re you considering homeschooling your children? While there is more information out there about homeschooling than ever before, you may not know where to start. So let's take a look at homeschooling, from a beginner's perspective.
"Homeschooling" in a legal sense means that one or more children of not more than 2 families are instructed by parents or legal guardians, or a member of either household. The laws that define homeschooling vary from state to state, and country to country.
If you have ever had a baby or toddler, you've already homeschooled--you just didn't know it! Learning begins long before kids reach school-age. Many children already know their alphabets, the names of animals, colors and other more complicated stuff before they reach school. And who taught them? I'm betting it was you.
Homeschooling is just a natural progression from there. Instead of sending your child to a public school, you make or buy your own curriculum and teach in ways that best suit your child. This, put simply, is what homeschooling is about. Here's what to consider before you make the decision to homeschool.
ne of your many jobs as a mom is to be a short-order cook. You know by now that your son wants the skin taken off his hot dog, your daughter will only eat the Blues Clues Mac and Cheese, and by all means, they both will only eat their grilled cheese sandwiches without the crust. Well, we can help make life easier with that last one. This -- dare we say -- ingenious product by Inventive Parent cuts a sandwich into 4 quarters, removing the crust, in one swift, mess-free motion.
ear EarthTalk: How can we get schools to offer healthier and more eco-friendly cafeteria food to our kids? I don’t have time to bag a healthy lunch every day.
ike many middle-school-aged boys, my son despised writing assignments when we began homeschooling. Having been forced to do voluminous writing assignments when he was still attending school, his initial reaction when I became his teacher was to protest and argue over every writing assignment I gave him. After much trial and error, I found that the best approach was to give him a lot of latitude in choosing the topics and even what days he would write, at least in the beginning. When months began to pass and his writing skills were still weaker than I thought they should be for someone his age and given his abilities in other academic areas, I decided I had to induce him to practice writing more but also had to make it fun. If I didn't, we were going to have struggles over every sentence that ever reached the paper.
ome Mondays, my weekly calendar, posted on the large white dry erase board, is covered with activity. Five different colors, one for each family member makes quite a rainbow. I've even got the dog's schedule written in light yellow. (I don't want to make his activities look too imposing.) It still seems like too much.
Every other week, we've got three Girl Scout meetings scheduled. My spouse used to exclaim, "How can that be? We've only got two daughters!" I remind him, "One meeting for Sarah, one for Karen, and one for me." Oh. That's right. I lead a troop and neither of my children are in it. It's kind of a personal extravagance, that biweekly meeting. 
he decision to vaccinate your children is one that should be made after researching the positives and negatives of each vaccine. How effective is it? How likely is exposure to the disease in the first place? What are the potential side effects? When choosing vaccines to have administered to our son, we spent many hours reading information and discussing before deciding how we would proceed. We selected the vaccines that we felt were important, and the order in which we wanted them administered. Unfortunately, in our concern about the possible reactions to the main ingredients, we overlooked something: the potential reaction to the vaccine's carrier agents, preservative, or other additives. 
es, that's the sound of the school bell again, but don't despair--you and your family can still build in a fun variation of the family vacation on the weekend or their next day off. Mini-vacations offer the same spirit-renewing benefits as their longer counterparts. The LaClairs of upstate New York said that one-day trips are a good match because "they fit into our time schedule and budget."
