By Teresa Jones from BiblioPlan

 

“Would you like to learn to write with a feather?” The park guide asked, while handing my daughter a quill and a little jar of ink. She curiously accepted the feather and scratched out her name on a weathered-looking piece of parchment. This was one of the first beautiful spring days and we were fortunate enough to be attending a homeschool program at a historical fort. But I kept glancing at the time and asking myself a crucial question: Could we race home soon enough to get a full day of school work done so we wouldn’t fall behind?

 

I was making a critical mistake when it comes to homeschooling and I don’t want you to do the same.

 

How to make the most of your field trip:

  1.  Plan ahead. If you’re going to an art museum to see the newest exhibit, take a few minutes to learn about the artist. Heading to a Civil War battlefield? Learn why this battle was important in the war. Your children don’t need to memorize every detail. They don’t need to be studying the topic as part of their normal schoolwork. They will learn while on the field trip, but it would be helpful for them to have a framework of the significance of the location.
  2. What can we ask? When planning field trips when my children were younger, I’d ask this simple question on the drive there. “What questions can we ask while we are on our field trip?” This challenged my kids to think about what they knew and what they wanted to know. In addition, it also prepared them up for some interaction while on the field trip. We’d decide what were good questions and then make sure we learned the answers while on the field trip.  
  3. Ask for accommodations if necessary. If you have any special concerns, don’t worry about contacting the place of your field trip ahead of time. Remember, they want you to have a great experience and will be glad to help you with any arrangements to make that happen. For years, I had wanted to take my children to a Civil War encampment and battle reenactment, but I knew my daughters would hate the loud blasts and burnt smell that come from the paper cartridges during the battle reenactment. So year after year, I’d pass on the event. Finally, one year, I asked the organizers if there was a way for us to experience the civil war encampment, but not the loud and smelly blasts. Their solution was simple: come the day before when everyone is setting up their camps. It was perfect! We walked through the encampment and talked to the men and women as they set up. They were happy to explain what they were doing and answer all of our questions. It’s always great to learn from people who are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about a subject. Their lively interest is contagious!
  4. For all the special accommodations and prep work, make sure you find a balance. Don’t become that pushy parent who insists their child “demonstrate” their knowledge on the field trip. Don’t force your child to shoot their arm up at every question asked. Don’t expect them to thoughtfully consider every piece of artwork. Don’t use the field trip as a chance for them to show off their knowledge to others.
  5. And finally my last tip, the advice I wished I had followed at that historical fort when my daughter was writing with a quill: relax and enjoy it! I was so worried about “getting our school work done” that I forgot the reason we were at that fort in the first place, to learn and to have a great time doing it! Everyone will have fun and learn even more if you’re not stressed about hurrying home to get some schoolwork done! The field trip IS your school work for the day! Enjoy the break from the usual routine.

 

As I send my oldest off to college this fall, I realize the number of field trips in my future are dwindling. The days spent wandering through art museums or riding a wagon through an apple orchard are coming to a close. Those field trip memories are some of the highlights of our homeschool days. 

 

Teresa Jones has been homeschooling for nearly 10 years. Her oldest daughter will be a college freshman in the fall and her younger daughter will be a high school sophomore. She represents BiblioPlan at homeschool conventions and online. She also teaches one of BiblioPlan’s online history classes. Her family’s favorite field trip was the Homeschool Day at Fort Ticonderoga.

 

 

 


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by Zack Edwards from Historical Conquest

 

Kids these days are bombarded with flashy pictures, jaw-dropping special effects, and other influences that help excite their minds and keep their attention; then, they are asked to sit in a boring classroom or look at a book and read something that they are not that interested in. It is truly a struggle to keep youths interested in doing schoolwork, with so many other opportunities around them. Why not help them with the best of both worlds?!

 

Hello, my name is Zack Edwards, and when I left high school, I hated many of my classes because of how they were taught. Educational materials could not hold my interest, this was besides my internal struggles. When I went to college, my professor asked me to write a one-page essay on a product that would change my world. Well, I loved to play games, and I didn’t like school, at least back in K-12. I thought, why not put the two together, to create educational games that excite the mind and eyes. That one assignment has become a successful business. Assisting students around the world in learning history, one of the hardest subjects to keep kids interested in, and we do it through games. 

 

A History Lessons in Educational Gaming

In the past the problem with games, in some people’s minds, was that they were just for recreation. However, if you talk to students 95% of them love playing games.  If they had a choice between games or school, the K-9th grade students would most likely choose playing games. Some would say school is “boring”, some would say, “it’s not relevant”, and others would say they are just “not interested in it.” How can we make education more enjoyable? By adding a little more gaming into their education. 

Now there are many different ideas when it comes to educational gaming. You have the Game Schoolers, who promote that most or all of their education comes from playing games. On the other side you have parents that keep their kids away from games, because they are unproductive. I’d like to share with you the great middle ground where everyone wins, and I will also show you how to pick the best games for your children.

In a study back in the 1960s, the National Training Laboratory tested retention rates when it comes to activities in the classroom, and in daily lives. They found that, for the average learner, if the student reads information from a book they will retain 10-20% of what is read. If they watch videos, they will retain 30%. If they do activities or play games using the learning outcomes of Analyze, Define, Create, and Evaluate, they will keep up to 90% of the information they are learning. Those are astonishing numbers. Let’s investigate these four outcomes.

 

Analyze is the method of examining or learning about the topic, in detail. So, besides games, you need time to learn what you will do in the game; this is an effective precursor to trying to learn from any game.

Define is the method in which you use what you have learned in a way that allows you to show you actually understood the information. This allows us, as the teachers, to learn if the student has retained the information given to them. If they don’t understand it correctly, it will do no good to allow them to move forward.

Create is a state of using what you have learned in a relevant manner, to use motor skills to produce a type of motor memory in what you are learning. So, they need to use that information right away, in a topic such as history. How can they use this information? By teaching it to others, writing a story about it, or even playing a game that uses that information to build that type of motor memory. 

 

Benefits of Educational Gaming

The greatest benefit of Educational Gaming is that the more times they play the game, the higher the likelihood is that they will remember the lessons learned. In learning history, we believe in the Law of Witnesses, meaning the more time you hear someone’s name, the more likely you are to remember it. Take history, for instance. If the player hears a name once, the information will go in one ear and out the other. There is very little retention created. However, if you play a game once, and then read about the person later, they will remember that person. The information learned about them becomes easier to retain after the second, third, or fourth time they hear it. They are creating a motor memory within their mind. Play a game 100 times, and hear that information in small bites and your brain is more willing to see the importance of that information, and will then store it where it is easily accessible. In addition, when a student can attach emotion to the information, they are more likely to retain it. Whether it’s the frustration or enjoyment of playing a game, that emotion will allow the student to retain that information easier, especially the enjoyment of playing a game they like.

Evaluation and reflecting on what you learned and or created is also essential. You must help the student reflect on what they learned or could accomplish. In traditional education, they can fill out a survey or journal entry on what they learned, while in games, you can talk about how they liked it and what they learned afterwards. In video games, they can reflect on what is called “leaderboards,” in the gaming industry. These are boards showing how you rank among others, but can also reflect some of the things they could have learned while playing the game. These are highly effective in evaluating what you learned and enticing you to try again, which continues building more motor memory.

 

How to Find Games that are Right for Your Student

Educational Gaming needs to be based on relevance, your child’s interests, and abilities. Try looking at games that meet these criteria, based on your experience with your student.

  1. Interests – Are your students interested in games? Would they be in the 95% of students that like games, any type of game? If they are, what games would they like? Are they more likely to play a physical game, or a video game? Do they like more physical challenges, 3rd person interaction with the program, or more strategic interactions, using boards or cards?

Look for games that appeal to them on a personal level. Using a game they aren’t interested in would only backfire, because they could feel resentment to use a program they have no interest in.

  1. Relevance–Just picking up any game and using it is not an effective way to succeed in education. There are games for recreation and there are those that are made for learning, and you can use both. One shouldn’t expect all games to fill in educational gaps, or help with creating motor memory in a specific topic. When evaluating a game, investigate how they will learn from the information they are gleaning from the game. Some are more effective than others.Look for games that are educational, but not too educational. Remember that when youth play games, they normally play for entertainment. Use games that give them small bites, especially for those in SPED. Learning in small chunks, through gaming, will make a world of difference for your student.
  2. Eye Catching–While your student may like games, there are those that are not the best when catching their interest and attention. Do your students like the flashy or the simple? Don’t buy a 6th grader a game that looks like it’s perfect for a kindergartener. The best way to find something they would like is to search out games that catch your eyes, as their parents or teacher. Remember that special effects these days are not very different for adults or kids. The things that catch your eye will also catch their eye. They may even need a little more – if you don’t like how a game looks, they will probably not as well. 
  3. Needs–Especially in SPED, this is sometimes the most important factor. What do your students need for learning? For example, those that are dyslexic have a hard time reading, so giving them a rules manual or a book is not a good way to keep their attention, and doesn’t give them the tools to succeed. The best way to promote learning for someone with dyslexia, and other special needs, is to focus on small amounts of information and catching their interest. When someone with dyslexia is truly interested, that is when they will act on their own, and begin doing the work on their own. Addressing the needs of your students’ is the most important, especially with Educational Gaming. There are games out there that would be harder for some students, and there are games designed to appeal to everyone.

 

In closing, using games in learning, in this day and age, is a very effective way to grab your students’ interest, help them grow their excitement for learning, and increase their retention in what they are learning. While some games look like they are educational, there are other games that disguise education in the gameplay, allowing the student to be excited about what they are doing, while actually learning the entire time.

 

What to Look forward to in the Future 

Historical Conquest is teaming up with other curriculum developers and game designers to create a video game system that will help students have a large range of games that are relevant to specific subjects,  teach students different subjects without being too educational, and allow students to enjoy what they are learning. To begin this system, we are performing our analysis using the subject of history, (our strength), to test its effectiveness. This first portion of our system can be found at www.HuntThePast.com, which allows students to learn using a plethora of methodologies that they enjoy, including reading, videos, activities, audio, and now video games. While these games are currently digital, and some parents want their kids to get off their screens, all these games will be made available in physical form, as well. So stay tuned, keep watching, and please sign up to support this effort, by using the systems that we have so far, as we create a structure that will help students with all needs and interests on their learning adventure.

 

 

 


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By Charlene Notgrass, from Notgrass History, SPED Homeschool Curriculum Partner

 

God usually gives us one child at a time, with each new baby coming into a family made up of varying ages. Sometimes God gives parents twins, and I even know a couple who had quadruplets. Still, in most families, each person is a different age. Even when children share the same birthday, they don’t share the same skill levels in every area at every stage.

 

One joy of homeschooling is that children in a family can learn together sometimes and receive individual instruction at other times. I cherish the memories of our family learning together. Sometimes that happened when we were reading aloud or while taking a daylong field trip or a weeklong vacation. Sometimes we learned together while putting on a play, making a craft, taking an art class, teaching a Bible class, or eating a meal from a certain region of America or the world. 

 

Homeschooling was once a burden for me, but it became a joy when I learned to relax and homeschool from the perspective of who we were, as a family. No longer were lessons a chore. Instead, these lessons became a way for us to share life together. We even decided as a family to create materials to combine subjects, teach multiple levels, and instruct the hearts, souls, and minds of our children.

 

The result of our planning eventually became a curriculum that is now loved by many homeschooling families, Notgrass History. The curriculum we ended up creating provides narrative lessons and activities. These activities include primary sources and literature, arts and crafts projects, review material, tests, family activities, and writing prompts. We never wanted these activities to be burdensome but instead to be a tool parents could use for instruction based on what they knew about how their family best learned together. 

 

For example, our book From Adam to Us is our world history course for children in grades 5-8. We have heard that some parents include children in these lessons who are younger than 5, while others have used it with their high school students. Some families complete the course in a year, while others spread the lessons out over a longer period. The reason I state these things is that when teaching multiple levels of students and those with learning differences, it is beneficial to have a curriculum that can flex with your family’s and student’s needs.

 

We chose stories that encouraged our family’s Christian faith, plus we included additional learning items like historical documents, maps, timelines, vocabulary, creative writing ideas, and hands-on activities that we could use together to interact around, and dig deeper into, specific content as a family.

 

You too can make homeschool less complicated and educationally richer by learning together as a family. This creates a less stressful, more engaging, and more memorable year. In fact, many parents find their children thrive when most of their school year centers around one central theme.

 

God created families. He entrusts precious children whom He loves deeply into the care of their parents and trusts those parents to do a good job. You can trust His judgment in making you your children’s parent and that learning together will enhance your homeschooling experience and family bonds..

 

Are you interested in finding out more about the From Adam to Us Notgrass Curriculum? Use this link to see how this curriculum works in a typical homeschool setting.

 

You can also see the SPED Homeschool Review Crew video review of From Adam to Us here .

 

Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, SPED Homeschool earns a commission if you decide to make a purchase after clicking through the link. Please understand that we have vetted this organization, and recommend them because they are a helpful and useful resources for special education homeschooling families, and not because of the small commissions we would make if you decide to buy something through an affiliate link. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve the educational goals you have for your homeschooled student.

 

 

 

 


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