Homeschooling for 3

When I came across Educating for Success, on the recommendation from another homeschooling friend, I felt as if I had found a long lost sister. Rhea's message has really resonated within me because she has confirmed all that I believed about the current economic situation. It didn't have to happen. As is pointed out in one of my favorite books The Puritan Gift , apprenticeship is a vital, yet horribly neglected component, to help our our children to gain skills to support themselves and their families as adults. Not only does it ensure their self-sufficiency, but from that ability to take care of themselves it frees up future generations to create new products, devise new ways of accomplishing tasks, as well as setting new standards of workmanship. If any of this resonates with you, please take a look at an article that I scooped up about how homeschooling families can ensure their children's financial freedom in the future: Dabbling with home businesses gives young ...

My friend John is a homeschooling dad with a twist. He's also an entrepreneur with a passion for helping others to become successful in their lives. He has many projects to further this aim such "BeliefBusters" and "The Mastermind Sesssions" (for his other projects you can visit his website www.johnmiltonfogg.com ). The resource I'd like to tell you about today is "The Mastermind Sessions". John has brought together over 100 successful entrepreneurs to share their road to becoming a success in their chosen profession. During these interviews we learn how they overcame their struggles, maintained a level head amidst victories and other life lessons. John brings this to you (and more) each and every week in "The Mastermind Sessions". But general access to these insightful and educational interviews is coming to a close. According to an email I received from John today: "After midnight (great name for a song) Wednesday, August 12, there...

As some of you know, I am returning to my traditional homeschooling roots this year. I did my experimentation into cyberschooling and found it lacking. But I also live in PA, one of the high documentation homeschooling states (also known as "Big PA in in the neck states") so I've been wondering how I was going to pull a curriculum together to present to the Lords of Education so they'll go away. So, once we made our decision to get away from cyberschools I began looking at different curriculum. I have been looking at complete year curriculum as well as a more eclectic collection of resources. But now I don't have to look any further because I just discovered The Old Schoolhouse 2009-2010 Planner ! First off, let me confess that I have not been the most organized homeschooler. I've purchased programs to keep records on the girls work, I've set up schedules (that I then proceeded to ignore after about a week), and changed my mind a couple of times during the...

I first became aware of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo last year. But since I had decided to try cyberschooling, I really didn't feel that attending would be helpful for me. Boy was I wrong! The resources that Cindy offers are useful to everyone -- cyberschoolers, homeschoolers and even moms who aren't homeschooling. I mean, what mom wouldn't benefit from audios like "Let's Simplify", "Taking Care of Mom" and other edification for moms. Now that I'm firmly in the traditional homeschooling camp, I have been soaking up as much information as possible on how to setup my "new" homeschooling lifestyle. So, this Expo is a great blessing for me. Some of the bonuses even include a whole a whole set of resources dedicated to re-starting my homeschooling year! This convention NEVER ends. You can listen to it at your convenience. You can listen again and again and again. It is set up so that you can listen on your computer or you can download thes...

Well I've gone and finally done it. After two years of fighting with myself over the cyberschool issue, I'm now free! Free from artificial deadlines, stress and other things that have just made homeschooling no fun. So now I'm enjoying the process of finding materials to use with my girls for next year. So far I've invested in Math Mammoth , some board games (Kismet/Spill & Spell, Predicting Outcomes, Geography games, etc.) I'm going to use Susan Wise's history series "The Story of the World". The only thing I'm lacking (so far) is science, but I guess I'll figure that out along the way. I'm actually thinking of teaching cooking as a science course. I have this book that I picked up called "The Art, Techniques, and Science of Good Cooking -- The New Making of a Cook" by Madeline Kamman . Since my family enjoys following the Bible in One Year program, so we'll continue doing that. The kids like drawing pictures about the...

One of the moms in my homeschooling circle sent this -- it was too funny to keep to myself! The 14 Days of Homeschooling (tune of "THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS") On the first day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Can you homeschool legally?" On the second day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?" On the third day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?" On the fourth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?" On the fifth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "YOU ARE SO STRANGE! What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?" On the Sixth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "How long will you homeschool, YOU 'RE SO STRANGE, what about P.E., do you giv...

My daughter has problems with spelling and I've been trying to find new and more interesting ways to help her to be more successful. Jade was in speech therapy for a little over three years for an immature auditory system and still has problems sounding out words. Ironically, she's a very advanced reader with great comprehension. Anyway, quite by accident I found this great site (www.wordle.net) that will allow you to make art out of words. Here's an example of her first spelling/art masterpiece: If you'd like to see more of Jade's masterpieces (or just play around with it yourself) be sure to visit www.wordle.net. Jade's work will be saved under "Cherbear2768" in the gallery. BTW, there is no censorship within Wordle, so you may want to just let your children play with the application without going through the gallery.