Make your own school

Late but interesting: I didn’t see this until today, when it was already too late, from Gever Tulley’s blog:
Just a quick note to say that I’ll be speaking and answering questions on Thursday, May 1st at the Maker Day event before the Maker Faire and then again on Saturday, May 3rd, the first day of [...]

Science shopping

Even with no plans to attend a home school conference or convention this Spring (the big one next month conflicts with a. calving, b. Arts Festival, c. previously scheduled 4H activity, and d. calving), something in the air has compelled me to start making shopping lists of educational resources and waving my credit card around.
Today [...]

I forgot…

to mention in my last post just below that Mrs. G. at Derfwad Manor mentioned  the other day that…
“The second March Book Give-Away will be homeschooling books!”
So consider yourself notified and stay tuned to Derfwad Manor.

Great Assumptions

Sophie Gee, an assistant professor of English at Princeton University and author of The Scandal of the Season, wrote in yesterday’s NY Times Book Review section,
Mass-market adaptations make Great Books go bad. Or so conventional wisdom would have it. But every so often, plundering and pillaging a canonical text for the sake of entertainment gives [...]

Learning to think like scientists, and learning how to think about science

I meant to post earlier this week about Natalie Angier’s most recent NYT “Basics” science column when it first appeared, but schoolwork and festivities got in the way. You can read the entire column here (registration is free); and here are some bits and pieces (emphases, as always, mine):
[Faye Cascio’s ninth-grade physical science] … [...]

Figuring out if Cybils-nominated titles are child-friendly

Over at the Cybils blog, Cybils co-founder Kelly Herold wrote a post earlier this week, “Who Put the Kid in Kid-friendly?“:

When [Cybils co-founder] Anne and I led a panel session on the Cybils at the 1st Annual Kidlitosphere Conference this [past] weekend in Chicago, one theme in particular kept popping up during discussions: How do [...]

Film Club interview

from The Canadian Press. Here’s an excerpt (emphases mine):
What [the book] details is a father’s struggle to connect with a beloved son who is totally disinterested in homework and who, at six-foot-four, is a man-sized adolescent frequently skipping out of high school to wander about the big city at will.
“All we ever talked about [...]

Grammar resources

I’ve been remiss in not posting about the latest Growing with Grammar program by my friend Tamela Davis, for Grade 5. More good stuff for home educating families looking for more choice. And more Growing with Grammar posts and reviews (for Grades 1&2, 3, and 4) here, here, and here.
I’m a big fan of [...]

Poetry Friday: A bit of Browning and a huge delight

A poem for back-to-school season for all parents who teach, guide, educate, explain, discuss, and develop.
Most of the great English poet Robert Browning’s education took place at home, centering around his father’s library of some 6,000 volumes in English, as well as French, ancient Greek, and Latin. He began composing rhymes even before he learned [...]

Why safer isn’t always better

Listening to CBC Radio’s “Sounds Like Canada” show last week (podcast here; let me know if the link doesn’t work), I heard summer host Kevin Sylvester interview Matt Hern about the new U.S. edition of his book, Watch Yourself: Why Safer Isn’t Always Better, out last month in paperback; it was published in Canada last [...]

Teacher meme

Another day, another meme, but this time I was tagged and some time ago, too. Literacy Teacher at Mentor Texts & More tagged me for a teacher’s meme, and I very much appreciate the fact that a NYC public school teacher thought of me for this one, which I find both nifty and generous. (Do [...]

Worth reading

o Stephanie at Throwing Marshmallows has a terrific post about Feminism and Homeschooling.
o David Harsanyi of The Denver Post writes that Adults, not boys, have changed. Just a sampling:
What makes The Dangerous Book for Boys somewhat contentious, though, is its implicit assertion that boys and girls are very different. That [...]

Bet you didn’t know I read "Chemical & Engineering News"

Just for the articles, though.
Three of them, in fact, from tomorrow’s issue. The first is on homeschool science curricula, especially high school chemistry:
It’s Monday night at the Strouds’, and David is at the dining room table with his two daughters, Fisher, seven, and Ripley, nine. On this particular evening in February, David is [...]

Good Guardian

article on home education in the UK, primarily a very even-handed profile of the Newstead family, who have, along with many other UK home educators, “simply tried the mainstream and found it wanting.”
Best quote from the home educating father,
People say ‘Isn’t socialisation a problem?’ And we say, ‘Yes it is, which is why we’ve taken [...]

Supersize me?

“Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.”Groucho Marx, The Groucho Letters (1967)
“Include me out.”Samuel Goldwyn
Earlier this week, I discovered I’d been nominated for a blogging award, but being the crabby type and a Marxist (Groucho, not Karl) as well as a Goldwyn Girl, [...]

Some weekend questions for homeschoolers in general, and Charlotte Mason types in particular

from a couple of children’s literature blogs I enjoy:
The first bunch from Roger Sutton, editor of the Horn Book, from his blog Read Roger; and the second bunch from Liz at A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy.
My blogging has been sporadic as it is, likely even more so over the holiday weekend and [...]

A late winter Field Day

Here, with great thanks to Dawn!

Bits and bobs

Blogging will be intermittent and sporadic for the next, possibly long, while. We’re planning to visit my parents, and Tom and I have a ton each to do before we get on the planes (not to mention locating 100mL/100g/3oz. mini bottles of unguents, potions, and toothpaste for onboard use).
Here are some fun and useful things [...]

Home in Kenya is where the school is

Since I have family who live in Kenya, every once in a while I check the online edition of The Standard for the latest news. I was surprised this week to find an article, and a positive one at that, on homeschooling in Kenya, “Home is where the school is”. Here’s some of what reporter [...]

letters to the editor

A couple of different responses to The New York Times article on unschooling, Nov. 26 — one ahem, one amen:
To the Editor:
I am shocked and saddened to read about the growing numbers of parents who are joining the unschooling movement.
I consider “child-led learning” to be an incredibly foolhardy philosophy. Not even older teenagers, [...]