Category: Homeschool

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Homeschooling Families Doubled in New Hampshire–How Can Public Libraries Help

Granite State Home Educators is an all-volunteer, nonprofit homeschool support organization that serves New Hampshire families who choose to home educate their children. 

GSHE has a robust website with resources to help prospective and current homeschoolers through their home ed journey. Our FAQ, Where to Begin, and Homeschool Methods pages are the ones many parents turn to first to get started. 

Families can sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter at our website; here are past issues. Each one is packed with encouragement, educational and social opportunities, and relevant news. 

We also have over a dozen videos that provide a summary of the (simple) requirements as well as several that go deeper into common questions and topics. 

Prior to Covid closures, GSHE hosted nearly 30 in-person Intro to Homeschooling discussions around the state. When the weather improves or venues reopen, we are happy to schedule more with local libraries and community groups, either in socially-distanced settings or outdoors. In the meantime, we can host virtual events with groups who would like to partner to support area homeschoolers.  

GSHE has several Facebook groups that empower families to plug in where they best fit. 

Granite State Home Educators — Our primary group for supporting home educators around the state. 

Granite State Home Educators Marketplace — Our group that brings together buyers and sellers of homeschool resources. 

GSHE Unexpectedly Homeschooling — A group to support families dealing with remote learning and exploring educational options. 

GSHE Homeschool Pod Connections — A group to help bring together families looking to form home-based learning communities such as homeschool pods and microschools. 

GSHE Action — This is our group specifically for tracking and discussing legislation related to home education. 

Families Helping Families — Specifically for families who have children with special needs, not just for homeschoolers. 

We also can be reached at two emails. 

info@granitestatehomeeducators.org 

michelle@granitestatehomeeducators.org 

Please feel free to contact us so we can work together to support NH families in their home education efforts. 

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December Programming & STEM

From Becky Tapley, STEM Math Education Specialist (pronouns: she/her/hers) at the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance:

As we step into the month of December tomorrow, I wanted to send some resources your way to help you reflect on the activities you may engage your youth with this season. 

The first article has excellent thoughts about ways to build awareness, representation, and sensitivity into your December planning: 

https://www.helpteaching.com/blog/4-ways-to-make-your-classroom-holiday-inclusive.html

Some highlights are these 4 tips:

-Don’t Assume, Stereotype, or Tokenize
-Build Diversity into Your Lesson Plans
-Think Outside the Usual Holiday Cliches
-Consider Forms of Inclusion Outside of Religion and Culture

One topic that is brought up in that article is to include some STEM projects. “Holiday STEM projects offer more great ideas since they often focus on things like winter weather that can be examined outside of a cultural or religious context.”

Check out Howtosmile.org and search for topics your youth are interested in.

One example: How Animals Stay Warm: https://www.howtosmile.org/resource/smile-000-000-002-092

From snowflakes, to penguins, to winter data collection: http://mathwire.com/seasonal/winter05.html

Winter Math and Science Snow connections: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/lindsey-petlak/winter-math-and-science-can-be-snow-much-fun/

I hope these give you some ideas on how to make your December activities and celebrations inclusive and engaging!

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Family Storytime Kits

For some inspiration in developing your own Family Storytime Kits–visit The Orland Park Public Library. They advertise them, “Missing Storytime at the Library? Now you can have Family Storytime from the comfort of your home with our new Family Storytime Kits. You can read, create, dance, and explore with these themed kits using links to ebooks, online music, crafts, and age-appropriate informational resources!”

Family Storytime Kits

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Free Storywalk and Home-Learning & Play Resources

Kirsten Cappy, Curious CIty works closely with educators and librarians to develop children’s book engagement tools. Curious CIty has teamed up with Child’s Play to create free storywalk sign files for libraries (and others) to display in their communities. The current free storywalk is Cat’s Colors by Airlie Anderson. Cat’s Colors Picture Book Play Activity Sheet.

Check out all the Home-Learning & Play Resources too!

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Homeschooler Ready


You may find yesterdays blog from Abby the Librarian relevant as school’s struggle with plans for the new school year rapidly approaching. More and more parents are opting to homeschool and/or continue with remote learning. What a wonderful time for the public library to offer resources and support to school systems, homeschool organizations and families if you do not already have a strong partnership. 

Abby the Librarian: http://www.abbythelibrarian.com/2020/07/recent-books-on-homeschooling-update.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+abbythelibrarian%2FjEsv+%28Abby+the+Librarian%29NH DOE & Home

Helping Homeschoolers at the Library webinar August 2020 with Homeschooling Consultant Barbara Hettle. Thank you to Amy Olson, Youth Services Consultant, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives.

https://zoom.us/rec/play/vsEkIuGsqDw3GdyQswSDBfR6W9W5eK-shHQW-ftfzR2zVnlWZgWnZ7cQZOGkNF95Z92LxAvrLlEpdwmu?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=k_WWFEVpTMehD1qnGnymfw.1598446529895.2b59172b74a5154f4c59d3b396c8d633&_x_zm_rhtaid=105

Passcode: 1!#g^P2%

Library-Homeschool-Resources-2020Download

Note: For NH specific resources see Education:  https://www.education.nh.gov/pathways-education/home-education

The Lane Memorial Library and the North Hampton Public Library had a panel of homeschool parents and the NHHC’s Portsmouth rep. to share their experiences with homeschooling. The session included a Q&A from the audience and directed questions from the host libraries.  Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/N5xHSx5_hm0