Author Archives: Karen Edmisten

Read-alouds: The best and biggest benefit

In two previous posts, I extolled the benefits of reading aloud to my children. Clearly, we are book lovers, and we’ve seen many benefits of read-alouds from the time our children were very young, from instilling a love of language to increasing the kids’ confidence in their own ability to read aloud. But, as my girls have gotten older, I’ve seen another benefit of read-alouds, which adds a whole new dimension to our homeschooling and to our lives. Reading a great deal of literature to my children leads to the most amazing and delightful discussions. Rather than sending them off … Continue reading →

More Benefits of Frequent Read-alouds

In my last post, I talked about the early days in our homeschool, and of slowly building up to longer and more frequent read-aloud times, which have been the source of much fun and learning. In this post, blogger Teresa McEntire offers some great tips for growing in confidence with read-alouds, and this forum thread affirms the wisdom of using read-alouds to help nudge a budding reader along in the learning process. Books have been part of our family life since before we had a family. My husband and I were both English majors who came into the marriage with … Continue reading →

Starting Read-alouds

I read to my children. I read to them a lot. Before we started homeschooling, I thought I read a lot. There were the usual bedtime stories, the books we cuddled up with on frosty, frigid mornings, and the love of library day. But after we began homeschooling, I realized how little I had actually read to my kids. Because prior to that first year, I hadn’t gotten sore throats or dry mouth from read-aloud times. When my voice got tired, I stopped. As we immersed ourselves in all things “Little House” that first year, however, we found that we … Continue reading →

What kind of homeschooler are you?

The questions I’m most frequently asked by new homeschoolers, or by people who are considering homeschooling, are: “How do you know your style? There are so many resources and methods available. How do I decide what kind of homeschooler I am?” I’m afraid there are no easy answers to those questions. So much depends on your personal philosophy of education, your style of teaching (or what you predict your style will be), your children’s learning styles, and your state’s laws. Some of us don’t know what kind of homeschooler we’ll be until we’ve been doing it awhile. But, there are … Continue reading →

Don’t let homeschooling jitters discourage you

Beginning to homeschool is a little like starting college: you know that you want to do it, and you (possibly) have an end goal in mind. You’ve chosen your school, you’re registered for classes, and you’ve moved into the dorm. So far, so good. The basic requirements are all in place. What you don’t know is what the daily routine will be like, if you’ll get along with your roommate, how hard your classes will be, how well your high school study habits will serve you, and if you’ll do well enough to cross that eventual finish line and get … Continue reading →

Beginning homeschooling with minimal support

In my first post, I mentioned that my initial investigation into homeschooling included looking into local community support. In this post, I’ll share what I found and how it affected our decision to homeschool. A logical starting point was our faith community, but I was disappointed with what I discovered. Among fellow churchgoers, there was one family of homeschoolers, and their son was in junior high. Not the best social match for my little first-grade girl. The mom also gently warned me away from the local religious homeschooling group, as she had often felt criticized by them for her own … Continue reading →

Introduction from a new homeschool blogger

I’d like to introduce myself to the Families.com family. I’m a mom, a freelance writer, and a new homeschooling blogger here. I’m delighted to have this opportunity to write about a lifestyle and method of education that I love. We’re a family of five from the Midwest. When people ask how long we’ve been homeschooling, I often say that we’ve done it since birth, since parents are the first and most important educators of their children. But, for an actual chronology of my kids’ education, I can also say that we started formally homeschooling our oldest when she entered first … Continue reading →