Three R's Academy

Welcome to The Three R's Academy

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:10:00 +0000

Hello there, I'm a wife to one, mother to two, daughter to several, friend to many.

I'd really love to start homeschooling my boys. We've been talking about it for years and it always seemed so hard and scary.

Finally it doesn't seem so frightening.

We're planning on starting shortly after summer starts up. I'm sure that my sanity will be lost on many days of teaching my boys their life's lessons.

Honestly, homeschooling seemed liked this secret society to me that was costly and included lots of workbooks.

When ever I had asked around to other homeschooling moms (or dads) how they did it, or what they used, they all said what ever you want.

I've been scouring the net for as much free information on homeschooling and curriculum as I could find. I've actually found a lot of free stuff.

With all good hopes I can help others to see that homeschooling is not so secret.

As for what curriculum I'll use, I'm not sure what it's called, but several unit studies, life's lessons, many field trips, lap books and those darned 3 R's.

Image Credits: Katja Forbes's photograph "Escape school little children..."

Fleeting

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:37:00 +0000

Just last week, on the 10th, I mentioned that family is a fleeting resource. The day after, the 11th, was Ed's birthday. Ed was my grandfathers cousin. I only knew him as Uncle Ed. I only knew him as my Grandma's friend. The thing is I didn't know him.

The day after his birthday, the day of my Grandmothers birthday, he passed away.

I just wanted to make sure that you all know how fleeting your family can be. I lost a chance to find out many things about my grandfather as a child, what he was like, what he enjoyed, what he disliked, how he did in school, if he even went. These are things that I cannot ever get back.

Remember your family in everything you do.

Homeschool Math and Language Arts

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:38:00 +0000

I'm not certain if homeschooling my boys will work out. I'm not sure if I can respect my children's learning differences. I'm not sure if my children can respect my eagerness to teach them as well as learn with them. I'm not sure if I can encourage my children to try a little harder to see how far they can go for a challenge, or force them to do just a little bit more because I expect they should be able to.

I am certain that my oldest son is overwhelmed in school now. I am certain that we did fine before he went into preschool. I am certain that his interests are not allowed to thrive in school, now. I am certain that what we are doing now is not working, but harming our family. I am certain that each night when we work on just a little bit of work to strive for the bigger picture, it is a struggle. A struggle that is putting strain on his emotional well being.

I have a list of websites in which I have found free curriculum or studies. I believe that is a great start when it comes to my homeschooling experience. But this is only a start. Maybe I am trying to fail in the way I am going about this. But I think that it will work.

Free curriculum is a good way to start, but it is only a start. I know that if this works in a way that is beneficial for my boys, I will have to purchase some curriculum. Although I won't be doing that around early August of this year. I think that a good start for a purchase would be math and language arts. We do have plenty of historical content available in the library and we can coordinate reading and spelling for now.

I am always up to hearing your comments and I do appreciate your ideas.

My oldest has had difficulty in the past and still uses his fingers when it comes to some addition and most subtraction. When the school was using counters he was able to come to an answer fairly easy and I would freely let him use an abacus (although he hasn't used it yet) to help out. Without a lot of research I'm thinking that a Math U See would be a nice start, but I expect that he would fly right though it as well.

I think that both my son and I would benefit from a good simple language arts study. I've always assumed that I could complete a thought or sentence in decent form. I've always noticed that I, on occasion, begin a sentence with 'But' and that I shouldn't, although I have lessened that a lot. I've always believed that I followed a good train of thought when typing a paragraph. But... If you ask me to dissect a sentence into subject/predicate, nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives, I just cannot do it. I never could. So this would have to be something I can follow with him and learn along side him.

So I am up for any ideas. Please feel free to chime in, at any time, even if this post is three months old.

Mentionable Monday Muses

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:17:00 +0000

Maybe.

Jimmie at One Child Policy Homeschool explaines how Lapbooking is helping her little Sprite, even using the CM method. Not only is the cover of her lapbook fun to look at, it has much more to it that meets the eye. Congrats to Sprite for putting all that information into one wonderful illustration. Jimmie also helped me out in an idea of what to do with all those crafts I want to to with my boys.

Jennwa at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman has added a wonderfully unique Centerpiece that doubles as a Basket. This should be a great add on to any Easter Studies.

Heatherlynn at SYMPHONYODD shares her excitement in the upcoming spring. I also cannot wait until I can take the boys outside and plant bulbs, or take walks.

JoAnn at Homeschool Distractions helps others by publishing her New Schedule. I'm thinking that our summer will start out much lighter than this but work our way up. She has also published an amazing idea about Fun Time With a Book. I'll certainly be doing this even if I don't homeschool.

Jessica over at The Trivium Academy walks us through her decisions to her new curriculum and helps out a few readers on how to teach different age groups in the comments. She also has shown us the pleasures of Spring in her lessons.

Amanda at Goodyblog found a great how-to site, called Howcast. It has videos, wikis and even a community. I think that this is something to look at for some hands on fun.

Charisse Marie at Homeschool Mate has collected a great list of articles of how Governer Schwarzenegger is coming to the rescue of the homeschoolers of California.

And I proudly proclaim I found this in my Sunday inserts. Michael's and Crayola are piloting a new program called The Knack. They will be sponsoring a Free Family Event this Saturday at local Michael's Stores, March 15, 2008 from 10:00am to 3:00pm. While there you and yours can create three fun hands on projects. Be sure to check your local store to see if it is available in your area.

Finding Your Family History and Genealogy

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:48:00 +0000

I believe that family is one of the most important and fleeting resources in life. You can find out how to cook from your Mom, or learn how to fish from your Dad, but there is even more that you may not have though to ask.

Jacque has her own place in space and it's just lovely. I've found so much information there. She posted quite a while ago about learning family history.

"Here is a fun way to learn a few things about your family, allowing your child/ren to learn some family history/heritage and also some reporting skills.

Have your child pick some or all of the following questions and 'interview' a family member or two - or three. It may open up lines of communication and give a sense of understanding between the interviewer and the interviewee."

You can find out her ideas on what question to ask here and even more about her homeschool here.

Genwriters has some resources for you and your child/ren to use and help in the writing of their history. They explain how:

"It may be hard for a child to envision a grandparent as a child, but stories about life "way back when" help a child to connect to the family."

Michigan's Histories, Arts and Libraries article on Children's Genealogical Research has some great ideas to get started as well.

Above all remember to have fun with it.

Why do I want to Homeschool?

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:25:00 +0000

My oldest son is 9 years old. I believe he is very bright and very capable of many things. He loves Pokemon, Star Wars, Bionicle, and Transformers right now.

The public school he attends participates in AR (Accelerated Reading). The title is deceiving. It is not for Accelerated Readers. It is mandatory for all students to read books that are approved and take a test to receive AR points for each book. Each student must have so many points per marking period. March is Reading Month, this month he is required to have 16 AR points. An idea for how points are assigned is as follows:

Magic Treehouse Series Books 1 point,
Magic Treehouse Merlin Missions Books 2 points.
Many others .5 points.

He has already read almost all of these books. You can only read a book once for points, that is for your whole education, not just year. This is actually a good idea. My argument is that only certain books are approved. The things that he is interested in are not approved. If I allow him to read what he is interested in, he'll have his nose in a book all day. If I tell him to read what is required by school, there is a huge fight.

I don't want a fight.

I will occasionally joke that I am the Homework Nazi. That is because I was titled that by many of our family members. I believe that education is very important and I will not do his work for him. I will help him to know how to do his work. I don't really want to be a Homework Nazi. I want my children to understand the process in which to find an answer to a question.

I don't want a fight.

He is required to do a Science Fair Project using the Scientific Method, due by April 4th. That is not really a bad thing, because then he can learn the process of the Scientific Method. He also has a large Planetary Report that is due March 20th. That really is an OK thing as well. My issue is how the two are in the same time frame. I personally think that this is too much for my 9 year old child to do at the same time. Let's break this down, do a little bit each day. He works better with me next to him, helping him in each step. After getting home at 4:30, dinner at 6:00, dishes afterwards, bed at 9:00, and regular homework, a little bit is very time consuming for a 9 year old. We fight.

I don't want a fight.

In math he is working on long division, he hasn't mastered his multiplication tables. So it is difficult to come up with the answers when you don't know the facts. When you know how to do something, but cannot because you do not have the right supplies, it is very frustrating. We fight.

I don't want to fight.

So why would I want to keep my child home to school him? We would be doing all the other things that they do in school, along with reading (but no AR, a book of his choice in his age group and reading level), handwriting, science, mathematics, history, hands on, crafts, computers, library and field-trips.

We would have from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. Not that we would be working the whole time, I even know that. We'll have more flexibility. We can work at a pace that is good for him and myself. I can be certain that he understand the concept before moving on and forcing a future failure.

Homeschool Rights at Risk

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Today I was going to add more to my series about Teaching Styles. Notice that "was" has some attention drawn to it. That is because I'm not going to.

I thought that it would be more appropriate to bring to attention the California State Homeschool Shocker. If you haven't heard about it just yet, check out this link at NBCSandiego.com.

It basically states that if you do not have a teaching certificate you are unable to homeschool your child in the state of California.

I'm not quite a genius when it comes to law, I was public schooled (that was a bad stab by the way), but I have some fears as a parent that is considering homeschooling. This not only puts the homeschooling parents in California at risk of criminal complaint, but all homeschooling parents as well. If a court of law can uphold that parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children in one state, what is to stop it from spreading like a disease to other states.

The HSLDA has a Petition to Request Depublishing of California Court Case. You do not have to be a homeschooler in order to sign, just someone that believes that a parent should have the right to decide what's best for their children's education.

Classical Education Teaching Method and Curriculum Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:49:00 +0000

I thought that a good beginning post to the Three R's Academy would be to explore some of the teaching styles that are available to homeschoolers everywhere. As I started listing them, I thought, "I'd like to see more information on them in one place, as well". That is where this got long.

So I'm going to do a series on teaching styles. Today I'll be focusing on Classical Education.

Classical Education is completed in three phases.

Primary Education
Secondary Education
Tertiairy Education

Primary covers grammer, logic, and rhetoric. It is also called the trivium.

Grammer studies language skills, reading and writing. This is geared towared elementary school age children.

Logic is reasoning. More to the ability to do so. It is normally taught when when a child is in middle school.

Rhetoric would be to debate and create compositions.

Secondary Education is called the quadrivium. Astronomy, arithmetic, music and geometry is learned at this time.

Tertiary education was taught by someone in the profession that one was interested in. One learned by hands on usually doing all of the masters business.

For some ideas for applying classical education to your homeschooling experience, try this site.

Be sure to come back to see more about other teaching styles, for instance:

Charlotte Mason Teaching Style

Child-led / Unschooling

Computer Learning

Eclectic

The Moore Formula

Textbook Learning

Unit Studies

Saint Patrick's Day and Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:21:00 +0000

This month seems to be already a blur and it hasn't even really started. So many things are happening. Personally, I have a few days to celebrate myself, birthdays, anniversaries, closing of our new home. But on to the fun stuff.

As everyone else knows St. Patrick's Day is coming up. What a perfect time to discuss the history of none other than the Patron Saint of Ireland. Don't forget to let your children know that March 17 isn't just for wearing green and getting pinched if you don't. Remind them of the fun of a treasure hunt (OK a trivia hunt, but close enough).

Cindy over at Skip to My Lou featured a fun St. Patricks Day craft that her 11 year old son made. At Kaboos, there are a few more ideas to tempt you pinching fingers. I wish you lot's o' luck in you St. Patrick's Day Crafts.

Ahhh, just one short week later, as many of us know, Easter is early this year. Another holiday to learn from. Here is some history of this day. Here you can find how the date to celebrate it is. Here is several games. Here are some activities.

I've got to admit, I've fallen head over heel's for jennwa's site Ramblings of a Crazy Woman. Her children and her have made the most adorable Easter Wreaths, I love these heart felt Easter Cards, but don't forget these beautiful Napkin Rings, guaranteed to bring you all together at the dinner table.

Child-led / Unschooling Teaching Method and Free Curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:39:00 +0000

So I'm going to do a series on teaching styles. Today I'll be focusing on Child-led or Unschooling.

The term unschooling was coined by John Holt. After many years supporting and speaking for school reform, Holt felt that the changes he as working for was not supported. He had been labeled "a 'social critic' or 'public intellectual' rather than just a school reformer." As soon as he heard about homeschooling, Holt was an instant supporter.

In John Holt's opinion, "People, even children, are educated much more by the whole society around them and the general quality of life in it than they are by what happens in schools."

Not everyone is on board with the unschooling or child led way of learning. The Best and Wisest Parent by Susan Douglas Franzosa suggests:

John Holt visualizes exemplary parents, exemplary children—and an excrable society.

Today unschooling is understood to be the use of no formal curriculum but make use of the all the learning opportunities that you find in every day in life. Unschooling does not force information on children before they are ready for it. In theory a child will ask you to explain things and that is when you teach them.

Some free curriculum that follows the Unschooling method can be found right in your home. Anything that you do with your child can be a learning experience; from baking great grandma's secret cake recipe (history, science, cooking, math, and communication) to taking a walk in a flower garden (life cycle of a plant, types of plants, earth science, math, history, and communication).

Be sure to come back to see more about other teaching styles, for instance:

Charlotte Mason Teaching Style

Classical Education

Computer Learning

Eclectic

The Moore Formula

Textbook Learning

Unit Studies

Charlotte Mason Teaching Method and Free Curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (Manders) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:22:00 +0000

I thought that a good beginning post to the Three R's Academy would be to explore some of the teaching styles that are available to homeschoolers everywhere. As I started listing them, I thought, "I'd like to see more information on them in one place, as well". That is where this got long.

So I'm going to do a series on teaching styles. Today I'll be focusing on Charlotte Mason.

Charlotte Mason or CM, developed her vision for "a liberal education for all", in the 1800's. She did this because English children were educated according to social class; the poorer were taught a trade, and the fine arts and literature were reserved for the richer class.

According to Charlotte, she envision "liberal," to be a generous and broad curriculum for all children, regardless of social class.

According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), "Liberal education is termed "a philosophy of education that empowers individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills, and a stronger sense of values, ethics, and civic engagement ... characterized by challenging encounters with important issues, and more a way of studying than a specific course or field of study".

Using the CM Method your subjects are taught using "living books" In other words, you don't use textbooks, but you do use books which make the subject more interesting for the student. It uses nature study as a way to learn about science and the world around you.

You can find a free curriculum that follows the Charlotte Mason Teaching Style at Ambleside Online.

Be sure to come back to see more about other teaching styles, for instance:

Child-led / Unschooling

Classical Education

Computer Learning

Eclectic

The Moore Formula

Textbook Learning

Unit Studies