Your Big Backyard was recently recognized as the best educational publication by the Association of Educational Publishers, and I can certainly understand why. My son looks forward to getting his magazine each month, and I feel great about him reading it because of the excellent content. Read my detailed review here.
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This is an awesome book for homeschooling families who are interested in eco-friendly living.
Read my detailed review here.
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I love this quote and just had to share:
“Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he’s not interested it’s like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating.” –Anonymous
Be sure to check out the blog of the same name on my Blog Roll.
Posted in Child-Led Learning, Reading Room | No Comments »
I wouldn’t have known about a worm farm in my area if I hadn’t joined a local homeschool group. And here I thought I knew about all the great places in the area for children to visit. When I saw an email about a trip to a worm farm, I was a bit surprised. I expected my dirt-loving son to be into it, and I was right. What I wasn’t expecting was for my 20 month old to get so much out of it. We learned about composting and even brought home our own “worm farm” in a plastic bottle. We planted two beans–one was watered with “worm tea” (worm urine) and the other with just water. You can probably guess which one sprouted faster. The children learned about the importance of worms and recycling through a REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE.
We went home and did extension activities, feeding our worms and observing them as well as reading a book on the topic. They had a blast and learned so much.
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While I can’t say I’ve personally read these books, I know I want to! I saw an ad for them in Home Education Magazine today and was impressed. The series of chapter books is endorsed by leading child development experts and feature positive role models.
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Brace yourself. What I say next may shock you. I no longer believe in the existence of Attention Deficit Disorder. I was once a teacher who was asked to fill out ADD checklists and even wrote articles about teaching children with ADD. I have read just about every book on the topic, and I’ve worked with dozens of students who’ve been labeled with ADHD or ADD. I’ve learned so much over the last few years and now feel that these children are mislabeled and misunderstood. I feel the system is what’s broken–not the child.
I know it’s controversial and it’s hard to look at other viewpoints if you have a child who is already on medication and has been for years. I feel it is important to share some alternative views on “ADHD” with my readers, so I’m sharing the following links:
The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” out of Normal Children
Death from Ritalin: True Story of a 14 Year Old Boy (and what his family is doing now)
Parents for Label and Drug-Free Education
ADD Myth Busters (regarding its existence)
Childhood Behavior Redefined as a Mental Disorder
Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses
Born to Explore (great source of alternative info regarding nutrition, etc)
Do you have a helpful link to share that questions the existence of ADHD? Please include it in your comments.
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These are a few of the unschooling sites I have bookmarked recently. Enjoy!
Unschooling means different things to different families. This is a nice page of definitions.
Unschooling Explanation from the Growing without School Site
This is probably my favorite definition because it’s the one I agree with most!
The World is our Classroom: A Course of Study for Unschooled Children
This is a great description of a “course of study” that unschooling families could turn in to meet their state requirements. It also can help those unfamiliar with unschooling gain a better understanding of how children learn through real life.
This is a great online publication and blogging community for unschooling families.
This is an informative article about unschooling your gifted child.
This is a really great unschooling website with many articles!
Site with unschooling information for African-American families.
Unschooling Links for Religious Families
Christian unschooling info and more! (Scroll down past ads.)
Do You Need to Teach Kindergarten?
Great article. I recommend checking out other resources on this site as well.
General unschooling page with message boards and more.
Here’s radical unschooling information from Sandra Dodd’s website.
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My son is really into games right now. Go Fish. Old Maid. Hungry Hungry Hippos! 
Since he’s learning to read and enjoys games, I printed out some activities from this site and used my new handy-dandy laminator, so they should last for years!
This page is not actually geared towards homeschoolers but is still a really neat resource. Make sure you check out the main page for other printables.
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