When my children were small, I was a SAHHM (“stay-at-home”-homeschooling-mom), and laundry responsibilities were a natural part of our “curriculum.” This was because I intended for my children’s education to include equipping them with basic life skills, like self-care, financial responsibility, and household maintenance. Continue reading »
Shay Seaborne
Shay Seaborne has been writing about home education since she began homeschooling her children in 1995. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Home Education Magazine and “The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas” by Linda Dobson. Shay has been very active in the homeschool community, at the local, state and national levels. She founded and led a local support group for several years and was a key volunteer with The Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers for a decade. Ms. Seaborne formed the grassroots coalition that resolved a serious issue with her county’s homeschool regulation and won homeschoolers the right to partial enrollment. Shay loves people, loves helping people, loves being a synergist, and loves to witness people grow, thrive, and become empowered and happy. She is the founder/owner/co-moderator of the VaEclecticHS discussion list. Shay posts about homeschooling, life and experiences at her blog, www.SynergyField.com.
Love Buckets
by Shay Seaborne
The most important aspects of family centered education are things not easily measured by standardized testing, and are absent from most ready-made curricula. There were many concepts I wanted my children to grasp at an early age, including the cycle of giving and receiving. So, I gave them an object lesson. Continue reading »
Tiger Mother… Sort Of
by Shay Seaborne
In reading several articles about Chua’s book, I realized that I, too, am a “Tiger Mother.” My daughters have been strictly homeschooled from birth, according to lofty goals their mother set before they were even conceived.
Like children of Tiger Mothers everywhere, my girls were also expected to make all “A’s”. I pushed them, sometimes very hard…out the door in good weather. Continue reading »
Extra Rules Always Required
by Shay Seaborne
Time and again, in various states around the country, we have seen that homeschool tax credit legislation attracts increased monitoring. With new federal “model” homeschool tax credit legislation already proposed, homeschoolers must be extremely vigilant in opposing this well intentioned threat to our homeschool freedoms. Continue reading »
Inoculating Against Madison Avenue
by Shay Seaborne
/>I was struck by the marketing comprehension exhibited in my children’s play. I hoped it would inoculate them against Madison Avenue, relieving them of the false pressure to buy, collect, and throw away massive quantities of “stuff” in order to feel good about themselves and their lives. Continue reading »
The “Show Me” Letter
by Shay Seaborne
/>A new administrator, unfamiliar with the finer points of the homeschool law, asked for more than the legal requirement. She called to tell me she wanted a list of the books I would be using. Being an unschooler, I couldn’t guess what books would grab my kids’ interest. Even if I could guess, this was beyond the law. However, I felt this phone conversation was not the time to say so.
The Write Way
by Shay Seaborne
As homeschool parents often discover, there is no one right way for a child to learn to write. We often try various methods, curricula, tools, and motivations. What might work beautifully for one child may, for another, bring tears—our child’s and our own! Continue reading »
Germ Warfare
by Shay Seaborne
Hand washing and safe food handling are very important to me. I’m not above bringing food safety brochures to potlucks. This fixation is not without cause, though; as a teenager, I contracted my first obvious food-borne illness after eating strawberries in Mexico City. During the space of the next few years, I had the educational Continue reading »
Waiting For Unschooling To Work
by Shay Seaborne
Remarkably, the best homeschooling advice I received came when my first child was a baby. My friend Barb, an experienced homeschooling mom who loaned me stacks of Home Education Magazine and Growing Without Schooling, told me that to homeschool I only had to "provide a rich environment, involve children in everyday living, and help find answers to their questions." That sounded very simple, and it is; the challenge is in trusting that such a plan is enough. Continue reading »
