homeschooling

Reading Games for Four-year-olds

May 12, 2009

rio’s reading game.jpg, originally uploaded by MzMuze. Rio made this! Background: I’ve been reading an interesting book, published in the 70s, called the Home Guide to Early Reading. This is pretty much the opposite of the Waldorf approach I’ve taken with my kids thus far. The author advocates a playful but structured approach to teaching [...]

Tagged as: homeschooling, play, reading, rio

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The Shrinking of Treehorn

May 8, 2009

Serena took this book out of the library. I think she chose it because it was a nice shade of green and charmingly square. When we got it home, I noticed that the drawings were by Edward Gorey, a favorite artist of our entire family’s. We’ve been to visit his house on the Cape, and [...]

Tagged as: homeschooling, humor, reading

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Unschooling: the right approach?

May 6, 2009

Rio is changing. She wants to learn to read and write numbers up to 100. She wants to go out and play in the neighborhood on her own. She wants to read picture books to herself. In most families, these would be signs that she’s ready for kindergarten. But she’s not going to kindergarten, and [...]

Tagged as: homeschooling, rio, unschooling

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Lilac Sunday at the Arboretum

May 5, 2009

This coming Sunday, May 10, is Lilac Sunday at the Arboretum in Jamaica Plain. It’s a free event, outdoors of course. We’re eagerly awaiting this day, which the kids and I enjoyed with friends last year. Not only will a wide variety of lilacs be blooming around the park, but they’ll have Morris dancing, food [...]

Tagged as: events, homeschooling

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Somerville Open Studios

May 1, 2009

SOS is upon us, and if you’re on the fence about going with your kids, consider this: My brood and I were invited to a sneak peek at Rachel Silber’s studio. We went and admired her truly admirable prints, oil paintings and creative boxes. We called dibs on one of her cool artist trading cards. [...]

Tagged as: art, homeschooling

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Beltaine Festival tomorrow at the Growing Center

April 30, 2009

When I posted my list of May events, I should have included this one, which I am leading at The Growing Center tomorrow at 4 p.m.: Wheel of the Year Festival: Beltaine A series of family-friendly festivals celebrating the turning of the wheel of the year. Through song, story, art and play we will explore [...]

Tagged as: holidays, homeschooling

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Fermentation Workshop, and other May activities

April 28, 2009

The prize of my May schedule is a fermentation workshop with Sandor Katz. It’s next Friday at 2:30 at BU. His book, Wild Fermentation, changed my life. You need to pre-register for this event. If the admission fee is a too high and you’re a homeschooling family, let me know. The workshop was organized by [...]

Tagged as: food, green, homeschooling

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Clock time

April 24, 2009

IMG_3750.JPG, originally uploaded by MzMuze. Rio is interested in learning to read a clock. I noticed at MotherMirth’s house the other day a clock with extra numbers on it to indicate what that long hand was up to. Hers was elegant; my imitation of it is obviously messy. This is typical of us. This learning [...]

Tagged as: homeschooling, math, rio

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An almost perfect day

April 16, 2009

The weather today was bright and almost-warm, and the whole day just echoed that sunshine and springtime and freshness. We had our homeschool morning program. All the kids enthusiastically made Nature Journals, which we took to the park with us. On the way, they had to stop several times to crouch down on the sidewalk [...]

Tagged as: homeschooling, nature, parenting, rio, serena

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Pop goes the Art!

April 8, 2009

Martin took Ian (his 15-yr-old son) to the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the ICA last month. They spent the evening at the museum (which is free every Thursday), and then came home and surfed the web for awhile getting more information about Shepard Fairey. Then Ian sat down at his computer and made this: I [...]