Rocks and fossils have been treasures that all four of my children have enjoyed exploring and collecting. We live in a state that does allow fossil collection in designated locations and we have been fortunate enough to visit two of them: Caesar’s Creek State Park and Trammel Fossil Park. This month’s theme for Nature Book Club is Rocks, Gems and Fossils and we thought we would share some ways to learn about fossils.
…
I cannot believe that Summer is more than half way over and that Back to School sales have begun. While we are still trying to bask in the lazy days of Summer I am planning our high school homeschool curriculum choices for the upcoming school year. Eldest and Princess are both working on credits to add to their high school transcripts.
Since we have four children that will ALL be homeschooling this year I try to keep things simple with having everyone study a few of the same core subjects. This year we will have two high school homeschool students and two elementary homeschool students. Check out all of our elementary homeschool posts for younger aged resources.
…
It’s August and it’s Back to School season which can put high school homeshcool parents in a tizzy! I know what it’s like to plan for teens since I have two with very different personalities and interests. So here’s some ideas that I am calling a Quick Start Guide sharing free and paid resources for high school homeschool curriculum.
I realize that many families have a limited budget when it comes to spending money on supplies and curriculum but there’s so many good free choices that you will only have to narrow done the courses that your child wants to take along with a few requirements. If you are brand new to homeschooling your children then I highly recommend you read my How to Start Homeschooling post FIRST then come on back over here!
High School homeschool offers a wide array of choices for students between courses, work studies, apprenticeships, college courses and jobs. I would suggest you take some time with your high school student to talk about career goals as well as current interests. Maybe even plan to get a tour of your local college or career center. (We just found out that our local career center allows for a very flexible academic plan since they allow open enrollment.)
…
Do you long to spend days exploring a new environment filled with animals, plants and other things unique to you? Teaching children about habitats not in your daily environment can seem a little overwhelming unless you find some good books for kids to share with them. Reading how animals and plants live in other places around the world can be exciting and eye opening at the same time.
In our area we can explore rivers, forests, prairies and wetlands are the common habitats found in Ohio. We have been known to head to the river to catch frogs or the prairie to watch butterflies. Since the Summer is at it’s peak the prairie flowers should be in full bloom and when the river is low it’s fun to try and catch some insects or fish. Trees are showing their leaves in full glory and can be easy to identify at this time of year.
…
I received three Teaching Textbooks 3.0 subscriptions for my children. However, all opinions are 100% my own and were not changed because I received review copies.
Math can be a four letter word of dread in many homeschool family’s especially if you have more then one child to teach. I feel that math is an important subject that everyone needs a good handle on in order to succeed at life. Whether your child plans to attend college or complete a trade school being able to be sure their paycheck isn’t cheated or balancing a checkbook in order to pay bills is important.
If you are new to homeschooling your child or your child is behind in math then you may not know which grade level aka Teaching Textbooks YEAR to begin with. Their website has you covered with placement tests that you can print off and allow your child to take. With Eldest and Princess I opted to just enroll them in the next level Math that they would need for high school credit. Eldest is taking Algebra 1 while Princess is taking Geometry.
I wasn’t quite sure what Big Red would need so I gave him a placement test. I looked over Math 3 and realized it would be too easy for him. I then printed off the Math 4 placement test and set him to task to complete it. Once he completed the Math 4 placement test and it was scored by Princess we determined that Math 4 was the correct year for him.
You can also just jump right in with the Teaching Textbooks 3.0 Free Trial which includes the first 15 lessons for as many levels as you want to try. This allows your family to get a feel for the curriculum BEFORE committing to it!
I want to share a few advantages that we have found so far using Teaching Textbooks for this school year.
Since we have a varied schedule with participation in various homeschool groups and family activities it is important to be able to print lessons to take with us and work on them in the car. We also want our children to succeed and learn their math concepts well which means getting each lesson or test above 80%. Grades are NOT the emphasis in our homeschool but we do want our children to have good grades for insurance discounts as the teens drive and for college admissions.
Each lessons is structured in the same way with a lecture, practice problems and then the regular problems.
No final grade for the year which many family’s could use to help create their child’s report card or transcript. YES, I know that I can add up all the grades and divide and get the percentage myself but having that column added would be a great bonus.
Not realizing that there’s definitions and proofs at the very end of the textbook in the Appendix! My daughter struggled with proofs for over 80% of the year writing out each proof in a notebook.
Since late Fall 2019 we have noticed some improvements worth mentioning. Less days “offline” or website unavailable then in the beginning and usually only slow on Monday mornings.
Gradebook Updated
When you go into your students gradebook you can now quickly see which lessons are complete and which are not. If a student scores low on a lesson and you delete problems for them to correct it’s much easier to see this. If a lesson does not have a C for Complete then it means the Lesson still has problems to complete.
