Most households have a digital camera nowadays, in our phones if nowhere else. We don’t have to worry about wasting film, having pictures developed, or any of the other complexities of traditional cameras. So let’s make best use of these handy tools for homeschool learning!

• Take cameras with you on nature walks and city strolls. Take photos of architectural details, interesting signs, or insects and make books and displays.
• Take pictures of cloud formations each day and post them along a wall, in your family blog, or in a notebook. Add the daily weather report or temperature, if your students are old enough. Sort them by types of clouds or by the weather that went with them, and bring them into your science lesson.
• Take pictures of the meals you cook together and use them to make a family cookbook, whether digital or paper. This can give kids great practice with writing and math (measuring ingredients, writing out the recipes, etc.) and the final product can be a very special gift for Mother’s Day or Christmas.
• Take step-by-step pictures showing a process you’re studying, whether it be tying shoes or planting a garden. Write out captions that explain the process.
• Go in search of letters, and photograph all 26 of them for a special alphabet book. You could also photograph things that begin with each letter sound, to go with the letter photos.
• Photograph different times of day at your house for studying daily schedules and time. For example, have a picture of the family getting ready in the morning, one of the kids studying, another of Dad coming home from work, and one of the family at dinner. Print out photos and let your little ones put the pictures in order for sequencing practice. Then let kids match them with clock faces showing the usual times for these activities.
• Take pictures of big art projects or special hands-on activities like plays and science experiments. Keep the photos in paper or digital albums and don’t worry about saving (and storing!) the big projects themselves.
• Make photo stories. Use action figures or dolls to act out historical events or stories from the Bible, snapping a photo of each tableau you set up. Put them together with paragraphs explaining the events.
• Make photo maps. Plan the map of a state, town, historical landmark, or perhaps of a place you plan to visit on vacation. Decide what kinds of images you need to illustrate the map. Take the planned pictures, shrink them down, and add them to your map. If you have the technical skills (or your students do) you can do this with Google Earth for a really fancy digital map.
• Take photos of your family every 30 minutes, and analyze the photos to determine how you’re using your time. Such pictures can not only reveal areas of stewardship of time that you might want to rethink, but also can show habits you might like to change. Are the kids snacking in most pictures? Are there signs of squabbling or inattention? This activity can lead to useful heart searching.

These are just ten of the ways you can use your camera to liven up lessons. Once you start, many more will occur to you. I suggest joining (free) www.gloryLane.com where you can create a personal family profile and upload your photos to share with other members of this Online Christian Community.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

Do you study in units? Do you have separate subjects at different times of the day? Do you get together with other families for special learning projects? There are many ways to organize the school day, and being able to make it just right for your particular students is one of the best reasons to homeschool.

Yet all these approaches can lead to a lack of integration of studies. Do your students end up with the idea that Ancient Egypt happened, and then, when it was all finished, along came Ancient Greece? Do you feel frustrated sometimes when your students don’t make connections that seem obvious to you? Do you love to follow the kids’ lead when they’re excited about a subject, but worry that your studies are too fragmented and might have gaps?

Timelines can help with all these problems, and many more. If you make a schoolroom timeline, you can add any lessons to that timeline in minutes, helping your kids to see the context, regardless of the subject area.

The time when a person lived, a nation was established, a picture was painted, a scientific discovery was made, a natural disaster took place – all these things can be marked on the timeline, giving you opportunities to put new information in context and review previously learned information as well.

You need to begin with a line. A long strand of string or yarn, a stretch of painter’s tape, or a banner of paper are all practical options. If possible, put your timeline on the wall of the room where you study so it’ll always be available. If this just won’t work with your decor, think about using an accordion fold or roll of paper so it can be stretched out and viewed all at once.

Now here’s your chance to integrate math and history. Calculate how long your timeline will be and how many years it will cover. Now, calculate how best to divide it: one inch per year is one option, but you might prefer to use one foot per decade or one yard for each century. Since these decisions depend on the space available, the length of time you’ve decided to include, and the number of events you want to be able to mark, this can be a terrific opportunity to practice problem solving and working well together.

Actually constructing the timeline will require measurement and more calculation. Mark and write in the basic time divisions neatly. This can be a chance for computer practice, if you want to print out the dates, or it can be an art or handwriting project.

Now, each time a date comes up in your studies, add it to the classroom timeline. You might want to start with some special family dates: the birthdays of all the kids, for example. Then, when you read about a person or place or thing or event, find its spot on the timeline.

You can use labels, strips of paper, lengths of yarn radiating out from the date points, or index cards lined up along the timeline. Add drawings, quotations, and even small objects. Soon, visitors to your home will be admiring your handiwork – and your students will really understand the relationship between Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

Valentine’s Day is a light-hearted holiday, a time for thinking about the people we love. Bring some hearty fun into your homeschool lessons with these ideas:

• Take leftover candy canes from Christmas (don’t we all have a few squirreled away still?) and make easy heart candies. Put parchment paper or foil onto a cookie sheet. Lay the candy canes in pairs with the curved hooks at the top and both ends touching to form hearts. Bake them in a 200 degree oven for about five minutes, just till they melt together. Let them cool before removing from the parchment paper or foil.
• Fold construction paper in half and cut hearts, discussing basic shapes or symmetry while you do so. Cut lots in different sizes, and lay them out on paper to form bodies, heads, hands, feet, and other parts of people or animals. Draw in details for your heart creatures.
• Study heart health. Learn about heart rates, heart-healthy foods, and how the heart works. Older students can check the details on the rates of heart disease in our nation, combining math and science in a sobering lesson. Move on to plan healthy meals for the family, and an exercise plan with the recommended amount of cardiovascular exercise for the week.
• Send valentines to friends and family, using the lesson as an opportunity to practice handwriting, letter writing, or poetry, depending on the ages of your students. Free ecards are an environmentally responsible possibility, but real physical mail is getting so rare that sending a card in an envelope can be an exciting event for the recipient.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

Fashions in education come and go. As homeschoolers, we can usually ignore them. One of the areas that comes up repeatedly in different guises, though, is the question of critical thinking skills.

One year the pendulum swings so far that educators are saying, “It doesn’t matter what they learn, only that they learn how to learn.” The next, it’s back to the basics, with rote memorization of facts at the center of teaching. Then we’re back to critical thinking, but calling it “problem-solving.”

The latest version of this debate is being called “21st Century Skills,” and some educators are hailing it as the most important new thing on the horizon. Critical thinking, creativity, problem identification, and the ability to work with others to solve problems are all part of this new constellation of skills that we’re told has arisen from new technologies and new ways of approaching the world.

As homeschoolers, we aren’t bound by educational fashions, so we can see that there’s nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

James 1:5 tells us, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.” The source of wisdom is, and always has been, God, who created us with the ability to reason. The book of Proverbs talks often about critical thinking: “A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.” (Proverbs 14:15) “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” (Proverbs 19:2)

Critical thinking means that we read and listen carefully, making sure to understand and search for evidence for the claims made. We must be able to dissect the reasoning behind an argument and judge its validity. We should think creatively, since we are made in the image of the Creator God, and have the God-given the ability to think and to delight in new thoughts.

As for working collaboratively with others, we have the example of Jesus before us, as well as the word of God on the subject: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:13-18)

So how can we help our students to gain the ability to learn, understand, reason clearly, and yet also to work with others to solve problems peaceably?

Read together, and use questions like these to guide your children toward wisdom:

• “What’s the main idea here?”
• “What evidence does the author have for his claim?”
• “Are these facts or opinions?”
• “Can we check on this information and find out whether it’s true?”
• “Are there other explanations for this, or other ways to look at this?”

Approach problems, such as puzzles, complex math questions, and practical challenges, with a spirit of inquiry. Questions like these will help lead your kids to take a critical thinker’s approach to problem-solving:

• How can we describe the problem clearly?
• How many different ways can we think of to approach this problem?
• Exactly what would the best outcome look like?
• What steps could we take to solve this problem?
• What kinds of information do we need in order to find our best answer?

Finally, we should make sure that we don’t confuse critical thinking with a rebellious spirit. “Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you,” says Proverbs 32:9. Our God-given understanding allows us to delight in learning about God’s ways, not to refuse the wisdom of God’s word.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

Probably most of us have had days when we think it might be better for us as homeschooling parents if we just had a set of twins. Then we could do one lesson for all our kids, instead of hopping back and forth from one to another.

On most days, though, we realize that it’s a blessing to have all the different ages together. Mixing up the ages helps our kids have the natural socialization of the family instead of being segregated into age groups. It gives the younger children the opportunity to look up to the older ones, and it gives the older children the chance to show care and tenderness for the younger ones. It lets children see how far they’ve come in their skills and learning, and look forward to where they’re going.

Can we have all those blessings without exhausting ourselves? We can, with a little planning. Here are some tips for homeschooling when you have a range of ages in the family:

Dovetail the work.

Work with the younger children while the older ones work on their own, and then settle the younger ones with play or a project while you check in with the older ones. It’s a sensible approach, but we have to plan ahead in order to accomplish it. Otherwise, we find ourselves getting one child started while the others wait, then starting the next one, and then the next one – and finding that the first child needs us again before we have the last one settled into work. This is a recipe for feeling frazzled by the end of the day!

As long as we get each child’s first activity of the day organized and set out before the day begins, we will be able to start everyone at once, with only one activity at a time needing us.

Get the older children involved.

Older siblings’ reading skills can benefit from the chance to read to the younger children. A six year old can cement his understanding of counting by explaining it to a five year old. A teenager learns from helping younger siblings plan and produce a play on the subject they’re studying.

Again, it takes planning to make sure the older child’s involvement in the younger ones’ lessons fits into the older child’s lessons, too. It helps to list an objective for each of the lessons. When our seven year old reads a story to the three year old, the three year old is practicing listening and the seven year old is practicing reading aloud. It will be a cherished memory for both of them.

Take time for yourself.

With all the planning and thought this requires, you need to be sure to build time for yourself into the day. The kids’ reading time could be your recreational reading time. Their time with online lessons could be your quiet prayer time. Nap time for the children should be nap time for you, too, and the kids who are too old to nap can spend that time in quiet play.

Once our family was driving to the nearby botanical gardens for a visit to support our lessons on plants. As we drove, we were talking about the history lesson the older children were working on: the Renaissance. In a break in the conversation, our baby spoke up: “Ty-renaissance rex,” he said confidently.

We all laughed. We figured he had put together snippets he’d heard from our study of dinosaurs with the history discussion he was listening to, and made up his own new word.

Over the years, we’ve seen how the younger kids’ enjoyment of family lessons has made it easier for them when they get ready to study, and encouraged the closeness of our whole family. It can be hard, but it’s certainly worth it.
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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

Incorporating what is happening in politics today into your homeschool lessons is a critical part of developing well-rounded, balanced students who are armed to face the world as they grow older. There is no better time to do so than now, with another presidential race in progress right before our eyes.

But what is the best way to draw your children in, and make it interesting? How do we instill in them the importance and gravity of selecting a leader for our country? It can be difficult, particularly with the media bias. It is quite evident that most national news networks favor liberal parties in their reporting. So the responsibility to provide your children with a true idea of what is happening in our country lies with you. Talk to them about the presidential race, and the candidates who are running. Explain to them, on their level, the difference in the views of each party, and what they both stand for. Encourage your children to ask questions, and take part in discussions about politics. Depending on their age, ask them to define what they believe to be the most important topics that our future president (and other political leaders) should stand behind.

Discussing current politics is also a great way to tie back into the subject of U.S. History, and remind your students of how this country was founded on freedom and democracy, and most importantly, Christian principles.

Relay to them the importance of voting, when they come of age, and how critical it is that we all have a say in who leads this country. Every vote really does count, so make that clear to them at a young age. And don’t forget to make it fun. If you have two or more students, organize mock political debates so they have the opportunity to think critically and articulate. (Not to mention, this will also help with public speaking skills.)

Discussing the topic of government and politics is also a wonderful way to remind children of the importance of praying for our country, and its leaders, so be sure to include this in your devotional as well. If you make a point to work at incorporating current events into your daily lessons, your children are sure to benefit on many levels in the future. And so will our country. God bless America!

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of Learning By Grace, Inc. the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

As autumn comes on, we love to get outdoors into the crisp fall air! You don’t have to choose between study and fresh air when you take some learning scavenger hunts to support your studies.

Just give your students paper and writing implements, maybe a digital camera or a sketch book, and a list of things to hunt for. Have a great walk, and come home with a lot of teaching points for the rest of the day.

Signs of Fall
• Birds flying south for the winter – monarch butterflies, too.
• Color in the leaves of trees and shrubs.
• Seed pods on the ground, sticking to your socks, and floating in the air (collect them and make a lapbook or labeled display).
• Chipmunks chattering.
• Ripening fruits: grapes, pumpkins, apples, more.
• Blooming flowers: Michaelmas daisies, chrysanthemum, and bittersweet.
• Cooler temperatures at night.
• Morning mists.
• Pine cones fallen on the ground, along with some nibbled acorns and nuts.
• Yellowjackets getting busy.

Architecture Walk
• A-frame
• Arch
• Casement window (a window that opens by swinging out, not sliding up)
• Columns
• Dutch door (a door divided in half, so the halves open separately)
• Eaves
• Gables
• Keystone
• Mullions (the vertical piece between windows)
• Oriel (a box-like window that sticks out from the wall)
• Shutters

Alphabet Walk
• Try to find an example of every letter before getting home.
• Decide whether you’ll include “accidental letters” – the half-circle gate that looks like a C or the O-shaped manhole cover.

You can take scavenger hunt walks at any time of year, but the fall is a particularly nice time to do it.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of Learning By Grace, Inc. the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

If the leaves are turning color where you live, you can make use of them in your homeschool lessons. Here are some fun ideas:

• Press leaves. Just find an assortment of fall leaves and put them carefully between the pages of an old phonebook or another book you won’t need to read for a while. Lay the book flat in a dry place and set a couple more heavy books on top of it. When you return in a few weeks, you’ll have perfectly pressed leaves for your scrapbook. Label them to make a leaf identification book or leaf collection. See how many different leaves you can find in your neighborhood!
• Preserve leaves. You can buy glycerin at the drugstore. Collect freshly fallen leaves and set them into glycerin just as you would put flowers into water. Soon you’ll have beautifully preserved leaves for plant study, or for household decorating. Spraying leaves with hairspray doesn’t work quite as well, but it’ll do if you don’t have access to glycerin.
• Wax leaves. Old fashioned waxed paper makes great leaf art. Put leaves between two sheets and carefully iron them together at low heat. You can make many different designs, from simple single leaves to complicated pictures built up from leaves, and then fix the leaves in place by this method.
• Rub leaves. Put leaves down on a flat surface so that the veins show. Lay a sheet of paper over the leaf and gently rub with the flat side of a crayon or with a pencil. You’ll have a fine textured tracing.
• Pound leaves. Put leaves between pieces of white cotton (a pillowcase is perfect). Take your cloth and leaf sandwich out to the sidewalk or patio and carefully but thoroughly hammer the cloth everywhere there are leaves. The leaves will make neat patterns on the cloth. Iron them to set the color. Some leaves work better than others. Try different kinds, keep track of your results, and you have a good science experiment, too.
• Bleach leaves. Arrange leaves on the front of colored T-shirts. Put a fairly strong solution of bleach into a spray bottle and spray on the leaves and shirt. An adult should do this part, with care. You’ll be surprised by the colors that appear!

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of Learning By Grace, Inc. the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

Many homeschoolers are beginning to think about how to create an educational program for their children that meets the needs of the students that we currently have, not the students that we used to have, nor the students ee wished we had. Homeschooling programs should adapt to today’s student, not them adapting to us. Homeschoolers should begin to think about how to adapt their world to today’s 21st-century. It is not wise to teach the sam,e exact way we have taught for the past 200 years anymore. It is important to change ourselves to adapt to their world

Today’s student who was born between 1982 and 2001 are the first people of the networked generation. They are hyper communicators, and when they are doing their schoolwork, they do not necessarily lose their desire to be in instant communication with everyone. Students are writing more blogs in short text messages than ever before. They are videotaping their lives. Do students even read lengthily documents anymore? I do not believe so. I believe that the rapid firing messages that our students are bombarded with on a daily basis have actually rewired the brain. Today’s students has grown up in a very visual environment, and they love it.

One of the reasons why parents choose not to homeschool their children is because of the extracurricular that public schools offer like team sports, clubs, music competitions, and others. Most homeschoolers are not allowed to participate in those things because they are reserved for students who attend that particular public school system full time. So, many parents give in to the pressure and ultimately trade a better education for their children’s social life.

Certainly homeschooled children need to learn social skills, just as we all do, but parents must not let them spend the bulk of their time with others who will not be a good influence or example to them.

It has been shown that more often than not, homeschooling parents in general are very diligent about the people their children socialize with. They want more control over their children and situations with those people their children are spending their time with, so they choose to monitor their children’s friendships and relationships more closely.

When we began homeschooling our children, one of the first concerns others would convey to us was about the “extras” that our children would miss out on. We were constantly being warned that our children would be isolated and socially inept when it came time to get a job, go to college, date, or just make friends. They even called them social misfits. However, now that our kids are grown and have moved on with their lives and their own families, those same people have come to us with a different story.

Now these folks are telling us how happy, encouraging, congenial, and respectable our children are, how wonderfully they get along with people of all ages, and how proud we must be of them. One gentleman even told us he had been wrong about his statements in the past, and he apologized.

My encouragement to you is to keep your children’s academic education first and foremost, and let their social skills develop naturally through time.