Christiana Homeschool - Blog | Christiana Homeschool Academy

Where Do I Find Financial Aid for College? By Becky Paschal

4/2/2025

Step 1: The first step is always submitting the FAFSA found at http://www.fafsa.gov/
This is the “FREE application for student aid”. (Don’t fall for frauds that have a similar web address and ask for payment!) This will require you AND your student to set up an FSA ID.
The FAFSA opens every October 1 and should be filled out the fall PRIOR to when your student begins college. (Ex. Fill it out in October 2024 if your child will be a college freshman in August 2025.) You will get to choose which colleges you want your FAFSA information sent to.

Step 2: Institutional Scholarships- Colleges offer both merit-based scholarships (based on test scores/GPA) and need-based scholarships (based on the financial information submitted in your FAFSA).

Don’t rule out a college based on their listed cost! Some private colleges have more scholarships to give away then public universities and end up being the same price or less! (I like to compare it to shopping at Kohl’s….you never pay what is on the price tag and if you utilize scholarships well, you can end up getting a really good deal!)

Colleges usually give you a “financial offer” at the same time as your acceptance.

Attending Carroll Community College? Many scholarships are available on their website. You must have completed the FAFSA. The portal usually opens mid-February to mid-March.

Step 3: Apply for local scholarships…and pay attention to the DEADLINES! You have a better chance of getting local scholarships because you are only competing against other people in the area, with national level scholarships you are competing with people all around the country.

1. If you are a Carroll County Resident, start at the Carroll Community Foundation where there are 75 scholarships housed! You submit ONE application in their portal and it automatically submits it to any of the scholarships that you qualify for! Deadline is April 15. https://www.wearecarroll.org/scholarships/

2. EVERY state representative and senator offers scholarships if you are applying to a Maryland state school, look on their websites here are some for this area:
Senator Justin Ready- District 5, Deadline. April 15
Senator Chris West District 42 Hampstead area students.
Delegate Chris Tomlinson Scholarship May 1st deadline
Delegate Josh Stonko- Hampstead area students
Delegate April Rose- Live in District 5
Delegate Christopher Bouchat District 5 Manchester Area

3. Look up the Town you live in…The Town of Manchester, Hampstead, etc. all have scholarships listed on their websites!

4. Local community groups…The Lions Club, The Elks, The Rotary Club, The Kiwanis, etc. ALL give scholarships, look at your local chapter’s website to apply.

5. Local banks & credit unions- you have to have an account there, so check the website for YOUR bank!

6. What have you been involved in? 4-H clubs offer scholarships, the North Carroll Rec Council offers scholarships, whatever you have been involved while in school, check their websites!

Step 4: Look for career specific scholarships:

Going into the Arts?
Check out the scholarships that the Carroll Arts Center provides: https://carrollcountyartscouncil.org/scholarships/
Going into business? South Carroll Business Association and North Carroll Business Alliance both offer scholarships.
Going into education or nursing…there are too many to list!

Step 5: Finally, if you are feeling really inspired, check out this book by Kristina Ellis (featured by Ramsey):
Confessions of a Scholarship Winner: The Secrets That Helped Me Win $500,000 in Free Money for College- How You Can Too!

Joe and Becky Paschal are the proud parents of three amazing young adults. This May, their eldest daughter Carolyne will be graduating from Taylor University. Their middle child, Abigail, is currently a freshman at Gordon College, and their youngest, Will, is a sophomore at CHA.

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The Imagined Beauty of Homeschool v. Reality by Julia McCall

11/20/2024

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Imagine with me for a moment. The morning is cool and crisp. You hold a warm cup of coffee in your hand. From the next room you hear your children listening to a video in Latin, and you smile as they laugh at a joke in an ancient tongue. You pat yourself on the back for being so wise and choosing to homeschool. You are abruptly torn from this fantasy when your pre-teen shrieks, “Mom! He’s not wearing any pants and the curtains are open!”

No? Just me?

I think we all begin each homeschool day hoping that it will be the one where our children (preferably through osmosis or Divine Intervention) wake up and say, “Dearest mother and father, I must unburden my curiosity and seek out knowledge. Where is my literature reading!?” This probably seems even less likely when you have a child in need of an Individualized Service Plan (ISP). Let me speak hope and truth to you today. It is possible. Ok, the fantasy version may never come to pass, but your child enjoying learning and growing in knowledge can be a reality.

Our family benefits from the realistic approach we’ve received by asking for an ISP. We now have more realistic goals for our day. We started with little changes in our routine and in my way of thinking. Full disclosure: both my husband and I were public school students. Shocking, I know. Due to this, we both were burdened with the idea that the grade measures the person. Let me give you peace and say the grade is NOT your student. They can help guide you, particularly if you have a student like ours who is a talented thinker but often misplaces work, but the grade is not the child. My focus is more on where did my kids begin and where did they grow now. The ISP didn’t just help my child- it also helped me to reassess which part of the teaching was most important for me as well.

Our homeschool day is not picture perfect. We lost my cat under a pile of papers once (he’s a very relaxed cat). We will never achieve perfection in our day, but maybe we need to stop seeking that and seek more of Christ. If Jesus realistically expects that we will stumble and need His help to get back up, then we shouldn’t be afraid to reach out and ask for a hand for ourselves and our kids when it comes to the academic day either. For our family, an ISP has brought us a newfound peace…not pants…but peace.

Julia McCall is the hard-working mom of two kids, Kathleen in 6th Grade, and Ian in 2nd Grade. She has been at Christiana since 2016, currently tutors 7th & 8th Grade History, and also works as CHA's Director of Programming.

A copy of Christiana's Individualized Support Plan (ISP) overview is available on Parent Resources on Google Classroom. If you see a need to consider this process, please contact Erika Adam, Dean of Academic Support, at [email protected].

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How Can I Tell If a Book Is “Too Hard” For My Child?By Erika Adam

11/13/2024

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Every CHA parent has undoubtedly heard the words “It’s too hard!” from our sons and daughters- perhaps more often than we might like! But when it comes to reading, how can we tell if our kids might actually be right?

Thankfully, there’s a simple test that can help parents find books their children will be able to read without help or instruction from an adult. It’s called the “Five Finger Rule,” and it’s so easy that anyone can use it (even your child).

Just pick up any book, open to any page, and hold up a finger for every word on that page your child doesn’t know or can’t pronounce. Books with 0-1 fingers will likely be too easy, and books with 4-5 fingers up will likely be too hard for your child to read without some help. But books with 2-3 fingers up are usually just right! These are books that your child will probably be able to read, understand, and enjoy without any assistance.

However, quite a few books your child encounters might fall into the “too hard” category. These might be books they pick from the library on subjects that interest them, or even reading assigned by CHA. The good news is- these books are often the best learning experiences. It is not a matter of whether your child “should” be enjoying these types of books, but rather a question of how. Books which are “too hard” to be enjoyed alone can easily be enjoyed together. While it’s important for kids to be working on their independent reading as well, the learning which takes place together is the learning that has the most impact.

It doesn’t take a trained specialist to help most kids engage with a demanding text. Timothy Shanahan, Founding Director of the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Literacy describes the results of recent studies, noting the following:

Kids who engage with texts that would be classified as “above their head” learn significantly more than kids who limit their reading to only the “just right” level, where they can read independently.
In these studies, the only “help” that was provided for second graders to read at what is called their “frustration level” was paired reading with other second graders. Yes, there was some guidance provided to each pair by trained teachers, but it seems that just the act of reading what one can out of the text and discussing with someone else is enough to produce real learning.

How much more can we as homeschooling parents accomplish with our kids if we read, support, and discuss with them? Here are some concrete suggestions that parents can put in practice to help their kids reap the many benefits of a text which is “too hard”:

Scan the reading in advance for words that your child might not know, and talk about the meaning of those words before your child starts to read the passage.
Take turns reading, modeling reading aloud and then having your child try a section. You can even discuss the meaning of the passage together in between sections to help them understand!
Read a section, or even listen to an audiobook, then have your child narrate back what they remember. Wait until they are finished, then ask questions! Encourage them to go back to the text more than once in order to find more detail- or even go back to the text together after your child has tried to narrate independently.
No matter what, the key is to establish a dialogue between parent and child in which neither the parent nor child does all the work. Help them a little by asking a leading question or talking through how you yourself figured out how the parts of the text connect. Then step back for a moment and see what they can do on their own!

Every child engages with reading differently- but it is key that every child comes to love the written word. As homeschoolers, we have the invaluable opportunity to build strong relationships with our kids- and reach them on an individual level in ways that no group program could. Through a strong family culture that values reading together, kids can learn to love books and reading in ways that will enrich their lives far into the future!

This is part of the CHA Bits: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks series. Is there a question about CHA or homeschool that you would like answered? Submit inquiries to [email protected].

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How do I teach my child to read? (Part 2) by Tracey Willet

10/31/2024

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If your student is in K-2nd Grade, you have hopefully already picked out a good phonics curriculum. (If not, get one ASAP! Check out our blog post from July 2023, “Choosing a Phonics Curriculum.”) Learning to decode words through the study of phonics is an ESSENTIAL reading skill. You must teach this! (CHA does not teach reading so this is the job of the homeschool parent!)

In addition to phonics, learning sight words is a nice supplement to get your child reading quickly, and figuring out those pesky words that break the rules of phonics. Once he or she has learned letter sounds and a few beginning sight words you can start introducing early readers. The first early readers are ones with “cvc” words (consonant-vowel-consonant), which you will find in books such as Pan and the Mad Man and Dan of the Den (check out those titles from Veritas Press Phonics Museum in the CHA library!). Scholastic Sight Word Readers and Bob books are also two popular series.

As your child progresses through the phonics program, you will want to introduce readers that build vocabulary. Non-fiction early readers are an excellent tool for this. (And be sure to take the time to review vocabulary when reading Story of the World to your child for History!)

Some parents also find it helpful to have their child doing word games and word puzzles, vocabulary worksheets, or additional reading comprehension passages in order to increase reading skills. These are pretty easy to come by at the Dollar Store, on Amazon, or on TeachersPayTeachers.com. (Hint: Find reading materials on Health topics and kill two birds with one stone!) Overwhelmed by the myriad choices? Ask for help and recommendations! That is one of the many blessings of the CHA community.

It takes time to teach your child to read. But teaching reading is a great way to put the five love languages into action during your homeschool day. Pull out the special reader you picked out for your child! (Even if it is on loan from the library, it counts as “Giving Gifts”!) Don’t overschedule yourself, or your child. Put your phone away. Give your child your full attention. (Quality time.) Sit close to him or her. (Physical touch.) Speak encouraging words at the end of each page (Words of affirmation) and celebrate a finished book by serving your child a treat or snack (Acts of service.) When it gets frustrating, or if you find yourself starting to yell (hey, it happens), find a bookmark and take a short “brain break.” (NOT a screen break! Provide a musical instrument, give them a chore, or do an exercise.)

You can do this! You can teach your child to read! And what’s more you can teach them to LOVE reading. Stay tuned for next week’s article, “Building fluency in reading.”

This is part of the CHA Bits: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks series.
Is there a question about CHA or homeschool that you would like answered?
Submit inquiries to [email protected].

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How do I teach my child to read? (Part 1) by Laura Hamilton

10/30/2024

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Teaching your child how to read may be one of the most rewarding (and frustrating!) things you will ever do as a homeschool parent.

Teaching children to read begins way before the child brain is ready to actually decode words. We need to prepare them to read! Reading readiness skills are developed with a variety of practices that begin at an early age. We teach the importance of learning to read by modeling to them ourselves reading and enjoying good books. Reading our phones doesn’t count! 😊 Having books of all topics for children to pick up and peruse is fun and important.

We also begin reading to them at an early age. Go to the library and let them pick out those little board books in a variety of topics. Be enthusiastic about reading! Make time for reading! As children get older, they will beg to go to the library to pick out books for you to read to them. As you read:

Point to the words. Pointing out words develops the printed word knowledge that we read from left to right and top to bottom of the page.
Point out different letters to help promote letter recognition.
Discuss the meanings of words children may or may not be familiar with. Let them tell you what different words mean.
After reading a book, discuss what happened in the story. Discuss the characters. Talk about why or how the character did what he/she accomplished. Talk about the setting.

As parents who embrace a classical education, we get to choose books that teach children Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. These include: Bible stories, Aesop’s fables, fairy tales, and poetry. Create a household habit that gives you, or another family member, the opportunity to read these to your children before bedtime.

It is so important to make time for reading at home as all of these practices prepare a child for the actual decoding of words.

Unfortunately, video games and screen time are too often replacing the time that could be spent reading. Anecdotally, teachers are reporting the epidemic of children having shorter attention spans and the inability of students to sit still. Science is showing that reading from paper engages your brain in a very different way than interacting with any type of screen does.

At Christiana Homeschool Academy, these reading readiness strategies are a very important component of the curriculum from pre-school to grade 2.

Stay tuned for next week’s article as we cover how to teach a reading curriculum in “How do I teach my child how to read, Part 2!”

Laura Hamilton is a former CHA mom and tutor. She enjoyed reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Doctor Doolittle to hundreds of CHA second graders over the years.

This is part of the CHA Bits: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks series. Is there a question about CHA or homeschool that you would like answered? Submit inquiries to [email protected].

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<<Previous

Where Do I Find Financial Aid for College? By Becky Paschal

The Imagined Beauty of Homeschool v. Reality by Julia McCall

How Can I Tell If a Book Is “Too Hard” For My Child?By Erika Adam

How do I teach my child to read? (Part 2) by Tracey Willet

How do I teach my child to read? (Part 1) by Laura Hamilton

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