It's A Book!!

The Working Parent's Guide To Homeschooling

It's finally in print and boy am I anxious to get this book out to anyone who might benefit from it. Think you're too busy working to homeschool your children? Think again! "The Working Parent's Guide To Homeschooling" is packed with tips, tricks, suggestions and resources to help working parents take charge of their children's education.

Get your free excerpt at the link above and get ready to explore a whole new world of opportunities and freedom for yourselves and your children. "The Working Parent’s Guide to Homeschooling" will inform and empower you with tools and resources to homeschool. You'll explore time management, child care arrangements while working, how to teach and more, with real life working parents’ solutions to each of these issues.

Written specifically for working parents, my own experience peppers every chapter and I also share several other families’ experiences to illustrate solutions to succeed in working and homeschooling.

This dream has been a long time coming, so I hope you will celebrate with me. Now that I've give birth to my first book, I plan on doing it again. Get your copy today and tell me what you think!

Ebook formats coming soon.

Check out these posts, too:

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Working and Homeschooling

     

If You Give A Homeschooled Boy A Tire...

Back To School - Blogging As Language Arts

The Working Parent's Guide to Homeschooling

One-room schoolhouse, Calico Ghost Town, Yermo, CA

I am so excited.  My first book is almost complete and I just can't wait.  So I am going to serialize it, one chapter at a time.  Not only that, I am going to give away the download of each chapter for FREE for the first week!  

Now, I am still polishing up that first chapter, because I want it to be perfect for you.  So let me tell you about the book.

"The Working Mom's Parent's Guide to Homeschooling" is for anyone who's ever wanted to homeschool, but thought they couldn't unless they stayed home full time.  I've been there.  I've made mistakes, and had lots of success and I want to share what I've learned, to make it easier for you to jump in and make an incredible new life for you and your children.

In "The Working Mom's Parent's Guide to Homeschooling", I address perplexing issues, such as Scheduling (Chapter 2), Who Watches the Kids? (Chapter 3), and locating and obtaining affordable curriculum (Chapters 4, 6, 7 and 8).  

I share my thoughts on record keeping, and understanding your state's homeschooling laws (Chapter 10) and I wrap everything up with a chapter on nine different styles of homeschooling, their definitions, and where to find resources for each different style.

In these days of ereaders, social networking and high speed internet, homeschooling is possible like never before.  In "The Working Mom's Parent's Guide to Homeschooling", I hope to encourage you to commit yourself to taking charge of your children's education.  I want to give you ideas and starting points for your journey.  Most of all, I want to convince you that this is doable, regardless of your particular situation.  That with creative thinking, determination and support, you and your children can start experiencing the joys of homeschooling today!

So keep your eyes here on "Around The Homestead", for your first FREE download of "The Working Mom's Parent's Guide to Homeschooling".

Overcoming Math Frustration - Review

Long before Algebra, mathematics becomes the Achilles' heel of many homeschool families.  If only there were some way to make math tolerable!  Susan Evans shares her experiences and suggestions for not only making math tolerable, but even (gasp!) fun!  In little more than an hour, Overcoming Math Frustration will breathe new life into your math program with:


- 11 ways to overcome math frustration
                                                                   
- a comparison of 4 popular math programs and
                                                                   
- hands on ideas to get kids more excited about math.


One of the biggest reinforcements I got from listening to the workshop was to have children do some strenuous exercise right before starting their math.  I had started this with my own son a few weeks before, and it really has made a difference.  The exercise gets his blood pumping and his mind functioning and ready to focus on the most difficult task of the day - sitting and concentrating on math for 1-2 hours.  I enjoyed the comparison of the 4 math programs.  We seem to be doing quite well with Saxon math at this point, so since it's not broke...I do remember having issues with Saxon with my older children, though.  Ms. Evan's hands on ideas are good reminders for veteran homeschoolers and excellent helps for beginners.  Putting math into practice in everyday life is probably the most helpful way to get kids excited about learning their sums.  May I suggest a sequel?  How to get your child excited about Algebra/Trig/Calculus;)


Raised in Guatemala, Susan earned her Bachelor's degree in English in the United States, and has taught in public schools here and in London, England, where she was also a middle school Drama director.  In this audio workshop, Susan gives dozens of tips from her own experience as a public school teacher, as well as a homeschooling mom of four.  She is unashamed to give all credit for her successes to God, and to accept all responsibility for her shortcomings.

In addition to Overcoming Math Frustration $5.50, Susan Evans has a number of other excellent audio and video products available for download.  All of her products are backed by a 60 day money-back guarantee.  The MP3 files were a snap to download and add to my Ipod.  For less than the price of a half gallon of ice cream, you can wake up your children's brain cells and help them feel good about math again!

I received a free copy of Overcoming Math Frustration to listen to and post my thoughts.  No other compensation was received for this review.

Making Literature Fun - Review

Ever wish you could get your kids to reach for a book instead of the remote?  Susan Evans' one hour audio workshop, Making Literature Fun, is bursting at the seams with ideas to:

- make literature come alive for your children 

- improve your child's reading level

- quiet your children for reading

Raised in Guatemala, Susan earned her Bachelor's degree in English in the United States, and has taught in public schools here and in London, England, where she was also a middle school Drama director.  In this live recording, Susan describes how to evaluate and choose good books; how to create experiences to help children internalize what they've read; gives examples from her own homeschool experiences with her four children.

Ms. Evans discusses the pros and cons of "watching the movie" versus "reading the book".  She encourages regular reading aloud by both parents and students.  I was reminded to change my tone of voice to indicate different characters in the book I'm reading from, and to remember to read with more dramatic effect.  When I began to do this during our current reading of "War Horse", my 9 year old son suddenly started really listening, and would beg for another chapter.  As suggested, I felt perfectly comfortable making him wait for the next day, and sure enough, his anticipation was peaked and he sat and listened attentively.  A number of books are recommended by name in the course of Susan's presentation.  She supports re-enacting as an enriching supplement to good reading and she shows how to link the great books your children are reading to the other subjects they are studying.

In everything she does, Evans gives praise and glory to her Creator, and emphasizes and encourages a close, personal relationship with God as the foundation to excellent parenting and homeschooling.  I love the relaxed, refreshing style in which she presents her information.  Her voice has a pleasant tone and unhurried cadence.  I came away from the audio with the feeling of having just had an uplifting discussion with a friend, rather than a talking down from a stuffy professional.  I immediately began applying many of her suggestions in my own homeschool, with happy results.

In addition to Making Literature Fun $5.50, Susan Evans has a number of other excellent audio and video products available for download.  All of her products are backed by a 60 day money-back guarantee.  The MP3 files were a snap to download and add to my Ipod.  For less than the price of a Teacher's Manual, you can breathe new life into your homeschool and equip your children with a love of reading for life.  Now go out and make literature fun!

I received a free copy of Making Literature Fun to listen to and post my thoughts.  No other compensation was received for this review.

Lessons from the Hen House - Review

You can count your chickens before they're hatched! Lessons From The Hen House is all about hands on learning. Even if you don't have a back yard coop, there are plenty of lesson ideas in this clever e-booklet to keep your students engaged. I wish I had thought of this years ago, when I was homeschooling my older children. Carol Alexander seamlessly incorporates math, science, language, literature, geography, art, home economics, business, and research skills into 17 pages of lesson plans, PLUS over 30 vocabulary words, creating a curriculum that can be used with all your students, for a day, a week, or a month, depending on how in-depth you want to go with it.

A few of the ideas will be perfect for homesteading families who have chickens, but most of the lessons are ideal for city-dwellers, too. Pick up a few free hatchery catalogs, or do a quick web search for information. Lots of links are included to other online resources and suggested books to read.

Intermediate and advanced lessons include starting up a related business (real or hypothetical), writing ad copy, designing a poultry catalog, various aspects of running a poultry business, disease, dissection and egg hatching.

Lessons are arranged for easy reference. Elementary lessons come first, then intermediate, then high school, and are grouped according to subject: math, language, science, etc.

This is an awesome resource for 4H or FFA leaders and participants.

All necessary materials are included or linked, with suggested research resources also listed. Plenty of room is left for the parent to add in their own preferred research materials. The booklet can be printed out, or used on the computer or an e-reader that supports PDF. It works great on my iPod with iBooks.

Other materials that might be helpful are: 3x5 cards, pencils, paper, storybooks and reference books on poultry, a magnifying glass and/or microscope for some of the science experiments, eggs, bowl of water, food coloring. I would also recommend visiting the hatchery links and requesting catalogs before beginning the study, especially if your family does not have their own chickens, as they make most of the lessons much easier.

My son was especially interested in the science experiments. He took great pains to examine several feathers under his microscope and sketch his findings. Then he had to test all our eggs for freshness, by seeing if they floated or sank in a bowl of water. We are saving the egg-coloring and crushed eggshell collages for the Easter eggs.

For roughly ten years, Carol and her family have endeavored to ‘live off the land.’ On their modest acreage, they grow extensive gardens and raise various animals for milk and meat. Carol has been homeschooling her 6 children since 1993. 3 have graduated.

Lessons from the Homestead is also a “book in process.” Coming out one section at a time, Carol is producing a full-fledged “learning by living” curriculum centered around life on the homestead. The first section, Lessons from the Seed Catalog has been released and is available at the Lessons From The Homestead website. Lessons From The Henhouse, part 2, is also now available for immediate download at the same site, for only $3.99. Subsequent parts will cover different areas of the farm/homestead. Ms. Alexander offers a 10 day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the lesson plans.

I received a free copy of Lessons From The Henhouse to try out and share my thoughts. No other compensation was received for this review.

Book Reports

This year we are learning how to do book reports.  Now that third grade homesteader can read quite well, he    can pick out some of his own books at the library.  After our friend and former librarian gave him "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", there has been no stopping him.  Thank you for the genius of Jeff Kinney, in writing his series of graphic novels for elementary age boys.  My older sons did not start reading for pleasure until they were ages 10 and 12, respectively.  And what got them going?  Harry Potter, and Goosebumps.  Never underestimate the power of children's literature.  

Our lesson plans from Catholic Heritage Curriculum provide 3 basic formats to use for book reports - written, oral and hands-on.  For starters we are using the fill-in-the-blank form provided for a beginner's written report.  By the end of the year, the goal is to have him use the decorative lined papers and completely write out his entire report, including narrative detail (why not shoot for the stars?!).  

The oral report format also has simple guidelines for my beginner, with the goal of a dramatic presentation or speech by year's end (no problem there).

The hands-on report format is the most loosely structured, and potentially most creative.  Students are encouraged to use their imagination in creating a project which will tell the story or a part of the story in their chosen book.  Suggestions are:  make a shadow box, a model of part of the story, a storyboard, illustrated story book for a younger sibling or friend, puppet show, etc.  (This could be really fun!!)

I like the variety of choices for book reports that Catholic Heritage Curriculum offers to my 8 year old son.  I see each format helping him to hone his communication skills, written and verbal, in practical ways.  At the same time, he is encouraged to focus on what he is reading, in order to retain the content and relay it to his audience - his family.