Lifestyle Homeschool Blog

Welcome to my blog!

The Lifestyle Homeschool Blog will keep you up-to-date with all new and updated pages for www.lifestyle-homeschool.com. I also want to share with you thoughts on the educational value in family life. So stay in touch by subscribing. Just click on the orange RSS button underneath the navigation bar on the left of this page and paste the URL (of this page) into your RSS reader. Alternatively, if you keep a personalised home page at My Yahoo, My MSN or at Google, click on those buttons.

Intrapersonal Skills

Intrapersonal Skills mean that in our homeschool we train our children to be the best "self" they can be. To start out we need to understand our children and help them to understand themselves.

Lifestyle Homeschool Sitemap

The Lifestyle Homeschool sitemap is an index of all the headings and topics on my website. It will help you find your way around quickly.

Love People where they are

I often remind my children that God has made each of us unique with different abilities and gifts. People are not always where we are and to judge

Homeschool Mum's Support Corner

Imagine sitting out on the veranda, with a group of like-hearted homeschool mums, chatting about the things on your heart - this is that place - a support corner!

Blending Homeschooling and Housework

One of the biggest challenges, universally, to homeschool mums is the balance between homeschool and housework.

Reminder Wall

Small posters around the house serve as a reminder for the moral training going on in our house.

Positive Affirmations

Surround yourself with positive affirmations to affirm your love for your children and to encourage growth and change in your areas of weakness.

Discipleship and Curriculum

Q.I like the idea of discipleship. How do you implement it into your curriculum? Discipleship is more than a Christian education, it is more than

Writing for a Purpose

It is important to have a purpose for writing and an audience to appreicate your effort. Here is a list of family-friendly, naturally created audiences.

Lifestyle Homeschool Guest Writer

This is an opportunity for Homeschool Mums to share their hearts with others. Write and article and share on your own webpage!

Nature Journal for the Reluctant

In response to Kerry's question, Nature Journals not Happening, I have listed some of the things that we have done to encourage nature journals, even when there has been some resistance.

Has Nature Journaling been hard to get started in your family? Both Kerry and I would love to hear how you tackled this. Read Nature Journals not happening and make a comment.

Research to Learn

Research is the component of our learning model that teaches our children to ask questions and find answers.

Read to Learn

Reading books is one of the central aspects of learning in our family. We believe that reading books will facilitate a love of learning and create a life-long learner.

Writing Development

An overview of the progression of writing development, giving confidence in the Lifestyle Learning Model

Record to Learn

When we record our learning the knowledge becomes our own and it can then be built on, and becomes a part of our life. Recording is traditionally seen as writing - but it is much wider

Respond to Learn

Knowledge in itself won’t educate our children; it is as they respond to or interact with knowledge that learning takes place.

Nature not your thing

To be honest, nature is not my thing. And yet, I can see the benefits for my children, for my family, in going outdoors.

How to Read Aloud

Do you feel awkward reading aloud to your children, do you get the feeling that your children would rather be some place else? Learn to improve your skills.

Homeschool Mum's Support Corner Heart to Heart

Short articles where I share the things that touch our heart, inspire us to keep on going, and to keep our focus on the main thing.

Laughter in the Home

Laughter is a key ingredient for family life. It maintains perspective and lightens the load. It creates memories and builds relationships. Is laughter happening in your home?

Be a good listener

Communication is a two way thing; with a speaker & a listener. Both parties have an important role to play if there is to be understanding. Listening is a vital aspect of homeschool / family life.

Relationship Skills

Relationship skills are the number one focus in all our efforts as we homeschool our children. Dealing with communication, manners and serving others are pivotal in building relationships.

Tweaking Homeschool Methods for Highschool Students

Many of the homeschool methods that we used in primary school are just as relevant in highschool – only they need a tweak.

How to have Good Manners

Can we legislate good manners? Do rules help with practicing manners? Or does it come from within? An article to encourage from the late Dr. Bill Bright, Campus Crusade for Christ

Help! My Child is smarter than I am!

I was faced with something that had been sitting at the back of my mind – Help! My child is smarter than I am!!

Homeschool - its more than academics

Homeschool? It is more than academics. It is educating the whole child. Discover a philosophy and methods that are in keeping with your family lifestyle.

Modelling the Reading Journal

The second key to the success of the Reading Journal Workshops is modeling – Mum keeping a Reading Journal too. Though I do already keep a Reading Journal when I read my books, the key will be to Journal the same book as the children and to do it at the same time as they do theirs. The difference being, I will attempt to journal more than one of our discussion points (the children are required to do only one a day though they may choose to do more). The reason behind me doing this is that I want to show them the huge variety of writing genres, of knowledge and wisdom issues, that can be recorded in our journals. I want them to move away from just a retell, summary, and outline type of representation of what they thought or learnt while reading.

Taking Notes while Reading

I mentioned at the beginning of these thoughts on our Reading Journal Workshop that I intended to take notes on my Bookmark Journal. I did find this too disruptive to the flow of the reading. What has worked for me is to read with a pencil in my hand and when I get an idea, or question, or a word to look up in the dictionary I mark the page lightly with my pencil. I then go back and use these marks to prompt my discussions or journal entries. I then rub out the pencil marks.

The children are also taking notes while I read. This has been their initiative as they found themselves not remembering what they wanted to discuss. This may well be a difference between reading aloud to your children and them reading themselves. When we read aloud the only interruptions we try and have is questions and comments for clarification. Opinions, ideas, etc wait till the end of the reading. When we read a book ourselves we have the liberty to stop reading and ponder and write and then move on.

I have encouraged the children to write notes as we read along and to refer to them in our discussions. Their notes though do not replace the reading journal entry that is to come from our discussions.

A few of them are also doodling - drawing, sketching scenes from the story. This is very much in keeping with their learning styles / talents.

Why a Reading Journal

We are using reading journals to encourage the children to slow down and learn from the books that they read.

We can read books for pleasure – for the story – for entertainmentWe can read books to learn from.

To learn from books we don’t have to read encyclopedias or non-fiction books. Often well written, well researched fiction books can teach us a lot about the world around us and life itself. But we have to slow down and read to learn. A reading journal helps us to think about what we have read, to ask ourselves questions and to think about the answers.

We discipline ourselves to write frequently (daily) even if we don’t think we have much to write about. The reason why we keep this discipline is that it is a prompt to make you think. Sure, you may not come up with anything exciting that day, but at least you have paused and thought. If you don’t pause and think you will quickly gloss over many little snippets of wisdom or knowledge.

Our learning falls into two categories – wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is all about the facts, the statistics, the proof etc. The wisdom though is more about the heart – the principles, character, values, applied to life. Knowledge is important, our understanding of the world will increase as we pursue knowledge. Wisdom is more important though because our understanding of God, ourselves and other people will increase as we pursue wisdom.

When we think about what we read, when we apply lessons to our own life – be it moral or academic – we will grow and change. That is what education is all about.

Reading Journal Workshop

Over the next few weeks another homeschool family and ours are joining together for Reading Journal Workshop. Even though our older children have had reading journals in progress, I would like to see them up the level of using this learning tool.

We are basing our exercises on a read aloud – an Australian bush battler story – narrating, discussing and then writing (there maybe a little research as well for the older children.)

The idea is that as we discuss things and ask questions from what we read they become aware of the questions that evoke learning. As they become more familiar with discussing a book, sharing their thoughts and ideas, and get used to writing these things down my hope is that they will start asking themselves those very same questions and write down the very same ideas without the discussion with others (this becomes a discussion only within themselves).

When our children get to this point the discussion that follows reading becomes a part of their conversation rather than a retell as a part of their learning. When they have digested their reading material with a thinking brain they are prepared for wonderful conversation because they have been inspired during the day.

As I read to them I am going to take notes myself (which may interrupt the flow of reading a little but worth it as they will see me modeling the idea of notetaking as you read a book). These notes (on my Bookmark Journal) will assist me in leading the discussion with the kids as well as be the prompt for any journal entry I wish to make myself.

Discussion and role model will be the key to this workshop being a success. My goal is for them to see the breadth and depth of ideas, illustrations, principles, quotes, knowledge, maps, thoughts, questions that can be gleaned from a book and recorded in a reading journal. As each one of us writes something different each day we will cover this breadth. This is the wonder of reading journals – it is not prescribed and yet it has the potential to be challenging and yet remains fun and pertinent to each child.

Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

After making the decision to homeschool, the next decision most families want to make is “What curriculum do I use?” There are several things we need to consider before we buy

Relationship based activities

These are the activities that have helped us focus on relationship as learn about discipleship homeschooling and cope with busy days.

Homeschool Mum needs to Know

The day to day journey as a homeschool mum brings lots of challenges and sometimes doubts and questions. These 5 little checks help us keep on the path we have chosen.

Get over the Mess

Hands on projects often create so much clutter and at times chaos. Here are some thoughts that have helped me get over the mess.

Easter Family Bible Study

We spend our devotion and bible study time during Easter preparing our hearts for Jesus.

Digital Homeschool Magazine

TOS Magazine going digital making it a better option for all

Family Traditions

Family Traditions not only bind the family together but each celebration gives an opportunity to teach something to your children - something of the heart, or possibly a practical skill.

Easter - Resurrection Rolls

This Easter cooking activity will bring a smile to your kids faces as they bite into an "empty" sweet bread roll.

Easter Jelly Beans tells the story of Redemption

With the help of a little poem a handful of jelly beans tells the Easter story.

Easter table centerpiece

A hands on activity for Easter which resides on your dining table as a true conversation piece.

Easter - Cookies

Spend time in the kitchen this Easter with your children, and teach the Easter story as you go. There will be a surprise at the end.

Easter Activities Page

Choose a few family based activites to do this Easter to consolidate the Bible account of Jesus' death and resurrection.

Easter Resource Page

To help in your Easter celebrations chose from many of the books and movies available.

Our Plans for Easter

There are many things you can do in preparation for Easter - this is what we are doing

Counterfeit Literature

Help your children to recognise a good book.

Sincerity as a Homeschool Mum

If I aim to be sincere as a homeschool mum I must live by the same standards, the same ideals, the same principles and practices as I teach my children.

Character Notes - Sincerity

Character education notes to help your family be intentional and deliberate with training your children in Character / Virtues, such as, Sincerity, & how that can be taught in everyday conversations

Character Notes

These notes are taken from our real family lessons and experiences as we study various Character traits through out the year.

Scientific Method, conversations with science

Science, God’s World and how it works, can be as simple as having a conversation with your children, while keeping in mind the simple process of the Scientific Method.