Science, Self-Help Skills and Reading. Your child gets to learn about measurements including liquid and solids. They get to watch how mixing in the baking soda or baking powder helps it to expand. They learn how to find things in the kitchen and be helpful. And learning about kitchen safety too! They also love to feel like they did something important.
allrecipes.com/recipe/9870/easy-sugar-cookies
superhealthykids.com/pumpkin-cookies
Painting Fun:
I know painting can be intimidating to some so I would like to offer a few suggestions.
Pick select days to paint so if you are like me and don’t like messes you can find great comfort in knowing that this is a “sometimes” activity.
- Always have all of the supplies you will need before you start. Extra paper is highly recommended as some children really get into the process. When I did my Early Childhood training, we learned that “it is the process, not the final product.”
- To prevent messes, never leave your child unsupervised. Sometimes it’s the future Van Goghs or Michelangelos that want to express their talents on the walls.
- Make sure you know have a designated spot to allow the art to dry (often clotheslines, clothes drying racks, a table that you don’t need).
- My kids loved expressing themselves through art for a good hour and then they got their fix and didn’t desire it until next time.
As I conclude, I would encourage you to have fun homeschooling. Remember to take time to smell the flowers (between all of the dishes and laundry, that is). Life goes by so very quickly. And these little ones don’t stay little forever. I now have a 14 year old teenager that’s taller than me and I am still in disbelief! May the Lord bless your year and may it be full of lifelong memories!
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
Benjamin Franklin
Homeschool Freedom (AND Fun) in the Summer
I must admit I love the freedom of home schooling at any time of the year, but home school freedom in the summer time is especially sweet.
After a long home school year of planning, home schooling and meeting our goals, I (and the girls) appreciated a break from academics during the summer months.
Many years, I had a Summer Binder and I would make a plan for each week. I made a list of activities I thought the kids would enjoy and spaced them out through the summer months.
Having activities listed on a calendar in my Summer Binder always made it easier for me to get things done. Sometimes we would do one activity a day – other times, there would be an activity for the morning and another one for the afternoon. I had family readalouds, nature walks, fun baking ideas, crafts, games, and more listed down. We never got all of them accomplished, but if I needed an idea, it was there. (And I reused it from year to year!)
A few years, we even had a Summer Fun Afternoon where we invited extra kids to join us for fun water games, a pinata, snacks and prizes one day. The kids LOVED that. (AND I almost always did childcare through the Summer!)
We also went swimming every summer weekday afternoon for two or three years AND hosted Japanese Exchange Students for four or five summers, too. (I loved hosting Japanese Students. We got a closer look into their culture and life, while they got a close look into Canadian culture and life. Some girls were easier to host than others, but it was always a great family extra to do in the summer times. *ALTHOUGH perhaps don’t go to Heritage Days before you know how to pronounce your Exchange Student’s last name…. We did find her! She got tired and sat down by the Playground.)
Life was very full for me, and I loved it, but perhaps that isn’t the kind of summer you (or your family) want or need. The great thing about Home School Freedom (AND freedom itself) is that each of us gets to choose what kind of summer we will have. Here are some ideas that you are free to use or not, as you wish!
Are you beating your head against a wall? Is your thirteen year old impossible to teach? Is the curriculum that has worked so well in the past suddenly "boring?"
I recently spoke with a mother of many who, after completing an enjoyable unit study of reading and discussion on Holland, decided her fourteen year old son should follow-up this project with something concrete. She asked him to write an essay on the history of the development of the tulip industry - a topic they had all found to be interesting. As days of reluctance dragged into weeks of resistance, a normally affable mother-son relationship became outright antagonistic....
The WISDOM Family Magazine accepts a limited number of advertisements to run in each issue. Chosen ads are those that reflect services, programs or other listings that are relevant to the home school community.
The acceptability of an ad for publication in The WISDOM Family Magazine is based upon legal, social, professional, and ethical considerations. In addition, an ad must be in keeping with the generally scholarly and professional nature of the publication. Click here for the full Advertising Policy.
To advertise with us, submit a completed Ad Insertion Order Form to magazine@wisdomhomeschooling.com.
We asked WISDOM parents, students, facilitators, staff and Parent Advisory Council members to offer suggestions to the following question – how do we beat the January blues? Read on for many great ideas that have worked well in the homes of other home schoolers.
By this time of year you will likely have developed a pattern or routine in your home-school day to accomplish your selected program of studies. Your children engage themselves with the various subjects that you assign them, most often with the help of a text book or other written resource. Depending on your child’s age and ability, the reading in these books may be done by your child, or you may be the one to read and explain the material to your eager learner.
My parents began homeschooling me in grade 1, but I'm sure they never thought at the time that they would continue to do so right up until high school. We took a rather eclectic approach, which means that we drew resources from various places and put together our own curriculum to meet our (my) needs. It worked very well for us, but as I neared high school, my parents began to feel a certain amount of apprehension. Were they doing the right thing? Personally, I was very excited about homeschooling through high school, and told my parents that this was what I wanted to do. We discussed together what I wanted to study before I graduated, and although my parents had their own requirements I had to fulfill, I was able to direct my own education to certain extent. Because what we'd been doing so far had been working for us, it only made sense to continue in that way.
I was somewhat thrust into home schooling without a great deal of preparation. About all I knew was that I had the right to teach my children at home, and in my first year I simply brought home all our daughter’s textbooks from school. It soon became clear that importing the school into our home wasn’t going to work very well so, in our second year, I copied both method and curriculum from another home schooling family. This whole time, in an effort to research what other options might be available, I spent a lot of time reading books on education in general and some on home schooling.
Does your family love games? Or would you like to incorporate more family games but are not sure where to start? Games have been proven to rapidly develop cognitive functions in all ages.
Games the Build the Brain is a favourite resource of home schooling families everywhere! Find a fabulous game in this booklet, and learn which cognitive skills it builds and supports. Then, play it with your family to reap the cognitive and relationship benefits!