Is the Interest in Traditional Homeschooling on the Decline?

If you only look at the search reports generated by Google Trends, you'd wonder this too.

Earlier today I was looking at the history of Google searches collected since 2004, and couldn't help but notice the sharp decline in online searches relating to homeschooling. I typed in "homeschooling" and "home schooling" and found the same drop in searches.

Search using words "homeschool"

 Search using words "home schooling"

On the other hand, if you type in "virtual school" or "charter school" the search results have continued to climb over the past 6 years.  Does this reflect a new trend in the preferred method for home education? It clearly shows a growing interest in the new virtual school programs popping up across the nation... many of which are offered through public school districts for little to nothing cost to families. 

Search using words "virtual school"

Search using words "charter school"

While this data is FAR from enough to prove a changing trend in homeschooling, and is certainly not very scientific, I do find it rather interesting. For some, the idea of homeschooling is very intimidating and having the guidance and "complete package" offered by a virtual academy or charter school can be very welcoming.

Do you practice a traditional homeschooling regimen at home or do you belong to a virtual or charter program? Having done both, I've lived through the pros and cons found down either road. I'd love to hear your thoughts and learn of your own experiences.

~Wendy

Thank you for following The Homeschooling Blog!

Win a Kindle Fire, Kindle 3G, $100 Amazon, and $100 Grocery Gift Card

This is a friendly reminder that time is ticking down towards are current giveaways! Have you entered to win the Kindle Fire or Kindle Keyboard 3G with Special Offers yet? What about the $100 to Amazon or the $100 gift card to your favorite grocer?

I've teamed together with a handful of other special bloggers to share these fantastic giveaways with you! Don't let your opportunity to win an amazing prize slip by! Also... be sure to continue following The Homeschooling Blog for upcoming giveaways.... including but not limited to another $100 Amazon giveaway and an iPad 2. Say what? Oh, and then there's the giveaway that could go as high as $1,000. No... I'm seriously not kidding. Could you use some cash? Stay tuned!

Current Giveaways 

$100 Amazon Twitter Blast 

$100 Grocery Gift Card & $100 in Coupons 

Kindle Fire Giveaway 

Kindle Keyboard 3G Giveaway  

 



Thank you for following The Homeschooling Blog!

Ordered Another Pair of CHEAP Eyeglasses from Zenni

Cheap as in $37.90! That's for a full pair of prescription eyeglasses with shipping for my 10 year-old son. His current pair of Zenni eyeglasses were purchased last Summer, but our new puppy put a scratch in one of the lenses and it's pretty deep. So, we'll make that pair his backup frames... and puppy playing frames! For reading and school work he'll wear his new pair of eyeglasses, which should arrive in just a couple weeks time.

This is the pair of eyeglasses we've found best suited for his face. He looks great in these frames, which are very well made and have endured many boyhood mishaps, including but not limited to having been slept in a time or two. You gotta love that photo! Our family eye care center was able to bend them right back into place, which was an awesome surprise! I was afraid to do this myself... thought I'd snap the metal, but this particular pair is made to handle such situations. lol

Why am I always telling you about Zenni? I love them! I've told you before how much money they save us, but what I don't know is if you've tried them. I'd love to hear! I've already turned a few friends onto Zenni and they've come away looking and feeling great about their purchases. What's more, they're pocket books were left in tip top shape.

The pair of Zenni's I just ordered will be applied to our flex spending plan too. Eyeglasses are a covered expense after all! So, it's a purchase I have no hesitation about making.

J-man's glasses set us back $19.00 for the frames, $9.00 for the polycarbonate lenses, $4.95 for the anti-reflecting coating, and just $4.95 for shipping. Seriously cool! Seriously CHEAP!

This Valentine's Day be sure you can see! You want to remember that romantic dinner, or see that special homemade valentine your children made just for you! Even better... why not order yourself a pair of Valentine’s Day glasses? Never seen such a thing? Check out this pair of frames with a cute little heart on the stem. What a charming little touch this would make to your Valentine's Day wardrobe. Ok... most of us don't have a Valentine's Day wardrobe, but that doesn't make these frames any less awesome! 

 



Thank you for following The Homeschooling Blog!

My Favorite Online and Free Beginner Typing Resources

I work with a handful of autistic children and a couple of those kiddos are learning how to type. Although those children are in middle school, they're learning to type at a very elementary level and if you think about it, that's what we all do when we're just learning a new skill!

I'd like to share a few of the websites I've found and currently enjoy using with my own students. My children who are 9 and 10 are on a more advanced level than what I'm focusing on today. The websites I'd like to share in this post are geared towards early learners, or children just being introduced to a keyboard.

You'll find your student learning finger placement with one of these resources, simple letter recognition with another, and finally with the last resource they'll be learning to type lines of text. With enough repetition they'll know just where to find each letter on their keyboard!

Learning Games for Kids
Keyboarding Skills 
On this website, I usually spend about 5-10 minutes on "Typing Course", levels 1-3 (depending on the student). This site will require you or the student hit enter after each entry, and click with a mouse. I usually have the student hit enter after his/her entry, then click the mouse for them to move things along faster.

There are also typing games on this website, so be sure to check those out too!



FunSchool
Hyper Spider Typer
The kids seem to really enjoy this game. Your student simply types the letter matching that of a marching lizard before it can get to a climbing spider. So, it's a timed game geared at increasing speed. We've only worked at the "easy" level so far. The characters have pleasing faces and the game isn't overwhelming for a beginner.

KeySeeker
KeySeeker
This is one of my favorite typing games for very basic typing practice. However... the link is not working today! Hopefully it will be back up soon. I used it with a student yesterday and it worked, so perhaps there is just a glitch today.

This game allows the student to collect bananas as they properly identify and locate letters on their keyboard. Upon correctly identifying a letter 3 times, they will collect a banana for that letter. When all 26 letters have been mastered and all bananas are collected, the game is over!

Keybr
Keybr.com
Finally, if you have a student who is ready to type lines of text, this is an excellent tool providing just that. Your student can practice typing random letters and spaces. Keybr.com keeps track of your students time and errors too.

Happy typing! I hope you'll find these online resources as beneficial as I have!

 



Thank you for following The Homeschooling Blog!

Kindle Giveaway! This Time for Real! lol ENTER NOW!

If you are like me you've been coveting the Kindle, yet just aren't ready to make the purchase on your own yet. Well I've got the perfect solution for you, win one! The Mommy Bunch is hosting this awesome giveaway, along with several other super-duper bloggers who joined in, giving you the chance to win a Kindle Keyboard 3G with special offers to have of your very own! All you have to do is complete the rafflecopter entry form at the end of the post. It gets even better! On top of winning the Kindle, you will also get three free e-books to get you started:  

Spellbound by Fire

by: Lavinia Thompson      

Admit It, You're Crazy! Quirks, Idiosyncrasies, and Irrational Behavior 

by: Judy Reiser  

Super Blogga: 70 Plus Tips To Take Your Blog from Zero To Hero

Missy Diaz       

In addtion, if you complete all of the required and optional entries on the rafflecopter form, you will get bonus entries worth up to 25 additional chances to win each! So if you want to win one of these as much as I do, enter today and share with all your friends too! If you get a chance, make sure to visit the participating bloggers and say hello. By combining together, we are all able to bring these awesome giveaways to you!

Colleen's Book Nook, This N That with Olivia, Mary's Cup of Tea, Blog with Mom, Blog with Dad, Follow My Investments, Mama Luvs Books, My Devotional Thoughts, The Homeschooling Blog, Loves 2 Read, Mommy Powers, B'Tween Prose, Crafty Zoo with Monkeys, Cute Like Me, Lavinia Thompson - Author, Coupons for Wisconsin, Centsable Coupon Lady, Coupon Hauls, Amelioration, My Frugal Mom, The Grandma Blog, PinkMama's Place, The unexpected Mother, ebook reader geek, The Ghostly Adventure Guys, Be-Wickless Independent Scentsy Consultant  

Free Bible Curriculum for Homeschool: Using What Works

Today I want to share a few free Bible curriculum that we have used  in our homeschool over the years. We have tried more than these. But the following Bible lessons have worked very well for us.

When my children were pre-readers or just beginning to read I used DLTK’s Bible lesson plans. I’d print out the coloring pages or the mini books and have the children work on those while we listened to the passages of scripture from our dramatized audio Bible. (Nowadays we listen to the Bible on my smart phone using a free app.) And I’d ask the children a few questions to see if they understood the lesson. This worked very well when I had 3 that were all very small at the same time.

Once the children were reading and writing we switched to Calvary Chapel’s children’s curriculum. This site offers free lessons for over 200 Old Testament Bible stories and 175 New Testament ones. What is so great about this curriculum is that each lesson has a coloring page, fill in the blank pages, a crossword, a word search, and possibly an additional activity that helps reinforce the lesson. My oldest used this until he was about 8 years old. But then he came to me and said he felt that he was too old for the lessons.

So now he uses  Padfield.com’s Bible Curriculum. He reads the passages himself and does all of the work on his own, which he prefers. Sometimes he’ll ask me questions about his studies or we’ll have some discussions about the Word of God in general.

Since changing over to a more simplified way of doing school a few months back, I have switched to a Charlotte Mason approach to Bible study with my 3 youngest. I use this reading list and read one Bible story a day. Then the children are free to discuss it if they wish, but I do not prod them to.

Hopefully one of these Bible curriculum will be useful in your homeschool as well.

The six loves of Serfronya Wallace's life are God, her husband, and her 4 children - whom she homeschools. Serfrony enjoyes sharing educational tips and writing about her family's homeschooling journey at Cookie's Domain.

Thank you for following The Homeschooling Blog!