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10 Tips for Choosing Teaching Materials

by Ellyn Davis

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It's that time of year again...time to decide which teaching materials we are going to use for the next school year.

Choosing what you're going to use to home school your children with this fall can be an intimidating task, first because around this time of year, if you're like me, the last thing in the world you want to do right now is think about school for awhile. Second, because there is so much out there to choose from.

There are so many excellent products available and each one claims to be superior to all others, so it's really hard to decide what will work best with your children.

But before you actually buy trunkloads of stuff, I'd advise that you revisit some of the basics of what your educational philosophy is, what your family is like, and what teaching and learning styles you have to work with.

I know that it takes some experience to determine which materials are best suited to your teaching style and your children's needs, but I am also convinced that the Lord can lead concerned parents to the teaching materials and methods that work best for their family. Here are some suggestions concerning choosing curricula:

10 Rules of thumb for choosing teaching materials

Rule #1: Invest in yourself first. Like it or not, you are the glue that will hold this home schooling endeavor together, so you need to develop a strategy for staying sane and on top of it all (even if it means scheduling a nap every afternoon). You wouldn't dream of trying to build a house without a plan, the right materials, and the necessary tools. Home schooling is like building a house--you need to determine your plan, gather your materials, and be sure you have the right tools for the job. Take some time to read, to look around, to compare. Invest in some of the "tools of the trade" like the "must haves" and parent resources listed in this ejournal.

Begin rearranging your house so it will accommodate study without becoming too cluttered or stressful. Think through what you will do with infants and toddlers during school times; how you will handle meals, house cleaning, and laundry; and how you will deal with the other changes schooling at home brings.

Don"t feel guilty about spending money on yourself. After all, if you were a professional teacher, you (or your parents) would have spent tens of thousands of dollars getting you ready to stand before a classroom of children. So think in terms of what will make you more confident and able to create a learning environment for your household. What will smooth your way mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually?

Rule #2: Consider your situation. A farm family will have many opportunities for "hands on" learning in the areas of math, science, economics, etc. A city family has access to museums, libraries, cultural events, and more support group activities. You can make the most of the real life learning opportunities God gives you, perhaps never needing textbooks and teaching materials in certain subject areas. 

I once had a missionary call me bemoaning the fact that she lived in a large foreign city and her children weren't able to do much nature study. She completely overlooked all the wonderful opportunities her children had to learn foreign languages, history, and geography, and to interact with other cultures. So, look around. God may have already arranged a learning environment for you that is better than a classroom.

Rule #3: Choose teaching materials that compliment the learner. Textbooks developed for classroom use tend to be "teacher directed" and chalkboard oriented, seldom taking into account children's interests or of the different ways children perceive and process information. Each student has a style in which he learns best. 

Different children have different learning strengths and weaknesses that the perceptive parent will take into account when choosing teaching materials. For example, visual learners may do well with workbooks, while auditory learners need songs or spoken instruction and kinesthetic learners need to manipulate objects. (In a future ejournal we will discuss different learning styles and preferences.)

Rule #4: If you don't like the material, you will resist using it no matter how good it is. All teaching materials have a bias, not just in the subject matter, but also in the way the subject matter is presented. Every teaching parent, whether he or she recognizes it or not, has an educational philosophy--some set of values and beliefs about what and how children should be taught.

Sometimes we will have an unexplained inner resistance to certain teaching materials. It could be that this inner resistance arises from a conflict between our educational philosophy and that of the teaching material.

Trust the Holy Spirit and choose from your spirit as well as from your head. No matter how much your friends rave about a particular product, don't buy it if you don't really like it yourself. A key question to ask is: "Does just looking at this curriculum make me feel tired or pressured?" Your body knows what's good for you. Listen to it.

Rule #5: Avoid programs that require a great deal of teacher preparation. Unless you are a researcher-type or high-energy person, you will be frustrated by programs with detailed teacher's manuals to wade through, supplemental books or seminars that are necessary to fully utilize the program, or lots of activities to prepare beforehand.

Rule #6: Expect to waste time, energy, and especially money. You will soon discover that often it is you, not your children, who are being educated. So loosen up and accept the fact that some of what you buy will be a total waste of time, energy, and money. This is all a part of learning what works for you and for your children. Consider it payment of your tuition in the University for Home Educating Parents .

Rule #7: Be aware that there are various schools of thought concerning the teaching of any subject. Some examples: In math there are programs that are primarily problem solving with manipulatives and programs that are primarily problem solving on paper. In reading there are programs that focus on learning phonics before learning to read, programs that focus on learning the rules while learning to read, and programs that focus on just learning to read and letting the rules come later.

Each school of thought has produced excellent mathematicians, readers, and spellers, but sometimes products will be advertised as better than the rest because they follow a particular school of thought.

Rule #8: Realize that there is no perfect curriculum. What works with one child won't necessarily work with another. What worked one year may not necessarily work the next. Your family's needs and interests will change. Buy materials that meet present needs. Mold the curriculum to the child, not the child to the curriculum. 

Also, be aware that not all books in a series are equally as good. For example, the fourth grade level of a particular program may be excellent, but this does not mean the other levels are.

Rule #9: God gave you YOUR specific children because there is something in YOU that He wants imparted to them. Teaching materials are only tools to help you impart yourself to (disciple) your children. You can trust the Lord to lead you to those materials that will help you best disciple each child.

Rule #10: Remember that teaching materials are often the least important elements of your home school. Books are easy to discard if they don't work for you, but attitudes and destructive family dynamics are not. According to a survey of home schooling families, five major reasons families fail at home education are: (1) they lack the personal conviction to persevere through the difficult times; (2) the father is not involved; (3) the children are undisciplined and resist parental instruction; (4) the parents cannot handle the added responsibilities; and (5) the family has unrealistic expectations.

The best teaching materials in the world are going to take a back seat to the attitudes and family dynamics in your household.

Until next time.... 

Ellyn

I Saw the Angel in the Marble

With over 4,000 copies sold in just a few months, I Saw the Angel in the Marble is becoming a home schooling best seller!

This book represents the best of 15 years of Elijah Company articles. Find our more HERE>>

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Making a Living Online within 279 Days

Several months ago I stumbled across an interesting little guide called 279 Days to Overnight Success. This book chronicles one writer's journey to becoming a full-time, self-supporting writer in 279 days through a blog and several products he created.

The report was incredibly encouraging to me because I’ve wanted for some time to revamp my website and turn it into something that was a real expression of what I believe about home schooling but that also helped others.

 So I resolved to start working on my OWN 279 day path to success. My goal: achieve full-time, self-supporting writer status in 279 days or less. Call it my personal 279 Day Challenge.

You can follow me in my journey to making a living on the internet HERE.

Creating Your Life on-line course at 1/3 off. This is an online, video-based self-study course in which Robert Fritz is your teacher and you learn to create your own life just as an artist paints a painting, a composer composes a symphony, or a poet writes a poem. In this course, Robert further develops the special insights that he introduced in his best selling book The Path of Least Resistance. The course has five lessons that will take you from 5 to 10 weeks to complete and includes a copy of Robert’s book Your Life as Art as well as the course materials and use of tools on the website. This course online is normally $299 and if you took it in person in Vermont it would be at least twice that. But with this special invitation code you can enroll for $199. I highly recommend that you take this course as a family—husband, wife, and high school age children. To enroll in this course, go to www.wisepond.com and enter this invitation code: AFF1455.

Organic Play Dough at great savings!

Our friend Susan is a home schooling Mom and she is very concerned about her children's health. Her son, Liam is allergic to almost every chemical known to man, so Susan has to be very, very careful what she allows him to play with. When he gets together with other children and they play with Play Doh, Liam can't play. The dyes and chemicals in the dough can not only make him very sick, they might kill him.

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Home School and Home Business


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We have the following WRITING IN NARRATIVE books available: The Reluctant Writer, Writing Man 1 & 2, and WIN Twin.

Turning Hearts: Davis Seminar Set (8 CDs)

The Best of Chris and Ellyn Davis, this set contains seminars given by Chris and Ellyn Davis of The Elijah Company at home schooling conventions. The set contains all of the favorites that home schoolers ask for over and over. People have told us this set of CDs changed their lives. Find out more about them HERE>>


Angel in the Marble/Davis Seminars Set
Order a combination of I Saw the Angel in the Marble and the Davis Seminars CDs HERE>>


Building the Home School of Your Dreams is a 6 CD set taken from the From Home School To Home Business Seminar and features sessions by Chris Davis and Mary Hood. Find out more HERE>>

From Home School to Home Business
(14 CD Set)

If you missed one of our From Home School to Home Business Conferences, you missed a great time.People who attended told us that it changed their lives—not only in the area of home schooling, but also in the area of creating their own sources of home income.This set is huge and filled with useful and encouraging information about how to be successful at home schooling and at home business! Find out more about this life-changing set of CDs HERE>>

Building the Business of Your Dreams (8 CD Set) We've had requests for just the business portion of the From Home School to Home Business Seminar, so have developed a set of the business CDs from that set. It contains 8 CDs and includes sessions on The Entrepreneurial Mind, Multiple Streams of Home Income, Discovering Your Ideal Life and Ideal Business (2 CDs) , Developing a Business Plan (2 CDs), and The Importance of Business Relationships. Plus, there is a very important and insightful interview on Redeeming the Marketplace. Find out about this life-changing set of CDs HERE>>