PARENT AT THE HELM

Homeschooling: Trusting In Yourself and Your Child

A gardener knows she cannot force a seed to grow. She cannot make a marigold seed blossom into a rose. She cannot change the seed in any fundamental way. Instead, she protects the young seed from potentially harmful conditions that through her experience she knows...

CHILDREN: The Dumbing-Down, Doping-Up and Spirit-Crushing

In the list of eight reasons for epidemic youth complacency, the source of seven – seven! – permeates life for the majority of children. Most parents believe they must subject their offspring to the source. The source of seven reasons is government schools...

Meet Homeschooling Kids: Taj Schottland

At age 10, Taj admits he hasn't given much thought to the definition of a successful life yet but, he says, "I'd like to go out to schools like my dad because sometimes I just feel so sad for the kids. Some of them are alone or teased or not in the 'in crowd.' I want to...

6 FREE Spring Homeschooling Learning Activities that Are Fun, Too!

6 FREE Spring Homeschooling Learning Activities that Are Fun, Too! Because homeschooling families place learning at the core of their lifestyles, they become very adept at finding/seeing/inventing homeschooling learning activities they know will inspire their children. It's true, all children are different, but it's quite possible that...

What’s Happening In the Name of Education

"Families have structured their lives around the current bell schedules," Carter Thunes said in a survey response about starting Lufkin Road Middle 45 minutes later. "These bell schedules dictated when they got up, when they go to work, when doctor appointments could be...

Nation Moving Toward More Standardization of School Policy

By Linda Dobson Sometimes, education news makes me cringe, and this announcement titled "States Considering Bills that Would Make Kids Repeat Third Grade for Failing Reading Tests," more standardization of school policy, is one of them. So far, Oklahoma, Arizona and Indiana have...

Homeschooling Is a Gift that Keeps Giving

By Linda Dobson Number one grandchild, Emily, has in the blink of an eye reached that dubious milestone known as “school aged,” and yet her homeschooling continues. You can imagine this Grandma’s mental cartwheels, thrilled that what I consider the gift of homeschooling is still...

Lifeboats: What Homeschooling Advocacy Means to Me

I never set out to become a homeschooling advocate, though that is what I'm often called. As I watched three young hearts and minds blossom in an educational experience antithetical to my own, it was impossible to keep the discovery - the joy, the love, the obvious "naturalness" of the process of learning...

Homeschooling: When Doubting Thomas Is Your Husband…Or Yourself

By Linda Dobson I'd love to report that when homeschooling is the topic of spousal discussions, it produces an instant meeting of the minds. This isn't always the case. While in some households Dad tries his darnedest to sway Mom, more often it appears...

Homeschooling: Dealing with Doubting Relatives

It's one thing to paint your house, only to have your mother-in-law stick up her nose and mutter something about nausea. It's quite another to soul-search, decide that the very best thing you can do for your children is to create a new...