Homeschool helps
What to Keep? What to Sell?
When first beginning to sell homeschool books, it can be difficult to determine which books need to stay on your home library shelves and which can be released to bless other homeschool families.
Here are some helpful guidelines:
Sell
Books commonly available at the public library—particularly if you live nearby
Grade specific curriculum your youngest child has outgrown; particularly math, science and language arts
Books no one in your home wants to read, especially if they are gathering dust
Keep
A few quality general reference guides: grammar, thesaurus, concordance and booklist guides
Each child’s one favorite book—this will be unique for each child and family
Books you’d love to read to your grandchildren some day
If you are in need of cash for the following year’s curriculum, you may want to sell more than you’d ordinarily keep. Or, if your storage space is limited, you’ll probably want to keep only the best of the best. Not every book will fall into this category.
One last tip is to trust your children! If they tell you they didn’t like a book—even if all the best homeschool programs love it, go ahead and sell. You’ll be blessing another family, making space for new and better books and keeping book clutter to a minimum.
Worst case scenario: You sell a book and you regret it. You can always re-buy it! This has happened to me one time in three years and I’ve sold hundreds of books. Don’t let worry be your guide. | | sallyc |
| | Homeschool helps
Maximizing the Middle School Years
During six, seventh and eighth grades, children go through wonderful and frightening changes. They progress from children to young adults. They start to develop their own goals. They begin to make their faith their own rather than just an extension of their parent’s. They also mature as students. To prepare middle schoolers for high school, students need an opportunity to become more responsible and independent in their studies.
To prepare our daughter for high school, we allowed her to become progressively more responsible for her school work. In sixth grade we give her full authority over scheduling and completing work in two of her most confident subjects. In seventh we added two more and by eighth, she was completely independent. She had some lumps and bumps along the way that taught her what to do and more importantly, what not to do.
This allowed my husband and me to determine if we would continue to homeschool her through high school or enroll her in the local public school. It was also an opportunity for her to learn to be an independent student in a safe environment.
We feel that not only did our daughter learn academics through middle school, she developed valuable life skills that would serve her well in high school, college and beyond. | | sallyc |
Bible & Spiritual growth
Christmas Prayer Chain
I saw this in some magazine, and thought it was a great idea! You know the red and green paper chains we used to make to decorate the Christmas tree with when we were kids? My son and I each pick someone we know that needs prayer. We write their name on a chain link, and add it to our paper chain.
We start this at the beginning of December, adding 2 names per day, and do this all the way till Christmas Day. By Christmas, your chain should be quite long! Each day during prayer time, remember the names on your chain, and pray for those you wrote down. This is a very easy way to teach your child to remember the needs of others. Every time we pray, my son reminds me ''don't forget our chain''! :) | | kimberly66 |
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