Welcome!


Inspiring To Learn is the home of Homeschooling On A Dime!

You are invited to search away for your entire homeschool needs list right here. There are hundreds of textbooks, worksheets, crafts, printables, databases, games, ideas, methods, unit studies, lapbooks, literature, ebooks and plenty more. Every subject, even Bible.

Nothing out there on the net can compare to this wonderful resource and it's right here. I've spent years and years and untold hours compiling this site.
IT'S ALL FREE.

Leave me a comment so I know you stopped by! I get a lot of traffic here 24 hours a day from all over the world! It's nice to hear a note from those who drop in for a freebie!

Make sure you bookmark Inspiring To Learn and sign up for the emails.


Teaching to your child's strengths

Teaching To Your Child's Strengths


by Kajsa Huckaba



You will spend a ton of money and everyone in your home will be frustrated until you learn specifically what makes your children each tick. Maximize your student's learning and time spent learning by teaching to their personality and strengths.



If you do not know what those are, spend some time in prayer regarding each one of your children. Ask the Lord to reveal these things to you and for you to have your eyes open to see them.



Keep a notebook for you of each child and make notes, revelations and relevant scriptures that will help you better understand your child's learning styles, strengths and weaknesses and character issues.



If your child really likes to hear audio CDs of history but hates to read it, write that down when you notice it. Where are the character strengths and weaknesses. You may be surprised! If your child is creative, how is she or he creative? With creating music melodies or rhythm? With planning out how a project should lay or color usage? Think outside the box and pay attention. Soon a picture will start to form of all your child's strengths and loves. In the same way, watch what your child loathes or struggles with and jot it down. This will help you to see where the weaknesses are and hopefully you will pray and ask the Lord how to strengthen those areas. He is always faithful!



Important to note, when you see a strength, be sure to share that with your child to encourage them! And if you see even a small improvement in an area of weakness, be sure to mention it and give praise to them! Record these improvements! With younger children, you may want to make some kind of award or medal that you made to give out periodically. Take their picture wearing it!





Timelines for history

Timelines For History

by Kajsa Huckaba


One of the coolest things you can take advantage of as a homeschooler is using timeline. It can be added to every year or a fresh one made. If you add to it every year, it becomes this wonderful living history project that will both cement learning and inspire learning. Discoveries/landmarks in science and family history are great additions to any time line.



Each student could have their own timeline or the whole family might share one. The benefit of each student having one is that your children may be studying different time periods and if they are making their own timeline figures it will be entirely their own creation, instead of a shared project. Each student's timeline would be a cool keepsake, too.



The whole family may decide to have one! It is possible to have a family time line and each student to have their own. What ever your family decides, it will be a project you all will benefit from and enjoy.



Styles of timelines can be mounted to the wall like a hallway, a folding accordian style, or as pages in a binder that you flip through. The binder style is more difficult to grasp the layout as it is not laid out in a linear fashion. If you want to use butcher paper, keep in mind that it may roll up on the edges. There is always the option to laminate it before you add the time line figures and that may help with the rolling edges. Another option is to tape pages together end to end on the back (with strong tape such as packing tape). You may opt for cardstock for a more sturdy project, which I recommend. The heavier, the better. The benefits of this page to page style is that it can be added to if need be on the end, can be folded, can be mounted on the wall, and is small enough to go into a folder or on a shelf.



Your student may create their own artwork for timeline figures, do no art and just write what happened when or use premade artwork for it. Many families enjoy the Homeschool In The Woods products for premade figures and you can reproduce them to save big money. Then all your figures "match" if that is important or you have a child who is not comfortable with their craft skills. I have included some links for free or nearly free timeline figures here below.





http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ClassicalEducation4Me/9726/





http://www.squidoo.com/homeschooltimelines





http://www.abookintime.com/timelines.html





http://isaiah5413.blogspot.com/2007/01/free-or-almost-free-time-line-figures.html





http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=296481



(A topic thread here gives an address to a yahoogroup with 850+ members that share timeline help. I am a member myself.)





http://www.angelfire.com/or/mtdewbydo/timelines.html





http://www.biblioplan.net/timeline.htm





http://www.phillipmartin.info/clipart/socialsciences_ancientcivilizations.htm