Raising Real Men

When our eldest was just one, we went to our first homeschool convention – in a picnic shelter (really!) in Modesto, California. It was so exciting to talk to homeschoolers and to look through all the books. We knew we wanted to homeschool and this little taste of it just whet our appetites. We’ve only…
Read More

Several of our sons have done well in state-level geography bees, including one who ranked no. 2 for the whole state. When a public school teacher turned to Melanie in amazement and asked “What curriculum do you use?” she had to admit a dark secret … we seldom use a geography curriculum at all! So…
Read More

This series of articles is in response to the question, “What curriculum do you use?” which we’re freqently asked. Read the first in the series here. Preschool is a time when you can really hardly fail. You have years and years and years to make up for what you don’t teach. Unfortunately, though, we find it…
Read More

Folks ask us all the time, “So, what curriculum do you use?” Let me begin to answer by telling you a story. Many years ago, one of my dear friends asked me the same thing as she began homeschooling her children. I was happy to tell her because I believed I’d found the very best…
Read More

Someone just recently asked on our Facebook page: Do you have a list of book recommendations for building character and vocabulary? My son reads about 200 to 300 pages a day and I cannot keep up with the previewing. We had the same question when our oldest boys were younger. They could race through books…
Read More

At an old English parsonage down by the sea, there came in the twilight a message to me. Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven that, as it seems to me, teaching from heaven. And all through the hours the quiet words ring, like a low inspiration, ‘Do the next thing.’

Here’s a great way to get him interested — National Novel Writing Month! NaNoWriMo is a simple challenge — can you pour out 50,000 words in the month of November? (Or if you’re a younger writer, make it a smaller target — The Great Gatsby was only about 26,000 words). How much is that?  Estimate…
Read More

Are you as surprised as we were to find out that Reformation Day has been celebrated as a holiday in the church since at least 1567? We were delighted to find out that rather than sanitizing a holiday that celebrated death, our enemy, we could enjoy a holiday to remember true heroism — a man…
Read More

“I just don’t understand! My sweet son is so temperamental lately.” “It’s like he’s a different kid.” “I don’t understand the anger. What’s that about?” “School used to be fun, but now it takes forever.” “He acts so addled. Can’t remember what I tell him for one minute.” We hear it all the time. We’ve said it ourselves. We…
Read More

A few weeks ago, our son Matt came in and said, “Mom, you know it makes a guy feel good to take responsibility – to meet a need, to do something that matters. I had no idea how much fun it could be to be the one to take care of something.” I think there…
Read More