Hey, Home School Solutions Friends!

I know, many of you think that I must have drown in that quart of cookie dough ice-cream I wrote about a while back. Actually, I overcame the temptation to eat the ice-cream, although I did succumb to a few too many of those generic oreos.

Writing about the blahs definitely helped cure them, and I was reminded of one of my favorite don't-feel-sorry-for-yourself scriptures from 1 Thessalonians 5:17: "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

In fact, today, once again, I was feeling disappointed as I took my morning walk and meandered past a beautifully treed lot that my husband and I hoped to build a house on this past spring. The lot was sold to someone else, and we ended up with a different space down the hill. As I prayed that God would help me be content with what I had, He prompted me to go a step further and be THANKFUL for what He had given us. Even more difficult, He prompted me to be thankful for the people who bought the land we wanted and to pray that they would be blessed in their new home. I have a feeling that God will prompt me to pray this again until I can really mean it. Interesting how that works, isn't it?

Anyway, I just wanted to write a quick hello today, and to offer you a word of encouragement as your school year comes to a close. Rather than focusing on what you or your child didn't accomplish, be thankful for what you DID accomplish. Celebrate every little achievement as a victory. It's amazing how a change in attitude will give you new perspective on God's work in your life.

I'll check in later this week with some great ideas for Bible teaching resources.

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry

Q: Is it important for high school students to learn to do Power Point presentations? What criteria should I use for making assignments and grading them? How long should presentations be?



A: Yes, it is important for high school students to learn to do Power Point presentations. Power Point projects are a fantastic way to combine language arts skills (research, writing, speaking) with technical computer skills and with a particular content area such as social studies or science. In fact, I would suggest that doing a Power Point presentation is as important as writing a traditional term paper whether students are college or career bound.

Middle school students and beginners may enjoy experimenting with a 5-10 slide presentation, while older or advanced tech-savvy students should design 10-15 slides per presentation. Below is an excerpt I copied and pasted from educationworld.com that explains how to make a power point presentation assignment for your student. There is also a link at the bottom of the paragraph that you may use that suggests assessment guidelines; a link is also listed to give you and your student a tutorial of the Power Point possibilities. I will note that you should give weight to three areas of the presentation: technical merit, quality of content and the oral presentation. Have fun with your projects!

HELP YOUR STUDENTS CREATE PROJECTS (from educationworld.com)

Encourage them to start with short presentations that contain only a few slides. Remind them to keep the text and graphic images simple. A plan never hurts either.

Project-Based Learning With Multimedia provides a workable outline for planning and completing multimedia projects. Advise students to follow the guidelines below.

1. Plan the projects. Identify goals and content; determine overall project length and progress checkpoints; determine project activities.
2. Prepare the information. Complete research and/or activity components.
3. Plan presentations. Create storyboards, which are detailed plans of the text, graphics, and order of each slide.
4. Create presentations.
5. Present completed projects, review experiences, and discuss project highlights or trouble spots.

For an evaluation tool to use for evaluating the writing content, technical content, technical organization, and communication skills used in student-created PowerPoint projects, try http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/pptrubric.html or http://www.artteacherconnection.com/pages/powerpointrubric.htm.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

PowerPoint Informational Slide Show
This slide show provides an overview of PowerPoint and describes its tools and capabilities.
PowerPoint Tutorial
Mark L. Merickel of Oregon State University provides this terrific PowerPoint tutorial, which includes lots of graphics. You may find the PowerPoint tutorial link at: http://www.educationworld.com/searchnew/adv_results.jspe

Happy Home Schooling!
Mrs. Sherry

Okay, I just have to ask.

Is anyone else out there tired of the rain and feeling tempted to eat a half gallon of cookie dough ice-cream and a package of generic oreos? (I don't even know how the evil little sugar-laden devils got into this house--the cookies and ice-cream, not the kids...I know how they got here...and I prefer to think of them as angelic even on bad days).

I'm thinking I'd like to waste the afternoon watching Oprah and Dr. Phil and let my kids run wild in our too-cozy two-bedroom apartment while I pretend I don't hear or see them.

And, yes, we did do the school thing today, and we even made it to the library for story time (which, does NOT count toward my required weekly quota of adult conversation). So, I'm still functioning all right, just feeling cooped up and in need of a personal trainer or something. Or maybe a live-in maid. Or a tall latte.

I'll be better by the weekend when the sun shines.

Happy Home Schooling (even on rainy days),
Mrs. Sherry

The following is a sample theme unit introducing US geography to primary grade students. Enjoy!

Subjects Integrated:
Social Studies (geography), Reading/Literature, Music

Objectives:
1. The student will gain familiarity with the names of states, popular landmarks, shapes of states and relative location of states by participating in the activities provided.
2. The student will gain familiarity with patriotic songs by listening to them on a CD and singing along as words are learned.
3. The student will read along with the book, I is for Iowa.
4. By the end of the unit, the student will be able to do the following with 100% accuracy without assistance: locate home state; with 90% accuracy: locate Mexico and Canada, locate Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, locate Gulf of Mexico, indicate north, south, east and west directions, discuss 3 additional states and their landmarks or unique features

Time Required:
20 minutes per day for 10 days of instruction

Resources:
1. My America, and My World 1, A Beka, pages 42-67
2. Patriotic CD: Songs of America, Cedarmont Kids, (available at Christian book stores for $4; includes split track and CD-rom printable activity/lyric sheet features)
3. USA activity map with stickers (available at Wal-Mart)
4. Alphabet Book: I is for Iowa, or similar title for your state
5. USA puzzle (1oo piece available at Dollar General for $1)

Plan:
1. Each day, read aloud one section from the A Beka text. Allow the student to find the state(s) mentioned on the activity map and place a sticker on the state(s).
2. Discuss past travels or future travel dreams to the state(s).
3. Discuss the unique shape and relative location of each state.
4. Introduce and encourage use of terms including: north, south, east, west, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, Canada
5. Listen, and sing along, to the patriotic CD in the car and while putting the USA puzzle together throughout the unit.
6. Enjoy reading aloud the alphabet book, I is for Iowa. Encourage early readers to read along; help the student identify words from Dolch or other word lists.

Assessment:
1. The student will successfully master objectives one through three by cheerfully participating in activities.
2. The student will be able to verbally complete objective number four.

It would be easy to add extra art projects or literature selections to this unit; I'm trying to keep it simple. But, if you have an idea that you'd like to share that complements this unit, please write your idea in the comment section. I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry

Lora! Congratulations, Lora, for answering the history question from the previous post correctly!

All the persons listed in the last post were home schooled as a primary means of education.

Lora also shared a fun resource that lists lots of people who were home schooled. I was surprised to see Whoopi Goldberg on the list! You can access the list by visiting http://www.home-education.org/uk/article-famous-he.htm

You can also find information on these and other famous home schooled students by visiting the Home School Legal Defense Association's website; there's a link to the right. Just type "famous home schoolers" in the search bar there, and you'll find several great articles of interest.

So, if you're in need of encouragement regarding home schooling, there certainly are a lot of success stories out there. Who knows? You may be home educating the next president, Nobel prize winner or great novelist. Then again, you may be educating a future loving husband or nurturing homemaker, and that wouldn't be half bad either, would it?

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry