Thursday, August 13, 2020

Homeschool Help: We've got a resource for that!

2020 has been a stressful year for everyone.  As the start of a new school year approaches, your library is here to support you. Whatever the start of the school year looks like for you and your family, we've got a book (or an app, or a database) for you, all available for FREE with your library card!

Books


Homeschool Bravely by Jamie Erickson

Homeschool Bravely was written by "The Unlikely Homeschool" blogger Jamie Erickson and draws upon the lessons she's learned in the decades she's been homeschooling. Encouraging readers to see their children as works in progress (don't be discouraged - they're not done yet!) and to take advantage of the time homeschooling affords, she'll encourage you to see homeschooling as a calling, help you overthrow the tyranny of impossible expectations, and guide you through the common bumps in the road, including how to:

  • juggle school and parenting with toddlers at home

  • teach a struggling learner
  • plan with the end in mind
  • accept your own limitations without feeling guilty
  • stay the course even in the face of criticism

Speaking to the growing national trend, The Call of the Wild and Free equips families to provide quality homeschool education, and encourages all parents and caregivers to raise kids to experience the adventure, freedom, and wonder of childhood



The Brave Learner by Julie Bogart

When exhausted parents are living the day-to-day grind, it can seem impossible to muster enough energy to make learning fun or interesting. In this book, Julie Bogart distills decades of experience--homeschooling her five now grown children, developing curricula, and training homeschooling families around the world--to show parents how to make education an exciting, even enchanting, experience for their kids. Bogart shows parents how to make room for surprise, mystery, risk, and adventure in their family's routine, so they can create an environment that naturally moves learning forward. Bogart gently invites parents to model brave learning for their kids so they, too, can approach life with curiosity, joy, and the courage to take learning risks.



Rebecca Rupp presents a structured plan to ensure that your children will learn what they need to know when they need to know it, from preschool through high school. Based on the traditional pre-K through 12th-grade structure, Home Learning Year by Year features:
  • The integral subjects to be covered within each grade
  • Standards for knowledge that should be acquired by your child at each level
  • Recommended books to use as texts for every subject
  • Guidelines for the importance of each topic: which knowledge is essential and which is best for more expansive study based on your child's personal interests


Databases 


Lynda.com is an online learning platform that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. For 20 years, Lynda.com has helped students, leaders, IT and design pros, project managers—anyone in any role—develop software, creative, and business skills.



NoveList K-8 Plus is an online database of reading recommendations which encourages reader success. Created especially for people who love books, they've been helping readers find their next favorite book for more than 20 years.

The TumbleBook Library is an online collection of electronic children's books accessible through the library's website. Animation, sound, music and narration are added to existing picture books to produce an electronic book which you can read, or have read to you.

Apps


Both OverDrive and Libby allow you to borrow and read free ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines from your library using your phone or tablet. Both apps allow you to borrow and read the same digital content from your library, they just look and feel different.



Hoopla just came out with some new features: the highlights & notes features are perfect for students to take notes or highlight important passages as they read. They've expanded formatting options to include more text styling, fonts, page colors, and page formatting options than ever and have added a quick-changing landscape view to make the eBook reading experience even easier on a larger screen.

Websites & Resources

Information about state standards and registering your homeschool

This famous (and free) academic resource has resources for parents and mentors. Parents can monitor a student’s progress and choose objectives for their children.

Free online homeschooling curriculum and exercises.  

1-877-ASK-ROSE (1-877-275-7673)

This non-proft Christian organization offers lots of tips and how-to.  You can also subscribe to their free quarterly magazine. 






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