Math Apps – Worth Their Weight in Gold!

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Preparing for College, Technology

Published with Permission
Written by Sharra Badgley
www.thehomeschoolmarm.com/www.thehomeschoolmarm.blogspot.com
www.TOSMagazine.com

Math. It has always been the subject of dread in my life until recently. I have never fully understood my struggles in higher math and my anxiety over mathematical computations until I observed our 9-year-old daughter as she struggled with math. My daughter is an exceptional learner who has inherited my learning challenges of Gifted/ADHD. After several years of homeschooling, I observed that she could blaze through a large work of classic literature with full comprehension and understanding beyond her years. However, a page of math with more than ten problems on it would cause her to break down in tears and lay her head down in defeat. I could recall having these same experiences during my own childhood, all the way through my college years. As a Gifted/ADHD learner, our daughter was overwhelmed by the magnitude of numbers on the text pages.

At the elementary level, in our home school we have used an assortment of home school curricula, all of which have included thirty to forty problems per lesson. As classic educators, we appreciate math drills, which help cement concepts in the mind. The difficulty arose as our daughter’s sheer anxiety over math prevented her from moving forward and completing enough problems to master the concepts.

The freedom and flexibility of homeschooling have allowed us to explore many curricula and programs so that we could reach a place of success, and the use of educational apps has truly revolutionized our homeschooling. We use educational apps in conjunction with our textbooks, workbooks, and other online supplementary programs. (more…)

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Totally Epic

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Preparing for College

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Written by Amy Barr
www.lukeion.org
www.TOSMagazine.com

The first powered airplane only flew 12 seconds on its maiden voyage, and the first car could only move 2 miles an hour. The first Greek epic, however, was invented even before the finishing touches were put on the Greek alphabet in which it would eventually be recorded. Homer’s Iliad, and his smash sequel the Odyssey, have been moving the world ever since.

You probably have a copy of one of these epics on your bookshelf. You may even have tried to work them into your curriculum with varying levels of success or frustration. With a little background in place, most quickly learn that this three thousand-year-old literature still offers food for thought and potent words for modern ears.

Troy, known as Ilion/Ilium to the Greeks and Romans, is a real place you can visit in northwest Turkey. I worked with the excavation team at this well-fortified Bronze Age city and witnessed how most tourists climb the giant Trojan Horse replica for a fast photo before hastily leaving. The site of Troy is no Coliseum or Parthenon, because its claim to fame is its destruction. Archaeological evidence suggests that something calamitous happened there around 1180 B.C. when the city was nearly leveled. (more…)

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Homeschooling High School

Classroom Help, Informative, Preparing for College

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Written by Lisa Trombley
thehappyhomeschoolmom.blogspot.com

Two words that are likely to strike fear in the heart of a homeschooling mama “High School.” For some reason we (and I am speaking of myself too) consider ourselves perfectly capable of teaching during the younger years, but start to get worried somewhere around the 8th grade that we will not be capable of teaching our children. Maybe it’s because we just don’t remember that much from when we went to school (like Algebra that I hadn’t done in 15 years!) Or maybe our child has a talent/interest in something we know nothing about. Maybe it’s because we have several younger children also and are worried about being able to spend the proper amount of time teaching High School, or that we won’t prepare them properly for the college they want to attend. I remember the first year I started homeschooling and I asked a dear friend, “What am I going to do when her knowledge surpasses mine?” Whatever the reason that we get nervous about this time period in our child’s life, it is entirely possible to home school successfully though the High School years, and your children will be much better off for it.

What I was told when I asked the question about what to do when her knowledge surpasses mine is (more…)

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