flynn011

Today, I met one of my homeschooling heroes: Sally Clarkson Sally is the author of numerous books, some about homeschooling and some about mothering and child-rearing with spiritual vision. My favourite of all was Educating the Wholehearted Child, which she co-authored with her husband, Clay, but that's a really hard decision to make because I also love Seasons of a Mother's Heart, Mission of Motherhood, and their devotional guide called Our 24 Family Ways. Sally's Homeschooling Books, through the Years She has a new book coming out in January called Own Your Own Way, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. So, what does one do when one meets a hero? First, you meet them at the train station and make them walk a mile up a steep hill. It's in the bright sunshine on a crisp and glorious autumn day, so that's all right! Then, you place in her hands a steaming mug of Yorkshire Gold tea, served in a Blenheim Palace mug. Next, you chat about her children's endeavo...

I was recently interviewed on FB for a home-edder's blog about homeschooling, especially to encourage newbies. I thought it might be worth reproducing here. Who am I?  I was born in Texas, but now live near Oxfordshire. I have a PhD in literature, a PGCE in secondary education (English), and formerly taught in private girls' schools in Oxford. Now, I homeschool my four kids who range from 7 to 14, examine for Cambridge International at iGCSE and A-level, and run my own online tutorial business for homeschooled students throughout the world (called Dreaming Spires Home Learning: links below). Blown away in the Orkneys Why did I start homeschooling? My interest in homeschooling started when my eldest was about 3 1/2 -- she was a late-summer baby, and Oxfordshire changed its entry policy to start children in the YEAR they turned 5 instead of the TERM they turned 5, so she was due to start when she had just turned 4. Being American, where children start in the September AFTER they ...

I'm now a veteran of homeschooling of more than 12 years. I once taught in secondary schools in England, but decided I was in a ludicrous position of being paid to teach other's children, and paying others to teach my own -- so, I decided to cut out the middleman and start to teach my kids. Equally, I became more and more aware that eight hours of school a day merely results in four hours of homework at night -- at least, it did in the private girls' school where I was a teacher. What an empty life for a child of 11 -- just school, school, and then when they got home, more school. Again, I saw the value in cutting out the middle bit -- that is, the eight hours at school -- and just doing the homework bit, leaving my children an extra eight hours to bond together, to connect with me, to meet up with friends, and sometimes, to be quite alone and do nothing, if that's what they wanted. BUT, people new to homeschooling, or thinking about homeschooling, or criticizing homesc...

Whether you're a follower of the Charlotte Mason method or not, I think having a working timeline for your family is a very important addition to your history studies. Children can cope with our tendency to hop around historical studies -- even schools, notorious for having children dress up like Cleopatra one day and an Evacuee from World War II the next, are able to help their pupils form some kind of mental timeline in their heads. Yes, the Egyptian pyramids were built before Hadrian's Wall. But did you know the Egyptian pyramids were being built the same time that Stonehenge was being built? In the Charlotte Mason method, the usual suggestion is to keep a Book of the Centuries. This is nothing more than a loose-leaf notebook where you insert pages in chronological order, perhaps even jotting down a list of things that happened roughly in the same era. We have tried a "BOC" in the past, but it just wasn't visual enough for me -- just not enough   for my liking....

If you know anything about Charlotte Mason, the founder of a liberal arts method followed by millions of homeschoolers all over the world, you know that she famously described education as "an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." We here at "Skylark School" (the name of our home school, inspired by CM's skylark emblem) are firm in our adoption of this attitude to education, and I thought our experience today would underscore how this might look in practice. OK -- the date today is 22nd July. Most schools in the UK broke up for the summer last week. We, in fact, stopped sitting around the table every day at 10 am on the 14th of May. (Long story -- we went out to the US for a holiday, and since they broke up from term while we were there, we sort of declared the year was finished, too). It's summer! Start the party! However, we still maintain a life of education in other ways, since our home is a learning place in which we pursue living ideas. So, for today'...

Join us in our No-Screen-Time August Challenge of reading top-notch books instead of wasting time with TV and computer games. Pop over to Facebook and let us know what books you'll crack open on the 1st of August. (While you're there, "like"our page, please!) August will be our books-only month I was inspired to do this challenge by two things: first, despair at how much of our lives is wasted by living in the virtual world -- telly, computer, email, and even my children's legitimate desires to write books and design 3-D animations are eating up the hours that could be better spent on reading the hundreds of excellent books that currently lie forlornly on our shelves, gathering dust. Second, I was inspired by Charlotte Mason's writings, especially her 6th volume about a philosophy of education -- as I understood more and more that a child's innate desire for knowledge is ignited through living books, I realised that we couldn't spark a flame if we ke...

A bundle arrived in the post from New Zealand, the contents of which included a little teddy bear, a selection of souvenirs from the Far East, Hawaii, and New Zealand, and a letter which requested we show him a good time in our country before posting him back to his homeland of San Diego, California. Isaac arrives in Britain: Notice the red phone box in the background, and all the cars driving on "the wrong side". Isaac Bear is part of a project for an elementary school in the US, and we were very excited to take part in it. He joined us for everything: our homeschooling co-op with the Aberkats, swimming training, meals out, cinema trips -- it was a great time for him to be with us, as it was our Easter holidays. Aberkats Co-op We especially enjoyed bringing him along to the various Easter celebrations: Good Friday walk around Banbury, doing the stations of the cross, and an Easter sunrise service in the fields of the Cotswolds, not to mention an all-you-can-eat Thai buffet w...