Category Archives: Uncategorized

My rural elementary education

I grew up in rural Minnesota, about 10 miles outside of the ‘big’ town where I eventually attended junior and senior high school. My parents rented an old farm house surrounded by empty barns and concrete feed lots long-since retired from use. My nearest neighbors lived more than 2 miles away. Balancing this physical isolationContinue reading “My rural elementary education”

Homeschool FAQs: How else do you teach math?

We like Borenson’s Hands-on Equations for 9yoA. And she seems to enjoy it too. While we encourage her to do one page a day of work from this set, it doesn’t always work out that way. But she has been able to do basic algebra using this system and has been moving into working withContinue reading “Homeschool FAQs: How else do you teach math?”

Homeschool FAQs: How do you teach math?

Math is everywhere and homeschooling is a family affair. This is an example of a worksheet that the kids’ grandmother came up with for 6yoZ to complete. It serves the dual purpose of allowing my mother to live out being a teacher whilst giving Z some more “traditional” schooling and a feeling of accomplishment. ZContinue reading “Homeschool FAQs: How do you teach math?”

Context is everything… or, at least, it’s something

If we lived elsewhere, we might not homeschool. But we live where we do: Montgomery County, Maryland. The picture is from a brand new (very expensive) public library that recently opened. The section of the library in the photo (beginning at the carpet pattern change) was supposedly made and designed for children. We live inContinue reading “Context is everything… or, at least, it’s something”

Homeschool FAQs: Do you have a schedule that you follow?

My first response to this question is usually a firmly wish-washy: not really. When I am asked this question (as I often am these days), it makes me recall a conversation I had in the pediatrician’s office on a visit with a newborn A. When it came to the “do you have any questions time,”Continue reading “Homeschool FAQs: Do you have a schedule that you follow?”