by Laura Brodie
I recently asked Kathryn, “How do you spell Wednesday?”
She looked into my eyes and replied with absolute certainty, “W-E-N-D-S-D-A-Y,” and I thought I heard, in those jumbled letters, the tones of an invitation.
Thinking About Homeschooling?
Ten Great Resources for Getting Started
Books
The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start. Linda Dobson. Three Rivers Press, 2001, 360 pp.
Linda Dobson is America’s most prolific author of homeschooling guides, and parents often find her work invaluable. The First Year of Homeschooling outlines nine different home education styles, describing curriculums, resources, and common mistakes to avoid. Popular and accessible.
The Well-Trained Mind. Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. 3rd edition, Norton, 2009, 864 pp.
A homeschooling classic for those who want an intensive academic experience centered on language. This mother-and-daughter homeschooling team outlines an ambitious classical education based on the trivium, with emphasis on grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Art and music receive short shrift, and there is little attention to friends, family bonds, and fun. At 864 pages this is a somewhat intimidating, but very inspiring reference book not only for homeschoolers, but for parents of public and private schoolers who want to supplement their children’s education.
Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School. Rebecca Rupp. Three Rivers Press, 2000, 432 pp.
Rupp’s comprehensive book can help parents keep a curriculum on track from pre-K through twelfth grade. She suggests what should be covered in each grade, how to prioritize, and recommends books for each subject. Parents can supplement with their own interests.
Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense. David Guterson, Harvest Books, 1993, 264 pp.
Before becoming the award-winning author of Snow Falling on Cedars, Guterson lived the paradox of teaching English in a Washington State public high school, while joining with his wife to homeschool three sons. This lyrical book, set against a beautiful Pacific Northwest background, focuses more on why to homeschool than how, discussing the pros and cons, and ultimately coming down in favor of choices for all families.
Homeschooling for Excellence. David and Micki Colfax. Grand Central Publishing, 1988, 172 pp.
An “oldie but goodie.” Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, these teachers-turned-ranchers homeschooled four sons on their forty-acres in California, eventually sending three to Harvard. Believing that children learn best by doing, the Colfaxes offered their boys lessons in biology and geometry derived from tending animals and building a homestead. But they also delved into plenty of books, from math to literature. The Colfaxes’ manifesto helped to inspire the first generation of homeschoolers, while stressing that homeschooling was for parents who had the financial freedom to avoid full-time jobs.
Internet
A to Z Home’s Cool
Ann Zeise provides news, analysis, homeschooling facts, and plenty of links to homeschooling products and information on the web, all in a friendly, colorful layout. (homeschooling.gomilpitas.com) Check out her new blog at a2zhomeschool.com.
Homeschool.com
If you are ready to spend money, this site showcases homeschooling products, and gives away plenty of freebies. You can purchase a “Getting Started eKit,” or download complimentary homeschooling reports. Homeschooling information abounds, so it can get a little overwhelming. (www.homeschool.com)
The Homeschool Lounge
This online community offers a lively place to chat, watch videos, and connect with thousands of homeschooling moms. (www.thehomeschoollounge.com) But what about homeschooling dads? They might want to know about Henry Cate, a friendly and knowledgeable resource who maintains the low-key Why Homeschool blog with Janine and Derek Cate. (whyhomeschool.blogspot.com)
About.com: Homeschooling
If you prefer the About.com layout, Beverly Hernandez is their Homeschooling Guide, maintaining a wealth of information, loads of printable worksheets, a blog, and an active forum for discussion. (www.homeschooling.about.com)
Home Education Magazine
In print or online, Home Education Magazine has articles, interviews, book reviews, and a mass of useful information. Around for twenty-six years, HEM is the most established homeschooling magazine in the country. (www.homeedmag.com)
Acknowledgments
MANY PEOPLE HAVE HELPED TO BRING THIS STORY TO life. Above all I want to thank my family for their patience and openness in sharing their experiences with the larger world. I am also grateful for the kindness of all the people of Lexington and Rockbridge County, Virginia, who appear (with names changed) in these pages—especially all the teachers who have influenced my daughters’ lives. Special thanks go to Donna Pagnam, for her knowledge of French; Stephanie Wilkinson and Jennifer Niesslein, editors of Brain, Child magazine, for publishing my first article on homeschooling; and to Jeanette Coleman and Katherine Tomlin, for the hours of free childcare that have enabled me to write all my books.
Finally, this memoir would never have reached the public without the vision and hard work of my agent, Laurie Abkemeier, who saw its potential and has guided every step, and my editor, Gail Winston, who helped to shape my fledgling manuscript into a much stronger narrative.
About the Author
LAURA BRODIE received her B.A. from Harvard and her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. The author of Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women and The Widow’s Season, a novel, she teaches English at Washington and Lee University. She lives in Lexington, Virginia, with her husband and three daughters.
www.laurabrodieauthor.com
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ALSO BY LAURA BRODIE
Fiction
The Widow’s Season
Nonfiction
Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women
Credits
Jacket photograph © Stockbyte/Jupiterimages
Jacket design by Jarrod Taylor
Copyright
The author would like to thank the editors of Brain, Child magazine, where portions of this book first appeared, in slightly different form.
LOVE IN A TIME OF HOMESCHOOLING. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Brodie. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brodie, Laura Fairchild.
Love in a time of homeschooling: a mother and daughter’s uncommon year / Laura Brodie.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-06-170646-2
1. Home schooling—United States—Case studies. 2. Brodie, Laura Fairchild. 3. Brodie, Laura Fairchild—Family. 4. Mothers and daughters—United States. I. Title.
LC40.B76 2010
371.04’20973—dc22
2009025331
EPub Edition © March 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-198785-4
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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