V is for Vacations

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Barb

V is for vacations. One of the many benefits of homeschooling is that it frees you from the school calendar and lets your family take vacations during the school year, when tourist havens are uncrowded and so are the beaches.

We often took vacations in May and September and spent the hot, muggy summer afternoons doing school in our air-conditioned house. It was a win-win situation. When we traveled, our kids loved when we drove past schools with children trapped in classrooms while they were free to have fun.

In May 2000, we watched a shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida and were tickled to see that many of the cars, vans and campers lining the road near where the spectators stood had bumper stickers proclaiming homeschool status. Let’s hear it for vacations any time of the year!

Prepare your children for the future: read my book, Thriving in the 21^st Century: Preparing Your Children for the New Economic Reality.

H is for Hugs

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Barb

H is for hugs. Kids need affection, but in this day and age, teachers are afraid to be affectionate with their students because of a few bad apples who took touching their students too far. But we can hug our kids with joy when they master a new concept, or when they need encouragement, or just because we feel like it. (One of my favorite sayings is “Always give in to the impulse to hug your child.”) Homeschooled children can grow up secure in their family’s love, with affection being a daily event.

Get homeschooling advice for whatever stage you’re in: check out the “Stages of Homeschooling” eBook series.

Another Argument for School Choice

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Barb

Dr. Walter E. Williams has the knack of distilling an important issue down to its essence, and this article of his is a great example of that.

He’s discussing school choice, and why government should not be involved in the allocation of funds to education. He makes it so easy to understand; can you tell I’m a big fan of his work?

Millennials Having Trouble Leaving the Nest?

Posted on May 29, 2017 by Barb

Here’s yet another story about the current crop of young people and their inability to live on their own. The lousy economy is surely a factor, but you have to wonder how much helicopter parenting has contributed to this problem. So many modern parents are unwilling to help their teens achieve independence by transferring responsibilities to them as they approach 18 (which used to be the age of independence).

We didn’t raise our kids that way. Once they finished homeschooling, they could either go to college or go to work, but if they chose work, they also had to start paying rent. We didn’t charge that much, though I do recall one of them accusing us of wanting to get rich off of them, LOL. But today they’re all self-supporting, independent, hard-working adults despite being part of the millennial generation.

I can’t help but worry that many of the young folks featured in the article will never successfully make it on their own. I sure hope I’m wrong.