Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

Join me on May 12!

It’s conference season –my favorite time of the year! For me, part of the joy of Spring is the promise of seeing friends old and new, gathering together as a community of families focused on Florida home education. What a gift it is to visit with you all again!

I’m traveling to as many events as I can this year, but undoubtedly won’t make them all. I did, however, want to take a moment to thank those of you who host or help organize activities for home educators. Your efforts are priceless and I so greatly appreciate you bringing children and families together!

On May 12, I’ll be speaking at Florida’s largest secular event ever, the Florida Homeschool Association Convention 2022 in Central Florida, at The Center at Deltona. This event is bringing together experts and professionals from all around the state, and they’ll have a giant vendor hall packed full of curriculum and booksellers, schools and service providers, Florida organizations and evaluators, and more! I’ll be delivering their annual “Homeschool 101” session as well as meeting and visiting with guests at the FLHSA booth.

Learn about it here:

https://www.floridahsa.org/event-details/homeschool-conference-secular-book-fair

I really hope you’ll stop by and say hello!

When you grab your tickets (get them here) make sure to check out the conference program, list of vendors, speakers and workshops, and tick off the ones you really want to see. Place an extra check-mark on my session, because I would love to meet you there!

Hearing your stories and sharing space with you and your families is what conference season is all about — connection.

Hope you can join me at the Florida Homeschool Association event on May 12! Head over and buy your tickets right now, so you don’t forget.

Tickets are only $35 for everything Florida homeschooling, on one day, in one place!

GET TICKETS HERE

Happy Spring,

Marie-Claire

Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau is a college professor who traded in her tenure and professional safety net to become a homeschool mom, education advisor and homeschool counselor, 25 years ago. A home education pioneer and the founder of many groups and organizations, she works to advance home education, and is an outspoken supporter of education reform coast to coast. Her first book, Suddenly Homeschooling: A Quick Start Guide to Legally Homeschool in Two Weeks, was industry-acclaimed when it illustrated how homeschooling could rescue children and families from the public school system, and how anyone could begin homeschooling within a limited time-frame, with no teaching background whatsoever. She has written about science fairs, successful parenting, Florida homeschooling, success in getting into college with top scholarships, and more. A writer, a homeschool leader, and a guidance counselor for homeschooled high schoolers, Marie-Claire shares her expertise in areas that impact homeschool, education, parenting and lifestyle. A conference speaker, she has appeared at Florida Home Education Summit, FPEA/Tampa, H.E.R.I., HECOA, Start Homeschooling Summit, Heart of the Matter, Cultivating Grace, Luminous Mind, Vintage Homeschool Moms, iHomeschool Network, and hundreds of other events. Her articles have appeared in and on Holistic Parenting, CONNECT, Homefires, Homemaking Cottage, Kiwi, Circle of Moms, and countless sites and blogs nationwide. Dr. Moreau currently acts as the Director of the Florida Homeschool Association (FLHSA) and can be reached via their website: www.floridahsa.org.

Awarding credit — three different ways

You may wonder how to award homeschool credit for learning that doesn’t come from a book.  Since there are many ways to homeschool, rest assured, there are different ways to recognize homeschooling achievements, too.

Use one of these methods to recognize your child’s efforts and award the credit they deserve for working outside of a book or curriculum.  Three of the most common ways to do this appear below:

1. COUNTING HOURS

Counting hours is perhaps the simplest way to award homeschool credit. Begin with the notion that no matter what the activity may be, as long as it’s educational, it counts.  You may track hours any way like, such as keeping a daily list and tallying the hours at the end of every school week.  Using these totals, hours may be grouped together to form one single course, or may be spread out over several courses, depending on the subjects you teach that year.  Assigning some limit, such as 150 hours per course, will help determine when a credit has been reached.  (Check your state to see if credit guidelines exist, or make your own.)  And don’t forget that anything related to the class counts, too; therefore things like studying, research, discussions and extracurricular activities related to the topic may be included as well.

2. TOPIC COMPLETION

When using a ready-made curriculum product, completing the book or finishing the entire course makes it easy to know when credit is due.  But, homeschool parents can duplicate this concept on their own, using other kinds of resources, too.  When spelling out the goals of a course, determine just how much material must be covered before the course is complete.  Writing down a list of objectives, either randomly or in the order you hope to meet them, is one way to do this.  Then, once students have completed most or all of what was expected on the list, credit may be awarded and the class considered over.

3. MASTERY

Since homeschooling is flexible and efficient, students may be able to grasp concepts and master skills very quickly.  Regardless of the number of hours, days or weeks something takes to learn, parents may award homeschool credit based solely on this mastery.  Looking at a student’s total level of understanding or mastery of a skill before a class, and at periodic intervals thereafter, homeschool credit can be awarded whenever mastery is achieved.  Resist the temptation to assign extra work to students who complete a class quickly; instead, reward achievement by awarding credit and either giving students a break or the chance to move on to the next course.

Marie-Claire Moreau, Quick Start Homeschool

 

 

SHARE with friends:                                                                             [Image: Free Digital]

Edge-of-their-seats learning

Have you even seen a child watching an action film or a favorite TV program?  How about watching a kid in the stands at some enormous sports arena or at a live concert? 

What do these kids do during the funny scenes?  The moments of explosive action?  The second or third musical encore? 

Move to the edge of their seats, right?

Back straight, they lean in forward, even stretching their necks out as if trying to get in just a tiny bit closer to the action. You might even catch a big, wide smile, a gasp or look of amazement.  Adults do it, too.

Now apply that to your child’s homeschool learning.

Which lessons do you assign that make your kids sit up straight?  What topics get your child to lean in, neck bent, trying to get a closer look?  Is there anything you currently do in your homeschool that gets your child to the edge of his seat?

If the answer is no, get busy! 

Could it be that learning in your home is just a little too hum-drum? 

Nothing beats watching a child find something that sparks an interest or ignites some major fascination.  Though homeschooling learning doesn’t always have to be fun, at least some of it should!  And learning is fun – that is, as long as it’s exactly what a child wants to learn about.

When children are interested – that is, really, really engaged – you’ll absolutely know it. There is no mistaking a child on the edge of her seat, soaking up everything she can.  Make that happen a little bit more often, and you’ve got a full-blown passion on your hands, too.

Take a look at what you’ve got going on in your homeschool today.  Make sure to incorporate ways to get your children sitting on the edge of their seats!

Dr. Moreau writes other articles that appear all over the web.  This one appeared HERE today.