“I hate school!” Only a couple months into our first year of homeschooling and the negative comments had started. These weren’t really much different than what I heard when my kids were in a traditional school. We struggled through that first year, dragging ourselves to summer break. I don’t tell you this to discourage you,
Summertime is here. Yet many of us still want our children to continue learning. What better way to learn than getting our hands dirty? Dirty in the garden. A garden is full of many lessons from how a plant grows to cooking the harvest. Like so many good things, gardening can sound like one more thing
Someone once said, “If you’re not sure where you’re going, any train will get you there.” Recently I took a train trip to New York City. I knew where I was going and what train to use to get there. I had a specific destination. I even had a specific destination, my hotel, once I
Too often “the classics” of literature are considered too old and too difficult for our children to tackle. As our kids’ teachers, we try to put on a happy face and tell them they’ll love it. If we’re honest with ourselves and our children, we have to admit we used Cliff Notes when during our
For homeschoolers, a more exciting sign of spring than blooming flowers, warmer sunshine, and the arrival of daylight saving time is graduation planning. Our minds fill with so many thoughts from the practical logistics of the day to the whispers that you might be “less than” and have passed that failure on to your graduate.
When you think of journalism, you probably have some set ideas of what it is and why you can’t teach it as a homeschool class. Perhaps you think journalists must write for a student newspaper in junior high or high school. You know there must be follow up through a college major in journalism or
Three-year-old Rosie brought a handful of rocks from the driveway in the house. She carefully placed these ordinary pieces of gravel on the bookshelf. This was the beginning of her rock collection. At three years old, there was little pattern or reason to her collection or how she displayed it. She just started collecting rocks.
This post contains affiliate links. I enjoy poetry. I wanted my children to enjoy poetry. Sadly, I never really learned to write lovely verses and, consequently, I don’t think I did an adequate job of teaching my children. When the opportunity came to take a look at Grammar of Poetry from Compass Classroom, I jumped at
On my return trip from the 2:1 Blogging Conference, I threw one of my carry-ons into the bin at the security screening. I heard behind me, “Look, she believes in homeschooling.” I turned around to be greeted by a sweet smiling face, “We homeschool, too.” Later we saw each other again on the plane. This
I take a look at my kids’ Facebook pages and wonder, “Why is the socialization question still being asked of homeschoolers?” My kids, all 30+, have a predictable group of social media friends: family members, work colleagues, and school friends. Yes, that’s right “school friends.” Not all of in this last group were homeschooled, but
