Successful Homeschooling — Homeschool Information and Ideas

Spring Spruce Up! – Make Your Backyard a Relaxing Oasis

March 23, 2011

So you’ve cleaned your yard and created a learning environment for your kids. Now it’s time to treat yourself to a relaxing oasis right in your own back yard. Light and Color Use flowers and plants to add color and make your yard visually appealing. Light your outdoor space with lamps or flameless candles, or [...]

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Spring Spruce Up! – Turn Your Backyard into a Learning Environment

March 22, 2011

Yesterday, we talked about cleaning and child-proofing your backyard. Today, I’m going to show you how to turn your backyard into a learning environment. During the spring and summer months, my children spend hours each day entertaining themselves in our tiny, suburban backyard. If you prepare the environment, you can turn even the smallest of [...]

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Spring Spruce Up! – Clean Up Your Backyard

March 21, 2011

This week, I’m joining 10 other bloggers for the Spring Spruce Up – a series of posts to help you spruce up different areas of your home. For three days, I’ll share tips for cleaning your backyard, turning your backyard into a learning environment, and creating a backyard oasis where you can relax at the [...]

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Homeschooling the Difficult Child, Part 3 – Defiance and Disrespect

March 19, 2011

Yesterday, I told you about Susan Wise Bauer’s creative, yet effective ideas for Homeschooling the REAL Child. However, I didn’t tell you that at the beginning of her workshop, Susan stated that her tips would likely be unhelpful for children who were downright defiant and disrespectful. She believes those issues are symptoms of a dysfunctional [...]

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Homeschooling the Difficult Child, Part 2 – Passive Resisters

March 18, 2011

So we know how to teach the wigglers, but how do we teach those who can sit quietly, but still spend 3 hours completing 30 minute assignments? (We’ll call those the passive resisters.) Enter Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well-Trained Mind. I always assumed Susan had kids who were perfectly content to sit for [...]

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Homeschooling the Difficult Child, Part 1 – Wigglers

March 9, 2011

My family just returned from the Mid South Homeschool Convention, and some of the best workshops at the conference were the ones teaching parents how to homeschool “real” children. You know, the kind of children who aren’t interested in sitting still for hours with bright eyes and pencils in hand, hanging on our every word. [...]

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Homeschool Mom’s Dirty Little Secret #3 – Anger

February 28, 2011

I started this series on dirty little secrets in order to address subjects that I know many homeschoolers struggle with, but are ashamed to mention. And it is with great shame that I broach this last topic – anger. Over the years, I’ve read enough forum and blog posts about yelling moms and angry outbursts [...]

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Homeschool Mom’s Dirty Little Secret #2 – Bad Kids

February 22, 2011

I know it’s no longer PC to give children negative labels, but I’ll let you in on my 2nd dirty little secret. There have been nights where I’ve gone to bed asking the Lord why, why, why my children are so bad. I’ve even dreamed of sending them off on that big yellow bus. 1-year-old [...]

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Homeschool Mom’s Dirty Little Secret #1 – The Unhappy Marriage

February 14, 2011

I guess Valentine’s Day is a good day to talk about marriage – yes, even unhappy marriages. I know the ideal homeschool family has either: 1. A wife who is wholly submitted to her righteous spiritual leader of a husband, or 2. A husband who never complains, never argues, and does most of the housework, [...]

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What Homeschoolers Can Learn from Chinese Mothers

January 11, 2011

I had just finished writing out our scaled down, homeschooling schedule and was getting excited about attending Diane Flynn Keith’s Unschooling teleconference, when I read this: Why Chinese Mothers are Superior At first, all I could say was WOW! I mean, seriously, I was in total shock. When Amy Chua promised to reveal secrets as [...]