This is a guest post from Sarah Griffith.
This a story I’ve read many times on Penelope’s blog: How I started homeschooling. But my story feels like the white trash version. Read more
This is a guest post from Anna Keller. She has written here before about taking her son out of school, and then putting him back in. This is her third post.
I guess technically my son is an 11th grader. It’s a big year for most students—the year that counts the most for college applications when kids choose rigorous courses—often including AP and honors, get serious about extra curricular activities, and ramp up the community service. Many start heavy test prep. Read more
Individualized learning is the idea that we don’t all learn the same way, and each kid should be able to learn the way they learn best. Read more
School is full of situations where we are expecting much more of kids than we expect of ourselves, as adults. Successful adults are successful at least partially because they have learned to avoid what is difficult or unpleasant for them. Yet, so many adults tell kids they need to learn to do things they hate. Read more
I’m reading a book about child prodigies because I’m fascinated by the mental health risks of having that label. I was first introduced to the negative impact of being labeled special when my grandma gave me The Drama of the Gifted Child. Read more
It’s clear that the most effective way to teach kids is to customize teaching to the way the kids learn, and to the interests the kids have. Read more
Personality type is an important part of homeschooling because personality type provides guideposts to how your child learns and how he or she finds fulfillment.
Microsoft just bought Minecraft and made it an educational site. It’s education for a lot of reasons, but the core reasons Minecraft is educational is because kids are able to learn in exactly the particular way they are interested. It’s a near-perfect opportunity for self-directed learning. Read more
The human race started out somewhere between the emergence of primates and the development of cuneiform script—sometime in that period of a bazillion years—great at learning by doing. And we dominated the Neanderthals by being highly social, which means we learned by watching as well.
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 grew up an only child and until about six months ago I thought I was an introvert. But really, it’s my mother who’s a severe introvert, and my confusion came from how poorly she parented me, her extroverted child. If you’re in the same boat she was, here’s how you can do a better job. Read more
Understand Your Child’s Personality Type and Become a Better Parent -Featuring Two Special Guests
This course includes four days of video sessions and email-based course materials. You can purchase this webinar for anytime, on-demand access. The cost is $195.
My son buys new clothes almost every week. He is happy at the Gap or at the thrift shop. He just likes trying on new things. I would never wear yellow pants—I hate shopping. He is neither of those things. So I started thinking that I had created a monster: Materialistic! Shallow! Questionable taste!
Then I learned about his type—ESFP—and I read over and over again that it’s the nature of that type to want lots of outfits to choose from because clothing is an essential form of expression for this type. And it made sense to me that I wouldn’t understand him more instinctively because my type (ENTJ) is largely uninterested in the daily rituals of clothing. ENTJs focus on visionary, long-term thinking.
After I started learning about my son’s type in relation to my own type, I was shocked that we don’t learn this sooner so we can all be better parents. Read more