As I check my feedreaders for information and news about homeschooling, I’m surprised by the number of articles and blog essays which appear these days; it seem as though the annual back-to-school parade now necessitates an almost parallel reporting on the cutely-tagged ‘not-back-to-school’ crowd. As a result, homeschooling seems to have become a media buzzword, [...]
Every parent wants to establish good relationships with their children whether they are homeschooling or not. ~Marty Layne That line practically jumped off the screen at me as I scrolled through a 1999 interview I did with homeschooling mother Marty Layne, of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Marty had just written an encouraging and thoughtful book [...]
Home Education Magazine publisher Helen Hegener shares information about Lenore Skenazy’s weblog and book on Free-Range Kids, which explores the concept of how, “Somehow, a whole lot of parents are just convinced that nothing outside the home is safe. At the same time, they’re also convinced that their children are helpless to fend for themselves. While most of these parents walked to school as kids, or hiked the woods — or even took public transportation — they can’t imagine their own offspring doing the same thing. They have lost confidence in everything: Their neighborhood. Their kids. And their own ability to teach their children how to get by in the world.”
John Taylor Gatto has been an outspoken and eloquent critic of the public school system for over 20 years, and this post shared some favorite quotes from him, along with links to his biography, some videos of his speeches and interviews, and more information about this incredibly dynamic and engaging man.
Lenore Skenazy’s “Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry” (2009, Jossey-Bass), is a down-to-earth and common sense book about how to raise confident children by simply saying no to paranoid parenting, and just letting kids be kids, without invoking the harum-scarum fear tactics which have become commonplace in too many young lives today.
