Teaching Ideas and Resources for Homeschooling Families
Whether you are new to homeschooling or have been homeschooling for years, one thing is a certainty: if you have more than one child, it is likely that they will not learn in the same way! What works wonderfully for one child might be disappointing for the others.
Say you don’t have the time to research the precise learning needs of each of your children - nor the unlimited resources required to purchase teaching materials tailored to each of your learners, the idea of teaching to each child in a way that will work for him will seem impossible.
This is where we come in and how we can help.
- We have already researched various learning needs and know how to reach those learners.
- We have already designed teaching resources that combine all the various learning needs into one comprehensive approach that meets the needs of ALL your learners at once. You teach once and reach all your learners.
- And we design in such a way that the materials we provide are not used up with the first child. This means you purchase once and use the materials with all your children.
We combine all the needs of many learners into one line of products
- We use pictures to carry learning information – a powerful strategy for teaching and learning that is essential for beginners, for children who are strongly visual in their learning preference, those who are strongly right-brained, for children identified with various learning disabilities including (but not limited to) dyslexia, autism, auditory processing disorder, and more.
- We incorporate meaningful movement into our materials – not just repetitive movements such as bouncing or swinging a leg. In our resources, the body movement is tied to the concept the child is learning so it becomes another hook for remembering.
- We use stories that serve to glue together the various elements/details of what the child is learning. When the child remembers the story, she will also recall all the things she learned via the story.
- We use metaphors and analogies to concepts your child is already familiar with in order to provide your child with links to understanding and hooks for remembering.
What do I need?
TEACH READING K-1. Use Easy-for-Me Reading – For beginners or for any child who is really struggling with reading – including trouble with letters and their sounds – this kit is the answer. The Easy-for-Me Teaching Kit 1 covers grades Kindergarten through 1st Grade and includes everything you need to successfully teach reading. If you have two children at roughly the same place in reading, teach them at the same time. For example, you might have a kindergartener and a third grader who is virtually a non-reader. Teach them at the same time, but enlist your older child to “tutor” or guide your beginner as he/she is learning the concepts for the first time. Available only through Child1st Publications USA.
READING HELP. Use SnapWords® sight words – For children who are good with letters and sounds, but just need to improve their reading, a SnapWords® Kit is the answer.
Reading struggles can include:
TEACH READING 2-3. If you have used Easy-for-Me Teaching Kit 1, this Kit is “what’s next.” The Easy-for-Me™ Teaching Kit 2 is a right-brained approach designed especially to teach all aspects of reading explicitly so that no child is left behind. It is visual, tactile, hands-on, and very effective where traditional approaches fall short. Use it for your beginning readers and for children who have failed to learn to read to date. OR This Kit will be the starting point if your child: Available only through Child1st Publications USA.
- Knows well all basic sounds including vowel sounds
- Can read these words fluently (List A SnapWords®):
SKILLS INCLUDED:
- SnapWords® B, C, D, E, Nouns 1 (283 words)
- Phonics and sound spellings
- Phonemic Awareness
- Spelling
- Comprehension
- Writing
- Reading Fluency
MORE SPELLING and PHONICS HELP. Use SnapWords® with SnapWords® Mini-Lessons – For your child who needs help with spelling, memorizing lists of words and their spellings is not the answer. The drilling won’t result in your child remembering how to spell the words later. Get your child into the habit of studying the SnapWords® picture and then closing his/her eyes and picturing the same image in his/her imagination. Then have him/her open their eyes and write the word they can “see” on paper. It might be slow-going at first, but the more your child practices visualization, the easier it will become and the more he will rely on this very strong asset that is built into their brain – the power to instantly remember visuals. Any SnapWords® Kit (306 or 607) will come with the SnapWords® Mini-Lessons in it and this book will guide you through the process of teaching the words in either 306 SnapWords® Kit – as well as visualization, spelling, phonics, and writing. Book found in 306 and 607 SnapWords® Kits.
MORE PHONICS HELP. Use The Illustrated Book of Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns. This book is a valuable resource that teaches all the sound spellings in our language! One book covers everything and lessons are on 2-4 difficulty levels so you can gear your lesson to each specific learner. The book comes with a CD version so you can print off the pages you need to give your children. Take the approach of making sure each of your children knows the contents of this book – and thus they will be able to decipher any word in our language – rather than thinking you have to teach a spelling / phonics lesson for every day of their school years.
The Illustrated Book of Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns
For the busy home school parent who needs to combine as much content into each lesson, who wants to teach as much at a time as possible.
Finally,
although every child is unique and cannot be perfectly described by one general label, children do typically rely on one or more type of intelligence, so it’s worth thinking about in order to make sure you are teaching in a way that will meet his/her needs most completely. Allowing your children to do activities that take advantage of their natural strengths goes a long way toward building learning confidence and toward helping them advocate for themselves and their needs.
Once we start talking about different learning strengths, it’s easy to think that we must use completely different resources or methods for teaching each child if they are all so unique. However, research has shown that many nontraditional learners learn best through pictures and hands-on lessons.
Please know you can contact us with any questions you have about teaching your learners!
Sarah Major
Author