Category: education
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School stress is not inevitable
Whenever I watch a movie, if something surprising happens I literally jump out of my seat. Heavy-handed foreshadowing has no effect on my startle response. Telling myself it’s just a movie or any other form of head talk doesn’t help. I jolt, I jerk, and sometimes I involuntarily shriek. Friends and family think it’s cute,…
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Are homeschoolers abandoning schools?
My last two posts have been reprints of articles I wrote years ago for Growing Without Schooling. Before I put my old issues back in the box, I want to revisit one more piece (from Issue 83) that was part of a larger discussion on the topic Are Homeschoolers Abandoning Schools? A lot has changed…
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Writing for the joy of it
As I continue to revisit my old issues of Growing Without Schooling, I share another piece I wrote for Issue #123, on the theme of When Kids Resist Writing. As I re-read these precious old magazines, I remember again why they meant so much. The piece below was written when my son was 10, about…
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Homeschooling in community
Recently I spent some time going through copies of my old Growing Without Schooling magazines, and rediscovered this article I wrote for Issue #141, in which I describe one of my favorite things about homeschooling. Four years ago, when my third child was born, our family was given a great gift from our homeschooling community.…
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Reading for the joy of it
I was delighted when I saw a recent New York Times article touting ‘Reading Aloud to Young Children Has Benefits for Behavior and Attention.’ Reading aloud was a huge part of our lives as our kids were growing up, and it still is. My husband and I read to each other every night, and we…
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Leaving kids alone to learn
My youngest is in college now. Although she took several community college classes as a younger teenager, she was never in school full time and was able to self-select courses based on their content and professors. As a result, most of her experiences with teachers were positive. Now, she’s learning that not all teachers are…
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Unschooling in the now
This week the Harvard Gazette published a piece called Homeschooled en route to Harvard. It profiled three current Harvard students, including my daughter. I enjoyed reading what they had to say, and was particularly struck by one commonality. All three students spoke about the significance of being in charge of their own learning. “If I…
A Potluck Life 