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 […]
Homeschooling
61 posts
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Field trips can inspire your child to study a topic, give him further insights into his current studies, or provide closure to a completed unit. Is there somewhere you’d like to take your children to reinforce a topic this year? Or just want to visit because it would enrich their […]
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 […]
If you homeschooled your child through the primary grades, you may find that you initially experienced moments of self-doubt, but you managed through the first year (or two, or three) and gained confidence to educate your child at home…until now! It is not uncommon for parents to second-guess themselves all […]
Let’s be real … homeschooling is not a cure for all that ails our families. Life is still messy. In fact, sometimes all that one-on-one time can really magnify shortcomings in our relationships with our children as well as with our spouses. Some of the most heartbreaking consulting calls I […]