Keeping a Portfolio
Keeping a Portfolio for homeschooled children and teens; 1st-6th, 7th-8th, 9th-12th;
Sole Writer
–Delana H. Stewart WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter have opened up a whole new world for budding writers. Parents often ask me how to encourage their children who desire to become professional writers. Here are some things I have learned along the way. Encourage your budding writers to: Keep a journal. Write in your journal daily,…
Little Hearts and Hippo Farts
Sneak this treasure into your kids’ summer days, and the whole family will enjoy the excitement! Hey! They might even stay brushed up on their reading skills and be motivated to write something of their own. Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer was written by Ali Maier, mother of two, elementary school teacher,…
Writing Tips
From age 5 to 95, the most important tip about writing is to simply write, write, write. Ajay Ohri says it very well in the post “How to be a Better Writer” (see image below). Four years ago, I shared three valuable tips for sharpening your writing skills, click here. See also, the following great…
Christmas Poetry
Looking for some meaningful Christmas poetry to read with your family? Check out these!
Weekly Writing Challenge: Easy as Pie
Easy as What???? This week’s WordPress writing challenge is to post something to your blog using metaphors and similes. I thought this would be a good opportunity to challenge The Education Cafe readers to post a comment to this blog with some of your favorite metaphors and similes. I know this blog has a lot…
Spine-tingling
–-Delana H. Stewart On Facebook today, Scholastic introduced me to book spine poetry. And now I am hooked! For their book spine poetry ideas, click on this link: http://oomscholasticblog.com/2012/08/book-spine-poetry-an-experiment.html. Scholastic got their idea from here: http://100scopenotes.com/2012/04/02/2012-book-spine-poem-gallery-2/. On this link you will find a gallery of photos of book spine poetry done by kids. Some of…
Nine Year Pregnancy
For two years now many of you have visited The Education Cafe to find answers and ask questions regarding education–both home school and traditional school, as well as to find timely advice regarding parenting. As creator and administrator of this blog, I would like to personally invite you to check out my latest endeavor. I…
School House Blog
—Delana S I grew up with School House Rock and am thrilled that many of those great educational video songs are still available for kids growing up today. But, as you faithfully teach your children about nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, don’t forget the importance of helping them become proficient in the technology-sense required of…
Resources and Curriculum for Educating the Right-Brained Learner
Specific resources and curriculum for educating right-brained learners and others who think outside the box.
Poetic Pizza
–-Delana S Okay, so this is not really about pizza but it does have pizazz! Now, pizza can be poetic…or at least inspiring…but that is for another discussion. Would you like to motivate your kids to read and write poetry during National Poetry Month and beyond? Here are some sites for all ages and genders:…
National Poetry Month — Exposed
Snow
Spring and Summer Break Fun Folders
In order to keep up my daughter’s skills fresh over spring break and summer vacation, I decided to create some fun folders with all sorts of activities to motivate reading, writing, and arithmetic. These folders can be used at home or on the go. In the post Kindergarten Through Second Grade Readers, I told you…
College Essays and Apps
(excerpted from Preparing for College) Good writing is writing that is easily understood. Avoid the overuse of adjectives, adverbs, big words (don’t abuse the thesaurus), the word “however,” and exclamation points!! Buy and read The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. Have one good writer critique your essay and another proofread…
Courage: An Unlikely Example
~An 8th grade essay by: Ellen C.~ Courage is not the absence of fear, but the facing of it in the strength given us. These days, courage is made to seem like an extraordinary thing, and at times those who act in it are exalted to legend-like positions. However, courage is not found only in…
Step Out of the Dark Ages — Develop a Blog
-Delana S Blogging can be an excellent way to encourage your kids to write. Consider starting a family blog. In addition to encouraging good writing, blogging can help your kids develop good habits and skills on the internet that will be invaluable when they enter adulthood and need to consider being googleable. Here are some…
Writer’s Inc (12 days of Christmas, 12 days)
By: Delana S So the countdown to Christmas begins! I decided to highlight one book a day for each day counting down to Christmas. On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me… Writer’s Inc This book is a student handbook for writing and learning. Whether your students are in homeschool or…
Striving for Excellence in Writing, Grammar, and Reading
By: Hannah H Last year, we made a great stride in writing. The two older children went through the Institute for Excellence in Writing course. In short, the instructor (on dvd) teaches a method through repetition. The children go through the same method every time they write. He gives them tools, so they can write…
Homework Helps–Free online video lessons in all subjects
A site review by Delana S I recently discovered educational streaming lessons on the discovery education site. If you have good internet capabilities these lessons might be helpful for supplementing. Though the main page of this site requires pass code and login, the homework help page listed below does not. There are video lessons in…
Online Textbooks for Middle School and High School
US History http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/hyper_titles.cfm “An interactive, multimedia history of the United States from the Revolution to the present.” [As of 9/30/2010–most of the links on the digital history site are accessible for free.] Pre-Algebra http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/Math/PreAlg01/default.asp [Note: As of 9/30/2010 this link is a free online Pre-Algebra text.] Note: The classzone online books are NOT free. Algebra…
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