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Are You Pandering to Your Child?

Sometimes when we talk about homeschooling, we talk about letting our children set their own schedule, letting them decide where they’d be most comfortable doing school, letting them stay in their pajamas to study if they want to, and you know what? If I were just wandering in here for the first time and didn’t know anything about homeschooling, I’d be pretty outraged. I can hear myself now: “You let your kids set the schedule? You let them stay in their pajamas? What, do they run your whole family? Why aren’t you being parents?” I know I’d say that because … Continue reading →

Letting Your Kids Set the Schedule

There are days when it’s hard to motivate your homeschooled students to do their work, but we know the value of what we’re doing, and we want to press forward and continue on the positive path we’ve chosen. One way I’ve found to help my kids get more in the groove is to let them choose their schedule. There are a number of different ways to do this. First, you can let them decide which subjects to do first, second, third, and so forth. For the first little while, they’ll probably choose to do all the fun things first, leaving … Continue reading →

Does Your Baby Snack All Day?

When my daughter was younger, my husband worked very long hours and since I was a stay at home mom, going to school part time and spending the majority of my time with her – I used to let her eat on demand. I did this when she was nursing, drinking bottles and finally when she was on solids. I received a lot of well-meaning advice from people that said I needed to set her on a rigid feeding schedule – but the one thing I knew about my daughter is that I could schedule our days pretty well – … Continue reading →

Learning through Osmosis

I have four children, ages 14, 12, 9, and 6. Of course they are the world’s most beautiful children, and they are smart, and talented, and funny. You might think I’m saying this because I’m their mom, but I’m serious – they really are. Okay, now that I’m done bragging, I’ll move on. We were playing a game the other day (Blurt, in case you’re interested) and I couldn’t help but notice how well my six-year-old was playing. We were using the rules from the junior version of the game, where you write down the spelling of the word as … Continue reading →

Children Who Don’t Fit the Mold

Children come in so many different packages, and discovering who they are is like opening up a wonderful present. You never know what you’re going to get when you have a baby—you hope they take after you, and they will, but they’ll also have their own way of looking at the world that is both fresh and frustrating as you try to guide them to making right choices. Sometimes a homeschool setting is just what these children need to find their true path. I thought about this as I continued my conversation with ToriAnn Perkey. She said, “My oldest daughter … Continue reading →

Honoring Our Children’s Individuality

I’d like you all to meet ToriAnn Perkey. She and her husband, Josh, are homeschoolers, and I’ve recently had several conversations with ToriAnn about her decision to homeschool and her philosophies concerning it. I’ll be sharing snippets of our conversation here on Families.com over the course of the next couple of weeks, and I’ll kick off by sharing highlights of our conversation about the uniqueness of children and how that led to our decisions to homeschool. I have four very bright children who keep me hopping morning, noon, and night. My decision to homeschool was largely based on my desire … Continue reading →

Don’t Quit, Freelance!

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Whether you want to quit work to be home with the kids or if you are looking forward to retirement, a great option instead of being unemployed is to freelance. By freelancing your current skills, you can make some money on the side and still have many of the same freedoms found when not working. Freelancers in almost every field are becoming more common. Working at home is easier than ever with new technology and many smaller organizations are eager to hire a temporary worker to take on an extra project. From the employee standpoint, freelancing gives you the ability … Continue reading →

Are You Too Time Conscious?

I am working on letting go a bit on the whole “time thing”—as someone who has been on a schedule for years—work, kids, volunteer projects, coaching sports teams, Girl Scout meetings, etc. I have stayed pretty connected to the clock. But, I’ve tucked my watches away in my jewelry box and I am trying to be more present without being chained to the clock. My work does not require that I punch in certain hours, so I now have some flexibility there. Additionally, my children are much more self-managing so I am no longer responsible for getting them where they … Continue reading →

“Mom, I Was Worried About You”

In most cases, my kids could pretty much set their watches by me. While my personality is definitely spontaneous and I am willing to take risks and try new things, family life has also made me a rather reliable and loyal sort. I make plans, leave notes, and have tried to set an example for my kids of basic respect of time and commitments. The downside to all this responsibility is that when I do shake things up a bit and change my schedule—my kids get a bit worried! It is an interesting flip of karma for me since my … Continue reading →

Toddler Discpline: The Real Issue

I wrote this past week about how I do not let my twins, who are quite verbally capable for their age, talk back to me. I received many Pms and comments and so I decided to continue with a series on toddler discipline. My premise is that an inability to reign in (for lack of a better term) a defiant toddler will generally end up in an inability to reign in a defiant teen. Our toddlers are learning all the time what they can and cannot get away with. Their understanding is not limited to their vocabularies and they learn … Continue reading →