An important aspect of living off the grid is being able to supply your family with adequate food and nutrition. That can be accomplished by growing your own food in the garden and eating the results both fresh and preserved. You probably keep livestock for eggs, dairy, and meat and you may also hunt to add to your supplies. Another great way to take in more food is by foraging. You need to know your environment and surroundings intimately and understand what you can and cannot eat. Pass this valuable information on to your children,
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There was a time when parents that homeschooled their children overwhelmingly did so for religious reasons. Recent studies, however, indicated a noticeable shift in the demographics of homeschooling. Homeschoolers typically have come from one of two groups: religious conservatives or people striving to live off the grid. As late as October of 2010, the International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education published a study showing that nearly 80 percent of parents who homeschool their children do so for religious reasons. More recent studies paint a different picture. Homeschooler demographics are changing. Linda Pearlstein of Newsweek reports,
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One of the greatest thing about homeschooling your children is that you get to take math out of the realm of the abstract and plant it firmly in the practical world. Math in school is often tough for children because they see few real examples of how people use it in real life. You have a great opportunity to make math more meaningful, and therefore, easier to learn. Math can be applied to nearly any situation, but with spring around the corner, your mind is probably thinking about green things. Use your garden to introduce
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When teaching your children at home, you can encounter some tough moments. There will be times when your child refuses to do anything, when she gripes and complains, and worst of all, when she tries her best, but feels like a failure. When you are trying to educate your own kids, you are bound to be busy, stressed, and tired. If one of your children has dyslexia, you can multiply this by ten. Both you and she will encounter moments of intense frustration and feelings of hopelessness. Children with dyslexia struggle to read, and because
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You probably encounter teachable moments on a daily basis as a homeschooling parent. Being self-sufficient lends itself to a wealth of opportunities for teaching your children about science, math, language, and history. Composting is one of those great chances for science education. And with a little creativity, you can turn the experience in to other
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It may seem far off now, but spring is just around the corner. To battle the winter blues, start learning about spring and the science behind dormant plants and new buds. You can even extend the lessons to include other topics. Why not celebrate spring now and be ready for the first new sprouts to emerge from the snow? The changing of the seasons is important to your lifestyle, and that is probably something your kids have already picked up on. As a self-sufficient family, you need to be aware of the seasons because it
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One of the fastest growing reasons that parents turn to homeschooling is to help their learning disabled child. More and more parents are growing dissatisfied with the learning environment that their child encounters in a traditional school. Learning disabled children struggle more than others to learn, which does not mean they are less intelligent. Try as a public school might, they cannot always do the best for these children. If you put yourself at the helm, you have the power to help your child succeed no matter what learning disability she has or how severe
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If you are homeschooling your young children, chances are you have been reading up on teaching strategies, research, and methods for teaching at home. Teaching reading is one of the most written about subjects in education. Over the years, what is considered to be the best approach for teaching a child to read changes. These different approaches are almost like fads that come and go. There are two reading instruction methods that are most prominent today. Each has its proponents and, as an instructor in your own home, you should understand the pros and cons
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Reading is the most basic academic skill that your child will learn. It is the first and the most important. Without the ability to read and read well, she will not be able to succeed academically or at much of anything else in life. Some children will embrace reading and books immediately, while others avoid
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“We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future … World controllers…” —Mr. Foster in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) “By real education I mean one that has no ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ nonsense. A real education makes the patient want what it
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