I got a flyer the other day in the mail and almost tossed it as junk until I noticed it had to do with homeschooling.  I decided to spend a few seconds reading it, unlike my other junk mail that I’d already trashed.  I’m glad I did because I learned a new term, STEM. Apparently that stands for Science, Technology, Engingeering, and Math, and I’m the only mom in the world who didn’t know.  (At least, according to my kids!)

The flyer was advertising an upcoming event in my area where community college students in STEM-related disciplines are putting together exhibits for homeschoolers to learn about science and math.  Hey- that sounds cool, even to my hard-to-please kids!

I guess when your kids are really young, you just aren’t out there looking for ways to teach them engineering skills.  But on the other hand, why not?  The basics, of course, are science and math, and those are on every homeschooling mom’s list.  There are so many science programs to choose from, but as long as you’re doing something, you can continue to get more rigorous as the children get older.  Many kids enjoy science, especially when it’s hands-on and involves some sort of activity, so it isn’t too difficult to keep them interested.

Math can be tricky though, because it seems so abstract to young kids.  Making it real and making it FUN is the key.  You’ve really got to use a rigorous curriculum if you’re going to produce a future scientist or engineer, but of course, it needs to be engaging and fun.  Online math is a great choice, and math games are great to tie together the concepts.

I think we’ll go to the STEM event at the community college.  The kids will probably have a great time, and I could probably stand to learn more about STEM.  Maybe they can give me some tips about teaching math & science too!

“When do they make the 1^st graders cry?”

This is the question my daughter asked the first day of first grade. I didn’t know what she meant. I asked for clarification. She replied, “You know, Mama, it’s like a whole week when the 1^st graders cry every day, I saw them do it last year.” My mind started racing. I prompted her to tell me more.

“You know, the week where no one gets recess, and we can’t talk at lunch, and we have to be super quiet, while the 1^st graders cry. I just want to know when that is going to be, so I can miss those days.”

I finally realized what she was talking about. At the school she was attending at the time, kindergarten and 1^st grade shared a hall. And the 1^st graders had to take standardized tests. The testing lasted a week. During that time, the other children on the hall had to be extra quiet so that they didn’t disturb the test takers. As for the crying part, apparently a number of the children cried when they were asked to perform timed problems in math for the tests. As first graders, they were unaccustomed to performing math like that. It is a sad thing for your child to ask you on the first day of first grade when the first graders will be made to cry. To begin with, it obviously made an impression on my child, and she still had seven months to dread standardized testing week.

After reassuring her, I vowed that I would help her prepare for the standardized tests. Part of that preparation was being informed. I needed to know what was on standardized tests, and how they were administered. I went looking for a list of information on standardized testing by state. Once I found out what was expected of my child, I was better able to speak to her about the tests. Fortunately, I pulled her from public school at Christmas break and she did not have to undergo the “crying week”.

We escaped the drama that time, but I know that there are more standardized tests in her future. She wants to be a veterinarian, and to do that she will have to go to college and vet school. To get there she will need to take the SAT. Hopefully, by that time she will be fluent in essay writing. But if she is not, then we will definitely invest in some sort of

SAT course to prepare her. It may seem like overkill to take a SAT prep course before taking the actual test, but if your student struggles with essay writing, or panics during timed testing, then allowing them to practice ahead of time can ease their anxiety. College is a long way off for us still, but we don’t teach to the test, like they do in some schools, so taking extra time to prepare will hopefully serve her well when she has to take her shot at getting a high score on the SAT.

When they make the big decision to start homeschooling, every parent wonders where to start.  If you think of the process of narrowing down which type of homeschooling you prefer and imagine a tree with many branches, it may help you to visualize what needs to be done.  At the base of the tree, a single strong trunk grows upward, but it eventually branches into two distinct forms.  One is religious homeschooling, and in this country anyway, that often means Christian homeschooling, and the other side is secular homeschooling.  These two are opposites.  Although they each accomplish the goal of educating children, one does so with a religious basis, and the other does so without a religious component.  It’s a very personal decision, but it’s one we all make when we embark on this homeschooling journey. 

Secular homeschooling doesn’t mean you push aside your faith and stop attending chuch, but it does mean that you’ve chosen to keep your kids’ academic education separate from what you choose for religious education.  That’s just the first branch in the tree, however, and there are many more! 

One popular category that secular homeschoolers choose is eclectic homeschooling.   Everyone is welcome here, and especially folks who do a little-of-this and a little-of-that with their curriculum.  Eclectic homeschoolers may choose one type of program for math, another for history, and something completely different to teach science.   Better yet, they might not use a curriculum at all, but instead piece together their own from internet and library resources, for example.   Unschooling, project-based learning, and self study all fall into this category too.  The possibilities are limitless, and if there’s a way to learn from something, eclectic homeschoolers will find a way to utilize that as a source for educating their kids. 

The branches in the homeschooling tree keep breaking off into smaller and smaller pieces, the further up the tree you go.  But secular homeschooling, and even eclectic homeschooling, are fast becoming very popular choices for today’s homeschoolers.  Both of these options offer unparalleled flexibility and adaptability over more traditional homeschooling methods.

Boy do I remember the days my oldest daughter hated to read  and write because she didn’t understand spellings of words.  Now being in seventh grade I can not get her to put down a book.  She has a friend who has the Kindle and let her borrow it so she can read the new book she wanted.  There are some big words she comes across that still baffle her.  What I have turned that into is her writing and spelling assignments.  She gives me a list of the words she has  problems with and I make printable lists for her.  With that she will write the word a few times and I will give spelling test on them.  For some reason in her mind this is more fun than just a plain ol’ spelling test with random words for the week.  Go figure, but hey if it works…go with it!!

Well I knew what would be coming next!  The “I want a Kindle, Mom” statement.  I was doing some research on them and told her she needs to start saving for it and I will help her with the difference.  A couple of weeks have gone by and she went to the bookstore with her father to look for a gift for a friend.  While there she looking at their e-reader.  Much to my amazement she came home and said “I’m not sure if I want a e-reader, Mom.”   I asked why and she she said, ” I love the smell of books and holding them in my hand to read.”  Technology lost out on this one!

The fifth grade school year is a very important year where language arts and vocabulary are concerned. Standards based bench marks indicate that students should be able to use grade appropriate vocabulary. From a parental and teacher point of view that statement doesn’t really help us decided what is the appropriate vocabulary. Aside from giving you a specific list of what words are considered grade appropriate for a fifth grader, it might be more helpful to let you know what kinds of words are the ones you need to concentrate on helping your child master fifth grade vocabulary. On the list of language arts skills that are necessary for your child to know at this age are the use of synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms. I’ve noticed that my fifth grader was having a great deal of difficulty with synonyms and antonyms until we learned a memory jog. Synonym starts with an “S” as does the word “same”. So synonyms are words that mean the same thing. Similarly, antonyms are words that have opposite meanings, and so “A” stands for anti- or against. Once we figured this out, my daughter caught on to these very quickly.

Prefixes and suffixes are also important parts of your fifth graders language arts study. Once I figured out that my child worked well with mnemonics to keep the meanings of words straights I started looking for other mnemonics. Your fifth grader definitely knows that PRE-school comes before regular school just like PRE-fixes come before regular words and Seniors are finishing up school, like Suffixes are finishing up words. Of course, the mnemonics that we use may not be the ones that work for your child, but they are a useful device, particularly if your child is having difficulty remembering all the vocabulary devices they must remember to be on grade level.

Words with Greek and Latin roots make up many of the words that are age appropriate for fifth graders to learn. Learning roots, particularly words with Latin roots, will come in handy for your child when they begin to learn foreign languages that are based on Latin, such as the Romance languages: Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. The other place these words will help your child is as they continue their studies in sciences. Don’t expect them to get the roots immediately. Learning a few roots at a time, particularly if you can come up with catchy or memorable ways to remember the meaning of the roots will help your fifth grader build a wide and varied vocabulary.

Last but by no means least, is using vocabulary word games to help your child practice and cement the information your are

helping them gather about the meanings of words, and the uses of the various linguistic concepts such as homophones and idioms, prefixes and suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms. If you have read any of my previous posts, you will know by now that I love education that is fun and vocabulary games are certainly more fun than writing words over and over, or simply using the words in sentences. I’m not saying that writing words, repeating words, and creating sentences is a bad thing, I just think if we have to learn something, we should find a way to make it fun!