Sep

28

Whew – We’re back!

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

September 28, 2009 | 1 Comment

Where have we been?  Oh, just at home.  But for most of the summer we have been trying to remodel the house.  Everything went a bit haywire when we discovered a leaky pipe underneath a slab of concrete behind our closet. What followed?  Home owners insurance (who were actually qite helpful), lots of estimates from [...]

Aug

16

Resisting the “Ha – Ha Factor”

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

August 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

The kids in our neighborhood have been sulking a bit lately.  Most of them have the “End of the Summertime Blues.”  They scooter around the block, just as they have been doing all summer, but there heart isn’t in it anymore.  They know that in just three short days, they will be returning to public [...]

Aug

11

Spy Missions – Homeschool Style

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

August 11, 2009 | 2 Comments

Today, the kids and I are on a spy mission.  This one involves my two daughters as well as my nephew, who is visiting us for the summer.  First we had a healthy breakfast to give us energy.  Then we loaded up our Nerf Guns, and waited for a message from Headquarters. Around 11am, I [...]

Aug

7

Adopting a New Pet

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

August 7, 2009 | 1 Comment

For the past three months, my youngest daughter has been longing for a pet mouse.  Nevermind that we have fish, a dog, and a bird (we had a cat too — but after ten years of allergies, we moved her to our kind hearted distant relatives).  But no matter — depsite all of the animals [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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

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 [...]

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