I don't know about you, but I can struggle to come up with gift ideas, especially if it is for someone else's child.
Read More6 Tips to Keep Your Kids Healthy During the Flu Season→
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Just because winter is here, it doesn't mean we can expect to catch the latest bug going around.
Trying to avoid germs is impractical because we will always come into contact with germs. What is practical is to boost our immunities so our bodies are less susceptible to infection by the germs we encounter.
“The greatest wealth is health.”
And this is one of the areas where my earlier profession in Chinese medicine comes in handy. Let's look at the top 6 ways to keep our immune systems strong.
The first is obvious but it's always good to remind ourselves.
1. Diet
Eating a healthy diet is a no-brainer, but there are some diet related ingredients we need to pay particular attention to.
AVOID
The number one ingredient to avoid for optimal immune system function is sugar. Sugar comes in many forms too.
A diet high in fruit juices, fruits high in sugar, agave syrup, monk fruit, honey, maple syrup, and every kind of sugar you can think of, is still sugar. Keep sweet things at a very low minimum during the flu season because sugar in any form reduces our ability to fight infections.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
EAT PLENTY OF THESE FOODS
However, foods that boost immunity are plentiful, and there are some foods you will want to include daily such as onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and lemon. Cooking with onions, garlic, ginger, and turmeric are excellent for immune function.
Tumeric lattes are a delicious winter-time drink too in place of hot chocolate.
Any high vitamin C foods will also be particularly important this time of year such as oranges, blueberries, and kiwi fruits. Salmon and broccoli are also very strengthening to the immune system.
MORNING TIP
Make your children a glass of warm water with lemon and a little bit of honey in the morning, this is a great immune booster as well as a detoxifier.
2. Oxygen
Even during the cold months, it's vital to your child's well-being to get outdoors and play. Exercise will move more oxygen into our bodies and help to keep our blood oxygenated as well as move impurities out of it.
Exercise also makes us feel happier which helps protect our immune systems too. And, of course, it's great for brain health!
Children have a lot of what we refer to as "vital heat" or "Yang energy" in Chinese medicine, so don't panic if they want to take their coats off because they're hot from running around.
They can handle more cold than we can because their bodies run hotter than ours. However, if you have a child who is a little frail, you want to take more precaution, for sure.
Keeping windows open to bring fresh air into the house is also important to maintaining good oxygen levels in the blood. On cold days, you can air out the house and then turn the heat up for a while.
3. Sunshine
Vitamin D, in its natural form, is excellent for our immunity. With the weather apps, we can even map what hours during the day will have sunshine and plan our outings around those times. A little bit of sunshine is better than none, so don't miss it when it does shine.
4. Supplements
Vitamin C is important to take especially during the winter months. In addition to vitamin C, you want to add some zinc. On the days you are without sun, you can supplement with Vitamin D as well.
You can also give your children a spoonful of homemade elderberry syrup every day. This is a great immune booster and particularly useful if they do get ill.
5. Essential Oils
Essential oils are great for adding a daily boost to the immune system to fight off viruses and bacteria. Oregano oil can be applied to the feet at the instep of the sole three times a day. There is also a blend I like a lot called On Guard by Doterra.
“Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend.”
Essential oils are an important part of a child's life, because they leave them with olfactory memories that your children then associate with sweet times.
Dabbing a child with Lavender oil before sleep, or frankincense and rosemary before studying, or On Guard during the flu season builds the olfactory memories in addition to the health effects.
When I drive to my grandfather's home during the springtime, the smell of tar weed is always pungent, and it takes me straight back to my childhood. Those are the kind of memories a particular scent can trigger.
6. Sleep
A good night's sleep is a must. It's a good idea to get your children into the habit of going to bed at the same time every night, so they wake up about the same time every morning. Children need a lot of sleep which is vital to a healthy development as well as a protection from illness.
A quiet bedtime story is the optimal way to lead an energetic child into dreamland.
Staying healthy requires intention; it isn't something we can take for granted. The more attention you pay to your child's health by raising them to have healthy lifestyle habits, the healthier they'll be as adults.
And the less flu’s they’ll suffer through as children. But sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, our kids still get ill, and we may get ill too.
That's life.
Regardless, here's to a healthy winter!
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Liz will share her 6-step framework to raise children of higher intelligence, critical thinking, and of better character.
As a homeschooler, you will never have to worry about failing your children, because Liz will empower you to feel confident, calm, and motivated; as well as provide you with the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, she has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
This 1 Counter-Intuitive Habit Will Protect You Against Burnout→
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If you want to create an attitude of gratitude in your home, here's three things you can do to foster feelings of gratitude in your children:
Read MoreOMG! Did You Hear About the Oregon State Standards?→
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If you want to create an attitude of gratitude in your home, here's three things you can do to foster feelings of gratitude in your children:
Read More3 Steps to Raising Grateful Kids→
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If you want to create an attitude of gratitude in your home, here's three things you can do to foster feelings of gratitude in your children:
Read More6 Ways Public Schools Harm Our Children→
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An overdose of medicine to a child’s body is like an overdose of public school to their minds and hearts. When we understand the agenda behind public school, we’ll do everything in our power to find an alternative, just like we do everything in our power to keep medicine out of a child’s reach.
Below is an excerpt from an essay by John Taylor Gatto which gives us an insight into the toxicity of public schools— not only for our children’s minds, but for their hearts too.
The Short, Angry History of Compulsory Schooling
Theorists from Plato to Rousseau knew well, and explicitly taught, that if children could be kept childish beyond the natural term, if they could be cloistered in a society of children, if they could be stripped of responsibility, if their inner lives could be starved by removing the insights of historians, philosophers, economists, novelists, and religious figures, if the inevitability of suffering and death could be removed from daily consciousness and replaced with the trivializing emotions of greed, envy, jealousy, and fear then young people would grow older but they would never grow up.
In this way a great enduring problem of supervision would be decisively minimized, for who can argue against the truth that childish and childlike people are far easier to manage than accomplished critical thinkers.
With this thought in mind, you're ready to hear the six purposes of modern schooling I found in Dr. Inglis' book. The principles are his, just as he stated them nearly 100 years ago, some of the interpretive material is my own.
1st Function
The first function of schooling is adjustive. Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority.
Fixed habits.
Of course this precludes critical judgement completely. If you were to devise a reliable test of whether someone had achieved fixed habits of reaction to authority, notice that requiring obedience to stupid orders would measure this better than requiring obedience to sensible orders ever could.
You can't know whether someone is reflexively obedient until you can make them do foolish things.
2nd Function
Second is the diagnostic function. School is to determine each student's proper social role, logging evidence mathematically and anecdotally on cumulative records.
3rd Function
Third is the sorting function. Schools sort children by training individuals only so far as their likely destination in the social machine and not one step further. So much for making boys and girls their personal best.
4th Function
The fourth function is conformity. As much as possible, kids are to be made alike. As egalitarian as this sounds, its purpose is to assist market and government research, people who conform are predictable.
5th Function
The fifth function Inglis calls "the hygienic function”. It has nothing to do with bodily health. It concerns what Darwin, Galton, Inglis, and many important names from the past and present would call, "the health of the race."
Hygiene is a polite way of saying that school is expected to accelerate natural selection by tagging the unfit so clearly they will drop from the reproduction sweepstakes.
That's what all those little humiliations from first grade onward, and all the posted lists of ranked grades are really about. The unfit will either drop out from anger, despair, or because their likely mates will accept the school's judgement of their inferiority.
6th Function
And last is the propaedeutic function. A fancy Greek term meaning that a small fraction of kids will quietly be taught how to take over management of this continuing project, made guardians of a population deliberately dumbed down and rendered childish in order that government and economic life can be managed with a minimum of hassle.”
What Will You Do?
And there you have it, in a nutshell, so how will you educate your children?
There was a time when the government schooling agenda was still well-hidden, but that time has passed.
From critical race theory to gender identity topics, from a lack of basic competency in key subjects to our severely low literacy rates, we are in a serious crisis.
On top of that, our falling literacy rates highlight the dumbed-down minds of the American people.
Not just nationally, but globally. I travel a lot, and I can tell you that Americans have a reputation for not being too bright. With such a low literacy rate, it is no wonder.
Therefore, if we want to raise children who are not dumbed-down, children who are not lacking in the basic traits that comprise “good” character, then we need to do something about it.
And that something is not school.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Liz will share her 6-step framework to raise children of higher intelligence, critical thinking, and of better character.
As a homeschooler, you will never have to worry about failing your children, because Liz will empower you to feel confident, calm, and motivated; as well as provide you with the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, she has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
Is Sex Education Sexualizing Our Children?→
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Are four-year-old children developmentally ready to learn about sex? Are children of any age ready for this kind of education?
No, they are NOT!
Ironically, we teach children to believe in Santa Claus, but, in the same vein, we have sex-education classes for kindergartners. Freud would have fun untangling this web of inconsistencies.
One of the problems is that rather than deter children from an interest in sex, sex-education classes have the opposite effect.
A Not-So-Good Idea.
According to Dr. Melvin Anchell, who wrote the book What's Wrong With Sex Education, teaching sex education in the classroom has led to significant increases in teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, promiscuity, teenage abortions, and, not surprisingly, depression and suicide.
While the reasons for this are more than we can tackle here, let's look at a few of them to get a sense of what is taking place in the classroom.
For starters, when we introduce children to the concept of sex at an early age and do it in mixed classrooms, we remove that natural barrier of modesty which children have, especially the modesty between girls and boys.
We then reduce sex education to the mechanics of a physical act and ignore its purpose, which is procreation and a physical expression of the emotional state called love.
The earlier children begin to think about the mechanics of sex; however, the more desensitized they become to a physical act that was once held sacred.
Having removed the barrier of modesty, the more curious young people become about sex, the less forbidden sex begins to seem.
Dr. Anchell's findings make perfect sense in a world where elementary sex education has been normalized for children attending public schools.
Lifestyle Choices
In the 21st century, we have begun to teach preschoolers that two women or two men make a family.
To each his own but why is this a topic in preschool? What happened to Winnie the Poor or Peter Rabbit stories?
The idea of teaching four-year-olds that two fathers make a family and two mothers make a family is unnecessary unless you are trying to indoctrinate them into the idea. Then yes, the earlier, the better.
It isn’t necessary to teach these things because children don’t think in these constructs until they are older. We never taught them that a father and a mother make up a family, did we?
Children do not judge the various types of "families" in the world. Children take life as it comes without preconceived notions. Whatever world they grow up in will seem normal to them until they are old enough to evaluate it objectively.
Furthermore, what happened to schools teaching subjects such as grammar, Latin, poetry, and Ancient history? Why do we no longer teach these subjects, subjects that children do need to learn if we want them to be well-educated.
After all, isn't that why they are in school?
Benefit vs. Harm?
And, if teaching sex education to children leads to significant increases in teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, promiscuity, teenage abortions, depression, and suicide, as Dr. Anchell reports, then doesn't this tell us that sex education in the classroom is potentially harmful to our children?
If this is true, it would be prudent to understand what your children are being taught in the name of education.
“If no set of moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilized morality to savage morality.”
Planned Parenthood has many educational videos on Youtube produced for children ranging from learning the Latin names their genitalia to enlightening them about gender identity. As you watch the videos, pay close attention to the language that is being used and the assumptions being made.
This is the same language and these are the same assumptions your children are being exposed to in public school.
Here is one inside into Planned Parenthood’s nefarious agenda. If your children are in school, please watch this.
The Sex Education Standards
You can easily check out the National Sexuality Education Standards to learn about the K-12 sexual education objectives as taught in public school today. The information is online and available to anyone who chooses to dig a little deeper for on behalf of their children.
To give you an idea of what you'll find in the Standards, for example, kindergartners are now taught anatomy. There is nothing wrong with teaching anatomy, but, curiously, no other body parts are mentioned except for the proper names of the male and female genitalia.
A Novel Idea
Have you ever heard a child refer to their private parts by their proper names? On the contrary, as already stated, children have a natural modesty about these things. Why take that away from them?
The onus is not on our children to make sure they are safe from predators; that’s our job. In addition, there is no scientific research that validates the claim that children need to be taught the Latin terms in order to protect them from predators.
Furthermore, most adults cannot identify the location of their liver or pancreas, but somehow, a kindergartner should know the proper names of their genitalia?
It would be more fitting to teach students where their organs were located, but maybe not when they are five-years-old.
Feeling Feelings
Consider this standard: "Identify healthy ways for friends to express feelings to each other." Take note that this need to "express feelings to each" is a part of sex-education courses, not a course in communication.
What do they mean by healthy ways that young children express their feelings to one another? Can you imagine an eight-year-old boy going up to his eight-year-old friend, also a boy, and saying, "I'd like to express my feelings to you by telling you that I really like you."
This is not the kind of conversation boys and girls engage in. Maybe they will say something such as, "I like you" or "let's be best friends," as I remember saying to my childhood best friend, but that is the extent of it.
Young children are not thinking about their "feelings" for one another because they don't understand the abstract concept of "feelings."
They either like you or they don’t!
Attempting to teach children about their feelings within the context of sex education, and then teaching them about various sexual practices will naturally get them wondering which may explain why another sexual practice is also on the rise…
Yes, these are things our schooled children are being exposed to today, and we have little to no say over it.
“How can one be well...when one suffers morally”
Let Boys Be Boys!
Here's another of the Standard's objectives: "Provide examples of how friends, family, media, society and culture influence ways in which boys and girls think they should act."
Shouldn't a healthy society teach girls to behave like girls and boys to behave like boys? Evidently not. Instead, we teach them that they can choose their pronouns as easily as they can choose the color of their hair.
Which begs only one question, have we gone totally insane?
In public school, children are expected to ponder the societal influences on their behavior, based on their gender type, yet, Western psychology understands that children are too young to ruminate over these concepts. So...who is fooling whom?
“The goal of a boy should be to become a man, and that of a girl to become a woman.”
Gender type, that's another good one.
Between the third and the fifth grade, a child should: "Define sexual orientation as the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender."
No comment.
Between sixth and eighth grades, your child should be able to: "Differentiate between gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation."
No comment.
There are many reasons to keep your children out of public school, but protecting them from inappropriate exposure to sexual material and subsequent non-sensical value judgments should be at the top of any diligent parent's list.
The environment your children grow up in will help to shape who they become. Research shows that 75% of children will adopt the beliefs they are taught in school.
Childhoods for Children
Children cannot have a wholesome childhood without keeping their innocence intact. Part of their "coming of age" includes being introduced to matters reserved for the adult world when it is appropriate to be introduced to them.
WHEN IT IS APPROPRIATE TO BE INTRODUCED TO THEM.
The Perpetrator
There are developmental stages in which this happens. But when the stages are interrupted and sped up to meet a perverse agenda largely pushed by taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood, one has to wonder what is going on?
Did you know that between 2013 and 2015, taxpayers funded Planned Parenthood to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars? This is an organization that earns a lot of money itself, not only by performing abortions but by selling the aborted fetal cells and body parts to research companies including the vaccine industry which uses fetal cells to grow its viruses.
“Planned Parenthood lied to the public and to Congress, but now there is no longer any reasonable doubt that Planned Parenthood sold fetal body parts, commodifying living children in the womb and treating pregnant women like a cash crop. The U.S. Department of Justice must escalate the enforcement of laws against fetal trafficking to the highest level of priority.”
Thanks to Planned Parenthood, since the 1960s, we have children who are being deprived of a normal childhood in the name of "social change" and the sundry societal ramifications that come with it.
Parents as Protectors
Therefore, each parent should do everything in their power to oppose Planned Parenthood’s influence on our children by providing a wholesome childhood for the precious being they brought into this world.
Protecting your children has to begin with keeping them out of any school, public or private, that does not protect their innocence.
Sex education is something children should learn about in the home and from their parents (In modest cultures, it isn’t even a topic that’s discussed between parent and child). It is a parent's right to decide if and when to approach the subject; it should never be a decision for public or private schools to make.
As we raise our children, we must remember that we are our children's guardians, and we must guard our children well.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, she has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
#1 Huge Mistake Parents Are Making→
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No parent would want to raise their child to be less intelligent than he could be.
Yet, every single day, around the world, parents are doing one critical thing that gets in the way of their children’s intellectual development.
Their children are spending way too much time on screens. Whether it’s for educational purposes or simple entertainment, screens are screens.
The Hard Facts
From one study by Hikaru Takeuchi, et al, “Excessive internet use is shown to be cross sectionally associated with lower cognitive functioning and reduced volume of several brain areas.”
According to Common Sense Media’s latest research, 50% of teens report that they feel addicted to their phones while 59% of their parents say the teens are addicted.
That’s a lot of teens who are addicted to their phones.
The younger a child is, the more damaging technology is to the development of his brain. This is a hard fact of science.
Effects on the Growing Brain
Technology use in childhood interferes with the neural connections in the brain, and it is the neural connections that make up our intelligence.
Logic would have it that the less neural connections a brain makes, the less intelligent an individual would become.
We are seeing first-hand the evidence of the numbing effect technology has on children’s minds with a new generation of tech babies who have come of age.
There are so many studies reporting the ill effects of technology on the brains of children.
It cannot be argued otherwise unless you have billions of dollars and spread false propaganda to sell your products like the video game lobby does.
Video games alone pull in 300 billion dollars per year! The industry pays lobbyists to convince congressmen that video games are beneficial.
Inability to Focus and ADHD
We know that technology use interferes with our ability to focus. With so many children playing video games, and so many children diagnosed with ADHD, I wonder how much technology has to do with it?
Maybe instead of medicating our kids, we removed technology from their lives, they might learn to focus better.
So many adults self-label themselves with ADHD when they don’t have ADHD. People say it so often that it’s become a euphemism for a lack of focus.
The hard facts of the matter are that we’re spending too much time online.
True Story
I spoke with a woman once who lost her son to technology. He became addicted as a teenager, and when he finally recovered, she said he was never the same kid.
She didn’t have a strong connection with him like she had with her other children, because the technology had damaged his brain.
It was a heartbreaking story, and one that will be shared with more and more parents until we come to terms with the truth about technology.
We will serve our children best by getting rid of the gadgets. And be willing to deal with the complaints and the anger your kids will probably display for the first few weeks, because eventually, they’ll get over it.
You don’t want to lose your kids to technology, as so many parents have. We now have a plethora of addiction centers for withdrawing from technology because the addiction is real.
And each child with a device is a potential victim.
If you have your kids online for school, drop that too. Homeschooling offline is much easier, more rewarding, and more enjoyable.
May we ditch the brain-draining, mind-numbing screens and provide our children with a more brain-activating, mind-developing experience instead.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
4 Reasons Your Kids Should Skip Halloween This Year→
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I took my kids trick-or-treating on a few occasions, but the more I thought about the messages we were communicating to our kids, the more I began to think trick-or-treating might not be such a great idea.
Ironically, while growing up, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. What kid doesn't like candy? Having a free-for-all candy night with no adult supervision was the equivalent of kid Heaven.
But now, I stand on the side of those who think we should ban Halloween.
#1 Health & Mixed Messages
Letting our children trick-or-treat contradicts our position that sugar is bad for their teeth and bad for them. We limit the sugar our children eat all year, but one day a year we give them a free rein to eat as much sugar as they want.
Do you have any idea how much sugar they consume? The average child consumes three cups of sugar on Halloween!
Eating Halloween candy is not limited to one night, either. For however long it takes them to get through their bag of candy, that's how many days they are filling their bodies with harmful amounts of sugar.
The gross amount of sugar consumption creates severe sugar spikes in our children's blood levels, leaving them feeling not so well.
Overeating candy comes with the underconsumption of wholesome foods, which only exacerbates the problem.
Allowing our children to trick or treat on Halloween and eat so much candy is not practicing what we preach, nor is it responsible parenting. I'm guilty too, but when the facts are on the table— wow.
I read that one dentist pays children $2.00 for every pound of Halloween candy they give him. While I can appreciate the intention behind this gesture, is it sending our kids the right message?
We buy the candy, the kids knock on our doors, we give them the candy, and then the kids sell it to the dentist.
How can turning our kids into greedy candy peddlers be a solution?
#2 Manners & Strangers
We teach our kids not to talk to strangers, and we teach them that it isn't polite to ask people for things, yet, one night a year, we let our kids knock on the doors of strangers and ask them for candy.
One gutsy moment for me as a child happened on my way home from school. I had just turned twelve, and my best friend Bridget and I were famished after a long day of sitting in classrooms.
At about 3:20 in the afternoon, as we were walking home with stomach pains from hunger, we had this bright idea.
We could trick-or-treat!
We knocked on the door of an apartment near our school, and an elderly woman opened the door. Very surprised to see us, she asked, "Isn't it a little early, girls?"
She gave us some candy anyway.
As a mother reflecting on the idea of trick or treating, it strikes me as being a contradiction of everything we’ve taught our children thus far.
We teach them that it's not polite to ask for things, yet once a year, it is permitted. We teach our kids not to speak to strangers and NEVER to take candy from a stranger, yet once a year, it is permissible.
Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules, but this one seems to go a little too far.
#3 Corporate Horror Show
Halloween has become a creepy holiday; the decorations have become gothic and violent since the corporate world has recognized it’s money-making potential.
When we were little, we had innocent little costumes: princesses and cowboy outfits. You could be a witch if you wanted, but the witch was harmless.
In my old neighborhood, a neighbor had gravestones on his front lawn and skeletons that moved and looked like they were coming out of graves. When we drove up the hill at night, my kids used to get scared because the scene looked so real.
So did I!
And that was a mild scene. My friend's neighbor in the town next to us would spend a fortune decorating his lawn until it looked like the scene out of a horror movie. I used to wonder what on earth that man was thinking.
Halloween is supposed to be for kids, not psychopaths.
#4 Waste & Starvation
I like the idea of carving pumpkins, but should we be wasting food like that? With so much starvation and deprivation in the world, it seems insensitive to waste pumpkins for a night of amusement.
For Halloween, about 22.2 million pumpkins go to waste! At your average price of $5.00 per pumpkin, that's 111,000,000 dollars of food that we waste.
The average cost to feed one person per day in the US is supposed to be about $11.00 (seems very low); divided by 111, 000,000, we could feed 10 million people, roughly. (2022 stats)
My god, that's shameful.
What Can Kids Do Instead of Trick or Treating?
Have a costume party
Start a local fund and ask people to donate $5.00—instead of buying a pumpkin—and then use the money to donate food to a local charity.
Study the history of Halloween, the practice of Halloween, and the contradictions of Halloween, and ask your children to take a position for or against it and write an age-appropriate essay.
What You Should Not Do
Don’t take a stance of moral superiority if you decide to skip Halloween.
I had a friend once whose children would stay home on Halloween. When the neighborhood kids knocked on their door, they would offer candy and then explain to them why they didn’t celebrate Halloween.
The unspoken was that the family was morally superior to those ill-fated enough to knock on their door, and no one accepted candy from that family without feeling a little less good about themselves.
Instead, teach your children that everyone is entitled to their beliefs and to their opinions, just as your children are entitled to their own.
While your children may not always agree with other people, they do need to respect other people’s ways because each person on earth is worthy of being treated with respect and dignity.
And lastly, if you decide to skip Halloween, don’t give candy to other people’s children. Put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door and leave it at that.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
Should You Teach Your Children That "He" Is a Politically-Incorrect Pronoun?→
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No, because it is potentially dangerous not to teach the grammatically correct usage of “he.”
In Defense of Language
Defenders of language are opposed to the idea of gender-neutralizing language, as are many, many others.
So I was not a little taken aback when a friend told me that I should replace the pronoun "he" with "they" in my writing.
Her concern was that people would think I was literally writing about boys rather than understanding "he" is a centuries-old pronoun that stands in place of an antecedent noun that could be of either sex.
Dumb-founded by my friend’s reasoning, I asked a couple of my grammarian friends if they had encountered this same concern. Maybe their being British had some bearing on my findings, but each emphatically said, "No!"
If you read Mr. Gwynne's Grammar, a best seller in England, you will find a section on the use of the pronoun "he." Mr. Gwynne makes a point of differentiating between “sex” and “gender.”
“The word to indicate whether someone is male or female is ‘sex,’ not ‘gender,’ which is purely a grammatical term.”
Basic Grammar
Assigning gender to a noun is woven into the structure of many languages, including the Romance languages. The gender of a noun will determine which form of an adjective or pronoun should accompany it.
For example, in Latin, “mensa” is a feminine noun that means "table.” To say " the beautiful table," we use the adjective’s feminine form of “beautiful” to agree with the feminine gender of “table,” hence, “mensa pulchra.”
French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian follow a similar structure.
As you can see, gender in language has nothing to do with an individual's biological sex regardless of claims to the contrary, although there is of course some overlap when human beings and animals of the female sex are being referred to.
As reason would have it, therefore, the correct use of the pronoun "he," to stand in place of a noun that could be of either sex, is not sexist but grammatically correct.
For example, let’s take this sentence as an example: “If we teach a child to read too early, he may struggle to read well later.”
“He” stands in the place of “child,” who could be either a boy or a girl.
“I’ve studied authoritarianism for a very long time - for 40 years - and they’re started by people’s attempts to control the ideological and linguistic territory”
Language Does Matter
Using language correctly does matter. If you’re unsure of how much our freedom of speech depends upon the correct use of language, read George Orwell’s book, 1984.
Our language is the means through which we understand ourselves and the world in which we live. When we start meddling with one of its basic units, we do so with potentially disastrous results, such as being confused about the biological difference between a man or a woman.
There's a sort of madness at play here.
My point is that if you are a homeschooling parent teaching your child English grammar, please teach him that "he" is a centuries-old pronoun and cannot be replaced with “they".
Instead, teach your child that “he” replaces the antecedent noun when the noun could be of either sex, and we cannot afford to lose him!
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
4 Tips to Raise Honest Children in an Increasingly Dishonest Society→
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A Dishonest Trend
Ninety-seven percent of schoolchildren cheat to pass exams, according to statistics gathered by Vickie Abeles, who produced the documentary, Race to Nowhere.
“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
When my son was an undergrad, he took a statistics exam online—during the Covid days—only to receive an email from the teacher the following day, announcing that some of the students had cheated on the exam.
Juxtapose this to pre-1950s when students were on the honor system and cheating was relatively unheard of.
When the lines between honesty and dishonesty become so blurred that cheating on exams becomes common, we have a problem.
When a grown child finishes school, if he’s learned to cheat in school, he suddenly won’t become someone who never cheats; that’s not how it works.
These children have learned to engage in dishonest behavior, because they were raised in a system that doesn't uphold the values of honesty. Now, if you are younger, the level of dishonesty might not be as obvious to you, but as someone who grew up in relatively honest times, I find it glaring.
And as someone who has lived in countries where cheating is common, I can also tell you that people lose the ability to discern truth from lies. They will cheat you and justify it, because they have lost the ability to discern a “white” lie from a lie.
It’s a fine line but I would say that a white lie is something you might tell someone in order not to hurt their feelings, but a lie is something you might tell someone to deceive them for your benefit.
It’s not as easy to raise a children in the post-modern climate—but there are strategies you can implement to ensure they grow up knowing the difference between right and wrong.
Role Models
Good role models in a child’s life are essential. If the parents treat each other courteously, if they are respectful to their family and friends, if they are honest and helpful with others, their children are more likely to follow suit.
“Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.”
As far as honesty goes, this means we don’t skip paying for an item if the checker overlooked it, or we try to get a discounted price to a national park by lying about one of our children’s ages, or we tell someone we won’t be home when we will be home.
These are untruths that our children will take notice of and do as we do. We can’t model dishonesty and then fault our children when they aren’t honest with us.
2. Discipline
There is also a training through discipline that has to occur, too, as no child is born perfect no matter how good his or her parents may be.
“Good wombs have borne bad sons.”
You have a higher chance of having your children grow up to be civil people if you understand how to train them in the ways of good character.
3. Public School
Public school can undo your hard work, though, because rudeness and crudeness are now more common, and teachers have little to no authority when it comes to correcting a child's behavior.
Children sent to school for eight hours a day, where the teachers are not allowed to discipline them, are at an obvious disadvantage for developing healthy character traits.
On the contrary, children who spend their days in a homeschooled environment have a much greater advantage than schoolchildren. Guiding children in the ways of correct behavior is something any discerning homeschool parent can easily do.
Spare the rod, spoil the child, was an old adage that adults used to repeat before the 1960's cultural revolution when the time-tested principles of raising children were abandoned.
4. Modern Inconveniences
Today, we can add to the problem the modern inconvenience of vulgar films, ribald music; silly, literature; violent video games, rude social media behavior, and stupid television programs.
The environment a child grows up in will help to shape his character, which means that we want to be diligent with the kind of multimedia we expose our children to.
In a Nutshell
A child who grows up with the ability to discern truth from falsehood, beauty from ugliness, and good from bad is a child who was guided well in his youth.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
How to Save Hundreds of Dollars While Homeschooling→
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Thinking of homeschooling but not sure you can afford it? Here’s a few ways you can save money and earn money while homeschooling.
Read More4 Ways to Handle People Who Disapprove of Homeschooling→
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The disapproving glances. The unsolicited advice. The warning by unhappy family members and friends that you're going to ruin your child if you homeschool.
Read More3 Things Your Child Must Do Even if It Makes You Panic →
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Sometimes we parents can be very irrational.
We aren’t afraid to let our children do things that may be damaging to their development like play video games or watch TV; but then our fear gets in the way of letting them do things that are good for their development like taking risks and having adventures of their own making.
Children need to be in the natural world taking risks, getting dirty, and having fun. Without taking risks, they don’t learn the limitations of their bodies and may be more prone to accidents later, nor will they develop their courage muscles.
Courage is an essential quality because we don’t want our kids to be paralyzed from fear and unable to live life to its fullest.
With that in mind, here are three things that you must let your children do no matter how much it makes you panic:
1) Climb a Tree
Children have a natural sense of what they can do and what they can't do. Serious accidents are uncommon, but in the helicopter parenting world, parents are afraid (moms especially) to let their children do things because they "might" get hurt.
Let them get hurt! A few bumps and scrapes won't kill them. They even survive broken bones.
We grew up in Northern California amongst the redwood trees, the most towering trees in the world. We would climb trees until we got tired of climbing or too scared to climb any higher, which was usually about 30 feet off the ground (an educated guess looking back many years!).
Yes, it was scary, but it was also a thrill.
“The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.”
We felt like conquerors; not of land, but of our fear. We felt a sense of accomplishment to have climbed so high, and it gave us a sense of confidence, excitement, and adventure.
Not everyone has such tall trees available to them, but I have since witnessed mothers who were afraid to let their four-year-old climb a thick tree branch that was two feet off the ground.
When we say things like, "Stop, that's too dangerous!" we interfere with our child’s developmental process and experience of living with joy.
Once I saw a child, with a pure look of excitement in her eyes, attempt to do something daring only to have her parent tell her to stop.
I literally watched the light of her excitement as it got snuffed.
If something is too dangerous–as in serious injury or death could result–you probably want to intervene, but beyond that let children do what children do best.
2) Make Mud Pies
Children love to play in the mud. They don't think in constructs of clean or dirty, but only of fun, exciting, and entertaining. And playing in the mud is nothing if it isn’t fun, exciting, and entertaining.
So, indulge them.
“Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our chidlren’s health (and also, by the way, in our own).”
When my children were young, we had a backyard with a large section of dirt in it. They spent hours there covering themselves in mud to their heart's content. Mud was matted in their hair, dripping from their ears, and embedded in their clothes by the time they were finished.
They made mud pies and had make-believe meals, they examined the mud as they closed their fists around it and watched it squish through their fingers, and they had lots of mud fights.
Yes, I had a huge mess to clean up, but it was always more amusing to me than anything else.
Mud is a perfect medium for developing your children’s senses, imagination, and motor skills. it's a great natural resource that will keep them occupied for hours.
Eat Mud
I know this might be over the top for many of you, but unless you live in an area where they spray pesticides or you live in a high traffic zone, then let your children eat mud. They won't eat much, but they do like to taste it.
I remember eating mud when I was young. It tasted like clay, but I don't think I did more than just taste it. The point is that there was no one hovering over me telling me to stop.
And if an adult had been nearby, they wouldn’t have been worried about it either. Tasting mud was a part of childhood - all children try it at some point. Who doesn't want to know what a little bit of mud tastes like?
“Nature is often overlooked as a healing balm for the emotional hardships in a child’s life.”
According to modern science, immersing themselves in mud boosters their immune systems. We even have an International Mud Day on June 29th now. This holiday must be in retaliation for the hyper-sterile environment that children in the post-modern world are raised in.
According to the "Hygiene Hypothesis," the sterile environment is putting children at risk for allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases as they get older.
Their reasoning is that the immune system develops by exposure to bacteria, viruses, and parasites, and in the modernly-sterile environment children's immune systems are not being exposed to them enough, and therefore, they’re immune systems aren't as strong as they should be.
It’s a theory, and not one I personally subscribe to, but it’s important to understand that exposure to germs strengthens our immunity. Ironically, as much as we try to prevent childhood diseases, many of these diseases are safer to contract as children than as an adult.
3) Rolling Down Hills
In my childhood, we used to climb to the top of a hill and then see who could roll down the fastest. What fun we had.
Do children still roll down hills today?!
I sympathize with any parent who does not want their child to ruin his clothes, especially if you are on a tight budget. And that’s why kids need clothes they can get dirty in.
While it's fine to have an outfit or two for when the occasion calls, the day-to-day dress of a child should not be designer clothes but rough and tumble clothes.
And one last thing, remember that a few bumps, and bruises never killed anyone. Children take pride in their bumps and bruises especially the ones that require some cleaning and bandaging.
They're a sign of the battles fought on the playground of life.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
Don't Get Caught in the Comparison Trap!→
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My kids are behind!” Tell me honestly, as a homeschooler, have you not had the same thought at least once?!
Read MoreHow to Easily Track Your Homeschooled Child's Progress→
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Are you wondering how to track your homeschooled child’s progress? It’s much easier than one might think.
Read More3 Questions to Answer Before You Begin to Homeschool→
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Many parents are choosing to homeschool today because of the inappropriate content being taught in public schools. They are also frustrated with the substandard education children have been receiving for too long.
However, while it’s critical to keep your children out of an institution notorious for the poor character and education standards it maintains, there are a few questions to ask yourself before you begin to homeschool.
Know Your Why
If we don’t fully understand why we are doing something, our chances of following through in the most effective way are compromised.
For example, if you tell someone not to eat extra protein while he is trying to build muscle but you don't explain why, he'll be less likely to follow through. He also needs to know what foods contain the highest amounts of protein, so he can reach his goal.
Home education is no different.
You want to know why public school has failed as well as what kind of an education model does work. If you can answer the question to both of these accurately, then you will be 100% committed and able to give your child a stellar education at home.
John Taylor Gatto’s best selling book, Dumbing Us Down, is the best place to begin. It will expose the fundamental problems with school making an alternative option the obvious solution.
My Why
My biggest "why" for homeschooling was that I wanted my children to have integrity, and I recognized that this was something we lost in a system that teaches us conformity. After integrity, I wanted my kids to develop their minds to the fullest.
I knew enough of the history behind public school to be 100% determined to homeschool, rain or shine. Nothing would have induced me to put my kids into a system that I knew would fail them, as it had failed me.
If we don’t have a firm commitment to homeschooling, it’s very easy to fall back on public or even private schools during difficult times.
While fear is the best motivator, fear is not the best reason to homeschool. We want to resist falling prey to a fearful mindset and adopt a proactive mindset moving forward.
We want to become someone who is determined to give their child a better education at home no matter what difficulties we might encounter.
Which begs the question, what kind of an education is the best?
2. What Education Model Should You Choose?
You will come across a lot of different homeschooling models, and it will be difficult to know which is best. Unfortunately, we now face the problem of too many blind leading the blind in the homeschooling community, so deciding who to take advice from may be a challenge.
But since you're here, I’m going to encourage you to follow a traditional approach to education because we know it works. Our safest bet is to choose that which is know to train the mind most effectively and this leads us directly to the classics.
In America, the liberal arts education, which is often referred to as a classical education, is what our children were taught when our literacy rates peaked during the 19th century.
Today, we have reached such a low point in our academic history with 54% of Americans reading above a fifth grade level. An educated guess is that a fifth grade level today was probably the equivalent of a second grade level in 1900.
For example, a third grade test in the 19th Century included questions, such as:
Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.
Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, super.
Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
The Classics
The classics have produced some of the greatest minds in Western history including Cicero, who was considered one of Rome’s greatest rhetoricians; and Thomas Aquinas, who debated with the Catholic Church for ten years, finally convincing it that the study of Aristotelean logic was not a threat to the religion.
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Let’s not forget the words of Martin Luther King, who said that we should judge a man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin.
If you are going to put your time and energy into homeschooling, why not give your children the best possible training of the mind?
If you are worried that your own mind is not well-trained, don't be. You will learn alongside your children and do the best job you can. If you dedicate yourself to the task, you are capable of giving your children anr education superior to that of any public school and most private schools.
Seneca the Younger said that “By teaching, we learn.” This is the attitude to adopt when you reach for the homeschooling stars!
3. How Do I Help My Child Develop Good Character?
Raising a child with good character has always been considered the most important component of raising a child. “Education" goes under the rubric of “raising a child,” it does not stand above it.
You will find a lot of workbooks with exercises regarding character, or you will be advised to teach your children about their “feelings,” or you will come across books that teach lessons about good character, but this is not the way to raise a child up in the ways of good character.
Developing good character requires action, the right sort of action. Reading moral stories will supplement what children are learning in real life, but they cannot replace the action required to develop good character.
The truth is that most of us aren't taught how character develops anymore, so we can be confused on this point, yet it is the most fundamental aspect of raising a child.
The Ancients taught that a life well-lived was a moral life, and modern research has proven this is true, which is one of the reasons I don’t wait for the research. We spend billions of dollars trying to understand how to live well, when all we need is to go back to the classics.
Do you think after so many thousands of years, we have not yet figured these things out!
Homeschooling Is a Job
Homeschooling is not a job we take lightly. It is the education of our children. While I know any committed and willing parent can do a better job teaching their child at home, the tide in the homeschooling community is shifting.
A friend of mine, who worked in a co-op school, told me that the "homeschooled" kids they have been accepting lately we're all behind.
I attribute this to parents not taking the time to understand the very things I just pointed out as well as not adopting a proactive mindset towards homeschooling.
Too many of us keep our kids out of school for fear of negative influences without understanding the deeper problems with modern education; too many of us are using government and virtual programs without realizing that we're turning to the beast for help, and too many of us have no idea how to intentionally raise a child with good character.
We don't have to be an expert in each subject we teach, but we have to understand why we are homeschooling; what constitutes a good education, how character develops, and how to provide these things for our children.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
3 Ways Homeschooled Kids Get Behind→
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An idea that gets thrown around in the homeschooling community is that wherever your kids are is "exactly where they are meant to be".
However, unless we are speaking philosophically about the nature of being, it isn't exactly true.
It's a useful concept to remember in moments when, for example, we just missed a plane to China, lost a lot of money in the stock market, or our two-year old destroyed our living room, but not when it comes to our children's education.
When it comes to our children's education, we need to be on top of our game, so we can help them get the most out of their prime learning years.
Optimal Learning Windows
Children have windows of optimal learning, and when we miss these windows, we fail to optimize our child's learning potential.
For example, grammar is not a subject that we should teach a child who is 5 or 6, but if a child does not know his 8 parts of speech by the time he's 9 or 10, well, in my book, that's a little behind.
If your child is 10 years old and can't read, that's a little behind.
This idea that we are "never behind" is empty rhetoric, and we should reject it.
We can get our kids behind what they are capable of learning when we are not diligent homeschoolers.
Here are 3 ways we hinder our children from reaching their full learning potential:
1. Using substandard Programs
If we are doing public-school-at-home or using a virtual, state-approved homeschool program, our children are not going to get the same quality of education they might get if we followed a more serious education model.
Why go to all the trouble of homeschooling and then teach our kids exactly what the state is teaching in school?
2. Failing to Plan
I'm not a natural planner, but I have learned over the years that having a solid plan in place increases our chances of reaching our goals, including our homeschooling goals.
While planning is an essential part of reaching goals, the way we get there never precisely matches the way we planned to get there, but we still need to do our planning. If not, we could end up anywhere.
Aren't you more focused when you have a deadline to meet? What about when you have limited time to complete something? Think about how quickly you clean your house after hearing that an unexpected guest is coming!
A plan allows us to put the structure in place and create deadlines, so we have a greater chance of reaching our goals. If I only have from 9 - 1 to work with my kids, I’m going to stay a lot more focused than when I have no start or ending time.
“Action without planning is the cause of all failure. Action with planning is the cause of all success.”
When we don't add structure our homeschooling days any little thing that comes up can distract us. And each distraction is one more thing that gets in the way of our kids moving ahead.
3. A Misguided Attitude
I am guilty of calling homeschooling a lifestyle as much as the next person, but is it? A lifestyle is the style in which we live in the same way that we have a style in which we dress. Some people dress in expensive designer clothes, and others dress in second-hand clothes. Some people dress casually; others dress formally.
So yes, we have different homeschooling lifestyles, but regardless, we want to remember that first and foremost, homeschooling is a job.
While we aren’t heading off to the local school every morning as an employed teach might, we have chosen the path of being a self-employed teacher to our children.
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
Of course, things will happen and throw us off schedule, but they should be the exception, not the norm.
Also, the "behind" we refer to is in relation to the public school objectives. But we want our goals for our kids to be higher; we want to help them maximize their best learning and work hard to give them the education they deserve.
Conclusion
When all is said and done, as long as you are using a sound curriculum, you understand what kids need to learn and how to teach them, your kids are listening to you and doing their work, and you are doing your very best, your kids will probably be ahead—not behind—and exactly where they should be!
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
4 Tips to Manage Unexpected Challenges When Homeschooling→
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Unexpected challenges will happen, and how we handle them will make all the difference.
Read MoreThe Productive Mother's Homeschooling Routine→
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We know the hours can easily disappear when we don't have a schedule in place for our day, especially when homeschooling.
“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent Return on Energy!”
To reach your new homeschool year’s goals, you want to set your days up for success.
Otherwise, you’ll feel overwhelmed and exhausted scrambling to get everything done after you’ve run out of time. In other words, you won’t get it done.
It happened to me, and it’ll happen to you too if you don’t watch out!
One way to be more productive during the day is to create a morning routine.
HOW TO PLAN YOUR MORNING
Planning your morning is a matter of working backwards, starting with the night before. You have to decide what time you will go to sleep, so you get enough sleep to wake up at the optimal time to perform your morning routine.
As a mother of two, the morning hours were important to me as they are probably important to you. Waking up an hour or so before your children will give you a less harried start on the day.
To create your morning routine, you have to first decide what are the important things you want to do as a part of your routine.
Whatever you decide, write your schedule down on paper so you can see it in front of you. Pin it to the wall or wherever you want to put it to remind yourself of each step. You want to follow a certain order too, so your routine becomes a habit you don’t have to think about.
After coffee, you read for 30 minutes; after reading, you go for a 30-minute walk and so forth.
The things you write down will be your morning ritual. It’s sounds so simple, but it will have a huge impact on how much you get done. Planning a routine is also a proactive strategy which will serve to keep your stress levels down as well.
But it doesn’t stop there, not when you have kids!
THE OFFSPRING RITUAL
You want to follow your morning ritual with what I call the Offspring ritual.
Teach your children to get into the habit of getting up at a certain hour each day and performing their morning ritual. Maybe they start their day by brushing their teeth and then chatting with you for 10 or 15 minutes to reconnect after a good night’s sleep.
After a good chat, they run off to get dressed, put their dirty clothes in the hamper, make their beds, and come in for breakfast at a designated time.
(Eating on a schedule is much better for your children’s health than eating at random meal times.)
Depending on how you set things up, you can prepare breakfast while they are getting ready or you can enjoy another cup of coffee and wait for them to help you prepare it.
After a relaxed breakfast, the children clean up while you get ready to teach And that’s why we also need a homeschool ritual.
After you finish eating breakfast with your children, you will head to your homeschool room and examine your plan for the day and prepare to teach your children.
Once your mind is in gear for teaching, you can ring your school bell!
THE HOMESCHOOLING RITUAL
A general rule is to teach your most essential subjects first, the ones that if there were an interruption to your day, you could still relax knowing you'd gotten those finished.
Language arts and math for the morning hours work well.
Give your children 2-minute breaks when they begin to get restless, so they can stretch, run around the block, or jump on a trampoline. Getting a good dose of oxygen into their brains will replenish their thinking energy.
You want to schedule a long lunchtime break when they can eat and then go outside and play for a while.
Let the morning hours be the more intense hours of study, and in the afternoon you can take it easy. Read some history, do a science experiment, or read a story out loud. Some days you may have outings planned with other homeschoolers.
Always make sure you children have enough some time to read or pursue their hobbies; practice an instrument, do some artwork, or play a sport.
On the days when you stay home, try to finish homeschooling around the same time each day, so everyone has leisure time before dinner including, and most importantly, yourself!
Final Reminders
If you create a schedule and adhere to it, you will prevent your day from slipping right past you. Otherwise you’ll find that too many times the afternoon has rolled around, and you have barely made it past grammar.
“Excellence / Perfection is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends.”
The key to your success with keeping a routine is to keep in mind that we are not perfect beings and some days we will falter in our plan. We don’t tell ourselves we are hopeless at sticking to a plan, as this will reinforce that behavior.
Instead we get up the next day with a new intention, and we start all over again. Eventually, we will get better and discover the freedom and ease that comes with keeping to a plan not to mention more productive homeschooling days!
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
Teach your child to read before sending him to school! Learn more about Elizabeth's unique course, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Raise a Child Who Loves to Read.
For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with Elizabeth’s singular online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Elizabeth will make homeschooling manageable for you. She’ll guide you in helping your kids reach their intellectual potential and developing good character.
As a homeschooler, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated knowing you have the tools and support you need to homeschool successfully.
Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, Elizabeth has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, she devotes her time to helping parents get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
