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Businesses for Homeschooled Kids

A conversation with a friend’s daughter today got me thinking. She’s starting a business. She’ll be working in pet care, taking care of peoples’ pets while they’re on vacation. As she described it, she’ll be brushing them, petting them, and playing with them. And oh yes, feeding them. She’s six. The beauty of homeschooling your children is that they have time to explore their interests, you have time to introduce them to your passions, and you have time to see how these two things develop together. This means that wonderful possibilities can emerge, possibilities like a home business. Pet Care … Continue reading →

Are Homeschooled Children Sheltered?

This is a question I’m asked on a regular basis. My question in reply is, “What does it mean to be too sheltered?” If you’re asking if homeschooled children are more naive than their public-schooled peers, I would have to say, yes. I would also have to say, is that a bad thing? Children come into the world like blank slates. Their personalities are very much present, sometimes before they’re even born, but their knowledge base is pretty much empty. Then they start to soak up everything around them, good and bad, positive and negative. We try to fill their … Continue reading →

Top 10 Things Homeschooled Kids Do While Everyone Else is in School

10. Get to be asked “Is there no school today?” by neighbors, dad’s co-workers, and the cashier at the grocery store if you are seen outside of your home before 2PM. 9. Get to be questioned by relatives, neighbors, dad’s co-workers, and the cashier at the grocery store on why your mom choose to homeschool and wouldn’t you really like to go to an actual school and be with actual kids.(Now when’s the last time I asked a parent, “are you seriously sending your child to school next year?) 8. Get to wave goodbye to the school bus while in … Continue reading →

When my kids look back on their homeschool experience

I spent some time today reading articles from all grown up homeschoolers and what they thought of their upbringing. Some were grateful that they were homeschooled, but some would have preferred to go to public school, especially in the latter years. It got me thinking about how I hoped my kids would look back on their homeschool experience. I don’t expect them to see the experience as perfect. After all, I am not a perfect parent, and they are not perfect children. We have struggles, especially with my kids not being in those turbulent hormonal years. Still, my hope is … Continue reading →

My homeschooled son is socially awkward

I will start by saying if you know me and my son personally, don’t let him know I wrote this. He has a killer evil eye. Anyway, I just finished reading a slew of comments on the blog of someone who was asking questions about homeschooling. Most of the comments said something to the effect of homeschoolers are socially awkward, blah, blah, blah. The truth is that many homeschoolers are socially awkward, including my son. Many homeschoolers are also not socially awkward. My son was born … different. He has always been a serious person, and while mischievous as a … Continue reading →

Families.com Homeschooling Blog Week In Review

This has been a fun week for at the families.com homeschooling blog. I returned to families.com after a long absence and was welcomed back with open arms by Valorie Delp who will still guest blog for families.com as she has time. Meanwhile she is busy with the baby blog and food blog. I have wasted no time jumping back into my work as the homeschool blogger. Sunday 09 Mar 2008 Edventures Online by Valorie Delp This is one of the best kept secrets of the kid-friendly website world. It is a subscription service, but I have to say I think … Continue reading →

When your homeschooled child does not want to learn

I recently received a question from a homeschooling parent whose children were being resistant to being taught. Her older child was six years old and using California Virtual Academy (A school-sponsored homeschool). She was at grade level in three subjects and almost two grades ahead in Math. Her son was 4 years old and knew some times tables, and a bit about other subjects. Both kids were resisting being taught. My advice to her was to back off and give the kids some space. They were both likely overwhelmed and in no danger of falling behind. As homeschoolers, many of … Continue reading →

14 Year Old Plotting Columbine-Like Attack Was Homeschooled

Surely you’ve read the news reports and maybe it’s just me, but the idea that this kid was home schooled sticks out like a sore thumb. How did he get all those weapons? Sure enough, as stories of the news surfaced, reactions to the stories popped up: “See, I knew there was a reason I thought home schooling was stupid.” “This kid wouldn’t have had an opportunity to do the planning and get those weapons if he were in public school. Someone would catch something.” “Plain and simple, home schooling is a bad idea. Rather than teaching kids how to … Continue reading →

Giving Your Homeschooled Child the Reins

A major goal in our homeschooling experience is to make sure our children can function as independent adults when they leave home. To ensure they can handle adult tasks without calling mommy and daddy, we have them handle difficult tasks now. One major adult task that our kids handle are family vacations. We give the children a budget and talk about where we want to go and leave the rest to the children. Frankly I think they do a better job than we do. To plan a vacation, the children usually decide how much we have to spend on hotel … Continue reading →

Homeschooled Kids Will Still be Kids

My 10 year old daughter sang White and Nerdy to me today. I thought it was funny until I read the lyrics and got down to the second to last paragraph. It talks about getting personal with bubble wrap. (White and nerdy is a parody of the popular rap song “Ridin’ Dirty”. The parody is written and sang by Weird Al Yankovic,who by the way,hasn’t aged a day in 20 years, though his lyrics have kept up with the times.) My 12-year-old son explained a bit of IM shorthand to me today. Apparently, POS is an impolite term meaning, “piece … Continue reading →