Category: Unschooling
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What are you doing this summer?
We all have them, right? Summer memories of lazy days, popsicles, swimming, pick-up games of tag or kickball, and oodles of fun. Well, maybe we don’t all have them, especially since summer has become just another season for scheduling stuff. These days, when people ask What are your kids doing this summer? the answers generally include multiple…
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The boy with the boulder
Many years ago, when my eldest daughter was in public school kindergarten and I was helping out in the classroom, I witnessed the following exchange between the teacher and a boy who had brought in a special object for show-and-tell. Boy (holding up his smooth round rock proudly): “This is my boulder.” Teacher: “You mean,…
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Is that cute enough for you?
This week I read about Hilde Kate Lysiak, the journalist behind the Orange Street News. She’s nine years old, reports on news in her Pennsylvania community, and is currently getting her fifteen minutes of fame due to her coverage of a neighborhood murder (a scoop, by the way). Some folks think it’s inappropriate for a child of her age…
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Homeschooling without polarization
This morning I came across a new book written by Michael Kenmore, a homeschooled adult. It purports to be a neutral analysis of homeschooling by someone with firsthand knowledge of growing up outside of school. I really want to read the book. I think homeschooled adults can have valuable perspectives we should all look at.…
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Why I’m Cut Out for Homeschooling
For reasons I still fail to understand, every so often some clever mommy blogger decides to write about why she doesn’t homeschool. This time the culprit is Sarah Bregel, whose latest contribution to Babble, Disney’s online parenting magazine, is titled “10 Reasons I’m Probably Not Cut Out for Homeschooling.” The listicle is supposed to be…
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Out of the kitchen, into the living room
The other day I was talking to a fellow homeschooling parent about the Boston Magazine article. She pointed out that the homeschooling families profiled were depicted in the living room, not the kitchen. That’s true. The photo of my family was taken in our living room, as was the picture of Robert Holzbach and his…
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The looming fight over homeschool regulation
When I started homeschooling in the early 1990’s, someone handed me a pamphlet titled “Homeschooling Freedoms at Risk.” It focused on the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), whose practices have included going into states and controlling outcomes of legislation and legal cases, scaring homeschoolers into thinking the state might take their kids away, claiming to represent…
A Potluck Life 