These last few letters of the alphabet are really stretching my thinking. This is week 23 in Blogging Through the Alphabet 2021. This week we are looking at V is for Value Added Learning. My co-host Deidre has been sharing some amazing things to do with lego in her Lego Alphabet Series. This week she is sharing V is for Vacation
I am a first generation home educator, as such I really struggled with homeschooling in the begining because I was looking at everything from a compartmentalised perspective. Thankfully two things happened which really helped free me to enjoy homeschooling.
At the time I was living in New Zealand and they brought in some new laws about reviewing homeschoolers. Our local homeschooling group (South Island Home Educators) held a meeting to help us understand the process. I remember one of the mentor's Dot Brown explaining how to look at what we were doing and classifying it according to subjects. For example if we were doing home economics and baking a cake there were numerous academic subjects being covered not just home economics. We were covering: language arts - reading, math - measurement, critical thinking - following instructions, science - chemistry, home economics - baking, math - budgeting etc.
It really does not matter what you are doing in the moment it is built upon multiple disciplines the art comes in knowing how to dissect it and classify it into the jargon that the homeschooling authority is seeking.
This is what homeschoolers are meaning when we talk about Value Added Learning. You do not need to present six seperate subject classes to cover six different subject areas. Carefully evaluate what you are learning about and you will soon discover that there is far more involved in learning in the every day.
The second thing that happened was I was given The Three R's by Dr Ruth Beechick. This is a treasure trove for new homeschoolers of primary aged students.
Ruth empowers you with the jargon and know how to put you at ease when teaching Reading Writing and Arithmetic. Excellent. It is available from: The Book Depository, Amazon, Fishpond, Sonlight.
It's the jargon affiliated with education that often stumps us as home educators and makes us feel inadequate. Knowledge is power and this really helped relieve me of the anxiety that was clouding my journey.
Chareen
Find the other ABC posts in this series here:
- A is for Art Lessons at Home
- B is for Books Where do You Purchase Yours?
- Charlotte Mason a Round Up of Posts
- Delight Directed Education
- Encouragement for Weary Homeschooling Mothers
- For the Children's Sake
- G is for Geography
- Homeschool Bloggers
- Instagramers to follow who are homeschooling
- Joy in Your Homeschool Journey
- Know Yourself - Stop the Comparison Game
- Life Skills in Your Homeschool
- Math Resource for Home Education
- Netflix in Your Homeschool
- Olympics 2021
- P is for Podcasts
- Quintessentially Homeschool
- Read-A-Loud in Your Homeschool
- Science in Your Homeschool
- Teaching From Rest by Sarah Mackenzie
- Ubiquitous Homeschooler
- Value Added Learning
Featured from last week the letter P...
- U is for Unicorn over at Our Homeschool Notebook
- Ustvolskaya ~ Composer ABCs (composers ABC) from At Home: Where Life Happens
- Letter U Homeschool Tips from Homeschooling Highway.
This Week over at Our Homeschool Notebook the topic is V is for Vacation
