My children pooled their pocket money and bought a set of walkie talkies this week. They have mostly used them to talk to each other as they sit in the same room (go figure), but they are looking forward to getting them out and about. These walkie talkies represent freedom – the ability to go…
A few years ago I picked up J. P. Moreland’s Love Your God with All Your Mind (referral link). It was published in 1997, and is a little bit dated in its lack of references to social media and smartphones. Otherwise, it’s been a helpful look at the role of intellectual growth in the life…
I have been on a slow and evolving mission to manage the way I use technology and social media for the past two or three years. I’ve had a number of moments of clear conviction that I was frittering my time away, basking in the shallows of other people’s lives and failing to live my…
Over the past few weeks we’ve explored Charlotte Mason’s educational tool of discipline from various angles: the limits of this tool, how habits work on our hearts, and even how to approach building good habits. After this week I’ll depart from habits for a while, but not until we take a look at how habits…
This week I finished reading Rethinking Positive Thinking by Gabriele Oettingen (referral link). I relate to the premise so much. I love to imagine achieving big goals, whether it is related to homeschooling, my website, a health and fitness related challenge. In my mind, I can feel the sense of accomplishment and my sense of…
April was a turn-around month. We quickly wrapped up our winter term, took a fleeting week off from lessons, celebrated a birthday, and jumped right into our summer term. Here’s how the month went. For reference, I have three boys and we are using AmblesideOnline. At the end of the month I now have: Age…
Last week we considered the limitations of habits. When we talk about habits, I think it’s always good to begin with a few qualifications. Habits are not a form of lifehacking. They are not a quick fix to our problems. They can be hard work, and as we saw in the Parents’ Review article last…
Sometimes it seems that if we could just get the knack of habit training, that we would immediately be better parents, educators, and human beings. Imagine doing the right things on autopilot! No power struggles, no internal arguments, just the “smooth and easy days” that Charlotte Mason mentions in Home Education. I do agree that…
After sharing a day in my homeschool, I’ve decided that it would be fun to begin recapping our homeschool months here on the blog. For reference, we use Ambleside Online and I have three boys. My eldest is 10 and in Y5T1, my second is 8 and in Y3T3, and my youngest is in Y1T2….
I have a bit of a fascination with Charlotte Mason’s Twenty Principles (see here). It seems like such a good idea: twenty short-ish statements, the perfect introduction to a philosophy of education. Grasp these ideas and off you go! You can educate the Charlotte Mason way! Except that reading the twenty principles often leave you…