Aristotle is remembered for his incredible ability to communicate an idea clearly and persuasively. When your student has truly mastered a subject, they should be able to explain the concept or idea in such a way that helps someone else learn it. Using Aristotle’s canons of rhetoric can be a great way to help your students build the skills they need to be powerful communicators.
Anxiety...
Depression...Bipolar disorder...
Although millions of people have been diagnosed with these mental illnesses, there is still a stigma attached to having them. At the age of 15, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and for years I let that label control my life. I lived in constant fear that someone outside of my family would find out about my mental health struggles and hold it against me or question everything I do as a parent especially since I homeschool.
Have you ever heard the myth that homeschool parents need to be extremely organized to successfully homeschool? Maybe you tell someone you homeschool and their reaction is, "Oh! You must be so organized!" Or you attend a homeschool convention and hear speaker after speaker talking about planners, schedules, calendars, and organizational systems as if those are more important that reading aloud and doing science experiments.
Winter is the perfect time for a reminder to beware of the Grinch. There are five sure fire ways for your homeschool to be derailed, so keep watch, and don’t let the Grinch use these methods in your homeschool during December or any time of year.
Kids seem to have a natural draw towards movies and TV shows. I say there is nothing wrong with using that natural attraction to motivate them to read! After all, some kids need extra motivation to read a book. Even though my kids enjoy reading, they have trouble starting new books or a new series. During those times, I look for extra motivation to get them to dig into new titles. The best motivation I’ve found so far is promising to watch the movie when we finish the book.
A friend of mine has a daughter who is dyslexic and has type 1 diabetes. She spends much of her week shuttling her daughter to tutoring appointments and medical visits. I can relate to my friend's lifestyle. I, too, am finding our homeschooling being interrupted in ways I never imagined. Just last year, one of my children was diagnosed with high functioning autism and has been going to four to six therapy appointments per week.
Somewhere between the third time the kindergarten teacher spoke and the fifth time our responses were challenged, your hand shifted to the margin of the legal pad in front of you. I looked down, startled by the movement.
“I’m ready to pull her out tomorrow,” you scribbled. “She needs to be some place she’s loved.”
The holidays will soon be upon us, and that means family get togethers. Yay! Right? Or…maybe not.You may be less than excited to deal with questions from curious or critical family members: So what are you learning in homeschool?Have you joined a co-op yet? Tell me about your friends? What books are you reading? How far are you in math?
Five year olds aren’t supposed to hate kindergarten, but Gracie did. She cried every morning before drop off; her mother would find her in the principal’s office after school. Conversations at home grew less and less animated. By midyear, she barely spoke about school at all.
Gracie’s parents, Mark and Cindy, were troubled. Their daughter had changed dramatically since the fall. Then one February evening on the way to a school function, Gracie told her dad about an incident three months prior: she’d been forced under a table by a group of boys.
Purchasing a secular kindergarten program when I started teaching my first child, I thought I had a full grasp of the definition of secular homeschool curriculum. That was 19 years ago. I've since learned that the meanings of secular homeschooling and secular curriculum are not as straightforward as I may have thought.
Here are some considerations to help you dissect what is a secular homeschooler and what is secular curriculum.
