Unleashing Your Voice

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The Most Important Element in Homeschooling

I was in some kind of crisis mode, I can’t remember what it was. My oldest son who was 10 (or maybe even 11) came racing through the room and I said to him, “Is it 12:00 yet?” He was more than willing to find out the time for me but his next question brought me to a place of complete despair. “What does 12:00 look like?” I remembering thinking, “What am I doing? At least in school he would have been forced to learn to tell time…” (and let me just say, Oh but Wow, if you knew me now...) Well, what I was doing was everything I was capable of doing—and that happened to be a lot. I was having babies and keeping their limbs attached and their ever-hungry mouths fed. I was reading books (in copious amounts) to them and to myself. I was gathering like-minded families and creating a tribe. This list does not include all the things you already know that I was doing as I ran this enterprise we call a family like a well-oiled machine (ha!) The fact of the matter is that my son ...

Homeschool Cruise Director? I don't think so...

I didn’t sign up to be the Cruise Director on this amazing voyage called Homeschooling. Methinks that’s where things went a little awry. Maybe in this age of Pinterest and one-upping on social media you know what I mean. I was going to have the colorful bulletin boards of an elementary school classroom and the engaging science experiment at the kitchen table (complete with explosion) and every field trip which would make the fantasy childhood complete. I’ve learned some things over the last two decades that might save you some time and money. They will certainly save some frustration and, if we’re lucky, your ever-loving sanity. Cruise Directors Entertain, while You Educate I’ve been on a cruise (two, if we must divulge all our excesses) and I totally get what his job is…I mean, besides pushing your bar tab and the casino. He has to make sure that you have a really good time, all the time. Now don’t get me wrong, I love it when...

The Conundrum of Memorization

Chances are that your schooling included a lot of memorization. You might be familiar with the cycle of cram-regurgitate-forget. In my 19 years of formal education I know I did my share. I don’t like to brag (which always indicates there’s a brag coming…) but when you combined my cram-regurgitate-forget methodology with my ability to see through the test question, it was championship level. The problem with this brag is that it doesn’t seem like anything to brag about. But come on, Kathy, you have those shiny diplomas to show for it! Sorry, alternative voice but I’d give away those diplomas, if such a thing were possible (and if I knew where they were…). All this memorization exhaustion might make you, as a parent, reluctant to require memorization from your kids. I know the feeling, you want all the joy of learning to trump the natural desire to avoid difficult things like memorization. If you just show enough reasons...

On track? Don't get me started...

I sat at a luncheon where my 16 yo daughter was going to speak to over 200 people; she was literally going to be displayed for her poise, confidence, insights, and eloquence. The interchange with our delightful neighbor inevitably turned to homeschooling and then began “the conversation.” Once again, I slowly explained: no I was not particularly patient, actually some of my kids are extraordinarily social, it’s quite legal in our state to educate without oversight by the school district, every day is different, I skip foreign language but my son ended up fluent in Russian, college is quite possible if that is what they choose, etcetera etcetera etcetera. I know this conversation intimately because, you see, I am a homeschool advocate and educating people on this choice is what I do. It was a relief when the program started and I could watch the magic of my daughter with a microphone while simultaneously putting to rest the well-mean...