The Story of a Boy

I started homeschooling when the oldest boy was eight, after three years of trying to fit him into a school system that wasn’t designed for the way he learns. He’s ferociously bright, in a way that was obvious from the time he was born. I’ve been dragged along by this child, forced to research everything [...]

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Missing Home

These last few months that the kids have all been in school have been eye-opening for me. Sometimes when I was homeschooling, I second guessed. I wondered whether the kids were really getting out of it what I thought they were. My gut said yes, but there was no real proof, no way to be [...]

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The Reality of The Classroom

Teachers have impossible jobs. My daughter is in a multi-age grades 1-2-3 classroom, with 20 or so other children. One of them has Down’s syndrome, another has a severe learning disability, and the entire clump of kids in grade one are very not-school-ready little boys who clearly would be much happier running around than sitting [...]

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Bulldozed

Jay and Tee went to school today. In one fell swoop, they have gone from seeing me every single day to only seeing me in the evenings of every second week. They will spend significantly more of their waking time in a classroom than they will with either parent, and that decision was made without [...]

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Beloved Tiger

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This Sucks

I’ve been neglecting the blog a little lately, and I’ve taken very few photos, which is very unlike me. I just can’t seem to pick up the camera to take snaps of the daily action these days, with what’s been going on. Tomorrow I have to appear in court to defend my right to homeschool [...]

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Schools Are a Recent Invention

Why do we send our kids to school? Because we went to school. And we were sent to school because our parents themselves had been to school. It’s what we’re familiar with, it’s what’s expected, it’s what kids do. Children have to go to school because if they don’t, they won’t learn what they need [...]

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Letting Kids Learn

I’ve learned a lot while homeschooling my children, particularly this last year, when youngest son’s distaste for workbooks and learning assignments became very clear. He’s a lot like his mother in that he hates being told what to do, and hates anyone trying to teach him anything. He hated his one year in public school [...]

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Why Would I Let Her Go to School?

Being the ardent supporter of homeschooling that I now am, I’ve confused a few people lately with my support of L in her decision to try grade 7 at public school. People around me know that I think L would be better served by being able to manage her own time and her own learning [...]

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Who Knows?

When school let out in June, Big Girl L was adamant that she wanted to homeschool for grades 7 and 8. She was tired of the other kids, tired of managing school on top of a demanding diving practice schedule, and eager to have time of her own again. She dragged a desk home from [...]

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The Encroaching Cloud of Doom

The kids are back from their two weeks at the lake. I’m back from my two weeks of camping, canoeing, and cottaging. Which all added up to one huge mountain of laundry. I spent the bulk of today scrabbling to put a dent in the neglected household chores, all the while fighting down the rising [...]

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Planned Obsolescence

We’re at a funny stage in our family homeschooling journey. I still have lots of ideas for projects, and still add items to the ongoing list of topics that I think the kids would enjoy learning about, but we almost never seem to get around to any of them because the kids are invariably busy [...]

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Radical Homeschooling

Dorian “Doc” Pascowitz, and his wife Juliette, together raised nine children, eight of whom were boys. That seems interesting enough. The fact that they raised them in a 24-foot camper, in willful poverty, makes their story fascinating. I watched Surfwise, the documentary about the nomadic Pascowitz family, with a mixture of curiosity, horror, and envy. [...]

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Raising a Boy

I don’t know what the book is about, but I love the title, love that my boy is engrossed in it, and love that he thinks it’s the best book ever. I love that he sews, cooks, cleans, and plays dolls with his sister. I love that he doesn’t yet relegate jobs into gender categories [...]

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Living in the Same World

One of the most common questions I’m asked about homeschooling is how I can tolerate being around my children all the time. It’s often couched in tones of admiration, like: I just don’t know how you do it and You must be some kind of saint, but it’s usually accompanied by a shake of the [...]

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Report Cards

It’s that time of year again. June reports. The only legal requirement for homeschoolers in this province is to submit a detailed report card on each child twice yearly. I actually don’t mind writing them because I’m always pleasantly surprised at how much the kids have learned, how many topics they’ve covered, and how many [...]

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Our World Needs Original Thinkers

It does not behoove us in this day and age to raise conformists. The hope of the future depends on original solutions and unrestrained intellect like it never has before, and there is no way to create true thinkers other than trusting children to be in charge of their own learning. ~ Amy Spang ( [...]

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Stealth Schoolwork

Right now it’s a rush to get ready for L’s grade 6 graduation ceremony. J and I are primping, but Tee is busy doing long division. I didn’t even notice, until R pointed it out. He’s doing long division? Music to a homeschooling mother’s ears! In the middle of the hustle and bustle, he had [...]

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Middle Child Syndrome

I spent a lovely couple of hours at the kitchen table this afternoon helping Tee make plasticine figures for his army. I think I should do it more often, because when he’s showing me how to do things, the power between us shifts. He was such a gentle, encouraging teacher that my heart squinched in [...]

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In a World of Their Own

I’m reading a book called Suburban Safari, which was written by a nature and travel writer. It’s an interesting look at the ecology of grassy backyards, the premise being that we don’t need to travel to exotic foreign locations to witness wildlife. I read a bit of it this morning because the kids were immersed [...]

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