Avant Parenting Archives
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Avant! Welcome to my parenting blog archives
As you can see by the dates below, this blog is no longer being updated. However, there’s lots of good stuff here, much of it as true now as when it was written. Please feel free to browse, or follow these links: One last piece of parenting advice: Enjoy today even if it’s a rough…
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Prepare to Read…then Relax
When my son was in first grade, he was in a mixed-grade classroom where the teacher worked within a progressive education model. (See alfiekohn.com for information on this.) She believed that in a rich educational environment, children didn’t need to be taught so much as experience a model of learning. Our son was a great…
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Arachnid Gladiators
So the other day I went into our hall bathroom and there was a spider in the sink. This isn’t uncommon in a house shaded by redwoods, and even less uncommon in November. It’s the month at all the local spiders seem to come to visit. In years past, I would have washed it down…
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The Reluctant Homeschooler
It seems to me that families who homeschool can be defined by type. There is, of course, some overlap, and always those pesky exceptions. But for the most part, homeschoolers come in three flavors: religious, alternative, and last resort… The religious homeschoolers are the best-known by non-homeschoolers. Most of them are Christian, most but not…
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America’s Frontier
We’re reading the entire “Little House” series to our six-year-old, who has adopted them like religion. Each time we finish a book, we ask, “Do you want to go on with the series or take a break?” Our son took a break sometime after the third move by the family, but our daughter is pushing…
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A Space of One’s Own
Forget Virginia Woolf’s room of one’s own — I’d just like to have a little sacred space. The problem is, the kids like me too much! I think I must have failed as a parent somehow that my sacred space doesn’t terrify them… Just joking, of course, but I’ve been noticing that my half of…