For us, family travel is a legacy: It’s a priceless inheritance that’s been passed on from one generation to the next. From immigrant families that established new roots in the United States to pioneering families who headed west and farming families who settled down across the plains, my husband’s family…
When I was in college, taking American Government in the early 1990s, I wrote a research paper on the then-new School to Work Opportunities Act of 1994. It was legislation written to align with Goals 2000, in an effort to transition students from school to the workforce. At the time, my…
Fear often holds us back in our homeschooling journey and robs us of the joy God has in store for us as we teach our children and create deeper relationships with them. I have yet to meet a homeschooler who hasn’t struggled with some of these fears — myself included. I find…
It is time — past time, really — for me to pay it forward in the homeschool community. I have always liked to help people, but I mostly do it on a one-on-one basis — quietly. However, the past couple of years, I have been challenged as a homeschool veteran…
When I first started homeschooling more than 10 years ago, I felt a lot of pressure and judgment — not only from outsiders, but also family members and even my own children. For those first few years, I was very sensitive and defensive of our choice to homeschool. I also had a tendency…
I love the idea of traditions just as much as the next person, and the warm and fuzzy feelings that word evokes in my heart. However, I’ll admit that, try as I might to establish and keep traditions, I’ve really struggled over the years with consistency. Which is a problem…
As a NextGen Homeschooler, I am thankful for my own homeschooling experience as well as the opportunity to homeschool my own daughters now. Homeschooling has come a long way since the mid-80s when my mom started homeschooling: From more curriculum options and enrichment programs to public funding for homeschooling co-ops. Homeschooling is…
It’s my turn to share about the encouragement I received from this year’s Teach Them Diligently Convention. I realize this is coming late: Teach Them Diligently Dallas was about a month ago! However, it took me a while to process everything I learned at the convention. Now that it’s back-to-school time, many of those…
Last week, I drove to Washington, D.C. with my family to attend the Teach Them Diligently homeschool convention, but we were also planning to spend time at the United States Capitol. Our eldest daughters (13 and 11 years old) are very interested in learning about our nation’s history and really…
This past week my family traveled to Washington D.C. to attend my favorite homeschooling conference, Teach Them Diligently. However, Teach Them Diligently isn’t just about homeschooling: It’s about the heart of families centered on God’s Word and our calling as parents to disciple our children. Last year was my first…
I missed you this past weekend. Seriously, I missed you. There were quite a few people missing this year at the OCHEC Tulsa Convention 2014 — attendees as well as speakers and vendors. Perhaps the reason attendance was down was because there were fewer speakers and vendors on the agenda.…
Last week we took a few days off for a spring garden prep “field trip” at the home of my in-laws in Kansas. Grandpa and Grandma Gotcher are “firstgen” homeschoolers: They began homeschooling my husband and his two sisters in the early 1980s. They needed help getting their orchard and…