Category: Education
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The “Gift”
I used a word I don’t particularly like when I was talking to some parents the other day. The problem is, it’s the word that is used, and substitutions for it sound awkward. I was referring to my daughter and how I’d been reading a “gifted homeschoolers” e-mail group (mostly to reassure myself that I’m…
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A Homeschooling Sort of Day
Another homeschooling mom gave me great me advice about what to do when homeschooling isn’t going well. She spent weeks just taking her child on long walks. It’s amazing how much education can happen on a walk! The thing about homeschooling that’s particularly difficult for me, and I’m guessing for a lot of parents out…
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Love Her and Let Her Go
I received some pearls of wisdom the other day about discipline from a tattooed great-grandmother who works at my daughter’s homeschool program. My wise woman told me that she never had preschoolers in her care give her trouble about walking in a line on sidewalks. When I expressed my doubt that she’d be able to…
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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…