Let’s talk about unit studies.
(And I’ll give you a free one. Read on.)
As a homeschool mom, you want to know what works best to educate and engage your little rugrats, and how to do it most efficiently and easily.
Having homeschooled and been homeschooled (hi, Mom!) for many moons now, I can attest to what works for myself, my brain, and my heart.
Uh, and my kids (oh yeah, them, too).
One method I always liked best – and continually found myself going back to – is unit studies.
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You, Homeschooling Parent, need a break. Here are some educational shows for homeschooling via TV.
There’s a seemingly endless supply of really great and educational movies out there that can aid in homeschooling. So, too, there are a myriad of excellent TV series that are at least quasi-educational.
You need a list of educational shows for homeschooling – for when you need to plop your offspring in front of a screen and give yourself some down time.
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Dear SHM,*
*Suddenly Homeschooling Mama
You’re excited, overwhelmed, scared, unsure, ready to brave the unknown.
This is new territory for you, no matter how you arrived: with tentative baby steps, large leap frog jumps, or a sudden pandemic.
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Let’s talk about homeschool failure.
Homeschool parents are quick to put up a front of niceties, rainbows and roses, smiling faces, and rapid-fire assurances that everything is great.
It may be leftover defensiveness from our earlier days of explaining to negative critics (sometimes in our own families), or it may be that old river in Egypt, but let me tell it to you straight, sister,
Not everything is always great in anyone’s homeschool.
You may not always see it on Pinterest, or scroll by it on Facegram, but there are mamas who are struggling big time over this monumental decision to homeschool their little babies.
And since you’re here? Well, maybe that mama is you.
I’ve been there, she’s been there, you’ve been there. So let’s be honest with one another and help each other pull up our big girl panties.
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When preparing your homeschooled high schooler’s transcripts for college admission, there are a few things you simply must include: English, Math, and History spring to mind.
But there are several more that you should simply and safely leave off, no matter how proud your little genius sprout is of them.
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In the efforts of full disclosure, I wrote this many moons ago. Since then, my kids have unschooled, homeschooled, dual schooled (charter high homeschool program mixed with college), Waldorf schooled, and … um, I think that’s it.
Anyhoo.
Back in 2011 or so, this was my headspace. Perhaps you relate.
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Choosing to educate your children at home, at a public school, at a private institution, or a boarding school, is a polarizing decision, and not one that any parent makes lightly.
When the choice is made, the aftermath arrives: anxiety, guilt, fear, and the overwhelming feeling that everyone is talking about you behind your back.
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Since this blog is a bit about writing and a bit about homeschooling (and maybe some rantings if I’m feeling saucy), I thought today we’d combine the two.
Because there have to be more than one of us who are nutty enough to try to do both at one time, right?
Homeschooling and writing … never the twain shall meet. Or shall they? Well, of course they shall.
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My uncle ordered popovers
from the restaurant’s bill of fare.
And, when they were served,
he regarded them with a penetrating stare.
Then he spoke great words of wisdom
as he sat there on that chair:
“To eat these things,” said my uncle,
“You must exercise great care.
You may swallow down what’s solid,
but you must spit out the air!”
And as you partake of the world’s bill of fare,
that’s darned good advice to follow.
Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.
And be careful what you swallow.
~Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), from a commencement address.
One of the most popular reasons homeschooling parents choose to keep their children home – especially in this day and age – is to avoid the bullying and the peer pressure that inevitably comes with public schools. We don’t want our children to experience that kind of abuse, especially on a daily basis. Maybe some of us remember it ourselves and we shudder to think of our small sons and daughters being put through that type of pain and torment. Read more
When I was young – back in the olden days, by crikey – I longed for a pony. My longing would not be fulfilled by roly-poly bugs named Juan, or stray cats that refused to cuddle, or the occasional frog that was captured, named, snuggled, and played dead at all the wrong times.
You can’t even purchase saddles for pets that small, for goodness sake, much less ride off into the sunset, ponytails waving in the breeze.
No, what I needed was a pony. A mighty steed, a classy mount, a real life, by golly, horse. One that I could tie my saddlebags filled with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to, and gallop off to have amazing adventures. Read more
