Category Archives: homeschooling

Sep 25 2016

Sabbath Schooling For Real

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Last year, I blogged about Sabbath Schooling (that’s teaching for six weeks and taking the seventh week off) but I made it clear I did not apply it literally in our homeschool. This year, I decided to take it seriously. I dislike burnout as much as anybody else and taking breaks more often seems to be the formula to keep burnout from visiting us again and again.

Heritage Day Schedule

Seeing all the artisans and their crafts at Heritage Day reminded me of my book projects.

Of course, the children love it. They work very hard and a break feels good to them, too. Am I working them too hard? I don’t know. But they are getting older and starting to complain about school. It’s a sign I must be doing something right. Maybe. At any rate, my mission in life is not to keep my children happy. It is to make them competent. Continue reading »

Sep 22 2016

Rehearsals Have Started

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We have only seven more rehearsals until our children’s first concert on the stage of the Tennessee Theater in Knoxville. The Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra operates six different ensembles for children on different levels of music skills. Our children auditioned this summer and got into Overture and Preludium respectively.

KSYO Preludium Practice

My son (in red shirt) during his first practice with KSYO Preludium

This experience may be a tad more exciting for me than for them, although I can see they like playing in their groups. They made some friends over the summer during String Camp and they were excited to see them again now that they are in the orchestra together. Continue reading »

Sep 20 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 38 – The Silver Chair

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The Silver Chair did not seem very interesting to me at first. It took more than half the book to even understand the title. I felt confused by the whole layout of the land described and the Marsh-Wiggle called Puddleglum. (Uh, what’s a Marsh-Wiggle?)

The Silver Chair

The book begins with Eustace helping a school mate, Jill, while she is being chased by bullies. They both escape to Narnia just in time before the bullies get to Jill. Folks, this is 1950 and C.S. Lewis knew enough about schools in those days to put a bit of them in his books. The bullies today work just the same, if not worse.  Continue reading »

Sep 19 2016

Why People Don’t Homeschool

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A Romanian blogger detailed recently how she decided to enroll her child in fifth grade this year, after looking at three possibilities: private school, middle school attached to a high school (which implies the teachers would be infinitely better than in a regular ol’ middle school, since they are qualified to teach secondary education), or a five-day homeschool co-op (if you will, a homeschool school where all the teachers are parents who hold university degrees in their subject).

Funny education comic

Today’s classrooms focus on testing and less on art.

The blog post is titled, “Why We Feel Threatened by Homeschooling” and yes, it is in Romanian. The link above will take you there if you can read that language.  Continue reading »

Sep 18 2016

Healthy Taste of Knoxville

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Today is the day when Homeschool Ways will take the show on the road. We will have a booth at an event called The Healthy Taste of Knoxville. This second annual event is held on Kingston Pike, the main highway that goes through Knoxville, just two blocks away from the University of Tennessee campus.

Knoxville Veggie Fest

The official poster for the event

It was a few weeks ago the organizers approached me and asked if I would like to bring my books and any information I may have about homeschooling to this show. They told me during the show last year a lot of people were inquiring about “alternative choices” in lifestyle and it included food, education, and spirituality. By a lot of people we mean over 1,000.

Continue reading »

Sep 17 2016

The Things We Dare Not Tell

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Homeschooling blogs abound, but what are the things we dare not tell about our homeschooling experience? Just like in anything else, there is a fine line between encouraging and discouraging our readers. We share our successes to encourage others and we end up discouraging those homeschooling moms who are already not very self-confident.

Woman with sealed lips

Sealed lips

We share our vulnerable moments to encourage homeschoolers and risk being ridiculed by moms who put their children in the public school every morning and never think twice about dropping their children off in a building for the next seven hours. “See, that’s why I don’t mess with homeschooling. Life’s too short to pour over algebra with my kids. Plus we need a second income to afford a vacation and nice clothes every year.”  Continue reading »

Sep 16 2016

Strawberry Shortcake

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As a breakfast food or as a dessert, strawberry shortcake does not disappoint. I like mine in the morning, for breakfast, with the sauce over it and topped with banana slices. The picture does not do it justice, but then I have already told you this is not a food blog, right? Without further ado, here is the recipe.

Strawberry shortcake

Strawberry shortcake

 

Ingredients

1/3 c oil

3/4 c non-dairy milk

2 Tbsp. Sugar-in-the-Raw

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c flour

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. aluminium-free baking powder

1 lb. strawberries, fresh or frozen

2 Tbsp. cornstarch Continue reading »

Sep 13 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 37 – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

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The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the fifth volume of The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. The Dawn Treader is a Narnian sail boat which belongs to Prince Caspian. Lucy and Edmund join him on this ship and end up going to the end of the world in it.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

One of these days, you will have to sit down and read this book. Especially if you miss the seaside and it’s cold outside and you just got overwhelmed by wanderlust. It’s an adventure and most children will enjoy it, too.  Continue reading »

Sep 11 2016

15 Years Ago

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Fifteen years ago, I was working in Stockholm, Sweden. A colleague walked over to my desk and told me a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. For the rest of the day, we tried in vain to get news from the overwhelmed site of BBC, which was loading very slowly. I suppose all of Europe and beyond was desperate to find out what happened.

World Trade Center

World Trade Center (image courtesy of Wikipedia.org)

So much has happened since that fateful day. Our lives have never been the same. As I homeschool my young children, it is hard to decide at what age I can talk to them about what happened on 9/11/01. The tragedy seems so senseless.  Continue reading »

Sep 7 2016

Story of the World, Vol. 3, Chapter 4

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Chapter 4 in The Story of the World Volume 3 deals with the struggle to look for a Northwestern passage. Hudson and Champlain are the main heroes of the two stories in the chapter. I did not exactly have the milk cartons required to make the craft boat – we drink non-dairy milk which comes in a totally different shaped-carton.

LEGO friends in a boat

Floating cakes of ice during the search for a northwestern passage. Yes, LEGO friends in the boat…

So I set the kids on an adventure with LEGO people and boats. We used white LEGO bricks as the floating cakes of ice mentioned in the stories, an expression which made them laugh. Cakes of ice? They kept repeating it. This is why we read extensively. They learn new ways to use words and to put them together.  Continue reading »