Jul

31

Re-Discovering Classics for Kids

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment

TIME magazine recently published a review of Lizzie Skurnick’s “Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading.”  Her book explores children’s and teen fiction, but from a grown-ups point-of-view.
I have my own book shelf filled with books that I never stopped loving.  And so you can bet I have intoduced them to my kids.  [...]

Jul

30

The Extra-Curricular Challenge

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment

We all want to raise Renaissance children, don’t we?  We hope our children we develop a love of mathematics, arts, music, literature and everything else under the sun.   Fortunately, homeschooling provides families the time and opportunity to explore endless eduactional avenues.
But with all of that academic freedom comes tough choices.  Your kid can’t [...]

Jul

26

Meet the Masters: Part Two

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

July 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment

During the last week, the girls and I have continued to learn about the classic painters of the past.  After learning about the life (perhaps a little too much about the life!) of Vincent Van Gough, we moved onto other lessons.
We loved learning about Mary Cassatt — the American painter who moved to France and [...]

Jul

25

Turning Trouble Into Teaching Moments

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

July 25, 2009 | 1 Comment

Whew! It’s been a heck of a week.
About seven days ago, my wife and I were looking at our finances.  So far, throughout this recession, we haven’t been doing too bad.  I’ve been working enough hours at the two colleges that I work at (in fact, I added another one to insure job security — [...]

Jul

15

Homeschool Printables

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

July 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Normally, my kids and I use the internet to find interactive learning websites — often filled with games, flash animation,. doctumentary video, and all sorts of snazzy multi-media-driven information.
But sometimes it’s nice to be able to find a collection of simple printables — pdf files that contain useful educational items such as:

Crossword puzzles
Word searches
Fill in [...]

Jul

9

Teaching vs. Tears

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

July 9, 2009 | 2 Comments

My ten-year old and I had a rough day.  During the spring, my daughter took guitar lessons.  Now that it’s summer, she isn’t taking any classes, but we do expect her to practice two or three times a week.  Since I have been teaching myself how to play the electric guitar, I decided to “jam” [...]

Jul

6

Meet the Masters: Learning About Vincent Van Gough

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

July 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Yesterday we had a busy 4th of July, much of it spent driving to and fro (in between gobbling lots of hot dogs).  So today, we just wanted to relax around the house and work on artistic projects.
Things began smoothly.  I was using some old curriculum that had been ignored on the shelf for far [...]

Jul

2

My Kids’ Favorite Magazines

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

July 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment

This week, the mailman has delivered several of my kids’ favorite magazines.  We have been blessed with relatives that have given our girls a gift subscription for their birthdays.  But now, according to today’s mail, it’s time to decide if we want to renew.  And of course, in this economy, when most of America is [...]