Thanksgiving and Christmas and other holidays are just around the corner. It’s often a time when we look for ways to volunteer and give to others in need. Young children usually love to volunteer. They love being active and helping others. If you think closely about what they love to do and tap into those…
Tag: modeling
Bartering for Knowledge & Giving it Away
I wrote last Wednesday about how to mine your home school community for rich resources. But what about people outside the homeschooling community? Is there a trend towards freely sharing our knowledge with each other in ways that will benefit everyone? I’m happy to say, yes, there is. Maybe not a big trend, but it’s…
Interest-Led Sharing: Mining the Rich Resources of Your Homeschooling Community
A few weeks ago my children and I were privileged to take a tour of a local farm. Almost always when you sign up to take a tour, you’re required to pay a field trip fee. Then you’re usually restricted what you can do on the tour, either because the group is too large for…
Living & Learning – Tips for Including Your Young Child in Your Daily Life Part 2
Last Saturday I started a post where I shared tips for including your young child in your daily life. To read the first part CLICK HERE Now on to Part 2 3. Task – Doing the laundry. * Categorizing and separating clothes into separate piles *working together to load the washer and dryer *folding…
The Difference Between Pushing & Challenging
Do you push or challenge your children? Sometimes I think there’s a fine line to walk when we want to encourage our children to succeed. We might see that they have gifts, talents or skills they are not using, or we know that with just a little more effort they could reach their goals. But…
Questions: The Heart of Self-Directed Learning
Why do that man’s eyes look funny? How will my cut heal? Will she be dressed up like a mummy (my daughter asked before attending her first funeral). Most of the time I welcome and enjoy my children’s questions. Sometimes, though, after they’ve asked questions almost nonstop for an hour, I’m left feeling a little…
Instead of Preschool: Why We Opted Out Part 3
As the last part of this series about preschool, I’d like to address the last most popular reason parents place their child in preschool: using it as a chance to get a break from their child. Before I became a mother I had wonderful daydreams about what my life would be like. I thought I’d…
Instead of Preschool: Why We Opted Out Part 1
I recently read a report that said 64% of children age 4 nationwide attend some type of preschool program. Where I live it seems the percentage might even be higher. Besides a few friends who plan on homeschooling when their children are older, I don’t know of a single parent who chose to have her…
Learning All the Time
I recently watched a commercial that really disturbed me. In the commercial, a woman appeared on the screen and started talking about “early childhood education.” The image shifted to scenes of small children sitting at tables doing worksheets and then crowding together on a carpet waving their hands in the air. The woman’s voice narrated…
Why Mom’s Interests Matter
When your kids are not in school but learning at home and in the world, it’s easy to focus your day around what the kids are discovering. They’re learning so many interesting and unusual things that it’s exciting to learn, play and create right along with them. Now, that’s definitely an important part of your…