Or your fantasy might be quite different. Maybe you imagine a room full of cushions, with computer stations and a big screen TV for those educational videos, musical instruments and music stands, microscopes and other lab equipment in a safe area, and exercise equipment so you and the kids can do a little weightlifting to refresh yourselves between lessons.

Whatever your fantasy, the reality is likely to be very different. We have two computers in our living room, and piles of books on the desks and floors as well as on the bookshelves. There are bookshelves in the dining room, too, and there are days when studying happens on that table — but there are also days when the studying happens on the couch or on the floor or in the car.

What are the real essentials for a homeschool learning space?

• Workspace. A table is great. A group of small tables that can be pushed together for group work or spread apart for individual work can be especially great. But if you have to do everything on your laps, you’ll be limited in what you can do. Science and art lessons require workspaces that can be thoroughly cleaned, and where a spill isn’t the end of the world.

• Open space for movement. Being able to stand up and move around, to pace while you think, to get into different groupings to work on things together and alone allows you to use different approaches when different approaches are called for. Being surrounded by clutter and unable to move without moving things first is stressful.

• Storage space. Even if you do most of your schooling online, you still need some room for paper, science equipment, art supplies, and maybe even a few books. If you don’t have dedicated storage space for the things you need for homeschooling, you’ll waste time hunting for those things.

• Comfortable space. Some tasks, like reading a nice long book or drawing, require physically comfortable places where students can stretch out and relax while they work. In some households, this will be bedrooms or a treehouse. It doesn’t have to be a group space. There just has to be a comfortable place for extensive work.

• Writing space. I laughed the first time I saw my friend get up to write on a marker board while
working with one child. But I was wrong. You need a place to draw or write while explaining concepts. Lap-size marker boards work. Big chart tablets from the office supply store can work, too. It’s a matter of individual preference, and what kind of room you have to work in. But don’t reject the idea of a board on the wall just because it sounds like school.

With your schoolroom space set up – even if it’s a corner of the kitchen – you’ll enjoy school more.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

Homeschool parents sometimes have a fantasy about their classrooms. “I’m going to make a schoolroom,” we say. We have it all planned: the bulletin board, the wall maps, the shelves for books, the cubbies we’ll build for the math manipulatives and board games. There’ll be desks or tables for each student, and a reading area. It’ll be our own perfect image of a school room, better than any we’ve ever seen in a school.

Or your fantasy might be quite different. Maybe you imagine a room full of cushions, with computer stations and a big screen TV for those educational videos, musical instruments and music stands, microscopes and other lab equipment in a safe area, and exercise equipment so you and the kids can do a little weightlifting to refresh yourselves between lessons.

Whatever your fantasy, the reality is likely to be very different. We have two computers in our living room, and piles of books on the desks and floors as well as on the bookshelves. There are bookshelves in the dining room, too, and there are days when studying happens on that table — but there are also days when the studying happens on the couch or on the floor or in the car.

What are the real essentials for a homeschool learning space?

• Workspace. A table is great. A group of small tables that can be pushed together for group work or spread apart for individual work can be especially great. But if you have to do everything on your laps, you’ll be limited in what you can do. Science and art lessons require workspaces that can be thoroughly cleaned, and where a spill isn’t the end of the world.

• Open space for movement. Being able to stand up and move around, to pace while you think, to get into different groupings to work on things together and alone allows you to use different approaches when different approaches are called for. Being surrounded by clutter and unable to move without moving things first is stressful.

• Storage space. Even if you do most of your schooling online, you still need some room for paper, science equipment, art supplies, and maybe even a few books. If you don’t have dedicated storage space for the things you need for homeschooling, you’ll waste time hunting for those things.

• Comfortable space. Some tasks, like reading a nice long book or drawing, require physically comfortable places where students can stretch out and relax while they work. In some households, this will be bedrooms or a treehouse. It doesn’t have to be a group space. There just has to be a comfortable place for extensive work.

• Writing space. I laughed the first time I saw my friend get up to write on a marker board while working with one child. But I was wrong. You need a place to draw or write while explaining concepts. Lap-size marker boards work. Big chart tablets from the office supply store can work, too. It’s a matter of individual preference, and what kind of room you have to work in. But don’t reject the idea of a board on the wall just because it sounds like school.

With your schoolroom space set up – even if it’s a corner of the kitchen – you’ll enjoy school more.

**********************************************************
Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

For our homeschool students, the answer might be, “I’m in first grade reading, fourth grade math, and everything else is second grade” or “I get to go at my own pace, and we don’t worry about what grade I’m in.” Sometimes the real answer might even be, “It depends on the day – my mom teaches us all together, and sometimes the lessons are for my grade level and sometimes they’re for my sisters’ grade levels.”

Is this a problem? It doesn’t have to be.

When we plan lessons, we need to consider where our children are developmentally as well as what they’ve mastered in the subject. Sometimes a precocious homeschool student could move ahead and study subjects usually considered appropriate for older students. If we choose to do this, we need to make sure that the method used for presenting the subject matter fits the student’s developmental stage, even if the topic is more advanced. The same is true when our student needs to review concepts from an earlier grade level. When our expectations are out of sync with our child’s developmental stage, we’re asking for frustration, for ourselves and our children.

So a young child can understand, learn, and enjoy algebraic thinking concepts using toy animals to manipulate, but not using an algebra workbook. An older student who needs more work on basic reading can get good practice by using magazines and other materials written at a basic level, but might be embarrassed at being asked to read a book labeled “easy reader.”

Equally, when we want our children of different ages to study a subject together, we have to be ready to adapt the lesson to the different developmental needs of the different ages. A group of children may listen to the same online lecture or piece of music together. The youngest children might color while they listen, since it is hard for them to sit still and pay attention as long as the older ones. The older students might take notes in order to help organize their thoughts and develop this useful study technique. In this way, all the students can gain what they need from the shared experience.

What if your student is advanced in some areas and not in others? There’s a temptation to spend more time on the areas where the child has trouble, in hopes of catching up. Yet it is often true that the area in which the child excels is a source of pleasure for him. If he is forced to work extra on math in order to catch up with the reading that he loves, he may resent math and find it even harder, while losing some of his strength in reading through lack of practice.

In our own lives, we know and accept that there are some things we’re better at and enjoy more. We don’t expect ourselves to be equally good at everything. Yet we often do expect this of our kids.
Instead, let your student use her strengths to shore up her weaknesses. For example, if she loves science and struggles with writing, let her write lab reports about experiments, or keep a nature observation journal. If music is his pleasure and history is a chore, study history through music.

We can also recognize that our children may need more support for some subjects than others. That’s one of the advantages of homeschooling: that we can let our children work at the pace they need.

Christ gave His apostles what they were ready for, and didn’t insist that they learn and understand everything at once. This is a good example for us as eduators.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

For most families, their home is their haven; a place to play, to rest, to relax. The dynamic of a homeschool home has to be quite different, as it is transformed daily from a regular house to a place of learning. In order to be a successful teacher, it is critical to maintain proper order in your home during the day, when your children are working on their lessons. This can be challenging for most families. Distractions such as games, toys and even television abound in the home, threatening to rob your student’s attention from the matter at hand. And disorganization can be the downfall of even the most gifted educator. But don’t despair. There are some simple tips that you can employ to help you stay on track, so your children can as well.

• Make a list. Every morning. And stick to it. It seems simple and maybe a bit rudimentary, but having all of your activities written out, in order of importance can help you stay focused and make the most of your time during the day. Don’t forget to include your other daily activities, such as housework and any other tasks you want to accomplish that day. This way you won’t be left feeling that you’ve forgotten something at the end of the day.

• Before your day begins, make sure each child’s work station is prepared. Be sure that all required materials are readily at hand. It can be extremely distracting, both for you and for your student, to have to stop and search for a pencil or more paper. Being prepared before the day begins will ensure a smooth flowing day.

• Have a set schedule of daily work, including the order in which it is to be completed and how much time will be devoted to each subject or lesson. Post the schedule in a prominent place where everyone can view it at all times. And do your best to stick to your set times. Otherwise, it’s very easy to let time get away from you, leaving you scrambling to finish your tasks and possibly forgetting to complete some by the end of the school day.

• Go over your daily schedule with your child each morning, so they know what the day will entail and what is expected of them.

• Incorporate order and rules into your lessons. After all, life is all about order and discipline. Use real-life examples such as the Ten Commandments and U.S. laws to drive home the importance of ordinance in our daily lives.

• Discipline is critical to maintaining order in your home and classroom. And, discipline and education go hand in hand. Proverbs 12:1 tells us: “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid”. Children simply cannot learn if they aren’t listening and paying attention. Deal with disobedience and negative behavior swiftly. Make it clear what is expected of your child, and what behavior is unacceptable. But don’t forget, children respond wonderfully to positive reinforcement, so be sure to also reward and encourage obedience and good behavior.

• Establish a set of rules that must be adhered to during the school day. These rules should include things such as “Do not speak out during class” and “Ask permission to be excused”. Encourage your children to participate in making the list of rules, so that they feel they are a part of it. Post the list of regulations prominently and refer to it often.

• Set clear and concise boundaries between you as a parent and you as a teacher. It’s all too easy for a child to fall into the more relaxed parent/child relationship and forget that they should be showing you respect as their educator during the school day. When they view you clearly as their teacher, they are more likely to follow instruction and maintain order, and less likely to fool around and get off track.

It can be very difficult to get both your home and your homeschool running smoothly. Conducting structured lessons in the same environment that you also have play and down-time can be challenging to say the least. But by following the suggestions above, you should be able to get your classroom and your home running like a well oiled machine in no time.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of Learning By Grace, Inc. the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

There are some issues which are clear cut. You want your students to have a firm understanding of Biblical principles, math processes, and scientific fact.

There are also some issues that can be viewed in more than one way. Is fall better than spring? Should children always eat healthy foods, or is it okay to have the occasional less-healthy treat? In order to get the most from a study of these interesting issues, try this fun and thought-provoking project!

Use bulletin board paper for this project, or tape together smaller sheets of paper to make a larger piece. Cut a strip of paper ten inches by 48 inches. Fold it into an accordion. You will be able to open the book and turn the pages from either side without seeing the other side of the paper.

Begin at one side and make a title taking one side of the issue: “Children Should Receive Allowances,” perhaps. Write the title on the outside cover and add an illustration. Now gather as much evidence as possible for this side of the argument. Interview people, collect newspaper articles on the subject, find relevant Bible verses, and gather facts that support the claim.

As you collect evidence, you’re bound to find some counter-evidence as well. Turn the book over and make a cover for the other side of the story: “Children Should Not Receive Allowances.” As you find evidence for that point of view, fill the pages of that side of the book with support for that side of the argument.

Once the book is complete, compare the evidence for each side, and have your student decide which side of the argument was more convincing.

This project gives practice in following directions, writing, analyzing and synthesizing information, and critical thinking.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of Learning By Grace, Inc. the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

The question naturally arises as to whether the child can be permitted to give unbridled expression to all of his feelings. If there are limits as to how far a parent can go in his permissiveness? There certainly is. Just as the child cannot be given complete freedom to express his aggressiveness when it affects others adversely, so he cannot be granted the privilege of seeing exactly what he thinks when he hurts others by doing so.

Often when the child is expressing his negative feelings, asking him why he feels that he does can lead him to examine his attitudes in such a way that it enables him to develop some genuine insights necessary for learning to control his feelings and understand his emotions. Even when the child cannot be a chordate unrestrained liberty in expressing feelings are hurtful to others, we can let him know that we do understand how he feels and why he feels that he does, even though some ways of expressing these emotions are unacceptable.

From what we have been saying, it might sound stupid all the child’s emotions are unhappy and undesirable ones. Of course this is not. He has his joys, his excesses, his moment of the nation, which is just as eager to share with a listening parent. Love that listens at these times is just as necessary is that which listens when a child is frustrated. Whatever the child’s feelings, when they are suppressed because nobody cares enough to listen or because nobody is willing to take the time to listen, the way is being prepared for cutting off those valuable lines of communication between parent and child. Parents will find themselves yearning in later years to reestablish these channels of communication, and the repair work is sometimes hard to a fact, once the damage has been done. Blocking this flow of interchange between parent and child can damn up the sparkling springs of the child’s feelings, which can supply some of the richest joys in life through providing variety and flavor in living.

Children want to help and understanding of parents through sharing with them verbally: they want this kind of help even when they appeared not to want it. They want to talk things over, provided they can do the talking. Most children will discuss their problems with their parents if the parent has a listening ear, if he isn’t understanding friend, not an autocratic boss.

When Tyler, both by his silence and his worried demeanor, it is evidence that something is bothering him inside, it’s a good idea for parents to ask, Son is there something bothering you? Is there anything you’d like to talk about? This can be done in a non threatening way that Tyler knows that his parent is expressing the friendly concern rather than engaging in unpardonable meddling with his private affairs. If he takes advantage of this opening to air his feelings, it is imperative for his parents to listen, accept, and understand. It’s a good time for them to offer assurance that most people feel this way at times and such emotions are not wrong, only when we misdirect them or let them control us instead of our learning to handle them.

Helping our children to know and understand the reality of their feelings, day by day is the only way to give their emotions a chance to grow up along with their bodies and their minds. By talking out with the child aggressive tendencies, a parent can often enable a youngster to perceive and understand more calmly the cause of his own emotions. Parents can help their children understand the motives underlying the frustrating behavior of other people. This understanding can alleviate the child’s strong aggressive feelings or, at least, help them adjust to them.

Let’s permit our children to have their feelings, all of them. The only judgment we can make is whether the angry feeling self as a real or an unreal basis. This we cannot know until we hear the child out, but an angry child cannot be permitted to go around kicking other people on their shins or on the other inappropriate violations of other humans write.

Timmy is angry because he has to be pulled himself away from watching television to have dinner with the rest of the family. There is reason for his anger. His father says, come to dinner Timmy, whether you want to or not. Lots of times people have to do things they don’t want to do. I feel the same way you do now. “When I have to leave a job I’m interested in doing here at home. When it’s time for me to go to the office to work, but I do have to go to work every day.”, the father says. Feeling of not liking to do something is Timmy’s personal privilege. He should not be denied these feelings, even though he must leave television to come to dinner. When a child is battling with an intense emotion, a parent can take the empathizing, “I know just how you feel approach to far sometimes. ” But it is important not o give in to the child’s demands because of his feelings. Acknowledge them as they are real and important to him, but do not let those feelins become demands or control you. At such times, the child feels desperately in need of a powerful and resourceful adult upon whom he can lead and to whom he can look for help may get the impression that the parent is helpless to. This is further upsetting to the child since he is seen to his hoped-for source of help crumble before his very eyes.

“I don’t like you anymore!” shouted an enraged seven-year-old Jamie when her mother disciplined her for playing in the busy street which the child knew was a dangerous and forbidden play area. Lots of children don’t like their mothers when their mothers have to spank them for being disobedient. When I was a little girl about your age, “I felt that way sometimes too.” replied the mother. This kind of approach is usually better than I know just how you feel routine which can give the child a feeling that the mother is helplessly dangling at the end of her emotional rope. Just as much as the child is this intensifies the child’s emotional state.

One grandmother tells of having her grandson come to spend the day with her. When the child’s mother had not come for him by early evening, the grandmother telephone to ask when the mother wanted her to bring the child home. Quick as a flash the mother replied, how about when he 16. Maybe by that time he won’t have so many negative feelings. That mother has some basis for her hope she can accept her child’s negative feelings now and let him talk them out with her. A part of a parent’s job is to learn to be a good shock absorber for the child. When this has been done, the child finds it easier, as he grows older, to absorb his own emotional shocks and to redirect them towards constructive ends.

Responding to another person’s peelings is closely related to friendship and constitutes the basis for real interaction. This is as true in parent child relationships as in any other relationships. A parent who demonstrates daily interest in his child’s feelings by listening with appreciation, understanding, and patience to whatever the child wants to say will win the child’s confidence and trust. This warmth of relationship established over the years is that parents best assurance that his child, as a child or in later years, will not stray too far from the biblical path of living. It’s certainly not always easy to keep calm when a son or daughter is expressing ugly feelings, especially if those feelings are directed against the parent. That parents, however it’s helping the child to gain emotional maturity when he can acknowledge the validity of the child’s emoitions and hear him through to the finish.

Before a child can develop these important qualities, he must have deep within himself the assurance of basic acceptance by those closest to him, usually his parents. The success of adolescent and adult with will be jeopardized if a sense of identity, of belonging, first of all to the family group, has not been firmly established in childhood. Children who are unwanted and rejected, what ever the parental defect or situation. Responsible for it, may suffer serious personality, distortion. Such children tend to be sick clues to, detached, apathetic, and unable to respond to the affection extended to them by others. They may be restless, fearful, and insecure. Sometimes they become aggressive and rebellious, as though they are out to snatch for themselves. The feeling of being wanted, of belonging, of being recognized, which is the basic to the building of a healthy personality.

Closely linked with the need for a sense of belonging is the child’s development of self-confidence and self-reliance. These are important pillars upon which growth toward maturity rests. Self-confidence is the awareness one has that he is in the world for a purpose which he alone can fulfill. That duty requires that he applied himself to the God-given task self-assurance. “I can” are two magic words which are the “open sesame” to life. At the same time, we must remember that, although it is important for a child to be in himself, it is also important for him not to be too easily convinced. We want our children to know that they are not the only people of importance in the world.

Frequently the amount of confidence a child has in itself is not determined so much by his real abilities as by his attitudes towards himself and his abilities. Faith in one’s self begins with the feeling, “I am all right”, “I am a person of worth”. “I do have assets.” “I do have strengths as well as weaknesses.” “I am a person worthy of respect.” Children first learned these attitudes from the parent’s attitudes towards them. The parental attitude is not always expressed in words that may be communicated to the child long before he can understand the meaning of words. A parent smile of approval, the tender way in which he handles the baby, but parents efforts to make the telecom triple, he’s responding to the child needs, his expressions of love for the child, the tone of voice in which he speaks to the child. These are all the ways in which the parent tells his child how he feels about him. These actions, as well as the parent spoken word, provide the primary source from which the child learns his attitudes towards himself.

In a process of growing up, inevitably the small child encounters many failures and mishaps. He spills his drink, he break the glass, he takes his mother’s cherished roses on her most prized Roche rose bush, thinking that he is doing her a favor. In the midst of such happenings, even the most well-meaning child may become discouraged and feel that everything he does is wrong. It’s such accidents as these are minimized, if they are treated as casually as possible by adults who understand that the child has not made these the state to the Britney or with malicious intent, the child will bounce back and will soon recover his self-respect. He will find that his 17-year-old put it, everybody spills his milk sometimes.

No factor is more important in successfully teaching the child’s self-confidence than the example set by parents who have flexibility in self-assurance, who know how to savor the sweet experience success, as well as how to bow to the bitter experience of defeat. Small child who has observed that his parents are not snobbishly dependent upon the favorable opinions of others. And that they know how to admit failure is receiving a first class method in the art of building self-confidence. Children naturally imitate parents ways of dealing with problems. The child who has legitimate reason to believe that his parents attacked their problems enthusiastically and with verve, even though they do not always succeed, has his own self-confidence reinforced. Albert Schweitzer. When asked how he could best pass on to their children the proper attitude toward self-confidence and responsibility, said there are three ways. One example to example and three example.

Some have raised concerns that the founding self-confidence can cause the child to become egotistical and prideful. Experience with children seems to show that this is not usually the case, unless there has been inculcated in the child a false concept of his abilities and of itself. On the other hand, it is the bully, the boastful braggart, was most likely to have feelings of inadequacy. His overbearing manner is simply his way of concealing his belt inapt myths and insecurity. Usually the competent child does not have to wage campaign to convince itself, and others, of his abilities. Of course, all children are given to bragging at times. The times when they’re most likely to post, however, come one errantly self-confident. Listen to your own children. If you hear them say such things as I don’t know whether I can do this or not, but I’m going to try hard: let’s think about it and maybe we can find a way to do it: let’s talk it over with daddy. Maybe he can give us an idea about how we might swing it, you know you are busy growing self-confidence.

em>Mimi Rothschild is the Founder and CEO of Learning By Grace, Inc., the nation’s largest provider of online K-12 Christian homeschooling programs and homeschool Christian curriculum. For more information about how online homeschooling is revolutionizing homeschooling, please go to www.LearningByGrace.org today.

Permission is granted for the duplication of this article if it is reproduced in its entirety including this sentence.

Tim Hawkins Biscuits and Gravy

Tim Hawkins Frap House

Recently, the California judicial system has directed a two-part assault on Southern Baptist homeschoolers throughout their state. First, they have banned the words “mom and dad” and “husband and wife” from their schools – please read www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58130 – and are forcing teachers to promote a more alternative sexual lifestyle.

The second part of the assault came last week when three judges essentially banned homeschooling, deeming 166,000 children truants – www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25469 – and their parents as criminals.

This absurd ruling needs to be reversed. Please visit: www.ReverseTheRuling.com, and learn more information about this alarming issue, and have your voice heard by signing the petition. Our goal is to gain enough signatures to present this petition to the courts and let them know that America is watching. And we know what happens in California can happen anywhere in the United States!

More so, we know that this ruling has long-term ramifications of indoctrination on our children, diminishing the Christian Values that we’ve worked so diligently to instill in them. This is not a one-off case that only pertains to an isolated incident! No, it is a Ruling that eliminates a freedom that dates back to our forefathers.

Stay informed. Spread the word. Sign the petition.