Jena began homeschooling in 1994. Her three children are now teenagers; one is graduated and attends the University of Chicago on a full ride scholarship, the next one is 16 and pursues life without school in the arts, and the youngest is a freshman, trying out public school for the first time. In 2005 they bought a 7000 square foot church building and converted it into their home. You can read more about their adventures on her blog, yarns of the heart.
Over the years I’ve been hesitant to talk about the details of my homeschooling. All my friends kept schedules and worked through classroom-type curriculum, but I didn’t. My style of schooling never matched those around me, so I was a little intimidated and rarely had the guts to talk about what I did with my kids....
Homeschooling and College Scholarships
I like to take questions on my blog, and here's one from Kimber:
I've been homeschooling since my 19 year old was about 4... We have graduated him now. I also have a 15, 12, 9 and 7. So my work is not done. I am interested how you got a full ride (or any) scholarship ...
If you decide to home school, you'll find that everyone is concerned about the socialization of your children. Complete strangers will make comments and relatives will sincerely worry your kids are suffering from lack of socialization. But in all honesty, the socialization issue convinced me to home school ...
My oldest son Peter likes to think and learn about education. One day he ran across this video on ted.com by creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson ...
Questions, questions, questions...they help us get to the point, don't they? Here's what My friend at Stone Age Techie recently asked me:
1) Have your children always been home schooled? How did you develop your unschooling philosophy?
Yes, we've always home schooled ...
When It Looks Like They're Not Learning
I recently got this question from Unschooling Blogger:
This is the only time of year that I get antsy and start worrying about unschooling. I'd be so interested in hearing about how you encouraged learning with younger kids...
Alfred Adler once said, "Play is a child's work, and this is not a trivial pursuit." He's right, I think...
A Look at Interest-Led Learning
Peter and I had an interesting conversation recently after a friend told him why she didn't like homeschooling (at least the way we do it). She said she thought home schoolers aren't challenged enough, that if something is hard, they just don't do it...
Should We Homeschool High School?
Many homeschoolers come to the end of eighth grade and start to get nervous. Should we keep homeschooling? Doubt sets in ...
Reading is the number one, most important thing you can do for your child's education. Reading starts your child on the path of following his interests as far as he wants to go. That's obvious, right? I am always surprised by the number of moms who stress out about all the things to cover in kindergarten and first grade. My suggestion has always been, "Teach them to read, and then just let them go. Reading is the door that opens the world to them."...
I've always loved school. I'd come home from kindergarten and play teacher with my younger brother. From those first days, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. That's why I went on to get a degree in education...
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