Stephanie W.
Stephanie W. lives with her family in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She has been learning at home full time with her three wonderfully creative, feisty and quirky children since 2003. Her other interests include literature, writing, editing, and the internet.
I am a native of Eastern North Carolina, but have lived in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia since 1993. I have known my husband, John, for 20 years, and he is my best friend. He has been a law enforcement officer since 1995. I work online as a writing coach. I also have a master's degree in counseling and worked with "at risk" youth for about 6 years....
Mismeasuring Intelligence and Learning
Home schoolers and unschoolers have long understood the limitations of standardized academic standards and testing ...
My Four Year Old Teaches Me to Read
My four-year-old, Patricia Elizabeth, recently created her first book....
Home Schooling a Child With Asperger's Syndrome
"She's just not doing the things other five-year-olds are doing," a very frustrated substitute teacher told me....
"In the beginning, I became a teacher without realizing it," wrote author and educator John Taylor Gatto in an essay titled "The Green Monongahela."...
Interest Led Learning, All "Boy" Style
As a fledgling home schooler, I was intrigued by descriptions of well planned unit studies. I read about mothers who helped their kids with elaborate crafts, built models, and designed costumes. I imagined carefully designed interest-led studies. The kids would gather library books and plan projects based on their passions....
I have been thinking about my stepmother's Quaker faith. Though she was not very religious, she identified deeply with her Quaker roots, socially and morally, throughout her life. I've only attended one Quaker meeting. It was her marriage to my dad 15 years ago. In a week, I will go to my second Quaker-style service -- her funeral....
As I write this, the "Back to School Season" is in full swing. One of our local newspapers recently printed an article on home schooling. It offered the usual polite opinions of public school professionals, suggesting that they support us home schooling parents, and realize our kids will come to the fold when we realize we can't teach calculus....
Thoughts on Meaningful Learning
I recently read The Book of Learning and Forgetting by Frank Smith. Through sociological observations and educational psychology, he explores how we learn - and why we forget - new information. Smith discusses the "classical view" of learning. Learning is not inherently difficult, nor is it guided by rote learning, tests, and grades. Instead we learn effortlessly - even unconsciously -our experiences, the books we read, and - most importantly - the people around us....
Beginning the Journey of Life Without School: What I Wish I'd Done Differently
I have trying to think of advice and encouragement for a friend who has just plunged into home schooling after several years of public education. Pondering what we have learned in our 3 years of life without school only confuses me. The more I learn on our journey, the more aware I become of how much I don’t know....
My three-year-old, Trishy, is constant noise and motion. Lately, she spends much of her time "writing" and drawing. Perhaps it is because she sees so much writing and art happening in the house each day. She experiments with her hand - and the pencil or marker - as her drawings become more representational and her marks look more and more like letters. She also loves imaginative play. "Experts" often call it "symbolic play." A doll becomes a living child, a remote control becomes a phone, or a block becomes a truck in the child's fertile imagination....
Developing Writing Skills Without Writing: Narration and Beyond
I have always had a passion for writing. As a preschooler I "wrote" lengthy books, including an autobiography. These masterpieces featured my inexpert drawings and whatever words I could manage to spell. I went through reams of paper. My parents encouraged my efforts, while shuddering at the thought of forests being decimated to feed my addiction....
I made the decision to "try home schooling" at my mother's death bed. In many ways this strikes me as odd and, and seeing it in print, it seems even stranger. My older daughter, Sarah, was nine and beginning her fifth year in public school. James was four and beginning preschool. My younger daughter was still cocooned in my womb....
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