The ability to convey ideas in writing has become even more essential with the advancements of technology.  An individual who can communicate well, earns respect.  And with email becoming the communication tool of choice, we must ensure that our children have the tools to write well.

Molly Fox knows the importance of writing and of using the right motivation to help children become stronger writers.  This incredible young homeschooler, founder of Homeschoolwriters.com maintains a website designed to keep you up to date with writing contests and opportunities for your child.

Be sure to visit her site and select several contests that will interest your child.  The spirit of competition and the opportunity for feedback will do wonders!

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Bridgeway High School brings its proven high school diploma program to adults all across the United States. Catasauqua, PA, October 1, 2009 – Bridgeway High School, an extension of Bridgeway Homeschool Academy gained its state license today to provide a high school diploma program to adults.  This license, combined with their  ……  read the rest of the story about New Education Help for High School Drop Outs at the Bridgeway Homeschool Academy website.

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Click on this link.

My additional verse for the homeschool mom:

If you set aside your needs to teach your kids to read, you’re a Homeschool Mom
If addition and subtraction were much more than a distraction, you’re a Homeschool Mom
If your dining room slab looks like a science lab, you’re a Homeschool Mom

It is an unbelievably challenging, fun, overwhelming, and rewarding job!  Let’s enjoy it!

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But this week, it was my eight year old who had to “preach” about learning styles.

I am an auditory learner.  Tell me something (when I am listening) and I will get it right away.  I can process that information; I can quickly problem solve; and I can use it in later conversations when necessary.

I don’t need a visual.  In fact, the new Microsoft Office drives me nuts because it is designed for visual learners and I just cannot navigate that system with the same ease that I could the old one.

So when I am in a hurry or when we have a time constraint on what we are studying, I tend to shift back into auditory mode.  In fact, just the other day I was working with my eight year old on math, trying to help her to understand basic pre-division concepts.  We had only a few more minutes before we had to head out for soccer so I was trying to get it done in as little time as possible.

She kept trying to draw out 30 objects and I kept trying to just get her to the answer.

“Amanda, just focus.  Listen to what I am saying.”

Her response:  “But Mom.  Drawing it helps me to understand it!”

Oops!  Talk about one of those moments when we hear our own words resounding in our heads.

Needless to say, I took a deep breath, pulled out the counting bears and counted out 30 of them.  We started by dividing them into 3 groups of 10, then into 10 groups of 3.  Suddenly, it all made sense and the answer to the problem was simple.

And we did all of that with only about two ”auditory” modes of explanation.

If you are finding yourself struggling with helping your kids to understand, step back and look.  Are you teaching in your own learning style or are you speaking their language?

It makes all the difference in the world.

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When I pressed her further, she mentioned that even a “simple” essay question in Social Studies and Science can make for a really bad day.

I couldn’t help share with her what I have learned about the writing process over the years.  As a writing teacher, this is my passion and I believe it is an essential part of every student’s education.  Therefore, we must do what we can to help our kids find success in writing.

I do not have research to back this up, but my studies on how the brain works are what have led me to this conclusion:

Because we expect our kids to begin writing at such a young age, we often create for them a mental block that makes writing a chore and/or a battle for years.

There are some students who have the fine motor skills to write at a very young age.  However, many struggle so much with the physical act of writing that they quickly decide that “I can’t write.”

What many children, parents and teachers miss is the fact that this inability to write has nothing to do with their ability to generate ideas or to create a paragraph or story.  Instead, the physical act of forming letters and sentences is such a difficult task that they cannot possibly keep up with what their incredible little minds are trying to communicate.

Thus, we set them up for failure and an “I can’t do it” attitude.

Our brains are so powerful that what we tell it becomes truth. So, if our kids are saying “I cannot write,” it quickly becomes reality.  They begin to approach every writing assignment with this attitude and as the years and struggles with writing go on that “I can’t do it” attitude just continues to grow.

So, how do we fix it?

The Power of Dictation

Dictation can quickly become your best friend.  Though it takes more time on your part, the results are well worth it!

If you are working with young writers, don’t ask them to write a full story or essay on their own.  Instead, give them the assignment and then sit down with them to complete it.

With my kids, I even go so far as to have them dictate their pre-writing or brainstorming.

For example, when my now sixth grade daughter was in second grade we did an elective in Animal Science.  This elective gave us one animal or type of animal to study every three weeks.  Because I am a writer, I ramped up the elective by having her write a full page essay on each animal at the end of the unit.  We would begin with pre-writing and work our way into a first draft.

One example that stands out in my mind was the study of dogs.  In the unit, we studied sheepdogs, sled dogs, and seeing eye dogs (among many others).  At the end of the unit, we sat down together at the computer and created a table of all of the different types of dogs included in the unit.  Then, she listed all of the things she could remember about each and I put that information into the table.

Once that pre-writing step was complete, I printed out the table, handed it to her and asked her to figure out the best order for presenting her information.  Then, she simply used the table to begin to write sentences about each type of dog.  I sat beside her and typed out everything she said.  In no time, we had a five paragraph single spaced composition that filled an entire typewritten page–”written” by a second grade student.

Did I help her as she wrote?  Absolutely! As she dictated I helped her to find transitional words or sentence.  I stopped her and reminded her to tell me when to start a new sentence.  I pointed out those times when she was repeating herself or not providing enough information.   And I worked with her to draft an introduction that would grab the reader’s interest and a conclusion that would pull everything together.

Guess what?  Despite all of that help, she is an amazing writer; her older sister is also quite the writer, and her third grade sibling is following the same path.

Why?  Because they could look at that beautiful piece of writing at the end of the day and say “I WROTE THAT!”

Success is such a powerful motivator.

So, to my friend I offered this piece of advice.  “Don’t worry that she is now in sixth grade.  Start from scratch.  Sit down with her for every writing assignment and show her that she has incredible things to say.  Show her that she CAN write.  Help her to see just how much she knows.  And do that by allowing her to dictate her essays and answers to you.”

And be sure to tell her every day–”You are a good writer!”

Do that and watch just how well your kids begin to write.

So, in a nutshell–5 Steps to Writing Success:

1. Never tell them that their writing is bad
2. Make sure the assignment is clear and allow them to ask questions until they fully understand what you want
3. Allow them to dictate their writing to you
4. Select one assignment a month to perfect and work together to perfect it.
5. Remind them every day that they are good writers

These five steps will allow you to harness both the power of dictation and the power of the mind to create confident writers.

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An awesome resource for every high school student.

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“Don’t lay down in the cemetary until you have to”

This was a passing comment made jokingly by my brother when his son’s game of catch went a little too close to the cemetary border (he had tripped and fallen as he reached for the ball).

Funny all on its own, his quote is also full of wisdom.

How often do we as individuals and as homeschoolers feel ready to just lay down and give up? Have you ever had one of those days that just makes you wonder if you will make it through?

Well, rather than “lay down in the cemetary before you have to,” I encourage you to step back and take a breather. If that means taking a day to forget the regular routine and just make learning fun or heading out on an impromtu field trip, then do it!

If that means scheduling Dad to take the evening shift and getting out alone or with a good friend, then make it happen!  If it means footing the bill for a sitter (with younger children) and going out with the love of your life, then do it!

In the long run, you and your kids will benefit.  Because as you know, they often feel our frustrations as strongly as we do.

So, “Don’t lay down in the cemetary before you have to.”  Instead, enjoy this precious time with your children, relax your standards a bit, and have fun!

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So whether you use only one idea or all ten, have fun in your travels.  Read about our summer road trip here.

English and Grammar:

Adjective game-with such beauty surrounding us, we enjoyed the challenge of finding ways to describe what we were seeing.  The challenge was to find as many descriptive words to capture the beauty of what we were seeing.  We had the most luck in the Grand Tetons, where we came up with 103 adjectives!  The winner was the one who came up with the most creative list.

Dynamic Action-another fun one (you can tell I tend towards English) was the dynamic action game where we had to find more interesting ways to say a specific verb.  Dad would give the verb and the kids would come up with as many different and more interesting way to say the same thing.  We replaced the word walked with words like strutted, strolled, bounded, leaped, skipped, crept, stumbled, hiked and many more.

Fun Adverbs-same idea as the action verb game.  This time, we started with the same verb as before (i.e. walked) and came up with adverbs to describe how the animal or person walked.  Some ideas were walked crazily, uncertainly, funny, quickly, slowly, dynamically, confidently . . .. The more we tried this one, the better we became.

Writing-we practiced writing verbally with story starters.  One of us would begin the story and then we would go around the circle to add to it.  We did not limit it to one sentence at a time.  Instead, we allowed each person to be creative.  This resulted in a lot of hilarious scenarios.  I also used it as a review of what we learned in a specific place.  For example, after visiting Cody, Wyoming, we made up a story about Bill Cody.  The only rule was that as each person added to the story, they had to be sure to include one fact from what we learned.  This satisfied the teacher in me and satisfied the desire for fun and creativity in the kids.

Math Games

Addition and Subtraction-we combined this one with Geography.  I taught my eight year old how to calculate the number of miles from place to place on a map.  She loved pulling out the map and making the calculations.  So, I would give her a challenge that included several different positions and she would first find all of the mile markers, then add up all of the numbers to figure out how many miles we had to travel.  Then, each time we completed one segment of the trip, she had to subtract the number of miles we just traveled from the total number she had calculated.  Believe it or not, she never tired of this one!

Percentages-to include the older two in this one, we would have them figure out what percent of the total trip we had completed at each different segment.  Then, they had to convert that percent to a decimal.  Not received with enthusiasm, but it did give them perspective on how far we still had to go to reach our destination.

Probability-my 13-year old came up with this one.  She made up a game where they would each select a color and count the number of cars they saw that were that color.  After 5 minutes, they would add up the total number of tally marks from each kid and figure out the probability of seeing each different color of car.  They tried to extend this to wildlife in the more scenic areas, but lost patience pretty quickly when they only saw a few of each in the five minute time period.

History/Science/Nature/Creativity

We purchased a book before the trip called Whose Clues, which challenges individuals to figure out an inventor, sports figure, historical figure, scientist, etc. based on a series of clues. The clues progress from very vague information to more specific and recognizable.  Usually by the time we get to the end of the clues list, we have identified the individual.  These books retail for $9.95 but you can purchase them for just $5.99 a book by calling Curriculum Express at 800-685-3357.  Available titles include: Whose Clues: Famous Authors, Inventors, Characters in Literature, Musicians and Composers, Sports, and American History.

We enjoyed this so much that we decided to create our own.  So, after each stop, we would each come up with a series of clues for a person, place, animal or event and challenge one another with our riddles.  This was a lot of fun!  The riddles ranged from very easy (from our eight year old) to nearly impossible but were always a great way to pass the time and review what we had learned, experienced or seen at any given stop.

Stories with Holes-if you enjoy thinking creatively, you will love this one!  Before our trip, I grabbed a series of books called Stories with Holes.  These books are filled with crazy riddles that you must solve by asking only yes or no questions.  Ranging from the ridiculous to the very challenging, a story could fill quite a bit of time as we tried to figure out the twist that would solve it for us.  If you have never tried out a Story with Holes, you must purchase at least one of these books to try it yourself.  I guarantee that you will want the complete set!  These books retail for $9.95 but you can purchase them for just $5.99 a book by calling Curriculum Express at 800-685-3357.  There are 20 different books in the series and are identified simply by Volume 1-20.

Creativity Day by Day-another terrific resource, this one can be used all year long as a resource for writing assignments or discussions.  We used it in both ways on this trip, sometimes just looking for something to talk about, and other times looking for a way to keep the kids occupied without us for a block of time as a writing assignment.  Talk about learning a lot about your kids.  With questions like, “Who has more freedom, children or adults?” or “If you could have 1000 of any one thing, what would it be (besides money)?” we delved a little deeper into our family personalities, values, ambitions and so much more.  This became such a favorite that we are still going strong with it now that we are home. This book retails for $25.00 but you can save $5.00 by ordering it directly from Curriculum Express at 800-685-3357.

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There are a number of good Consumer Math programs out there.  Let me just outline my favorites and give you a brief overview of each.  Hopefully that will give you a good starting point.

Consumer Math Success Kit
This is a workbook format designed to be a supplement to a full Consumer Math program.  However, for a student who has a strong sense of math or who enjoys the application element of math, this is a terrific option.  The book contains 53 different consumer math topics including banking, borrowing, budgeting, income, taxes, investments, nutrition, savings, travel, bills, vacation planning and more.  Each section includes a brief introduction to the topic and at least one solved example.  It then provides several practice problems which illustrate the concepts discussed and are arranged from simple to more complex.  The last piece of each section is a page of teacher notes providing helpful information on new vocabulary, type of math needed for the problems and a few ideas for teaching.

If you are looking for an independent study of consumer math, this is probably not the book for you.  Ideally, you will want to be engaged with your student if you are using this book.  To order this one, call 800-685-3357 and request the title, Consumer Math Success Kit.   Cost is $29.75

Power Basics Consumer Math
Written in an easy-to-understand and independent study style, this course uses a step-by-step approach to strengthen money-management skills.  Broken into four units, Consumer Math includes tips for mastering the ideas, skills, and facts; real life applications for the skills you are mastering;  and “Think About It” questions to help students look at money management in new ways. 

The units in this course include Dollars and Sense, which reviews basic math skills as they apply to money; Spending Wisely, which teaches students how to create and balance a personal budget, to shop wisely, and how to get the best value for their money; Borrowing Wisely, which teaches about different kinds of loans, how to establish good credit and how to avoid going into debt and finally Banking, Insurance, and Taxes. 

My favorite feature in this program is the student workbook, where students engage in real life applications of what they are learning in an organized and relative way. 

This program also includes a pre-test, to identify what your student already knows, tests for each unit, and a post test that demonstrates progress. 

The full year kit includes a textbook, student workbook, teacher guide and test booklet.

To view this item or to order your copy, click here and type 4028 in the search box.

Lifepac Consumer Math 
With Lifepac Consumer Math, students will develop essential daily math skills for planning and organizing personal finances.  This course begins with a review of basic math skills, then shows students how to examine loans and credit cards, how to purchase goods, how to handle family finances, and other practical math skills.  More advanced than Power Basics Consumer Math detailed above, this course provides a stronger focus on critical thinking skills in addition to application activities.  It comes as a kit with 10 student worktexts (each with its own quizzes and tests) and a solution/test key.   To order/view this course, click here and type ES2315 in the search field.

Business Math  A twelve unit study of practical math skills that sets the stage for students to apply learned skills to real life situations in the home and business world.  Topics include checkbook reconciliation, budget preparation, calculation of discounts, insurance and more.

This course approaches math with a goal of mastery and includes a fair amount of repetition and review in order to solidify information and includes 12 separate units of study, each of which has its own quizzes and tests built in. 

A terrific course if you are looking for an independent study course that provides all of the instruction and practice in a format addressed to the student. 

To order/view this course, click here and click on Business Math.

 If you are looking for a more basic study of consumer math (appropriate for struggling learners or younger students), you might want to check out Life Skills for Today’s World.  This 96 page booklet is one book in a series of five Life Skills books that covers money and consumers.  Presented in large text and written at about a 3rd to 4th grade level, the book covers the basics of consumer math and includes topics such as banking services, checking accounts, credit and interest, budgets, bills, shopping smart, insurance and owning a car. 

This one would be ideal as a basic overview of consumer math or an introduction for young students.  I would not issue a credit for this course.

To order this book, call 800-685-3357 and request the book, Life Skills for Today’s World Money and Consumers.  Cost $11.90

 I know this is a lot of information to process, but I trust that the basic descriptions will help you determine the best approach for your child.

If you are looking for a fun website providing interactive consumer math activities, check out  http://www.learner.org/interactives/dailymath/

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But, knowing that we have a deadline to return our vehicle, we pressed on.

Bryce is an interesting place-quite different from the mountains we were enjoying.  This park is filled with incredible rock formations-most of them red-that come in all shapes and sizes.  We have seen “the city of Athens”, “knights in full armour”, “castles”, “squirrels on their hind legs wrestling with each other,” and much more.

I have been impressed with the creativity and imaginations that have come to surface in these girls.

The weather has also changed significantly.  Where we were in long pants and sweatshirts in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, we are now in shorts and the lightest shirts we can find.

We also learned that in the desert one water bottle per person is not nearly enough for a 6 mile hike down into a canyon and back up the other side.  We did survive, but we were definitely in need of hydration when we finally completed the climb.  In fact, my eight year old ended up with either dehydration or altitude sickness by the time we completed the climb.

Some of our favorite sights were “The Windows to the World,” “Thor’s Hammer,” and “Wall Street.”  The kids also loved the challenge of the more strenuous ‘Peek-a-Boo-Loop” trail, which had some steep climbs and narrow ridges.

In the end, I am glad we did not miss Bryce Canyon-definitely a very unique place with scenery that you do not encounter just anywhere.

After Bryce, we moved on to Zion National Park, where we encountered more beautiful mountains (no longer snow-capped, but still beautiful).  Here, we decided to hike up what they call the Narrows-through a narrow passage between canyon walls in the river.  This kept us cool and provided some very unique views of the canyon.  No longer were we looking down from the top of the canyon-this time we were looking up at sheer cliffs looming above us on both sides.

Again, we would have liked to go much further, but as the sun began to set, we decided we had better head back so as not to find ourselves navigating the river in the dark.

It was interesting to hear their explanation of how the area was formed.  A “small ocean” must have formed there “millions of years ago” carving out the landscape and depositing minerals only found in the ocean.  Abby (13) just looked at me and said, “Could it have been a flood?”  :-)

A favorite memory from Zion was our midnight hike from the visitor’s center back to our campsite without flashlights.  It was exhilarating-especially when we startled a mule deer-who then startled us as it crashed through the brush right beside us.  No bear sightings though-much to the relief of some and the disappointment of others.

Tomorrow, we head out to the Grand Canyon-our last national park stop before we head to California to visit family and complete our camping adventure.

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