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October
5, 2004
Dear
Oklahoma Homeschool Readers,
Hi
everyone. Sorry I am running a little late this month. I just
got back from Spokane, Washington where my husband, Bill,
and I attended the HSLDA Leadership Conference. Bill and I
were voted on as trustees for OCHEC (Oklahoma Christian Home
Educators Consociation - www.ochec.com)
in August and as part of our new duties, we were able to attend
this conference. We had a great time and learned a lot! I
also got to go bicycle riding in the mountains. It was beautiful!
Part
of my new job as a trustee for OCHEC is to help write their
email newsletter (OCHEC Update) and also to help with the
Informer Magazine. The OCHEC Update is mailed each Thursday
and includes information about events and resources in Oklahoma
that are open to homeschoolers. I highly recommend that you
sign up for the OCHEC Update as I will no longer be including
this type of event information in the OKHS Newsletter (unless
it specifically deals with Oklahoma History). Instead I will
continue to focus on the following:
1.
The General Edition includes: What's New on the Oklahoma Homechool
Website; Teaching Tips for Homeschool Parents; Multi-level
Teaching and Learning Styles (including curriculum recommendations,
activities, and resources); and Teaching Teens (including
career development, high school, & college preparation)
2.
The Oklahoma Edition includes all the above plus current resources
and information related to teaching Oklahoma History.
(I
am going to send a copy of the OCHEC Update to you in my next
email so you will see what it is like. You can subscribe to
the FREE OCHEC Update at www.ochec.com. While you're at it,
subscribe to the FREE Informer Magazine (www.ochec.com/Informer.htm).
This is a magazine written for home educators in Oklahoma
published by OCHEC. It provides encouragement, teaching tips,
curriculum information, legislative updates, and opportunities
for extracurricular activities.
I
hope your school year is going great so far and that you enjoy
this issue of the OKHS Newsletter!
Cindy Downes
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Oklahoma Homeschool Newsletter, October 2004 (Oklahoma Edition)
What's
in This Newsletter:
What's
New on the Oklahoma Homeschool Website?
This
past month kept me exceptionally busy! Not only did I finish
the book I was writing (It's out for review and then final
rewrite.) but I also attended a five day conference in Spokane,
Washington, for OCHEC. Therefore, I haven't done much to my
website. I did; however, finally complete the Astronomy Unit.
Check it out at: http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/astronomyUnit.html.
I also consolidated all my forms on one page for easy access:
http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/homeschoolforms.html
Next month, I'm going to be doing a final re-write on my book,
working on a new, online Oklahoma History curriculum, and
adding some new material to my website. Check back often!!
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Oklahoma
History Resources:
1.
Field Trip for OK History: Northeast OK - Har-ber Village:
If you haven't taken your children to Har-ber Village, this
is a great time of year to do it. It is an outdoor museum
so you don't have to be worried that your kids will talk too
loud or break things. See Dr. Halterman's dentist office,
a post office, bank, Barber shop, and a mercantile completely
stocked with all types of merchandise from the times of old.
Also can be found are an old fashion beauty shop, the stagecoach
inn and dining area with a table setting on it, down to the
checked tablecloths. All the cabins are furnished completely
with era settings including set tables, beds with feather
pillows and quilts. Old iron cookstoves with pots and pans,
the settings look like the folks just stepped out for a fishing
trip on the lake. A good way to show your children what it
was like in the Oklahoma pioneer days. Take a picnic lunch.
And it's FREE! Open Daily 9 AM TO 6 PM, Sunday 11 AM to 6
pm, March 1 - Nov. 15. Address: 4404 W 20th GROVE, OK, CONTACT:
918-786-6446. For more info: http://www.grandlakevisitor.com/features.shtml#harber
2.
Books related to Oklahoma History: Here are two books related
to Oklahoma history that I just discovered. (1) Red-Dirt Jessie
by Anna Myers. A fiction story about a 12 year old girl and
a dog set during the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and Depression. 107
pages. Gr 4+. (2) Sequoyah (History Maker Bios series) by
Laura Hamilton Waxman. 48 pgs. The story of Sequoyah and his
Cherokee alphabet. Sequoyah moved to Oklahoma in 1829 to help
the Cherokee people as they arrived during the Trail of Tears
in 1830. 3rd+
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Teaching
Tips
1.
Testing Services. If you would like to have your children
tested, you can do it yourself. Check out Seton Testing Service.
http://www.setontesting.com.
Achievement tests for K-12th.
2.
Reading
Did you know that you can use The Checklist to assess your
child's reading skills? Simply check off each skill listed
on page 118 as mastered. Teach reading skills in the order
presented in The Checklist and you won't even need a reading
curriculum! Instead, use free resources such as:
a.
Online Learning: http://www.starfall.com/
(Be sure to check out the lesson plans: http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/scope.htm)
b.
Worksheets: School-Home Reading Kit-First Grade Activities:
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/table1.html;
Second Grade Activities: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/table2.html;
and Third Grade Activites: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/table3.html
c.
More Worksheets: http://www.beginningreading.com/Free%20Workshe.htm.
d.
For more information on teaching reading, check my webpage
at: http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/3Rs.html
and http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/reading.html.
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Multi-Level
Teaching:
1.
It's easy to create your own unit study using The Checklist
as a guide. For instance, suppose you want to study the Civil
War and integrate the other subjects into your lesson plans.
All you have to do is look through the listings of famous
people in The Checklist and look for those who were living
during 1861-1865. Here are a few of the ones I found: For
literature: Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville; mathematics:
Charles Babbage; Science: Elias Howe and James Espy; Art:
James Audubon; Music: Stephen Foster; Missionary: David Livingstone.
Once
you have your people, you can choose activities based on what
these people were famous for (also listed in The Checklist).
A Civil War unit could include poetry by Emily Dickinson,
a literature unit on Moby Dick, learning about Babbage's early
computer and computers today, listening to the songs of Stephen
Foster, learn about the sewing machine, weather, and birds,
art lessons related to the technique of James Audubon, a study
of the country of Africa, and a biography of Livingstone.
How easy is that?!
2.
To help you with projects to do doing your unit, try some
of these: http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/projectideas.html
and http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/writingideas.html.
3.
To locate Historical Information Resources: http://www.refdesk.com/facthist.html
4.
Recipes to go with your historical units: http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/food.html
5.
Coloring Page search engine: http://www.ivyjoy.com/coloring/search.html
(FUN! I typed in Civil War and this came up: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Shores/2312/colorpages/colorstart.html)
Back
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Teaching
Teens
Many
parents give up homeschooling when their children get into
junior and senior high school. Here are a couple of tips that
might encourage you to keep going.
As
your children get into their junior high and senior high years,
their gifts and specific callings become more evident. This
is the time to expand on the subjects you've already introduced
and begin tailoring their studies to suit each of their specific
career or ministry needs. Many kids are forced down the academic
path, when in actuality, they are better gifted for a trade
or ministry. A good resource that will help with this is Discovering
Your God-Given Gifts by Don and Katie Fortune.
One
way to help them make a career decision is to get them involved
in volunteer positions that utilize their skills, talents,
and interests. Consider internships and apprenticeships. Seventy-five
percent of the Swiss population go into apprenticeships around
age 15 (equivalent to 8th-9th grade). Feel free to use the
Career Development/Internship Course I wrote for high school.
(pdf document, #17 on site map: http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/sitemap.html)
Apprenticeship
programs are usually run by private employers and consist
of one half on-the-job training and one half formal instruction.
Apprenticeships are not easy to come by, but I have found
that with a lot of prayer and by asking questions of people
you know, you can find them. One way to initiate an apprenticeship
program is to approach a business owner with the idea of allowing
your child to spend one afternoon at their place of business
to observe. If that works out for both parties, ask the business
owner if the child could come and volunteer on a regular basis.
This means sweeping floors, filing, washing windows, etc.
Your child must be willing to do the grunt work! You will
find that over time, if your child is diligent and faithful,
he will be welcomed with open arms and slowly given more career-related
work. This volunteer work may eventually lead to a paid position
during high school or even a life-time career as it did with
my own son. He now owns a successful computer graphics business.
Business people are looking for good employees; and when they
find someone who has potential, they will do all that they
can to help train him. If a degree is necessary, some business
owners will even help with funds for education. Even if your
child decides from this experience that he does not want to
pursue a career in this particular field, think of the time
and money you have saved! This happened with my daughter.
We saved a lot of money NOT sending her to college to become
a nurse, because of the time she spent working in a doctor's
office!
Check
out my website for additional resources on career training:
http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/careertraining.html
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Please
feel free to forward this on to anyone who may be interested.
If you'd like to be added to the Oklahoma Homeschool Email
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in the subject line. If you want to be removed from this mailing
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in the subject line.
Have
a great day!
Cindy Downes
OKLAHOMA HOMESCHOOL
Website: http:www.oklahomahomeschool.com
Email: cindy@oklahomahomeschool.com
Have
you seen The Checklist? It's a record keeper, a planning guide,
and a K-12 Scope and Sequence created for Christian Home Educators:
http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/checklist.html
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