Thursday, March 15, 2012

Instilling a Love for Reading

As we've talked about before, reading is the gateway to knowledge. Every language and every culture has admitted this. Even ancient writing, such as the Bible tell us that knowledge and wisdom are found through study. Yet, bringing that realization to a love and desire to actually read is another situation.

Instilling in your child a love of reading as they are learning to read, is not easy, but it can be accomplished through EXPOSING them to good literature, good reading examples, and to good libraries. I have seen even my reluctant 10 year old son get excited when entering a library full of good books. There is just something about the stacks of stories, adventures, and interesting facts that just call to you.

Grow a love for reading in your child by reading with them and reading to them. Fifth grade is not too old to still have read alouds with their family. Enjoy it together and see the love grow!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Change is Good

Have you even bought what you thought was an awesome homeschool curriculum? Have you even changed your mind once you started using it? Wow... I sure have. I have invested time and money into things that were just absolutely wrong for our homeschool. I have had to stop mid year and just admit that it wasn't working. I have found that if I just remember that CHANGE IS GOOD... I can look at what we were doing and find a plausible solution that meets our needs much better.

I don't worry that I wasted money - you know you can always sell your old curriculum on ebay! Yet, before you actually commit to a new curriculum make sure that you review what it was aobut the old one that you hated, and what you would like to see the new curriculum accomplish. With this in mind, you can search all related curriculum options for the subject matter and find a curriculum that better suits what you were looking for. So changing in the middle of the year actually brings you to a place where you are more in tune with what you are looking for out of a curriculum. We can always learn from our mistakes!