Methods Keeping family connected to school with Seesaw Buy-in from the people who care about Wanda is pretty important, since a potential weak point for homeschooling is the question of accountability. (But then, accountability and education in any setting is a big question, and the ways our educational system has tried to answer that question—focus on standardized
Methods Rubber ducking, and Tom the Dog I introduced Wanda to the old programming trick of “rubber duck debugging [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging].” In short, when you’re stuck on something that’s just not working, you try explaining it to a rubber duck. By talking it through step-by-step, you see it with
Methods Connection In these how-I-homeschool posts I’m going to steer clear of things that are really how-I-parent thoughts—too much preachin' to the choir. But this one’s such a biggie, and so critical to our homeschooling, that I’m including it even though it’s obvious. Connection is ev-er-y-thing.
Methods A grain of salt Homeschooling can seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. It can be simple, it can be involved, it can be whatever you need.
Methods Growth mindset Growth mindset is about shifting emphasis from achievement to effort. It’s good for everybody, but it’s particularly critical for “gifted” kids. Growth mindset and connection (which I’ll post about on another day) are the bedrock all of our homeschooling is built on. Lurking under the surface of
Methods Collaboration I try to model our school interactions on how I experience great working relationships, and focus on building collaborative skills. Example: say Wanda jumps up to go get our globe when a book we’re reading mentions a country she recognizes. In a traditional classroom setting, that’s a big
Curriculum Our curriculum By far, the number one question I get asked about homeschooling is what I use for curriculum. It’s not an easily answered question, so I’m writing it all up here. Given the current state of things, I thought some folks might find it relevant. This is what I
Methods Schedule planning with Tick Tick For planning our days, I use a to-do app called TickTick [https://ticktick.com/] . I hunted high and low for the just-right to-do app for our homeschool life, and this is it. It's calendar-based, and lets you set up recurring items. For instance, every day we do math,
Fun stuff Puzzlements There’s a teacher in Portland who sends out an email each Friday of “puzzlements”—a handful of cool links to get kid’s noggins a-churnin’ on the curiosities of the world. This was in this week’s email, an absurdly good Rube Goldberg machine. It’s a fun watch,
Book recommendations Book recommendations Up to your ears in kids? Want something to keep your kids independently engaged for a bit, OR something to do with them? Wanda has selected these non-fiction books to share with you. These are great for all ages—even adults, I swear. I've snapped pics of the
