homeschooling

Live Poets Society

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I can’t really say that I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love to write. Because I do remember that time, quite vividly in fact. I must have been seven or eight, and my mom tried everything to get me to write. Finally, she gave me an assignment to write a letter to the Tooth Fairy. I was supposed to explain how I had accidentally swallowed my loose tooth, and request the customary remuneration despite the absence of the actual article. I can still visualize the kiddie-lined paper with my cop-out missive written in large awkward letters and callously denying the very existence of that benevolent fairy:

Dear Mommy, Please bring me lots of money.

… Read more

The Ticktockman and Me

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

When we got pregnant with Axa, Tony and I were living in student housing at Brigham Young University. Having witnessed too many friends whose every move suddenly revolved around naptime (and every conversation around diapers, precocious developmental milestones, and infant bodily functions) we swore that having a baby would not change our lifestyle. Sure enough, tiny Axa went along with us to the International Cinema, campus lectures, Tony’s computer lab job, and midnight shopping runs. When she was two months old, we even took her on a summer-long field study to the Philippines.

Nope, having a baby didn’t put a kink in our lifestyle.… Read more

Our School Nook

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I have a bit of a split personality when it comes to homeschooling. On the one hand, I was brought up mostly as an unschooler, and believe in a fair degree of laissez-faire when it comes to how my children spend the majority of their time. On the other . . . well, I’d love to emulate a rigorously proper prep school, cute plaid uniforms and all.

I feel the same way about homeschooling space. Learning shouldn’t be confined to a room in the house, or even to the entire house. It should happen at all times, everywhere.

Still, I have a secret fantasy of someday owning a house big enough that we could dedicate a whole room to “school.”… Read more

Easy Foreign Language Program

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Foreign language is pretty important to our family, because we love to travel and learn about other cultures. So I am always thinking of new ways to help my children (and myself) learn and retain languages better. One of the most visited pages on this blog is my ten tips on teaching children a foreign language.

Our most important focus language right now is Italian. Tony and I are fairly conversant. We keep it up by listening to Italian pop music all day long. The children have had quite a bit of exposure too. They are a little shy about speaking, but their passive vocabulary is pretty good.… Read more

My Favorite Homeschooling Books

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

This week I’ve been playing around in Goodreads. I have this problem with checking out books from the library, reading them, and then not being able to find them again when I want them. Goodreads keeps track of all the books I’ve read and whether I like them or not. And since lots of those books are available on Kindle now (have you checked out Amazon’s new book-lending program?) It’s kind of like my own virtual library.

Sometime when we have a house and I get all my books out of storage, I’ll reorganize my non-virtual library. But for now, my brain needs some help, and Goodreads is a great solution.… Read more

Avoiding Twaddle at the Library

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

When I was a kid, my mom would take the five of us to the library every week. Each child had a large plastic crate in his/her room for library books, which crates we took with us to the library when we went. With six library cards in the family and a limit of 20 books per card–well you can do the math for how many library books we went home with most weeks. The really hard days were the ones where the library computer system was down, and you could only check out five books on each card. It was like a mini version of “If you were stranded on a desert island .… Read more

Nature Study in Bakersfield

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

One of Charlotte Mason’s nature study ideas is to “adopt” a tree and observe closely how it changes throughout the year. We’ve never lived somewhere for a whole year, so we haven’t been able to observe a long-term continuous seasonal change. But we’ve seen a lot of variety in the natural world. It comes naturally to me to visit museums and archaelogical sites, but without Charlotte Mason I wouldn’t have thought to closely observe the differences in the plants and animals around the world.

Now when I think of Ireland, I remember Axa catching dozens of frogs in the grass. Tunisia reminds me of tiny geckos, gigantic ants and camels.… Read more

Homeschool Performance Review

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

I realize that this first term of full-time homeschooling has prompted more than the usual number of posts about homeschooling. Fortunately, you’re all just dying to hear every infinitesimal detail about our homeschooling life. Right?

The other day I was reminiscing elsewhere about what it was like back in the good old days when homeschooling was weird and subversive, not hip and progressive. You know, the days when nobody had heard of it, and for a lot of people homeschooling=educational neglect=child abuse. I can still remember the first time I was in the park, and some random adult starting quizzing me on the multiplication tables.… Read more

The Bubble Thing

The Bubble Thing

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

When I was a homeschooled pre-teen in California, one of my favorite field trips was to the Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley’s science outreach center. They had cool exhibits like mechanical “Lost World” dinosaurs, fun-house mirrors, and a sort of creepy-crawly petting zoo. The Hall also maintained fantastically large sets of classic toys like wooden marble mazes and Kapla blocks. Outside were a life-sized whale and a huge DNA model, both of which could be climbed on.

To, me the Lawrence Hall of Science was imbued with an almost spiritual quality. I thought of it more or less as a temple of learning.… Read more

Casteluzzo Academy 2011, Term 3

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

My personal bibliophilia has not been the only thing we’ve been feeding with our weekly library trips. We are back in the swing of homeschooling, with a vengeance. We even have a very simple “school corner” set up. It contains a kid-sized table with two chairs, an adult-sized chair, and a few shelves with all our school books and paraphernalia. We are using Ambleside Online’s Year 1, Term 3 as our curriculum base for this term.

Charlotte Mason believed in a curriculum that was both wide and deep. This is the first term I have managed to fit in just about all the subject areas she recommended covering.… Read more