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Blog — Electives

Playing with Plays- The best way to do plays by Shakespeare and other famous playwrights

Posted by Michelle Osborn on

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Personal Finance: A subject we should all be teaching our teens

Posted by Michelle Osborn on

Is personal finance and budgeting a required class for your homeschooled high schooler? It is in our homeschool. 
I believe that money management and time management are two very important subjects that are often ignored. Both are subjects that our children will need great skills in for the rest of their lives! Hoping that they just figured it out on their own is wishful thinking. 
Children learn from adult modeled behavior. Is it any surprise then, if parents don't handle their money well, their children will not either? And if you look at statistics, most don't ever figure it out, at least not how to manage it well. (continue reading)

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Music is Powerful: Harness the Power in Your Homeschool

Posted by Michelle Osborn on

Music is Powerful- Ways to Harness the Power in Your Homeschool

 Guest post from Martha Reineke of FreeSchoolLinks. at Musicinourhomeschools.com

MUSIC IS POWERFUL: WAYS TO HARNESS THE POWER IN YOUR HOMESCHOOL

Have you ever laid in a hammock, or on a towel next to the ocean, listening to the sound of the waves lapping at the shore? There is just something about the rhythmic crash of the waves that lulls you into a state of relaxation. You cannot long rest near the shoreline without feeling the effects of the waves.

What if there were a way to have the effects of such a location, without having to travel long distances to the ocean? Similar to the lapping waves, is the beat of a drum, or the sway of a soothing melody. Music is powerful.

Music isn’t just a tool for physical and emotional therapy, however. Music, and learning to play an instrument have been directly linked to higher grades, improved cognitive function and increased concentration levels. Scientists at John’s Hopkins College have experimented with music and shown that educators who employ music in their classrooms have seen an improvement in their students’.... read more

  

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What's A Unit Study?

Posted by Michelle Osborn on

Hands-on learning is lapbooks, drama, unit studies, games, nature walks, and building projects; creating artwork for Grandma and baking treats for the neighbors; sewing and beading and paper crafting. Hands-on learning is gardening and raising fish or lizards or sea monkeys. Hands-on learning is knitting hats for orphanages and entering rabbits in county fairs; collecting flowers or insects, rocks or chickens or snakes, and identifying them, researching their habits and habitats, and building exhibits. Hands-on learning is creating code for computer games and creating home-based businesses as entrepreneurs.

Your children will have far better memories and a far greater learning capacity,.... continue reading.

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Playing with Plays: Shakespeare Like You've Never Seen It Before!

Posted by Michelle Osborn on

Playing with Plays is one of the best ideas I have seen for introducing children and youth to Shakespeare and other well known playwrights. Most students are not interested in learning about Shakspeare, let alone reading one of his plays! This will change if you take part in Playing with Plays! 

These melodramatic plays are 15- 20 minutes long and each book includes scripts for three group sizes for 8-22+ actors. Although these are very short interpretations of the actual plays, there are actual lines...... 

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