I’ve only homeschooled Jack for a grade and a half and I’m already in desperate need of a sabbatical.  More

Last June Lillyth Quillan, one of the mothers on our homeschoolers list, came across an article in the New York Times reporting on the permanent closure of Jack London State Historic Park. She brought it to our attention and immediately started organizing a trip to the park and, equally importantly, a campaign to add our voice to those opposing the closure.  More

What people usually mean by “having no life” is having no time to do what they want. That’s one thing. More

This blog is part of Educating My Boy: Chronicles of a Free-Schooler

To wrap up sixth grade I did two things. First I reviewed what we had covered during the year. I went over the notes I had taken for and during our lessons. Jack certainly didn’t “remember” everything. I had to put things that he didn’t remember in context and then it would ring a bell – or not!  More

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This blog is part of Educating My Boy: Chronicles of a Free-Schooler

I’d say this year was not a successful one for Math. My husband Henry was in charge of teaching math and since because of our move and Henry’s long commutes we knew he would not have a lot of time our goal was a modest one. The plan was to use sixth grade to get Jack to become sure-footed and fast in using the multiplication table and to continue with basic arithmetic.  More

This blog is part of Educating My Boy: Chronicles of a Free-Schooler

Most of what I worked on with Jack this year was what I knew. I studied social science (developmental psychology as an undergraduate) and the humanities (literature in graduate school), and I have taught literature and writing in college. I can certainly do a passable job teaching literature, history, philosophy, the arts, intro to social sciences, and even some scientific methodology. But what about fields I know very little about...? More

This blog is part of Educating My Boy: Chronicles of a Free-Schooler

The “lessons” that I have been blogging about have been on readings from My Book House. But we’ve done other readings and other “lessons” as well. I will blog later about the reading list I’ve been going through with Jack.  More

This blog is part of Educating My Boy: Chronicles of a Free-Schooler

One of my pet peeves is the way children are introduced to poetry these days. It’s similar to a lot of music education going on. Children are asked to write poetry and make music as their first introduction to poetry and music. This is totally absurd. Children should first hear poetry and music, they should become sensitized to it. Making poetry and music is impossible if you don’t hear them first. More