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E-learning is a fantastic technology that allows The Jubilee Academy to provide home-schooling curriculum to thousands of families across the globe.

But how did we get to the point where technology gave us this capability? Let’s take a look at the history of e-learning.

The PLATO System was the first e-learning system developed for use in a higher learning setting. Since then, e-learning has been used in every level of education, from elementary schools all the way up through graduate programs and even in corporate training. Online home-schooling technology has only been around for the last few years. The Jubilee Academy was one of the first schools offering this type of learning.

By 2003, over a million students were using e-learning technologies in colleges and universities. At the time, almost all public institutes of higher learning utilized online learning software while only half of private colleges offered similar programs.

Today, more than just colleges use e-learning. The Jubilee Academy, for instance, offers K-12 home-schooling curriculum that is accessed online. The advent of streaming video and other high-level technologies allow us to offer a rich variety of multimedia presentations through our curriculum. This way, students in even the most remote locations are able to receive a quality K-12 home-school education.

What will be the future of e-learning? What can we say about e-learning vs traditional public schooling or home-schooling? This nascent technology appears to have some major advantages over the classroom environment. Only time will tell if e-learning will replace the classroom entirely.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children’s rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.

Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.

In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her

Home Education Websites Blog consists of helpful online content and activities for Christian homeschooling families

Home school students, like all children, have a natural inclination to go out and spend lots of money on designer valentines with their favorite cartoons or toys featured prominently on the box.

Why spend all the money when you can make a neat personalized home-made card that can be cherished forever? Encourage your home school students to use their imagination when creating their own cards. Each child can develop their own sense of creative style in their valentines. Also, make sure they understand that Valentines Day isn’t about secret crushes or flirting. Home schoolers need to understand that the holiday should be more about spreading the love of Christ and reflecting his sacrificial love with brotherly and sisterly love for our fellow man. Agape love is the name of the game here.

Now, let’s start making our Valentines. The simplest way to go about this is to take red, white, or pink construction paper and fold it in half. You can go the extra mile by cutting your card into the shape of an animal, flower, heart, or other design. Then, grab some crayons, glitter, construction paper, string, sequins, glitter, and other craft supplies and go to town adding some personality to your card.

You can add more personality by using different fabric patterns and magazine clippings. Encourage your home school students to create collage art by finding images and words that evoke the spirit of Valentine’s Day. You can even make a little pocket for small gifts like a Hershey’s Kiss or homemade jewelry. Throw in some stamps, stenciled writing, and clip art to finish off the package.

Top it all off with a Bible verses about love. This will ensure that the recipient understand the true message of Valentine’s Day.

Once your cards are made, have your home school students make mailboxes out of shoeboxes to collect their valentines. If you belong to a home school co-op, this will make for a fun activity.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling mother, writer, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of home education company Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of 28 years reside with their 8 children right outside Philadelphia, PA.

Rothschild launched Learning By Grace, Inc. because she believed that our nation’s public school system has failed parents and students. Learning By Grace, Inc. offers online education through a multimedia-rich curriculum to PreK-12 children across the country and throughout the world.

An accomplished author, Rothschild has written books regarding education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Feed consists of articles and essays dealing with alternative learning methods.

Groundhog Day is held on the second of February each month. This day is considered a cross-quarter day, falling between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox.

It is said that if the groundhog emerges from its burrow on the second of February and sees its shadow, the groundhog will be frightened and retreat back into its den. Then, America will receive six more weeks of winter. If the groundhog does not see its shadow, we can expect an early spring.

German and French, and Celtic beliefs have influenced this notion. The superstition has its roots in the pagan belief that animals can be communed with to obtain secrets about the future. This practice was Christianized and turned into Candlemas, a European holiday during which people would look to the weather pattern on the cross-quarter day to determine future weather patterns. The following Scottish poem tells us about how people viewed Candlemas:

As the light grows longer

The cold grows stronger

If Candlemas be fair and bright

Winter will have another flight

If Candlemas be cloud and rain

Winter will be gone and not come again

A farmer should on Candlemas day

Have half his corn and half his hay

On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop

You can be sure of a good pea crop

Today, we understand that this is nothing but superstition. No one believes that the actions of the groundhog actually have any bearing on weather patterns. It’s just an old tradition that we still celebrate as a fun family activity.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling mother, writer, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of home education company Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of 28 years reside with their 8 children right outside Philadelphia, PA.

Rothschild launched Learning By Grace, Inc. because she believed that our nation’s public school system has failed parents and students. Learning By Grace, Inc. offers online education through a multimedia-rich curriculum to PreK-12 children across the country and throughout the world.

An accomplished author, Rothschild has written books regarding education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Feed consists of articles and essays dealing with alternative learning methods.

As the home school movement gains momentum across the country, more home school students and their parents are turning to a new supplement for home school curriculum: e-learning.

There are hundreds of schools and universities offering online classes on hundreds of subjects at dozens of grade levels. Home school families are discovering that the format of e-learning is especially conducive to a home learning environment. Online students are encouraged to work at their own pace, and the learning is largely self-directed; a concept with which many home school students are already familiar.

Detractors of both home school and e-learning cite the perceived difficulties of learning outside the time and space confines of the traditional classroom. However, some educators and many home school parents assert that these constraints are the problem with public education. Individual children learn with different styles and at different rates. The enforcement of blocks of time and dedicated spaces for learning can be an impediment for many, which is one of the strongest reasons parents turn to home school in the first place. The nature of e-learning lends itself well to the objectives of the home school environment: to encourage children to learn independently, and enable them to make informed, responsible decisions, or “think outside the box.”

Though some believe e-learning suffers from a lack of face-to-face interaction, home school families often find online classes superior to the traditional school setting. Quality online courses offer plenty of opportunities for students to interact with each other and with their teachers or professors through e-mail, live chat and class message boards. Additionally, home school students who are already used to self-learning often find themselves excelling in a self-directed e-class environment, and become eager to help others learn as well.

For home school parents who are looking for e-learning classes to supplement their children’s home school education, there are several factors that will help decide which online classes will be beneficial. A good e-course will have extensive instruction posted for students at the outset of the class, and easy access to knowledgeable instructors. Home school parents themselves are usually not professional educators, and are therefore more able to recognize competence in e-instructors who are not necessarily formally trained. Also, a good e-course should feature ways to interact with peers and get feedback from other students on posted work. E-learning can be a powerful addition to any home school curriculum, and should not be overlooked by the home school community at large.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because “our current system of education has broken its promise…” Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.

Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.

The Washington Post states that 900,000 teenage girls become pregnant each year. According to another study, one in four American teenagers contract an STD each year.

These statistics naturally strike fear into the heart of every parent, especially considering that more teens are engaging in secular activity at younger ages.

What’s more disturbing is that the public schools are no longer discouraging this kind of activity but encouraging teen sex by providing free condoms and other “safeguards” against STD’s. Abstinence is often taught as an outmoded footnote in sex education programs that encourage students to be safe while having sex with multiple partners. Teen rape is also at an all-time high.

Christian parents should be aware of the sexual climate that exists within public schools. Consider the game “Snap” played by young schoolgirls. The girls wear bracelets of various colors, each color representing some kind of sexual act. The boys try to yank the bracelets off of the girls’ arms. If successful, the boy is guaranteed a sexual liaison featuring that particular act with the girl. If the nature of this game shocks you, consider that the girls playing the game are as young as eleven years old.

Parents need to do something about this. From the moment that students walk out of their homes they are confronted with attitudes toward sex that are completely antithetical to a Christian worldview. Parents should seriously rethink exposing their children to this kind of environment. There is really only one solution, as cultural and social factors are working against teens and preteens 24 hours a day. Only homeschooling offers an environment in which students can learn free from these negative influences. Homeschooling allows your kids to be kids.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because “our current system of education has broken its promise…” Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.

Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education. www.TheMorningStarAcademy.org/daily_education_newswww.TheMorningStarAcademy.org

Online homeschooling is sweeping the nation. There are several reasons why this is the case.

Perhaps the single most important factor to consider is the reduced cost of e-learning.

Homeschool students are able to access courses at a fraction of the cost that it takes to staff teachers, administrators, maintenance workers, and more in the public school system.

Another benefit of homeschooling with e-learning is that it allows students to work in the comfort of their own homes. This has far-reaching implications. For one, students can focus on learning with no distractions. There is no need to spend money transporting children from the home to school. Homeschooling allows children to spend more time with their families. Delivery of information is consistent. There are no snow days in online homeschooling! Students are free to move to a new city, take a few weeks off for vacation, and more.

Online learning is incredibly flexible. It can be tailored for the unique learning needs of each homeschooler. Online learning is asynchronous, meaning that students at different levels of ability can both achieve success using the same software. Fast learners are not forced to learn along with the rest of the class and similarly, less advanced students are able to take as much time as is needed to complete the course material. No one is left behind or barely keeping up with online homeschooling.

Online homeschooling allows for multimedia and interactive presentations that make learning a more active process. Online homeschool students are engaged with video, audio, and interactive hands-on projects rather than passively listening to a lecture. Students of a variety of learning styles are thus served simultaneously.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because “our current system of education has broken its promise…” Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.

Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.

Technology and the knowledge of it are becoming more and more important every single day. As home-schooling parents, you may or may not be well versed in new technology and expanding uses of the internet.

However, as home-schooling parents, you are in the unique and enviable position to use your dual role as a parent and teacher to learn technology skills along with your child. Build upon those skills to make your home-schooling experience that much better. Technology is, in short, important to incorporate in your home-schooling curriculum and design.

The first step for home-schooling parents to incorporate appropriate technology into their lesson plans is to buy a computer and read the instructions carefully. You may even consider signing up for a class or seminar at you local university or community college. It is important to get the basics down if you don’t already know them before introducing the technology to your children. Although you may need to learn the basics from someone else, you and your home-schooled children can do a lot of exploring and learning together. Recent research shows that 97% of teachers learned something new about technology and computers while they were teaching their own students how to use them. You too can use the teaching experience to learn something about technology yourself.

Another great benefit of appropriate technology to home-school and home-schooling families is the time management benefits. It is faster to research topics utilizing internet libraries and databases than it is to drive to the library for research projects and papers. Word processing on a computer is also faster and neater than on a typewriter. This can be utilized by your children and by yourself as you keep records of your home-school activities and home-schooling lesson plans. Indeed, over 75% of traditional classroom teachers reported that technology helped them improve classroom management and nearly 90% said that technology helped them improve lesson planning and instruction. Home-schooling parents and home-schooled children can both benefit from this increase in productivity. You can focus more time and attention on learning the content and doing hands on activities and spend less time on paper work. Furthermore, learning to use technology will help your home-schooled children keep up with and surpass their peers in traditional schools.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children’s rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.

Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.

In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Articles consist of feature stories on online homeschooling and alternative education.

The Grace Academy is an online homeschool program that utilizes a Learning Management System (LMS). This system is a package of software allowing students to access online courses from anywhere at any time of the day.

By using a Learning Management System, students are free to learn at their own pace.

Learning Management Systems typically include a vast database of information. However, this database is not just a source of information; it’s a dynamic network of interlinking courses, assignments, readings, offsite materials, and more. Our Learning Management System, for example, offers students the opportunity to keep track of a student’s progress throughout the year. Our gradebook and testing structure are fully integrated.

A Learning Management System usually has a heavier back-end management system that organizes the roles, users, course structures, report-generation, and teacher access. There are many different roles that a Learning Management System must play. Many different parties must be able to use it. Teachers and homeschool administrators should be allowed to send mass communications to the base of students and a variety of other functions.

A primary advantage of a homeschool Learning Management System is its ability to be updated on the fly. Instead of waiting for years before new editions of homeschooling textbooks can be published, teachers are able to update the courses as soon as changes take place. For instance, we were able to demote Pluto from its former planetary status within a day of the decision by scientists to do so. It took will take years for other curricula to catch up. This is especially valuable in the social sciences as breakthroughs are common.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling mother, writer, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of home education company Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of 28 years reside with their 8 children right outside Philadelphia, PA.

Rothschild launched Learning By Grace, Inc. because she believed that our nation’s public school system has failed parents and students. Learning By Grace, Inc. offers online education through a multimedia-rich curriculum to PreK-12 children across the country and throughout the world.

An accomplished author, Rothschild has written books regarding education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Homeschooling News Café Blog consists of the most current and relevant education news.

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. We’ll be celebrating it on February 14. Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate God’s love for us.

Christian homeschool students should reflect that perfect love in the love that they share with others. Many people practice the traditions of Valentine’s Day while giving little thought to the background and traditions of this storied holiday. Let’s take a closer look at the origins.

The holiday is named after one of several men who share the name and title St. Valentine. No one is quite sure why St. Valentine is linked to the modern holiday, but we have several theories. The Roman Catholic Church celebrated his martyrdom with the Feast of Saint Valentine. It has been hypothesized that St. Valentine defied an official decree in Ancient Rome by marrying couples during wartime. This would explain his associate with romantic love. Others believe that this is a fabrication used by greeting card manufacturers to get Americans to buy more products.

It is clear that February has been linked with love from very ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans. Fertility festivals such as Lupercalia were celebrated during the month of February. This continued through the Middle Ages, when our modern idea of chivalric and romantic love thrived.

Because the links between St. Valentine and our modern American holiday are so unclear, many believe that Valentine’s Day is simply an excuse for confectioners, florists, and greeting card manufacturers to guilt people into buying gifts for their loved ones. This is partially true. A similar phenomenon occurred with the Christmas season. Many are unaware that Coca-Cola Christmas advertising did much to shape our popular perception of Santa Clause. Greeting card companies and others have done much the same with Cupid, little pink and red hearts, and more.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling mother, writer, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of home education company Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of 28 years reside with their 8 children right outside Philadelphia, PA.

Rothschild launched Learning By Grace, Inc. because she believed that our nation’s public school system has failed parents and students. Learning By Grace, Inc. offers online education through a multimedia-rich curriculum to PreK-12 children across the country and throughout the world.

An accomplished author, Rothschild has written books regarding education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Feed consists of articles and essays dealing with alternative learning methods.

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a package of software that allows online schools like The MorningStar Academy to deliver online content to students around the globe.

Through a learning management system, students are free to learn at their own pace, in a time and place that fits their schedule.

A learning management system typically includes a database of information that allows teachers to keep track of each student’s progress throughout the year. This database consists of homeschooler profiles, gradebook information, virtual classrooms, online eBooks, and much more.

There are many different types of LMSs. The characteristics that define an LMS include a back-end management system that organizes users, roles, course structures, teacher access, and report-generation. Many systems feature learning modules that allow the student to easily progress through the course material in an orderly and sequential fashion. A good LMS should allow teachers and administrators to send mass communications to the student base. Many LMSs also include grading software that automatically generates grade reports within seconds of the completion of an assignment.

One of the primary advantages of a Learning Management System is its ability to be updated on the fly. Some time ago, Pluto was demoted from planetary status and was no longer considered a member of the planetary solar system. While traditional textbooks will not see this change for several years, often up to a decade, our LMS allowed us to immediately account for the change. Our homeschooling LMS is updated constantly which removes the need for printing costs and prevents students from having to purchase new textbooks.

As technology improves, we will most likely see greater innovation. Like every good LMS, ours evolves over time to offer the most relevant and current learning presentation for online homeschooling families.

.About the Author:

Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children’s rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because “our current system of education has broken its promise…” Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.

Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.