Why New Homeschoolers Should Attend a Homeschool Conference

A big shout out and thank-you to Great Homeschool Conventions, the sponsor of this post! 

Convention season is coming!  Can I share a little secret?  I've never been to a homeschool convention.  But do you know what?  I am SO excited to go to my first ever convention this spring!  My husband and I will be at the Cincinnati Great Homeschool Convention.

What about you?  Are you a homeschool convention pro?  Have you been been to one or two?  Or have you never gone, like me?

Today I want to write to those of you who are like me.  Maybe you are thinking about homeschooling or have been homeschooling for only a year or so.  I'd like to share with you a few reasons why new homeschoolers should attend a homeschool conference!

Conferences help you validate your choice to homeschool.

Homeschooling is tough work!  Every homeschool parent has days when they are jut not sure if they have made the right decisions.  New homeschoolers can have struggles with this doubt even more.  If you have family members, friends, or a church that us supportive of your decision to homeschool, these rough days pass by quickly, but if not, you can often feel like you are alone (and sometimes crazy!)

Whichever situation you are in, going to a homeschool conference will be a great encouragement to you!  You will be surrounded with other families who (more or less) value the same things that you do and that will help breathe new life into your desire to teach your children.

 

 

Conferences help you identify your homeschooling philosophy.

Have you read online about all the different methods of homeschooling?  Do you have friends who homeschool in a certain way, but don't know if it is a good fit for your family?  Or maybe you have been homeschooling for a while using a certain method, but still have some questions.  A homeschool conference is a great place to go to help you.  You will find many sessions and workshops that are specific to different education methods and they will be very helpful to you.  

I love the classical model of education, but I am still super excited to learn more and understand more about classical education from speakers like Christopher Perrin from Classical Academic Press!

Conferences are a great place to help Dad understand more about homeschooling.

I know every family is different, but let's be honest...in most situations, Mom is the one doing the majority of the researching, planning, and teaching.  My husband loves the idea of us homeschooling our children, but I'm not sure that he would have come up with the idea on his own.  He is completely supportive, but just doesn't have the time to think about it as much as I do.  A conference is the perfect time to give him a crash course.  He will have a few days to think about nothing but homeschool!  

My husband will say, from time to time, that he just wants to sit down and talk to me about what I've picked to teach the kids, what resources we are using, why we are using them, and about current homeschool issues like Common Core, the use of technology, education methods, etc. He doesn't have the time to look into all those things like I do and we don't usually have more than 3 minutes at one time to talk about them together.  I'm excited for him to be able to carve out a couple of days to learn about these things for himself and to talk to me and others about them.

Conferences are a great place to meet other moms who have been doing this for a while and get advice and encouragement.

 So. Many. Homeschool. Moms.  And in one place, none the less =)  If you have questions, need encouragement, or could use some advice, you are bound to meet some great moms who have been at this a lot longer than you have!  Personally, just seeing so many other moms who love to teach their children will be incredibly encouraging all on its own.  I do have many friends who homeschool, but honestly, there just isn't always time to have long conversations about the subject.  A homeschool conference is the perfect place to have those types of conversations and even make a few new friends!

Conferences are a great place to look at new homeschool materials.

What  is a homeschool conference without a vendor hall!?  If you are a newer homeschool family, you may not be set on all of your curriculum choices yet.  I love to look online at different books and read people's reviews, but it's really hard to tell exactly what a product is like without actually being able to hold it and flip through it myself.  I'm sure it can be overwhelming to be surrounded by so many choices, but take advantage of the opportunity.  Write down a few resources you have been wondering about and make sure you seek them out.  You will probably even get the chance to talk to someone about the curriculum and get even more advice!

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Want some more Homeschool Convention encouragement?  

Check out what the other ladies at the iHomeschool Network have to share!

Kindergarten History...Take Two

This post contains affiliate links to products we use and love!

This week I am taking the time to talk about how I teach each subject and also what changes I am making for the rest of the year.  If you didn't read the Classical Kindergarten...Take Two intro post, take a minute to read that first so you understand why I am making some changes for the rest of the year.

How we have been doing History

If you know anything about the classical model of education, you know that history is a big deal.  The study of history is usually the spine that holds all the rest of the subjects together.  As I began to love the idea of classical homeschooling, I began to get excited about starting to teach (and learn!) history.

Last year we began our study of the ancients, starting with creation and moving on from there.  We took a very hands-on approach, doing lots of crafts and activities, and read lot of books. (You can see some of what we did if you browse here.) I really liked this, but I was putting the whole curriculum together and I got tired.  It's not that I didn't enjoy planning everything out (because I love to plan), it's just that I was having a hard time finding the time to do it.

That was when I began to look for an actual history curriculum.  I knew that anything I found would be geared toward a little bit older kids, but I figured that I could simplify it as long as it would provide the basic structure for me.  What I finally decided on was the history curriculum from Veritas Press.  I fell in love with their history cards and timeline song.  I thought that memorizing a song would be perfect for my kids and that the order of events is what we could study, adding in age appropriate stories and activities.
  
Now before you get the feeling that I found something I didn't like about this curriculum (since this is a ...Take Two series) let me state that I LOVE Veritas Press history.  I love the history cards.  I love the timeline song.  You can read my full review of it to see more about what I love and how we have been using it.  I did decide to take a break from it for a little while, though.

The theme of this series is taking a step back to be able to enjoy my son, help him to regain confidence and not to get frustrated so easily.  Taking a step back from history is part of the plan.

History Changes

What we were doing was not too difficult for my son.  He loves singing the timeline song and looking at the flashcards.  I would read to him about the time period while we ate breakfast and we would do suggested activities and corresponding lapbook pieces about once a week.  Even so, I wanted to look into what else we could do for a few months while we are taking this step back.

Because I love Veritas Press so much, I wanted to see what they recommend for kindergarten history.  Come to find out, they published their own set of two books to be used for kindergarten and first grade, designed to be an introduction to history and the concept of a timeline.  The books seemed really simplistic, but they were pretty cheap, so I decided to order them.

Surprise, surprise, I think they are going to be just what we need!  Thanks again, Veritas Press =)   History of ME and History of US are designed to be used just once a week, and have simple stories, activities, and projects to help kids start to understand their own history and American history.

We've only used it once so far, but the book had us up, jumping, spinning, and learning about what a timeline is.  Seems like a perfect introduction to their grammar stage history curriculum and a perfect choice for us right now!  My plan use these two books and  then jump back in where we left of studying Ancient Greece and Rome.  I would really like to get the history cards for all of their curriculum sets and have the kids memorize the whole timeline (the songs) before we go back, but buying them all at once seems a little pricey...Anyone know if you can get just the songs and not the whole curriculum?

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How do you teach History to your kids? 

Kindergarten Science...Take Two

This post contains affiliate links to products we use and love!

This week I am taking the time to talk about how I teach each subject and also what changes I am making for the rest of the year.  If you didn't read the Classical Kindergarten...Take Two intro post, take a minute to read that first so you understand why I am making some changes for the rest of the year.

How we have been doing Science

We have been taking a pretty casual approach to science this year.  Upon the recommendation of The Well Trained Mind, we've been going through the Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of Animals.  Two times a week we pick an animal and read about it from the encyclopedia.  I usually go to the library and try to find a 'living' type book about the animal to read to the kids as well.  I like that this is simply a reading and discovery time.

I created these Animal Kingdom Notebooking Pages to keep track of the animals that we study.  We fill out one page (and draw on another) per animal and keep the pages bound together in a book (using my new favorite tool).  My son likes to look back at the animals he has learned about, and this is a pretty neat way to have all the info together.

We use the notebooking pages to record:

• Where the animal lives
• What type of land the animal lives on
• What the animal eats
• What eats the animal
• Whatever we find interesting (in the form of a written narration)

I really like this simple introduction to science.  We usually complete this process (reading and notebooking) at the table while we eat breakfast.  Sometimes my son tires of the notebooking pages, but I figured out why and will share that in the next section =)

Science Changes

The most simple thing I had to change about our science routine was the narration section on the notebooking pages.  The Well Trained Mind recommends that the parent writes the narration for the child for at least the beginning of the 1st grade year.  I had been making my son write his own narration (and he is just 5).  He is fully capable of writing a sentence or two, but he would rather not =)  Just today we did a science page and I told him that he could tell me what he learned and I would write it for him and he said "Thanks, mom!  That's the only part I didn't like!"  Well that was easy =)

The other change we are making is really an addition.  My son has been asking and asking to do experiments.  He looks through science experiment books and makes up experiments of his own and keeps asking for experiments.  I really didn't want to throw random science experiments into the mix, so I really didn't know what to do.  I figured we would wait until next year when the subject matter might lend itself more easily to experiments.

Then one day I discovered Elemental Science.  Paige, the creator, had linked up one of her blog posts to Trivium Tuesdays (the classical education link-up here at Living and Learning at Home) and I noticed that she had a curriculum that was based on the resource recommendations from The Well Trained Mind.

The Biology for the Grammar Stage curriculum lays out lesson plans using the Kingfisher book we are already using and, lo and behold, includes experiments! It also includes narration pages, quizzes, and coloring pages.  This, just like math and spelling, is going along with the theme of taking some of the planning work off of my shoulders.  We are just starting this tomorrow, so I'll look forward to telling you more about it once we get a chance to use it for a while!
 

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How do you teach Science to your kids? 

Kindergarten Math...Take Two

This post contains affiliate links to products we use and love!

This week I am taking the time to talk about how I teach each subject and also what changes I am making for the rest of the year.  If you didn't read the Classical Kindergarten...Take Two intro post, take a minute to read that first so you understand why I am making some changes for the rest of the year.

How we have been doing Math

Since last year we have been using Ray's Arithmetic for our math studies.  I got this suggestion from classical-homeschooling.org.  I've written two posts about how we have used Ray's:

• Ray's Arithmetic in Action
• Classical Curriculum - Arithmetic Workbooks Review

Essentially, the grammar of math (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) is taught through story problems.  The child is encouraged to use manipulatives to solve problems until they understand enough to do the problems in their head.

Each day we will talk through about ten story problems like, "Johnny had 9 apples.  His mom gave him 3 more.  How many apples did he have then?"  Then my son will do a corresponding workbook page to reinforce the math facts.

I really do like this no-frills method.  My son is learning his addition and subtraction very well.  He truly understands what is going on and this is setting him up for success later on in his math career. 

The problem is what I talked about in the Classical Kindergarten...Take Two intro post.  My son is getting super frustrated and easily discouraged lately.  While I know that he is capable of doing the work from Ray's Arithmetic (because he gets the answers just fine when he focuses long enough to do the problems), I feel like I need to bring things back a bit to help him re-gain confidence and to show him that working to get things done is worth it.  I want to remember that he is just five and don't want to push him to frustration while missing out on these special early years.

Math Changes

I decided to take a look at what other classical education folks suggested for kindergarten.  I don't know why I hadn't noticed this before, but Veritas Press, The Well Trained Mind, and Classical Conversations all recommend Saxon for kindergarten math.  Veritas Press mentioned that most kindergarteners would be more than ready to handle Saxon 1 (instead of K), but I decided to start at the beginning.

What I feel my son could benefit from is the fun part of kindergarten math.  Things like patterns, simple measuring, counting money, etc.  This is exactly what Saxon K offers.  Another bonus (for me) is that it is a scripted program.  Every few months I get overwhelmed with planning and think "I'm just going to buy a box curriculum!"  I look online and am reminded why I don't want to do that (personally).  I'm thinking that a few subjects being scripted might be a good compromise for right now.


We've just been doing Saxon for about a week, but so far it is the perfect way to start the day!  Another bonus is that my preschooler can also handle it (remember, everyone says it's easy for kindergarten) so it's something that we can all do together.  The kids both LOVE the manipulative set and ask to use items from it even when it's not math time.

So right now we are doing a lesson (or two) from Saxon K each morning and then a few times a week we are still doing a lesson from Ray's (because it's so good for learning the math facts). 

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How do you teach Math to your kids? 

Trivium Tuesdays - Classical Link-Up #90

Welcome to another week of Trivium Tuesdays!  For those of you who are new here today, this is a link-up aimed at encouraging and informing other homeschoolers who use the Classical model of teaching.  Here we can share with each other and learn from one another.

Don't forget to follow all my Pinterest boards that are a part of the All Things Classical List!

Also, please remember to only link up posts that have to do with homeschooling using the classical model of education.  Thank you for understanding this link-up's theme.

Featured Post from Last Week

Today's feature is a post about a great game created by Julie from Highhill Homeschool.  We've been using this over the last month (review coming later!) and LOVING it. Head on over and read Julie's post about the creation of this game and to get the game for a discounted price!

This Week's Link-Up

Here are the rules:

• Your post must have to do (in some way) with classical homeschooling (any age children).
• Your post may be from your archives as long as you only post it one time on this link-up.
• Please link to your direct post, not your blog in general.
• Please place my Trivium Tuesdays button (found on my right sidebar) on your blog post so others can learn about this link-up!
• It may be helpful to state in your link description what stage of the trivium or what subject your post is about, if applicable, so others can easily find posts they are interested in looking at.
• Remember, everyone loves comments =) So don't be shy, and tell someone if you liked their post!

I reserve the right to remove any link-up that does not have to do with classical homeschooling.         

If you are a regular here at Trivium Tuesdays and have something to share that is a little off topic, but still would be an encouragement to the readers here, please still share it =)  I'm referring to people who are just trying to get their blog more exposure without following the rules above.

I will visit each of your blogs this week and feature my favorite link-up for all to see next week!  Also, if your blog has a button I will place it on my sidebar (under Friends to Visit) for the week until it is replaced by the next week's favorite =)