You know how you start each year excited and organized, then somewhere around the Christmas holidays things can begin to get off track. We get busy. The children get distracted. (Don’t feel bad about it–traditional classroom teachers face the same challenge!) By Spring Break, I always felt like I was just trying to hang on until summer.

This year we’d like to lend a hand by sending you useable encouragement throughout the year. About once a month, you’ll get a brief newsletter in your email inbox. (If you’d rather not receive it, just let us know you’d like to unsubscribe…but we hope you won’t.) Then in the blog, you’ll find teaching tips, reviews of books and field trips, history out-takes, interesting side stories, and new discoveries we plan to include in the program.

Why not take a minute to subscribe to the News Around Texas blog or add it to your RSS feed or iGoogle Reader? We don’t want your family to miss a thing!

Customer Service for Busy Homeschool Moms is a post from: News Around Texas

That’s right. You could get it FREE!

By now you’ve had a chance to look over the program. I hope you’ve seen how easy it is to give your family a wonderful learning adventure. The only thing that could make it more fun is to share the experience with friends.

When you tell a friend about Discover Texas, they can receive $10 off by mentioning your name when they mail their order. In addition, you will receive a $10 rebate for every customer who buys Discover Texas on your recommendation, BUT THEY MUST PLACE THEIR ORDER BY TODAY.

A discount for your friend,

A rebate for yourself,

And happier customers for me.

Everybody wins!

Last Day for our Summer Rebate Offer is a post from: News Around Texas

• To me, the people in my school history books had one thing in common–they were all dead. I had no connection to them, so they were not important to me. But when I hiked to a rock shelter where some nameless tribesman had left his handprint in red paint, a feeling swept over me. “I was here. Remember,” it seemed to say.
• I cannot remember one word of any lecture I ever heard in a history class before college, but even as a child I loved the historic homes in our town and noticed that they didn’t have indoor plumbing.
• The pictures in my textbooks were black and white and shades of gray, but when my family attended a play where scenes from history were reenacted, history came alive!

If you’re like me, most of the education you received in school was PASSIVE–which is possibly why I had the vague notion sometimes that education was something inflicted upon me. My presence was required as well as my cooperation in reading textbooks, listening to lectures, and quietly watching the occasional movie as a rare treat. But studies prove that we remember

• only 10% of what we read
• 20% of what we hear
• 30% of what we see (pictures and other visual images)
• and just 50% of what we see hear presented in a passive manner. (a movie, exhibit, or demonstration)

But when learning is ACTIVE–when we

• participate in a discussion
• tell others what we’ve learned
• participate in a dramatic presentation
• simulate a real experience, or
• do “the real thing”

retention jumps to 70%-90%!

Field trips provide an opportunity to connect with the people who made history–to walk where they walked, to experience a bit of their life, and to gain an appreciation for their goals and challenges. We participate in their drama, and we talk about what we’ve learned with others who are also excited.

That’s why, through Discover Texas, we strive to make it easier to find and organize field trips that fit your family’s interests. The posts in this series represent only a few of the field trip ideas listed in the Teacher Tips section of each volume. No one family could do them all–at least it’s unlikely that you could see it all in one year–but I’d encourage you to plan at least some.

There’s still time before the Labor Day weekend, and I guarantee there’s an interesting historical site near you. Think how much more enjoyable this year will be if your students are excited and engaged in their study of Texas history!

Field Trips are an Indispensible Part of Learning is a post from: News Around Texas

You could also hike to see the native Texans’ Rock Art. There are actually tours at many locations in far west Texas and in the western regions of the South Texas Plains, so you’ll need to check the calendar to find a convenient date and place.

If you homeschool in Trans-Pecos Texas… is a post from: News Around Texas

Several selections in San Antonio run a very close second. (I LOVE San Antonio—something that will probably become obvious as you read this blog.) If you are able to plan a Texas History field trip for the whole Labor Day weekend, you wouldn’t run out of things to see and do!

Of course there’s the Alamo and four other historic Spanish missions. (Check the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau for information.)

Perhaps less well known is the Institute of Texas Cultures, displaying the best aspects of all the many people groups who now call themselves Texans.

And the The Witte Museum has an excellent walk-through diorama depicting the geographical regions of our state, as well as a display of Texas’ first nations—the indigenous tribes.

If you homeschool in the Texas Hill Country… is a post from: News Around Texas

If you homeschool on the South Texas Plains… is a post from: News Around Texas

Replicas of Columbus’ ships, courtesy of Ships of Discovery, can be toured in Corpus Christi harbor. Though Columbus never made it as far as the mainland of Texas, these ships are typical of those that brought other explorers in the Age of Exploration. I was amazed at their small size! Not sure I’d want to cross uncharted oceans in such a small craft…

Of course, Presidio La Bahia  at Goliad, the San Jacinto Museum of History in La Porte, and the Star of the Republic Museum  at Washington-on-the-Brazos are great places to introduce students to the sweeping saga of our state.

If you prefer something even more interactive, try the Barrington Living History Farm near Washington-on-the-Brazos or the George Ranch Historical Park at Richmond.

If you homeschool on the Texas Gulf Coastal Plains… is a post from: News Around Texas

Since East Texas was the cradle of colonization, several of our earliest historical sites are preserved through state parks or universities in your area.

Try Caddoan Mounds near Alto, Mission Tejas State Park in Grapeland, the Stone Fort Museum and El Camino Real exhibit at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, or Stephen F. Austin State Historical Park–site of Austin’s original colony–at San Filipe.

If you homeschool in the Piney Woods of Texas… is a post from: News Around Texas

 Enjoy Frontier Texas!, an interactive history museum in Abilene

 OR

 Journey to Texas in the days BEFORE history at the Waco Mammoth Site.

If you homeschool in Central Texas… is a post from: News Around Texas

The show runs through August 21^st this year, so you’ll have to act fast. Seats fill quickly!

If you homeschool in the Panhandle of Texas… is a post from: News Around Texas