Five Tips for Avoiding the Terrible Two’s!

(1) Discern between wants and needs prior to the twenty-four month mark

(2) Mean what you say (“Don’t say no unless you’ll go”)

(3) Don’t sweat the small stuff—discerning between truly bad behaviors (behavior absolutes) and childishness

(4) Provide consistency

(5) Tell, don’t ask (unless it’s okay if the child disobeys or doesn’t listen).

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But here it is….let me know what homeschooling, parenting, language arts, writing, Plexus, and marriage questions you have….I’ll make you a *short* Wondering Wednesday video or podcast. 🙂

Be sure to check out the handout here!

Here’s the YouTube description: “In this video, Donna Reish, author of seventy language arts curriculum books, brings you thirty-two organizational and scheduling strategies from her thirty-two years of homeschooling experience. Donna explains the importance of using an ABC prioritizing system, having chore sessions in place, starting your morning out right, getting kids on board with cleaning and chores, meeting your family’s goals, and much more.”

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The post [Video] 32 Organizing and Scheduling Tips From 32 Years of Homeschooling appeared first on Character Ink.

This is a special episode as the question came from a young mama who was a student of mine several years ago in language arts and writing classes. When I get a parenting or homeschooling question from a former student, I run, not walk, to get it answered for them. It brings me such joy to have helped these students with language arts, writing, speech, or debate—and now to help them with parenting.

Here is the YouTube description of this week’s episode. Feel free to pass it on to a friend! 🙂

“In this video, Donna Reish of Character Ink Press, Plexus to Feel Great, and Donna Reish.com, answers a reader’s question about bedtime with toddlers. Donna addresses two foundational beliefs/practices for parents—not rushing into the next stage too quickly for each child and fulfilling your parent responsibilities in each situation that you are trying to remedy or improve in your home. Then Donna moves into the exact steps that can be used to correct/improve toddler’s bedtime behaviors. Donna and her husband have raised seven children, ages eighteen to thirty-four, and have homeschooled all of them for over thirty years. Donna has written seventy language arts and writing books and dozens of parenting downloadable products.”

Love and hope,
Donna

The post [Video] Toddlers & Bedtime appeared first on Character Ink.

“A good tomorrow starts tonight!”

– Ray and Donna Reish, Character Ink Press

This week I have created a video in which I answer moms’ questions about scheduling their school day, specifically the importance of a good morning routine, using morning charts, night people vs. morning people, what you do the night before, block scheduling, order of your day, and more.

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The post July Wondering Wednesday Schedule appeared first on Character Ink.

This week’s Wondering Wednesday is a video in which I teach how to use my Checklist Challenge. Whether you are a CI curriculum user (Character Quality Language Arts, Meaningful Composition, or Write On!) or not, if you are a teacher who longs to merge grammar with writing (as it should be!), this video will give you tips and ideas that you can begin incorporating immediately.

The store description of the Checklist Challenge Packet is given below. This text will give you some ideas on what you can expect to learn in this week’s Wondering Wednesday!

How to Complete the Checklist Challenge—Level I is a downloadable e-book that walks students (and teachers!) through the first three-fourths of Donna’s effective Checklist Challenge. The Checklist Challenge is a challenging checklist of tasks that help students go through their writing, one task at a time, and revise, edit, add to, embellish, and improve.

The Checklist Challenge has the following characteristics/benefits:

 (1) Each task is given separately (i.e. not just a big master list with no explanation). The tasks are explained and samples are provided.

 (2) The checklist has check boxes (one per paragraph) for each essay/report/story that you can customize to a certain project. It is clear that a paper has four paragraphs, so most of the task should be done four times—once per paragraph.

(3) The tasks are skills learned in grammar. Once a child learns how to use quotations, he should practice them immediately by putting them in his writing. The Checklist Challenge marries grammar and writing in a way that other programs do not.

 (4) Coding instructions are given so that a student can be taught to code his additions and revisions for easy teacher-grading.
And so much more.

This thirty-four page document has multiple YouTube videos related to it, so go check out Character Ink’s YouTube channel for help in utilizing this fantastic writing tool.

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In this Wondering Wednesday video, Donna Reish (author of seventy curriculum books) teaches parents how to teach propositions with meaning. Using her downloadable e-book, the Preposition Practice Packet, Donna explains the importance of understanding what prepositions do in order to memorize many of the over 200 prepositions out there.

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Aboard, about, above. Along, among, around….

Whether your kids sing them, recite them, chant them, rap them, or write them…prepositions are important.

I learned them in chant-like form when I was in school. However, I never knew WHY I needed to learn them.

My newest downloadable product will teach kids prepositions—in a way that focuses on the WHY, that is, what prepositions really do!

Our kids (and we!) need to learn prepositions for a few important reasons:

(1) They are the beginning of prepositional phrases

(2) Prepositional phrases can be mentally eliminated from a sentence in order to get to the bare bones of the sentence…since the sentence’s main subject and main verb are not usually found in prepositional phrases

(3) Prepositional phrases are good to use as openers—especially lengthy ones—as they vary sentence structure and rhythm.

I’m all about songs, jingles, rhymes, recitation, and mnemonics for learning parts of speech (and really anything).

However, when prepositions are learned in songs or recitations, the real reasons for prepositions are overlooked. (Not to mention that they learn about thirty of the over two hundred prepositions….not enough memorized preps to adequately recognize them in sentences and use them for sentence openers!)

Click here to learn more and to download the Preposition Practice Packet!

The post [Video] How To Use the Preposition Practice Packet appeared first on Character Ink.

Today we answer reader’s questions about how to create a love for learning in your home! This audio presentation is actually one that we did as a keynote address this spring in British Columbia, so I’ll let the description from the program speak for itself!

Don’t forget to contact us with questions that you would like to see answered!

“Ray and Donna Reish draw on their thirty years of home schooling-and developing a love for learning in their seven children—to help home school parents see how they can have children who love learning and enjoy home schooling. They include information on the importance of beginning early in developing a love for learning (as opposed to a disdain for multiple workbooks at a young age); the influence of free time and frivolities on love for learning; the value of reading aloud; building comprehension to build enjoyment of learning; how hands on learning encourages a love for learning; modeling love for learning; creating learning memories; the fun and value of family learning times; how to develop a home school lifestyle; the effects of peers on love for learning; developing study skills; spiritual training at various times; teaching multiple children and multiple learning styles; and much more.”

Download the podcast notes here.

Listen to previous podcasts here.

 
Links:

When You Want Mamas to Feel Great

Two Things to Teach Kids When They See an Emergency

[Series] 52 Weeks of Talking to Our Kids

[Podcast] 30 Tips from 30 Years
 

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