Homeschooling

First, I want to tell you that if you have ever looked at your child and wondered if he or she is the single most selfish human on the planet, you are not alone. A lot of us want to teach our kids to be compassionate and caring, but it isn’t always easy. Kids are…

It was dark and rainy outside. I slowly peeled back the covers and eased away from the warm little body bedside me and into the cold. If I woke him, all bets were off. I fumbled around in the dark for my glasses and slippers as I eased quietly from the room to make a…

I studied Spanish all through high school and college, taught myself French (sort of) for fun one summer, learned various phrases to help me get by during all my European travels, and sat down to seriously study Italian when I met my husband G, who lived in Rome for 5 years during graduate school. He…

Now that it’s November, all the stores – and maybe your family home – are decorated for the holidays. It’s a special time of the year, full of wonderful traditions and memory-making events. But for some folks, it’s also the time of year to rub shoulders with homeschool detractors. Are you facing family holiday gatherings…

I love homeschooling. Even when it’s hard – even when it doesn’t look like I wish it did – I love this life. I enjoy most of the standard things – I like the freedom to choose curriculum that works for us, and I feel truly lucky that I get to spend my days with…

As moms of many we often worry, “Am I meeting the needs of each individual child?  How do I balance teaching multiple children in my homeschool?” I have some real talk for you.  On any given day, it’s very unlikely that you will be able to perfectly balance teaching each of your children, whether you…

Back when I was in the classroom, I developed a “teach them to fish” mentality with all sorts of administrative tasks that could take away my (oh, so limited) time to actually teach the kids. I would cringe when I’d see other teachers spending their precious planning period walking around stamping behavior folders for the…

I was talking with a friend the other day about doing school work with kids. Her kids are in public school; mine are homeschooled. But we both agreed that our biggest problem with school work is the same: telling the difference between skill issues and character issues. If your child resists doing his school work,…

The minute you walk into my daughter Gv’s room, you start to wonder if you’ve stepped through the wrong door and are back outside. That’s because you’re immediately met by piles of rocks, sticks, feathers, shells, moss, lichen and other bits of nature that she continuously collects and stores just inside her doorway. So Many…

As of this writing, we haven’t started school here. We are inching toward a start date, making progress every day, but things just haven’t clicked into place yet. I haven’t felt ready to start well. What does it mean to start well? For me, starting well means beginning in the right mindset, and being prepared….