Following the end of our regular school year in May, I deliberately took off from all the lesson plans, curriculum perusal, and gathering activities associated with the new school year such that I can breathe for a moment. And that’s a good thing, given that we have struggled to execute even the most minimal plan […]
The Best Laid (Summer) Plans of Mice and Men
The plan was simple. We would do what we do every year–a page of math and an hour of reading. Oh, and I cannot forget to read the Bible with them. And we might as well continue the book we started right before the summer break since our son was so excited about […]
Summer School??!! Cool!!
Summer educational fun, i.e., “edu-fun,” can be an excellent means to… 1) Begin home educating your children if you have not done it before, giving both parent(s) and child the opportunity to become more comfortable with this method of learning 2) Focus in on one specific skill in which your child needed more attention than […]
You Call it Home; Will Colleges Call it School?
How do we fit our children’s educational experiences into a traditional high school mold? The dilemma that this poses for many homeschoolers could not be better summed up than in this example, a question from a fellow homeschooler, posted on a Yahoo loop to which I once subscribed: I’m almost finished with my daughter’s course […]
Justice pon di Road: A Book Review
I was asked on last year to develop a curriculum for a charitable organization. Specifically, I was asked to develop a curriculum that would get its audience to prayerfully consider sponsoring a child in an underdeveloped country. So I became a student for weeks and months—a student of other cultures, other rituals and traditions, and […]
Why It’s Crazy to Quit after the First Year
As we approach the end of the homeschooling year for many, I thought about the numbers of first year homeschoolers who are disheartened right now. Perhaps it just did not go as you planned. I can remember the end of our first year. The family ate out for lunch to celebrate, and I was, more […]
Notebooking–for Math??!!
When I think about the foundations of our homeschool and what tools/ resources/ methodologies make our school, well, our school, one of those pillars has to be notebooking. We have done it for years–so much so until the kids almost habitually set up their own notebooks for certain subjects without me having to say […]
Some Things Change, Some Things Remain the Same
As we enter this annual season of curriculum planning for next school year, I ask the same question that many of you are asking as I write: what will change? I am continuously looking for ways to get the Bible past their heads and into their hearts. Read more about how I approach this planning season […]
The Next Round of College Visits
It’s spring, and a young man’s fancy turns to…his first college visit. It seems like such a long time ago when we were in this season for the first time with the oldest. (You can see my posts of previous visits here and here). Now our season is one of, “Where were you? Who’s this […]
5 Tasks to Help You Spring Toward the Year’s End
March does not have to be the month that makes you strongly consider throwing in the towel. There are several potentially invigorating tasks that can help you survive the remainder of your school year and begin a new academic year a step ahead. Spring, in general, can be a good time to…read more of what I have to […]
Sybrina’s Son, My Son, and All of Our Responsibility
I have been writing this post in my head for over a year now, but I wanted to wait–for several reasons. First, I wanted to get my head around my own thoughts such that I might articulate them clearly. Secondly, I believe in timing, and in expressing yourself in a way that allows people to […]
5 Ways to Make Difficult Topics Easier
I am convinced that in any given homeschool, there are subjects that are given more than their share of attention, and then there are those that sometimes get a bit, well, neglected, for one simple reason: Mom and/or Dad’s interest and enthusiasm about that particular topic. I constantly meet parents who talk in terms of […]