"And he said unto me,
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2Corinthians 12:9)
Helpful Family and Homeschooling Tips
I have been home schooling our children since 2010. It has been very hard work but also a blessing to have that time with the children and to know what they are learning. Homeschooling allows the children to develop in the areas that interest them.
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Over the years, there are things that we have done that have been helpful to us. I will add some of these things to this page as I think of them as they could be helpful for other families or homeschoolers too.
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Please scroll below for these tips.
7:30 Nights
Up until a couple of years ago (when bedtime was a little more predictable), we would have the children tidy up all their toys and rooms before they went to bed. If they succeeded to pass the inspection before 7:30pm, we would have a 7:30 Night.
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On 7:30 Nights, the children would take it in turns to have their choice of what we would do as a family. Some would choose a board game, sometimes we would paint pictures, other times we would watch a video and a popular choice was hide and seek in the dark.
Another popular choice was 'Fix Up Night'. We had a couple of baskets that we put toys in that were broken in some way. On Fix Up Nights, these baskets would come out along with superglue, soldering irons, needle and thread or whatever was needed to fix the toys. In the beginning, it was mostly Dad and Mum labouring to fix these toys that often were not worth much. However, the effort proved worthwhile over the years as the children started to get better and better at fixing the toys themselves.
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Nowadays, the older children are very good at fixing and making things. They have made their own remote control aeroplanes and cars. They have made double height unicycles, electric bikes, and are very good at fixing hoverboards. They are a starting to be a good help when it comes to fixing machinery and cars.
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This all started with 7:30 Fix Up Nights.
Three Week Terms
When you homeschool, you can be flexible even when it comes to school holidays. Several years ago, I decided to have a shorter break over the summer and have three week terms; that is, school for three weeks and then a one week break. I found this much more effective. It helped the children to be fresher as they did their school. It helped me to get the school holiday jobs done more easily as there wasn't as much time for this list to grow.
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Having holidays at a different time than most other schools also made it a lot quieter and easier when we went to a park or some other place as an outing.
Animal Books
While on field experience when I was studying my Graduate Diploma of Education, the school had a visiting author come to speak with the children. She was Rebecca Johnson, who has written many Steve Parish Story Books mostly about Australian animals.
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I learned a lot from this little session with Rebecca and used the information in my homeschooling.
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To read more about this and the books that my children and I made together, please click on the button below.
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Irlen's Syndrome
You may have noticed in the photo that some of our boys are wearing glasses. They are not wearing magnifying lenses but rather, coloured lenses. Years ago we discovered that they had Irlen's Syndrome. The reason I am mentioning it here is that the symptoms can be quite varied but the change that the coloured lenses make to the child's learning ability is significant. Sometimes when it is assumed that the student has dyslexia, it is actually Irlen's. Basically, a person with Irlen's has a brain that finds it difficult to process a certain spectrum of light. A scan of the brain will actually show hot spots when the person is not wearing the right coloured lenses.
One of our boys, would get to halfway through the year of school and then seemed unable to learn anymore. After he got his lenses, his schoolwork suddenly sped up and he was able to think more clearly.
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Another one of our boys wanted the lights off to read. He would get under his desk to do his schoolwork. He loves his lenses and is eager to get them back on after taking them off for swimming.
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Most Irlen's people will find it difficult to read because the words on the page will seem to shimmer or jump. Many will find that a certain colour of paper, or a coloured overlay, is easier for them to read from than white. The difference in fluency of reading is quite telling when comparing with and without the colour they need.
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We are so glad we found out about Irlen's Syndrome as the glasses have made such a difference for our children's learning.