(or: How do I Budget for This?) If you are considering home education, the chances are high that you are either a single-income family or at least a not-so-much-disposable-income family, and if you’re like many of us, your budget is pretty tight. Although some sources say that the average homeschool […]
Homeschooling
61 posts
Well, you thought life would be back to “normal” by now, but it’s not looking promising. Perhaps you suddenly find yourself considering homeschooling because your local school is not currently an option for your family this fall. Let me share a few basics that I hope will encourage and equip […]
Note: While this article is geared primarily for preschool, most of the suggestions are also applicable through the early primary grades. SEE RESOURCES listed at the bottom of the page. A young mom writes: I’m new at homeschooling—I have 2-year-old twins. I want to teach them and get them […]
Q: What about socialization, and how can I be sure I’m doing a good job at it? Are there any tools to help me? A: It may help to first define terms: Socialization is the lifelong process through which people learn (dare I say internalize?) the values and norms of […]
We talked earlier about how to finish this past year strong, what to do with all those papers (including the prolific artwork!), and even gave you a tool to assess how the year went—plus some ideas for enjoying the summer. (If you are new, you may want to file that […]
Do you have an older elementary or early middle school student still struggling with reading comprehension, or maybe even with decoding skills? While many of us think of a child learning to read at about age five, the truth is that the reading readiness age varies widely, as children mature […]
Some of our kiddos read at age four, while others didn’t read till almost eight. One of my girls had no interest in even learning the alphabet as late as first grade, and I felt a bit panicked that she wasn’t reading at all in first grade, but she suddenly […]
You know that all kids learn at different rates and have different strengths. But it’s still easy to get a bit nervous when your 4th (or 7th) grader seems to still not grasp concepts you’d think she should know — or that you know you’ve gone over. You get a […]
Pen pals! What a fun idea! It’s always more interesting (and motivating!) to write to someone specific, rather than to have our “pretend letters” (a.k.a. school writing assignments) filed into a drawer. Why Write Letters? Letter writing encourages conversation skills while allowing children to practice grammar, spelling, and composition in […]
An increasing number of homeschoolers are considering the question of whether to provide in-home care for aging parents or grandparents. Many of you face—or may someday face—the challenge of helping to manage a parent’s daily life of nurses and therapists, chemotherapy and blood transfusions, oxygen providers and medical equipment, prescriptions […]