Learning through Freedom to Adventure
What is education? Is it sitting in a classroom; watching video lessons; or reading stacks of books? Or is education the process of gaining knowledge through study and experience — learning through the...
View ArticleIs College Still Worth It?
As you probably know if you’ve read very far in my blog, I love to learn. I love reading, writing, and learning, and have spent many years of my life doing just that. Homeschooling my boys was an...
View ArticleOld Year Gratitude; New Year Hope
This year — 2020 — is almost over. It’s been quite a year! Decades from now, I’m guessing that people will remember it most as the Year of the Pandemic; the year that Covid-19 changed the way that many...
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Remembering What Matters Even in Difficult Times
I rarely post anything personal, but once in awhile, it happens. I’ve been thinking about peacemaking, mending breaches, and restoring what has been broken. For issues that have existed for years or...
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Homeschool 101: Charlotte Mason Style
In which a student of Charlotte Mason (British educator 1842-1923) imperfectly outlines first steps of the Mason method with an eye toward hope and encouragement to new home educators. By: Anya...
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What To Do When Everything Changes
After the first of the Great Homeschool Conventions ended early, I drove home from Texas to Virginia. While I listened to audiobooks most of the way, there was plenty of time to think about what the...
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Year-End Review, New Year Planning
December is the month when my planning instinct kicks into overdrive. I flip the calendar page on the first, and it’s as if I’ve opened a new channel in my brain. All the while I’m enjoying holiday...
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The Lawgivers: A Review of a New Plutarch Translation
Of all Charlotte Mason’s recommendations, I found her advice to read Plutarch with children one of the least appealing. I enjoy old books and love learning, but somehow, it seemed especially daunting...
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What Grade Are You In? A Bit of Common Sense from Understood Betsy
Summer is winding down in the northern hemisphere and schoolbooks are being dusted off and swimsuits put away. I always enjoyed getting back into an orderly and predictable schedule (as orderly and...
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Learn Like Leonardo da Vinci with Study Notes and Learning Journals
How do you learn? If you wanted to learn about architecture, invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany,...
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Dad Lessons and Homeschool Schedules
Considering the greater good “Are you finished with school? Want to ride with me to the dump?” my husband Donald inquired, poking his head into the schoolroom. Pencils flew everywhere as the boys...
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Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Art of Historical Fiction
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was recently renamed the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, a remarkably generic name for such a prestigious award. A lot has been said about the change, and most that I...
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Middle School Reading Lists: What a difference 100 years makes!
I recently came across an interesting comparison of two middle school reading lists. The author, Annie Holmquist, compared a list from 1908 with a current list from the same state on the basis of time...
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When is Reading Hard?
Reading, Comprehension, and Knowledge Do you enjoy reading? I do. I grew up reading voraciously — new books, old books, books set in the city, the country, in foreign lands, and many books that...
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How to Enjoy Poetry Every Week
Do you read poetry and share it with your children? I’d like to prescribe a dose of poetry every single day, but I know that might seem daunting. How about poetry every week instead? Start with simple...
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July 2017 Newsletter
A newsletter and a reading suggestion I’ve had several people ask me if there is a difference between the newsletter I hand out at conferences, and the one that comes via email, so I thought I’d show...
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Deep Work by Cal Newport: A Review in Visual Notes
I enjoy books on time management, life balance, and purpose, but I’ve read so many that it’s rare that one stands out. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport...
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Choosing Books for Boys
Choosing books for boys isn’t all that hard. Give them adventure — the kind with blood and courage, dirt and ingenuity — and watch their imaginations soar, assuming they haven’t been “Eustaced”* by the...
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Easter Wings: A Poem for Spring
Springtime puts me into a poetic frame of mind, so by the time April arrives — it’s Poetry Month, you know — I have a stack of poetry by my chair and favorite lines running through my head. Most of the...
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Why Freshmen Fail: A Review
Why Freshmen Fail and How to Avoid It by Carol Reynolds, Ph.D. I picked up Professor Carol‘s new book, Why Freshmen Fail, at the Great Homeschool Convention in Fort Worth, thinking it might be a...
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