Homeschool the right way from day one. Are you considering homeschooling for your family? Today, many parents recognize that their child's school options are limited, inadequate, or even dangerous, and an increasing number are turning to homeschooling. But where do you start and how do you ensure the highest-quality educational experience, especially in that pivotal first year? This comprehensive guide will help you determine the appropriate first steps, build your own educational philosophy, and discover the best ways to cater to your child's specific learning style, including: ·When, why, and how to get started ·The best ways to develop an effective curriculum, assess your child's progress, and navigate local regulations ·Kid-tested and parent-approved learning activities for all age levels ·Simple strategies for developing an independent child and strengthening family and social relationships ·And much, much more! "To the thousands of requests we receive for help from families new to homeschooling, we will now recommend this warm and knowledgeable book. It will ensure that all families make it to the second year—including yours!" —Elizabeth Kanna, editor in chief, Homeschool.com "Linda Dobson addresses all the issues facing parents as they consider the task of homeschooling over other educational options. Those who wonder whether they really can or want to do the job will find unique perspectives in this well-researched work."—Beverly K. Eakman, author and cofounder, National Education Consortium

Home Education consists of six lectures by Charlotte Mason about the raising and educating of young children (up to the age of nine), for parents and teachers. She encourages us to spend a lot of time outdoors, immersed in nature, handling natural objects, and collecting experiences on which to base the rest of their education. She discusses the use of training in good habits such as attention, thinking, imagining, remembering, performing tasks with perfect execution, obedience, and truthfulness, to replace undesirable tendencies in children (and the adults that they grow into). She details how lessons in various school subjects can be done using her approach. She concludes with remarks about the Will, the Conscience, and the Divine Life in the Child. Charlotte Mason was a late nineteenth-century British educator whose ideas were far ahead of her time. She believed that children are born persons worthy of respect, rather than blank slates, and that it was better to feed their growing minds with living literature and vital ideas and knowledge, rather than dry facts and knowledge filtered and pre-digested by the teacher. Her method of education, still used by some private schools and many homeschooling families, is gentle and flexible, especially with younger children, and includes first-hand exposure to great and noble ideas through books in each school subject, conveying wonder and arousing curiosity, and through reflection upon great art, music, and poetry; nature observation as the primary means of early science teaching; use of manipulatives and real-life application to understand mathematical concepts and learning to reason, rather than rote memorization and working endless sums; and an emphasis on character and on cultivating and maintaining good personal habits. Schooling is teacher-directed, not child-led, but school time should be short enough to allow students free time to play and to pursue their own worthy interests such as handicrafts. Traditional Charlotte Mason schooling is firmly based on Christianity, although the method is also used successfully by secular families and families of other religions.

At last! The home educator can relax, confident that grade-level objectives are being met by the curriculum they are using. Included in this affordable teaching manual are a full year of easy-to-follow daily lesson plans, a variety of clearly written supporting activities, well-researched background material, and a selection of challenging worksheets taken from the best of Instructional Fair -- TS Denison publications. Answer key included!

Now even more complete, with updated lists of available resource materials, this manual is your access guide to home schooling- maximizing our family life while providing a quality education for your children. If you're considering homeschooling, this book is a must-read before you decide; and if you've been at it for awhile, it's a fresh perspective, with plenty of tactics for renewing your energy and motivating your kids. With wit and wisdom gleaned from years of experience, Debra Bell sets forth a compelling vision for the joys of home-based learnng and the essential tools for success. The CD-ROM contains the complete text of the book, plus website links and a search engine.

This guided journal is designed to help parents who are either considering or just starting home education (homeschooling). This is not a How To book. It will not tell you what to do or how to do it. It's a series of questions, with space for you to respond, if you are wondering about whether home education might be right for you and your child/ children. The pages will help you think through the decision in a practical way. If you have already made the decision and are about to start, it serves as a place for you to gather your own thoughts, notes and plans together, prompting you with questions and encouraging you through the first part of your home education journey. It will build into both an informative notebook and a wonderful record of your first year on which to look back. (planning homeschool, family education, deschooling, home-based learning)

So you've decided to homeschool but don't know where to start? Don't worry, Homeschooling 101 offers you a step by step practical guide that will help you get started and continue on in your homeschooling journey. Erica will walk you through all of the aspects of getting started, choosing and gathering curriculum, creating effective lesson plans, scheduling your day, organizing your home, staying the course and more! This book is a must read for new homeschoolers who need tangible advice for getting started! It also includes helpful homeschool forms, and a FREE planner! Erica is a Christian, wife, and a homeschooler. She is author of the top homschooling website: www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

The 101 most important questions answered by homeschooling's most respected voices.

A step-by-step program that shows parents, simply and clearly, how to teach their child to read in just 20 minutes a day.

Why we need to stop wasting public funds on education Despite being immensely popular—and immensely lucrative—education is grossly overrated. Now with a new afterword by Bryan Caplan, this explosive book argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skills but to signal the qualities of a good employee. Learn why students hunt for easy As only to forget most of what they learn after the final exam, why decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for average workers, how employers reward workers for costly schooling they rarely ever use, and why cutting education spending is the best remedy. Romantic notions about education being "good for the soul" must yield to careful research and common sense—The Case against Education points the way.

Parents and Children consists of a collection of 26 articles from the original Parent's Review magazines to encourage and instruct parents. Topics include The Family; Parents as Rulers; Parents as Inspirers; Parents as Schoolmasters; The Culture of Character; Parents as Instructors in Religion; Faith and Duty (a secular writer has useful suggestions for using myths and stories to teach morals; along with the Bible, these can give examples of noble characters to emulate); Parents' Concern to Give the Heroic Impulse; Is It Possible?; Discipline; Sensations and Feelings Educable by Parents; What is Truth? (Dealing with Lying); Show Cause Why; A Scheme Of Educational Theory; A Catechism of Educational Theory; Whence and Whither; The Great Recognition Required of Parents; and The Eternal Child. Charlotte Mason was a late nineteenth-century British educator whose ideas were far ahead of her time. She believed that children are born persons worthy of respect, rather than blank slates, and that it was better to feed their growing minds with living literature and vital ideas and knowledge, rather than dry facts and knowledge filtered and pre-digested by the teacher. Her method of education, still used by some private schools and many homeschooling families, is gentle and flexible, especially with younger children, and includes first-hand exposure to great and noble ideas through books in each school subject, conveying wonder and arousing curiosity, and through reflection upon great art, music, and poetry; nature observation as the primary means of early science teaching; use of manipulatives and real-life application to understand mathematical concepts and learning to reason, rather than rote memorization and working endless sums; and an emphasis on character and on cultivating and maintaining good personal habits. Schooling is teacher-directed, not child-led, but school time should be short enough to allow students free time to play and to pursue their own worthy interests