Homeschooling. What does that mean to you? Perhaps you know someone who homeschools. Or perhaps you have simply heard the term. Or perhaps you are interested in homeschooling or are already doing so. What does it look like? How do you “do” homeschooling? The fundamental basis for science is observation....
Category: How-To & Ideas
Things you need to do when considering homeschooling, and ideas to help you get started.
Socialization and Homeschooling
One of the most common questions people against homeschooling might ask you is, “What about socialization?” Well, what about it? Firstly, what is socialization? My go-to quick-reference online dictionary is https://www.dictionary.com/. Their definition of socialization is “a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms,...
My Five Most Invaluable Items to use in homeschooling: #5 Notebooking Pages
Notebooking Pages... one of the top 5 invaluable things I use in homeschooling! Notebooking Pages is a treasure absolutely worth having, whether you get the free version or the Lifetime Membership. The free version offers over 600 pages of notebooking pages to download. We started with this before jumping...
Commitment
Before my wife and I married, I was committed to homeschooling. By contrast my wife, who came from a background and country (South Africa) where homeschooling was unheard of, had many misgivings. Yet, as with many things where I stood apart from my wife’s experience and training, she yielded, choosing...
Setting the Tone
I love learning. It is a wonder to me, but I never liked school even though I was good at it. Even the classes that I was most excited to take never satisfied, but quickly became a bore. In all my years of study the only class I ever took...
My Five Most Invaluable Items to use in homeschooling: #3 My Planner
My Planner - What I planned for the year, the week, what we actually did this week, and who has a birthday today! My planner. It certainly is one of my 5 most invaluable items for homeschooling! My sister gave me a brief tutorial on using Microsoft’s Publisher, and it...
My Five Most Invaluable Items to use in homeschooling: #2 Books & Audio Books
My Five Most Invaluable Items to use in homeschooling: #2 Books & Audio Books I’m sure I’ve mentioned that we’re book people. The only thing to equal books in our household are the kind that someone else, with a good narration style, reads to you in the form of an...
Why we chose to homeschool
Everyone has their own reasons. Here's why we made the decision to homeschool. People often want to know why we chose to homeschool, especially those who aren’t homeschooling themselves. I was born and raised in South Africa in a time that homeschooling hadn’t yet taken off and I didn’t know...
Sponges
If you've spent time with young children, you've spent time with sponges! Children are like sponges. Not in the commonly-thought-of meanings of being a mooch, parasite or freeloader, but in the sense of drinking in, soaking up, and saturating themselves with information regarding the world they live in. Children are...
Popular vs Right for your family
Homeschool peer pressure: What's popular isn't necessarily what's right for your family. The choice of going with what is popular vs right for your family may be something you have already run into. If you’re homeschooling, you’re, in most circles, already choosing what you think is right for your family...
Unit Studies
Unit Studies are a wonderful way to cover multiple subjects in one topic and make them relevant. The combining of a variety of subjects into one is called a unit study. This can be anything you like. Pumpkins, Queen Elizabeth I, Australia, bubblegum, horses, mountains. The possibilities are so endless...
The 4 Rs
You've heard about the 3 Rs. So what is the fourth R? Everyone has heard of the 3 Rs, but the 4 Rs are what the education of my children is based on. Considering that they’re the foundation of learning, has anyone else noticed that of the 3 Rs, writing...
Newsflash
Newsflash! Newsflash! Newsflash! I know you need this newsflash like I did, so here it is. You are not omnipotent! You do not have the ability or time or knowledge to absolutely accomplish every aspect of your child’s education completely on your own without any assistance from anyone else. If...
Laziness
Signs of laziness versus responsibility. I was asked to write a post on laziness. Where do I start with a subject like this? How about identifying some tell-tale signs that show laziness on your part. Sloppy preparation Winging it, instead of any planning Waiting for the last minute to...
Mining for Nuggets
Nuggets are incredibly valuable and can transform your homeschool. How do you go about mining for nuggets, and where do you find the things that change your homeschool? I am reminded of Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the words of which I have changed slightly. “How do I find...
My Five most Invaluable Items to use in Homeschooling: #1 A Library Card
A Library Card is one of my five most invaluable items to use in homeschooling. We are book people. When we moved, we got rid of furniture, but not books. That said, there are only so many books that one individual (in most instances) can have in their private collection....
In the beginning… Getting started
In the beginning ... Getting started with homeschooling. Here’s a little secret about our homeschool journey. It was very hard getting started. Even though my hubby had passed on to me what he saw our home education accomplishing and I could see the end goal, the first step to take...
End of year report
An end of year report to record what you have covered in your school year is worth the effort. When we lived in Vermont, the state required an end of year report, a written proof of what we had done in our school year. In the same way that taking...
Creating your own curriculum
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, consider creating your own curriculum. I looked for a long time for the golden bullet, the perfect curriculum, the one that would do it all. What I didn’t realize was that I was looking for someone else to do every part of...
Coping With Educational Costs
15 ways to help cope with educational costs. Here’s the headline… Education costs money. That’s just a fact which you need to realize and accept. That said, it doesn’t have to cost much. Here are 15 simple ways to get as much bang for your buck as you can as...