Most of my favorite childhood moments took place outside. I remember hours of playing with neighborhood children — skating, riding bikes, playing hopscotch, and acting out stories around my swing set and playhouse. Other happy hours were spent with my grandfather...
This 463rd Carnival of Homeschooling offers a smorgasbord of creative ideas, inspiration, and practical tips for homeschooling. As you read each post, I hope you’ll find kindred spirits among the bloggers, and lots of good things to read as you sit by the fire and sip tea.
If your student is behind in a school subject and you are thinking of homeschooling through the summer break, please stop a moment. I’d like to share a few thoughts on homeschoolers doing summer school. Schooling through the summer may...
Deep meaning lies often in childish play. -Johann Friedrich von Schiller The outdoors used to be a place where children could run, play, build, create, and do the mildly hazardous things children love to do. I remember walking the 5′...
Essay writing is not the only tool for studying literature. Students can benefit from the occasional opportunity to approach the great books in a fresh way, so here are a few alternatives to writing a literary analysis.
When I started this blog, I planned to focus strictly on entrepreneurship and microbusiness because those things can make it possible to live a doing-what-matters life. The problem was, with a URL like DoingWhatMatters.com, it’s been hard not to write...
Here is a playlist of a dozen interesting TED talks on education, mostly reflecting on the nature of education and traditional schooling and considering how it could be done better.
One of the most important prerequisites for doing what matters is planning. Although I do a lot of my work on the computer, I’ve used paper-based planners ever since I was in middle school. I prefer to plan during contemplative...
Helping your children learn to use their hands creatively can help develop imagination, creativity, and fine motor skills and will provide them with the means of giving unique and beautiful gifts to others, even on a very small budget.
One of the highlights of our memorable trip to Europe was seeing the Bayeux Tapestry — the story of the 1066 war. I’d just finished reading 1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Haworth (highly recommended), so it was fresh...
It’s summertime, and a few days after you put away the schoolbooks, you may hear the dreaded complaint, “I’m bored.” It’s a complaint I always welcomed, because I had found the perfect answer.
I love Monday — it’s my favorite day of the week!* From the pinnacle of Monday morning, there stretches before me a string of four perfect days at home. From now until Friday, I’m able to focus on home and to be...
