Tag: socialization
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The inter-generational beauty of homeschooling
A few weeks ago, I went to see some friends perform in a musical. Four of them, ranging in age from 8 to 14, were giving their all as Mrs. Darling, Captain Hook, and ensemble members in “Peter Pan.” As I sat in the theater waiting for the curtain to rise, I thought about how…
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Is socialization overrated?
Mirror, mirror on the wall, what’s the most common homeschooling criticism of them all? What about socialization? Hands down. I’ve heard it over and over again, I’ve read about it over and over again, I’ve addressed it over and over again, but sometimes I have to wonder: Is socialization overrated? Dictionary.com defines it as “a continuing process…
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Homeschooling on a shoestring
Recently I heard a parent casually remark that in her experience, homeschooling one child costs about eight grand a year. That certainly hasn’t been my experience. During the first ten years of my kids’ lives, the amount we spent was negligible. As teens the kids had interests they wanted to pursue but we still curbed…
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Perceived homeschooling pitfalls, and how to avoid them
I recently read an essay by someone who temporarily homeschooled her kids. It didn’t work for her. While the author and I differ on our experiences with homeschooling, I do relate to her list of things that she wants for her kids. In her mind, homeschooling was an obstacle to those ends. In my experience,…
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Kids and theater, as they like it
I remember the afternoon my youngest child, Abby, told me she wanted to put on a production of Hamlet. We were in the kitchen on a beautiful spring day, and Abby, who was 13 at the time, said, “I think I’m going to do Hamlet in the backyard this summer.” The declaration seemed to come…
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‘Good Housekeeping’ on unschooling
I grew up with Good Housekeeping. It was the one magazine my mother subscribed to, and since there wasn’t a lot of reading material around my house and I liked to read, I read it. Perhaps my familiarity with the magazine’s style contributed to my lack of surprise about the article it just published about unschooling.…
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‘Unschoolers’ coming in March
I’ve been a homeschooler with an unschooling philosophy for 26 years. I’ve read a lot of great books on the subject, but it’s rare to encounter homeschoolers and unschoolers in fiction. It’s even more rare to see our lives portrayed as anything other than extreme in one form or another. So, I, along with my…
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Unschooling: All you need is love
This week I attended a screening of Clara Bellar’s film Being and Becoming. The movie portrays the filmmaker’s process of learning about unschooling in order to determine whether to choose it for her own family. It’s a personal journey that takes us to the United States, France, England, and Germany. One of the movie’s strengths is…
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Spreading love with the HEDA Project
This was supposed to be a celebratory post. It’s been on my list to write about the Boston Area Homeschoolers’ Queer Straight Alliance (BAHS QSA), and the HEDA Project, the new venture they’ve just launched. The group is close to my heart for many reasons, including the fact that my own kids were among its founding…
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Why to homeschool a 4-year-old
Today I read one of the best articles about homeschooling I’ve encountered in a long time. In How to homeschool a 4-year-old, Amy Wright Glenn discusses why and how she and her spouse homeschool. Reading it was like taking a short walk down memory lane. When Wright Glenn talked about her son’s engagement in physical activity…
A Potluck Life 