To School or Not to School on Snow Days… that is the question! With snow and ice blanketing a good portion of the North, the homeschooling community is a-buzz with questions about schooling on snow days. Does your homeschool close when the public schools close? Do you school business-as-usual on snow days? Do you school…
If you’re anything like me, you start off each new homeschool year telling yourself, THIS is the year! THIS is the year I will get organized… and stay organized! THIS is the year I will keep on top of my planning and will carry through on what I’ve planned. THIS is the year I will…
It took two conventions and hours of perusing the homeschool catalogs and websites, but I have finally settled on our homeschool curriculum for the 2010-2011 school year… mostly… I think. Choosing a homeschool curriculum is a daunting task to say the least. That is not a complaint, it’s simply a fact. There are so many…
I love homeschooling, most days, I really do! What I don’t love is trying to remember the Virginia-state deadlines for Notice of Intent and Proof of Progress each year. And so, what I have done, in order to not have to remember deadlines, and to not have to deal with a missed deadline, is to…
One of the biggest challenges for a homeschooling parent, or perhaps for any parent, is being able to distinguish a child’s fleeting interest from a developing passion. Homeschooling parents rely heavily on their children’s interests to provide new and interesting learning experiences, but is there a time when interest is enough and parental meddling can…
Today our holiday break ends and a new semester begins. After three months of home schooling, we are still working to perfect our learning schedule. Toward the end of the first semester, daily commitments and responsibilities seemed to interfere with, rather than support, our schooling far more than I care to admit. Even so, we…
Ryan has always loved books. He treasures books, carries books around in his backpack at all times, and has even been known to take a stack of books to bed with him. Since infancy, he has loved to sit and listen to a story, and at age six, this has not changed. He loves to…
I am the daughter of a public-school teacher; I attended public schools and graduated from state universities; I have a PhD in school psychology; I worked in the public schools for 7 years; and yes, I believe the majority of public schools do an adequate job of educating our children. So, why, I am frequently…
After years of post-graduate education and experience in education, one might think I have all of the necessary skills to successfully navigate the planning and delivery of our home-school lessons and assignments, and yet I find myself at a loss almost daily on how to best present new material, to skillfully coax cooperation, to gently…