Homeschool Club

Butterfly Unit for Young Children
From Caterpillar to Butterfly
From egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis to butterfly---the life cycle of the butterfly is a fascinating process. Sharing these beautiful creatures with young children can be a rewarding experience. I've complied story time ideas, butterfly craft projects, songs and other butterfly ideas to share with your students at home, daycare, preschool or co-op.

Helping Children Develop Fine Motor Skills
Strong Fine Motor Skills are Important
I'm a former preschool and kindergarten teacher who retired in 2008 to become a "Full-Time Grandma" to my four beautiful grandsons. I'm also passionate about the idea that all parents are their child's first and most important teacher and I strive to give parents the tools and confidence they need to successfully work with their children at home. Time and time again in the classroom, I was reminded just how important strong fine motor skills are for young children. So much learning happens t...

Helping Children Develop Auditory Processing Skills
Why Strong Listening Skills are Important for Young Kids
Good listening skills (also called auditory processing skills) are essential for young children. All children need strong auditory processing skills to follow directions, understand information taught in a lesson or to respond appropriately to their peers or other adults. Some children seem to be naturally great listeners. Other children need a little extra practice to fully develop their auditory processing skills. But with practice, all children can learn to listen and understand what they...

Learning About Life Skills!
Home Economics & More!
Homeschoolers always discuss curriculum and materials for math, language, science, and so on, but what about everyday life skills? It occurred to me in my search for challenging and fun academic resources that I wasn't thinking about common skills needed by every person. Some of this may seem obvious, but some of these things I know I hadn't really thought of at first. Among our core and elective subjects, I now include a subject we call life skills. It includes simple things like chores aro...

Helping Children Develop Gross Motor Skills
The Importance of Strong Gross Motor Skills for Young Kids
Gross motor skills are very important for young children. Not only do the gross motor activities of crawling and walking give children important independence, but strong gross motor skills allow children to interact comfortably with others on the playground, carry large bins and stacks of books with ease, and feel confident when they engage in physical activities and organized sports. I am a former preschool and kindergarten teacher who retired in 2008 to become a "full-time grandma" to my f...

Phonetic Spelling for Young Writers
What is Phonetic Spelling?
Phonetic spelling is the term used by educators to label the the beginning writing of young children. Simply put, phonetic spelling (also called inventive spelling) is the process of having a child write down the letters that represent the sounds he hears in words. Phonetic spelling gives children the opportunity to communicate their ideas in writing long before they can use conventional spelling. If we expected children to wait until they could correctly spell the words they wished to write,...

Rhyming Activities For Young Kids
Rhyming fun has begun!
Roses are red, violets are blue. I love to rhyme, I hope you do, too! Rhymes are all around us - in books, in commercial jingles and in songs. Rhyming makes language fun. But more than that, rhyming is your child's first exposure to sound segments in words. And once your child is able to hear and distinguish different sound segments, he will be positioned to start hearing individual sounds in words. This skill is the basis for reading and spelling with ease. As a former preschool and kinde...

Helping Children Learn To Play Nicely With Others
The importance of social skills for young children
A key element to feeling confident in school is comfort with peers. When children are able to interact easily with friends they can feel confident as they approach other children in any situation in school, from the playground to the classroom. During one of my continuing education courses a few years ago, a wise education professor went so far as to assert that children simply are unable to learn effectively if they are distracted by uncomfortable peer relationships. As with mastering any a...

Visual Discrimination Activities for Children
What is visual discrimination?
Visual discrimination is the ability to recognize details in visual images. It allows people to identify the size, shape or form, color and position of objects and printed material. Visual discrimination skills also enable people to identify likenesses and differences between specific images. For children, much of how they learn is through visual observation. Also, every book or nature walk is an adventure, as they take in the variety of shapes, colors, people, and animals they encounter. St...

Love to Read
Most parents want their children to love reading. There is no perfect formula to raising a child that loves reading, but their are some things that you can do to help. This page is to help you, help your children grow to love books. For more educational homeschool pages, check out Cheap Homeschooling! Check it out if you want free and inexpensive homeschool or educational resources. You can find homeschool curriculum at this page: Curriculum for Homeschooling.