The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities for Kids Ages 3-12 [Paperback]

Linda Dobson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Prima Home Learning Library | Publication Date: November 26, 2002

Fun and Effective Home Learning Activities for Every Subject
As a homeschooling parent, you're always looking for new and creative ways to teach your child the basics. Look no longer! Inside this innovative helper, you'll find kid-tested and parent-approved techniques for learning math, science, writing, history, manners, and more that you can easily adapt to your family's homeschooling needs. And even if you don't homeschool, you'll find this book a great teaching tool outside the classroom. You'll discover fun and educational activities for kids ages 3 to 12, including how to:
·Create maps based on favorite stories, such as Treasure Island or The Wizard of Oz
·Make letters out of French fries as an alphabet learning aid
·Explore architecture by building igloos, castles, and bridges with sugar cubes and icing
·Review spelling words by writing them on the sidewalk with chalk
·And many more!
This comprehensive collection of tried-and-true—and generally inexpensive—ideas provides the best-of-the-best homeschooling activities that can be done anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas:
"This book is much more than a well-organized list of creative things to do on a rainy day! It's a complete resource—the kind of information you'd find in the best 'how-to' homeschool manual." — Jane Boswell, Home Educator's Family Times
"This book is truly a mother lode of ideas for learning! Whether you're struggling with teaching a particular subject or just looking for something new and different to spice up your experience, you'll find enough family-tested ideas here to keep you busy for years." — Laura Derrick, president, National Home Education Network
"Each idea reaffirms the joy of learning as a family and reinforces the fact that homeschooling parents are creative, confident, and competent educators for their children." — Tammy Rosenblatt, founder and director, The Family Resource Center

From the Inside Flap

Fun and Effective Home Learning Activities for Every Subject
As a homeschooling parent, you're always looking for new and creative ways to teach your child the basics. Look no longer! Inside this innovative helper, you'll find kid-tested and parent-approved techniques for learning math, science, writing, history, manners, and more that you can easily adapt to your family's homeschooling needs. And even if you don't homeschool, you'll find this book a great teaching tool outside the classroom. You'll discover fun and educational activities for kids ages 3 to 12, including how to:
·Create maps based on favorite stories, such as Treasure Island or The Wizard of Oz
·Make letters out of French fries as an alphabet learning aid
·Explore architecture by building igloos, castles, and bridges with sugar cubes and icing
·Review spelling words by writing them on the sidewalk with chalk
·And many more!
This comprehensive collection of tried-and-true?and generally inexpensive?ideas provides the best-of-the-best homeschooling activities that can be done anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (November 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761563601
• ISBN-13: 978-0761563600
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Dobson and family began their homeschooling journey in 1985. They were having so much fun together that she wanted to share news of this educational approach with as many other families as possible. She co-founded a local homeschooling support group that now offers support and learning activities to a growing membership. She helped found and for the first two years served as coordinator of the New York (State) Home Educators' Network. Upon creation of the National Home Education Network (NHEN) in 1999 she served as its first public relations advisor as a media contact providing reporters, journalists, and researchers with background information and interviews. She was also Homeschool.com's early years' advisor.
Linda's articles have appeared in dozens of magazines, including Good Housekeeping, but her favorite stint was as Home Education Magazine news reporter and analyst for almost a decade. She still regularly contributes a commentary column, "Notes from the Road Less Traveled," and is acting columns editor. She has authored eight books, and contributed essays and forewords to many more. She has enjoyed diversity in writing, from a children's column for an Atlanta-based alternative newspaper to mail order copy, as well as consulting and market studies for companies such as Barnes&Noble.com and Grolier's. Linda is experienced with the media having provided scores of interviews for radio talk shows, feature stories, including German Public Radio, and publications including The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Reader's Digest, Better Homes & Gardens, and "Live Online" for the Washington Post.
As she became home education's most prolific author and vocal spokesperson, Linda emerged as a nationally respected conference keynote speaker. She has traveled the country, staying in touch with parental concerns and educational approaches across the U.S. and Canada. Formerly a short-term academic tutor for children, she also counseled parents of traditionally schooled children, as she believes that parental involvement is essential to educational success and can occur no matter where a child learns. She was also an online course instructor for Barnes & Noble University.
Believing that modern homeschooling's rich history lives within those who have completed the journey, Linda began the Homeschool Crones Café at ning.com and invited all her old friends to hang out there.
Life isn't all work, fortunately! She moved to be close to Florida's Gulf coast and has started a non-profit volunteer program and a non-profit economic revitalization corporation. Now, she has left all that behind to return to her passion - helping families enjoy and thrive through the homeschooling lifestyle.
To this end, Linda produces Parent at the Helm.com, where parents concerned about their children's education can find information, news, resources, guest commentators, homeschooling start-up information, and monthly book giveaways to help their children succeed.
She's grandmother of three beautiful girls, including a set of twins. She is also engaged to the most wonderful man in the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for homeschooling, and education in general, June 3, 2004

By 

Henry Cate III (CA. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities for Kids Ages 3-12 (Paperback)

Linda Dobson is well known in homeschooling circles. She has written several books; she is invited to speak at homeschooling conferences; and she has been homeschooling her own children for years. Most of the books she has written are very targeted at the homeschooling market. The title of this book indicates the same trend, but the reality is this book is for any family who wants to help their children learn and understand more in their education.

Her first chapter does focus homeschooling, as she talks about some key factors between public schools and homeschooling. She calls these the "school mind" and the "education mind." The "school mind" is more concerned about preserving the public school system than in educating the students. The "education mind" is focused on trying to help children learn.

The rest of the book is a wonderful collection of ideas on how to help children learn, from reading, to math, to character building, to other facets of a children's education. This is a great resource for rainy days, for when a child is bored, or for when a student is struggling with a particular subject.

If you are looking for ways to educate your children, this is a good book to have.

78 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful source for educational family activities, January 10, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities for Kids Ages 3-12 (Paperback)

Written with kids age 3-12 in mind, The Ultimate Book Of Homeschooling Ideas presents over 500 creative and enjoyable learning activities specifically designed for use by homeschooling parents. The learning activities range from flash card games, to a pocket alphabet banner for pre-readers, to learning the basics about DNA, to a math game using Legos. Each of these original, innovative, and practical ideas consists of a brief overview and general suggestions; with the specifics of application being implied or left up to the home-based parental educator. The Ultimate Book Of Homeschooling Ideas is warmly commended as being an excellent resource for enriching young minds by homeschoolers (and equally recommended for those parents whose youngsters attend public or private schools), as well as a wonderful source for educational family activities during school holidays and summer vacations.

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning is Fun-damental!, May 6, 2004

By 

A. L. Hermitt "ahermitt" (, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas: 500+ Fun and Creative Learning Activities for Kids Ages 3-12 (Paperback)

Just when I was beginning to think that Linda Dobsons books were a little dull and technical, I came across this one. The Ultimate book of Homeschooling Ideas (500+ fun and creative learning activities age 3-12) Is truly a gem. Though she consistently gives books titles as long as paragraphs, this book, which I believe is her latest has lifted my opinion of her credibility and book writing skill. Copy written in 2002, it shows how far the author has come since she started writing homeschooling books almost 2 decades ago.

I borrowed this book from the Library to review along with 12 other books on homeschooling, and now will be purchasing it immediately to keep one on my shelf as a reference book. I just dare one of my kids to say to me " Mom. I'm bored". I have at least 500 activities I am just waiting to introduce to them. Actually because of their ages, I only have about 400 because some of the games are too juvenile for them, but that is still more than one learning experience in a day.

In her usual tradition of book writing, this book by Linda Dobson is another compilation book, with different games and activities submitted from hundreds of homeschooling moms around the country. They are as creative and different as there are people on the earth.

The book's first few chapters are devoted to homeschooling philosophies as usual and introduces terms that are new to me like school mind vs. education mind. The concept is very simple, yet very intelligent and it helps the reader to make a distinction between the way a child is taught at school vs. the ways you can teach a child at home.

The book is also divided up into subject with appropriate games and activities listed in each section that it most closely relates to, thus helping a parent with record keeping because each game or activity counts as a lesson in any particular subject. For example, in the Math chapter, listed are familiar games like math and dominoes, but also new ideas like edible manipulatives and pizza fraction game. Likewise, in the chapter on Language we find old favorites like word bingo, as well as new ideas like read the TV (turn off sound and read closed captioning).

These ideas have me truly excited about homeschooling. We are sure to start playing these games long before our homeschooling start date of June 1, and will use this book for many years to come.