Are You Helpful or Nitpicking?

Balance. When evaluating a student’s schoolwork, it can be a challenge to find the right balance between being helpful and nitpicking. Here are a few things to consider:

Relationship

The sweetness of lips increases learning...

Does your evaluation style seem to build or tear down the trust relationship between you and your child?

Do you always play fair by making sure that the student knows the exact expectations for the assignment? Read more

Telephone Rules for Homeschools

What’s worse than a day when no one feels like doing school, but you have to do it anyway? I always felt it was much worse to be in the middle of a great school school day, with everyone engaged in lessons, then having the whole thing interrupted by a phone call that pulls you away and creates distraction for your children. When that happens, it’s likely that you never get back into the flow for that day. This doesn’t have to happen, though.

One of the best things I ever did for our homeschool and learning lifestyle was to create a telephone policy. By setting a few simple boundaries, I eliminated an enormous source of potential distraction and frustration, and noticeably increased our number of great school days. Now that the boys are grown, I still follow these guidelines during my writing and business time. Read more

Learning: Mind-Numbing or Mind-Nourishing?

Robinson Crusoe reading

Robinson Crusoe reading

We’ve been finished with our homeschool journey for some time now, but learning is still happening for all of us, and that makes me happy. I’ve been thinking about learning and what makes it stick, what brings it to life, and why some students enjoy it more than others. Here are a few thoughts…

Can you remember the last time you or your student was excited about learning? One of the things I enjoy most about having grown sons is the fact that they are continuing to learn through reading and listening, and are excited about it. One of them will often track me down to tell me all about the book he’s reading or listening to, and we often have conversations that range across the spectrum of knowledge.

Within the last couple of weeks, I’ve enjoyed a discussion of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity with one of the boys, and had several interesting conversations about a lengthy series of essays by Ayn Rand with another son. They begin the discussions, and I’m usually delighted–though I don’t necessarily agree with everything– at the interesting ideas they bring to the table. I’ve decided that it really does pay to raise your own conversational companions;-)! Read more

World Literature is Here!

World Literature (English 5)

World Literature (English 5)

It took longer than I thought, but World Literature– the English 5 level of the Excellence in Literature: Reading and Writing Through the Classics curriculum is finally here!

You can see it, read all about it, and order it on the World Literature page.

$29


Literature and Composition, the English 2 level of Excellence in Literature is next. I hope to have it ready for you in just a couple of weeks if all goes well. The end is in sight!

Thankful Thoughts on Freedom, England, Homeschool, and Writing

Dear Readers,

I sometimes come upon a thought so well expressed that I just have to share it! Today’s guest post is the editor’s letter from the Writing-World.com newsletter, and it’s reprinted here with the kind permission of the author, Moira Allen.

This Thanksgiving, my husband and I were deeply aware of the many things we have to be thankful for — chief among them being the fact that we are once again living in the United States.  As most of you know, we spent 15 months in England, pursuing (but not precisely living) a lifelong dream.  Those 15 months made us appreciate so many things that, as Americans, we take for granted.

Freedom, for example.  One thing I’ve always taken for granted is
that if a civil authority (e.g., the police) wishes to enter my
home, a warrant is required to do so, issued by a judge and only on
presentation of “just cause.”  Not so in England!  Any number of
“civil authorities,” including social workers, council
representatives, “wheelie bin police,” and quite possibly the
vegetable seller down the street can legally enter one’s home for
any number of reasons (including things like whether you’re
importing an illegal variety of potato — which admittedly wasn’t
something we worried about overmuch). Read more

Carnival of Homeschooling- The NaNoWriMo Edition

Preface

Don't miss our Thanksgiving Sale!

Welcome to this hundred-and-umpteenth Carnival of Homeschooling! Because November is National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo or nano), and I’m over 10,000 words into the writing process (and can’t think of anything but writing, writing, and more writing), I thought it would be appropriate to format this Carnival as sections of a book. I even consulted the Chicago Manual of Style for an authoritative list of book parts!

Introduction

For me, homeschooling is first and foremost a heart matter. In Mangled Schedules and Grateful Hearts, an article I wrote for Home School Enrichment magazine, you can read how a father’s presence and influence can shape a family school. Enjoy! Read more

Dynamic Literacy’s WordBuild: A Review

I love the study of words. Words are the building blocks of communication, and the more of them you know, the more likely it is that you will be a good writer and speaker. In addition, words are just plain fascinating!

For many years, I used and recommended vocabulary programs based in Latin and Greek roots, and I still like those programs. I realize that roots-based programs seem inaccessible to some people, so I’ve found an alternate program that’s amazingly user-friendly, highly effective, and fun. It’s WordBuild: A Better Way to Teach Vocabulary, and the entire program is contained in two comprehensive levels. WordBuild is “based on morphology, the study of the units of meaning in words. Just as phonology is the study of the sounds that make up words, morphology is the study of the meaningful pieces of words. A mastery of phonics helps students “sound out” unfamiliar words; a mastery of morphics helps students “mean out” unfamiliar words.” Read more

Motivation: What Gets People Moving?

Before you start school this year, you may want to consider motivation. What is the most effective way to encourage your children to study and learn?

Some of us (ahem–me, anyway) respond well to doing things I find intrinsically interesting, but can coerce myself into doing tedious stuff (balancing checkbooks, anyone?) by the promise of a hot-fudge sundae at the end. Not sure about the quality of work! My boys sometimes did hard stuff just because they were interested, but balked at what I thought was easy and quick. Daniel Pink’s video talk for TED is an interesting look at some detailed studies on motivation and the effect of rewards. Very interesting!

How to Calculate +/- on a High School Transcript

I just had a question from a reader who wondered how to calculate quality points for plus and minus grades on the high-school transcript. The free GPA calculator just calculates whole numbers and weighted grades, but it’s pretty easy to allocate a point value for +/-. Just add or subtract 1/3 of a point from the whole number. You’ll come up with this:

A = 4
A- = 3.67
B+ = 3.33
B = 3
B- = 2.67
C+ = 2
C- = 1.67
D+ = 1.33
D = 1
D- = .67

“The Schoolboy”- A Summer Poem by William Blake

It’s been awhile since I posted a poem, but when I heard someone talking about doing school through summer, I just had to post this one! Enjoy!

The proper joys of summer.

The proper joys of summer.

I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn, —
O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning’s bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!

O father and mother if buds are nipped,
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripped
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care’s dismay, —

How shall the summer arise in joy,
Or the summer fruits appear?
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?

From Songs of Experience, 1794

Next Page →