Your 'get up and go' has 'gotten up and went'. You used to think homeschooling was the best thing since sliced bread, but now you're feeling like burnt toast. Take heart-- you're not alone! Most homeschooling moms are prone to believing lies that say, you're not good enough...you aren't qualified...and you are ruining your children. If you believe these lies, you will crumble under the weight of homeschooling and feel defeated and alone. But if you learn to recognize these lies and combat with the TRUTH, then you will experience peace, joy, and freedom. Look inside these pages to discover the steps to combat the lies homeschooling moms believe and to fill your mind and heart with the truth.

    In this greatly expanded treatment of a topic he first dealt with in Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Douglas Wilson proposes an alternative to government-operated school by advocating a return to classical Christian education with its discipline, hard work, and learning geared to child development stages.As an educator, Wilson is well-equipped to diagnose the cause of America's deteriorating school system and to propose remedies for those committed to their children's best interests in education. He maintains that education is essentially religious because it deals with the basic questions about life that require spiritual answers-reading and writing are simply the tools. Offering a review of classical education and the history of this movement, Wilson also reflects on his own involvement in the process of creating educational institutions that embrace that style of learning. He details elements needed in a useful curriculum, including a list of literary classics. Readers will see that classical education offers the best opportunity for academic achievement, character growth, and spiritual education, and that such quality cannot be duplicated in a religiously-neutral environment.

    With insightful commentary, she recalls her own trials as a student and teacher in our industrial, one-size-fits-all educational system. Then she encounters the needs of her young son. Finding a fit is like trying to stuff an odd-shaped child into a square hole. The love for her child propels her on a journey that sweeps her own children, and the children around her, into a learning environment driven by joy, exuberance and passion instead of heartbreak and defeat. Unable to read until ages nine and ten, they entered college at eleven and twelve, became systems administrators, chief technology officers, trained with the Berlin Opera and Hamburg Ballet, created digital images used in the film "Lord of the Rings," presented software solutions to TRW, Pac Bell, Industrial Light & Magic, NSA, Sony, and more, all before the ages of eighteen. The Call to Brilliance shows parents and educators how to redirect children's challenges into strengths, discover children's interests, fuel their interests into passions, and their passions into brilliance.

    They're willing to try new things and possess a natural joy of discovery. Yet in a traditional school, these natural behavior traits are too often squelched. That's why more and more parents just like you are choosing to teach their children at home during these critical years—the years that lay the foundation for developing learning skills that last a lifetime. Inside, respected homeschooling author Linda Dobson shows you how homeschooling can work for you and your young child. You'll discover how to: ·Tailor homeschooling to fit your family's unique needs ·Know when your child is ready to learn to read ·Teach your child arithmetic without fear—even if you're math-challenged ·Give your child unlimited learning on a limited budget ·And much more! "Brings dazzling clarity to the otherwise nerve-wracking confusion of early learning—and the adventure of becoming fully human. Highly recommended."—John Taylor Gatto,former New York State Teacher of the Year and author of Dumbing Us Down "Provides a much-needed introduction to living and learning with young children. Open the book to any page and you'll find inspiring anecdotes and approaches to learning that leave the reader thinking, 'That just makes so much sense!' Highly recommended for anyone who lives, works, or plays with young children."—Helen Hegener, managing editor of Home Education Magazine "An information-packed delight; I only wish it had been around when our three boys were three to eight years old."—Rebecca Rupp, author of The Complete Home Learning Sourcebook "This book brings together the experience and wisdom of a great variety of homeschooling families—tied together with warm encouragement and wonderful simplification of processes that can seem so mysterious and daunting to the beginner. A very solid resource!"—Lillian Jones, homeschooling activist, writer, and reviewer

    It was never my intention or my plan, but God clearly showed me this was a calling. It was a hard step to take, but the Lord directed my steps...I have not looked back since.Although the homeschooling journey is difficult at times, if God has put you on this path and called you here, He will lead you through each day. We simply need to stop chasing things, and start chasing Him.This book will encourage you to keep your focus on the One who has called you here. Through my personal story and experience, you will see what happens when we take our eyes off of Him, and how each day can look when we regain our focus, fix our eyes on Him and on the true goals of homeschooling..."Maybe you are just starting out, or maybe you have been doing this awhile. Either way, there is most likely some amount of fear. Fear of the major responsibility that homeschooling is, or fear that you aren’t doing it “right.” Perhaps you are tired. Burnt out. Running on empty. Maybe you are up to your eyeballs in curriculum catalogs, reviews, planners, highlighters, label makers, and resources. Meanwhile the laundry calls, the dishes pile up, and the kids are tired. You are tired. You are trying to decide how on earth you are going to do it all. Or maybe you just are ready to throw in the towel altogether.Well, take a deep breath. Relax. The One who created the universe in a breath, the One who called you to this journey, is in control. Yes, He is in control of your homeschool. Is anything too hard for Him?"~Karen DeBeus, Called Home

    Sometimes they are filled with gratitude and affection, and other times they seem totally indifferent. Attitude. Behavior. Development. Everything depends on the love relationship between you and your child. When children feel loved, they do their best. But how can you make sure your child feels loved? Since 1992, Dr. Gary Chapman's best-selling book "The 5Love Languages" has helpedmillions of couples develop stronger, more fulfilling relationships by teaching them to speak each others' love language. Each child, too, expresses and receives love through one of five different communication styles. And your love language may be totally different from that of your child. While you are doing all you can to show your child love, he may be hearing it as something completely opposite. Discover your child's primary language and learn what you can do to effectively convey unconditional feelings of respect, affection, and commitment that will resonate in your child's emotions and behavior."

    Parents will learn how to transform their home into a learning environment that rivals the best preschool classroom by finding exciting learning opportunities in everyday occurrences, from using laundry to teach sorting to exploring growth cycles in the garden. Parents can make easy use of simple-to-start ideas, advice, and activities, as well as organizational tips, recipes, and more than 200 activities that are easy to pull together. In addition, there are convenient charts and checklists to document children’s growth, which will help ensure there are no gaps in educational, social, or physical development.

    Each lesson leads the parent, step-by-step, through the simple oral and written projects that build reading, writing, spelling, storytelling, and comprehension skills. Use this book to supplement school learning, or as the center of a home-school language arts course.

    An experienced therapist offers groundbreaking and compassionate techniques for helping chronically inflexible children, who suffer from excessively immoderate tempers, showing how brain-based deficits contribute to these problems and offering positive and constructive ways to calm things down.

    It’s never too late to cultivate good habits! This compelling combination of vivid word pictures and descriptions from Charlotte Mason, helpful insights from modern research, and practical ideas from life experience will show you how you can successfully instill habits in your own life.

    Many sophomores, for example, could not pass a literature exam or history quiz which they aced during freshman year. While most teachers are too embarrassed to admit this, their students know it is true, which leads many students to think school is ultimately pointless. What is more, students know that most missed class periods can be made up with five minutes of homework, which leads them to believe that every hour-long class they attend is a fifty-five minute waste of time. This is not simply the state of American public schools, but many classical schools, as well.But what if there was another way of conducting class? What if every class was vital, necessary, and worth going to? What if students no longer had to admit they couldn’t remember much of the material they studied in previous years? What if teachers could make the most of all their class time, including the first five minutes, when students are chatty and their brains are still stuck in their last subject?In Something They Will Not Forget, Joshua Gibbs lays out a solution to these problems which is both elegant and effective. His solution caters to classical beliefs and presuppositions but is easily implemented in any classroom— elementary or secondary, public or private, traditional school or homeschool. If you have struggled with classroom management, dull exams (which you dread grading), or a feeling of helplessness when confronted by how quickly students forget, help is here.

    Parent groups argued about it, bloggers, blogged, spouses became uncivil with each other, and the media jumped all over it. A lot of parents today, Skenazy says, see no difference between letting their kids walk to school and letting them walk through a firing range. Any risk is seen as too much risk. But if you try to prevent every possible danger or difficult in your child's everyday life, that child never gets a chance to grow up. We parents have to realize that the greatest risk of all just might be trying to raise a child who never encounters choice or independence.

    This breakthrough book demonstrates how parents and teachers can join forces to inspire kids to be self-directed, self-disciplined, and responsive to the wonders of learning.

    Never before in history have children been so plugged in—and so out of touch with the natural world. In this groundbreaking new work, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation—he calls it nature deficit—to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as rises in obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and depression. Some startling facts: By the 1990s the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam on their own had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970. Today, average eight-year-olds are better able to identify cartoon characters than native species, such as beetles and oak trees, in their own community. The rate at which doctors prescribe antidepressants to children has doubled in the last five years, and recent studies show that too much computer use spells trouble for the developing mind. Nature-deficit disorder is not a medical condition; it is a description of the human costs of alienation from nature. This alienation damages children and shapes adults, families, and communities. There are solutions, though, and they're right in our own backyards. Last child in the Woods is the first book to bring together cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development—physical, emotional, and spiritual. What's more, nature is a potent therapy for depression, obesity, and ADD. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Even creativity is stimulated by childhood experiences in nature. Yet sending kids outside to play is increasingly difficult. Computers, television, and video games compete for their time, of course, but it's also our fears of traffic, strangers, even virus-carrying mosquitoes—fears the media exploit—that keep children indoors. Meanwhile, schools assign more and more homework, and there is less and less access to natural areas. Parents have the power to ensure that their daughter or son will not be the "last child in the woods," and this book is the first step toward that nature-child reunion.

    Using easy instructions and simple objects such as beans, blocks, pennies, buttons, and string, parents and kids solve problems together. FAMILY MATH is a rich resource of math curriculum including number and estimation, logical thinking, probability and statistics, geometry, measurement, and calculators. The stimulating games, puzzles, and projects entice kids in playful ways to master math concepts. Because this book reinforces the basic school curriculum, it is also a must for teachers. The book has a step-by-step description of how to organize a FAMILY MATH class in your community. For families with children five to twelve years old. Grades K-8. 318 pp