john holt
– one of the founders of the unschooling movement –
is another author i read
back when i was first just thinking about homeschooling.
he was very encouraging to me
and help me understand
and put into words
why i felt how i felt.
when folks have questions about homeschool,
here is where i get many of my responses.
holt has several books but start with these two:
how children learn
(the companion book is how children fail.)
and teach your own
i’m revisiting this
because of a conversation my husband had
with a coworker
whose wife was a teacher.
my husband was amazed because
his coworker’s wife had never even heard of homeschooling.
she actually thought it was a joke.
i challenge every teacher
or teacher-to-be
to read
the underground history of american education
by john taylor gatto.
while we’re at it,
i might as well also challenge every person who has gone to school
from kindergarten to college
to read gatto’s
dumbing us down.
these books may not change minds,
but they will certainly allow minds a peek outside of the proverbial box.
i read these when i was thinking about the options
for my, then, 3-year old, first-born toddler
and look where it got me!:
having fun in this daily, joyful struggle
instead of being a shuttle-bus driver
to and from “school”.
people by peter spier
for those embarrassing moments when your child asks questions like
“why is s/he so fat/tall/skinny/ugly/big?”
well, sweetie, “you can ask me any question. but sometimes it needs to be done in private, so we don’t hurt people’s feelings. that’s good manners.” plus, Allah makes us in all shapes, sizes and colors.
if you lived with the sioux indians
by anne mcgovern
absolutely delicious
and chock-full on interesting facts
about the sioux tribe of native americans
in a question and answer format.
this whole series is great for american history and cultural studies.
other books in the series include:
if you
…lived in colonial times
…traveled west in a covered wagon (by ellen levine)
…lived at the time of the civil war (by kay moore)
…grew up with abraham lincoln
…traveled the underground railroad (by ellen levine)
…sailed on the mayflower in 1620
…lived when there was slavery in america (by anne kamma)
…grew up with george washington (by beth belov gross)
…were there when they signed the constitution (by elizabeth levy)
…lived at the time of martin luther king (by ellen levine)
…lived 100 years ago
…lived in the days of the knights
…-r name was changed at ellis island (by ellen levine)
…were a pioneer on the prairie (by anne kamma)
…lived in williamsburg in colonial days (by barbara brenner)
…lived at the time of the american revolution (by kay moore)
the composer is dead
by lemony snicket
a delightfully dramatic and witty read
or listen (if you have the accompanying CD, as we did).
learn and hear about the orchestra and its instruments.
was looking for something else in the library
and found:
the 7 habits of happy kids
by sean covey
(son of stephen covey).
without being too preachy
it uses seven illustrated stories
to illustrate the seven habits:
at the end of each story are questions
to discuss with your children
and activities to do with your children to develop these habits.
i loved what the book was trying to accomplish
and the girls loved the illustrations and story line.
this would make a great companion to our studies on values.
see a video introduction,
preview the book,
see a trailer or
buy the book
at SeanCovey.com
while in the states
since my oldest
– who should be a snaggle-toothed 6 in a few days –
could turn a page in a book
i’ve subscribed to magazines from the cricket magazine group.
first it was babybug, then ladybug and then click.
as a parent,
i loved reading them to my children.
my children would read them over and over again.
now that we’re overseas
– and you can bet that i brought some babybugs and clicks with me –
in order to get these magazines
we’d have to pay an additional $15 per subscription per year
and wait an additional who-knows-how-many-days for them to
finally get here.
not having access to a english library here
makes magazines like these even more dear to us.
as a child,
i used to LOVE highlights.
i don’t think my mom ever bought me a subscription,
but i remember them making doctors and dentists visits more bearable.
now they have a magazine called high five
for the 2-6 age group.
as an expatriate, my kids are just out of luck.
they don’t ship internationally.
it’s the digital age!
highlights, cricket magazine group
and all those other children’s magazines publishers
need to get with it!
i subscribe to one of my favorite magazines,
dwell, digitally through zinio
(zinio has all kinds of magazines
from cosmopolitan and businessweek to popular mechanics).
many of these children’s magazines
have sample pages in digital or pdf format.
cricket magazine publishes it catalog in this manner,
so why not the magazine itself!?!
join me in emailing your favorite children’s magazine
in requesting that they publish their magazine
so that they are readily available worldwide.
contact highlights customer service by filling out this form.
you can email click magazine group AKA carus publishing here:
busdev [at] caruspub [dot] com
or here: customerservice [at] caruspub [dot] com
here’s some text to copy and paste to boot:
many families would love to see your magazines available in PDF or digital magazine format.
your current environmentally-conscious subscribers,
english-speaking expatriates abroad,
and ESL teachers worldwide
would be ecstatic at this option as well.
could you tell me if your magazine is considering publishing its excellent content
so that it is readily available to a more diverse customer-base?
thanks for your help!
a few days ago
sanaa showed me some words she was writing.
i mentioned that they almost looked like cursive handwriting,
then had to demonstrate it for her.
she took an immediate interest
and has been working on her cursive handwriting
outside of homeschool ever since.
due to my (over)eagerness
i’ve been prepared for this moment
since she was 2.
i decided to teach her d’nealian style handwriting from the start.
i believed its style provided an easier transition to cursive.
although in many montessori classrooms, children begin with cursive.
in addition, i bought cursive connections which we’re getting into now.
one way this book is different from traditional methods
is that instead of teaching letters alphabetically,
it teaches them in groups based on similarity.
for example, the lowercase letters a, o, d, g, and q
are introduced together because they all begin with an “over stroke”,
as the author calls it.
after she practices writing a letter or small groups of letters several times,
instead of correcting her work
i ask her to circle the letter she likes the best
while commenting on the qualities the letter should have,
e.g. it is leaning, touching the top-, mid- or bottom-line as it should, and etc.
i’m having fun watching HER discover that handwriting is fun and beautiful.
i’ve loved ed emberley’s drawing books since i was a child.
it breaks down drawings into simple shapes.
even rahmah, at 3, can follow along with great success.
art class on the cheap.
the bob books series
are great for beginning readers
after they know their letter sounds
and have learned how to segment short words.
after each page rahmah looks at me with such pride.
after the delicious struggle of making it through each book
– she doesn’t want help at all –
she says, “i read it!”
yeah, girl, YOU did it!
