I have four children, three of whom are boys. I have one son who is very studious and will sit and read a book for hours. You say, “School time,” and he’s right there with all his pencils sharpened and an expectant look on his face. Then I have one son who fights the entire process. He doesn’t understand why we even have to do school and he questions the need for each and every subject. What makes it the most difficult is that he’s the oldest boy, and his little brother idolizes him. I worry that his anti-school attitude … Continue reading →

There is unschooling. There is e-learning. There are formal homeschooling methods that are based on other curricula or ideologies, such as classical homeschooling, Waldorf, and Montessori. In our city, there seems to be a new breed of homeschooler emerging, one that may transform the worlds of school-based education and home-based education. These educational renegades are not interested in school as it’s been done for years, that Monday to Friday, 8-something am to 3-something pm grind. Yet they’re not averse to having their children participate in a regular program of learning that is conducted by people outside the family. Let’s call … Continue reading →

My daughter is unintimidated by math. Why should she be intimidated by it anyway? Math is just numbers, and numbers are everywhere. (Ok, yes, I know that there is a little more than that to math, but not in the primary years). The other day she was watching a video from the library and I was sitting there with her. The video turned out to be about a math contest, and the prevailing message of the entire 30-minute long segment was that math was something for brainy people, not for the general population. I don’t get it. We assume that … Continue reading →

This late winter and spring, we are dabbling. I am trying to embrace dabbling. As a child, I was a dabbler so severe that I drove my parents to distraction as I signed up for classes, then promptly decided that I wanted to do something else. They didn’t always let me switch, of course. As an adult, I’ve figured out that my dabbling has been good for me. Now it all forms a cohesive whole. Social justice volunteer work, gardening, environmental education all fuse together to form what is simply my life, and that works for me. In some ways, … Continue reading →

With all my talk about Charlotte Mason recently, readers are surely thinking, “Wow, she’s a confirmed Charlotte Mason-ite. Clearly, that’s her method. She sure loves Charlotte. Yessirree, no doubt about it. That Karen is a CM-er.” Well, yes. No. Maybe. Well, part of the time. But, then there’s our classical side. And our unschooling days. And sometimes, now and then, a workbook-y type of thing going on. And there you have our homeschool in a nutshell. I’m a pendulum, swinging back and forth between various methods and ideas. I try a bit of this, throw in a little of that. … Continue reading →

Valorie Delp’s recent article about Bookadventure.org spurred one more post about aligning curriculum. In addition to aligning hobbies, scouts, or art to your curriculum, you can and should align one curriculum subject to another. If you are familiar with unit studies, you know that this is a subject or project based approach to homeschooling. Language arts, science, history, and sometimes math lessons are centered around one subject like butterflies, for instance. Aligning subjects is a close departure from this concept. This approach to homeschooling, is also reminiscent of the classical style of homeschooling. A classical homeschooler would most certainly study … Continue reading →

Many people want to know what a typical day is like for a homeschooler. I will start by saying there is no such thing as a typical day. We do have basic schedules, but we are always open to deviation. Regardless, I decided to give a peek into a day in our lives. Planning it out the night before (written last night) Today, I had the children homeschool for about 6 hours, to get 2 days worth of work done. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. First, we have an appointment with a photographer to do headshots for … Continue reading →