Upon entering the room, on my very first day, I discovered that the study table and the four bright orange chairs surrounding it were much too small for me. Looking at the boys, I asked, more from amusement than anything else, "Boys, do you think I'm going to fit into these chairs and isn't this table too small for me?"
Read MoreTeaching your child to read is arguably the most important skill you will teach. You have to know the right time to teach, the right way to teach and the right method to teach. If you don't get the reading part right, and consequently raise a child who dislikes reading, many doors will shut.
Read MoreNow that the homeschool year is winding down, are you worried your children didn't finish everything you had mapped out? Stop!
Read MoreWe were able to get a few short but fascinating answers from Gatto about his unique and highly entertaining new book.
Read MoreIt's simple to teach multiple levels at the same time and plenty of parents do it with wonderful success. Our most famous example, so far, is the Harding parents who wrote the book, The Brainy Bunch: The Harding Family's Method to College Ready by Age Twelve.
Read MoreSimply put, if your child is engaged in regular technology use chances are there will be some delays and possible disruption to his developmental processes. We see this statistically with 15% of children being labeled learning-disabled and 30% of this generation's children predicted to be unfit for an entry level job.
Read MoreWe've all been there. The panic that sets in when you fear your child is behind the others. Maybe your best friend's child is reading three letter words and yours doesn't have an interest in memorizing the alphabet, let alone reading a book.
Read MoreWow! There is finally a parenting book that is simple, doable, and appeals to our common sense. The Danish Way of Parenting: What the Happiest People in the World Know About Raising Confident, Capable Kids by authors Jessica Alexander and Isban Sandahl, is a clear, concise way of approaching raising children that the country of Denmark follows.
Read MoreMost mothers, when they walk into their kitchen and find their iron skillet full of rust (because their son did not dry and oil it properly after use), might be annoyed. Homeschooling mothers, on the other hand, are usually delighted. The discovery becomes another learning opportunity, where the children pile into the kitchen and a discussion of what it is, how it got there, and how it can be prevented follows.
Read MoreFor some of you this will be your first year of homeschooling, and for some of you it may be one of many, but regardless of whether you are a newcomer or not, a bit of support is always welcome.
Read MoreI'm taking the liberty of digressing from the topic of education to share my thoughts on a situation that has consumed every day of my life for the past seven weeks.
Read MoreBeing a mother today, with limited or no family support, is a challenge. On our best days we can feel a little like we are going nuts. And then we throw in the idea of homeschooling, at least some of us do, and then we panic for surely we will go nuts! But, it isn't actually like that and somehow most of us manage to keep ourselves relatively sane.
Read MoreHere's another gem from the book: "Immigrants who were educated in Europe often became private schoolmasters, advertising in the newspapers that they would teach algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, navigation, french, Latin, Greek, rhetoric, English, belles lettres, logic, philosophy, and other subjects. Wow! Does anyone even know anyone who knows all of this today? If we do, they are usually not found teaching children!
Read MoreI always recommend educating children with the classics, so I'm going to share a comment with you from one of my Lost Tools Curriculum moms, that made me really happy to read. But, first let me say that if your children grow up reading classic literature, they will always be able to read difficult literature, and all doors to great literature and knowledge will be open to them. Not to mention that they will be able to think, speak, and write at higher levels, too. Reading the classics also trains us in understanding human nature; why people do the things they do and how to recognize the good person from the bad person, to put it simply. Shakespeare was the all-time master of this. Here is the comment from my customer, especially for those of you who fear the classics might be too difficult:
Read MoreSome mothers are very good about cooking daily meals for their families, especially if they have emigrated from foreign countries where family meals are still common, but American-born mothers have let this practice go more than we realize. I have been one of those moms.
Read MoreWhile grading students on a bell curve may make some sense in a college setting, it's a harmful system for measuring the comprehension and knowledge of younger students. The Bell curve was designed to determine where each student ranked in relation to the rest of the group, but each child has a unique mind that is developing at its own rate and understands things in its own time, and, therefore, to compare a child's ability to those of his peers defies common sense.
Read MoreA new father proudly showed me his baby the other day. He was so full of glee as he began to tell me the many plans he had for his son. My mind fell back to a day, almost 18 years ago, when my first child was born and I quickly remembered my own plan, for I sensed, it was also his. My plan was simple: I would be the perfect mother and raise the perfect child. I didn't put it into those words at the time, but in retrospect, that was it.
Read MoreI learned to read in the first grade. My teacher, Mrs. Gilman, was tall and dressed in a blouse and skirt--down to the knees--wearing black pumps and bright red lipstick. She was stern, but she had a friendly face. Mrs. Gilman taught me to read when I was six, and it unlocked the door to another world for me; a world of interesting characters where anything was possible.
Read MoreOften, as harried parents trying to keep up in a frenzied world (at least I was!) the last thing we seem to have time for is reminding our young children to put their shoes away, to hang up their coats, to make their beds, to clear their dishes, to say, "please" and "thank you" yet, this is precisely the time to teach our children these things. We are instilling good habits in our children, and if we don't teach them good habits now, we will inadvertently teach them bad habits that they will struggle with as they grow older.
Read MoreI almost didn’t read this book. At first glance the book seemed a bit frivolous, and the author seemed too young, but I have a 17 year-old daughter who was homeschooled and extended the “no school” philosophy to college, so I decided to give it a quick read. This book has been surprising and I think it is worth reading, especially for goal-driven parents who have difficulty grasping the idea of a valid education outside the system.
Read MoreSmart Homeschool Planning with Elizabeth Y. Hanson, Homeschooling Expert and Certified Parenting Coach
Illustration images by Anne Yvonne Gilbert
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