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.

Schoolchildren can face some terrible problems with bullying, inappropriate relationships, or peer pressure, but the child who studies at home alone may truly face loneliness. Even if there are other
children in the neighborhood, they may be closer to one another from spending time together in school, and it can be hard for the homeschooled neighbor to join in and feel like a full part of the group.

Those of us with large families may find it hard to imagine that our children could be lonely. Still, the older sibling who helps care for younger children may not feel that the little ones are friends as
much as chores, however beloved. The young child with plenty of older siblings may not have a playmate who likes the “baby games” that are age-appropriate.

Both of these challenges can be met with homeschool groups and associations, church friendships, and community groups. Yet some parents, determined to make sure that their children don’t lack for peer group interaction, set aside their own needs so much that they end up lonely themselves. A parent who stays at home to teach the children can feel isolated. Mothers of infants often feel
starved of adult companionship, but once their children are older, they return to work or community
service and find themselves making new friends. Homeschool moms, lacking the PTA or the professional organization, can find that this isolation stretches out for many more years.

Some things to think about on this subject:

• Don’t expect loneliness. Sometimes we rush to fill our children’s time with structured
activities, when they actually would enjoy time on their own, or benefit from the opportunity to learn
to entertain themselves. Many of us have found that we have gained spiritual insights and growth from time on our own, and it can encourage creativity as well. If your children feel lonely, address it, but don’t go overboard on preventive measures.
• Don’t be afraid of loneliness. Our life experience as adults tells us that there are times in our lives when we have many friends, and times when we have few.  Studying the lives of the people in the Bible shows us that God blesses people in groups and on their own. We even know that we can be in the midst of a group of people and still feel loneliness. Loneliness can be what God has planned for us at
some times in our lives.
• Don’t ignore loneliness. If loneliness is a problem for your child, or for you, talk about ways
to arrange more opportunities to be in fellowship with other people. Joining groups can be a solution.
So can inviting friends to visit, developing online friendships, or spending time in service to others.
Homeschool parents especially need to be sure not to neglect their spouses. Caring for children can
become so completely the focus of your household that your marriage takes a back seat to homeschooling, and that can easily lead to feelings of loneliness. Whether this is a time in your life – or your child’s life – when God has a plan for you that involves something you can learn from loneliness, or those feelings of loneliness are telling you to step out of your home and serve others or enjoy fellowship with others, pray for God’s guidance and follow His direction. Deuteronomy 31:8 reminds us, “And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.”

The problem of the child’s readiness for taking his or her place in the adult world, when that day comes, is pushed into the distant future, as parents untangle their homeschool children from the immediate problems of the day. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” They gasp, “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Actually, these parents are crossing now, the bridge of the child’s adjustment in later years. What that far off day holds is being determined now by the way parents help the child learn to adjust day, by the maturity parents help them to achieve with the passing years, by the attitudes which he is developing day by day.

Maturity is a possession which none of us can dispel upon our children: the most that we can do is provide them with the experience is and relationships which will enable them to claim this precious possession for themselves. Doing this is one of our biggest tasks as parents. If our homeschooling children are able to cope with the vicciisitudes which life inevitably brings, the personal characteristics which make them so will be the result of guidance given, usually by parents, through the years of their childhood. A wise professor once said, if the early years of life are of such importance for personality development, it follows that the family occupies a commanding position in the field, since the child’s earliest and most profound experiences are with his family. Parents must be concerned with affording the child the opportunities for growth toward maturity during his early years, so that the anticipated adventure of being on his own will be another stage in his development rather than a frustrating and disappointing experience.

How big will our children be when they grow up? Will they have what it takes to measure up to the demands of life? Well, the future of our children is in our hands as parents, for we are entrusted with their training to our relationships with them day by day, right in our own homes: through the attitudes we communicate to them: through helping them to understand a person must learn to trust other people: through helping them to discover their own unique abilities and to trust in their own worth: to helping them to understand that the golden rule is of little use, unless they realize that the next move is bears: through enabling them to learn through experience that the world is a looking glass, which gives back to every man the reflection of his own attitudes.

The strains and tensions of modern life require that our children develop healthy personalities. If our children are to be able to withstand the pressures that are sure to come in later life, the foundation stone of this healthy personality is maturity, which consists of faith in God, devotion to Christian principles, trusting one’s self, and in life as a whole, and independence and reliance on the Lord in thought and action.

Mimi Rothschild is the Founder and CEO of Learning By Grace, Inc., the nation’s largest provider of online K-12 Christian homeschooling programs and homeschool Christian curriculum. For more information about how online homeschooling is revolutionizing homeschooling, please go to www.LearningByGrace.org today.

Permission is granted for the duplication of this article if it is reproduced in its entirety including this sentence.

In 2007 it seems as if everyone is close to a child that has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, but what exactly is ADHD/ADD?  How do you know if your child is suffering from this disorder?  How do you teach a child with ADD/ADHD, especially if they are homeschooled?

Learn the answers to all these questions and more in the helpful article below which I came across last night.  Please let me know what you think! Thanks!

ERIC EC Digest #E569, September 1998

Defining Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)

Attention deficit disorder is a syndrome characterized by serious and persistent difficulties in the following three specific areas:

1. Attention span

2. Impulse control

3. Hyperactivity (sometimes)

ADD is a chronic disorder that can begin in infancy and extend through adulthood. It can have negative effects on a child’s life at home, in school, and within the community. It is conservatively estimated that 3 to 5% of our school-age population is affected by ADD.

The condition previously fell under the headings “learning disabled,” “brain damaged,” “hyperkinetic,” and/or “hyperactive.” The term attention deficit disorder was introduced to describe the characteristics of these children more clearly.

Diagnosing ADD/ADHD

According to the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., rev., American Psychiatric Association, 1994), to arrive at a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD, the clinician must note the presence of at least six of the nine following criteria for either Attention Span or Hyperactivity/Impulsivity.

Attention Span Criteria

Pays little attention to details; makes careless mistakes.
Has short attention span.
Does not listen when spoken to directly.
Does not follow instructions; fails to finish tasks.
Has difficulty organizing tasks.
Avoids tasks that require sustained mental effort.
Loses things.
Is easily distracted.
Is forgetful in daily activities.

Hyperactivity Criteria

Fidgets; squirms in seat.
Leaves seat in classroom when remaining seated is expected.
Often runs about or climbs excessively at inappropriate times.
Has difficulty playing quietly.
Talks excessively.

Impulsivity Criteria

Blurts out answers before questions are completed.
Has difficulty awaiting turn.
Often interrupts or intrudes on others.

Establishing the Proper Learning Environment

• Seat students with ADD near the teacher’s desk, but include them as part of the regular class seating.

• Place these students up front with their backs to the rest of the class to keep other students out of view.

• Surround students with ADD with good role models.

• Encourage peer tutoring and cooperative/collaborative learning.

• Avoid distracting stimuli. Try not to place students with ADD near air conditioners, high traffic areas, heaters, or doors or windows.

• Children with ADD do not handle change well, so avoid transitions, physical relocation (monitor them closely on field trips), changes in schedule, and disruptions.

• Be creative! Produce a stimuli-reduced study area. Let all students have access to this area so the student with ADD will not feel different.

• Encourage parents to set up appropriate study space at home, with set times and routines established for study, parental review of completed homework, and periodic notebook and/or book bag organization.

Giving Instructions to Students with ADD/ADHD

• Maintain eye contact during verbal instruction.

• Make directions clear and concise. Be consistent with daily instructions.

• Simplify complex directions. Avoid multiple commands.

• Make sure students comprehend the instructions before beginning the task.

• Repeat instructions in a calm, positive manner, if needed.

• Help the students feel comfortable with seeking assistance (most children with ADD will not ask for help). Gradually reduce the amount of assistance, but keep in mind that these children will need more help for a longer period of time than the average child.

• Require a daily assignment notebook if necessary:

  1. Make sure each student correctly writes down all assignments each day. If a student is not capable of this, the teacher should help him or her.

  2. Sign the notebook daily to signify completion of homework assignments. (Parents should also sign.)

  3. Use the notebook for daily communication with parents.

Giving Assignments

• Give out only one task at a time.

• Monitor frequently. Maintain a supportive attitude.

• Modify assignments as needed. Consult with special education personnel to determine specific strengths and weaknesses of each student.

• Develop an individualized education program.

• Make sure you are testing knowledge and not attention span.

• Give extra time for certain tasks. Students with ADD may work slowly. Do not penalize them for needing extra time.

• Keep in mind that children with ADD are easily frustrated. Stress, pressure, and fatigue can break down their self-control and lead to poor behavior.

Modifying Behavior and Enhancing Self-Esteem

Providing Supervision and Discipline:

• Remain calm, state the infraction of the rule, and avoid debating or arguing with the student.

• Have pre-established consequences for misbehavior.

• Administer consequences immediately, and monitor proper behavior frequently.

• Enforce classroom rules consistently.

• Make sure the discipline fits the “crime,” without harshness.

• Avoid ridicule and criticism. Remember, children with ADD have difficulty staying in control.

• Avoid publicly reminding students on medication to “take their medicine.”

Providing Encouragement:

• Reward more than you punish, in order to build self-esteem.

• Praise immediately any and all good behavior and performance.

• Change rewards if they are not effective in motivating behavioral change.

• Find ways to encourage the child.

• Teach the child to reward himself or herself. Encourage positive self-talk (e.g., “You did very well remaining in your seat today. How do you feel about that?”). This encourages the child to think positively about himself or herself.

Other Educational Recommendations

• Educational, psychological, and/or neurological testing to determine learning style and cognitive ability and to rule out any learning disabilities (common in about 30% of students with ADD).

• A private tutor and/or peer tutoring at school.

• A class that has a low student-teacher ratio.

• Social skills training and organizational skills training.

• Training in cognitive restructuring (positive “self-talk,” e.g., “I did that well”).

• Use of a word processor or computer for schoolwork.

• Individualized activities that are mildly competitive or noncompetitive such as bowling, walking, swimming, jogging, biking, karate. (Note: Children with ADD/ADHD may not do as well as their peers in team sports.)

• Involvement in social activities such as scouting, church groups, or other youth organizations that help develop social skills and self-esteem.

• Allowing children with ADD to play with younger children, if that is where they fit in. Many children with ADD have more in common with younger children than with their age-peers. They can still develop valuable social skills from interaction with younger children.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., rev.) (DSM-IV-R). Washington, DC: APA.

Suggested Reading

Bender, W. (1997). Understanding ADHD: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Parents. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Fiore, T. (1993). “Educational interventions for students with attention deficit disorder.” Exceptional Children, 60(2), 163-73.

Gardill, M. (1996). “Classroom strategies for managing students with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder.” Intervention in School and Clinic, 32(2), 89-94.

Hallowell, E. (1994). Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood. Tappan, NJ: Simon & Schuster.

Hartmann, T. (1993). Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception. Novato, CA: Underwood-Miller.

Reeve, R. (1996). A Continuing Education Program on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Reston, VA: Council for Exceptional Children.

Rief, S. (1997). The ADD/ADHD Checklist. An Easy Reference for Parents and Teachers. Reston, VA: Council for Exceptional Children.

Robelia, B. (1997). “Tips for working with ADHD students of all ages.” Journal of Experiential Education, 20(1), 51-53.

Schiller, E. (1996). “Educating children with attention deficit disorder.” Our Children, 22(2), 32-33.

Contact your local school psychologist, examiner, or personnel in charge of assessment and diagnosis in your school district for specific information and local programs.

Copyright ©1996-1998
ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/go/http/www.eric.ed.gov/

The MorningStar Academy is proud to announce that graduating senior Melissa Pettignano’s first book, entitled “Suzanne Lantana” is now available to the public. “Suzanne Lantana” “is about a young, full of life girl that has gone through many things a pre-teen would go through all the way up to being a teen. The biggest one is loosing her aunt Arlene T. Babakitis on Sept 11th 2001 in The World Trade Center. This book is a collection of short stories. Stories that have meanings and teachings for young girls who can relate. If not relate can understand.”

Melissa exemplifies the home school education to the fullest. Home schooling allows students to pursue their interests and encourages a love of learning. Melissa pursued her passion for writing and telling stories. Home schooling also allows parents to customize and tailor their children’s education to meet their learning styles. These are only two home schooling benefits, but they show why home schooling is statistically proven to provide a better education than public schooling.

Melissa is currently writing her second book and will be on a book tour this summer.

To find out more about Melissa Pettignano’s “Suzanne Lantana” or to buy it click here.

As if public schools weren’t dangerous and chaotic enough. Public schools now have to deal with dodgy teachers lurking in the classrooms waiting to pounce on vulnerable students. Of course, the majority of public school teachers are not a threat to students, but the number of crimes being committed by teachers against students seems to be increasing. There appear to be more and more stories these days which would suggest this notion:

• Seth Canata, 33, a former history and boys track coach in New Jersey, faces a maximum of five years in prison for official misconduct and criminal sexual contact with a former female student.

• Twenty-five year old Amber Marshall pled guilty “to reduced charges stemming from having sex with two male students” (nwi.com). Marshall was sentenced to almost six years of formal probation and day reporting.

• Sixty-one year old Ronald Sherman, a former Dixie High School teacher in Utah, is being charged with five counts of sexual battery for “allegedly touching four female students in his ceramics class during the past school year” (The Salt Lake Tribune)

• Cathy Heminghaus, 47, a former Ferguson Middle School special education teacher can only hope to receive probation after pleading no contest to 25 counts after being accused of performing sex acts with her students. At worst she will receive a sentence of life in jail plus 150 years.

I could write about other horrendous crimes public school teachers have committed, but I think my point has been made. An environment where students should feel safe to learn and pursue knowledge is now a jungle where students are just trying to survive. Public school students have to deal with violence, bullying, gangs, overcrowded classrooms, and one-size fits all curriculums, now they have to deal with abusive teachers? Who can public school students trust if they can no longer trust or feel safe around their teachers? I’m not saying this is the case with every teacher, but more and more teachers are taking advantage of their power, like in the cases mentioned above.

Home schooling students don’t have to deal with any of these issues. Why should students have to deal with the jungle that is public school? Home schooling offers students the chance to receive a world-class education and to be safe too. Home schooling students greatly benefit from their education which is why it is becoming more and more popular each school year.

Parents are dramatically pulling their children out of public schools to homeschool them instead. According to the National Center for Education Statistics the number of homeschool students in 2003 is up 29 percent from 1999. Just imagine the increase of homeschool students in America now in 2007.

Parents are discovering the benefits of homeschooling their children as public schools continue to be plagued with violence, drugs, bullying, and an overall failing approach to educating students. Some parents are still apprehensive about homeschooling their children, most often because of the homeschooling myths that public schools have been feeding the masses over the years.

Ruth Olson of Newsweek sat down with Laura Derrick, president of the National Home Educator’s Network to discuss issues on homeschooling for high school students. Derrick tackles some of the theories non-homeschoolers have about homeschoolers, talks about her own experience with homeschooling, and why so many students are leaving the public schools to be homeschooled instead. Here is an excerpt:

What are some of the issues they face? I know for a lot of kids, high school is kind of their social life, that period of their life where they’re finding their boyfriend or girlfriend and hanging out with buddies and stuff.

“Right. And that’s very important. I mean, there is a long period of growth and maturation that happens during that time that is partly fueled by those social interactions, and teens really do need those; it’s not just something that’s nice to have. We see what happens when they’re deprived of that. For most homeschoolers, that’s not an issue. I know that’s the perception from outside the homeschooling universe, and homeschoolers actually laugh about it, because most of us, we call ourselves carschoolers because we’re in the car so much. There are, unfortunately, some parents who do isolate their kids more than is probably good for the kids. Those kind of parents come in every walk of life and across the board, unfortunately, and some of them do exist in the homeschooling world, too. But the vast majority of families really do get out and do a lot. So I don’t see that as being a problem that’s really related to homeschooling so much as it is to parenting.”

I think all of our MorningStar Academy’s parents and homeschoolers will find the complete interview to be quite fascinating. I would love to know what you think of the interview and if you agree with Laura Derrick or not.

Read the complete interview with Laura Derrick here.

I was overjoyed to read an article in the Boston Pilot that served as a pretty good introduction to the joys and advantages of homeschooling. Professor Michael Pakaluk is a professor of philosophy in Cambridge, Mass. who has chosen to homeschool his 16-year old daughter. He provides the following excellent list.

1. It’s efficient.
2. It’s inexpensive.
3. Homeschooling tends to develop good habits of reading.
4. Homeschooled children more easily become friends with their parents.
5. Homeschooling requires that the father play the role that he really should play in his children’s education.
6. Unity of studying and religious belief.
7. Homeschooling tends to foster a lively patriotism.
8. Homeschooled children can enjoy the innocence of childhood longer.
9. Homeschooled children socialize better.

I found the fourth point to be especially interesting. How many teenagers do you know that have healthy, loving relationships with their parents? Now, I’m not talking about parents who give their kids everything they want and allow them to walk all over them. I’m talking about good parents who are still able to claim that they are best friends with their kids. My teens and I have a wonderful relationship that exists because of homeschooling. Sure there are moments of antagonism and times that I must exact punishment, but for the most part, my kids and I enjoy each other’s company.
This may be one of the most coherent, simple, fair, and effortless defenses of homeschooling I have ever read. It is free from propaganda tactics or cheerleading for home education. Everyone considering homeschooling should check out the full article.

By joining up with the Georgetown Area Home Educators, this group of women is standing firm in their call to bring Kingdom Education to their children.

Hagmayer doesn’t understand why people disagree with home-schooling, saying it is not a new practice. Before the federal and local governments decided to regulate education, everyone home-schooled their children, she said.
“We’re not inventing anything new, Hagmayer said. “We’re just going back to the basics.”

What a surprisingly true statement. Many public school administrators have this backwards idea that homeschool parents are doing rejecting the longstanding institution of the public school. In actuality, the public school is an institution in its infancy. Homeschooling is a tradition that has been passed down from generations since the beginning of time, really. To think that homeschool parents are entering uncharted waters by pulling their kids out of the public school is quite naive.

I’d also like to call attention to the article’s mention of the women giving up their career dreams. We live in a me-oriented culture. Self-actualization is the name of the game. After all, do we moms want to look back on our lives and regret that we didn’t go for that career in the thick of the rat-race? This mentality not only flies in the face of everything we know from God’s Word, but it also opposes our natural inclinations. Life is a time to invest in other people. Christianity is built on the concept of you-orientation.

A good example is marriage. Why are so many marriages ending in divorce? The simple answer is that our society reflects a me-culture, but marriage is a you-culture institution. Marriage can’t work in me-culture because marriage is one big sacrifice!

These moms are choosing to follow a different path, and in the end, they’ll be more fulfilled. Investing in a child is the most fulfilling act in all of human behavior. Why do we bang our heads against walls trying to get rid of this gift!

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran a story last week about a homeschool homecoming phenomenon in South Florida. Complete with a “big game” (Soccer, not football) and a dance, which I’m sure brought back a little modesty and chivalry to the world of dance, the homecoming celebration looks like a blast.

“We’re going to win the soccer game,” said Keeley Sproc, a 16-year-old junior from Oakland Park who plays midfielder and has been taught at home for about six years. “Then, we’re going to rush home and get pretty.”

Apparently homeschooled teenaged girls haven’t lost their sense of glamour in all those cabin-feverish years at home!

“I got really cool shoes,” Sproc said. “Sparkly.”

It’s good to see that these girls are given a chance to cut loose and “get pretty” for once. Sometimes it can be difficult in homeschooling situations to provide good, clean, fun like this on a large scale. Kudos to the enterprising parents and organizers who got this homeschool homecoming off the ground.

As homeschooling becomes more of a “mainstream alternative,” we’re going to see things like yearbooks, dances, sporting events, graduation ceremonies, and more. I’m excited to see how these traditional affectations of the public school world are applied to homeschooling. Hopefully it will bring a little bit of legitimacy to our world, in the eyes of the media that is.

I’m curious as to how popular this homecoming trend is among homeschoolers. Is there anyone out there who has seen similar celebrations take place among co-ops or other networked homeschoolers? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to hear more from this blog’s readers!