Doing better - Homeschool Humuhumu

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Doing better

A collection of 18 posts

A bright yellow Animal Farm paperback book with cartoon drawings of farm animals, and a student workbook.

Animal Farm

George Orwell's dystopian classic, with a ten-year-old. Terrible idea, or great idea?

An illustration of a young Black woman holding a book, regarding images from historic sites.

Choosing a world history curriculum: Curiosity Chronicles

A look at the reasons we chose the Curiosity Chronicles curriculum, and how we're using it.

A young girl is working intently at her laptop, which is decorated with Node.js stickers.

Routine, flexibility, and hyperfocus

Understanding how an ADHD brain works best is baked right into how we structure our days—and how we sometimes toss that structure out the window.

The cover of The Knowledge Gap, on an orange background.

Book recommendations

The Knowledge Gap

A book review of The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler, about the lack of focus on building a foundation of general knowledge in modern education, despite cognitive science pointing to its importance.

Wanda's feet and lower legs are seen standing on a curved wooden board, with a nubbly black cushion top.

Balance board

Wanda's ADHD means she's gotta moooove! Adding a balance board to our homeschooling has been an effective accommodation.

A message in a bottle, washed up on a beach.

The point of language

I try to help Wanda keep some perspective about language arts. The point of it all is communication: sharing an idea with an audience. If the idea has gotten from the speaker/writer's brain to the intended audience's brain—intact, with as much nuance and understanding

Wampanoag chef Sherry Pocknett, sharing a meal with Padma Lakshmi

Media recommendations

Taste the Nation, Thanksgiving episode

Wanda and I just watched the Thanksgiving episode of the new "holiday edition" of Padma Lakshmi's show Taste the Nation [https://www.hulu.com/series/taste-the-nation-with-padma-lakshmi-53d48a66-d254-4e4f-89a1-277ec6c57368] (available on Hulu), titled "Truth and the Turkey Tale." Each episode of Taste the Nation spotlights a culture

Vintage drawing of a stack of books, with the words FREE CURRICULUM

Free homeschool curriculum

There are outstanding free educational materials available to homeschoolers, including many aligned to common core standards. I've collected a list.

If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving

If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving

A new, outstanding, Native-authored book about what really happened at Plymouth in 1621 is a welcome shift in teaching about Thanksgiving.

Man standing and smiling alongside a satellite view of New Zealand and the New Zealand flag.

Geography and cultures

Boosting our world learning with Geography Now!

We use the popular YouTube channel Geography Now! in our homeschooling as an introduction to the countries of the world.

Words: Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids. Illustration of a Native girl wearing dance regalia.

Book recommendations

Ancestor Approved

Wanda and I have been reading Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, an anthology of short stories written by Native and First Nations authors, and I highly recommend it. Graphic showing the characters in the stories, and where they're coming from. Each of the fictional stories is about

Stone bust of an Egyptian pharaoh

How I'm really handling history

I recently posted that for history, I’m just having Wanda watch Blackadder [https://homeschool.humuhumu.com/how-im-handling-history/]. That was of course facetious (though she does love Blackadder). Here’s how I’m actually handling history: History is hard. From the time they’re babies, kids start figuring out language,

"Enslaved people" vs "slaves"

"Enslaved people" vs "slaves"

A few years ago I learned this seemingly-small tweak in language, and now that I’ve been using it for a while, I can tell the difference it has made. People are not property. It having been acceptable or legal in the past does not mean it has ever been

Sex education

I’ve always been pretty here’s-the-facts about human bodies and reproduction, enough that one day when Wanda was six, we were driving somewhere, and she said “you know, thinking about how bodies with a penis also have sperm... and bodies with vulvas have eggs... and eggs and sperm are

Sacagawea

A quick post for Indigenous Peoples' Day: Recently, in the space of one week, Wanda and I encountered two instances (one in a kids' book, the other in a kids' movie) of Sacagawea being used as a joke about her name being hard to pronounce. We both

Flag of the United States of America on a flagpole, in front of a blue sky with white clouds.

The Pledge of Allegiance

My very bright moment of sun during an otherwise deeply demoralizing week: > "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." This week, Wanda was

Interior of a small booklet demonstrating how passive voice shapes how we talk and think about current events.

Passive voice

We happened to have a language arts lesson on passive vs. active voice yesterday. Wanda didn’t understand why it was a big deal when it was talking about a cabin being destroyed by a storm. When I switched up the lesson to use current events instead, she understood the

A sign reading "RACISM IS A PANDEMIC"

Talking to kids about race

Lots of folks are asking how to talk to their kids about race. One of the simplest and most effective tools I use is to ask, “who is missing here?” It’s a simple question that I ask her often, mainly when we’re reading or watching shows or movies.