"Brer Rabbit keep on axin im en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin nothin, twel presenty Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis, he did, en blip he tuck er side er de head."

Tell me, does Uncle Remus need speech therapy or does he just need to study his spelling words!  Maybe your child speaks and writes just like Uncle Remus, and you're not sure if he will become a famous writer with a unique linguistic perspective, or that this (dis)ability is really his educational stumbling block! Maybe he has a speech problem.

Correct speech patterns are so important in your child's education. If you cannot speak correctly you will have a difficult time learning to read and spell, because the words on the written page will not correspond with the words in your mind.  Its almost like trying to read a foreign language.

The majority (75% or more) of school age children's speech problems are classified as functional articulation problems.  These children have the physical ability to correctly reproduce the sounds but misarticulate speech sounds.  They may omit sounds (un for sun), substitute one sound for another  (wed for red), distort sounds, or even add unnecessary sounds.

This is good news for homeschool moms because with a little bit of effort, speech improvement can be mixed right in with our daily routines.

Be careful of your own speech habits.  Most of a child's speech is acquired from his parents especially his mother.

All children need help in developing and improving their oral communication skills.  We repeat the same sounds over and over to babies and toddlers, "ba,ba,ba,ba" helping them to acquire language.  Nursery rhymes are a good way for children to participate and also hear many correct repetitions of a sound.

All children do not have speech defects. Many of them merely develop their language skills at a different rate or in a different way.

You may wonder if your child is learning to speak clearly and form sounds correctly. A very simple speech survey can be made by asking your child to count to fifteen, name the different colors, say the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill", and identify pictures whose name contain the "ch" and "sh" speech sounds.  Make a note of each incorrect sound.  Next, consider your child's age. Many speech books have charts that indicate the age that a child should be able to form each sound. For instance the "hard r" will often develop at a later age than "m" sound.

Not many children need a speech pathologist. If your child has speech difficulties, you may be able to help him yourself.  Below are a few excellent items for use with four year olds and older.

LinguiSystems Catalog.  This catalog specializes in language items. (800)776-4332

Read and Spell by Sound – by: Lorna Shogren Werner, Computer Press, 2911 8th Avenue., W.,  Bradenton, Fl 34205, phone 813-748-4237.  ISBN:1-882183-12-6.  This workbook provides multisensory instruction and may be used as initial reading instruction.  The student may use a mirror to learn the correct phonetic formation for pronouncing standard American English sounds.

Sounds and Letters for Readers and Spellers – by:Jane Fell Greene, Sopris West, http://www.sopriswest.com, (303)651-2829, ISBN#1-57035-126-0.  This 18 unit series of phoneme awareness drills can be used with young children, middle schoolers through adults who are delayed in development of phonemic awareness, reading and spelling. Awareness of phonemes and the ability to reproduce them provides the critical jump start to reading and spelling. This is a book that will grow with your child.

If your child had trouble learning to speak clearly, often he will also have trouble with phonemic awareness. Begin your reading instruction using these books and you will have eliminated potential problems later on.

The end of my first year of homeschooling was a wonderful and frustrating experience. My dear daughter had learned wonderfully growing in manners, physical abilities, and math. However she did not grow in reading. I was stumped. Why? Was I a bad teacher? Did I not get the right curriculum? What had I done wrong?

These fears were held close to my heart. I didn't want to share with other homeschooling moms thinking they would give me 'the look'. You know the 'who let the weird lady in' look. I didn't want to tell them that despite repeated efforts my child just couldn't grasp the basics of reading.

I went on a quest spending extra money to find the perfect book, or program that would teach my child reading. I quietly began reading books about late readers. I reread the books on perfect homeschooling families that I was desperate to be like. I looked outside the home for any help I could find, except asking those around me because I was embarrassed.

Years later I look back at myself and want to hug myself. I want to say, calm down. Quit looking away from home and look to your home for the answers. I needed to stop and see my daughter, all her lovely strengthens and weaknesses. I needed to understand that children grow and develop understanding on God's time table not mine and not the school board's.

My daughter needed time. In fact she needed years of persistent, gentle help reading. She is dyslexic like several members of the family. I also discovered that my daughter would move ahead in fits and spurts not aligned with an age/grade level system. Along the way we turned a corner from struggling for every word to a slow halting reading. We are now working on fluency so she will be more at ease with reading.

My joy however is not her reading ability. My joy is she still enjoys the written word. It may come harder for her than most but if she is interested she will read for pleasure. If you find yourself in this situation here are a few tips that might make your journey easier.

• Look to your child for signs of reading readiness, do not get stuck on their age. They know their alphabet. They can hear rhyming words. They can hear the first sound in a word.

• Find a support group of special needs homeschoolers, either near you or online. You are not alone! Many kids start off slower than we have been lead to believe is "normal" for reading. It's the joy of reading that we need to carefully guard from overly pushing time-lines.

• There are special programs available to help with reading learning disabilities. If you feel your child has a learning disability and you don't feel comfortable working with it there are options available. I would ask an educator or evaluator that is familiar with your child. You might only need some focused help for a couple of months to start off on the right path.

• As you are working through strengthening your child's reading skills adjust their other material to a more audio based learning. Work everyday on your child's weaknesses to strengthen them. In other subject areas don't let weak reading skills hold your child back. Use audio versions of textbooks, read aloud the material to your child, allow your child to draw the science experiment rather than write the whole thing out.

• Time is your best friend not a clock to be raced. Make reading part of everyday life. You read. You read to your child. You help them read. Think of it as every step brings you closer to your goal of an independent reader!

It is hard to stand against the pressure of making your child read at age 5. If you child is not ready than all you are doing is starting their learning career off on a frustrated foot. Focus on the foundations of reading, keep reading aloud to your child and you will get there!

College admissions are not as daunting as they might seem if you plan ahead. There are a few basic steps that should be followed and will benefit students no matter what college they plan to attend or whether they change their minds at the last minute, as our teenagers have been known to do. This process is really about increasing the number of options for your student, and college admissions are the by-product of following the process. Focusing early and spreading out the work to get this done will ease the load and open up doors for your child.

Freshman and Sophomore high school students should be taking at least one each of the PSAT, SAT and ACT tests for practice each year. At this point in their schooling, they do not need to do any preparation before the tests, but they should be developing test maturity. This happens by removing the anxiety around these tests, getting familiar with them, and going through the process a few times. Going in “cold” a few times over these first two years of high school will really help with this.

In the summer between a student’s sophomore and junior year, they should do an extensive preparation course on taking the SAT and ACT, in preparation for the October PSAT that is administered each fall. This is the year that the PSAT will be considered for National Merit Scholarship competition, and so potential qualifiers will need to be sure to take this test in October of their junior year. They should also continue to take additional SAT and ACT tests in their junior year, with the goal in mind to have competitive scores in hand by the end of the year.

Also in the junior year, students should be considering the colleges that might be of interest to them. There is a wealth of information available on the College Board website, www.collegeboard.com to help direct students in this selection, but by January of the junior year, students should be confident of 5-6 schools that they will be applying to, and have made some determination about whether or not they will go directly to a four-year school, or start at a junior college.

Over the summer of this transition year, students should narrow down their college choices to the few that they will apply to. These applications should be in transit, whether mail or electronically, by the week after Labor Day to open up the most doors to them. It may be that some of the records such as transcripts or recommendations will still be pending, but having the application done as much as is possible for submission purposes will really help increase the options for students.

Once the college applications have been submitted in the senior year, students should begin working on scholarship applications. Ideally, these should be submitted by November 1, as each one will have specific non-negotiable deadlines. Be sure not to miss these, and get these scholarship applications in as early as possible.

Finally, while a student is continuing to work on meeting his graduation requirements and has taken all of the above steps, the final paperwork to be completed is by the parents. This comes in the form of the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid - http://www.fafsa.ed.gov). This form completion is required by many colleges and is the starting point for federal aid, so get this in as early as possible in the spring of the senior year. It will require tax information, so if you are unable to have your taxes done prior to completion, be sure to fill it out anyway using their estimator options. Final tax documents can be filed later, but will still be required.

Following these simple steps in order will be a tremendous help in keeping your child’s options open and giving him or her the largest opportunity for college choices. Write these out on a family calendar, take the steps, and relax for the process. It may take a little time, but spread out over the four years, it is no problem to get it all done!

Most parents agree: teaching your children at home during the preschool, elementary and middle school years is quite a challenge. Homeschooling high school aged children, however, can seem even more daunting. According to the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) Homeschool, approximately 2 million children were being homeschooled in the U.S. as of 2005-2006, . Not all of them can be junior high and under. So why are parents choosing to homeschool their high school kids?

According to NHERI, homeschooled children are actively being sought after by colleges. One does not have to desire to attend college to appreciate the fact that their recruiting homeschoolers is a good thing.

NHERI also states that adults who were homeschooled participate in local community service, vote and attend public meetings, go to college and succeed at college at an equal or higher rate than the general population.

One main reason parents choose to continue homeschooing through the high school years, however, is so they can continue to build strong relationships with them. After all, why let them go during a critical period in their lives in discovering who they really are? Continuing to build family relationships among siblings is another factor to consider. Sibling relationships are for a lifetime, whereas school friendships are usually just for those years. How many friends from your own high school days are still in your close circle of friends in your adult years?

Learning is another factor that influences parents to keep homeschooling their older children. The home has proven to be a very good environment in which children learn. NHERI shows that statistically speaking there is no difference in whether or the parents are high school graduates or college graduates, children taught at home still test higher than their public school peers.

With the advent of technology, even parents who lack some confidence in their ability to homeschool their high school aged children, can do so with ease with online curriculum or satellite schools available. These might require a higher budget but the peace of mind is priceless, knowing that your young person is getting what they need.

So, yes, although the task may prove difficult, it’s worth considering continuing the home school journey throughout your child’s high school years. Start collecting resources and information on this option while they’re still young so you can prepare for those years early - they’ll come all to quickly!

Children love turtles. This turtle paper plate craft is a fun, easy preschool craft project.  To make this craft, you will need:

• Two paper plates
• Brown construction paper
• Green craft paint
• Google eyes
• Scissors
• Glue
• Dried beans (optional)
• Felt tip pen

Your child will need two paper plates to make one turtle.  Have your child use the green paint to paint the bottom side of both paper plates.  Allow to dry.

Next cut out the arms, legs, etc.  Using the scissors and brown construction paper, cut out four small rectangles for legs, a small triangle for the tail, and a circle for the head. You can outline them first with a pen if you wish, but it isn't necessary. I just cut mine out freehand.

Glue the edges of the arms, legs, tail, and head to the top edge of one of the paper plates.

If you wish you can put some dried beans onto the plate so that when you glue the plates together the turtle will rattle when your child shakes it.  This step is optional.

Next glue the second plate to the first plate.  The tops of the plates should be glued together so that the painted sides are facing out.  The arms, legs, etc., should be sticking out between the two plates.

Help your child glue the google eyes on to the head.  Let your child use the felt tip pen to draw on a nose and mouth and to decorate the "shell" of the turtle, if they wish.

Homeschooling during the high school years requires going beyond the core academic courses (Math, English, Science, History and Foreign Language), to providing additional learning experiences through electives. Electives can be related to whatever your child’s interests are. They can be used to build skills in particular areas, like web development or computer languages; to gain experience in a future career, like marketing or journalism; or may be taken for enrichment or just for fun, such as choir or dance. The possibilities are numerous.

While there are a number of curriculum providers that offer full courses you can purchase, complete with lesson plans, textbooks, workbooks and CDs, there are other ways to satisfy elective requirements.

Dual-enrollment

High school students, including homeschoolers, can take college courses, usually at local community colleges, and have the credits applied to both a high school diploma and toward a future college degree. My daughter, for example, has taken college business courses in marketing and management. We are applying the credits for high school business electives, and they will also apply to a future business degree. One great thing about getting credits this way: the courses are free to state residents; you pay only for textbooks, (which homeschoolers normally pay for anyway). Another good thing is that a one-semester college course is generally considered to be equivalent to a one-year high school course, so you can complete high school requirements more quickly, not to mention get a jump-start on college. And since many of the courses can be taken totally online, a student no longer has to wait until age 16, typically the minimum age required to take college courses. If your child is ready, he or she can start online college coursework in ninth grade.

Open Courseware: Available online through the websites of major universities, open courseware is free to the public and includes full lectures and other class material such as syllabi, reading lists, and lecture notes. You don’t have access to university faculty or any other support, but the material is still great for independent learning, a quality of many homeschoolers. Unlike the dual-enrollment option, the university does not grant credit for a course, but a homeschooler can still apply the credits toward a high school diploma.

MIT has a program specifically for high school students, called Highlights for High School, that offers classes in a variety of subjects, including exam prep. In addition, the Online Education Database has a list of the Top 100 courses available through open courseware.

Libraries: Local libraries are offering their patrons free online classes through UniversalClass, an accredited, online learning site. If you have a library card, you can sign up for up to five courses, with offerings ranging from accounting and bookkeeping to web development and writing poetry. Although the courses are non-credit, each one has an instructor that can be contacted via e-mail.

Co-op Classes: Of course, taking classes through a local homeschool co-op is a great way to fulfill elective requirements. Depending on how often you meet, and how comprehensive the course is, a co-op class can be enough to make a credit. If not, you can always use it as a supplement to what you’re learning at home. For example, combine the reading of a journalism textbook, or viewing of a journalism video series, or other material you find online with a journalism co-op class that creates a newsletter.

Develop your own electives: A child who has an interest in something, such as a particular career, can research the topic, talk to professionals in the field, intern with someone, volunteer, and earn credits while getting real life experience. Evaluation could involve a term paper, essay, oral report, project involving a demonstration, or some other assessment you devise to determine what your child has learned.

With so many resources and materials now available on-line, elective options have increased, whether the classes are Web-based or face-to-face.

If you are doing preschool at home, or even if you are just doing some extra preschool activities with your child from time to time, you probably have a lot of papers and craft supplies taking up space on your countertops and closet shelves.

It was hard for me to get excited about doing preschool activities without being organized first, so I set out to go through all of our supplies and set up an organized storage system that works for me.

Flash Cards and Card Games

I store all of my boys' flash cards and card games in a small plastic storage container.  This container is kept up in a closet where only I can get it down for them.  It only took one time of me putting all the cards back in the boxes to realize they couldn't handle getting into this container on their own!

Art Supplies

Most of our art supplies are stored where my boys can get to them.  I purchased a three drawer plastic storage container that works great for art supplies.  One drawer holds their crayons, colored pencils, scissors, and glue.  The second drawer stores a variety of painting supplies.  The third drawer stores miscellaneous items, such as felt pieces for the felt board and plastic letters for the magnetic board.  This plastic container is kept near the kitchen table where my boys do their art projects. This keeps it within easy reach when they want to color, paint, or do some other art project.

Craft Supplies

I have a separate plastic storage container just for craft supplies.  Most of these supplies aren't used unless we are doing a special craft project, so the kids don't need to get in there every day.  This container stores things like google eyes, pipe cleaners, crepe paper, etc. This is also where I store the ink pads I don't want them getting into by themselves.

Worksheets, Workbooks, and Project Instructions

If you like to collect preschool craft and activity ideas like I do, you probably have a lot of piles of paper that need to be sorted and organized.  I purchased several plastic file folder storage boxes for all these papers, and they have worked great so far.  I sorted my papers into categories like Christmas, Thanksgiving, spring, animals, alphabet, etc.  I combined several categories together in one container, and then labeled each container so I would know exactly what is in it.  I also placed all of our workbooks in these containers.  It's nice to have a place to put all those miscellaneous papers I always seem to run across.  If I cut out an article from somewhere, or photocopy an idea from a book, I have a place to file it away where I can always find it again.  You can put away the containers you don't currently need and just leave out the ones you are currently using.

Preschool Manipulatives and Puzzles

Hopefully your preschooler has a lot of math manipulatives and puzzles to play with.  These items should be set out where they can just pick up when they are bored.  All of our puzzles are stored inside of benches we have around the table in our kitchen.  When our boys want to do a puzzle, they can get them out themselves.  Our math manipulatives are stored on a shelf in our entertainment center.  Again, the kids have easy access to them and often pick them up when they are bored.  We have sewing cards, patterning and sorting activities, and several number, matching, and reading games. I love to see my boys reaching for these great learning activities when they want something to do.

The preschool years are a fun time for you and your child.  Whether you are doing preschool at home or your child attends preschool, make sure you have lots of stimulating activities for your child at home that are organized and ready to use when you need them.

Some homeschoolers ask if they have to have an "accredited" transcripts to get into college. They also wonder if the transcripts they have prepared for their homeschool high school are "official" and can be used to enroll their children in college. Homeschoolers should understand the difference between "accredited" transcripts and "official" ones.

"Accredited" transcripts are those issued by accreditation and certification programs. With the usual government oversight, these programs evaluate your homeschool records and, for a fee, certify a number of credit hours. In most cases, these certified programs require that you enroll your children with them, observe their rules and use their curriculum. They may even require additional records from homeschoolers as a requirement for accreditation. But these accreditation bodies are businesses. They charge you certain fees for every credit hour. Indeed, these accreditation and certifying bodies make tons of money!

Unless your heart is set on a college that demands an accredited transcript (and, thankfully, there are fewer and fewer each year), there really is no need for homeschoolers to have their transcripts accredited! Homeschooling parents should know that our transcripts, provided that we comply with state law requirements, are official. Hence, they can be used by our college-bound students without need for prior accreditation.

I have done this myself! My sons received scholarships from each and every college they applied. They also received four-year-full-tuition scholarships based on what I call "mommy-made" or "mommy-accredited" official transcripts. And as far as the  admissions director of the university was concerned, my children's official transcripts were the best he had ever seen! Take note, my transcripts were not accredited by any outside group!

My message is simple. You don't need to get your transcripts accredited. You can avoid paying the high cost of accreditation by preparing your transcripts and records at home. The costs of accreditation may not be worth the inconvenience you and your children will face.

My Total Transcript Solution will show you how to create an AMAZING "official" homeschool transcript that will impress the colleges!

But regardless of how you record your homeschool, though, just make sure to prepare your student for college. Failing to aim for college is one of "The 5 Biggest Mistakes Parents Make When Homeschooling High School." Learn how to avoid all 5 mistakes in my free e-mail mini-course.

Children love windsocks.  They are fun to make and fun to hang and look at.  This preschool activity is very easy and is suited to any season or holiday.  To make a windsock you will need:

• Construction paper
• Crayons or markers
• Small pictures
• Yarn
• Glue
• Stapler
• Scissors
• Streamers

For the top of the windsock you will need one 8 1/2 x 11 piece of construction paper.  Cut the piece of paper in half lengthwise.

Next have your child color the small pictures to place on the windsock.  Coloring and activity books are great for finding pictures.  You can use a copier to reduce or enlarge the pictures to fit on the windsock.  We cut out four pictures for each of our windsocks.

After coloring the pictures, cut them out and glue them to the two pieces of construction paper.  Next lay the pieces of paper end to end and staple them together.  Bring the two open ends of the paper together to form a circle and staple the two ends together.  This is the top of the windsock.

Next have your child cut the streamers.  These streamers are the same kind of streamers you would hang up for a birthday party. Cut approximately six pieces of streamer to be 18 inches each. Have your child glue the ends of the streamers inside the bottom of the windsock so that they are hanging out of the bottom of the windsock.

Have your child cut a piece of yarn approximately 18 inches long. Staple the ends of the yarn on each side of the top of the windsock.  Your windsock is ready to hang!

These windsocks are very easy to make and look really cute hanging out on your patio.  You can also hang them in your house. They are great seasonal and holiday projects.  You can change the
pictures and colors of the windsocks with the seasons, such as for Easter, Christmas, or Halloween.  You could have flowers for spring, bumblebees for summer, or leaves for fall.  The
possibilities are limitless. My boys are currently interested in insects, so they colored some bugs for their windsocks.

This activity is a great opportunity for your preschooler to practice coloring, cutting, and gluing.  If your preschooler doesn't yet have a long attention span, you might want to pre-cut
some of the pieces ahead of time, like the top of the windsock and the streamers.  My busy boys barely made it past the coloring part, but loved seeing their windsocks blowing in the breeze!

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is “why should I teach my baby sign language when he/she is not deaf?”

Well that is a good question. Even if your child is not deaf, there is scientific research that has been done to show the benefits of sign language for hearing babies.

Drs. Acredolo and Goodwyn, founders of Baby Signs program, have spent a lot of time and energy into research before they developed the program Baby Signs. In their research they focused on hearing babies and the benefits of using signs.

They wanted to make sure that if they made a product for hearing babies that they were not going to cause problems for them in the future.

One myth is that using sign language slows down the baby’s ability to speak. If they can communicate using signs then they will never talk, right? No… research actually proves the opposite.

Results of the study were amazing!!!

The tests revealed at 11-30 months signing babies had a three-month advantage over the non-signers. The babies using baby sign language were also putting together significantly longer and more complex sentences. At 36 months, signers were almost a FULL year ahead of their non signing age mates!!!

Test results at 8 years old, showed those who had used sign language as babies scored an average of 12 points higher in IQ tests then their non-signing peers.

Not only does using baby signs with your baby increase their IQ, it also has other benefits as well.

Some other benefits are:

1. Using sign language with your baby can reduce the frustration levels for both baby and mother alike. Have you been in a situation that you could not tell what your child wanted? The only thing that your child could do was drag you to the kitchen, and then point. Well does he want a drink, food, or something on the counter? You could not help him, and after many attempts to figure it out you get frustrated and so is he. Sign language comes in very handy.
2. Using sign language with your baby builds trust between the baby and you. Imagine the above situation again. Your child drags you to the kitchen (actually this would not happen if you were signing with them). You are in the kitchen and your baby signs “drink”. You know exactly how to help them, and you give them a drink. Not only does your child walk away with new confidence about himself, he also walks away with the trust that you know how to help him when he needs you.
3. Using sign language allows babies to share their world to you. Babies are able to communicate at a very young age. But unfortunately their verbal skills fall far behind, and they are not able to communicate things with us. If they know sign language and have the confidence that you understand them, they will show you what they are thinking and looking at, what they want to know more about, what their interests are, what they don’t like, the list goes on and on.
4. Using sign language boosts their positive emotional development, confidence, as well as self esteem. They know what they want, and they have to figure out a way to communicate to us before they can speak. Sign language “bridges” the gap before they can verbalize it to us.

In conclusion, the evidence shows that using sign language with your baby is good for baby as well as for you, the parents. Now you know that signing with your baby increases their IQ throughout their life, decreases the frustration level, builds trust, allows you to share in their world and understand what they are thinking, and boosts confidence and self esteem. The better question to ask would be “Why not use sign language?”

Mandy McCollum has been passionate about sign language since she was young. She is one quarter away from receiving her sign language interpreting degree and has taken classes at the Chicago Deaf Center. She has also taught children sign language as part of a homeschool curriculum.  For more sign language resources visit http://www.hands4sign.com.