 by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer
Are you struggling with trying to homeschool or do homework with your older kids when you've got babies or toddlers running around? As a veteran homeschool mom and former nanny, I've got some simple and enriching activities to keep babies and toddlers busy. The main idea is to be sure the smaller ones always have something to do so that they will feel included and won't have a reason to distract you. Make the kids a special place. If your older kids do work at the table, make a spot for the younger ones as well. They will also need a schoolbox with safety scissors, glue sticks, and sharp pencils. Keep this box at the "school" spot. Be sure to also keep on hand, and within reach, construction paper, crayons, finger paint, washable markers, puzzles, write & wipe markers, and workbooks. Stay tuned for a handy workbook trick. Paper crafts can be very entertaining for babies and toddlers. The general rule with paper crafts is to have everything ready ahead of time. That way, when the time is right, the craft can be easily placed in front of the child without causing a bunch of commotion and excitement from trying to cut out everything. Make sure that a glue stick is handy as well. Glitter is pretty, but a bad idea for little ones. It will be a never-ending clean-up job for mom. I suggest using sequins instead if you must have something shiny. Here are a couple of my paper favorites. Snowman Pre-cut three white circles of 3 different sizes, 1 scarf of your child's favorite color, 2 black boots, 3 button holes, 2 black eyes, a carrot for the mouth, a button for the nose, 2 sticks for the arms, and some clouds for the sky. Create one yourself, so the child will have something to look at. Place all the supplies into a baggie or plastic tote with a lid. When you are ready for your child to use it, you can take it out at a moment's notice. All you need to do is hand the child the kit, a blank paper to glue it onto, and a glue stick. Note that there are alot of pieces to put together. This makes the project take up time. The child will not feel the need to ask you for help because all the supplies are there and there is a picture for reference, so there is nothing to ask. Shape Collage Cut out tons of shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, octagon, etc...) in many different colors. Place them all in a baggie or small plastic tote with lid. When you are ready for your child to do this, simply take out the baggie, hand the child a large piece of construction paper and a glue stick, and tell the child to make you a city. I recommend making lots of these shapes and keeping them in a larger container, as they can come in handy for other ideas you may have. You can put a small container of them in front of your child to minimize the mess. Busy toys will keep your babies and toddlers entertained for hours on end. These will vary from child to child, but here are some that are usually universal. Legos Blocks Tinkertoys Lincoln Logs Puzzles Play Food Dolls with lots of accessories Finger Puppets Cars with tracks or play stations Doll Heads (the ones that allow you to comb and style the hair) Keep your babies and toddlers busy with schooling as well. If the child is under a year old, scribbling on paper will do just fine. It will keep the child busy and make the child feel included. If the child is 1-2, tell the child to draw a particular thing. Depending on how advanced your child is, at this age, shape, letter, and number tracing can also be done. Make schoolwork last longer to keep younger kids occupied 1. Make reusable practice sheets. Buy a pad of manuscript writing paper and write and wipe markers. Draw a shape, number, or letter on each one (both sides can be utilized) until you have all 26 letters, the numbers from 0 to 10, and square, triangle, circle, rectangle, and diamond. Draw a dotted version next to your version. On the letters, make sure to represent the uppercase on the top half of the sheet and the lowercase on the bottom. Now tear out all the sheets and laminate them. You now have practice sheets for your child to use over and over again. These can be placed in a binder if you wish or kept in a plastic tote or baggie. 2. Make reusable workbooks. Buy various preschool and kindergarten workbooks or one thick one. Make sure you get the ones with tear out pages. Laminate all the pages and put them in order from easiest to hardest. Punch holes in them to fit in a binder and place them all in a binder. You now have a "forever" workbook that can be used with write & wipe markers. Your child gets lots of practice and it's ok if the workbook gets done in one day or scribbled on. It can be erased and done again. (fun for the kids, less stress for mom) I also suggest keeping a small amount of baby wipes or a wet cloth handy for the child to wipe away the writing. More Handy Tips 1. For smaller babies (0-4 months), a bouncy seat with toys can be fun. Try placing it on the table in the center of everyone, so the baby feels like he/she is part of the action. This will make the baby feel more secure and there will be less crying to distract the teaching. If you are doing "circle-time" (group reading), place the baby in the center of the family circle. The baby can listen to the story and watch everyone pass around the book while she/he sits in a comfortable seat. Sometimes if you turn on the vibration motion in the seat, the child will fall asleep during this time (an added bonus). 2. For older babies (6 months to 1 year), a favorite blankie with toys on it is entertaining. Always place the baby near everyone else. If you are doing "circle-time" (group reading), place the baby's fun blankie in the center of everyone. Add a soft book to the toy collection. The baby can listen to the story and watch everyone pass around the book. The baby will also feel like he/she is part of the "game". 3. Laminate a bunch of the paper shapes from above with thick laminate. Keep them in a plastic tote. Give them to preschoolers (over 3 because of choking hazards) for some busy fun. They can also be used to make patterns with for preschoolers who are learning about patterns. 4. Design the younger kids' activities around whatever the big kids are learning. Maybe the big kids are learning about dinosaurs, so the little ones can build a Lego dinosaur or make a dinosaur collage. Summary The basic idea is to take out an activity your child enjoys during the time you will be lecturing your students. Save the not-so-engaging toys for the non-learning times. Don't forget that your younger ones still need attention and lessons, too. Just because they are not school-aged, doesn't mean their learning isn't just as important. Sometimes the babies and toddlers can get ignored or stashed in the playpen for too long because of the hard task of teaching the older kids. Just remember to always include the the younger kids in everything. Even if they are not doing the same exact thing, they will still feel important when they get their "work" or they get to do their activity because they're doing it with you and their siblings just like the big kids.
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 by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer
I have been asking readers their concerns about homeschool. Sometimes parents worry that teens educated in the home may miss out on prom and other activities. Layla Lair was wondering if I had any suggestions on things homeschooled teens could do to stay social and continue to develop relationships. Team Sports Like teens in a traditional school setting, homeschooled teens also can participate in team sports. Sports are great for social skills. Teens not only learn how to work with others, but they may also find lasting friendships. Many areas have teams for homeschooled teens. However, they also are often allowed to play on local high school teams or other co-ed teams that are open to all teens, regardless of schooling method. This actually gives a homeschooled teen more choices in some instances. Volunteer Work Volunteer work is not only a very noble and useful act, but it can also add to the social life of a teen. Depending on the type of volunteer work, teens may interact with people that are a wide range of ages, including their own. This gives valuable work and even friendship experiences. Plus teens will come away from something like this knowing they've made a difference in someone else's life. Homeschooled teens may have more options to choose from when it comes to volunteer work because their school schedule could be more flexible. Afterschool Clubs & Organizations Afterschool clubs and organizations are not restricted to teens in traditional school. Homeschooled teens can attend these social gatherings and activities as well. Organizations that provide great social, physical, and educational activities, such as the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club, are open to everyone. Afterschool Job Just like a teen in traditional school may get an afterschool job to earn college funds or simply to learn responsibility, so can a homeschooled teen. This not only provides valuable work ethics and experience, but it also can be a great social environment. In many job settings, teens will come across a variety of people every day. Community College Classes Because homeschooled teens have a flexible schedule, this leaves many open to taking extra courses at the community college. This is excellent for earning college credits, but homeschooled teens can also use this as an extra social opportunity. Hands-On Learning Homeschooling allows for more flexibility as far as where school takes place. For many homeschool families, school is not always about the books. Of course, it has to be for some things, but homeschooled teens have the opportunity to learn things through doing them versus only reading about them in a book. For instance, when learning about certain things in natural science, a homeschooled teen could study the natural environment. When learning about other things, the teen may go to a museum tour, take an extra course outside the home, or the parent may hire an expert to give a lecture. Children in traditional school do this with some things as well, but a homescholed teen has more freedom and opportunity to do this with many more lessons. In doing many of these things, there will be social interaction. Church Clubs & Activities If the homeschooled teen happens to be one of certain faiths, he or she may belong to a church. Many will have classes, activities, clubs, and events that the teen can get involved in. Some of these might include choir, praise dancing, drama, Sunday school, or even volunteering. By joining church activities and clubs, the teen can add another opportunity for social interaction with peers. Prom and Other Teen Activities Many worry that their teen will not have a prom or be able to attend school games or other events if they are homeschooled. This does not have to be a reality. Not only do many homeschool organizations and groups hold events like these for homeschooled teens, but they may also get invitied to the events at the local high schools. A homeschooled teen may have friends that attend the local high school and most will allow students to bring along someone from another school. This includes homeschooled kids. Homeschool Group Activities Some families who homeschool choose to join homeschool groups. These are groups of people who also homeschool their children. They meet a certain number of times each week or month for social activities, field trips, events, and more. Homeschool Co-Ops Homeschool co-ops are when parents of homeschooled children hold various classes for the children at scheduled times. One parent is generally assigned to each subject and the group agrees to meet at a specified time a certain number of times per week or month. Some homeschool co-ops are meant as a supplement to what the children are learning at home, as well as a way for the children to socially interact with each other. Yet others are used much in the same way as traditional school. Family as Friends Some teens may have one or more siblings or relatives they spend time with frequently. While these friends are part of the family, they still can be considered and do have an important role in social interaction. Whether a friend or group of friends comes from inside or outside the family, interacting with them adds to the overall social skills of a teen. The same is true for the parent-child relationship. Varied relationships and opportunities put together create a great social network for a teen. Ordinary Teen Activities A homeschool teen is still a teen, just like a public school kid is a teen and a private school kid is a teen. They are all individuals, hopefully not defined only by which type of school they attend. On that same note, teens do not have to attend the same school or even the same type of school to maintain a friendship. Ordinary teen social activities, such as hanging out with friends, going to the mall, going to movies, and more are all activities you might see a teenager doing. A homeschooled teen is no different in this regard. If they had friends before starting homeschool, those friends don't automatically disappear. If the teen has been homeschooled all his or her life, there are (and likely already were) plenty of opportunities to make friends, such as at any of the activities listed above, interacting with neighbors, and much more. *I originally published this via Yahoo Contributor Network RELATED Why Don't Homeschool Parents Teach in a School Building? Back to School Concerns Back to Homeschool: Establishing a Routine Gym Class Activities for Homeschool  Image: Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer
Some may assume that because parents homeschool, their children will not be social. However, this is generally far from the case. Does homeschooling mean the child is locked up in the house all day? While that may be true for a fraction of families, this is not the case for most. I'm a veteran homeschool mom who has been dedicated to enhancing social skills in my kids for years. Have no clue how to keep your kids social? Just curious? Read on. You may find a new idea you hadn't thought of. There are various ways to go about increasing social skills. Many of them will come easy because they are simply an extension of your child's daily learning and activities. Being social is generally a part of a homeschooled child's daily routine by default. Take elective courses, such as art and music at a separate location from your home. You can even do this in a group of homeschooled kids or a co-op. This way the core subjects will still be taught by you and your children will get a little extra knowledge in something they love. Some community centers and private organizations offer these classes for free or at a low-cost. Offer arts & crafts time at your house. If you cannot find a resource, consider becoming one. Chances are, other families have been looking for something similar. Try scheduling craft activities a few times per week for children the same ages as yours. If you don't know many people in the neighborhood, try posting about the events at the local library, schools, or anywhere else you are allowed. Attend story time and other activities at your local library. Depending on the ages of your children and what's on the schedule, your local library could have a great deal to offer. Some libraries offer special classes on a variety of subjects. At the very least, there will be story times to take advantage of. Take field trips often. Visiting parks, museums, zoos, and other educational venues can also help enhance social skills. Because these trips will naturally be a part of the homeschool curriculum, this one is simple to implement. Don;t just visit the places. Talk to the tour guides and other visitors. Take the extra informational courses, workshops, and special classes. This gets the kids interacting with people of all ages, which is vital to social development. When visiting the park, go during times many other children will also be there. Let the kids make friends and schedule play dates. Be sure that your child also has many opportunities to play with friends, attend birthday parties, attend family gatherings, and other social activities. The next time you go to the grocery store, let your child do the shopping and have the child ask the store associates for help when an item cannot be found. Also ask the child to pay. Have a bake sale and sell baked goods and lemonade. Plan a neighborhood block party once per month. You and the kids can volunteer to help out at a local church, soup kitchen, or other social organizations. This can help with not only enhancing social skills, but in teaching humility and caring. Maybe your child is a baker. Homeschooling offers so many more ways to be social than other schooling methods because of its flexibility. Just be creative and go with the flow. In the end, your child will grow immensely. When I first started homeschooling my children, I was worried about social skills. But I soon realized that my kids had more opportunities to enhance social skills than they ever did before.  by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer
Your child's learning is essential to success as an adult and in the business world. We must make sure our children are learning every day. This is not only important during school time, but also necessary during playtime and during normal every day activities. As a veteran mom, I have seen what incorporating learning into your child's daily life can do. Go through the motions step by step. If you do not emphasize to your child what is going on while running through the normal daily motions, they will become just that, motions without reason. Your child needs to not only learn the hows of doing things, but learn the whys as well. Explain these things in a way your child will understand. For instance, there is no need to go into extreme details with a toddler. But an older child will want to know more information. One way to make things easier for your child to pick up on is by playing mini games. You could turn a house cleaning into a trivia time, asking the child/ren related questions. Maybe you're doing dishes. Ask your child, "How come we have to wash the dishes with soap instead of just rinsing them with hot water?" The child may answer, "because soap gets them clean". Your response could be: "That's right because if we don't use soap, nasty germs can spread and cause infections. Yuck! We better make sure we always use soap and rinse it off really well so we don't have to taste the soap. Ewwww." So, you can see how easy that was. The child learns how to correctly do dishes, but also learns why it is important. When children know why something is important, they are more likely to complete the task than if you just tell them to do it "because you said so". This also gives them knowledge they can use in their adult lives. Add extra bits of information to conversations with your child. Your child might be playing with her dolls and a question pops into her mind. She says, "Mommy, how come some people have dark skin and some people have light skin? Instead of saying a quick response like "That's just the way God made us", try saying something like this: "Well, honey, there's different weather in different parts of the world. Some people are around the sun more, so they get darker from something called melatonin that comes from the sun. We are all the same on the inside though, because that's the way God wants us. Wouldn't the world be boring if we all looked the same? How weird would that be? How would we tell each other apart, then?" A response like this not only teaches your child to respect everyone, but also teaches your child about melatonin and makes her think about why there are so many different colors of people, rather than just dismissing it, as the first response causes. Make sure that none of your child's questions go unanswered or short-answered. Yes, sometimes we can inadvertently ignore our child's questions when we are tired, but we have to remember that their little minds have to be constantly fed. Ignoring their questions or telling them "not right now" can not only hamper their chance for finding that answer they're seeking, but it can discourage them from asking further questions. Not having the desire to question things can adversely affect your child's learning process. Draw on what your child is learning in school. Take extra time after homework to go over what your child has learned. Research your child's topics further. If your child has been learning about frogs, go to a pet shop and have the pet shop owner tell your child all about them. Look up frogs online. Maybe your zoo or museum has a frog display. Buy a frog book. Play leapfrog. Just be creative and come up with ways to make the lesson "sticky" in your child's mind. With these things in mind, be prepared to take your child to a whole new exciting level of learning and life. Don't be limited to just my ideas. Come up with your own as well. Have fun and happy learning! *I originally published this via Yahoo Contributor Network  Image: Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved by Richard Rowell, Staff Writer As a writer, it seems rather obvious that I should say that “reading is good.” But let me tell you. As someone who didn’t pick up a book for a long time, until this past weekend, I had forgotten just how true that statement was. Sure, I’ve been reading plenty of blogs and articles, but there is something about sitting there or laying back and reading a full-length book that reading short-form material simply doesn’t provide. For some time, I had been feeling my writing was particularly lacking. A couple of people pointed out that I wasn’t at my best, and I couldn’t help but agree. It seemed to be lacking emotion. Some of my pieces were too straight-shooting and bland to even dare put my name on and so I held them back to rewrite them. When I did rewrite them, they showed a tinge of frustration and it was clear I was trying too hard to make the pieces sound like they actually had some passion behind them. While they were okay posts, they were clearly not my best work. It seems that my writing became very two-dimensional for a while. For some topics, that was fine. But there were a lot of things on my mind that I simply could find no way to properly express. But lately, I read a couple of books that made me think about a lot of things that I’ve thought about for a long time. They put things in perspective, and helped me to gain back that third dimension to my thinking that I had apparently lost due to lack of reading. In between those two, I read something much less serious, a biography of former Red Sox manager Terry Francona. But the act of simply reading the books has helped me to regain a little bit of myself that I had lost. One of my main issues with reading is that I simply cannot read more than one book at a time. Sometimes I’ve been able to push two. But I have a strange problem where if I try to read more than one book at any one time, I tend to not remember much of what I read. When I was younger, I would speed read through a lot of books, remember just enough for a book report, then totally forget what I read. I wouldn’t retain a thing. Other times, I’d pick up a book and if it didn’t hold my attention after the first 20 pages or so, I’d put it down and never pick it up again. Even worse, I would get about halfway through a book, then put it aside for months, then pick it up again and feel like I have to read the whole thing over. So I wouldn’t read it again, as it obviously didn’t hold my attention before, so why would it now? While I never really wanted to admit this, my reading comprehension skills were actually quite awful all the way through junior high. Certain things, like books about baseball, I would retain fairly well. A few biographies stuck with me, as well. But a lot of books I’ve read over the years I simply did not retain. It wasn’t until freshman year of high school when I implemented my one-book-at-a-time rule. Then I started actually retaining and comprehending what I read. It may have something to do with how my brain likes to hyper-focus on things. When it comes to books, my brain simply can’t go from book to book. Articles I can blow through because they’re so short. But when it comes to 150 or 200 pages of text, my brain simply cannot switch back and forth between texts. It gets confused and so everything I’ve read apparently goes into a big bin of clutter in the back of my head. I don’t think I actually forgot everything I read – it just wasn’t possible for me to recollect things with any sort of ease. But for a time after I left college, I couldn’t read almost any book without forgetting what it was about almost immediately after putting it down – with a very few exceptions. My reading comprehension skills seemed to evaporate on me. And every time I stopped consistently reading books for any real length of time, my writing thusly suffered badly. On the other hand, I retained lectures very well if I took written notes. I rarely ever read textbooks because the same problem would happen – I’d never retain it unless I took notes. I considered taking notes as I read books, too. But then it felt too academic, so I never did it and simply gave up reading for a while. Occasionally I’d go on a binge where I’d read a bunch by one author, but I still wasn’t retaining much. It’s only recently that I’ve apparently regained enough of my sanity that I can actually sit down and read without my mind horribly wandering off. That was another problem that I’ve had – my mind wandering as I’m in the middle of a sentence, putting the book down and never coming back to it. I just need to keep finding books that make me think, so I’m focusing on non-fiction. The pattern of having a book that makes me think and a more leisurely book like a biography then another thinker is probably one I’ll keep to for a while. The most important thing for any writer is to read, but even if you’re not a writer, reading helps you expand your mind and exposes you to a lot of ideas. Reading helps you find new ways of thinking about things, or teaching you how to express ideas you’ve always had but never knew how to actually put forward. Reading is good, not just for writing, but keeping your mind fresh. Mine apparently was rotting, finding itself too easily distracted. While I’m no longer going to try to force my brain into reading too much at once, I do at least need to coax it into at least finishing a book every couple of days. It’s a bit of discipline that I’d lost, and right now, I need all the self-discipline I can get! Good thing I started forcing myself to read again. I probably wouldn’t have been able to write anymore. And that would’ve been bad. Is Homework Reducing Learning and Play Time for Kids? Should Homework Be Eliminated? Pros and Cons8/15/2014  by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer
The subject of homework has long been a debate among parents and teachers. Some teachers believe it is essential, while some find other ways to add to the curriculum. There are parents like myself who feel it takes up valuable time. This time could otherwise be spent reading, playing, or learning in other ways. As a mom, homeschool teacher, and former public school parent, I've seen it from more than one side. I've also done research over the years, as well as asked opinions of teachers. My research and opinions below are accompanied by recent conversations with three teachers. Homework vs Study Time Besides what is being taught in class, kids may need or desire to do extra research on their own. They also may want to read unassigned books for the pure enjoyment of reading. However, when homework takes up a substantial amount of time, this may not be possible. The student may tire or run out of time before extracurricular activities or bedtime. Children should be free to explore and learn as much as possible and too much homework may hinder that process. My personal thought is that study time needs to be reevaluated and should be done freely versus being assigned. I expressed some of my thoughts on how to do that in another writeup: "Should Current Homework and Study Methods be Reevaluated?" Ann W, a teacher and parent, shared the following with me: "There are several negative effects of traditional homework assignments, especially upon elementary school children. In my experience as a parent and former public school teacher, I've seen both sides to the issue. If homework lacks substance or too much is assigned, children become increasingly frustrated and may develop a bad attitude toward school. In our own experience, homework took four hours of time to complete. Not only did this take away from our family time together, it also reduced the amount of time our child was able to devote to individual reading. "Down time and actually having the time to read for pleasure can refresh and prepare a student for further learning. Excessive homework, such as writing 20 spelling words 25 times each by a child who can spell all the words correctly and has a fine motor disability, creates a stressful atmosphere and is a waste of precious time. That is just one of the reasons, among many, that we eventually chose to home school our daughter." Benefits or Drawbacks? This is the area where it seems the answer varies depending on who you ask. Not all teachers agree and not all parents agree. According to an article on Scholastic.com, there is not credible evidence to suggest that there is a tangible benefit from homework. In fact, in that same article, there is evidence of a no-homework policy working well for students. The argument given by one teacher is that homework is essentially the same as if an adult went to work and then came home and kept working for several more hours. Some may in fact do this, but why put so much pressure on anyone, especially children? Then, there are those who argue there are indeed benefits. For instance, Sandra Peterson, a teacher, tutor, and home educator shared this with me: "Especially in the subject of math, homework is, in my opinion, essential. Homework is one of the best day-to-day assessment tools a teacher can utilize. Daily homework can alert a teacher to comprehension problems early enough that the lesson can be re-taught. This is important in math since one concept builds upon another. If the student does not understand how to find factors, they may not understand how to reduce fractions or make equivalent fractions from two fractions with unlike denominators. Many students learn best by practicing skills in a lesson or by summarizing what they have learned in an essay. Not that homework is rote learning, but homework can provide one more opportunity to cement those concepts in the brain. Homework can also be utilized to allow the student to express his individuality, especially in the creative writing portion of the language arts curriculum." When Can Kids be Kids? Another argument against homework is that often kids are spending so much time on it, there is no time left for anything else. What about extracurricular activities? What about family time or just regular kid time? When my kids were in traditional school, by the time my oldest was finished with homework, she had no time to do anything but eat dinner and prepare for bed. Yes, learning is extremely important. But so is downtime, fun time, and fitness. All have benefits and all are necessary. If children are spending all their time on homework, where is the time for any of this? High school teacher Amanda Herron told me what works for her students: "I teach on a block schedule, instead of traditional, which means our students have four classes a day (instead of eight) and stay in one class for 90 minutes (instead of 55). I rarely, if ever, give homework because I feel that as an effective teacher I should cover what I need to in 90 minutes. Research does back up that daily practice of concepts helps with memory retention, but I feel that in 90 minutes my lessons should teach the concept and offer practice time. By doing traditional 'homework' assignments in class, the students have peer coaches and teachers to ask questions and get help. Especially at the high school level, few parents can help on homework assignments. Also, our students have such full, high-stress lives. At my school, we have a high teen parent rate, added to the necessity of after-school jobs for essentials like gas (and unfortunately for some of my students, family groceries due to the high-unemployment in our area). Colleges are looking for sports, extra-curriculars and community service. If every teacher assigns an additional 45 minutes of homework, our students (with only four teachers) would need an extra three hours in their schedules. "The average schedule for one of my students: 7:00 a.m. ~ Bus stop. 7:40 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. ~ School day 3:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ~ Sports (football, basketball, etc) 5:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. ~ after school job or baby sit children/siblings until parents get home from later-shift jobs "There is no time in my students schedules for homework every night. They would not be finished until after 1:00a.m. At schools with traditional schedules (more classes meeting in a day) that could go longer. So, I'm not a fan. I get a better result from my students by keeping practice and project times in class and I have no problem doing this and still covering my state-mandated standards." What is Being Taught in Class? A final question that I struggle with often: "What's being taught in class?" If a child is learning for hours throughout the day, why is it necessary to then come home and repeat the process? Haven't they been learning all day already? As someone who has had children in public school and has educated them at home, I have seen things as both a parent and teacher. Whenever we are homeschooling, I have found the children complete more lessons in less time than when they attended traditional school. That's why I struggle so much in understanding why it's necessary to repeat lessons during a time that should be family time. Because of homeschooling, the performance of most of my kids has increased. They sometimes complete two grade levels per subject every school year. This is without having extra work to complete at the end of the day. Because of this, I'm left to wonder why traditional schools need to assign extra work outside of class. Shouldn't the length of their school days compensate for that? I have the utmost respect for educators and believe most do have the students' best interests in mind. It's just something I have yet to understand, based on research and personal experience. *Thanks to Amanda Herron, Sandra Peterson, and Ann W for your opinions. **I originally published this content via Yahoo Contributor Network RELATED Why Don't Homeschool Parents Teach in a School Building? Back to School Concerns Help! My Daughter is Starting High School: Beat the Mommy Jitters Is Education the Top Funding Priority at Your Child's School?
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Lyn Lomasi is founder and owner of the Brand Shamans Content Community. Services include ordained soul therapy and healing ministry, business success coaching, business success services, handcrafted healing jewelry, ethereal and anointing oils, altar and spiritual supplies and services, handcrafted healing beauty products, and more!
Lyn is your brand healing, soul healing, marketing & content superhero to the rescue! While rescuing civilians from boring business practices and energy vampires, this awesomely crazy family conquers evil and creates change. They live among tigers, dragons, mermaids, unicorns, and other fantastic energies, teaching others to claim their own power and do the same. By supporting us, you support a dedicated parent, healer, and minority small business that donates to several causes. Profits from our all-inclusive store, Intent-sive Nature support these causes and our beautiful family! HIRE OR SHOP WITH LYN | CONTACT LYN ArchivesCategories
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