Mudspark Life Learning

How do I choose the right homeschool curriculum?  This is the first thing homeschooling parents ask. They are comparing their ideas of school to their projected ideas about homeschooling, thinking they have to cover EVERYTHING that school "covers" and do it well. Obviously we want our kids to get a good education, whether that means school or homeschool. I remind parents, though, that regular school is about managing 30 kids with divergent needs. Homeschooling is about one kid, or maybe three or seven. These are kids who have grown up with your rules and guidelines. In school teachers spend several WEEKS working on procedures like lining up, turning in homework, and using inside voices before they even get to  actual curriculum. Then their days are divided into blocks of time broken up by recess, trips, assemblies, and those very procedures. Homeschool doesn't have to work like that, and you can get lessons done in much less time, whether you do formal lessons to go

This is a cool website to explore habitats and adaptation in a fun way:

Science: MinutePhysics http://www.youtube.com/user/ minutephysics?feature=watch  NationalGeographic http://www.youtube.com/user/ NationalGeographic/videos  TEDEducation http://www.youtube.com/user/ TEDEducation/videos DiscoveryNetworks http://www.youtube.com/user/ DiscoveryNetworks/videos  AnimalPlanetTV http://www.youtube.com/user/ AnimalPlanetTV/videos Sick Science:  https://www.youtube.com/user/ SteveSpanglerScience Videos and cool science experiments from Steve Spangler and SteveSpanglerScience.com Crash Course Chemistry: https://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list= PL8dPuuaLjXtPHzzYuWy6fYEaX9mQQ 8oGr Crash Course Astronomy: https://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list= PL8dPuuaLjXtPAJr1ysd5yGIyiSFuh 0mIL SpaceLab:  https://www.youtube.com/user/ spacelab Can plants survive beyond Earth? Can proteins observed in space reveal the mysteries of life? These questions and more get answered by SpaceLab, a YouTube channel created by Google and Lenov

I've been homeschooling using an eclectic approach for six years now (longer if you "count" preschool years), and I recently began tutoring schooled kids in reading. I find the way these brick-and-mortar-schooled students relate to reading to be heart breaking. Our country's acountability movement - where teachers' abilities are based on their students' growth measured by averages and generalities - is harming our children. They see themselves as stupid failures. Their parents, caught in the net of standardization, cause more harm by saying things in front of them like, "I don't know what happened. I think he's just lazy." The problem in schools isn't teachers' abilites. It isn't lazy children. It isn't too little or too much government control. The problem is that we have lost sight of what learning is really about. Imagine a scene where a mom comes to pick her daughter up from soccer practice. The coach hands Mom a piece o

I just finished reading Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. I highly recommend it to everyone, but especially teachers and homeschooling parents and teens. Most of the book discusses how US history high school textbooks focus on white ethnocentric nationalism and heroism rather than teaching real, balanced history (not even close) and why they do so. It also gives a more complete picture of Columbus, Thanksgiving, slavery, Civil Rights, and the Vietnam and Iraq wars. He discusses how to make history more engaging by igniting curiosity and asking questions of young scholars. In the Afterward, Loewen present five questions students should ask when facing a source, be it a textbook, museum exhibit, or other source (pages 360-361, second edition). While these directly address history, I think they could be used similarly for any source. Students then learn to discern and think for themselves. I will paraphrase them here. 1)

Want to give your kids a world class education without spending any money? Here are my suggestions for a well-rounded home-based education that requires little or no money. Assume that all books are obtained through the library (learn how to use your local library's inter-library loan system). Also see what your local public school system has to offer homeschoolers; my kids participate in a once-a-week enrichment program that provides us with free curriculum. Museums often offer discounts to homeschooling families and groups, and they also offer free days. Trade lessons with friends: maybe you can offer child care or help remodeling a kitchen or canned tomatoes in trade for music lessons or mentoring. Visit thrift stores regularly and look through the education, books, and nic-nack sections - I've found science kits, books, unused anatomy coloring books, a decent globe, pencils, and book shelves for almost nothing at our local thrift stores. Book swaps are another great place t

Today we made lavender wands . We picked lavender from the front yard, peeled off the leaves and wove them with purple thread. My daughter struggles some with fine motor skills, and is a perfectionist, so this resulted in a huge blow up (on her part - I've been able to grow a lot of patience by identifying that a lot of her traits are very Aspie). After she calmed down, I sat with her on the couch and we wove hers together. I talked out loud about the tricky parts: "Ooh, here's the part we keep getting confused on because the flowers poke through." I wanted to model that it is hard while also helping her through it. Success! We got a wand and we moved through the "I'm bad at everything!" bit. Then she asked me what a lavender wand is used for. A friend of hers is getting interested in magic. I had explained that I would teach them magic if they are interested, but that magic and energy work are real and not something to just stumble around in, conjurin

Announcing my forthcoming book, Zen & the Path of Mindful Parenting: Meditations on Raising Children . Available October 2015! Amazon will email you when it's ready to order: I share with you honest and sometimes funny experiences as a parent as I seek to grow myself through the trials and tribulations of raising kids. I weave Buddhist and secular mindfulness teachings with the Hero's Journey, which I think the path of parenting is all about.

You have no doubt read that kids these days spend too much time on screens, and too little time outdoors. Articles and books arguing the evils of screen time quote studies linking screen time to obesity and diabetes as well as depression and lack of vitamin D (which can lead to cancer). Then there are the equally compelling articles and blogs that posit that playing computer games is actually really good for our children. They learn hand-eye coordination, three-dimensional design, problem solving, and even social skills. They are exposed to math concepts, story arcs, and consequences.  Which perspective is to be believed? I think it's both. Kids benefit greatly from screen time, and they need to also spend lots of quality time in nature.  I suspect that the problems of screen time arise not from the computer or TV itself, but from circumstances outside the screen bubble, like poor nutrition and lack of attention from caregivers. I also sense that the

Supermom? I recently read an article in a parenting magazine about how parents today spend too much time directly attending to our kids and trying to be super-parents, and it's wearing us out. How in the past, parents could send their kids out to play and not see them until dinner time. And I got this flash of understanding as to why so many parents can't understand why in the world I would choose to homeschool. Why they often feel slightly threatened by my homeschooling. They think that by homeschooling I am spending even MORE focused attention on my kids, and they are already tapped out with the homework-driving-to-practice-school-drop-off-plus-quality-time rigamarole. How do I possibly do that plus teach them and be with them ALL DAY LONG???  I don't. Learning Through Living What people don't realize is that homeschool is not business-as-mainstream-usual plus being their teacher all day. The moms (and dads) who try that approach burn out pretty much

Here are a few books to get you thinking about creative and eclectic homeschooling. “This is a beautifully written, honest, introspective, soul-revealing, and soul-stirring account of one family’s choice to live close to nature and to allow their children to learn naturally, without school, in a self-directed manner.  The book’s biggest message, I think, is that we do have choices; we can chart our own lives, we don't have to follow the crowd if we don’t want to.”—Peter Gray, Research Professor at Boston College and author of Free to Learn ___________________________ The essence of John Holt’s insight into learning and small children is captured in Learning All The Time. This delightful book by the influential author of How Children Fail and How Children Learn shows how children learn to read, write, and count in their everyday life at home and how adults can respect and encourage this wonderful process. For human beings, he reminds us, learning is as n