John Caldwell Holt is often referred to as the “Father of Unschooling”. He was an educator in the 1950s who documented the glaring issues he saw in the school system through a total of eleven books. His ideas led him to be a consultant for many schools. But he then became an early proponent of [...]
Tag: education
Homeschool Chat: What Is the Montessori Method?
The Montessori Method is used in both classroom settings (in Montessori schools, led by certified Montessori teachers) and home environments. It was developed by Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, at the end of the 19th century. Here are some of the main tenets of the philosophy: • Mixed age learning groups. In classrooms, it is [...]
Homeschool Chat: What is the Charlotte Mason method?
Charlotte Mason was a British educator. She lived at the turn of the twentieth century. She believed that children should be respected as people and taught the motto: “I am. I can. I ought. I will.” She also believed that children were natural born learners and that the desire to learn need only be facilitated. [...]
Homeschool Chat: What is Classical Education?
For the final transcript posts from our most recent homeschooling chat, I will be providing a breakdown of the most common homeschool methods. None will be a completely exhaustive explanation, but they will provide some historical context and a basic framework of the main tenets for each method. We are starting with the Classical method. [...]
Homeschool Chat: Balancing Lesson Plans and Life (Part 2)
You can find part one of this topic here. Question submitted to the homeschool chat: “How do you handle completing lessons that you have planned on days you have to actually live your life, go to appointments, run errands, etc?” My reply: We do some formal “sit down school” though we utilize unschooling as well. [...]
Homeschool Chat: Balancing Lesson Plans and Life (part 1)
Here we are with the first transcript of our August “Homeschool Chat”, a week long conversation that attempts to answer and discuss a wide range of questions submitted by parents. I give my thoughts and ask other homeschooling parents to contribute their feedback as well. It will likely take several posts for me to transfer [...]
Homeschool Chat: Extracurricular Activities, Socialization, and Thinking Outside of the Box.
Feedback from this chat included comments like: “I feel so relieved and encouraged!” “There is so much freedom in homeschooling.” “I learned that hobbies don’t necessarily have to be separate from extracurriculars.” “Homeschoolers are so well rounded!” When I asked the homeschoolers participating in the chat to list their kids extracurricular activities, several dozen different [...]
Homeschool Chat: the Reggio Emilia Approach
In the past year, I’ve discussed quite a few methods and styles of education (Charlotte Mason, Classical, Montessori, Unit Study, Waldorf, Unschooling, and more) through Instagram. Though we utilize a blend of styles; we certainly don’t incorporate all of them. Explaining them is not an endorsement of them or necessarily a lesson in how we [...]
Homeschool Chat: Balance, Consistency, Scheduling, and Burn Out.
For a few years, I would periodically hold Q+A sessions to discuss homeschooling on Instagram. It’s always been a topic that gets a lot of questions, but I quickly learned that when given the invitation many more people than I would have otherwise heard from came forward with curiosity. Last year, as questions increased without [...]
St. Patrick’s Day Guide
St. Patrick’s Day has certainly been hijacked by leprechauns, luck, and lager. It takes some digging to find appropriate resources telling the true history of the missionary once named Maewyn Succat and the reason he is remembered. We are not worshipful of saints. We certainly don’t pray to them. But it is, I believe, important [...]
Emmy Goulet 
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