School and Education aren’t the Same Thing Unschooling doesn’t mean no education; it just means no school. The unschoolers I know put in significant time and effort providing education by asking and answering questions, finding resources, connecting kids with mentors, traveling, supporting passions, etc. Despite all this great parenting, it can be hard to justify […]
A Library is a One-Stop Shop Public libraries are just the coolest idea ever! Thanks, Ben Franklin! There’s really no need to spend piles of money on curriculum for your homeschool. Let’s face it, curriculum is for teachers, so they can feel sure they’ve covered specific topics. It’s not for kids and doesn’t improve their […]
School Choices As a dyslexia tutor, parents often ask me what schools are best. It’s helpful to map out the choices. Depending on the community, choices might include public, private, parochial, specialty school for dyslexia, online school, free schools, home-school with various curriculums, unschooling, co-op or micro-school, or a combination. The first task: discuss what’s […]
Judge this book by its cover, not by its fonts Opening How Tony Learned to Read: Growing Up Dyslexic, by Tony and Judy Fishel, was a bit of a shock. I was confronted with some paragraphs in large print Comic Sans. It was stunning since I expected another sober case study by a dyslexia researcher. […]
Find out Why Public School is Attractive Home-educated children sometimes decide they want to try public school. This can cause a hard-working homeschooling parent to wonder why. In fact, that’s the first question to ask. The student has a reason, and that reason is the most important piece of the puzzle. It may take time […]
Writing Can Be Hard A recent conversation with author and writing coach Arnie Bernstein (@RealArnieB) convinced me I needed to write a piece on writing … with teens … with dyslexia. I’ve done a lot of that, and I’ve learned some things. Since many people with dyslexia also exhibit dysgraphia, writing can be a real […]
Answers or Assumptions? A dyslexia diagnosis sends parents looking for answers. Often, the people with the answers are also the people with a program to sell. A common assumption is that children need to do well in school in order to do well in life. Another assumption is that the only way to succeed in […]
A Parent Asks: How Can I Teach Science for My Child with Dyslexia? Homeschool science provides a great opportunity for parents and kids to explore together. In the present pandemic, teachers are doing heroic work, providing materials for parents to use with kids. However, these are by no means “required.” Grading and testing have been […]
Suddenly Homeschooling Over fifty million students attend public schools in the U.S. Over half of those are home due to the COVID19 virus school closures. Likely, this number will rise over the next few weeks. Parents homeschooling in a pandemic face a job they didn’t ask for and haven’t had time to prepare for. So […]
Homeschooling May Happen Unexpectedly Due to school closures, many parents find themselves suddenly homeschooling. When this happens without much warning, parents can feel a bit unsure about how to proceed. So, today I’m going to give some pointers for parents who find themselves wondering how they will manage. Although suddenly homeschooling seems daunting at first, […]