An Apple a Day - Helping your child learn through field trips

Homeschool Field Trips – Helping your child learn hands-on:

               We use every situation as a learning situation or field trip. When my husband goes on out-of-state fishing trips, he takes our son with him and turns it into a learning experience. He has my son write down all the wildlife he sees, the geography of their travels, the states through which they pass, the license plates of other vehicles – to see how many other states they can find, places and cities of interest, and they even check out library books about the flora and fauna of the destination area. They also talk about the types of fish they catch.

               Each state has a website of interesting things to do, which can be used as hands-on educational experiences. There are cultural events, nature reserves, amusement parks, museums, libraries, symphonies, community playhouses, national parks, recreational facilities, etc. Wise parents will make use of these resources for interesting field trips, while getting to know their own state better.

               In each one of my volumes of It's Not Rocket Surgery! by Shannah B Godfrey on Amazon.com, I put ideas for things to do in Missouri at the end of each subject. There are similar types of activities for each state. Check them out! 

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An Apple a Day - The flexibility of homeschool

               I love homeschooling for its flexibility! My youngest son has bipolar sleep issues. His circadian sleep cycle changes with his bipolar mood cycles. It is almost impossible for him to wake up early. Public school mornings were a nightmare for him. Now with homeschooling, we have the flexibility to have school any time of the day or night.

               My son sleeps in as long as he needs, then does his school work with his father. One of his classes he does at bedtime, because that’s when he prefers to read the lesson – in bed. Homeschooling has helped him thrive. The flexibility has eliminated the early morning battles. A sleep-deprived person is less reasonable and less able of self-control. Our family life is much more pleasant now.

               Be flexible. Homeschool does not need to be done on the same schedule as public or private school. As my quotes from Hartman Rector, Jr., show, it also does not need to be 6 hours a day, every day. For best practices, find the rhythm that works for you. Then stick with it.

“There’s no question in my mind that about 14 minutes with mother is equal to all day in the public school. That’s what they determined when William Bennett was director of the Department of Education under President Reagan. He tried to determine how much time it would take with private tutoring for a child who had been injured and couldn’t attend school. All it takes is 1 ½ hours a week to keep a child up with his class. That’s about 20 minutes per day!

“[Mother burn-out] happens because they try to put on a public school in their home. They even use public school materials. That doesn’t work. You’ve got to adapt to what will work. I’m convinced that Glenn Kimber’s gone a long way down the road to getting past this burnout problem. He suggests teaching three days a week, four hours a day, and no homework. Homework was devised by Dewey to make kids hate school. He didn’t want students to love learning.

“Don’t teach on Monday. You need Monday to get over Sunday. That’s when you do your housework, learn about Tide in, dirt out and if you put yeast in, bread rises. Then when you go on [your own] you’re not helpless… and the kids who came out knowing how to cook and mend were better qualified to survive well [as adults].

“The afternoon is open for students to play in the band or sports with local high school, if they want to. Friday is field day; you’ve got to know how the fire department and the police department work. I’m convinced this is a great system.” ~ Hartman Rector, Jr.

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An Apple a Day - How to get your children to read more

One more idea for motivating your children to read more: TV Bucks

One thing my father did with my siblings and me, that I have used with my children, is TV Bucks. To encourage us to read more and watch TV less, my father insisted that we read an hour for each hour of TV watched. We had to do the reading first – we could not go into “debt” nor make up the reading later. No reading, no TV.

               My father kept track of our reading hours in a notebook. I expanded on his idea by creating TV Bucks, which are the shape and size of Monopoly money, have the letters “TV” on the front center, and are laminated. Whenever my children read for an hour, they get a TV Buck. They can spend them on TV shows. TV Bucks have greatly increased reading time and decreased TV time. They are a great visual to keep track of reading time.

It's not rocket surgery! - but much more important than that. You, mom and dad, are the key.


http://thegodfreymethod.com