A belief that became popular in the 1980s was the idea that lavishing our children with unearned praise and plenty of attention would produce more confident adults.
But it turns out that raising a child to believe he is special is just about the worst thing a parent can do to him.
Read MorePublic school promotes mediocrity; as homeschoolers, we want our kids to excel.
Therefore, establishing concrete goals is a part of every successful homeschooler’s plan. And whatever educational goals you set, it is vital that you create the steps for your child to reach these goals.
Read MoreI 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 MoreIn memory of John Taylor Gatto, I want to speak to something that too many homeschoolers overlook: Despite what it says on Wikipedia, John did not specifically promote unschooling!
Read More
Schools are the scene of far too much violence for a parent's comfort, and I would expect them to get worse if we move deeper into a recession.
In 2022, as of November, there were already 68 school shootings, and the year is not over yet. There will be more. The year before Covid, in 2019, there were more mass shootings than days of the year.
People blame guns, but that's ridiculous. We don't blame knives when someone gets stabbed or poison when someone gets poisoned, so why do we blame guns when someone gets shot?
Guns don't pull the trigger; mentally-sick people do.
The problem is not guns. We have always had guns in the US as a constitutional right to protect ourselves against a tyrannical government, but random mass shootings on such a scale are relatively new.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
What is wrong with Americans?
Children are put into school too early. We know there is a direct correlation between the absence of play in childhood and sociopathic behavior.
Children who go to early education centers are not engaged in enough play or the kind of play a child needs in his early years to foster humane qualities such as empathy.
“Play allows us to develop alternatives to violence and despair; it helps us learn perseverance and gain optimism.”
Playtime outside has decreased by 71% in one generation in both the US and the UK, according to Dr. Brown..
Too many mothers have no choice but to work, and young babies are left in daycares where strangers take care of them. How can the transmission of empathy occur when the child has is left by his mother in infancy?
This isn't to criticize working mothers, either; I was a working mother too. It is a criticism of a society that does not recognize the importance of a mother in her child's early life.
We use euphemisms such as "primary caregiver" to pretend handing our babies over to strangers is of no importance.
If babies could speak, they would clue us in on this societal delusion. No one can replace the tender love and care of a mother for her offspring.
Our multimedia industry promotes violence. Jerry Mander published a book in 1978 titled, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. One of his arguments was that when we watch television, our minds cannot differentiate between reality and what we see on the screen.
When children watch violence in films, they become desensitized to violence.
Since the 1960s, we have known about the effects of violence on our hearts and minds. Why have we not curbed the violence in the media, especially for children? On the contrary, it has become even more pervasive in our lives.
It is so pervasive that when a bomb went off on a busy street in Istanbul in November of 2022, the Americans were unphased. I was there to witness it.
On the contrary, the Turks were devastated. Violence is a part of an American's daily life. I have never felt safe in America, but in Turkey, I have never felt unsafe, even while walking home late at night.
Video games are a national hazard to a child's mental health. Internet Gaming Disorder is now an entry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Is this not enough to prove that our kids should not be gaming?
Grand Theft Auto is a game that involves prostitutes! The more violent acts you commit in the game, such as binding, gagging, torturing, and killing women, the more points you win.
What mentally-deranged individual came up with this idea? Leonard Sax points out, as have many studies, that playing games like this over and over again desensitizes our boys to violence, especially against women.
Talk about an easy way to breed misogynists. Geez.
There are other factors to consider with the rise in violence, too, such as the epidemic of narcissism, the breakdown of the American family, and economic disparity. Still, the above three are clearly factors in a society that has become “Rated R” for violence.
There is something fundamentally wrong with a people when their kids are no longer safe in school. Next year there will be a whole new set of statistics and more aggrieved parents who will bury their kids.
It's a sickening thought.
Do everything within your power to stay home with your kids when they are under the age of six (seven is even better), keep them off of technology, and don't enroll them in school.
If you think this sounds extreme, remember that it was the American way of life only 60 years ago.
And if you are able to keep them home during their school years, homeschool them. You CAN do it; millions already have.
☞ 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 of school-age children, we guide you in homeschooling with the classics to raise more intelligent children of a better character.
Enroll using the link below and feel confident knowing you have the guidance and support you need to 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 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 to 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
The following books were carefully chosen as a guide to help you navigate some of the issues you will face raising your children in present times.
Read MoreIf 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 MoreWe think of ourselves as a literate society, but the truth is that we’re fooling ourselves.
Just because we can read, doesn’t mean we can read. Just because we can write, does not mean we can write. Unless we are educating our kids to be readers of difficult books, and writers of persuasive essays which they are capable of doing, we are short-changing them.
Read MoreWould you agree that we over-schedule our children?
Everyone has higher stress levels
We don’t have time to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, such as having a cup of tea together, reading a book, or going for a walk
Our family time is compromised by some of our kids being in classes in the evening
Too many of us can’t find time for family meals
Everyone is exhausted which leads to irritability and outbursts of temper
Teaching your children to follow their passion sounds promising, but when you reflect on the word passion, you realize it's a misnomer. We don’t actually want our children to follow their passions.
Read More
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 trick-or-treating.
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 kid 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? Greed is the #1 problem in the world today, and we are all suffering because of it. We don't want to encourage greediness in our children, do we?
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 shameful moment for me as a kid happened one day on my way home from school. I had just turned twelve, and my best friend Bridget and I were famished after a long day sitting in classrooms.
At about 3:20 in the afternoon, as we were walking home with grumbling stomachs, 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 an adult looking back, not just on that isolated incident but on the idea of knocking on a stranger's door and asking for candy, isn't this a contradiction?
We teach our kids not to speak to strangers and NEVER to take candy from a stranger, yet once a year, it is permissible. We teach them that it's not polite to ask for things, yet once a year, it is permitted.
But here's the crux of the matter: Halloween is a creepy holiday; it has gotten even creepier since the corporate world has taken it more seriously.
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.
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.
My god, that's shameful.
On second thought, we should ban Halloween.
☞ 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 of school-age children, we guide you in homeschooling with the classics to raise more intelligent children of a better character.
Enroll using the link below and feel confident knowing you have the guidance and support you need to 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 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 to 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
A child growing up in a home where family meals are infrequent can lack a vital ingredient: a sense of well-being.
Read More
What creature is that you are probably wondering?
It is the whale.
We studied dinosaurs in the second grade, yet, dinosaurs pale in comparison to whales. While reading Moby Dick, I discovered a fascination for them because whales are truly sublime.
I’m now convinced that no child should complete childhood without learning about their amazing lives.
Did you know that whales are the largest animal on Earth, even bigger than the T-Rex Dinosaur? The nine heaviest creatures in the world belong to the whale family. A blue whale weighs 200 tons, and when they give birth, their babies weigh three tons and gain 200 pounds per day!
Compare this to the largest elephant ever to exist (as far as we know), who weighed only 4 tons, and you begin to realize the magnitude of of whales.
The sperm whales have the largest brains of any animal, including man. Not only do they have the largest brains, but their brains contain a neocortex, like the human brain. The neocortex governs higher cognitive functions such as planning, memory, empathy, and language.
The sperm whale has a highly sophisticated language that is based on sound. They emit coded clicks at the speed of milliseconds and can emit these sounds at vast distances.
Scientists today are trying to decode their language using artificial intelligence. Someone even wrote a book about real conversations with whales and how the lessons we learn from them can help us live more joyful lives.
“As for his true brain, the whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common world. ”
Because most of the whale’s life is spent at the bottom of the ocean, they must rely on sound to see. Whales use click sounds to communicate which is called echolocation. Echolocation is when their sounds bounce off of an object and send back an echo to the whale that tells them where the object is.
They rely on click sounds to see, but these sounds can be as loud as 230 decibels making them the loudest animals on earth. In comparison, if you stood next to a jet engine, the engine's sound is about 150 decibels.
Whales are so loud that their clicking sounds can kill a man!
Whales can live underwater for about 90 minutes because their bodies can store massive amounts of oxygen in their muscles. When whales surface to breathe, they breathe for about seven minutes before they go underwater again.
Female whales live in multi-generational families. In contrast, the male whales live solitary lives and return to the females only during the mating season.
Whales will mourn the death of a loved one, and they will celebrate the birth of a calf, according to Shane Gero, a behavioral ecologist and founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project.
They have different dialects for each whale pod.
Yes, it’s true. Whales eat large squid, and the indigestible parts of the squid are eventually excreted. These excretions float in the water for seven years, going through various changes, and can be washed up on shores in the form of what is known as ambergris.
“It’s beyond comprehension how beautiful it is, It’s transformative. There’s a shimmering quality to it. It reflects light with its smell. It’s like an olfactory gemstone,” is how Mandy Aftel, a perfumer describes ambergris.
It can sell for anywhere from 10K to 100K, depending upon the size.
In 2021, a group of Yemeni fishermen found 1.5 million dollars worth of ambergris in the floating carcass of a sperm whale!
Sperm whales are the citizens of the ocean, and they are dying.
"Why are they dying?" asks Shane Gero.
And then he answers his own question: "It's us," he says. "All of us."
The deluge of gargantuan shipping fleets bringing us our goods from all over the world are killing the greatest creature on earth. Calves are born, but they are dying from accidents caused by large freighter ships.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, sperm whales were hunted for oil and spermiceti, but now they are killed because of our ignorance. It’s ironic that arguably the most intelligent animal on Earth is going extinct because of man’s stupidity, or greed.
Today, six out of 13 great whale species are considered endangered, including the sperm whale who was the subject of Melville’s masterpiece, Moby Dick.
Teach your children about the greatest creature on Earth when they are young, and you will have no problem getting them to read Moby Dick when they are older.
Moby Dick is the story of an obsessive pursuit for one albino sperm whale named Moby Dick by a man with a wretched heart called Ahab.
While it's not easy to read, it's a powerful and often humorous book with themes of human nature and human folly gracing the pages.
“God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates. ”
John Taylor Gatto used to have his sixth-grade students read Moby Dick.
Though I never asked him why out of all the great Western classics, he chose Moby Dick; my guess is because once you read it, you can successfully tackle any other work of great fiction.
☞ 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 of school-age children, we guide you in homeschooling with the classics to raise more intelligent children of a better character.
Enroll using the link below and feel confident knowing you have the guidance and support you need to 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 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
Defenders of language are opposed to the idea of gender-neutralizing language, as are those of us working in the field of traditional education.
And many, many others.
So I was not a little taken aback the other day when a friend told me that I should replace the pronoun "he" with "they" in my writing.
His 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.
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.
Surprised 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 “sex being a purely biological term and the word “gender” being a purely grammatical term.
“The word to indicate whether someone is male or female is ‘sex,’ not ‘gender,’ which is purely a grammatical term.”
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 or wishful 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 is grammatically correct.
“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”
Using language correctly does matter.
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 of 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!
☞ 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 of school-age children, we guide you in homeschooling with the classics to raise more intelligent children of a better character.
Enroll using the link below and feel confident knowing you have the guidance and support you need to 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 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 to 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
Noise has become omnipresent in Western culture, and it's not only affecting our well-being, but it's affecting our children's well-being and their hearing too.
Read MoreWhat is the first thing we teach boys when they go to school?
Read More
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.”
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.”
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!
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.
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.”
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. ”
☞ 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
An inspiring look into a homeschooler’s journey about successfully teaching a subject she had never learned properly during her own school days.
Read MoreMy kids are behind!” Tell me honestly, as a homeschooler, have you not had the same thought at least once?!
Read More
It is physically, emotionally, and intellectually superior to teach your kids without computers.
Yet, there are times when we can justify online learning for our kids, but these times should be the exception, not the rule.
Sitting in front of a computer for long periods during the day is unhealthy, regardless of age. Yet, it is even worse for children because they are still developing the habits which will become their way of life.
Their brain is also developing and needs exposure to environments that don’t hinder its development.
We want our children to be physically active, socially competent, and intellectually sharp.
To accomplish these goals, we need to put our children in environments where they learn to enjoy physical activity, engage socially with people of all ages, and develop their minds, including their memory, which is a vital component of intelligence.
Yet, a child who develops the habit of sitting in front of a computer for long periods during the day is not getting physical activity, social stimulation, or developing his memory.
He is developing the habit of using the computer, which requires almost no moment on the user's part. It is an anti-social activity requiring no social skills and virtually no use of our memory.
As one young person said, "Who needs a memory when we have all the information we need at a push of the key?"
“Neurologist and Oxford professor Baroness Susan Greenfield believes that video game addiction can cause a form of what she describes as “dementia” in children.”
Given that our memories are a part of our brains and that a good memory is always present in highly intelligent people, it would be prudent to develop and protect our memories by using them.
We don't want to waste our or our children's minds sitting in front of screens tapping keys.
Another parent noted that "online pupils tend to abandon manners that most would adhere to in the classroom."
One of the concerns, when a family is considering homeschooling, is the social factor. "Will my child develop good social skills?" Yet, we put our kids in front of computers and call that homeschooling without connecting the dots.
Online learning is not homeschooling; it is anti-social schooling.
Kids growing up in anti-social environments will most likely become anti-social adults. Online homeschooling, with kids sitting in front of computers for too many hours per day, will produce anti-social kids.
Developing social skills and learning to enjoy other people's company is a result of
We also learn to enjoy the company of other people, and we discover much about ourselves by interacting with others.
We are social creatures; living these technology-consuming, anti-social lives is unnatural!
An in-person teacher provides a socially-active environment for children where they engage and develop their social skills. A teacher also creates an intellectually-stimulating environment for children where they can ask questions and search for answers. They hold books and learn to read well so they can tackle subjects independently.
If we aren't raising kids who know how to ask the right questions, who know how to find the answers, who know how to teach themselves, then, as Dorothy Sayers said in her essay on education, "...whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain."
Online learning is effort spent in vain.
“Steve Jobs was not a proponent of tech in the classroom. His kids read real books. ”
Even Steve Jobs was on to the problem with technology and children. Have you read his interview about it in the New York Times?
Lastly, let me briefly mention the ill effects of screen use on our physical, emotional, and intellectual health, according to the Mayo Clinic:
Obesity
Inadequate sleep schedules and insufficient sleep
Behavior problems
Delays in language and social skills development
Violence
Attention problems
Less time learning
With attention problems also comes learning problems. Who’s fooling who?
“In a 2010 Iowa State University study published in the journal Pediatrics, viewing television and playing video games each are associated with increased subsequent attention problems in childhood.”
We know kids have died from blood clots after gaming for too long. We want to protect our kids from the habit of computer use until they are older when they can no longer avoid it. Hopefully, they'll be able to exercise sound judgment and self-control by then.
We can let our kids learn online when we have exhausted all other options.
Below the age of nine, I would not let my child near a computer. The brain is still in a crucial stage of development until a child reaches adolescence, when the brain does a self-pruning of any weak pathways.
At nine, I would make an exception and let my child study Latin for half an hour online, one day a week. The rest of the week, I would do my best to help my child study, using the lessons for instruction and inspiration.
Around the age of thirteen, if there were any subjects my child needed, such as more advanced mathematics, and I could not teach them, I would hunt high and low for a teacher.
I would try to find other homeschooling parents who might understand the subject and could teach my child. I might ask qualified neighbors or put an ad up in a local bookstore for a tutor. I would do everything I could to find a natural teacher.
“In a 2015 University of Utah School of Medicine brain imaging study published in the journal Addiction Biology, brain changes were measured in video gamers that are correlated with increased distractability, impulsivity (hallmarks of addiction and ADHD), schizophrenia and autism”
Once I had exercised all options, I might look online if I still could not find a teacher. But my goal would be to keep my child off the computer if I could help it, and if I could not help it, to restrict online learning as much as possible.
If my child were older, say 16, according to my state's law, I might consider graduating him from high school and moving on to college or dual-enrollment in our local community college.
College is our best option for an older child when in-person teachers are unavailable.
☞ 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.
Smart Homeschool Planning with Elizabeth Y. Hanson, Homeschooling Expert and Certified Parenting Coach
Illustration images by Anne Yvonne Gilbert
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