Reading, Comprehension, and Knowledge Do you enjoy reading? I do. I grew up reading voraciously — new books, old books, books set in the city, the country, in foreign lands, and many books that featured characters that lived lives very...
Here is a collection of favorite quotes on lifelong learning, learning and freedom, unschooling, institutional schooling, homeschooling and general truth about learning by speakers from C.S. Lewis and Charlotte Mason to Aristotle and Mark Twain.
Charlotte Mason’s Educational Manifesto declared that not only did children have a right to knowledge, but they also had an appetite for such knowledge, and that appetite, if not squelched, would motivate them to learn.
If you can align your expectations with reality, make adjustments that keep you sane, and focus on priorities and essentials, you’ll be able to homeschool while you’re a caregiver.
In the How to Homeschool a Boy series (the three previous posts), I talked about some of the things I learned through the homeschooling years. One of the first things I learned about was learning styles, or preferred ways of...
Preface Welcome to this hundred-and-umpteenth Carnival of Homeschooling! Because November is National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo or nano), and I’m over 10,000 words into the writing process (and can’t think of anything but writing, writing, and more...
Stories bring knowledge alive and engage emotional memory in a way that makes abstract principles and arcane facts easy to understand and remember. When learning can be joyous and simple, why make it boring and difficult (and pointless because they are unlikely to remember anything) by using tedious worksheets and canned curriculum? It’s never too late to start teaching well. Resolve now to make literature and stories a major part of your educational adventure!
I opened the door this morning, and there on the front steps was a box from Andrew Pudewa’s IEW. The American and British literature levels of Excellence in Literature have arrived and are ready for you! Yesterday was my grandmother’s...
I was working with the Chaucer unit in Excellence in Literature: British Literature this morning, and thinking about the ways in which The Canterbury Tales can be made accessible to students. These stories are funny, startling, and sometimes appalling, and...
Whenever the weather permits, I eat lunch outside on the patio in the edge of the woodland. At this time of year, there are spiderwebs everywhere. It doesn’t matter that I come out every day and sit in the...
It’s been awhile since we started our homeschooling journey, but as I look back, there are seven things about homeschooling that I wish I’d known. The truth is, someone might have told me about one or more of these, just...
National Grammar Day, sponsored by The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG), is celebrated annually on March 4. I’m sure that someone somewhere has scheduled an event with party hats and noisemakers. I thought perhaps we’d content ourselves...
When I talk about homeschooling through high school, I always mention the possibility of seeking outside help for advanced subjects. Although most people understand the reasons behind finding an experienced algebra tutor or writing coach, some parents don’t see it...
Do you get tired of hearing that the internet has changed everything? It’s pretty much true, you know, and that isn’t a bad thing. For one thing, it brings a wealth of knowledge to your desktop, no matter where you...
One of the things I most appreciate about Charlotte Mason is her deep understanding of how children learn, and how curiosity and creativity can be stifled by certain teaching norms, including talking too much, being repetitive, and giving tests and...
