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Dear Readers:
Welcome to another installment of The Way Home E-newsletter. In this issue we have 2 very informative and topical articles. The first is Teaching Computer Skills to Your Children by Scott Weberg. As the article discusses, computer literacy is becoming more of a bona fide skill every day and Mr. Weberg has assistance! The second excellent article is by Victoria Kindle-Hodson, one of the two Learning Success Coach founders and an expert on peaceful conflict resolution. Victoria's article touches upon some parenting issues that would have been valuable to parents of the 1950s and '60s - and their offspring! We hope you enjoy The Way Home and our four websites for homeschoolers. Please visit them and let us know if we can publish something of particular interest. Thank you for reading our publications.
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Michael Leppert
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Why Grammar? From Pariah to Powerplayer
Grammar has historically borne a scarlet letter on par with Hester Prynne's. It walked this world largely alone, with only a punctilious few whose affinity for grammar seemingly began in-utero, as its only champion. The rest of us have ambled through our daily lives, desperately hoping we never encountered these scarlet letters and unwittingly imposed on them our tin ear for language-and their invariable earful about our apathetic destruction of the language they so cherish. Yet as of late, grammar has begun to relinquish its status as a sideshow of education, unshackling itself from its pariah image, and is emerging to be a power player in schools, in educational discourse, and in daily life.
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Teaching Computer Skills to Your Children
by Scott Weberg
As I talk to homeschool parents about teaching computer skills to their children, the majority feel that they are lacking the knowledge to teach anything about computers. Many wonder if the subject is even important enough to attempt. In this article I will offer some answers to the questions that these parents have. Why is it important to consider teaching my kids computer skills? Which computer skills should they learn, and at what age? And how do I teach these skills when I don't have them myself?
A basic aptitude with computers and technology is becoming a requirement in our society's education systems. Based on my own research, about 10 states currently require some form of computer proficiency for high school graduation, and at least another 7 states require high schools to offer computer courses as an option. Increasingly, colleges are recommending proficiency in computer skills to be competitive during the application process. If a college education is in your child's future, a computer skills course is something to seriously consider.
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Keyboard Town PALS™ Typing Program
By Michael Leppert
As computers replace or diminish virtually every form of written communication, typing is an absolute must for all children to learn as soon as possible. It only takes a few minutes of frustrating hunt-and-peck key-stroking for an untrained typist to realize the advantage that trained typists enjoy. Some writers can type almost as fast as they can mentally compose an article or blog and such speed gives a person a leg up in virtually any arena of study or business.
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See the Needs Behind Every Action
Excerpted from "Respectful Parents; Respectful Kids . . . 7 Keys to Turn Family Conflict Into Cooperation"
Key Concepts
All behavior is an attempt to meet a need;
Children are always doing their best to meet their needs;
You are responsible for meeting your own needs;
Feelings are messengers of met and unmet needs;
Children want to be heard and understood
Why do we do what we do? Why do our children behave the way they do?
Sometimes, of course, it's easy to understand why people do certain things: Ask a child why he eats, and he'll say he's hungry. Ask why he wants to go out with his friends, he'll say for fun, to play. And why he asks so many questions? Because he wants to know some things. But ask him why he hit his little sister or why he doesn't want to do school work today, and he's not so clear. He's likely to say, "Cuz she's stupid, I hate her." Or "School is dumb!"
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Wholemovement
How much math can be learned by folding one circle in half?
A year ago I counted over one hundred and twenty individual math functions and relationships by observing what is revealed in folding one paper plate circle in half. This information is accessible to anyone through observation and thinking about what they are doing. The information is in what we do, not what we have done, not by learning what others have done. This can be initiated at first grade level and is relevance to all subsequent years of math education. I am close to finishing 90 pages that walk through this process.
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