But you can sign-up today!

I’m excited to tell you what we are up to this month.  Beginning on August 3rd, we will be giving away the first 5 lessons of the Homeschooling ABCs class.  Why are we doing this?  Frankly, it is because we want to help you get set up for a fantastic school year.  We really don’t want you to feel fried and burnt out by November, or even March.  Our mission is to encourage and equip you to have the best school year yet!

So, here’s what we are doing…  When you sign up on the website BEFORE midnight on August 2nd, we will send you 5 lessons, beginning on Monday, August 3rd and then each Monday thereafter over the course of the month of August.

When August is up, so are the classes, BUT… we will hold a drawing on September 1st and you may be one of the 25 winners to win the full course.  Wouldn’t that be great?  So read the rules and prizes section below and then sign-up on the website here - www.homeschoolingabcs.com/august.htm.

Rules and Prizes

So, on September 1st, we’ll hold a drawing among those of you that signed up for the 5 week course here.  But, we want some participation from you in order to make this happen.  Here’s what we are asking you to do…  Each Monday, we will send out an email with a link to the downloadable lesson.  Also, in that email will be a link to a blog post.  We simply ask that you read the lesson and post a comment on the blog about what you thought about the lesson.  That’s it.

Then on September 1st, after you have commented on all 5 blog entries, we’ll ask for an email from you verifying that you did so and ask you to answer one simple question.  We’ll collect all of those emails and draw 25 random names to win the full course.

We’ll also draw 10 random names to win the runner up prize, the next 2 class lessons.

We’ll be communicating with you each Monday, so you should have no trouble following along.  That’s why we need you to sign up in order to participate.  We promise not to share your contact information with anyone or to misuse it in any way.  However, if you have any questions at all, please send an email to [email protected].

Make sure that you sign up before midnight on August 2nd, so that you can receive that first email on August 3rd.  This is going to be fun!

See you in August,

Terri

But blog readers can take advantage of great savings starting today.  Timeline books, software and wall timelines are all on sale for one week only.  Take a look here:

www.kqpublishing.org/timelinesale.htm

Maybe you have been planning to homeschool for some time or perhaps you have just decided this past week that you are determined to give it a try. In either scenario, you want this to be the best year ever, right? And you are ready to get off to a great start! That’s wonderful.

Would you like a few tips on how to get a great start in homeschooling? I have 10 steps that will give you a quick start in homeschooling - in fact, you’ll be ready to begin in 48 hours.

1. Since it is summer, you do not need to notify your child’s teacher that he won’t be coming back to school tomorrow or the day after, BUT you still do need to notify the school district administration in writing that you will be homeschooling your child. At least this is the case in most states. To find out what your state’s requirements are, visit the HSLDA website (Home School Legal Defense Association) and click on your state to read up on its laws concerning homechooling - http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp. Since homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, it only makes sense to comply with your state’s regulations.

2. Choose a subject of special interest for your child. This could be just about anything, but here are a few suggestions… horses, transportation, navigation, energy, magnetism, inventions, architecture, weaponry, colonial living, pioneer days, insects, flowers, watercolor painting, etc. Once you have chosen a subject of interest, head for your local library and check out books on this topic. You may even find some on your own bookshelves. Try to find books that are both fiction and nonfiction. These books are going to form the core of your delight directed study. A delight directed study means that you will center all or most of your studies around this main topic. For example, if the subject is flowers, flower petals can be counted, sorted and multiplied during math time; the anatomy of a flower can be studied (and dissected) for science; a poem about flowers can be copied for handwriting; types of flowers can be the spelling words; and a particularly beautiful flower can be drawn and painted during art time. And, of course, those books will be read and devoured all through the day and even as bedtime books before lights out.

3. You do not need a handwriting/writing curriculum in order to get started with school. At least, not right away. Use a sentence from one of the books that you are reading (from point #2 above) and write it down in your neatest handwriting at the top of a piece of lined paper. Have your young child copy it from your writing. If your child is very young (say kindergarten), you will want to start with just letters, not full words or sentences yet. If your child is older (say 4th grade and up), you may want to skip right past the copywork stage described above and use dictation instead. In place of writing the sentence at the top of the page, instead dictate the sentence slowly and clearly to your child for her to write down from your reading of it. The older the child, the more lengthy the dictation can be (not more than a paragraph though).

Would you like to know the remaining 7 steps to a quick and great start in homeschooling? You will have to visit this website - www.HomeschoolingABCs.com - to get the rest.  Or maybe you will be homeschooling high school this fall.  If so, then visit www.UpperLevelHomeschool.com to receive 3 months of lessons on how to be prepared and successfully teach your teen at home.

Terri

I thought this was a good article discussing some reasons why you might have your high schooler take AP courses during high school:

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10007-Little-Rock-Homeschooling-Examiner~y2009m7d9-Homeschooling-through-high-school-AP-Courses

Well, I’ve got a new blog location - www.kqpublishing.org/blog - and new blogging software - Wordpress - and a new blog title - Terri’s Take.

And I’m still trying to figure this whole thing out.  I haven’t figured out if I can add a logo to my blog.  It would be really great if I could!  Does anyone know?  Thanks!

I’ll be adding some real content soon!

Terri