5 Tips to Raise a Child Who Excels

How do we raise a highly intelligent child, and how do we influence a child to strive for excellence?

“Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.”

— Richard Buckminster Fuller

#1 Don't put your child into school

Homeschool him instead.

Before we continue, we should qualify the term homeschooling. I'm not referring to virtual schools or public-schools-at-home, but to a state-free education with a challenging curriculum. 

I’m referring to the Smart Homeschooler way of homeschooling with real books you can hold in your hands, few to no textbooks and definitely no computers. Children who are taught learning from real books, in wholesome environments, with their curiosity nurtured, are going to stretch their minds further, and, therefore, develop their minds to a greater degree.

Hence, they’ll be more intelligent.

(The Smart Homeschooler way is much easier than homeschooling online, too.)

“Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#2 Do not let your child use technology

There is no quicker way to raise a less intelligent child than by indulging him in hand-held devices or any other kind of electronics, including educational software and television programs. 

Allowing your child to watch Sesame Street or play video games is an absolute no, no!

#3 Find Great Role Models for Your Child

You want to find people who have excelled in their fields and let them be role models for your child. Your child will see what is possible by the example these people set and go on to follow in their footsteps - this is not an uncommon path to excellence in a skill or field.

#4 Guide Your Child to Discover His Interests

You have a better chance of raising a child to excel if you expose your child to many experiences and subjects and talented people during his elementary years. 

When he discovers the thing that ignites his heart; whether it be an academic subject, a fine art, or a sport, he’ll be driven by a passionate love to become excellent at what it is he loves.

Motivation is the deciding factor. When we love something enough, we do it for its own sake. The motivation is inherent in the thing we love. It’s out of this that greatness is born.

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”

— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

#5 Do not push your child too soon

People who excel tend to fall in love with their object of interest first, and later, when they are older—around the teenage years—they begin to train for excellence.

The desire for training from comes from the heart of the student, so we want to let it unfold in its own time and at its own pace. 

Lastly, what do we mean by genius? My understanding is that genius is the state of acquiring a level of mastery combined with originality. 

Genius is the sum total of many years of discipline and practice and hard work.

Genius is rooted in creativity; that's why getting the early years right is so vital to all that follows.

“I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress genius because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. ”

— John Taylor Gatto, Author, Distinguished Educator

☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.

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, I guide you in homeschooling with the classics to raise intelligent children without computers. You can enroll using the link below and be confident knowing you can and will homeschool successfully.

For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child Well to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.

Utilizing her unusual skill set, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.

She is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.

“Elizabeth has given us counseling and guidance to help us succeed with our home school planning. When I feel overwhelmed, scared, or lose my confidence, she offers words of wisdom and support.”

— Sherry B., Pittsburg, PA

Why You Shouldn't Focus on Your Child's Happiness

I believe it was Isocrates who said that the healthy child wants to become an adult. In raising our children well, we must teach them how to act and think like mature people.

Yet, the phrase we hear most often repeated is this: 

"I just want him to be happy." 

But if you think about it, it isn't what you most want. What you most want is that he grows up to be a decent, hard-working, mature adult. If you raise him to become these things, then happiness will follow.

As the ancients understood and current research now proves, happiness is found in living a virtuous life. The modern pursuit of pleasure and good times, it turns out, is just a myth being thrust upon us by very sophisticated and manipulative marketing techniques.

Contrary to this empty rhetoric, a good life does not come from the pursuit and acquisition of pleasure, in whatever form you desire, but it comes from being a virtuous person. As the concept of "virtue" seems to be an idea that’s gone out of fashion, let me share with you some of the qualities that a virtuous person might possess:

Humility, courage, mercy, patience, tolerance, diligence, and generosity. These are some of the qualities a truly “happy” person might embody.

To inculcate these kind of qualities in your child, you must begin when he is very young.

You must train him in the way of good habits, and then, and only then, will you be able to raise a happy child who later becomes a happy adult. One state naturally follows the other. 

What is the key to raising a child with good habits?

Raise a child who is obedient and does the right thing, not from fear of you, but from a deep love and respect for you. 

We don't need behavioral studies to prove this; we need to pay attention. A child who is always complaining and throwing tantrums and always asking for this and that is not a happy child, is he? Nor is the child who is always doing what he is told not to do. 

However, the kind of training that protects from these unhappy states must start when your child is very young. You should begin training your child in the ways of good behavior as soon as he or she turns two years of age.

If you wait until much later to begin, the training process becomes increasingly more difficult. Waiting too long means you will need to correct bad habits first and then work on instilling the good habits in your child.

It’s a much more tedious and frustrating experience to correct bad habits than it is to avoid them from forming in the first place.

“Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.”

— Aristotle

If you fail to raise your child well, then he will be destined to spend the rest of his life working to correct deeply ingrained negative traits (a lifetime pursuit and not for the easily discouraged). Even worse, he will perpetuate and suffer the ills in life (as will everyone he encounters) that arise from not being a good person.

You see, the opposite of the virtuous person would be the wretched one who will never know any real happiness. We've all known wretched people, especially as they get older and nature carves their wretched states into their faces. We certainly don't want this for our children!

In a nutshell, if you focus on the happiness factor when your child is young, you will fail to raise a happy child. Focus on raising a decent child first, and his happiness will follow. 

If you don't know where to begin, do this: throw out all of your parenting books and stop asking your friends for advice (the latter is the equivalent of the blind leading the blind).  Moving forward, begin to think about the consequences of your actions as a parent.

Start asking yourself questions such as, "If I do this, then what is the message I am giving my child?" If I let him do this, then what am I teaching him about his behavior and the journey of life?"

For example, this may surprise you to know that many parents look to their children's desires to decide how they should educate them. I know this for a fact (no studies done, yet) because the parents say things to me like, "I thought about homeschooling, but he wanted to go to school with his neighborhood friends," or "I thought about homeschooling, but he's so social, and I think he'd be happier in school."

How you educate your child is a huge decision that will alter the course of his life, but he is too young to make such a life-changing decision. You are the adult; this is your decision to make for your child. 

It doesn't matter if he prefers to go to school with friends or that you think he would be happier in school because he has friends to socialize with every day. What matters is whether or not a school is the best place for your child or whether another option might be such as homeschooling.

You have to weigh the pros and cons accurately and objectively before you make this kind of a decision.

Base your decision upon your values and what you want for your children. If you want to raise decent children, you have to consider the moral environment of the child.

If you're going to raise highly intelligent children, you have to evaluate the level of academic training a school offers. If you want both, then you have to look for an educational model that provides both,

If you only care about your child's immediate happiness, then you can let him make this decision. 

I used the example of educational decisions because I hear about them a lot, but the truth is that there are many decisions we let our children make every day, such as when they can finish playing; when they need to do their chores; when they need to get ready for bed. 

Instead of training them to understand that these are non-negotiable commands we make of our children, we go to the negotiating table with them and let them argue their case for an extension of time for whatever it is they want to do.

We also exhaust ourselves in the process, which is one reason parents find raising children so challenging today. It's always tiring to have to argue with someone and then give in to them when they should have done what you asked them to do in the first place.

Children need most, and what they don't have enough of are adults who guide them on their way to maturity by concerning themselves less with whether or not their children are happy and more with whether or not the parents are training their children well.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

— Aristotle

The point to childhood is to prepare for adulthood; you should be less concerned about making a child happy and more concerned about raising a child who grows up to be a responsible, honorable, and mature adult.

It's not uncommon today to see grown children well into their 30's, or 40's still living at home because they can't make it on their own. The other day, my 30-something chiropractor told me that half of his friends still live at home.

I know of many situations where the parents still have aging children at home. An offspring well into adulthood and living at home out of necessity was unheard of when I was young.

Literally.

Make your priority for your children less about their happiness and more about behaving well and doing the right thing.

If you do, the chances are strong that you'll be able to enjoy your golden years knowing your kids are doing well and on the way to acquiring the kind of happiness that comes from living a good life.

*****

Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.

Become a Smart Homeschooler, literally, and give your child a first-rate, screen-free education at home and enjoy doing it. Join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course.

For parents of children under age seven, Raise Your Child Well to Live a Triumphant Life, course will be open again sometime in March, 2021.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an educator, veteran homeschooler, a lover of the classics, and a Love and Leadership certified parenting coach with 19 years of experience working in children’s education.

Utilizing her unusual skill set, coupled with the unique mentors she was fortunate to have, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.

☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.

Why Are Children Struggling to Grow Up?

The other day I flew to Istanbul, and I had my eyes shut on the plane so I could rest a little. A child kept crying at the top of his lungs. Thinking he must be young, I wondered why his mother had left him alone like that.

But when I opened my eyes, I found he wasn't young at all. He looked like he was about nine-or-ten-years-old.

I often see older children behaving like two-or-three-year-olds and wonder how the parents can tolerate such difficult behavior. 

Why don't we teach our children to grow up? Is it because the messages parents receive today are not in the best interest of raising a child to become a mature, responsible adult?

Parents are told things like, "he'll grow out of his tantrums, just be patient," or "don't squash his spirit," or "that's so wonderful that you let him express his feelings." 

But are these the right messages? Do they pan out in real life?

No, they don't.

Bad Behavior

It's a myth that children grow out of bad behavior, but they do grow spoiled, ill-mannered, and impossible when they are not taught to behave correctly. 

Squash a Spirit

Yes, you can indeed squash a child's spirit if you aren't careful, but you don't squash a child's spirit by teaching him good manners. On the contrary, you'll give his spirit the freedom to soar because it won't be hindered with discontents that arise from expecting to get his way all the time.

Express One’s Feelings

Expressing one's feelings is a modern attitude that hasn't served us well either. Yes, one has feelings, and many emotions will be felt like love and joy and grief and sorrow. But a preoccupation with how we feel over the consideration of others will not support harmonious relationships. 

We are so concerned with our own feelings that we forget to concern ourselves with how our spouses might feel, how our children might feel, or how the person we just cut off on the freeway might feel.

I'm not suggesting that we should deny our feelings, but only that maybe we've gone a little too far in our preoccupation with teaching a child to "express" his feelings. 

The Buzz Word

We speak a lot about good character; it's become a sort of buzz word. We presume that teaching our children to understand their feelings will build their characters, but this is incorrect.

Children think very concretely, so trying to teach a four-year-old about his feelings is like teaching a horse to bark. Children can't understand abstract concepts like their "feelings."

Nor can we teach a child to have good character. We can raise a child to choose to behave well, but we can't make a child do anything. 

Ironically, the key to developing good character is to learn self-control. Without self-control, we are at the mercy of our passions. 

One approach to teaching a child a child self-control is to say no to your child more than you say yes. This approach has nothing to do with feelings and everything to do with reigning in one’s passions.

Ironically, children are happier when you say no to them more than you say yes. 

Consider this: to appreciate something truly, we have to get it in less frequent doses. When we have something all the time, we lose the ability to enjoy it as fully and deeply because we've forgotten what life was like without it.

It's one of the ironies in life, not being able to appreciate what we have with all of our heart until we no longer have it, especially when it comes to those we love.

A husband never appreciates his wife more than he does when she goes away for a weekend and leaves him with the children. A wife never appreciates her husband more than when he's away on a business trip, and she has no support at home.

And a child never appreciates an ice cream cone more than when he hasn't had one in a long time. 

“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.”

— William Shakespeare

It's not always convenient to say no to a child. You may have to deal with a tantrum, rude behavior in a public place, or something else which is why our default is usually a “yes”. 

But is it helpful in the long run? Not really. The extra time you take to say no and teach your child self-control will save you both a lot of grief later. You child may moan and groan, but over time he'll be a more content child because of it because he’ll have learned some self-control. 

Therefore, one of the ways to raise a happier child is to learn to say no to your child more than you say yes. Teach him to accept things as they come, even when they are the opposite of what he expects them to be.

And teach him to appreciate what he has by giving him less of it.

Adopt this simple parenting habit, and you will help your child grow into a mature adult and live a more content life. 

Children are too indulged today, which is why they are struggling to grow up. 

Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.

Homeschool the smart way by joining the Smart Homeschooler Academy summer program to learn how to give your child the best of an elite education at home.

Join our waiting list for Elizabeth’s online course: Raise Your Child Well to Live a Life He Loves.

How to Raise a More Intelligent Child and an Excellent Reader—a free guide and book list with over 80+ carefully chosen titles.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an educator, veteran homeschooler and a Love and Leadership certified parenting coach with 17 years experience working in children’s education.

Using her unusual skill set, she has developed a comprehensive and unique understanding of how to raise and educate a child, and she devotes her time to help parents get it right.

Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.

In a Throw-Away Society, Are Mother's Dispensable Too?

Western culture promotes the idea that mothers can leave their young children to a full-time babysitter with zero impact on the child's well-being.

Creating concepts like "Primary caregiver" somehow makes the idea more palatable. But can we replace a mother’s care like we would replace a paper cup?

Babies would beg to differ.

Even though our common sense tells us our children need us, and our hearts tell us our children need us, many of us ignore this and accept the cultural untruth we hear every day that children do fine in daycare.

Still, many more of us have no choice but to work when our children are young because our country doesn't value motherhood. 

The fact is this: a baby comes into the world completely dependent upon the care of others for its survival, without which it will die. The baby's very life depends upon someone assuming 24/7 responsibility for his needs, both emotional and physical.

If we put ourselves in our baby's booties, we would see a very different perspective regarding the “primary caregiver” euphemism. 

Your Baby's Perspective

He lives in your body for nine months and has grown accustomed to the rhythm of your heartbeat. He knows the sound of your voice. He feels the pulse of your moods. And then, suddenly, one day, he experiences a traumatic event. When it is over, he finds his familiar surroundings gone. Instead, he is in an unknown place, full of lights and strange voices, and he screams. 

It's instinctual.

He screams for the one thing he comes into this world knowing; the comfort of his mother's heart. Not just her physical heart, but her metaphysical heart, too: her being. 

If she's a kind, loving, and caring mother who remains with him, he flourishes.

But if she has to go back to work two weeks after he is born, as many mothers are obligated to do today, and some even choose to do, he is placed in daycare with strangers. The stranger is contracted to play "mother" while his real mother is absent for eight or nine hours a day. 

Wouldn't it be stressful for you if you were suddenly picked up and transplanted into a world of strangers, who spoke a language you didn't understand, and you had no idea what had happened?

For a moment, just imagine what this would feel like!

The quality of the care the child gets matters very much.

A baby who receives the minimal supervision of being fed and kept clean is at risk of mental retardation and even death, as we've seen from the orphanages in Romania.

There are degrees of emotional connection we have with one another. On one end of the spectrum, a child can have an uncaring caregiver like the children in Romania, which, again, caused the deaths of many orphans. At the other end of the spectrum, a child can experience the loving care of a mother who nourishes her child and whose child thrives.

What Science Has to Say About It

Science tells us that children in daycare do not always blossom as children at home with their mothers do. Daycare children have weaker immune systems, more frequent colds and more ear infections. We know that stress suppresses our immune systems, so these findings should not surprise us. 

Science also tells us that children develop signs of mental instability as early as five years of age now. We have childhood problems such as anxiety and depression on the rise. These kinds of mental afflictions are an unprecedented modern phenomenon that correlates with the shift from full-time mother to full-time working mother.

Questionably, the conclusion to studies like these is never that babies and young children need their mothers at home instead of the office.

And what about the mother? When the working mother is home, she is fraught with the burden of domestic duties with little left for the emotional nurturing of her family. 

Stress affects our body, and it affects our mind, too; it alters our outlook on life. It's not only the baby that suffers. We can tell ourselves that everything will be all right, but unless we get our stress levels under control, we can't stop the stress from taking its toll on our well-being too.

The Broken Heart Syndrome

There was a man I once knew who was suffering from exhaustion and weight loss. At the time, he suspected he might have a chronic illness, so he went to his doctor and was put through a battery of tests, all negative. 

The doctor began to ask him about his life to see if an event could have triggered his symptoms. My friend admitted that he had been recovering from a break-up with a woman he had intended to marry. Even though a year had passed, he was still struggling with his loss.

The doctor's diagnosis: a broken heart.

We know adults die from broken hearts; why do we expect babies to be more resilient than adults?

It's not surprising that the increase in child mortality rates also corresponds with the rise in mothers going back to work, and that significantly more SID cases happen in daycare.

Natures Infinite Protection

What about the maternal instinct that prompts us to check on our baby just in the nick of time? If you are a mother with older children, then you know it's a miracle your child survived his childhood. 

No matter how diligent we are, children will have plenty of close calls with danger; it is unavoidable. The child doesn’t fall over the precipice, though, because we get that nudge in our hearts to make sure everything is all right; but sometimes it isn't all right, and we arrive just in the nick of time to save him from a perilous situation. 

Unless she's a highly intuitive person, a daycare worker will not have this life-saving maternal instinct for the babies under her care. It's something the mother has, which is why we call it "maternal" instinct. 

One in four mothers has to return to work just weeks after her baby is born, so it should not bewilder us that America has the highest infant mortality rate of industrialized nations. Seventy-five percent of mothers work today. Three-quarters of the homes in our country are bereft of a mother during her child's prime waking hours.

The Beatles Nailed It

“Money can't buy me love,” the Beatles sang back in the 60s. No caregiver, primary or not, can match the care of a mother for her young.

If we want to build healthy, happy families, we can't leave the responsibility of raising our children to a paid employee. The well-being of your child, and the strength of your bond with your child, depends upon your being present in your child's life.

Because you, dear mother, are indispensable. 

Homeschool the smart way by joining the Smart Homeschooler Academy summer program to learn how to give your child the best of an elite education at home.

Join our waiting list for Elizabeth’s online course: Raise Your Child Well to Live a Life He Loves.

How to Raise a More Intelligent Child and an Excellent Reader—a free guide and book list with over 80+ carefully chosen titles.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an educator, veteran homeschooler and a Love and Leadership certified parenting coach with 17 years experience working in children’s education.

Using her unusual skill set, she has developed a comprehensive and unique understanding of how to raise and educate a child, and she devotes her time to help parents get it right.

Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.

6 Mistakes Parents Make that Stifle Their Child's Intelligence

Would Beethoven be Beethoven if he had been born in another time, another place, and to a family with no musical talent?

Would Tiger Woods be Tiger Woods if he hadn't grown up playing golf from a young age and been surrounded by golfers?

Would the Polgar sisters be the Polgar sisters if they hadn't grown up immersed in the world of chess and first-rate chess players?

To all of the above, the answer is unequivocally no! Genius doesn't happen in a vacuum; it is bred. Anyone savvy enough can raise a genius.

“Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.”

— Richard Buckminster Fuller

What do all three of the aforementioned people have in common? They each had a father who pushed them to become great at something.

You may be a highly intelligent person, and your offspring may also have the potential for above-average intelligence, but whether they become highly intelligent or not will depend upon how you raise them.

On the other hand, you may have average intelligence, but if you believe that you can raise a genius, and you set out to figure out how, and you implement the strategies that you learn, then chances are you will either succeed or get close enough.

For sure, you'll raise a much more intellectually precocious child than you would have had you not tried. 

Below is a list of six mistakes parents make that you want to avoid making if you would like to raise a near-genius or even a genius:

Don't put your child into school

Homeschool him/her instead. While no studies prove that homeschooled children are smarter, if there were studies conducted, I'd bet my life they would show that homeschooled children are more intelligent.

“Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Why do I say this? Because children homeschooled well (not all homeschools are equal) are trained to use their minds, and consequently, their intellects are more developed. It would logically follow that they would grow up to be more intelligent.  

Also, homeschooled children are more likely to come from families who provide a more intellectually stimulating environment in the home, which is significant.

There are more reasons why a homeschooled child would be more intelligent (I teach a whole course on this subject alone!), but these two reasons should suffice for now.

Before we continue, we should qualify the term homeschooling. I'm not referring to virtual schools or public-schools-at-home, but to a state-free education with a challenging curriculum. 

It’s the much easier and more effective way to homeschool contrary to what most people are led to believe.

Do not let your child use technology

There is no quicker way to make a child utterly stupid in relation to intellectual precocity than by indulging him in hand-held devices or any other kind of electronics, including educational software and television programs. 

Allowing your child to watch Sesame Street or play video games is about the worst thing you could do.

Do not take on outside work that separates you from your young child

That you are present as a mother during your child's formative years from birth to age seven is vital to his intellectual development. 

To the best of your ability, and it isn’t always easy to do today as so many women have to work, but arrange your life so that you can afford the luxury of either staying home with your baby or bringing your baby to work.

The contemporary message mothers get is that its fine to go to work and your baby will do just as well, but this is an untruth. Children are not just fine, as is evidenced by earlier and earlier symptoms of depression, anxiety, frequent illnesses, emotional instability, and suicide during childhood. 

Think back on your own childhood when your mother went out and left you behind. Remember the anxiety you felt when she shut the door and was suddenly gone? Think of the joy, too, that you felt when she returned, and all was right with the world again. 

I remember these moments well; I'm sure you do too.

Why do we think babies are so different today?

Don't surround your child with ordinary or mediocre people

This isn’t about being a snob but you have to find people who have excelled in their fields and let them be role models for your child. Your child has to understand what's possible for him or her too.

Do not decide for your child what it is your child should love

You can still succeed at raising a genius if you do, but you have a better chance of raising a genius if you expose your child to many experiences and subjects and talented people during his elementary years. 

When he discovers the thing that ignites his heart, whether it be an academic subject, a fine art, or a sport, it's the spark you're after as that will determine whether or not he will develop enough motivation over the years to eventually become great.

Motivation is the deciding factor. When we love something enough, we do it for its own sake. The motivation is inherent in the love of the thing we do.

Do not push your child too soon

People who excel tend to fall in love with their object of interest first, and later, when they are older—around the teenage years—they begin to train for excellence seriously.

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”

— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The desire for training from comes from the heart of the student, so let it unfold in its own time and at its own pace. 

If you want to raise a genius, and I would encourage you to do so, the above points are a few pitfalls you want to avoid. 

Lastly, what do we mean by genius? It's the state of acquiring a level of mastery in one or more areas combined with originality. 

Genius is the sum total of many years of discipline and practice and hard work.

Genius is rooted in creativity; that's why getting the early years right is so vital to all that follows. The seeds of creativity sprout in the formative years from birth to age seven, but this is a whole other topic. 

“I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress genius because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. ”

— John Taylor Gatto, Author, Distinguished Educator

Homeschool the smart way by joining the Smart Homeschooler Academy to learn how to give your child the best of an elite education at home. Enrollment is open through April 15, 2020 with reduced Covid-19 prices to help those in need.

How to Raise a More Intelligent Child and an Excellent Reader—a free guide and book list with over 80+ carefully chosen titles.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an educator, veteran homeschooler, former practicing acupuncturist, and a Love and Leadership certified parenting coach with 17 years experience working in children’s education.

Using her unusual skill set, she has developed a comprehensive and unique understanding of how to raise and educate a child, and she devotes her time towards helping parents get it right.

A veteran homeschooler, she has successfully homeschooled two children who are now in college.

Welcome

For years I’ve been asked to start a blog, but the days roll by, the months become a blink of an eye, and the years disappear. As a homeschooling, working mother whose duty is near an end, my days are a little less hectic than they have been for the last 18 years and the space for my blog has actually emerged. It’s heaven to be able to sit back and relax! If you are a mother of young children, the word “relax” probably no longer exists in your vocabulary, but I’m here to tell you that it will again one day, and that day comes ever so fast.

Having said that, officially, this is the start of my blog. I intend to do what most people with blogs do; to share my thoughts on raising and educating children with anyone who might be interested, to post relevant links to articles and books, to feature the writings of prominent thinkers in education, to share the wisdoms of more literate times, to address some of the follies about raising and educating children being promoted in mainstream media today, and to offer encouragement for those of you working hard to make a difference in children's lives, whether your own children or those of others.

My concern is for humanity, and my focus is on the children.