I have heard homeschooling parents talk about a need for student portfolios, as a way to show what homeschooled kids accomplished since they don’t have traditional grades.
But that seems like a waste of time to me. Read more
This is a guest post from Sheila Baranoski. She writes a blog about unschooling and she writes fiction for kids.
“Easy for you to say unschooling works,” someone told me. “Your kids are interested in academic things. You don’t know my kids. If I unschooled, all my kids would do is play video games all day.” Read more
I took the kids to their favorite arcade as soon as school was back in session, so we could avoid all the crowds. Of course all the people working there asked why the kids aren’t in school, so we did the usual conversation where they say, “Oh, so your mom teaches you?” And I say, “No. I don’t tell him what to learn.” Read more
Kids need to think in pictures because that’s the way of the future. YouTube is quickly overtaking Google as the search engine of choice, but not for people who grew up in the age of text. (Like, probably, all of us). So I mean mostly the people who are growing up today, on the verge of a post-text era: Generation Z. Read more
There are some kids who are completely engaged in a widely revered activity and they receive accolades at each turn. Most kids are not those kids. When it comes to self-directed learning, a wide majority of boys—and a good number of girls—will put themselves in front of a video game. Read more
This is a guest post from Sarah Faulkner. She is a homeschooling mom in Washington state. She has five kids, ages 13, 11, 9, 5, and 2.
Back when I was planning on sending my son to school, the things I figured I would have to teach him would be respect, sex, drugs, how to work hard, and so forth—things school doesn’t always teach well. I didn’t realize I would have to teach him about porn.
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We hold tightly to the idea of a public education system in the United States because while rich kids have been getting an education forever, poor kids have historically remained uneducated. Americans think of the public education system as the insurance that we truly live in a meritocracy where hard-working kids can rise above their family’s socioeconomic stature. Read more
My kids asked me if I’m voting for Donald Trump. I could give a million reasons why the answer is no, but I wanted to give a thoughtful answer that would generate a conversation. So I said, “No. I don’t think he supports community.”
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