Growing Up Unschooled: A Reflection Piece
by Rachel Nishikawa As a young child, I was exposed to the daily routine of adults working from home, so I would imitate what they did as if it were a game. What I remember most from these days was the adrenaline rush that came with the successful completion of a bright idea. Playing “pretend” for me was drawing up a new business logo for my imaginary company or turning my bedroom into a studio apartment. On the weekends, my neighbor...
RightStart™ and Multiplication
By Joan A. Cotter, Ph.D., http://www.alabacus.com Multiplication has been the mathematical downfall of many children, not so much because of the algorithms, but memorizing the 100 facts. Before expecting the child to learn the facts, we need to teach the meaning of multiplication. Describing it as repeated addition is a limited view, which doesn’t work well for multiplying fractions or decimals. Since the primary application of...
RightStart and Manipulatives
By Joan A. Cotter, Ph.D. Are manipulatives necessary for teaching math? What is their purpose? Are some manipulatives better than others? These are important questions to consider when teaching math to a child. A concrete manipulative is a physical object that a child handles in order to learn mathematics. Some math programs use no concrete manipulatives. Others use them only as a last resort when a child has difficulty understanding...
Create-a-Story – a Creative Writing Board Game for All Ages
Published by: Create Press www.createpress.com P.O. Box 2785 Carlsbad, CA 92018-2785 760-730-9550 $44.95 plus S&H Online Teachers Manual available at website Ages 5-99 (adult assistance is required for younger children) Can be up to 6 individuals or up to 6 groups of 2-4 players =========== By Joseph Grayhaim Create Press has developed an ingenious approach to teaching creative writing and guiding students to work the imagination...
Little House On the Prairie Books Rich Literature and Unit Study
Named in the Top 20 of all time Children’s Books by Readers for good reason www.walnutgrove.org By Emerson Sandow Ms. Charlotte Mason was a British teacher of the late 1800s who developed a complete instruction method named after her. Many homeschooling families adhere to some or all of Ms. Mason’s precepts in teaching their own children with her very solid and sound approach. Among the Charlotte Mason guidelines are to use living...
Information Is Not Knowledge
By Mary Leppert and Michael Leppert www.homeschoolalmanac.com Most of us would agree, “Knowledge is power.” However, over the past 40 years the words “knowledge” and “education” (meaning “school”) have been confusedly melded. This is how we have arrived at the deplorable condition of having illiterate high school graduates (all well “schooled”) and major universities...
