Community College Cautions for Homeschoolers

By Lee Binz

Because many states pay for community college tuition for qualified high school juniors and seniors, a lot of homeschoolers are jumping on the community college bandwagon to a free 2-year degree. But homeschoolers need to be aware of the potential pitfalls, as well as the possibilities, of a community college education, free or not, before they send their children into that environment.

If, for example, you have ever said that public university is not an option for your family because it does not fit your family values, you probably won't be happy with community college either. As much as many public universities are very liberal, radical, and sometimes offensive, a community college can be even more so.

If you do decide that community college is a possibility for your student, there are some strategies to mitigate these problems. The first thing you can do is to use the buddy system, which is what we did when our sons went to community college. We waited until they were both ready to take classes, and tried to always have them in a classroom together or with one or two other friends.

Another way to avoid bad experiences is to evaluate the professors ahead of time. www.ratemyprofessor.com is a good place to find helpful information. Make sure to look at the comments as well as the ratings, because some students rate professors highly just because they don't give homework, or because they show inappropriate material in class. Make sure that you check the actual reviews on that website.

In addition to using the buddy system and vetting professors, it's a good idea to read the course textbooks in advance, as this will give you a sense of the philosophical bent of the teacher. When he was at community college, my son decided to take a class in music improvisation.

He got the textbook and read ahead, but after looking at it, he said, "Mom, I can't take this class." I frankly thought that he was just blowing off a little teenager steam, until he said, "I'm serious. I can't do this class." When I asked why, he said "You've got to read this in the book." I looked at the passages in the textbook that he pointed out. In this textbook the author said that he would always capitalize the word "Self" throughout the book because "you should always capitalize the name of God." He went on to say that since only God could create music, that meant you were, in fact, God. So check those textbooks, and be prepared!

Navigating community college is just another one of those challenging things that homeschool parents experience. But armed with good information and advice, you can succeed! Take a look at my free mini course, "The 5 Biggest Mistakes Parents Make When Homeschooling High School " to avoid other pitfalls common in homeschooling!

If you would like some help putting together your child's transcripts from homeschooling and community college, my Total Transcript Solution will show you how to create an AMAZING homeschool transcript that will impress the colleges!

Lee Binz, The HomeScholar

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Homeschool Record Keeping Reminders

By Lee Binz

Course descriptions are an important part of your homeschool student's high school records, because they give colleges a great picture of what your homeschool looked like. Good record keeping is key to creating those course descriptions. If you don't keep good records, it will be hard to remember what you did, especially if you have multiple children. Use your records as the tools they are, and your course descriptions will be a breeze!

It's particularly easy to make a course description if you use a textbook. Keep a photocopy of the cover of the book and the table of contents, and you can create a whole course description with just that information. Another nice thing about using textbooks is that if you visit the publisher's website or catalog, they often have course descriptions there, already written out for you.

For the very easiest course description experience, keep track of everything you do that is educational, and use it to help write your course descriptions. If you go to a museum, put the receipt in your records binder (or however you keep your records). If your student creates a sculpture, take a picture and keep that in your records. Anytime you do anything or go anywhere educational, figure out where it fits, and keep a record of it.

Of course, you don't need to keep everything! Your child will take a lot of tests and write a lot of papers, but you don't have to keep each one. Just keep the ones that are out of the ordinary, special, or a good representation, and include them with your records.

It's important to remember that record keeping is not scrap booking! Those pretty pictures that you took of the state fair should be put in your scrap book and not in your record keeping. If you have a tall soccer trophy from when your child was in 5th grade and won most inspirational student, don't include that! That's a memento and not a part of your record keeping. Keep things that are academic in nature or things that are high school level.

Don't forget that it's relatively common for homeschool students to do high school level material when they are younger. If, for instance, your junior high student is doing Algebra right now, make sure to keep some records on Algebra even if they are not yet in 9th grade. It's academic, and it's high school level, so it goes on the record!

Did you know that failing to keep good homeschool records in high school is one of "The 5 Biggest Mistakes Parents Make When Homeschooling High School. Learn how to avoid all 5 mistakes in my free e-mail mini-course available on my website.

My Total Transcript Solution will show you how to create an AMAZING homeschool transcript that will impress the colleges!

Lee Binz, The HomeScholar, is a homeschool high school expert. Both her two boys earned full-tuition scholarships at their first choice university. Learn how she did it on www.TheHomeScholar.com.

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How to Prepare Your Child to Read in 5 Easy Steps

By Kat Tul

1. Read to your child early and often. When they are at the stage of being able to understand what you're doing, follow along with your finger as you're reading each word. This will help them realize that you are reading left to right, sounding out words, and what the words look like. Having many books in your home and reading to your child every day will foster a love of stories and reading that will last a lifetime. Teaching your child to read, is one thing. Teaching your child to love to read is another. The process of learning to read should to be a natural progression of push and retreat, as they become ready for each new stage. It needs to be a positive, playful and fun process if you want your child to ultimately enjoy reading.

2. Teach your child the alphabet song so that they begin to learn the names of the individual letters and their alphabetical order. Singing and playing is the best way to keep your child open to receiving new information. With repetition, your child will begin to memorize the alphabet which is the basis for learning how to read. Next, they need to see the shape of each letter as they sing the ABC's. This will help them associate the name of the letter with what the letter looks like, both capital and lower case.

3. Have educational alphabet toys around the house. There are many letter toys that say the name of the letter and the phonetic sound that letter makes. Playing is a no pressure learning zone. Some of the beneficial toys include; letters your child can play with in the bathtub when their attention is more focused. You can have your child find certain letters, and then say the phonetic sound it makes. Create fun games with them. There are also magnetic letter sets you can put on your refrigerator in the kitchen. Those are nice because they are constantly available. Your child interacts with the individual magnetic letters by putting them into a small magnetic letter reader which then says the name of the letter, the sound it makes, and sings a little song about it. This is a wonderful toy because it is so accessible being in the kitchen. It's nice when your child is interested in something that can hold their attention while it is teaching them at the same time. Then of course, there are many DVDs that can entertain your child as well as broaden their pre-reading education.

4. Interact with your child and the letters of the alphabet. Engage your child in alphabet games. Finding letters is like a scavenger hunt adventure. As you go about your day, make it a game to find each letter of the alphabet on anything you see, from labels, signs or billboards etc. Depending on your child's level, you can merely have one letter of the day each day, or if they are more advanced you can go systematically though the alphabet in alphabetical order. Reinforce the phonetic sound the letter makes once that letter is identified. Remember to also reinforce your child's accomplishment to encourage them to learn even more.

5. Once your child can recognize letters, identify letter names and the phonetic sound each letter makes, they have mastered the foundation for learning how to read. At this stage, when you're reading to them, progressively get them more involved. Have your child sound out a word or two as you're reading along together. Not guessing the word because they already know the story, but actually sounding out the individual letters and putting them together to make a little word. At first, use very small words like "u" "p", "up". A little at a time, they will feel the pride of accomplishing a job well done. For positive reinforcement you can reward them with stickers for their success. Children love learning new things, and even tiny achievements help build their self-esteem.

Reading is the foundation for all higher education. LeapFrog Letter Factory helps build basic pre-reading skills.

LeapFrog Letter Factory teaches the basics for learning how to read. Children also enjoy DVD's from The LeapFrog DVD Sets.

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