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Leap of Faith, Electro-Chemistry, Math Facts - When?

By Heather Idoni

Added Friday, June 22, 2007

==========================================================
The Homeschooler's Notebook
Encouragement and Advice for Homeschool Families
==========================================================
Vol. 8 No 49 June 22, 2007
ISSN: 1536-2035
==========================================================
Copyright (c) 2007 - Heather Idoni, FamilyClassroom.net
==========================================================

Welcome to the Homeschooler's Notebook!

If you like this newsletter, please recommend it to a friend!

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

=================
IN THIS ISSUE:
=================

Notes from Heather
-- Pam's Progress
Helpful Tips
-- Electro-Chemistry Fun!
Winning Website
-- The FFFBI
Reader Question
-- Math Facts - When?
Additional Notes
-- Searchable Archive
-- Our Email Group
-- Sponsorship Information
-- Reprint Information
-- Subscriber Information

=======================
Notes from Heather
=======================

Reader Feedback

Re: Taking the leap of faith to homeschool

In our 6/4 issue of the Notebook, Pamela in Florida wrote in asking
for help in making a decision to follow her conviction to homeschool
her 8 and 10 year old children, who actually seemed to be doing
pretty well in public school She and her husband are now moving
forward in that decision and she has graciously offered to share
updates on their progress with us from time to time! To view the
details of her original question, see the 6/4 issue at our website:
http://www.familyclassroom.net/Articles20072/20070604.html

Pam writes:

"My husband and I were overwhelmed with the response and thought
people put into my question. Thank you to everyone that took the
time to respond with such insightful advice, support and encour-
agement. We really appreciate it!"

The answers Pam received from our readers were published in the
following 2 issues of our newsletter:

http://www.familyclassroom.net/Articles20072/20070608.html
http://www.familyclassroom.net/Articles20072/20070611.html

---

Do you have comments to share? Please do!

Send your emails to: heather @ familyclassroom.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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================
Helpful Tip
================

Very cool electro-chemistry

"I just found this Web site, and I can't wait to try some of the
techniques. For the *ahem* kids, you know. Very educational
and all that.

Any black and white pattern can be printed on a laser printer and
transferred to metal. Then you can etch around it. You can even
etch all the way through to cut out intricate parts."

http://www.steampunkworkshop.com/altoid-etch.shtml

From Brian T. - member of our Homeschooling Gifted group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hsgifted

---

Do you have an idea, experience, or tip to share? Please write!
Send to: HN-ideas @ familyclassroom.net

==================
Winning Website
==================

The FFFBI
http://www.fffbi.com

The FFFBI – Using a clever group of animals for cast of characters, the
creators of FFFBI have found a way to get kids engaged in solving crimes
while developing important research and problem-solving skills. There
are several 'missions' to choose from and they are quite entertaining.
Kids can sign up to receive briefings via email then follow clues to
gather information to help solve the case OR if they want to complete
the missions in one sitting, they can get their clues from the website
and proceed from there. The creators of The FFFBI have also created
other free, problem-solving logic games, which are listed on the main
page. -- Cindy Prechtel, http://www.HomeschoolingFromTheHeart.com


===============================
Last Issue's Reader Question
===============================

"I was just wondering if I should have my 7 year old start to
memorize math facts. She can, of course, count but only auto-
matically 'knows' 5 + 5 is 10. She needs to add the others --
even small quantities. Any suggestions on if this is a good age?

She says she doesn't like Math but she does. She is resistant
to the work side of it (work avoidance)." -- Michelle L.

=========================
Our Readers' Responses
=========================

"Seven can be a good age to start, but it depends on the child.
Make sure your daughter can count up to 20 before trying this.
Try to make a game out of it. Find something she likes, preferably
two things. Make them very inexpensive and something she can have
a lot of but doesn't get very often. I used to use M&M's. I would
presort the colors. To get them to add, I would have the numbers
and signs prewritten on index cards and put out 4 reds and 6 browns,
using the cards to make the appropriate equations. If my daughter
got it right, she could have the M&M's. If she didn't, she had to
try again. Once she ate 100 M&M's, we would stop for the day. By
the time we finished a half pound bag, she was an expert in the
lower numbers for both addition and subtraction and never realized
she had done her complete workbook. We did something similar for
times tables, but used colors to represent numbers. She had to use
her math blocks if she needed help counting. She wasn't getting 81
M&M's for one problem!" -- Melinda

---

"When my children were younger I found the book 'Games for Learning'
by Peggy Kaye. This and her other books highlight games she used
for tutoring. One of my favorite games was the one to memorize math
facts. It is called In/Out. To play you need a bowl, a number of
any kind of small object, and a paper with an In/Out chart written
on it for each player. Then simply put the bowl on the floor and
take your certain number - let's say 9 - of objects and try to get
them in the bowl. Each time you thrown your 9 write down how many
are in and how many are out. You will end up with a math fact list.
When figuring how many are in and out, eventually you can ask 'well,
we got 2 in; how many do you think are out?' She won't even know
she's learning. Afterward, you can add up the scores and see who
got the most in. Note - vary the object and the number of objects
each time you play." -- Bonnie in Eastern KY

---

"I don't believe in memorizing math facts until they're a little
older. I think you can 'practice' math with real objects and prac-
tice doing it faster and faster. We used to do that with pennies -
'You have 10 pennies (line up 10 pennies), if I give you 3 more...
how many do you have?' By doing it this way, you're getting her
used to the hated word problems AND she learns to see math and
understand math before you ask her to memorize it!" -- Sonja

---

"Actually, that age is the best time for kids to memorize informa-
tion of all sorts. The grammar stage in classical education is
specifically geared toward memorization and mastery of factual
information. My 7 year old son is memorizing his math facts, and
he thinks it is fun. There are any number of ways you can do this.
Flash cards work well, but I wouldn't rely on them solely, and I
don't use the old fashioned kind that only have the 'problem' on
the front. I heard from a seasoned math teacher that the best
flash cards have the entire number sentence that you want the child
to know on the front, i.e. 1+2=3. They associate the whole set of
numbers together and that number sentence gets cemented in their
brain. I have made up my own flash cards like this and they have
worked well. There are also any number of websites that have math
fact drills on them; just search for math facts or math games.
Some add an element of competition, which is a plus for my competi-
tive son. You can also make up your own games to help her or play
games like Backgammon or 'Go Fish' (tweaking it to say 'Do you have
any 5+4s?' instead of 'Do you have any 9s?'" -- Jennifer in NC

---

"My daughter is 7 and is in the same boat. So, when we are in the
car we make a game of it! We see how many math facts we can memor-
ize before we get to where we are going. This is especially great
if you have youngers kids because they will start picking up the
facts quickly!" -- Susan


=========================
Answer our NEW Question
=========================

Supplementary Homeschooling

"I am a grandmother and very concerned about my granchildren's edu-
cation. Unfortunately, in my country homeschooling is not permitted,
so public schooling is compulsory for children from 5 to 15 years of
age. I have been reading this newsletter for over six years now,
before my first granddaughter was born. This year she will have to
'go to school'. As I spend a lot of time with her, I would like some
advice of how to follow and assist her to this. I believe that
information and curricula for homeshoolers of that age might be good
subjects for me to study over the summer, so that by September I may
be better prepared and more confident in my 'supplementary' home-
schooling of the child. Thank you in advance." -- Georgia

---

Do you have some advice and/or guidance for Georgia?

Please send your answer to: HN-answers @ familyclassroom.net


=====================
Ask YOUR Question
=====================

Do you have a question you would like our readers to answer?

Send it to HN-questions @ familyclassroom.net and we'll see
if we can help you out in a future issue!


=======================
Need Immediate Help?
=======================

Visit our Homeschool Encouragement Center! This is a live 24/7
'chat' area where you can talk live to our homeschool counselors
by typing in a box. When you get there, just introduce yourself
and let them know that Heather sent you!

This ultra-safe chat is supervised by experienced moms who are
there to serve and share their wisdom... or just offer a listening
ear.

Check out our schedule of daily chats and jump right in! :-)

http://www.HomeschoolChat.us

[Note: This ministry is geared toward Christian parents, but all
are welcome. You may need to download a Java program to utilize
this service. Email Luanne @ educationforthesoul.com if you have
any technical difficulties.]

=====================================
Our Searchable Newsletter Archive
=====================================

Access the Homeschool Notebook issues you have missed...
or search on a specific word or phrase in issues all the way
back to January 2001! Just go to this link:

http://hub.thedollarstretcher.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?visit=hs-notebook


==========================
Interactive Email Group
==========================

In an effort to help our readers become more of an interactive
community, we have set up an email loop at YahooGroups called
"Homeschool-Notebook".

Here is the link to sign-up!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschool-notebook/

===========================
SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION
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There are opportunities for you to be a sponsor of this
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become a part of this ministry!

=====================
ADDITIONAL NOTES
=====================

All contributed articles are printed with the author's prior
consent. It is assumed that any questions, tips or replies to
questions may be reprinted. All letters become the property of
the "Homeschooler's Notebook". [Occasionally your contribution
may have to be edited for space.]

Again, I welcome you to the group! Feel free to send any
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HN-ideas @ familyclassroom.net.

Our main website is:
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===========================
REPRINT INFORMATION
===========================

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mission. To use any single part of the newsletter, please direct
your request to: Heather @ FamilyClassroom.net

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