Today’s Love Thursday is dedicated to two things that LuLu is struggling with today at Ladybug Elementary (our pseudo-homeschool). Analogies always catch the poor child up. Frankly I’m sure she doesn’t see the relationship between many of the items, especially on analogies that are a bit esoteric. For example she didn’t flinch at “Rain is to storm as _____ is to blizzard.” But she struggled mightily with “_____ is to ocean as sand is to desert.” Who understands the reason why?

Of course she was totally lost on “Paris is to France as London... more

As an infant Albert Einstein’s mother was concerned that his head was much too large. He was apparently quite delayed in learning how to talk, not using words until sometime after the age of two years which worried his parents and caused the family maid to nickname him the dopey one. When he did finally learn how to talk he would whisper what he needed to say, over and over to himself, until he thought it sounded good enough to say out loud. Was Albert Einstein learning disabled? Maybe we would have... more

Deciding to homeschool your children isn’t an easy choice to make; it requires a lot of planning, researching, and self-sacrifice if your goal is to help each child actualize his/her potential. You need to research to find the best curriculum to use for your family and also for each child’s individual needs. You can research on the internet, but it is invaluable to have experienced homeschool parents to discuss techniques and curriculum with. You need to plan assignments or at least figure out how many pages your child would need to complete a day to finish each subject by the... more

Do you know how many times we’ve had the same discussion with our daughter? It goes something like this, “If we can’t trust you in our own home in small things, then we won’t be able to trust you to go places and do bigger things.” Then we go over the bigger things. “Do you realize that legally you’re old enough to baby sit, however you never follow the rules when we’re gone so we can’t leave you in charge or home alone?” “In just less than three years you will be old enough to drive, but if you can’t follow the rules at home, then we can’t trust that you’ll... more

Michigan legislature is in the news with three bills that have been introduced that would expand the age of compulsory attendance for children in Michigan. Senate Bill 162 would lower the compulsory attendance age from 6 to 5. It will also make kindergarten mandatory. Senate Bill 11 and House Bill 4042 would raise the age of compulsory attendance from age 16 to age 18. If these bills passed, students in Michigan would be subject to government control for an additional three years.

What does this have to do with you and why should... more

I decided to clean out the basement area where I had saved every assignment my children had completed in the last ten years of Homeschooling. That’s when I came across three copies of the exact same consumable workbook that my daughter with FAS had completed and realized that she was currently working in the same workbook. I knew that she had been stuck at the third grade level for awhile, but I guess I didn’t realize it had been five years of very little progress. I try to vary the workbooks that I buy for her, so there were also... more

March roared into our town this morning about 5:30 am with thunder and lightning. A bit unusual for March, but a quick end to the beautiful sunny, spring-like days we’ve been experiencing.

The saying “In like a lion…Out like a lamb” popped into my head with the first thunder clap, so I thought, “here’s today’s science lesson.” I suppose school teachers everywhere will be incorporating this into their classes today. But having no teachers’ guides, I’m always amazed when something triggers lessons from my childhood that I can incorporate into... more

With so many adopted children you can probably imagine that I’m teaching quite a wide range of educational abilities. At one end of the educational spectrum is my son who is currently fourteen. He’s been homeschooled his entire school career and has also participated in 4-H, AWANA, a traveling floor hockey team, mission’s trips and summer camps. I’m certain that he would have never survived public school without wearing out a path to the principal’s office and frequent detentions.

You see he has ADHD. Medication does help him to concentrate,... more

One of the beauties of schooling LuLu in a one-on-one environment, is the concept of unit studies. We structure her reading, language arts, social studies and science lessons around things of great interest. Once I started to get the hang of how to do this, it’s been kinda’ fun.

We’ve done a unit on volcanos: reading books about them (for reading); researching on the internet about where volcanic activity occurs (geography and research skills); building a working volcano (art and science). We’ve done a unit on bones (reading about it; researching calcium... more