Rebecca Capuano
Rebecca Capuano is the stay-at-home Mom of three children (one of whom is in heaven) who also makes attempts at being a homeschooler, writer, photographer, scrapbooker, and truth-seeker. She earned her Master of Social Work degree from East Carolina University, and has worked in a variety of capacities (including group homes, day treatment centers, and public schools) with at-risk children and staff, including developing a therapeutic and educational day treatment center for delinquent youth in Wilmington, North Carolina. She currently resides in Virginia, and has written on a variety of topics for both Examiner.com and Home Educators Association of Virginia. Rebecca believes that family is created by God as the most fundamental institution in society, and she is dedicated to helping families nurture their children to become responsible persons of character and integrity. In addition to reading her posts at TheHomeSchoolMom, you can follow her search for truth (and blunders along the way) in family, faith and culture by visiting her blog, seeluminosity.com.
Thinking of Homeschooling? As homeschooling has grown in popularity, I have had more and more people ask me for advice on how to do this thing. And let’s be honest, there aren’t a lot of guidelines. One of the great benefits of homeschooling is that you can make it be whatever you need it to be for your individual family. However, in this benefit is also a challenge – there are so many options, so many different ways of homeschooling, it can be overwhelming to those who are starting for the first time. Many a friend considering homeschooling has moaned, “I just don’t know if I can do it!”. Read more »
I’ve had more friends this year decide to homeschool than any other year since we began homeschooling. The reasons have varied — concern over values taught in the public school system, distress about peer relationships, a desire to inculcate principles of faith, worries about increased “teaching to the test” procedures in government schools, an interest in providing more individualized instruction… but whatever the reason, each parent has had a significant “deer in the headlights” look as they have shared their newly chosen educational path. They have one question in common, whether spoken or unspoken: “How do I homeschool my child?” Read more »
I am going to be a math curriculum expert before this whole homeschooling thing is over. Yep, we are now on our third math program in four years. This isn’t how I planned it, but then, does anything in homeschooling go according to plan? I would have liked to have begun a math program in Kindergarten and stuck with it, at least through the sixth grade. That would have helped me be able to avoid repetition, progress more efficiently, and be able to keep a more accurate assessment of exactly what she was mastering. Read more »
Soccer? Dance? Basketball? Piano lessons? Swim team? Debate team? Choir? There are so many options, it can make your head spin. At some point in your homeschooling career, you will have to decide: What are we going to do about extra-curricular activities for our children? Read more »
If you home school long enough, you will likely come across a learning obstacle for your child that makes you want to bang your head against the wall. You use different programs, you use creative learning techniques, you incentivize, you, um, maybe yell a little… All to no avail. Your child just. doesn’t. get. it. For us, this concept was number sequencing. My second grade right-brain oriented, creative global thinker just could not get it. She can rock geometry like a star, write three-point expository paragraphs without assistance, and sew her own doll clothes. But she cannot count numbers in sequence, particularly backwards, effectively. Finding 69 on a number sequence chart (in which they are all in order according to tens) takes a while. Turning to page number 128 is a bit of a challenge. Read more »
The cherry trees are blooming, the air is warmer, and the snows have melted for good. Every parent of young (or even not-so-young) children wants to do a happy dance when spring arrives and the kids can actually go outside again (“Hide the puzzles! Hunt for the short sleeves!”). Riding bikes, playing in outside forts, soccer practice — the bottom line is that all of it means energy expenditures! Read more »
I think every family needs a highly distracted kid. Because if you don’t have one, you’re just missing out on life’s best possible training ground for patience. And creativity. And endurance. And… Well, anyway. Let’s just say if you don’t have one, you are not getting the full parenting and homeschooling experience. So go borrow someone else’s for a while, and give some poor homeschooling mother somewhere her sanity for a couple of hours. Read more »
It takes some creativity to teach right-brain oriented children effectively. These holistic, creative thinkers can keep us on our toes to find the best means to help them learn and remember. Intuitive, contextual, and visual, right-brain oriented learners often have difficulty learning concepts that are word-oriented, logical, and detailed. Therefore, like Reading and Math, vocabulary words can pose a challenge for right-brain oriented kids – especially when the traditional method of looking them up in the dictionary is used. Read more »
Christer and Annie Johansson decided to homeschool their only son, Domenic, because, at the time, homeschooling was legal in Sweden. For almost a year and a half prior to his seizure, the family had been harrassed and investigated for their decision, because Sweden (which has since made homeschooling illegal) was hostile to anyone that did not enroll their children in the government-sponsored schools. In June 2009, the family boarded a plane in preparation for flying to Annie’s native country of India, when Swedish armed policed stormed the plane and seized Domenic from his parents. Domenic, who vomited from the trauma of it all, was immediately placed in state foster care. The parents were never charged with any crime, nor did the police have a warrant. Officials originally cited homeschooling as the reason for taking Domenic into custody, only later adding in cavities in Domenic’s teeth (which the family was planning on getting treated in India by a dentist relative of Annie’s), and a failure to vaccinate to their justifications. Read more »
Valentine’s Day is coming up. And, guys, even if you haven’t thought about it yet, it’s highly likely that your wife has. And that she’s anticipating something from you. Especially if she’s a homeschooling wife. Because, let’s face it, she doesn’t get a lot of accolades for what she does from anyone else. No “celebration of the 100th time you got Johnny back on task without losing your cool” or awards for “Homeschool Mom Most Able to Overcome Learning Obstacles All On Her Own”. Not even any team excellence award. Because — oh yeah. There is no team. Plus she has to deal with the “I can’t do this” chair flops, overflowing science projects, and baby poop — often at the same time. Read more »
