Posts Tagged research
Home Schooling – Summer is Over
Summer schooling for us usually consists of a lighter than normal workload, but we do have a routine. Typically we will continue with reading, writing and language skills. This summer we decided to have a complete and total respite, so we will soon be back to school like the mainstream families.
Traditionally we follow a classical curriculum approach but more in the style of Charlotte Mason, although I do like Susan Wise Bauer, and her books very much, I find her schedule much too ambitious for our routine. I admire Susan’s intellect, organized approach and ambition, but I do find the schedule and very demanding for both the children and myself. I do find she sets the bar extremely high. Charlotte Mason’s style is looser, the edges a little softer, with the scope of the depth more dependent on the family and their expectations.
With the nearing of the school season, I am formulating my approach for this year. Our situation has changed in the past year with me spending more time pursuing other endeavors, and my husband taking on more responsibility with the schooling. I want things to continue to run smoothly, with the children being inspired, my husband staying under control, and the educational bar remaining above average height.
Tough order, but not impossible!
In past years we have used interest driven learning, or motivational approach, and have found it extremely effective. This year, this interest based approach will fit the bill perfectly.
My daughter loves her animals, and has begun to inadvertently collect rabbits, of which I have posted other articles. I will have her expand on that interest, with an extensive book report on rabbit’s and their origin, habits, physical anatomy, family and social structure and so on. She will be able to expand into geography, and biology through this as well.
If we can purchase a secondary computer at an inexpensive price, we will have her post to the pet stuff and develop her skills in writing, communication, computer, and enhance life skills.
Our son is a nature buff and adores all natural wildlife. He as well loves to draw and admires Robert Bateman. Being younger than his sister, he can delve into drawing, biology and anatomy and whatever interests him in his chosen field.
We will join the largest, big city, English dominated library, closest to us and make a pilgrimage every three weeks to stock up on a variety of books, videos, and tapes.
The children are huge hockey fans and have each chosen their favorite team to study this year. In that subject we will be able to study, history, geography and if we want to we could research how ice is made, prepared and maintained, the amount of time and electrical power is used, what are the differences between hockey ice, speed skating ice and figure skating ice, the possibilities are endless.
Implementing their favorite things, their passions into the curriculum, stimulates their drive to learn exponentially.
We will have a few subjects that will remain dry, but that is not a bad thing. Children need to learn discipline. There are always things in life that we have to do even though we don’t want to, it will be an opportunity to learn more life skills.
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Montessori Home Schooling
Fostered from the work of Dr. Maria Montessori, this manner of imparting motivation at duplicating intrinsic laws that a boy faces in state of affairs. Thus the ambition of the teacher is to persuasion the conditions and not the lad. It was noted that kids who are left minimal cost to relate with their conditions Promoted an distinctive self-discipline, rejoice in for order and inherent enthusiasm.
The Montessori program of educating is chiefly admissible to the preschooler who ask for to do a to z by himself. Encountering ways in which your children can share in the cleaning, washing, cooking, gardening and accessory ‘adult’ activities set the appropriate background for the education undergo. By offer such enhancement for independence, the lad’s self-personal identity furthermore gets a massive forge.
Artistic, informative and scientific activities abound in the Montessori 3-6 lesson. There is no TV, junk food, or digital computer. Information is selected carefully. The adolescent is never demanded to work. Willingly he is encouraged to do things that interests him, and the teacher picks up the educating from cues supplied by the adolescent. The Montessori approach hones in on the girl’s inborn adequacy to attend school from his atmosphere. Thus the instructor reasons to encourage the inherent wonderment of the offspring. He is never commanded to broaden the mind or hunt. When the adolescent understands why he needs to comprehend something, he will grasp the learning journey.
Remember, there are very many types of home schooling and Montessori is just one type. It’s important that you do as much research as possible in order to find the best method that works for your and your children. Often times, parents find themselves combining two or more different types of home schooling to suit their needs and their child’s needs. This is what is so great about home schooling; you get to decide!
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Home Schooling – What Are the Requirements For a Home School Teacher
If you have ever wanted to educate children and wanted to give them the tools and skills needed to survive in life with all its challenges, if you are a parent and you are not completely satisfied with the public school system and the values they are teaching your child. If you believe in the benefits of home schooling, then you could be a home school teacher. This will allow you to fulfill your dream of teaching and allow you to instill in your children the values you believe they should be taught without the conflicting values and negative thoughts sometimes taught in public school.
Home schooling has several curriculum options you can pattern your program of teaching from. Allowing much more flexibility where you are not limited by rules and regulations of the public school system. However most parents feel they are not qualified to meet the responsibility of providing their Child’s education needs.
Here are some tips on what you will need to become a qualified home school teacher.
First you must have a real desire to teach your child. It does not take special training for it is your desire to teach your child and make sure they know what they will need to succeed in life that makes you qualified for the task.
Second you need to do some research on the home schooling programs available for you . Learn all you can about each one and what the differences are. This will be important when choosing the program that best fits your Child’s needs and their interests. Once again it is your love and desire to teach your child how to learn things that allows you to be successful.
Finally you must believe in your child. Teaching your child how to learn and achieve their goals will all be put to waste if you do not believe they can accomplish something and be successful in life?
Home schooling does not mean you must do things like other teachers in regular school do because the learning process in regular school is different in home schooling.
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Continuing Adult Education
As Peter Drucker puts it, “We live in an economy where knowledge, not buildings and machinery, is the chief resource and where knowledge-workers make up the biggest part of the work force.”
The Internet has triggered an explosion of knowledge and information. The phenomenon is a double edged sword – easy access to tons of information makes the conventional wisdom that “learning is a life-long process” even more relevant today than it was for past generations.
It doesn’t matter who the person is, or how successful he has been so far. In fact, relatively speaking, the better qualified person has more to lose even as his peers soak in, digest and apply the latest developments in his field. High achievers increasingly perceive that they are lagging!
So the need for continuing adult education is a foregone conclusion. Except, of course, that there are many barriers to making it a way of life.
For one, depending on where a person lives, good seminars may hardly come by, especially those conducted by worthy speakers. And if they do come, he must be available on the scheduled dates to attend. That is assuming he can afford it.
Major city dwellers have it better, since the busy experts are more likely to swing by.
Seminars are excellent learning grounds. The speakers, being successful in their own rights, have mindsets that set them apart from regular folks. They offer perspectives that are thought provoking. They share key information and research data that are not commonly available to the public. Sometimes, they disclose their strategies to success. It is not uncommon for something a speaker shared to simply spark off new initiatives by any given participant.
The good news is that seminars are not necessarily expensive. There are several online offerings that are very reasonably priced. For a small investment of perhaps no more than US$300 a year, the subscriber gets access to an entire archive of recent seminars by an army of experts.
For online learning channels like these, it doesn’t matter where the participant resides as long as he has Internet access. And since these are seminars-on-demand, the participant can choose the topics of his choice, at slots that are convenient.
Unlike in live settings, the participant can pause at will for breaks, or to think about and understand points of special interest.
Very often in live seminars, the organizers squeeze in many speakers and topics so that the participants get the most of their dollars. The problem with that is that every human has his limited span of attention. When mentally saturated, information overload renders the rest of the seminar ineffective.
With online seminars-on-demand, the participant reaps maximum benefit from each session simply by being able to focus on the discussion.
In addition to that, he can revisit the topics from time to time to reinforce learning points. Subconsciously, the repeated messages rub into him. In the long run, those messages and knowledge become second nature to him.
To benefit a wider audience, some online seminars come translated into major languages.
Practicing professionals like doctors, pharmacists and engineers are more interested in keeping abreast with technical developments. There is no shortage of online establishments offering technical seminars. For completeness, however, these professionals and everyone else should cultivate ’soft’ areas like marketing, money management and relationship.
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