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Taking Care of Business: kids and business ideas

Nov10

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Do your children want things you don’t have the money for or have they asked you how they can generate income for something they want? It can be difficult to come up with ideas and have the know-how to help them do this. Maybe you have a child who has great ideas that you think could actually work. I have discovered some organizations and websites that can help.

Does your child have a great imagination and is always thinking of ways to improve something? Does s/he want to take apart things to see how they work? Plug them into networks for young inventors. There are many  organizations students can join to get hands-on experience in being an inventor and entrepreneur, including Odyssey of the Mind and First Robotics. Plus, organizations like Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and 4H also develop a lot of these leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

And, there are tons of competitions they can enter that will give them a good starting point. Intel and Google each have a science competition. By Kids for Kids is basically a clearinghouse for all kinds of competitions sponsored by companies — not just math and science competitions, but in all different types of categories including arts and athletics. Even if they don’t go on to become an entrepreneur or kid millionaire, it will build valuable life and business skills. Plus, there’s usually a cash prize involved, which gives a nice boost to their piggy bank to help fund their invention, pay for college or help them get a jump-start on saving.

The Secret Millionaires Club is also a part of the By Kids for Kids website that is a cartoon, but has great episodes for young entrepreneurs. The ones I watched were on starting a lemonade stand business and having a business plan.

Perhaps you feel that their interests in this area seem like a distraction to your school day. If you see this as an opportunity for practical applications for  math and science, you can allow this to be a benefit and enrich your curriculum.  Remember, you are exploring and finding the areas of strength and interest that your child has been given. Textbooks are terrific, but look beyond that to see the possibilities of what you child can do. Who knows but that your child has an idea that could revolutionize our world?:)

~Lisa

Dyslexia and Handwriting

Oct6

With cursive writing being dropped from some of the public schools’ curriculum and teachers using it in the classroom less and less, I have been asked by homeschool moms what I think about continuing to teach cursive. I feel it is important, but I wanted to give more information to moms in order to help make an informed decision for handwriting instruction.  I have discovered that cursive is helpful to all students, but particularly dyslexic students. The School of Dyslexia, a blog for educators of dyslexic students, had a great article about this topic.

“Research shows that cursive improves dynamic interplay in the brain, improves fine motor skills, and can help improve the memory of the written concept.The research points to cursive writing engaging massive regions of the brain involving thinking, while typing or block printing keeps the generation of letters separate and less connective thought is involved.  When we are cursive writing, we are making connections from the right side and the left side of the brain; this helps build neural pathways and can increase mental effectiveness.  The brain is plastic, by which I mean it can change depending on how we train it, and cursive writing can help make the right and left-brain connections stronger.

As a school that teaches primarily to dyslexics, we often have students with fine motor challenges.  We often have students that have challenges with doing up buttons, tying shoes, these sorts of tasks.  Cursive writing naturally develops sensory skills, as the student understands angles, pencil position, and mostly motor planning to form each letter in a fluid motion from left to right.
Finally, memory can be greatly affected by the use of cursive.  As letters are connected to form words, more attention is given to the entire word, and by extension the entire thought.  It is easier for students, especially dyslexic and ADD students to think about what they are writing without losing their focus.  The continued attention and fluidity in writing often results in more long-term memory of the concepts.”

source: Derek Rhodenizer,Vice Principal, Heritage Academy 
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada  from a post on School of Dyslexia

Here are some websites that have handwriting worksheets for you to customize:

Handwriting Worksheets

Worksheet Works

Tile Blocks Ideas and Giveaway Winners

Sep29

imagesOh, the things you can do with wooden tiles! Young children love to play and manipulate small objects. Using 1 inch tiles can help with mathematical and other academic concepts.

Visually appealing, tile blocks can be used to help students with the following concepts:

  • sorting
  • color recognition
  • counting out the number of each color (You can decrease the amount of tiles according to the child’s ability.)
  • making designs You can make your own or download pentomino worksheets 
  • measurement (Line tiles up in various lengths and use a ruler or a tape measure to measure how long it is.)
  • demonstrate the concept of sets
  • demonstrate the concept of area
  • develop small motor skills
  • follow directions For example: Find a blue tile and stack a yellow tile on top of it. Now add a green tile on top of the yellow tile. Draw a picture of your stack.
  • independent work You can keep these tiles in a small tub and bring them out when your older children are doing school.

 

3 winners have been awarded a set of blocks. Please see the comments section to find out if you won. 

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching Financial Literacy

Aug4

 

Photo illustration of one hundred dollar notes in Seoul

While a financial literacy course is now a requirement for the state of Ohio high school graduates, it is never too early to begin teaching fiscal responsibility to our children. This topic can be taught as part of your mathematics curriculum.

Dave Ramsey has a wide range of curriculum, beginning with the Financial Peace Junior for ages 3-12, all the way through high school graduates. He also has homeschool curriculum that can be used for a high school credit  for students grades 9-12. To see this specific program, CLICK HERE.

The Secret Millionaire’s Club has animated webisodes that teach the basic principles of financial and business problems to solve. There are 26 episodes in the series and it can be used at home or in a group setting. Each episode has an activity guide that accompanies it for further discussion. Activity Guide

Money as You Grow is a website that was created by the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability and has objectives and activities for children from preschool through senior high school.

Financial Literacy, a website sponsored by the United States Mint, has activities and lesson plans, as well as additional resources.

~Lisa