Education
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Christmas Memory
The classical (or neo-classical) approach to homeschooling stresses the importance of memory work during the first stage, the “grammar stage,” of education. Fill those absorbent young minds with lots of good stuff, then…
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Homeschool State of the Union
My second grade daughter and I are about halfway through the year. It’s time to stop and take stock of how things are going. Academics: I’m very pleased with her progress. We’re on…
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First Grade Curriculum Review
We’ve finished our first year of homeschooling, and I want to get some thoughts down while it’s fresh about the curriculum used in the different subject areas for first grade. Math: I started…
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Socialized Homeschooling
Like my title? I was aiming for an attention-grabber… But a more accurate title would be, “Socialization Reconsidered.” My husband and I have been wrestling through questions on the subject of healthy socialization…
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Homeschool State of the Union
I’ve wanted to write a midyear evaluation of my first homeschool attempt for my first grader. But two weeks into the new year, I admit it’s a difficult task. (So, for procrastination, I get an…
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Black Ships Before Troy
My 6-year-old and I have been working our way through Rosemary Sutcliff’s Black Ships Before Troy for several weeks. It corresponds with a period we just studied in our Story of the World tour…
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Socialization or sufficiency?
This is Katie. She’s a border collie. She’s bred for intelligence and stamina, made to herd sheep all day long. Instead, she spends most of her days sleeping or chasing frisbees or going…
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Seen and unseen
I read in the paper this week of the closing of a local private school that incorporated many of the practices that appeal to me about homeschooling. Classes were not determined/segregated according to…