Celeste
Celeste has been unschooling her kids for well over a decade. She does homeschooling advocacy work for her state homeschooling organization and spends way too much time on the computer. In her spare time, she does tae kwon do, plays the piano, and plays a glamorous, powerful, purple lady bunny in an online virtual reality game.
I’m an unschooling mom to two children, a daughter (14) and a son (10). Our homeschooling journey began about a dozen years ago, when an old high school buddy asked me if I’d ever considered homeschooling. I politely rejected the idea as insane....
Homeschooling and the Sorting Hat
As many of us know, Harry Potter’s fictional boarding school, Hogwarts, “sorts” its incoming students into different “houses” or residences. Children in a particular house eat together, sleep together, study together, and take many of their classes together for the duration of their seven years at school....
First, a confession: Our family has lately become addicted to American Idol. Not just to the show itself, but also to the many blogs and websites devoted to the show and its contestants....
“I don’t want to go to swim practice anymore,” the boy told his mother....
Ask a veteran homeschooling mom if homeschooling works, and you’ll probably hear stories about remarkable, accomplished young people who have used homeschooling to succeed in school, careers, and life....
Last year, I attended a teen homeschooler Halloween party in a church basement. It was all very reminiscent of my own misspent youth---lots of food, lots of loud music coming from the local teen bands, and the teens swaying and grooving to the beat....
This essay is about homeschooling. Honest....
My son Adam’s Boy Scout troop recently participated in an emergency preparedness simulation at our county’s emergency training center. Pretending to be survivors of a major hurricane, the boys helped “save” people from burned buildings, transported victims using makeshift stretchers, cooked meals from canned food, slept overnight in the emergency shelter, etc....
As I write this, November is just around the corner, reminding me of one of the most memorable Thanksgiving meals I ever shared in my life....
When I was in my teens, I shocked my father one day by identifying myself as a “Midwesterner” in a casual conversation. “You’re not a Midwesterner!” my father replied with horror. “You’re a Californian!”...
You’ve probably heard by now about the boy who was suspended from school for hugging a classmate. His middle school has a “no physical contact” rule which penalizes touching of any sort, including high fives, handshakes, and consensual hugs....
Dr XXXXX
Superintendent, XXX County Public Schools....
Recently I had some trouble installing my anti-virus software, and had to call for technical support. The installation required several reboots, and I passed the time by chatting with the friendly technician named “Roger” who guided me through the process....
Homeschooling in the Mid-1990's
Homeschooling in the mid-1990’s was so much harder than it is today. Why, I remember walking 20 miles in the snow just to get to……..oops, that’s the wrong story....
The “pre-college pressures” have arrived at our house with a vengeance. Every day, the mail brings two or three glossy letters from private liberal arts schools, boasting about their many stellar achievements. Well-intentioned strangers ask about college and career plans. Meanwhile, many of our teen friends have vanished from the homeschooling social scene to experiment with community college classes and homework....
Lessons Learned from Refrigerator Mom
When my kids were younger, I worked as a volunteer breastfeeding counselor, taking calls from a local hotline. I received over a thousand calls, and helped a lot of mothers and babies. Yet my most memorable call was definitely the one I received from the lady I’ll call the “refrigerator mom”....
Some parents think that making decisions about homeschooling is as easy as playing “Clue”. They read all the books and catalogs, talk to homeschooling parents, and maybe even attend a conference or two. Then they loudly proclaim, “I’m an ‘eclectic’ homeschooler, we’re going to use unit studies with a Charlotte Mason approach, and we’ve purchased KONOS, The Well Trained Mind, and Saxon Math.” The game is over. Or is it?...
A polite exchange on a national e-list turns ugly with nasty allegations about homeschoolers. The posters say that homeschoolers are “elitist” and “exclusive” for scheduling their activities and club meetings during the day when school kids cannot attend. They label homeschoolers as “sheltered”, “isolated”, and “ill-prepared” for the real world....
You’ve probably heard the “Fortunately, Unfortunately” story before. It goes something like this....
I’m at a summer picnic at a local playground, watching my chubby 12 month old daughter happily playing in the sandbox. She is wearing a floppy, flowered sunhat, a flowered onesie suit, and a brand new pair of white leather shoes to protect her newly walking feet. My baby actually took a small bite out of a potato chip today. Does this mean that she is finally going to start eating solid foods like the other children?...
I live in a fast-paced metropolis where credentials are king, where a man is judged by how much money he makes, who he knows, and where he went to school. Parents jockey to collect the most credentials for their children, starting at very early ages....
This Saturday afternoon, I’ll be sweating in a poorly ventilated gym with about 20 other adults, teens, and kids, enduring a grueling 4 hour ritual known as the black belt exam. With a panel of solemn judges looking on, we’ll demonstrate dozens of kicking and hand techniques, ten “forms” (choreographed combinations of techniques), and thirty-five self-defense techniques....
Late one gloomy November evening, I sat on the overstuffed couch downstairs watching TV while my three-year-old lay asleep in my arms. Alone and despondent, I went over the day’s events and tried in vain to come up with a list of educational activities that we had completed....
Beyond the Homeschooling Catalogs
A few years ago, several friends of mine discovered an amazing new reading curriculum which worked wonders with their “late readers”. It was extremely effective, transforming illiterate children into proficient readers seemingly overnight. The new curriculum was colorful, attractive, and especially appealing to boys, who begged to use it constantly.Many parents were delighted to find that the curriculum also simultaneously taught valuable arithmetic skills and fostered interpersonal communications. And the price was surprisingly affordable, putting it within reach of most families....
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