The Grandparent Factor: A Key Ingredient to Homeschool Success

Burn Out, Classroom Help, Informative

Published with Permission
Written by Joy Kita
www.TOSMagazine.com

When a parent decides to home school her child, they do so with much fear and trepidation. A choice that affects the lives of those closest to you and impacts the future of your family is not one made lightly. It is thought out, planned, and fretted over with endless worry.

Choosing to home school not only puts you in a spotlight you may never have wished for, but it also makes you a target for both well-meaning and ignorant loved ones who are skeptical of your capabilities or even vocally disparaging. With these kinds of obstacles it is ever so important to surround yourself with supportive people who understand your reasoning or who will at least support you in spite of how they perceive your choices.

For many home school families, that support system comes from grandparents. (more…)

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8 Reasons Kids Learn Best at Home

Burn Out, Classroom Help, Informative

Written by Debra Bell
Taken from  http://teachthemdiligently.net/blog/2013/05/8-reasons-kids-learn-best-at-home/

Kids Learn Best At Home

After I finished home schooling our kids, I headed back to school myself to complete a Ph.D. in educational psychology. I wanted to know how kids learn best. Wouldn’t that be helpful information for homeschooling moms and dads?

Boy did God blow my socks off! I can sum up what I found in one sentence: (more…)

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Fill Yourself

Burn Out, Classroom Help, Informative, Organization

Published with Permission
Written by Andrew Pudewa
www.TOSMagazine.com
www.excellenceinwriting.com

One role a homeschooling parent often inadvertently takes on is that of “administrator of curriculum,” providing worksheets, assignments, projects, and writing tasks for his children much like a doctor prescribes a regime of medicine and exercise for his patients. This is most likely to happen in larger families with children of widely varying ages or with newer homeschooling families who feel a compelling need to “cover all the bases.” While this is to some degree inevitable, it is also good for us to consider ways to avoid this trap, which so easily leads to burnout and frustration. Therefore, this month let us contemplate a contrasting idea: Study something yourself.

In the book A Thomas Jefferson Education, Oliver DeMille lists as one of the Seven Keys of Great Teaching, “You, Not Them.” At first, this seems counterintuitive. Isn’t homeschooling about giving your children a good education? Wouldn’t stealing time to focus on yourself cause you to lose valuable time with your children? (more…)

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