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Are you thinking of home schooling your child? Choosing to home school your child has its benefits and drawbacks. Some advantages to homeschooling your child include controlling what your child learns and what they are exposed to as well as having the ability to show your child that learning is exciting exciting by tailoring their experience to their interests and learning styles. When in an active public school environment teachers use a pace and method that will work for the majority of their students. A homeschooling parent can tailor lessons to their children’s needs, helping them to view learning as a stimulating activity.

However the disadvantage of homeschooling is the social opportunities your child might miss out on. Children need to be socialized at a young age to pick up natural social skills that children who attend public school are constantly exposed to everyday. This means getting your children involved in activities such as boy/girl scouts, CER programs, or activities such as church youth groups. Another reason to get your children socially involved is so they can be exposed to different types of people and cultures. Children who are constantly around different cultures from their own are naturally tolerant and view everyone equally.

Lee & Low has books available that would be ideal for any homeschooler. The books you can purchase on the Lee & Low Web site are great for homeschooling because they portray the world for what it is: diverse. Since children who are homeschooled are not given the same social opportunities as children who attend public or private school, Lee & Low can offer a controlled way to educate children on the world and the wonderful variety of cultures and people.

From a post today on The New York Times politics blog, The Caucus (emphasis mine): Will Iowa’s conservative Christians turn out in force for Mike Huckabee? ... Despite a negligible organization here last summer, Mr. Huckabee pulled off his second place finish in the Ames straw poll in August with help from the strong support of Iowa’s home-school families. It is unclear how many evangelical

then tomorrow must be the Iowa caucus. And just in time for the last leg of the horrendously expensive marathon that is American politics, suze has put together a new blog, Homeschoolers For …, with the tagline, "Because there is no such thing as 'the homeschool vote' ". Speaking of which, don't miss the lovely, talented, and funny Mrs. G.'s nifty campaign button.

I've spent more time in my kitchen and out in the snow than online, but I've tried to do some catching up while waiting for batches of cookies in the oven. I was surprised, and I gather I wasn't the only one, by the recent New York Times article, "Huckabee Draws Support of Home-School Families", not because the reporter made it sound as if most home schoolers support the Huckabee candidacy, but

It's hard to home school when you're not home much. I wrote last week that "I'm hoping to get back into a homebody routine again, with plenty of time for schooling at home (instead of out and about schooling, as we've been doing)". With various lessons, rehearsals, and meetings (usually mine) occupying our Wednesdays and Thursdays, the rest of the week has become more precious. We've fallen

Tuesday is our first day back to school. I don't get overly agitated by use of the word "school", and I don't go out of my way to avoid it, which is why I don't bother with "back to not school" or "not back to school" or "back to homeschool" constructions. I liked school, adored it really, and so did Tom. Part of the reason we pulled Laura out partway through first grade is that we didn't want to

Listening to CBC Radio's "Sounds Like Canada" show last week (podcast here; let me know if the link doesn't work), I heard summer host Kevin Sylvester interview Matt Hern about the new U.S. edition of his book, Watch Yourself: Why Safer Isn't Always Better, out last month in paperback; it was published in Canada last summer, but both Amazon.ca and Chapters list it with 4-6 week and 3-5 week

Since I have family who live in Kenya, every once in a while I check the online edition of The Standard for the latest news. I was surprised this week to find an article, and a positive one at that, on homeschooling in Kenya, "Home is where the school is". Here's some of what reporter Kevin Mwachiro wrote, and you can read the rest here: When I first heard about home schooling some years back, I