Secular Curriculum Review: IEW’s Student Writing Intensive

IEW’s Student Writing Intensive is a practical, step-by-step writing curriculum that works great for kids who think they hate writing.

When my husband and I decided to homeschool our children, I thought writing would be a cinch to teach. I still think it would be, if I had a kid who was like me when I was a child — a child who was always writing. Growing up, I wanted to write poetry, stories, novels, you name it. And I never balked at a writing assignment.

Many people say that the secret to getting kids to write is to let them write whatever they want, and you can even take dictation for them, if you want. I think that’s good advice for a lot of kids, but my son is different. He doesn’t have any interest in writing anything. If I told him to write whatever he wanted, that would cause him anxiety and not make writing fun.

For a long time I wondered how I could teach him good writing skills without making him hate writing. This is something that I’ll be thinking about every year — how to move forward in a way that’s right for him. Fortunately, this year, I found something to get started with that’s working well. It’s the Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Student Writing Intensive Level A, which is for 3rd-5th graders. Levels B and C are available for higher grades. (Note that you can pair this with their Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, which is a 14-hour DVD Seminar for teachers and much more comprehensive. However, for the sake of this review, I’m writing about the Writing Intensive as a stand-alone curriculum.)

I’ll tell you right up front that I would not recommend this curriculum, if you have a child who enjoys writing. While all kids might benefit and learn something from it, I think it is especially made for kids who don’t have any idea what to write about or how to get started. I’m about halfway through the curriculum with my son right now.

It comes with a set of DVDs, and your child can watch the videos as if he’s sitting there in the classroom, listening to the teacher explain the concepts to a group of students. It begins by teaching students how to create a keyword outline for a paragraph that’s included in the lesson. Basically, he has to pick the three most important words in each sentence. Next, using this outline, he’ll write his own paragraph without looking at the original one. This has taken away the angst of “what am I supposed to write?” that was the first hurdle my son needed to get over.

Subsequent lessons are similar. All the lessons provide a pre-written text to create an outline with, but they add in “dress-ups” that the student needs to include in their paragraphs. Some of the dress-ups include a who/which clause, a strong verb, quality adjective, a because clause, etc. It’s slowly building a toolbox of writing mechanics that will help a child make her writing more varied and interesting. After doing these exercises with short, non-fiction paragraphs, it moves on to longer short stories and teaches students how to write a Story Sequence Chart. I can see where after doing these exercises with pre-written texts and re-writing them in his own words, my son may gain confidence in his writing ability and this will later free him up to begin some of his own, original writing. So far, I’ve been happy with it.

However, I have a few, small issues with this curriculum. First of all, some of the paragraphs he’s been using at the beginning of this curriculum should be proofread a little more closely. I have found more than one poorly written sentence. I always tell my son what is wrong with it, but for a parent who doesn’t have strong writing skills, I see this could be a problem. I feel a writing curriculum should offer excellent writing examples, though I also tell my son that this gives him a chance to write the paragraph better. 

I also have a problem with forcing the student to use one of each dress-up in their paragraph. While I see the benefit of repetition so that the student becomes more comfortable with the using these sentence structures, and I love how it reinforces grammar skills, forcing every dress-up does not always make the best writing, especially in a short paragraph. 

I have dealt with this issue by explaining to my son the purpose of these exercises. I told him that his writing will sound better if he varies the length and type of his sentences. He should try his best to use the dress-ups, but if they don’t serve the writing by making it sound better, he doesn’t have to do it. I go over his work with him, and I make suggestions, if I see a way to do it, but I don’t make him, for example, include a who/which clause into his writing, if I feel what he wrote without one is good writing.

This Student Writing Intensive offers some tips for kids that have been great for my son as well. The first one is that he’s only allowed to write with a pen. This takes away the urge to stop and erase and make the writing perfect the first time. The rough draft does not need to be perfect, and he’s learning proofreading marks to make corrections. The other tip that this curriculum offers is that a parent should be a walking dictionary for the child, telling him how to spell any word he doesn’t know. This takes a lot of angst out of writing that first draft too.

Overall, I like how this curriculum is helping my son put words on paper in a way that is not making him hate writing. It is a very formal program, which doesn’t work for every child, but if you have a child who has no interest in putting words on paper and/or likes having a “toolbox” to work with, it might be worth looking at.

If you use one of the Student Writing Intensives, IEW also offers continuation courses. I’m not sure whether that will be the right next step for my son, however. We’ll see when we get there.

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Channeling the Healing Power of Art in Your Homeschool

When life gets tough, an art day can be just what the doctor ordered, and when the world seems dark, a community art project can help us find a little light.

On a Saturday morning about a month after [the 2016] election, I brought my two boys to a local community center, where my younger son’s middle school art honor society was helping to paint murals. There were some kids from the middle school with their parents (and an older sibling, in our case), some volunteer artists, including my son’s art teacher, and kids and adults from the community center, which is part of a public housing complex. Together, we were going to paint in four murals that had been sketched out by the volunteer artists. Later, they’d be hung within the community center.

It was a busy, hectic morning. My older son and I quickly discovered that our best role was in the background, making sure paintbrushes were clean, changing out rinsing water, and helping anyone who needed it with getting paint. Many, many hands added color to the pictures. As the morning went on, I realized that for the first time in a month, I didn’t feel overwhelmed with dread. My hands were busy, my mind was occupied, and I was in a room full of people of all ages, equally busy creating colorful, community art. It was exactly where I needed to be.

In times of uncertainty — which is one of the subtlest words I can choose to describe the current climate in the United States — it’s almost instinct to gather together. Doing so in order to add beauty and inspiration to the world feels even better. And gathering as a community — including members of the community you may not know yet — seems vital. Art-making can be used as the common ground around which to gather.

The event my kids and I attended was coordinated by Creating Communities, a nonprofit organization in Annapolis, Maryland, that provides arts-based mentoring programs; all we did was show up. If a similar opportunity doesn’t exist in your community, try to create one. Obviously, if murals are your objective, it will help to have some experienced artists to sketch them out. But plenty of community-based art experiences can be had without needing superior artistic skills! As with any other event, figure out who and where, then tailor the what to the space.

Who: What parts of your community do you want to bring together? Do you envision a program open to everyone (and thus in a public space), or something more specific, as the mural painting was to the community center? Make sure your organizing is done with the relevant community members and not presented as a final plan. Partnering should occur early in the process, not at the end.

Where: This may be dictated by who is involved. Do you want a public event at a library or a park? Perhaps your co-op space is hosted by or shared with another group and you’d like to partner with them (and simultaneously get to know them better) to beautify your shared space. Or you can partner with a community or recreation center. Think creatively; where do you see a need for some art-making?

What: Community art-making doesn’t need to be elaborate and permanent, like murals. It can be one or the other or neither. A bunch of colored chalk in the hands of kids and adults can become something fun and simple or beautiful and complex; either way, it’s temporary. Prayer or Hope Flags are simple to make and become a powerful art installation when complete. Unless you’re planning a drop-in, public event, make sure to include representatives from the community you’re working with during the brainstorming process.

Remember to value the process overall. Community art-making is first and foremost about coming together, and that should be a relaxed, happy experience. Because our group was painting murals, some areas were touched up at the end by the volunteer adult artists, but during the group painting, nobody was criticized or bossed around for color choices or their ability to stay in the lines. If your project involves a set idea on what the product should look like, make sure to figure out a way for that to happen while also honoring everybody’s contribution to and enjoyment of the process.

Most importantly, spend some time talking to people you don’t know while you make art alongside them. Create something, together.

(Additonal/optional: this is adapted from a post that first appeared at amyhoodarts.com in May 2015)

How-To: Block-Printed “Hope” Flags

This is adapted from a post that first appeared at amyhoodarts.com in May 2015.

These are inspired by Tibetan Prayer Flags, which are hung in the elements until they disintegrate, releasing the prayer or hope. Participants can depict a hope for themselves, their family, or their community and add it to the display. Prayer flags were traditionally block printed, but this uses a printmaking method accessible to all ages and skill levels, scratch-foam printmaking.

Materials: 

• 7”x9” rectangles of repurposed cotton cloth

• Styrofoam trays

• pencils

• liquid acrylic craft paint

• foam brushes

• clothesline

Preparation: 

• Cut the rectangles from repurprosed cloth if possible (solid, light-color sheets are perfect).  Using a rotary cutter with a pinking blade or pinking shears makes a zig-zag edge, which cuts down on fraying a little. Press a fold at one end to create a 7”x7” square and stitch to make a casing. Using a chain-piecing method makes this go more quickly, but backstitch at the beginning and end of each casing so they don’t come undone.

• Using a craft knife, metal ruler, and cutting mat, slice the raised edges from the Styrofoam trays (which can be purchased in packages of 25-50 online) and then cut them into quarters. If you choose to repurpose the trays, stick with vegetable trays rather than ones used to package raw meat, for hygienic reasons.

Method

1. Think about what hope, dream, or wish you’d like to share, and how you can represent it with a simple image.

2. Using a pencil, draw the image onto the smooth side of a Styrofoam rectangle. You want to indent the Styrofoam, but not make holes in it. Your image will print in reverse, so keep that in mind while drawing. Words are probably too tricky at this point unless you are very good at mirror writing.

3. Paint a thin layer of acrylic paint onto your scratch-foam drawing. If it’s too gloppy, your image will get obscured when you print.

4. Take a look at a blank hope flag. The casing (the folded over and sewn bit) is at the top, and the fold is towards the back. Lay the front of the flag over your painted foam and firmly smooth it to transfer the paint. Don’t wiggle it around or your image will smudge. Just firmly press. Then peel it off. Optional: Have permanent markers on hand so people can add words to their picture.

5. Run the string through the casing and hang the flags to dry; this also creates your display as you go.

Optional: Have paper available so participants can make a print to take home and/or send them home with their printing plate.

Liquid acrylics don’t require heat-setting to be permanent on fabric, so your display makes itself as people create flags. Hang outside or in to beautify your space and remind the community of its shared hopes.

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How to Raise Self-Directed Learners

The homeschool dream is to have kids who learn because they want to — but what if your kids don’t seem to be finding their passion? Patience, persistence, and following your own joy is key.

Jen* was in love with project-based learning. She followed a gorgeously photographed blog by a homeschool mom whose elementary school son was always spending months researching and building Viking ships, or making obsessively detailed salt-dough maps of the continents, or filling up his birding journal by learning the names and songs of all the birds in the family’s community. This was what homeschooling was all about: A bright, creative kid following his interests wherever they led him, leaving a series of Instagram-perfect projects in his wake.

Jen showed her 10-year-old son Dylan pictures of Viking ship and the birding journal. “Cool,” Dylan said. But he wasn't inspired to launch into any projects of his own — or even to copy the projects other kids were doing. “The only thing he got excited about was playing video games,” said Jen. “He’d work on something if I pushed him for as long as I kept pushing, but as soon as I left it in his hands, he was done. And I kept looking at all these pictures of someone else’s apparently perfect kid and thinking what am I doing wrong?”

One of the great benefits of homeschooling is being able to give our kids the opportunity to follow where their passions lead them. But one of the things homeschoolers don’t really talk about is what happens when our kids’ passions don’t seem to be leading them anywhere in particular. How do you embrace interest-led learning when your child doesn’t seem interested in learning, well, anything? Or when your child is constantly interested in new things — but the minute she hits a roadblock, she’s happy to give up her passion for something easier? What makes some kids ready to leap into the pursuit of knowledge and others hang back on the sidelines?

First off, it’s important to know that life learners aren’t born — they’re made. “Most kids are born with plenty of curiosity, but learning how to take that curiosity and apply it to the process of learning is something that gets developed over time,” says Ian Leslie, author of the book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It. And while some kids are born with a natural stick-to-it-ness, most of us learn follow-through by doing it over and over, much the same way you develop muscles.

And the key to developing curiosity muscles seems to lie in having the freedom to explore what you want to explore. “When we first started homeschooling, I tried to get my daughter excited about bugs, about the Civil War, about rocks,” says Anne*, who’s been homeschooling her 11-year-old daughter for three years. “I’d bring home all this stuff from the library and look up all this stuff online, and she just wasn’t interested in any of it. I’d had this vision of us cheerfully studying all these things together as homeschoolers, and I felt like I was failing.”

Then Anne happened to overhear her then-9-year-old daughter playing in her room one afternoon, reciting poetry to one of her dolls. It turned out her daughter was passionate about writing poetry, and as soon as Anne stepped back and let her daughter’s interest lead the way, independent learning bloomed in the Carver house.

“It’s hard to take that step back when your kids haven’t expressed a clear interest in something, but sometimes that’s what they need to find their passion,” Anne says.

Some kids have a clear passion from birth: My friend’s daughter’s birding adventures started before kindergarten, and now that she’s in high school, she leads birding walks in the local parks and even teaches a birding class to little kids at her homeschool co-op. Other kids find passions everywhere — one year, they’re hooked on martial arts; the next, they’re performing in community theater; then, they shift gears and become amateur astronomers. Their interests may change over time, but their passionate pursuit of them is a constant. Other kids, though, may need a little more time and space to find their passions.

That’s not a sign that your child isn’t cut out to be an independent learner, it’s just a sign that he needs space to discover what he cares about. Give it to him by making your home a space that fosters curiosity. Make a point of filling your bookshelves with a mix of interesting fiction and non-fiction books, and grab titles just because they look interesting for your library basket. Ask questions — and be genuine about it; your child will know if you’re just pretending to wonder something or if you’re asking out of genuine curiosity. Encourage your child to help you think of ideas to consider what the answer might be, then figure out how to find out together. Try to relax rules wherever you can to encourage creative exploration — fascinatingly, a 2011 study published in the Journal of Creative Behavior found that kids who were considered to be in the most creative five-percent of their class lived in homes where there was an average of fewer than one rules — such as homework time or screen time limits — while their less creative peers had an average of six such rules they had to follow. The key isn’t to push your child in a particular direction but to give her a space where she has plenty of room to discover what her passion is.

Finding that passion really is the key to self- directed learning, says Deborah Stipek, Ph.D, dean of Stanford University’s School of Education and the author of Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning. Children are motivated to learn about what interests them, so tapping into your child’s unique fascinations is the key to sparking life-long learning, Stipek says.

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Once your children have found the ideas that spark for them, your job becomes creating a space where they can explore those ideas in meaningful ways. “That’s our job as parents: Children point the way, and we help them clear the path,” says Raymond Wlodkawski, Ph.D., author of Creating Highly Motivating Classrooms for All Students. As homeschoolers, we’re tempted to turn every passion into a unit study — but while that can be a fun way to explore a topic, the whole point of self-directed learning is for kids to figure out how they can pursue a topic on their own. Helping kids clear the path to exploring their passions requires a careful combination of independence and support.

Set the right example. If you want your children to develop into life learners, you’ve got to become a life learner yourself. For some of us, this revelation is delightful — finally, a legitimate excuse to learn to knit/study astronomy/obsess over Stuart monarchs. For others, it can feel a little intimidating, especially if we’ve grown up in a world that values filling-in-the-blanks over creative exploration. Either way, the key is to think about how you’d like kids to harness their creativity and start doing that in your own life. Start your own library list, and tell them about it — “I put some books about gardening on the hold list because I’m thinking it might be fun to start a container garden.” Let them know how you’re pursuing your own projects: “I’m about to watch this YouTube video about hand-lettering that seems really cool — want to watch it with me?” or “I’ve never done this kind of weaving before, and my fingers are having trouble adjusting — how do you think it’s looking?” You’re not just modeling the tools to translate curiosity into learning — you’re also showing your kids that you value the process of self-directed learning enough to do it yourself.

Gradually shift responsibility. Most of us aren’t born knowing how to start, work through, and complete a project — we learn to do it, and kids may need a lot of guidance getting started with independent learning. You don’t have to sit back and do nothing during the early stages of project- based learning. It’s okay to set simple tasks and help your child follow through on them — “Let’s check out this video on soap carving and see if there are any tips to help with getting started” or “I saw this book on bees at the library, so I grabbed it — let’s check and see if it explains how the hive is built.” As your child learns what tools to use, you can redirect responsibility back to him: “Hmmm, good question — where do you think we could find the answer?” Eventually, your proctor role will become more and more removed from your child’s investigations, but a little hand-holding as your child develops motivation and follow-through skills can be essential.

Introduce new skills as needed. Sometimes your child’s interests will zoom ahead of the rest of her learning. For instance, your astronomy-obsessed daughter may lack the math foundation to understand astronomical orbits the way she wants to, or your son’s tennis passion keeps getting derailed because he wants to hang up his racket every time he loses a match. If you recognize that your child needs to develop a particular attitude, skill, or concept in order to succeed in his project, that’s wonderful news. When your child has the opportunity to learn something because she genuinely needs to know it to pursue an interest, the actual learning process is surprisingly easy. (I swear that my own child became a reader so that she could identify different Pokemon moves.)

Prepare for bumpy patches. Like most adults, kids can very enthusiastic about a new idea or a new subject but lose steam fast when things don’t come together as easily as they’d expected. (This can be especially true for kids who are transitioning into homeschooling from a more traditional school, where they didn’t have the freedom to explore topics independently.) Their enthusiasm wanes in direct proportion to their frustration. Some kids naturally bounce back from roadblocks, ready to seek new solutions or try new things, but others can internalize the problems — “I’m too stupid to do this” — or project frustrations onto their subject — “math is just dumb.” Sometimes frustration is a signal that it’s time to move on, and there’s nothing to gain from forcing a kid to follow her passion when she’s clearly not inspired by it at the moment. Often, though, this frustration can be overcome, and stepping in to help problem-solve can help your child over the hump. (Just keep in mind that you’re a brainstorming collaborator, not a teacher telling your child what to do next — make suggestions, but follow her lead.) The benefits to getting past a roadblock can be huge. Successfully overcoming challenges and failures to finish a project not only makes kids proud of their work, it also increases the likelihood that they’ll work to follow through on future projects. “It’s true that you’re more likely to want to do something that you think you’re good at, but overcoming challenges on your own is actually more motivating than just being naturally good at something,” says Stipek.

Look for opportunities for independence. Intellectual independence is a major component for successful self-directed learning, but kids often need other kinds of independence, too. If you gradually increase your child’s responsibility — letting him grab groceries from another aisle in the supermarket, making him responsible for getting his own lunches, allowing him to set up a movie date with a group of friends — that independence will start to bloom in his learning adventures, too.

Don’t make the mistake of needing to show off your child’s learning. It’s tempting to want to share your children’s accomplishments, but resist the urge to ask them to display their knowledge just for the sake of displaying it. (“Tell Grandma about how the Vikings discovered North America, honey.”) Instead, ask your child a meaningful question or wait for him to bring up the subjects that interest him. “It’s much better to engage your child in an active inquiry than to ask him to spit out routine knowledge,” says Lucy Calkins, Ph.D., professor of curriculum and teaching at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

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And what about Jen and Dylan, the family we met at the beginning of this article? Well, Dylan, now 13, never fell in love with project-based homeschooling, but he did discover a passion for computer coding after his grandparents bought him a Kano kit. “He’s writing code to create digital flashcards for his spelling words and writing a script for a video game he wants to create,” says Jen. “His passion didn’t end up looking the way I thought it would, but he definitely found it. And I think I can take a little credit for trying to create an environment that made that possible for him.”

*last names removed for online publication

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Don’t Believe These Common Myths About Homeschooling High School

Everything you think you know about homeschooling high school may be wrong— and that’s a very good thing.

Once upon a time, homeschoolers were more likely to turn to traditional schools when high school rolled around—fewer than 17 percent of the 210,000 homeschooled kids reported by the U.S. Department of Education in 2001 were high school students. There are lots of reasons parents may choose not to homeschool their teens through high school, but don't let false fear be one of them. 

Myth:  High school is too difficult for the average parent to teach.
Fact: You don’t have to teach everything.

In many ways, homeschooling high school can be much simpler than the early years because your teen is capable of independent study. Just be honest with yourself: What are you capable and willing to teach, and what do you need to outsource? Maybe you love the thought of digging deeper into history, but the prospect of teaching trig makes you want to break out in a cold sweat.  Outsource subjects you don’t want to tackle—co-op classes, tutors, community college, online classes are all great options. As your student advances, your job will shift from teacher to educational coordinator—listening to him and guiding his class choices and extracurricular activities to prepare him for the college or whatever post-high school path he's interested in. It also means keeping track of classes for his transcript, staying on top of testing deadlines for standardized and achievement tests, and helping him start to hone in on the best people to ask for letters of recommendation. 

Myth:  Homeschoolers can’t take Advanced Placement (AP) tests.
Fact: Homeschoolers can take AP tests—whether they take official AP classes or not.

AP is a brand-name—like Kleenex or Band-Aid—which means the College Board gets to decide whether or not you can call your child’s course an AP class. (The College Board has a fairly straightforward process for getting your class syllabus approved on their website, and few homeschoolers run into problems getting their class approved.) You can build your own AP class using the materials and test examples on the College Board website and call the class “Honors” or “Advanced” on your transcript—and your child can take the AP test in that subject as long as you sign him up on time and pay the test fee. (Homeschoolers have to find a school administering the test willing to allow outside students, which may take some time. You’ll want to start calling well before the deadline.) If you’re nervous about teaching without an official syllabus, you can sign up for an online AP class or order an AP-approved curriculum. And remember: just because you take an AP class doesn’t mean you have to take the test.

Myth:  It’s hard for homeschoolers to get into college.
Fact: Homeschooled kids may actually be more likely to go to college than their traditionally schooled peers.

This myth may have been true 20 years ago, but not anymore. Researchers at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) found that 74 percent of homeschooled kids between age 18 and 24 had taken college classes, compared to just 46 percent of non-homeschoolers. In fact, many universities now include a section on their admission pages specifically addressing the admissions requirements for homeschooled students. In 1999, Stanford University accepted 27 percent of its homeschooled applicants—twice the rate for public and private school students admitted at the same time. Brown University representative Joyce Reed says homeschoolers are often a perfect fit at Brown because they know how to be self-directed learners, they are willing to take take risks, they are ready to tackle challenges, and they know how to persist when things get hard. 

Myth:  You need an accredited diploma to apply to college.
Fact: You need outside verification of ability to get into college.

Just a decade or so ago, many colleges didn’t know what to do with homeschoolers, and an accredited diploma helped normalize them. That’s not true anymore. (In fact, you may be interested to know that not all public high schools are accredited—only 77 percent of the high schools in Virginia, for example, have accreditation.) What you do want your child’s transcript to reflect is non-parent-provided proof of academic prowess. This can come in the form of graded co-op classes, dual enrollment courses at your local college, SAT or ACT scores, awards, etc. Most colleges are not going to consider whether your child’s high school transcript was accredited or not when deciding on admissions and financial aid.

Myth:  A portfolio is superior to a transcript.
Fact: The Common App makes transcripts a more versatile choice.

Portfolios used to be the recommended way for homeschoolers to show off their outside-the-box education, but since more and more schools rely on the transcript-style Common Application, portfolios have become a hindrance. (Obviously, portfolios are still important for students studying art or creative writing, where work samples are routinely requested as part of the application process.) In some ways, this format is even easier to manage than a portfolio—you can record high school-level classes your student took before 9th grade and college courses he took during high school in convenient little boxes. And don’t worry that your student won’t be able to show what makes him special: The application essay remains one of the best places to stand out as an individual. Some schools even include fun questions to elicit personal responses: The University of North Carolina, for instance, asks students what they hope to find over the rainbow.

Myth:  Homeschooled kids don’t test well.
Fact: On average, homeschoolers outperform their traditionally schooled peers on standardized tests.

All that emphasis on test prep in schools doesn’t seem to provide kids with a clear advantage come test time. Homeschooled students score 15 to 30 percentile points above the national average on standardized achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of education or the amount of money parents spend on homeschooling. That includes college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT. Research compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics shows that homeschoolers scored an average 1083—67 points above the national average of 1016—on the SAT in 1999 and an average 22.6 (compared to the national average of 21.0) on the ACT in 1997. This doesn’t mean these tests aren’t important—good scores can open academic doors—but it does mean you may not have to worry about them as much you’d thought.

Myth:  Homeschooled kids are not prepared for college.
Fact: Homeschooled kids adapt to college life better than their traditionally schooled peers.

This one always makes me laugh. Homeschooled kids probably have more hands-on life experience than their traditionally schooled counterparts. Homeschooled kids are usually more active in their communities, and because homeschooling is a family affair, they are more likely to have everyday life skills—the ones you need to make lunch for yourself or comparison shop for a tablet. Homeschooled teens also tend to be active participants in their own education, figuring out ways to manage their time and workload with their social lives long before they start college. Most importantly, they are able to interact and work with people of different ages, backgrounds, and cultures in a positive way, which is really the most important life skill of all. Perhaps that’s why homeschoolers are more likely to graduate from college (66.7 percent of homeschoolers graduate within four years of entering college, compared to 57.5 percent of public and private school students) and to graduate with a higher G.P.A. than their peers. Homeschoolers graduate with an average 3.46 G.P.A., compared to the average 3.16 senior G.P.A. for public and private school students, found St. Thomas University researcher Michael Cogan, who compared grades and graduation rates at doctoral universities between 2004 and 2009.

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Who should we ask to write college recommendations for our homeschooler?

We’ve homeschooled all the way through school, and now my high school junior is getting ready to apply to college next fall — but because we’ve done almost all of our learning at home, there’s no obvious person to ask to write a recommendation for him. Should I just write his counselor recommendation and his teacher recommendation and explain that we are homeschoolers?

Congratulations! You must be so proud and excited for your son.

What colleges are looking for from a recommendation letter is deeper understanding of a student’s personality, ambitions, academic interests, successes, and challenges. Recommendations, along with your student’s transcripts, test scores, and application essay, give colleges an idea of what kind of personal and academic contributions your student will make to their institution.

The truth is that you’re probably the most qualified person to talk about these things for your son — but you should do that in your counselor letter, and ask someone else to write your son’s teacher recommendation. There’s a reason for this: If you’re putting together your son’s transcript, writing his counselor letter, and writing his teacher recommendation, colleges will only get one view of what your son is like as a student. Ideally, you’d want to offer them a variety of perspectives so that they get a more holistic view.

An obvious way to find someone to write a recommendation for your son is to sign him up for an outside class, preferably one that ties into his interests and abilities. I write lots of these letters for students who take my classes, and it’s always a pleasure — in fact, I assume that one of the reasons students are taking AP Literature or philosophy with me is because they want experience with an outside teacher, including a possible recommendation. But that’s not the only option: You can also ask troop leaders, teachers from art, music, or drama lessons, employers from internships or part-time jobs, volunteer directors and managers, or other adults who have a mentor-type relationship with your son. All of these people can speak to your son’s willingness to work hard and ability to work with other people, his time management and organization skills, his resourcefulness and talents — all information colleges look for in a recommendation later.

What if you’re really the only person who can write your son’s recommendation? Unless your son has stellar test scores (and even then), I’d really encourage you to consider at least a semester with an outside teacher so that you can add independent verification of his grades and abilities to his application — for homeschoolers, this kind of verification can be a big deal. (And really, it’s not a bad idea to let your son test the waters learning from someone other than you before he heads off to college anyway.) If you’re determined to write his recommendation, stick to the facts and try to give as many concrete examples as possible — don’t say “Allen is hard-working and responsible,” give a specific example of a time when he demonstrated hard work and responsibility. The more concrete examples you can give, the more your insight your letter can offer into your son’s abilities and ambitions.

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Thinking Beyond the 5-Paragraph Essay

Essays can be a good evaluation tool in high school, but if you get stuck in a read-this-and-write-an-essay rut with your high school homeschooler, try one of these strategies with your high school homeschooler.

One challenge homeschoolers run into is how to evaluate your student’s learning — how can you help your student master the art of synthesizing information and expressing her own ideas about it? An essay is the classic approach — and it’s certainly a useful one — but essays can get boring if they’re your go-to for every single class. Here are some alternative evaluation projects to try.

Graphic Novel Adaptation

Transform the information into a graphic novel made of comic strip-style segments. This is ideal when you want to check understanding — do you understand what happened and the order it happened in? — so it can be handy for history or science evaluations. I also like using this method with poetry since thinking about how to illustrate a poem in a series of panels pushes you to think about it in a more nuanced way. This strategy works best when you’re dealing with a narrow, focused topic — trying to illustrate, say, Robinson Crusoe, would be a bigger project than you usually want.

Timeline

Another good option for corralling lots of factual information is the timeline, which can get more sophisticated as students move into higher learning. History timelines are common, but you can also use a timeline to track a novel where the timeline is significant (over years, like One Hundred Years of Solitude, or hours, like Mrs. Dalloway) or to explain a scientific process or concept.

Walking Tour

I love this idea for books where geography matters, like The Odyssey or Ulysses. This project encourages you to think about the significance of place in a very specific way, so it works best if you really push students to work to explain the significance of each place in their walk- ing tour. Instead of thinking about what happens in each place, think about why it matters and what the specifics of that place bring to the theme.

Metaphor Map

These are one of my favorite ways to explore complex ideas, like the categorical imperative, or complex texts, like modern poetry. Student have to really drill down to unify complicated information into one clear metaphor — essentially, coming up with their own creative explanation of a complicated text. The final illustrated metaphor, done well, is often more academically sophisticated than any essay could be.

Annotated Reading Notes

If your goal is to explore a wide range of texts, making comparisons and connections as you go, an annotated reading journal can accomplish that with more nuance and specificity than an essay. The key to doing this successfully is to model a set of annotations for students — if you’ve never done annotations, having a base to work from can be helpful. This is handy in classes like science and history where you’re covering lots of information you want to remember, but you don’t love the idea of giving lots of tests.

Podcast Series

Almost all the skills you need to write a great research essay — researching a topic, developing a thesis, and creating a structured argument around your thesis — come up when you’re creating a podcast. Aim for multiple episodes; ideally, you’ll ask for at least three so that students have a chance to do a proper introduction to the topic and a clear conclusion, but you can pick any number that seems appropriate.

Oral Defense

This one can be stressful for students the first time, but you may be surprised by how enthusiastic they become with a little experience. Basically, you treat your evaluation like a classic dissertation defense: Students prepare to face a panel of advisers (you can include friends, siblings, or just go it solo), and in a directed conversation explain their understanding of a topic, making connections and thinking on their feet to answer the questions posed them.

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How do I put together a high school transcript for an unschooled student?

Lisa asked: My always-unschooled 17-year-old has always been adamant that college isn’t on is to-do list — but now, just as he’s getting ready to start what’s technically his senior year this fall, he’s fallen in love with a fairly traditional college (with a reputation for being tough on homeschooled applicants) and made up his mind that’s what he wants to do next. I want to support him, but I have no idea how to pull together a high school transcript (which his dream college does require) when we’ve done very little formal schoolwork for high school. Can you help?

Obviously your life right now would be a little easier if you’d been keeping careful records for your son’s high school transcript since eighth grade, but honestly, it’s no big deal that you’re just starting to think about it at the end of junior year. (I’m not sure if it’s exactly comforting, but there’s a not-small percentage of homeschool parents who don’t start thinking about transcripts until their student’s senior year is ending — and many of them do just fine pulling them together even at that very last minute.) Putting together this transcript is totally doable.

Start with a simple transcript template like this one so that all you have to do is fill in the blanks. (Transcripts for very traditional colleges are one place where creativity doesn’t really pay off — you’ll usually fare best if your transcript looks like everybody else’s.) Now look at the college your son has his sights set on: What core academic classes does it require for incoming freshman? Often, the requirements look something like this: 4 units of English, 2 units of algebra, 1 unit of geometry, 1 unit of trigonometry, calculus, statistics, or other advanced math, 1 unit of biology, 1 unit of chemistry or physics, 1 unit of additional science, 1 unit of U.S. history, 1 unit of European history, world history, or world geography, 2 units of the same foreign language, and 1 unit of visual or performing arts.

Now a list like this might initially make you feel kind of panic-y because it seems like the most structured thing ever and your problem is that you’ve got almost no structured stuff to draw on, right? In fact, though, a list like this is a great thing for homeschoolers because it helps you focus in and figure out how all the learning your son has been doing might fit into a more traditional framework. Just because he hasn’t been checking off boxes for the past three years doesn’t mean he hasn’t been learning — which you know, of course, but which can be easy to forget in the face of a form full of those boxes. For instance, all that time he spent hatching tadpoles, creating microscope slides, growing carnivorous plants, dissecting owl pellets, and volunteering at the zoo? That might add up to Biology. Or the year he spent reading every Philip Dick book and comparing the books to movie interpretations of them? That’s comparative literature in action and can count as a semester of English. What about math? Frankly, if you haven’t done organized classes, the simplest thing to do may be to just to ask your son to take a few placement tests to see what math he’s mastered — then you can list the maths he’s mastered on his transcript. As you realize how much your son has actually accomplished over the past three years, his transcript will fill in pretty quickly — and you may be tempted to get whimsical with course names and descriptions, but if the school he’s aiming for really is super-traditional, it really is best to just keep it as simple as you can: Biology, rather than Exploring the Natural World, or Literature: Science Fiction instead of The Worlds of Philip Dick. Yes, coloring inside the lines is a little boring, but you’ve happily lived outside the lines (and can continue to do so). This is just a hoop that you’ll jump through more easily if you present your out-of-box experiences in a form that fits neatly into the admission committee’s boxes. (Plenty of colleges are receptive to homeschool resumes and appreciate the kinds of interest-driven classes that homeschoolers have the opportunity to take. You just want to know what the school you are applying to is looking for.)

After all this list-making, you may have some holes — but you’ve got his entire senior year to fill them. Don’t worry if you have multiple classes to fill in — maybe you need to cover geometry and trigonometry or take two English classes. This is pretty easy to manage with a little strategic planning. Sit down with your son, and come up with a game plan for what to do over the next year so that his transcript matches up with the requirements for his dream school. (If you need to, you can set your graduation date for the end of summer instead of spring to get a little more time. Remember, you’re the one who has the power to determine your academic year.)

You don’t mention whether you’ve been doing any outside classes, but if you haven’t, make sure to enroll in a couple this fall. They’ll make your transcript a little easier, yes, but they’ll also connect you to other teachers who can help describe your son’s achievements and college suitability when the time comes to start soliciting teacher recommendations for your application. You can handle the transcript thing on your own, but you will definitely benefit from having outside, unbiased teachers for your son’s teacher recommendations.

Good luck! It can feel intimidating to tackle this on your own, but just like every other part of homeschooling, taking it one step at a time and keeping your student top of mind will get you through.

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Homeschool Cooking Class: Georgian Plum Tklapi

Sometimes a random rabbit trail can take your homeschool somewhere delicious.

We live in Georgia, and sometimes when we go hunting for information about our state, we turn up information on the country Georgia instead. Discoveries like this always seem to lead up down interesting rabbit trails, and this connection has been no exception. While our Georgia was home to the Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole nations before British colonizers arrived in the 18th century, the Georgia on the other side of the world has played a different role in world history for centuries. Cochis, in Georgia, was the place the Argonauts headed to find the mythical Golden Fleece, the Roman Republic stretched there in the first century BCE, it was part of the Muslim Empire during the 7th century CE, and it was absorbed by and then liberated itself from the Soviet Union in the 20th century. That’s a lot of action!

The other Georgia also has a rich culinary history, and we’re not the kind of homeschoolers who can resist food-based learning. We tried the warm and gooey cheese-stuffed bread called khachapuri, meat-stuffed dumplings called khinkali, and this tklapi, a surprisingly delicious take on fruit roll-ups.

An easy way to dry fruit is to let is sit in the sunshine for two or three days, until its surface is smooth and not sticky. (If you’re drying it outside, bring it in overnight.) If you’d rather (or if the weather is uncooperative), you can also dry your tklapi in a 140° oven for about an hour. It’s done when its surface looks smooth and is no longer sticky to touch.

Plum Tklapi

You need:

• 7 lbs. plums

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400°.

2. Wash plums. Cut in half and remove pits. Arrange, cut-side-up on large, rimmed cookie sheets, and roast for 20 minutes, checking frequently. (You want your plums to be soft but not burned.) When plums are soft, remove from oven and let cool completely.

3. In a food processor fitted with a blade attachment, blend plums until smooth. Transfer to large bowl, and sweeten to taste — usually between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of sugar tastes right to us.

4. Lined rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper, and carefully pour the pureed plum mixture so that it is between 1/8- and 1/4-inch thick.

5. Let the fruit dry, using your preferred method. Slice into strips with a pizza cutter, and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

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Why Do We Do Science Experiments Someone Else Has Already Done?

There’s value in repeating experiments, but don’t forget to make time for your own science questions, too.

One of the great things about the rise of the Internet is that you can find any science experiment on YouTube.

Sometimes, I’ll queue up a few versions to show my kids before we tackle an experiment at home. This is handy: We can see how the experiment is supposed to look, so that if something goes wrong, it’s easier to troubleshoot. It also gives the kids an idea of what to expect, which helps them focus on paying attention during the different steps of the experiment. And it’s fun to feel like part of a community of people doing the same experiment — that’s one of the things I miss being a homeschooler instead of a science teacher these days.

But a few weeks ago, when I started another video for a jelly bone experiment we were doing with the Thanksgiving leftovers, my son — he’s 11 — said, “What’s the point?”

“What?” I said.

“We’re not really experimenting to see what happens,” he said. “We already know. It’s already on YouTube like a hundred times. What’s the point?”

I hesitated. There IS a point to repeating experiments — it’s called science. We repeat experiments because every experiment doesn’t work out perfectly, and different scientists may get different results. If we repeat an experiment, we can see whether the results are always true, or sometimes true, or only true once every leap year. 

Doing experiments someone else has already done also helps us build our science toolkit. That’s why those YouTube videos are so useful. When we can see how someone else does an experiment, we can develop a good lab technique — and, if things go wrong, seeing where other people went right can help us redo the experiment more successfully.

And, of course, there’s always a chance that repeating an experiment may teach us something new. We could discover something no one else did before. True, that’s unlikely when we’re doing the same strawberry DNA experiment every 5th grader in the country does in science class, but it’s always possible.

All of those are good reasons for repeating experiments, and I started to explain them to my son. Later, I did talk about them. But I didn’t answer him then because I realized that he was asking a scientist’s question.

“That’s true,” I said. “What’s a science question you think we should answer?”

And just like that, our science routine changed. We still do experiments where we know what happens, but I also make a point to do experiments based on our own real-life questions. We experimented to see what ants do when it rains and whether people are more likely to use a trash bin in the park if it has a white bag versus a black bag. Because repeating experiments is important but so it encouraging scientific curiosity.    

Misty Heaslet is a middle school science teacher turned homeschool mom. She lives in western North Carolina.

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You Are Doing a Lot of Things Right, Homeschool Moms. Remember That.

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. ”

— William James

It is easy to get lost in the endless to-do lists of homeschooling. We’re always juggling so many things, and all of them are important. With our eyes on the balls we need to pick up next, we miss the magic of the moment — the fact that we’re juggling all of this at all.

Have you ever watched a juggler in action? Our city has an annual juggling festival every February, and we always make time to go. The experienced jugglers, who can casually toss flames and glass and eggs, are totally impressive, but I’m always drawn to the new jugglers on the sidelines, the ones who are still glowing with the excitement of being able to keep three balls going at once. I watch them, and I see the carefulness of their movements, their delight when the balls come down and go up the way they are supposed to. And of course, sometimes I watch their balls fall, and I watch them pick them up and try again.

Homeschooling is a different kind of juggling, but it’s no less a combination of effort and grace, willingness to flex a little while maintaining a steady rhythm. It’s easy to drop those balls sometimes, too. (My Laundry ball has apparently rolled somewhere under the couch, and I may never meet it again.) But I think we spend so much time chasing balls and worrying about dropping balls that we don’t appreciate the most important thing: A lot of the time, we’re keeping all those balls in the air. We’re juggling — maybe not perfectly, maybe not always the way we’d like to, maybe not with fiery batons — but we’re juggling, and that’s a miracle of gravity and skill that we don’t give ourselves enough credit for.

It’s totally fine to push ourselves to do better, to do more, but we have to balance that internal drive with an equally powerful commitment to acknowledging all the things we do right — all the times when we aren’t actively dropping balls. It’s easy to fall into a mindset that focuses on what we’re getting wrong — after all, that’s what we tend to notice. It’s really obvious when a juggler misses a catch, and his balls go spilling across the floor. But pay attention to the times when you’re not missing the ball, too. Pay attention to the many, many moments when you’re juggling, and the balls are staying up. And give yourself the credit you deserve.

Food for Thought

• What are you really proud of in your homeschool life right now?

• What could you do to celebrate that achievement?

• How can you recognize yourself for the work that leads to that achievement?

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What If We Educated Our Kids for a Different Version of Success?

It’s not all about getting into college, even if getting into college is one of your homeschool goals.

“How will they ever learn to listen to their boss if they don’t have to listen to teachers?”

“They’ll never make it in the workforce, you have to do things you don’t like to do and deal with jerks.”

“In the real world you don’t get to do what you want.”

There are a lot of ways that many people seem convinced unschoolers will fail, and most of those reasons lead back to the belief that unschoolers just have it too good. They get to be too happy, too playful, too independent, too creative. If they’re used to living such full and interesting lives, how will they ever manage to knuckle down, obey their superiors, and resign themselves to a job that’s unfulfilling at best, and nearly intolerable at worst?

I think this attitude is an indictment of the current education system (as well as the typical workplace environment and maybe even the current economic system). Unknowingly, people who express concern that unschoolers won’t be able to function in such unpleasant situations are saying just what they think schools are good at: namely, teaching people to function in unpleasant situations.

I should hope that school free learners aren’t holding up, as their greatest vision of success, that their children become good at resigning themselves to unhappiness. I’d hope, instead, that life learners are raising children who will seek to build lives that make them happy.

Is it important to be able to deal with unpleasant people and situations at times? Of course. Sometimes you’re going to have to take a job you don’t like so that you can put food on the table. Sometimes you’ll have to deal with a bully to get something you need.

However, I believe that people are best prepared for challenges such as these when they have a core of self confidence and self respect instead of just being accustomed to putting up with discouraging situations on a daily basis. I’ve always thought unschooling was a good way to help individuals develop a strong sense of what is and isn’t right for them, and to make choices that support the type of life they want to be leading.

There are certain qualities in myself that I try to cultivate and encourage.

• A lifelong fascination and excitement about whatever catches my interest at any given time. In other words, a passion for learning that never ends.

• A strong ethic of self care and firm boundaries, skills and practices that help me to stay healthy and grounded in a world that can often feel overwhelming.

• Caring and empathy for other people, and a focus on educating myself about important issues, seeking with my words and actions to make the world at least a little bit better.

• Trust in my own instincts.

• Confidence and a feeling of self worth, no matter how much I’m struggling at any given time.

• Striving always to keep my passions, dreams, and plans at the forefront, working to build my life based on what I truly want and think is right for me.

I share this because, when I think about my own future children and what I’d want for them, I don’t think about college acceptance or an ability to conform to the values and pressures of the dominant culture. Instead, I think about what I want for myself, and I hope that my someday children will have those qualities in even greater abundance than I’ve managed so far for myself.

Figuring out how to live a life in line with your ideals and values is hard no matter what your educational background. But I like to think that unschooling helps. It’s certainly helped me to trust myself because as I child I was never taught that I was untrustworthy. It’s taught me to value the perfection of flow in learning because having experienced it, I know I need to always seek that out in my adult life as well. It’s taught me to question the supposed “common sense” of the dominant culture, and to develop my own thoughts on various issues for myself. And it’s taught me to always follow my passions because doing so will almost always lead me in the direction of the greatest happiness in my life and the greatest contribution to the world.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

— Howard Thurman

Let’s cultivate in our life learning journey a version of success based on what makes you come alive.

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How do I grade my homeschool student’s written work?

The best way to grade an essay is to know what the purpose of the assignment is — and to be sure your student is on the same page.

Now that my daughter is in middle school, I want to start giving her real grades on her essays and papers—but I am really not sure how to decide whether an essay should get an A, B, or C. Do you have any tips?

You can make yourself crazy trying to grade essays because there are so many possible components to consider. So make it easy on yourself, and determine the purpose of your essay upfront: Is your essay an analysis of a story? Then your grading should focus on how successfully your student analyzes the story. Is your paper a traditional research paper? Then your grade should focus on how well-researched and organized the paper actually is. This does mean that you’ll be mentally shifting gears with each essay assignment, but that’s really the key to thoughtful essay grading. Beyond that, here are some practical tips for grading essays that will help keep your grading consistent and helpful for your student:

Know what makes a good essay.

It seems dorky to write a rubric for a single student, but you really should. Write down what differentiates an A paper (all sentences are well constructed and vary in length and structure) from a B paper (most sentences are well constructed and vary in length and structure) from a C paper (most sentences are well constructed but have similar structure and length). If you’re new to rubric-writing (and most homeschoolers are), this example from readwritethink.org is a good starting point that you can tweak as you go.

Let your student know your method.

Say “For this book report, I’m going to be looking mostly at how well you explain the strengths and weaknesses of the book. You can use the plot to help support your argument, but you don’t need to summarize the plot for me.” If you make a rubric for grading essays, you should definitely share it with your student. 

Don’t play copyeditor.

Your job isn’t to correct every misspelling and grammatical gaffe in your student’s paper — this isn’t a manuscript, and you aren’t an editor. Pick two or three grammatical concepts to focus on per paper (using quotes correctly, for example, or including citations appropriately), and limit your red-penning to these specific concepts. Look for patterns rather than specific instances—it’s more helpful to say, “I notice that you’re having trouble trying to squeeze too much information into one sentence, and you’re ending up with a lot of run-ons and hard-to-read sentences” than to mark up every awkward sentence. If your student seems to be backsliding on a grammatical or structural issue that should already be old hat, return his paper and ask him to do the grammatical revisions before returning the paper to you. (“It looks like you didn’t break this essay up into paragraphs — why don’t you fix that before I grade it?”)

Look for things the writer is doing well.

I think you should always try to point out two things your writer is doing successfully in a paper, even if they feel like small or unexceptional things to you. It’s not that you want to cast faint praise or give a participation ribbon to your kid, but young writers need to know what they are getting right as well as where they can improve.

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Secular Homeschool Curriculum Review: Philosophy for Kids

Philosophy for Kids: 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder About Everything!

By White, David

Buy on Amazon

Philosophy for Kids: 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder about Everything!

Recommended for: Middle School

Four hundred years ago, French Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne asked society a thoughtful question: “Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it?”

Tuned-in parents and educators would agree that children are natural philosophers. As a group, young people are highly inquisitive, imaginative, wide-open thinkers. With enthusiasm, they constantly seek opportunities to develop a sense of self and an understanding of the world they inhabit. On many levels, children wrestle, just as philosophers do, with questions of morality, social justice, and human understanding. Oftentimes, they attempt this without a proper context in which to frame their questions.

Even an elementary understanding of philosophy provides the tools our kids need to question and evaluate ideas constructively. Philosophy teaches how to conduct organized and civilized debate. It cultivates appreciation and under- standing of diverse thoughts, and opinions and grows its students into responsible, empathetic, articulate world citizens. Philosophy, it seems, aims to achieve the very goals so many of us aspire to reach each day in our own homeschools.

Philosophy, and the thought-provoking discussions this subject inspires, can lead to deeply satisfying exchanges between you and your child. Fortunately for us, Prufrock Press has published an excellent resource to help families get started — David A. White’s Philosophy for Kids: 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder About Everything.

White has been teaching philosophy in colleges and universities since 1967, but clearly he understands the value of providing philosophical understanding to much younger students as well. Written for children ages 10 and older, Philosophy for Kids might also appeal to younger, highly motivated learners who enjoy engaging with thinking of this kind.

Philosophy for Kids is divided into four sections: values, knowledge, reality, and critical thinking. Each of these sections receives a brief overview from the author and is linked to a specific branch of philosophy — ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and logic. Only one page in length, these introductions set the stage for a series of compelling problems for readers to ponder.

Each of the four sections is accompanied by a series of 10 units that open with questions such as “How do you know who your friends are?,” “Do you perceive things as they are or only as they seem to be?,” “If many people believe that something is true, is it true?,” and “Do you have free will?”. The first 29 questions in these units are connected to the work of a great philosopher. Kids will have fun deciding if they agree with such thinkers as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates and will also love defending their own divergent beliefs.

To help learners consider all angles of each issue, White provides various exercises that include true or false and multiple choice questions as well as the chance to rank ideas according to the reader’s individual ideology. Although this traditional approach might sound dry to some homeschoolers, in this context the approach works well. The questions are entertaining, fun to wrestle with, and relevant.

Each short lesson closes with a section called “For Further Thought,” providing opportunities for students to delve deeper with more questions and activities. In one unit students are asked, “Can another person understand your feelings?” After completing several exercises addressing this question, students proceed to the “For Further Thought” section to consider “Is language the best way to express our emotions? Would the arts of music or painting represent emotions more vividly and truly? Select a work of music or art and analyze whether or not this work expresses emotions better than language.”

Additional ideas of great writers, mathematicians, orators, poets, and playwrights pepper the pages of this book and are wonderful aids for launching further thoughtful conversations.

The final 60 pages or so of Philosophy for Kids provide teaching tips, a glossary of terms, and helpful suggestions for further reading. Here White’s writing is as straightforward and pleasant to read as the rest of the book. With minimal effort, parents are able to glean excellent suggestions to enhance and facilitate meaningful discussion.

Whether your family chooses to work through this book chronologically or prefers instead to skip around to those questions of greatest interest, it makes no difference. A particularly fun aspect of a curriculum such as this is that it does not have to be a presented using a traditional format. If you like, simply use the material to foster deeper dinner time conversation or to pass time on a long car ride. However you choose to work with the book, your child will likely develop a new approach to critical thinking and have a terrific time in the process!

Philosophy for Kids could easily be adapted for use with one student or with many. I can imagine using this in a homeschool co-op with great results. Although a student could work through this book alone, I suspect an interactive approach would be preferable and loads more fun.

Very little preparation is required to use this book effectively in a homeschool. Parents may wish to read ahead to obtain a better command of the information. However, opening the book and reading it for the first time aloud with your child is absolutely fine. The book is a solid resource that is thorough enough to stand on its own. Especially enthusiastic students might enjoy supplementing with parts of the original texts cited throughout the book or with biographical information about featured philosophers. On average, expect a typical discussion to last 30 minutes or so.

In the introduction of his book, White writes of his desire to “foster a sense of wonder and to aim it in many directions.” It is my belief that the author achieves exactly what he set out to do. Taking subject matter that many might initially find intimidating, White presents philosophy as highly relevant, playful, challenging and fun.

Bottom line: Philosophy for Kids is a thought-provoking resource that will appeal to curious learners who enjoy puzzling over life’s mysteries. As a parent, you are likely to gain new insight into the wonderful ways that your child views the world as you delve into fascinating new subject matter together. 

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“Sure—Why Not?”: The Power of Trying Something New

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that when curiosity strikes, you can always give it a try, teaching your kids that they have the skills to try everything.

The holiday break for our family included two trips to the build-it-yourself store (lumber yard), at least four (I lost count) trips to the hardware store, three trips to the recycling center/dump, and one big trip to Goodwill. In short, we built a wall for Christmas (and got a little spring cleaning in as a bonus). All hands were on deck for a remodeling job that turned our small, three-bedroom home into a still small, but four-bedroom home.

But why — some of our friends and family have questioned — when you have one kid with one foot out the door (perhaps) and two more closer to on-their-own than just-beginning would you bother to add a fourth bedroom now? I have no better answer than that it simply seemed to be the right time. All five members of the family were in agreement, so we spent our holiday building a wall.

In fact, our family has talked about creating more space in this old house for years. We’ve spent a considerable amount of time talking about moving to a bigger — or at least a different — house altogether. So many options have been considered. The back porch could have been converted into a small bedroom, or perhaps we could have closed in the side “deck” (which isn’t really a deck at all, but does have a small roof overhang). We’d even talked of a tiny bedroom in the spirit of the tiny house movement, parked in the yard and within easy commute.

But in mid-December, when I mused — “You know, we could move the kitchen table into the (imagine this) kitchen and move the living room furniture into the room where the kitchen table now resides and then put a wall right down the center of the living room with a door and, voila, we’ve got a fourth bedroom!” — that’s when the plan came together.

Anything is possible when the whole crew is on board.

Perhaps I should back up a bit and admit that we aren’t typically a family for whom construction, in the literal sense, is a standard pastime. We read books, we love movies, we take walks, and we sometimes hike. We’ve been known to go camping, though travel most often requires a motel room and a hot shower at the end of the day. It would not be unusual to drop in on us at some random point in time and find someone knitting or weaving or sewing or playing a video game or writing a story... Our kitchen is often in use as we are bakers and love cooking from scratch so much that we often chose eating in over going out when we want to treat ourselves to a special meal.

But actually changing the configuration of our house? Not so much. Our tool selection is limited and our skill set, admittedly, on the shy side. In these situations, I close my eyes and do my best to channel my father (the house I grew up in was in a continual state of remodeling) and perhaps consult a how-to book or a wiki-how site.

“Can we build a wall?” the members of my family asked. “Would it remain standing? Could we put an actual door in it?”

“Sure. Why not?” I said. Those are three very powerful words, I have learned.

When the wall was complete, middle kid, recipient of the bedroom that was the product of the construction, said, “Wow. Do you know how empowered I feel? If I can build a wall; I can do anything.”

When I look back on my years as a parent, these are the words that have triggered some of the most worthwhile, most memorable, and yes, most educational events of our lives. Can we stay up all night? Can I dig a big hole in the yard? Can we sleep outside? Can I cut my brother’s hair? Can I make up my own recipe? Can we make our own video game?

Sure. Why not?

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How to Host a Homeschool Art Activity

Group art projects can be a lot of homeschool fun with a little advance planning and the right supplies on hand. Amy helps you think big for a one-time art party or an ongoing homeschool activity.

At some point in your homeschooling journey, you may want to lead an art activity for a group, whether as a one-off event or as part of an ongoing secular homeschool co-op or class. Facilitating art-making for a group of kids is one of the most rewarding ways I can spend a couple of hours. Depending on the activity, it can definitely be tiring as well, but as always, some planning ahead makes everything easier.

What does your space look like?

My first concern is always whether I have a water source. Obviously it’s wonderful to have a sink right in the room, but it’s not a necessity. When I facilitated an art class at our homeschool co-op, I filled gallon jugs with water and used a dishpan to catch the wastewater (from rinsing paint- brushes, for example). It’s an effective system. A spray bottle and paper towels are great for cleaning surfaces.

Other room issues to consider include tables, desks, and chairs. Will your participants be able to sit so that materials such as paint sets can be shared? If tables aren’t easily cleanable or need protection, clear vinyl shower curtains are inexpensive and do the job well; I use duct tape to hold them down. I’ve also used individual drawing boards cut from masonite.

Unless you’re allowed to store materials where you’re teaching, you’re going to need to transport items back and forth. I use a big plastic tote with a cover and make a list of everything the activity requires so I can check it off as I pack it. Items I use every class (table covers, water pitchers, etc) stay in the bin between classes, while activity-specific items get cleaned and put away once I return home. It’s always a good idea to bring a full box of wet wipes, too.

What age group are you working with?

The general rule that applies across all groups also applies here: the younger the children, the smaller the group should be. With preschoolers, four to six kids is a good maximum group size, and that’s with another adult in the room. A benefit of mixed-age homeschool groups, however, is that older kids can assist younger ones. Think about the ages and abilities of the kids you’re working with and set a maximum size that seems reasonable for you.

What do you plan to do?

My best advice here is to not think small. Printmaking is one of my favorite art techniques to share with all ages, because it’s magical. I’ve taught kids how to use and care for brayers, transported large Plexiglas sheets and gelatin printmaking plates, and supervised (with lots of parent help) as kids worked at carving their own stamps. Think about your group size and how you can simplify a process yet still allow exploration of new techniques. One way I’ve done this is by limiting paint or ink colors and having kids visit the ink stations. Keeping ink and brayers in a central place made it easier to supervise. It also made clean-up easier.

Don’t think small when it comes to ages and abilities, either. I’ve run great printmaking activities with preschoolers, too. Kids are capable (although I suspect you already know that!).

Consider, too, whether you can work on projects during more than one meeting. If you’re allowed to store works-in-progress on site, you can take advantage of this to spend more time on a particular process or technique.

Whatever you plan to do, provide the best quality materials that your budget allows. Art-making with inadequate supplies leads to frustration. If you’re painting, for example, use heavy enough paper so that it doesn’t curl.

Set some ground rules.

I like to begin by letting kids know that I believe all artists, no matter the age, deserve high-quality art materials, and that I trust them to treat the materials with respect and take care of them as demonstrated. This almost always results in art materials being treated well. I let them know that first and foremost, art-making should be fun. And I ask that we not comment on another person’s artwork unless invited to do so, and then to be careful that our words are not critical. I also build clean-up time into the class time, more so during an ongoing class than for a one-time activity. If kids are enrolled in a class, part of what I hope they learn is how to care for the materials, and that includes making sure they’re properly cleaned.

The big payoff

The alchemy that occurs when making art in a group is pretty special. It becomes a very social activity; we see one another’s work in progress, we chat, we make observations and inspire one another. If the group leader makes it clear that the group is a safe place in which to make art (that is, no criticism is allowed), ideas start to zing around freely, infecting everyone, enriching the process, and leading to exciting and at times unexpected outcomes. I make sure artists under my scope know they are in charge of their own work, and ultimately there is no “right” or “wrong.” This freedom can lead to amazing discoveries, and creating an environment in which to nurture this is well worth all the time spent planning ahead.

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What homeschool subjects are good when you have kids across a wide age range?

My kids cover a wide age range. Are there any homeschool subjects that are good for tots through teens to do together?

When you’re teaching across an age gap, the biggest challenge is finding something that’s engaging enough for older students while still being accessible to your younger ones. Fine arts classes, like art, music, and poetry, often fit the bill. A program like Meet the Masters or a book like Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters gives kids an opportunity to study art history by making their own artistic creations, which can be as appealing to an artistic teen as to a scissors-happy kindergartner. (If you want to skip the history and go straight to the art-making, Mona Brookes’ Drawing With Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too, is a fantastic resource for this.)

For music appreciation, it’s hard to beat the Classical Kids series (including Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Mr. Bach Comes to Call, and Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage), which introduces composers through music and words. These programs are just as likely to pop up on college radio stations as in preschool classrooms, so they really do have multi-age appeal.

With its dramatic costumes and exciting storylines, opera has surprising kid appeal, and the free Opera for Everyone podcast introduces the genre well.

And don’t underestimate the power of poetry as a multi-age study! A stack of poetry books from the library can be a springboard for great learning conversations.

Bottom line: When it comes to teaching multiple ages, hands-on topics that can go deep or stay light are your best bet. You can’t really go far wrong with fine arts.

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Do you have any advice for homeschoolers writing their college essays?

My daughter is just starting to think about applying to college (yikes!), and I am feeling nervous about the application essay. Do you have any advice for homeschoolers writing their college essays?

People often ask me for advice on writing application essays, but there’s really no secret to a great college application essay. The only trick is getting away from the notion that your essay has to be A Very Special Piece of Writing and giving yourself permission to just tell a story about who you are.

Think of it this way: Admission offices go through thousands of application packets, many of which contain earnest essays about mission trips to Haiti, learning about leadership on the sports field, or similarly repetitive topics. Don’t waste your big chance to break out of the dry application box by writing about what every other hopeful applicant does. And don’t repeat the same information over and over either: If you’re sending a recommendation letter from your creative writing teacher and your application includes a long list of writing awards and publications, don’t also use your essay to focus on your love of writing — share something else. Skip the stories about life-changing trips abroad, too — you’ve had plenty of epiphanies in your own backyard, and those are often the most compelling ones to focus on. Seize the opportunity to talk about something more personal instead, like how you made the decision to become a vegetarian, why you decided not to get your driver’s license, or how you spent an entire year studying Minecraft as an academic subject.

Bottom line: Aim for an essay that makes your daughter’s friends say “That’s totally you,” and she’s on the right track.

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Do homeschoolers need an accredited diploma to get into college?

I keep hearing about accredited diplomas and programs now that my son is in middle school. Do homeschoolers need an accredited diploma to get into college?

There’s a lot of confusion around accreditation when it comes to homeschooling. First of all, curriculum can’t be accredited; only institutions can be accredited. So unless you’re enrolled in an accredited institution — which makes you a student at that institution rather than a homeschooler — you won’t receive an accredited diploma.

And that’s fine! No U.S. state requires any homeschool curriculum or diploma to be accredited. Some homeschoolers look into accreditation because they plan to return to traditional school at some point and want the work they did as homeschoolers to “count.” In most states, it will count whether it’s accredited or not until your student starts 9th grade; from 9th grade on, homeschool credits probably won’t count as required credits toward graduation whether they are accredited or not. U.S. public high schools also don’t always accept credits from private schools or public schools in other states, so if you know your plans include a return to public high school after 9th grade, accreditation may not be the solution you need. (In that case, it’s smart to talk to a counselor at the actual school you want to attend; they can give you the best advice about transferring as a homeschooler.)

As far as life after high school, it’s worth asking yourself whether anyone has ever checked that your high school diploma is accredited. (Don’t assume it is if you graduated from a public high school! Not all public schools in the United States are actually accredited.) My hybrid high school is not accredited, and our graduates go on to great colleges every year. Colleges are waking up to the fact that homeschoolers make great additions to the university scene, and in recent years — especially since COVID threw learning off the rails — they’ve become much more flexible about requirements for homeschooled applicants. You may have a few hoops to jump through with some colleges or after-high school programs if you bypass accreditation (here in Georgia, for example, you’ve got to hit a certain SAT score to qualify for the state’s merit-based HOPE scholarship if you graduate as a homeschooler), but if you’ve made it through SAT tests, dual enrollment, AP classes, and all the rest of it with your homeschooler, you’re probably pretty good at jumping though a few hoops. You don’t need an accredited diploma, and most homeschoolers won’t have one.

So why consider accreditation? If your son has his heart set on one of the very few universities or programs that actually requires an accredited diploma, it’s obviously worth setting the wheels in motion to obtain one. If you’re hoping to get certain state-funded college financial aid, check the requirements — an accredited diploma might be a smart choice for students who struggle with tests if it overrides a minimum-score requirement. I’ve had students get their diplomas at our hybrid homeschool accredited through Bridgeway Academy and Clonlara School. (It feels a little like paying to get your diploma rubber-stamped, but sometimes a rubber stamp gives you extra peace of mind.)

Bottom line: The transcript is what counts. Your child’s classes, test scores, and other academic and extracurricular achievements are what colleges will really be looking at.

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What’s the easiest way to homeschool a subject my child hates?

Option A: Skip It

Sometimes, your child’s brain just isn’t ready to process certain kinds of information — and no amount of solving for x is going to make algebra click for her until she’s ready. Instead of powering through, consider pulling back and taking a three-month break from your problem subject.

Option B: Outsource it

A bad subject can make homeschooling feel like a chore for you and your child. If you’re both struggling, let someone else do the heavy lifting. You can find a teacher to tackle almost every subject — check with local classes and co-ops or on Outschool to find people excited to tackle the class that’s sucking the joy out of your homeschool. Homeschooling doesn’t mean you have to take the reins for every single subject.

Option C: Streamline it

Some curricula script every lesson and schedule everything from practice problems to review sessions. If you’re really struggling, de-personalize the subject by using a boxed curriculum. (For math, try Saxon or Teaching Textbooks.) Sure, you’ll sacrifice some flexibility and spontaneity, but it’s a small price to pay for your sanity.

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Monday Meditations: Ignore the Nay-Sayers

“Don’t let the opinions of other people determine the image you have of yourself. There is no need to feel either appreciated or understood. Be even-minded. What you think about yourself is everything. What others think about you has no value at all, unless you choose to give it value.”

— Shantidasa

I’ll never understand why people think certain life choices are up for public debate, but homeschooling — along with what kids should be eating, whether you’re expecting, and what your family electronics policy happens to be — is one of them.

Thank goodness for that handful of lovely people who just want to cheer you on — “I loved homeschooling!” “I always wanted to homeschool my kids.” “My neighbor homeschools, and it’s so great for them.” — because so many people seem to feel that they need to warn us of homeschooling’s potential pitfalls. What about socialization? And reading levels? And calculus? And college? And, really, how do we do it all day? (The look that accompanies that last one is the same look your elementary schooler gets when he’s trying to identify a new and particularly weird bug.)

It’s not so hard with strangers, whose words are easy to let go when you leave them. But when your mother-in-law, or your sister’s best friend, or your mom’s favorite neighbor gets in on the action, criticizing or interrogating your choices, it can be hard not to let their words nag at your nerves. After all, homeschooling is a big project. What if you don’t do it right? What if you let your kids down? What if you really should be worrying more about socialization and calculus?

It is not easy to let go of the sound of other people’s voices, especially when there’s a part of us that holds many of the same fears.

But most of us have worked through those fears, many times. We’ve held them up to the light and planned parts of our lives around them: We want our kids to have friends, so we don’t lock them in the basement with their grammar books all day. We join co-ops and go to park days and schedule play dates. We want our kids to learn the skills they need to get wherever they want to go next — so we pore over curricula, sign up for classes, and enlist assistance from other homeschoolers. We face our fears — proactively — pretty much every day of our homeschool lives, so why do those voices get to us so much?

I don’t want to tune out the sounds of the world my kids have to live in, but I don’t want to give them any more weight than they deserve either. My rule is to listen — once. And to listen as thoughtfully and as thoroughly as I can, to consider the words and the meaning behind them, and to decide if I want to rethink my strategy because of them. After that one time, though, I smile and nod and tune them out. So the 33rd person who asks me if I’m worried about homeschooling gets the cheery “nope!” and not one second of my headspace.

Truthfully, I have plenty to worry about all by myself. I don’t need to add other people’s opinions to my list.

Food for Thought

• What worries in your life are generated by other people’s ideas and opinions?

• How much weight are you giving other people’s opinions about your choices? Does that feel like the right amount of weight?

• How can you let go of the need to justify your decisions to other people? Why do you want other people to approve of your choices?

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