Drawing from St. Therese, St. John Bosco, John Holt (How Children Learn and How Children Fail), and ancient philosophers, the families paint a picture of authentic education without the constraints and pitfalls of typical modern education. Andres admirably addresses the question of whether a Catholic can happily and sanely unschool by explaining it as a sensible approach to the mystery of learning, not as an ideology in competition with her faith. The heart of the book is the honest and humble description of home education by twelve homeschooling mothers who have embraced unschooling in varying degrees. Anyone interested in education and particularly home education will be inspired by their narratives.

    With just the simple tools around you—your imagination, basic art supplies, household objects, and natural materials—you can transform your family life, and have so much more fun! Amanda Soule has charmed many with her tales of creativity and parenting on her blog, SouleMama. Here she shares ideas and projects with the same warm tone and down-to-earth voice. Perfect for all families, the wide range of projects presented here offers ideas for imaginative play, art and crafts, nature explorations, and family celebrations. This book embraces a whole new way of living that will engage your children’s imagination, celebrate their achievements, and help you to express love and gratitude for each other as a family.

    Between their children’s educational needs; their roles as spouse, parent, and more; and their own individual desires and goals, these mothers and fathers struggle to accomplish all that must be done. In Help for the Harried Homeschooler, experienced homeschooler, author, and mother of four Christine Field offers sound advice for parents who want not only to achieve homeschooling success but also to reach a balance in their lives.

    In Sweden children play outside all year round, regardless of the weather, and letting young babies nap outside in freezing temperatures is not only common—it is a practice recommended by physicians. In the US, on the other hand, she found that the playgrounds, which she had expected to find teeming with children, were mostly deserted. In preschool, children were getting drilled to learn academic skills, while their Scandinavian counterparts were climbing trees, catching frogs, and learning how to compost. Worse, she realized that giving her daughters the same freedom to play outside that she had enjoyed as a child in Sweden could quickly lead to a visit by Child Protective Services. The brewing culture clash finally came to a head when McGurk was fined for letting her children play in a local creek, setting off an online firestorm when she expressed her anger and confusion on her blog. The rules and parenting philosophies of her native country and her adopted homeland were worlds apart. Struggling to fit in and to decide what was best for her children, McGurk turned to her own childhood for answers. Could the Scandinavian philosophy of “there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes” be the key to better lives for her American children? And how would her children’s relationships with nature change by introducing them to Scandinavian concepts like friluftsliv (“open-air living”) and hygge (the coziness and the simple pleasures of home)? McGurk embarked on a six-month-long journey to Sweden to find out. There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather is a fascinating personal narrative that highlights the importance of spending time outdoors, and illustrates how the Scandinavian culture could hold the key to raising healthier, resilient, and confident children in America.

    Attachment parenting is not just for babies; as children grow, they need to expand the web of their secure attachments to friends, teachers, community and the wider world. As there is no single plan for any one family, the Searses show a range of ways a parent can retain a child's trust and wield a positive influence as their child matures. By following the advice laid out in this book, parents can see that the bonds they have nurtured since infancy will provide the anchor that will ground their children through the challenging teen years to adulthood.

    But it wasn't until she was pregnant with her first child that she became intrigued with the study of brain development. She wanted to know precisely how the baby's brain is formed, and when and how each sense, skill, and cognitive ability is developed. And just as important, she was interested in finding out how her role as a nurturer can affect this complex process. How much of her baby's development is genetically ordained--and how much is determined by environment? Is there anything parents can do to make their babies' brains work better--to help them become smarter, happier people? Drawing upon the exploding research in this field as well as the stories of real children, What's Going On in There? is a lively and thought-provoking book that charts the brain's development from conception through the critical first five years. In examining the many factors that play crucial roles in that process, What's Going On in There? explores the evolution of the senses, motor skills, social and emotional behaviors, and mental functions such as attention, language, memory, reasoning, and intelligence. This remarkable book also discusses:         how a baby's brain is "assembled" from scratch the critical prenatal factors that shapebrain development how the birthing process itself affects the brain which forms of stimulation are most effective at promoting cognitive development how boys' and girls' brains develop differently how nutrition, stress, and other physical and social factors can permanently affect a child's brain Brilliantly blending cutting-edge science with a mother's wisdom and insight, What's Going On in There? is an invaluable contribution to the nature versus nurture debate. Children's development is determined both by the genes they are born with and the richness of their early environment. This timely and important book shows parents the innumerable ways in which they can actually help their children grow better brains.

    There are more than twenty contributors including Christine Field, Jessica Hulcy, Dr. Raymond Moore, and Dr. Ruth Beechick.

    Department of Education. Contains complete materials and instructions on teaching children to read at home.

    This is a handy book for learning to spot common errors in reasoning.- For ages twelve through adult.- Fun to use -- learn skills you can use right away.- Peanuts, Dilbert, and Calvin and Hobbes cartoons.- Includes The Fallacy Detective Game.- Exercises with answer key.

    Encouraging you to make journaling a part of your daily routine, Keeping a Nature Journal is full of engaging exercises and stimulating prompts that will help you hone your powers of observation and appreciate new aspects of nature’s endlessly varied beauty.

    Any parent with more than one child is probably well aware of how different from each other children, even siblings, can be. So it's only natural that the parenting strategies that work with one child may be less effective with another child. How can you be sure that your nurturing is well suited to your child? With this one-of-a-kind parenting guide, you can use Personality Type analysis - a powerful and well-respected psychological tool - to understand your child better and become a more effective parent. In Nurture by Nature you'll learn which of 16 distinctly different types best matches your child's personality; how this personality type affects your child in each of the three stages of development - preschool, school age, and adolescence; how other parents, whose experiences are recounted in scores of case studies, deal with a wide array of challenging situations you may encounter: reining in a preschooler whose boundless energy constantly gets him into trouble; communicating with a child who keeps her thoughts and feelings secret; understanding an adolescent who seems not to care that he is forever losing things (his homework, his baseball cap, his keys); broadening the horizons of a child who resists trying anything new or unfamiliar...; and how you can adapt your parenting style to your child's type - and get better results when communicating, supporting, motivating, and disciplining. Whether your child is a tantrum-prone toddler, a shy third-grader, a rebellious teen, or somewhere in between, Nurture by Nature will give you the power to understand why children are the way they are - and to become the best parent you can be.

    New nature games--favorites from the field--and Cornell's typically insightful commentary make the second edition of this special classic even more valuable to nature lovers world-wide. The Sharing Nature movement that Cornell pioneered has now expanded to countries all over the globe. Recommended by Boy Scouts of America, American Camping Association, National Audubon Society and many others.

    Now, in this elegantly written and passionate book, Vigen Guroian provides the perfect complement to books such as Bennett's, offering parents and teachers a much-needed roadmap to some of our finest children's stories. Guroian illuminates the complex ways in which fairy tales and fantasies educate the moral imagination from earliest childhood. Examining a wide range of stories--from Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid to Charlotte's Web, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Wind in the Willows, and the Chronicles of Narnia--he argues that these tales capture the meaning of morality through vivid depictions of the struggle between good and evil, in which characters must make difficult choices between right and wrong, or heroes and villains contest the very fate of imaginary worlds. Character and the virtues are depicted compellingly in these stories; the virtues glimmer as if in a looking glass, and wickedness and deception are unmasked of their pretensions to goodness and truth. We are made to face the unvarnished truth about ourselves, and what kind of people we want to be. Throughout, Guroian highlights the classical moral virtues such as courage, goodness, and honesty, especially as they are understood in traditional Christianity. At the same time, he so persuasively evokes the enduring charm of these familiar works that many readers will be inspired to reread their favorites and explore those they may have missed.

    The lively text includes many mini-stories of preschool and kindergarten-age children, teachers, and parents who embark on journeys of learning together. These journeys take shape in language, in drawings, in tempera paint and clay, in outdoor excursions, and in the imaginations of both the children and adults. This informative and accessible work features photographs of the children (both in Italy and the United States) and samples of the children's work, including some in full color.During the past 10 years there has been a tremendous interest among early childhood educators and parents in the innovative approaches to teaching pioneered in the preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Reggio Approach! Teachers, especially those in early childhood, teacher educators, policy makers, administrators, and parents will find it invaluable.Selected topics: The Fundamentals of the Reggio Approach - The Pleasure and Power of Playing with Materials - Plants in Relationships - Children and Spoken Language - Transforming Space, Time, and Relations - Turning the Preschool Classroom into a Greenhouse - Taking the Plant Project to Kindergarten

    It teaches all the 0's -9's times tables and has sold over 100,000 copies. Originally published in 1992, Times Tables the Fun Way has been a popular choice for schools and parents. To teach 6x6, for example, the story tells of twin sixes who go off to visit cousins across the desert. They get low on water and become very thirsty sixes, which sounds like 36, the answer to 6x6. Students love learning with the colorful pictures and accompanying songs.