The PSAT (in 11th grade), SAT (12th grade) and ACT (12th grade) are three of the most important standardized tests college-bound high school students will take. Of these, you may be surprised to learn that the PSAT is perhaps the most important. Why? Because a qualifying score on the PSAT sets your homeschool student apart as a National Merit Semi-Finalist. And National Merit Semi-Finalists are eagerly recruited by colleges and universities. In fact, many schools will try to lure National Merit Scholars with offers of big scholarship money.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation sets a different qualifying level for each state, based on data about all test-takers in all states. For the class of 2022 — students who took the PSAT in the fall of 2021 — Florida’s qualifying score was 216 (out of 240), four points above what it was a decade ago. By way of comparison, the National Merit qualifying score for Maryland was 222 and for West Virginia it was 207. As you can see, it’s easier to qualify in some states than in others. (This tells you something about the quality of education from state to state, and readiness of students to take the PSAT, but that’s another post.)

There are many ways for homeschool students to prepare for this critical test, but by far the most painless is to tackle the SAT Question of the Day starting in 8th or 9th grade. Why? Well, for starters, the PSAT is in fact the Preliminary SAT. You may have noticed that the PSAT is scored out of 240. The SAT is scored out of 2400. Most students will score pretty much the same on the SAT as they did on the PSAT, i.e., a score of 218 on the PSAT will translate to a score of 2180 on the SAT. The tests are nearly identical, with the exception that there is some higher level math on the SAT. Working through the SAT question of the day is a good (and free!) way to get used to the material and questions that will appear on the PSAT.

But the best reason to tackle the SAT Question of the Day is because it’s just one question a day. And everyone has the time to work through one question a day. Some questions will be easy, with no effort required. Others will require students to review the solution (provided in detail on the answer page) to gain a better understanding of the material. Either way, it’s a short activity with a lot of impact. A student who begins prepping with the SAT Question of the Day in 9th grade will have completed 730 questions by test day in 11th grade. For some homeschool students, this will be all the prep they’ll need. We recommend having your student take the PSAT in 10th grade so you can get an idea of what areas may need additional study. The test results include detailed information about the questions missed, making it easy to create a personalized study guide.

Free Resources:
National Merit Scholarship Corporation
SAT Bootcamp from Khan Academy
ACT Question of the Day on Varsity Tutors
SAT Question of the day (from Kaplan)

The post Prepping for College Entrance Exams: A Guide for Homeschoolers first appeared on Florida Homeschooling.

Learning outside of the traditional classroom allowed me to explore my interests, gain real career experience, acquire vital time management skills and become more responsible– all independently, with some virtual help from teachers, family and friends.

As I continue working on my certificate and writing my heart out, I would love to share with you the actionable strategies that have made my distance education experience so fulfilling:

1. Take classes you love (whenever possible). The more you enjoy a class, the more motivated you will be to do your best at all times.
I took a class called Business of Freelance Writing, and I loved every minute of it. The teacher was great, the textbook was a surprisingly interesting read, and the lessons were immensely helpful to my blossoming career. All of these factors combined to help me excel; I earned Honors!

2. Find a comfy, quiet place where you can focus on your work.
I spent hours writing under a palm tree in my backyard, and when I needed a change of scenery, I sat on my favorite chair at the dining room table, which was laid out with my laptop, pens and pencils, lined paper, a lamp for optimal lighting and bunch of flowers to make it pretty and serene.

Whether it’s a desk, a Starbucks or a couch in your living room, as long as you can curb distraction and are prepared with all materials you’ll need to study, location doesn’t matter.

3. Keep a list of due dates and to do’s. It’s vital that you remember to complete assignments on time, especially because you won’t be in a classroom setting with teachers to remind you what to do every day.

Find a system that works for you. Color coding your notes? Marking important dates on a calendar or in a planner? Programming your smart phone to remind you to study? Try lots of options until you find one (or many) that you like.

4. If you don’t enjoy your compulsory courses, find a way to stay motivated to complete them. Get them over-with and do as well as you can, by what ever means necessary: Bribe yourself. Focus on the parts you do enjoy. Start a countdown to the end of the class. What ever it takes! You can do it!

No matter how or why you’re studying via correspondence, your distance education can be an incredibly fulfilling learning experience.
What school strategies do you use?

Rebecca Esther is a Canadian/Floridian freelance writer and independent student. She loves history text books, citrus fruit and learning new things.

The post Online Learning Strategies first appeared on Florida Homeschooling.

Hello, Fellow Homeschooler!

Reynolds Math is a new site available to anyone who is looking for some of the best math resources out there on the web. Though far from complete, you may find it to be a great alternative to simply searching the entire internet yourself for help when your child just “doesn’t get it”.

So check out what we have – videos, games, interactive learning sites – and see what you think.

And most importantly – the Contact Page. Let us know if what we have available is helpful in your child’s math journey. And if you want to see something specific, let us know, and we will work hard to find some good resources. And if you know of some great sites that you think will help others, let us know that as well – we will check them out and you might see them the next time you visit the site, feeling good that you have helped others with their math.

At the present time, Reynolds Math is free and we encourage you to share it with your friends and family – home schooled, private schooled, or public schooled.

Thank you for your time, and we hope you enjoy the site!

The Reynolds Math Team

The post Free Math Site first appeared on Florida Homeschooling.

Christian Homeschool Athletic Association of Florida (CHAA) – CHAA operates from Hollywood to Orlando, with the purpose of providing homeschooled children all the benefits of an athletic curriculum under the guidelines of professional instructors. The curriculum has been written by Coach Rick Andreassen and is approved by A.C.S.I.

City or County Leagues – Many cities offer a wide variety of sports teams students can join. Often, both recreational and competitive leagues are available and you can select the one that best suits your student’s abilities.

Homeschool Sports Net (HSSN) – Searchable listings of homeschool sports teams in Florida.

Meet Up – You can search for existing groups by location and group type. If there are none, consider starting your own, or at least signing up for notifications of when a new group is formed.

National Homeschool Volleyball Tournament – The National Homeschool Volleyball Tournament is an annual volleyball tournament held in Omaha Nebraska for high school aged home school students. Homeschool Teams from across the country converge in Omaha to compete for the Homeschool National Championship.

Private Groups and Classes – Check online, in a local parenting magazine, or in your Yellow Pages to find the names of organizations offering classes and/or teams.

South Florida HEAT – A Christian based, FHSAA accredited, not-for-profit organization working with homeschooling families toward growing tomorrow’s servant-leaders through learning and applying life-lessons available from the competitive interscholastic athletic arena.

YMCA – Your local YMCA will likely have an Olympic pool, a weight room, and classes and teams for children (and their parents). Use the finder on their site to locate a YMCA near you.

Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) – High school students who are registered with the superintendent as home education students are eligible to   for FHSAA sports.Note that trying out does not guarantee acceptance and that this option is not available to students homeschooling through a private school.

Your Support Group – Many times, others in your support group have the same interests you do. Organize a field day or ongoing teams. Check with your local parks and recreation department about a standing reservation for your group.

The post Sports Opportunities for Homeschoolers first appeared on Florida Homeschooling.

You can create your own sand art by simply buying colored sand in a craft store, saving an interesting jelly jar with a lid, and giving your child a chance to be creative. You can even create your own colored sand: Get some fine sand at a local beach. Be sure the sand is dry. Put the sand in a plastic bag and add food color. Allow the sand to dry and begin your colorful project.

To make an educational activity out of your sand project, create a color wheel. The primary colors, from which all colors are developed, are red, yellow, and blue. To make a color wheel you can save, first cover your work table with newspaper, to facilitate clean-up later. Then, take a piece of cardboard and cut it into whatever shape you want to use. Alternately, you can draw a circle onto the cardboard with a marker. For a Primary Color Wheel draw three lines so that the circle is divided into three equal parts.

Once your shape has been designed, apply a thin layer of glue over the surface. Then, using a small funnel, (you can create a funnel from paper and tape) apply the colored sand, one color at a time. Use a thin layer of sand so it will all stick to the glue. You may want to put the finished work in a large plastic bag or use a spray fixative (from an art supply store) to keep the sand from falling off. Your child can also draw on the cardboard and fill in the artwork. Make geometric designs with rulers and compasses and fill in the small blocks. Sand art has been around for centuries.

The post Simple to Complex Sand Art first appeared on Florida Homeschooling.

When I was considering homeschooling, a woman in a local support group was kind enough to invite me to her home and show me how her curriculum, how she organized her day, and so on. I got to her house and was led into her school room. She had six desks lined up in two rows, one for each child. There was a huge whiteboard at the front of the room, one section of which was devoted to her kids; chores: Child A was in charge of making breakfast, Child B was on dish-washing duty, etc. Another section of the whiteboard detailed the week’s lesson plans for each child, all from the A Beka curriculum program. When I met her kids, they were models of politeness and good behavior. Wow! I wanted this. I promptly went home and ordered the K and 2nd grade A Beka programs for my kids. As I waited for the arrival of our materials, I drew up weekly schedules not unlike the ones I had seen. And I ordered a pad of “chore charts” on which I itemized each child’s responsibilities.

And then the materials arrived. As I unpacked the boxes and looked at the workbooks I’d ordered, I realized that, while there was nothing wrong with the A Beka materials, they were absolutely the wrong thing for my kids. One of the reasons we’d chosen to homeschool was to have greater freedom of materials and methods. A Beka was essentially school-at-home. In addition, my kids were not workbook learners. Back into the box everything went for shipment back to A Beka.

I then turned to Sonlight, a literature-based program. I was thrilled with all the great literature my kids would be reading as part of their homeschool journey. Again, I ordered two complete sets of curriculum materials. And again, when the materials arrived, I realized they were not quite right for my kids. To be sure, my children would enjoy the literature they’d be reading. But the amount of writing required would have undone my 2nd grader (who hated writing with a passion). I was looking for a curriculum I could use with both kids. Beyond this, Sonlight was organized on a strict five-day-a-week schedule, which I wasn’t sure was a good choice for us (I believe Sonlight now offers four- and five-day programs).

At this point, I realized that I had a pick a curriculum based on our family’s core values for homeschooling, not on what worked for another family or even what I myself would have liked to have learned from (the Sonlight curriculum would have been great for me as a child). So I thought about what was important to our family and came up with these three requirements: The materials we chose had to be

1) academically rigorous
2) interesting to my children
3) easy to teach with

With this in mind, I set out to do research on available programs. And what I came to realize was that we were not a “program” kind of family. I selected Miquon Math for math, Explode the Code for phonics/grammar, Spelling Power for spelling, Stories Of Great Americans For Little Americans for history, and D’Nealian Handwriting: Grade 2: Student Edition for handwriting.

Over the years, we used many other materials, sometimes because of a recommendation from another homeschooling family, other times because of my research. It took a while but the number one lesson I learned was to seek out materials that matched our core requirements and to not be afraid to sell or donate those that did not. By staying true to the values that were important to my family, I was able to ensure that our homeschool experience was the best one possible for us. And that’s what this choice is about — finding the materials and methods that work for your family!

The post Choosing Curriculum that Supports Your Child’s Learning Style first appeared on Florida Homeschooling.