Category Archives: Homeschool

Sharing 20 years of homeschool experience

B is for Balance

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ABCs of Homeschooling - Copy

B is for balance. Homeschooling can take up every single day if you let it. Some curriculum products will literally fill your day from 9 to 5; if you sign your children up for every outside activity that interests them, you could end up with a schedule that will burn out you and your children simultaneously! Instead, strive for balance:

Balance teaching time with free-learning opportunities.

Balance inside time with outdoor time.

Balance math time with art time.

Balance time as a group with time alone with each child.

Balance is the key to long-term homeschooling.

 

Just out in print: the 3rd edition of Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers, completely revised and expanded. Check it out!

A is for Answers

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ABCs of Homeschooling - Copy

A is for answers. As a new parent, you become the “answer man” for your young child. (“What’s that thing? Why is it raining? Where does the sun go at night?” etc.) But as a homeschooling parent, you’ll become your children’s source of answers for the foreseeable future (at least until they learn how to look up facts and other information). This will be a key part of your job description, so find a way to make peace with it! Eventually, your children will learn to find answers for themselves. In fact, by the time they’re adults, you’ll be flattered when they actually ask for your opinion  🙂  Until then, embrace your status as “answer (wo)man”!

Want to read more about homeschooling? You’ll find many homeschooling articles by clicking the “Homeschool Info” link at the top of the page, or “Homeschooling” at the bottom.

Signs of Summer

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Yum…nothing says summer like green beans fresh from the garden:

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Another sign of summer: tomorrow is August 1, and for many of you, that means getting ready for another year of homeschooling. It’s been six years since I finished homeschooling my youngest, but I still get that desire to buy more curriculum every August. Old habits die hard, I guess!

Back when I had the newsletter, I wrote and published a series called “The ABC’s of Homeschooling.” I think I’ll run it again, starting tomorrow, for those of you who would like a little encouragement as you start another (or maybe your first?) year of homeschooling.

ABCs of Homeschooling - Copy

When a Review is not a Review

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Whenever I’m going to buy something, I like to look at the reviews of the product online first to see what people are saying about it. In general, I think word of mouth is pretty valuable because it’s usually someone’s actual opinion based on their experience, as opposed to hype or advertising from the company that made the item.

Traditionally, a product review is something the product’s creator never pays for (other than the cost of the review copy and shipping); in addition, it’s bad form to ask for a good review. The whole point is for the reviewer to give an unbiased opinion. Obviously, if the review copy were to arrive with a check payable to the reviewer, the review would be biased.

We started Cardamom Publishers, our homeschool publishing business, in 2003, and we’ve never paid for a review or asked for a good review. We just send out review copies and wait. We’ve been gratified to receive good reviews, and we want homeschooling parents to know that those reviews are unbiased.

There are many good homeschool websites and magazines that offer unbiased reviews. But apparently there are others who require creators to pay for something they call a product review, but which is actually an advertisement. I recently received an email from one such site, howtohomeschool.net. They’ve offered to review our products. Here are the details:

Removed at the request of the writer 7/11/17

There’s nothing wrong with advertising, but to claim that a paid ad is a product review is dishonest. Homeschooling parents love hearing the opinions of other parents about homeschool products; I valued that input when I homeschooled my four kids. But there’s a huge difference between an unbiased opinion and a paid ad, and I don’t think it’s fair to imply that there isn’t one, especially when your intended audience is made up of very busy homeschooling parents who have enough to do without trying to figure out when they’re being misled.