Have you ever read a book and thought, “Why haven’t I ever heard of this book? Why isn’t everyone talking about this book? Did I miss something? People must know […]
Rethinking the 3 R’s
Homeschooling with Preschoolers: Plan for 2014-2015
I’m trying something new this year. I’ll have a 4th grader that I’m starting more formal work with, a 1st grader who will be doing very light school, a preschooler […]
Teaching with Real Experiences: Part 4 in the Three R’s Series
“If we taught babies to talk as most skills are taught in school, they would memorize lists of sounds in a predetermined order and practice them alone in a closet.” […]
Making Lessons Meaningful: Part 3 in the Three R’s Series
“Just as eating contrary to the inclination is injurious to the health, so study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” – Leonardo da […]
Relationship Based Learning: Part 2 in the Three R’s Series
In my last post I suggested a new set of “R’s” to guide our homeschool philosophy, particularly in the early grades. I proposed A relaxed approach based on relationships and real experiences. […]
Rethinking the Three R’s: Homeschooling the Early Grades
I recently had the honor of speaking at the Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference where I gave a talk entitled Homeschooling the Early Grades: Rethinking the Three R’s. […]
Encouraging Creativity
“Hey, mom! Want to color in Cutielicious?” Yes, I do. I love Cutielicious. It’s a super fun doodle book with just enough structure for the creatively challenged (me) and more […]
Monster Quest: Search for Big Foot
Henry has been deeply immersed in two different “unit studies” of his own design and choosing. One is a study of ancient Egypt, which I’ll blog about in another post. […]
Learning to Write: Zone of Proximal Development Part 2
In my last post I explained a bit about what the ZPD and scaffolding are and what scaffolding looks like when “teaching” babies how to roll over. In this post, […]
When to Push, When to Hold Back: An Introduction to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development Theory
Recently in my homeschool circles, there has been much discussion of when it might be appropriate to push/encourage/nudge our children. How can we discern whether a little encouragement or guidance […]