The real education you give your kids is what you model for them

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.

The goal of learning from being a kid to an adult is defined by every parent. My husband Andy and I set our homeschooling goals. We created a list, and steps on how to achieve everything on this list. Unfortunately the list did not include how to handle busy days. Nor did it include yelling at my kids. Being insanely angry at my kids was never on the list either. Read more

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Teachable moment

Scene at the Grocery Store:

Neighbor: I hear you’re not in school anymore!

Nine-year-old: Yah. My mom’s teaching me.

Neighbor: Oh really! That’s nice.

Nine-year-old: Not really. She’s not really teaching me anything. Read more

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Time management tips for homeschool parents

I always marvel at how much easier homeschooling is than sending my kids to school. For example, the only discipline problems I have are about manners and the boys fighting with each other, since they are in charge of what they do all day. Also, I control our schedule, and I don’t do anything I don’t want to do (like, stupid worksheets that a teacher sent home) so I am free to do what I want with my days as well. Read more

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5 Reasons it’s easier for single parents to homeschool

This is a guest post from Kim Bain. She  has three children.

I suck at budgeting and finances but I do know this: sending kids to school has costs. I’m not just talking about field trip money and new-Jordan’s-to-impress-the-ladies type costs.

Read more

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Video games teach mindfulness — even Call of Duty!

There’s big talk about mindfulness. Maybe because is the era of distraction because we are struggling with multitasking, partial attention, and information overload. But probably because we know there are enormous benefits to mindfulness, but achieving mindfulness is something that does not seem to be natural to us. Time magazine has documented the struggle. Read more

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Playing video games does not always mean consuming media

My husband and I try really hard to understand the games my kids are playing. My ex-husband plays a lot of games with them, even incredibly absurd ones, and I watch a lot of the let’s play videos with them. Read more

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Self-directed learning requires parents to let go of their agenda

This is a guest post by Lehla Eldridge. Her blog is Unschooling the Kids. She lives with her husband and three kids in Italy.

Our son is nine and he has decided he wants to be able to read and write. He is frustrated that he can’t do either very well yet.

So I say, “How do you want to do that?”

And for a long time he has been saying, “The computer can teach me.” Read more

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How to know if your kid is really learning when you unschool

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.

I have several special needs kids.  Not because I’m some hero, but because I wanted to adopt an unwanted child. Only, we are always paying for the choices of others. I pay daily for the fact my son’s birth mother was a Meth addict. My son pays a higher price than I do. Sometimes, my husband pays the price for when my Dad is mean to me, and I take it out on him. Why do we make other people pay the price for our choices? Read more

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Will my kids miss out on opportunities if we homeschool?

One of the parts of homeschooling that feels most risky is that the kids will miss out on opportunities school kids will have.

This question reminds me of the question, How will kids learn social skills if we homeschool? It’s one of those worries that is common to parents who don’t homeschool, and parents who do homeschool don’t ever worry about it.  Read more

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You can go back to work and continue to homeschool

This is a guest post from Kristin Hayles. I met her here, on this blog, and our sons started playing Minecraft together. Kristin and her son came to our house to visit, and I learned so much hearing her talk about her homeschooling decisions that I asked her to write a post. Here it is.

I decided to homeschool my son after third grade when my third child was born, using the excuse of maternity leave to start this new chapter in our life. I had grand plans of doing projects with my son, taking him places, following his interests. I had a math curriculum picked out, a history book purchased, and classes at the science museum scheduled—my head was overflowing with ideas for this poor child. But what I hadn’t realized was the same thing that made him hate school is the same thing that made him hate all my scheduled activities I had planned. Read more

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