If your child is an adept, focused and curious learner who has a deep empathy for others and a desire to delve into new areas of knowledge, you may have a gifted child. I went to school. I was also a gifted child. Had I not been in school, would this have mattered all that much? I think so. Giftedness frames your personality. As a parent, it is important that you understand how your child interacts with the world, and giftedness is part of this. Gifted children challenge you to reconsider the boundaries of learning. Traditional schooling may be too … Continue reading →

Giftedness does not have absolute characteristics. Gifted children may be talented in a particular area. They often begin talking earlier than other children and use language to communicate ideas that are quite complex. However, if you are trying to determine whether your young homeschooler might be gifted, you can look at more than their talents. Gifted children are avidly interested in acquiring new knowledge. They seek mastery of a topic and try to understand it in great depth. Young children who are gifted may be able to focus on an activity for a long time with a great deal of … Continue reading →

That’s how I think about details. Really, I don’t like them much. Now, I am a wonderful organizer, and I keep track of all of the details of life very well. However, give me an art project and I will have no problem finishing it with a few flaws worked into the mix. Those just tell me I’m human, right? No detail-oriented perfectionism here. Of course, there are times when detail orientation is rather useful. I want my surgeon to be detail-oriented. I would prefer that those who build bridges get the engineering details just right. I’ve just accepted that … Continue reading →

What’s your style? And I don’t mean to ask whether you prefer jeans, sweats, or formal gowns. What’s your learning style? For me, discovering my learning style was one of the most transformative experiences of my early twenties. All of a sudden, my embarrassments in school made sense. I was a wonderful and dedicated student, but you see, I doodled. I remember one day in math class after I had done well on a test and appeared to be listening raptly to what the teacher had to say. I was listening with such apparent interest that the teacher decided to … Continue reading →

I know people who read before age five, with very little education on how to read. My husband is one of them. Several children of friends also learned how to read at age three. These people were fluent readers before kindergarten. I also know people who read at ages far beyond five. My father is one of them. He didn’t read until age eight or older, and today he is a fluent reader. It is popular in unschooling circles to think about reading as something that will come to all children naturally. I see the validity in the argument, but … Continue reading →

In any classroom, there will be students who easily understand and comprehend everything a teacher is communicating. There are also students who struggle to follow the teacher’s instructions. There was a time when this inability to understand the teacher was misinterpreted as as learning disability. The truth is that in these cases it is more likely that the teaching style of the instructor doesn’t match the students learning style. While one teacher cannot adapt their teaching style to meet the learning styles of everyone, In the homeschool environment adapting is much easier. The first thing a homeschool parent must do … Continue reading →

Whether you are a trained teacher or not, education is now your business. When I taught in school, I firmly believed that professional development was important for teachers. I firmly believe that the same is true for homeschoolers. We need to be engaged on a regular basis in learning the craft of teaching and figuring out how to apply it in our homes. If you were an education student, or a psychology student, you no doubt know of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In the mid-’50’s, Benjamin Bloom came up with a taxonomy that described some aspects that are important to learning behavior. … Continue reading →

A few days ago, I talked about why I felt it was important to identify your teaching style. I think new homeschoolers should really spend some time thinking through their philosophy of education. During their first year of teaching, I think new homeschoolers would do well to consider how they like teaching best. Today I’m going to describe the four teaching styles. Formal Authority Formal authority teachers feel like it is their job to illuminate the content for their students. Their job is to teach the content and the student’s job is to receive it. Teachers who have this type … Continue reading →