Our second interview is with Tara Wagner from TheOrganicSister.com. She and her husband Justin unschool their 10 year old son Zeb.

FAMILY HACK: Please introduce us to your family members–names, ages, and a brief description of personalities, interests, parents’ occupations, etc.–whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

Tara Wagner: My husband Justin was born in WI, but raised in Las Vegas. He works as a finish carpenter in the commercial sector doing lots of pretty work on the giant casinos. Someday he’d like to have a farm and a woodworking shop, but not until after we do some traveling. He’s the most laid-back in our family, but also the most adventerous. He loves homebrewing beer and riding his motorcycle.

I, Tara, was born and raised in Las Vegas. I went to public school until leaving in the 9th grade and deschooling through high school. I worked as an independent massage therapist and owned a massage company, but found much more happiness in choosing to stay home with Zeb. I’m usually the catalyst behind most of our ”beyond crunchy” choices, I live and breathe sustainability, and love photography and blogging.

Zeb is 10 years old and is a 1st grade dropout. He loves computers, video games and LEGOs. He is currently working on a production set for LEGO Star Wars movies and plans to begin making stop-motion animation videos out of his studio (aka, bedroom). He’s also interested in politics and would be happy to tell you his opinion on just about any social matter.

Right now we live in Las Vegas on an “urban homestead” in the making but soon we’ll be packing up and hitting the road in an RV, as we look for a new home and community.

FH: When and how did you first become interested in homeschooling? What factors were involved in your decision to homeschool?

TW: Even though I was technically homeschooled myself, the option never occured to me unti Zeb was struggling in school. It was his unhappiness and our fear of his “record” that first led us to homeschooling. What started as a temporary solution quickly became a lifestyle change as we found unschooling. In school, Zeb was stressed from all the pressure to perform, upset over tasks he saw no purpose in, confused over things he was not yet ready for and discouraged by the teaching methods. He was subject to scrutiny and judgement and folded under the pressure. Having him in a positive, supportive environment that allows us to learn at his pace and focus on his interests has given him room to slowly decompress and branch out. The deschooling process still isn’t over for him but he’s feeling more confident every day.

FH: What was your own educational experience like growing up? How did that experience influence your decision to homeschool your own children?

TW: Justin went through school like most everyone, doing what was needed without questioning too much or finding too much passion and fitting nicely in the average range. I loved grade school and was in the gifted program. Middle school brought about so much peer competition and pressure to fit in that I began to lose interest but it wasn’t until high school that I became bored with the work, disgusted with the environment and frustrated over the school’s indifference of either problem that I left.

At the time Zeb started school, very little of this was taken into account. In our minds, school was just what you did. But looking back we can see how school shaped our thoughts of ourselves, limited our ideas of what was possible and boxed us in. I wish I had been introduced to these thoughts when Zeb was younger but am glad we recognized the same things happening to him at school. It all played a part in our decision to unschool.

FH: How would you describe your homeschooling philosophy? Do you use a specific method or curriculum?

TW: We are unschoolers – living and learning without the use of curricula. We’ve found he learns best when we set up an environment that is conducive to growth, facilitate his learning by providing resources and experiences and then get out of his way. We build off his interests, and allow him to explore without time constraints or limits. Unschooling has empowered his sense of responsibility, freedom, respect and self-discipline. It’s also inspired us, as parents, to explore our own interests and have more fun.

Unschooling takes a large amount of faith and trust, as well as dedication and work on our part as parents. But living and learning together in a fun and interesting way has changed our relationships and our lives.

FH: Do you belong to any homeschool organizations?

TW: Not at this time but I’m hoping to begin working with a local group in establishing an educational resource center for homeschoolers in Las Vegas.

FH: Do you meet with other homeschoolers on a regular basis?

TW: Yes! We meet every week with our local unschooling group and spend the entire day playing at the park together. I’m not sure where I’d be without the wonderful support for the local mamas, papas and kids in our group. We also visit museums, zoos and other places of interest, participate in a hiking group, occassionally go indoor rock climbing, and meet for an annual camping trip with our local group, as well as go to nationwide unschooling gatherings.

FH: What educational opportunities or resources in your community have you made use of?”

TW: The library is on the top of the list, of course. In addition to their books and DVDs, we love to attend the free art exhibits, and community activities they offer. We also enjoy our local museums and facilities such as Springs Preserve or Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary. And being Vegas, we get to visit the numerous offerings of the strip and its many traveling events. We also love the Civil war reenactments, and the Ren Fair. We’ve volunteered in reestablishing habitat in a local marsh and Zeb volunteers regularly with his Grandma for Ronald McDonald House.

FH: Do you have a daily homeschool routine or does your daily schedule vary from day to day?

TW: Unschooling’s day-to-day routine looks a lot like anyone else’s Saturday or summer vacation. We get up when we feel rested, anywhere between 6am and 10am, eat when we’re hungry and pursue our interests in between. There are certain things we routinely do, but very little is scheduled.

FH: What does a typical day and/or week look like for your family?

TW: A typical day usually begins with Justin off to work before we’re awake. I’m usually up before Zeb and head out to the garden before it gets too hot to water, prune, harvest or feed the tortoises and chickens. Zeb and I usually spend our mornings online – blogging, playing World of Warcraft, watching YouTube videos or reading articles. We usually are back and forth from each other’s computers to share something cool or interesting or discuss something one of us is reading.

Then we might play games, build LEGOs, cook or bake something, clean up the house, listen to music, go to the library, visit a museum, go for a hike, ask and Google questions, play djembes (African drums), go to the park, visit family members, veg out, watch a movie, read, collect eggs, take and edit photos, color, draw or paint.

FH: What have you found most rewarding about homeschooling?

TW: Flexibility! We recently made the decision to sell our home and RV around the country for a year or more. That is something we’d never had the courage or ability to do without unschooling inspiring us to follow our own dreams. On top of that is the way it has helped us be better to each other – it’s not easy being around each other all day if we don’t enjoy each other’s company. Unschooling has also given us the courage to question everything and find solutions that may be outside the “norm” but work perfectly well for all of us.

FH: What have you found most challenging about homeschooling? What are the biggest stressors in trying to do a good job of homeschooling your children?

TW: Unschooling came naturally for us and hasn’t given us many challenges, at least in relation to his education. We see him learning and growing all the time and the proof is evident. However, unschooling challenges us to trust our child and parent from that place of trust. Trustful parenting didn’t come easy for us. As John Holt said “To trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.”

Because unschooling and homeschooling requires you to spend a lot of time with your kids, it’s important to build healthy, respectful relationships. And since we came from typical upbringings, this forced us to re-examine our parenting skills and make some very important changes that we were able to ignore when he went to school.

FH: How has your homeschooling experience differed from your expectations?

TW: Hmm, I think we thought deschooling would take the “one month per year of school” as suggested. But for us deschooling really means healing from a traumatic experience, which we now realize doesn’t come with a formula or time-frame. Also, in the very beginning, I thought we’d be doing school-at-home. We tried it with Zeb but it just doesn’t fit his learning style.

And I don’t think I ever considered the possibility of how life-changing it would be. I assumed it would fit into our life at that time but instead it turned everything on its head, made us rethink our goals and refocus our priorities.

FH: If you have been homeschooling for several years, what changes have you found yourself making as you discover more about your kids as learners, and rethink educational goals and methods?

TW: All of the changes Justin and I made have been internal as we’ve grown to understand our own personalities better. We’ve been able to pinpoint our strengths and work to accept our weaknesses. We’ve been more flexible and willing to try new things. I’ve discovered our learning styles as well as our ”doing” styles (Justin is a visual-tactile learner who maps everything in his head then sits back and relaxes; I am tactile-verbal, have to discuss everything and write it all out; Zeb is kinesthetic-audible, learns through questions and answers and prefers group participation to working alone). All of our changes have been in finding ways to work with ourselves and each other, rather than against our own natures.

FH: Do you have a long-term plan for how long you will homeschool?

TW: For as long as Zeb is happy. We trust his choices and if at any time he decides to choose school we will fully support his decision.

FH: How has homeschooling affected your lives as parents? How do you balance homeschooling with your own need for grown-up time?

TW: As I mentioned before, we’re much better parents now – more patient, more accepting, more trusting. Spending all day with someone is the best motivation to creating healthy relationships. We enjoy the time we spend with Zeb and don’t differentiate between grown-up time and family-time. But as individuals, we all need time to ourselves or away from each other. Zeb spends most Friday afternoons with his Grandma, and plans sleepovers regularly with friends. Justin and I use that time to go on a date, visit friends, catch up on quiet time or sleep, or just relax alone or together.

FH: What challenges and benefits have you found in homeschooling more than one child? How has your family’s particular combination of ages, genders, personalities, interests, etc., shaped your homeschool as a whole?

TW: One of the challenges to having an only child is that Zeb doesn’t have a built-in playmate. He’s always been an independent child so it’s never been much of an issue until recently as he desires more than mom and dad to hang around. So we schedule regular playdates and sleepovers and maintain as much of a social life as any one of us can stand. Because we all have different social needs (introvert, extrovert, highly sensitive people, etc) it’s sometimes a balancing act. Pursuing our own individual interests and respecting each other’s boundaries takes practice but certainly creates an environment of trust.

FH: How do you make homeschooling work for your family’s schedule and lifestyle? Has a parent’s work/schedule changed to accommodate homeschooling? Does a parent work from home?

TW: I owned a massage therapy company prior to unschooling and sold it shortly after withdrawing Zeb from school. Since then I’ve worked off and on as a massage therapist, seeing private clients on occasion. Sometimes it’s a balancing act with our schedules but usually it’s dealt with like anything else – with flexibility. Justin’s work in construction means he’s usually home by early afternoon which opens up a lot of time to play or go places together. But because we don’t follow a rigid plan, and because we use every experience to learn from, it all becomes another educational moment.

FH: What, if any, misunderstandings about homeschooling have you encountered from your family, friends, neighbors, etc.

TW: Most people express concerns from a place of love. They only want what is best and have little understanding of unschooling or its possibilities. We’ve been told unschooling is a “detriment to society”, that Zeb will not be able to find a job, that he’s missing out on learning to handle bullies or go to the prom, and that he couldn’t possibly learn trigonomotry without public school. Sometimes I try to educate them on our methods and choices, sometimes I validate their fears and assure them I’m keeping a close eye on his “progress”, and sometimes I just agree to disagree and go on our merry way.

FH: How do you answer questions about your kids “socialization” ?

TW: Usually with something snarky like “I’d rather my son not learn his social skills from 30 other ten year olds.” Usually if they’ve met him, they know he’s well “socialized”, so the topic rarely comes up.

FH: What encouraging signs have you seen that homeschooling will prepare your children well for adulthood?

TW: Zeb is very confident in his choices. He doesn’t allow anyone to make choices for him and he always advocates for the little guy. He’s strongly opinionated and knows what he believes and why. He’s kind, gets along easily in most crowds and absorbs interesting information easily. I have no idea what he’ll choose to do at any time in his life but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was involved in helping people, working with animals or involved in politics. If he’s anything like us, he probably won’t settle on doing one thing.

FH: If you could pick a famous person, living or dead, to homeschool your kids for the day, who would you choose and why?

TW: Oh tough question! I guess it would depend on what week it was. This week I’d have to say someone like George Washington or Ron Paul, since he’s been immensely interested in politics and our political history. Maybe Steven Spielberg last week when he was working on creating his movies. And Jane Goodall, Michael Pollan or Rachel Carson for the times he’s worried about the environment, animals and his role in it all.

FH: What is your homeschool “dream scenario”?–if time, place, money, location, etc., were no object…

TW: Selling most of what we own, buying an old Winnebago and traveling the country for awhile. Wait! We’re about to do that next spring! Well, I’ll tack on traveling the world, too.

This is an ongoing series. Our first interview with Jen McKinnon is here. If you are a homeschooling family interested in being profiled, please contact us.

In that spirit, we’ve asked some homeschooling families a series of questions about how they homeschool, what challenges they face, how homeschooling fits with family life overall, etc. We hope you enjoy their stories as much as we did!

This is an ongoing series — if you are a homeschooling family interested in being profiled, please contact us.

Our first interview is with our always-inspiring friend Jennifer McKinnon from www.jenthemom.com. She and her husband Chuck homeschool four beautiful children…

FAMILY HACK: Please introduce us to your family members–names, ages, and a brief description of personalities, interests, parents’ occupations, etc.–whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

Jen McKinnon: We are a family of six, four children and two eccentric parents. Chuck, 36, went to school in Alberta Canada. He is extremely intelligent and for Junior High School was sent to a gifted school. He learned quickly that the school did more research about the students than providing a higher education for the students. It was at this school that he believed that education coincided very little with the reputation of the school and more with the style of teaching. Chuck is now a Usability Specialist working on some very exciting projects. He is working for a company that doesn’t have an office, allowing all employees to work from home. This allows us to strike a great balance between work and family.

I am 29. I am originally from North Las Vegas, Nevada. I grew up with very little money and in a neighborhood that was known for its violence and crime. I learned to fear going to school and realized that teachers and staff have very little control over the matters that are important and abuse their power over the things they can control. I have been a blogger since 2003. I have written articles for several birthing magazines in my area as well as a parenting site online. My eccentricities include being involved in organizations that support women’s right and at the same time taking great pride in my domestic abilities.

My oldest child is Jason,9. He is my builder. He loves Lego and is always adding to his Lego city. He has started moving into woodworking and built a go cart out of odds and ends from the garage. He’s also great at sketching drawings, gymnastics and learning breakdancing movies off of online videos. He has inherited impatience from both his parents and a distaste for math from me. I have had to learn to be creative with the way I present his schoolwork.

Jocelyn,7 is my voracious reader. She is an amazing reader and loves using her imagination to change the stories. She is reading Chronicles of Narnia right now. She’s also very gifted with her social abilities. She can be friends with anyone and loves them for their strengths and has patience with children that may need patience. Jocelyn learns things very quickly and enjoys moving on to new projects. For her I try to have a variety of activities available that I can pull out as she is ready to progress.

I also have two little ones. David is 3 and Laurelyn just turned 1. It’s a balancing act, trying to have time to teach the older kids and still be aware of what the little ones are doing. David is my tank. He’s all boy and likes to build and break things. He’s obsessed with tanks, monster trucks and construction vehicles. He loves to pretend and he’ll walk around all day pretending to be a soldier or a monster or a superhero. Laurelyn is my baby. She was the first baby I was able to have at home with a midwife. She’s adorable and I love snuggling her and playing with her.

FH: When and how did you first become interested in homeschooling? What factors were involved in your decision to homeschool?

JM: Chuck and I talked about the possibility when Jason was an infant. We weren’t sure if conventional schooling would be best for our kids. We didn’t trust that the public school system had our child’s best interests at heart. When Jason was in first grade things started to get difficult with his teacher. Jason was struggling badly enough for me to take him to the doctor who said that we had a very stressed six year old. The teacher was in her first year and she was struggling with all of the personalities in the classroom and some of the children were struggling because of it. We decided to pull him out of schooling and homeschool him before he gave up on learning all together.

FH: What was your own educational experience like growing up? How did that experience influence your decision to homeschool your own children?

JM: Chuck felt that the time spent in schools was a waste of time that he could have spent actually learning. I felt that schools were a place of insecurities and abuse of power.

FH: How would you describe your homeschooling philosophy? Do you use a specific method or curriculum?

JM: I believe we are eclectic. We do some unit study work and some book work and some unschooling approaches as well. I try to use all different approaches to schooling because I have such different personalities in our home. We are all readers so we do a lot of reading each day. This year we are using more books than we ever have before. I fell in love with Susan Wise Bauer and now we are using her Writing With Ease. My kids love map work and they love learning about the figures of history so we’re also using her Story of the World curriculum.

We’ve also decided to use Saxon Math every day and there has been some switch flipped in my kids’ heads because they’re loving it so far. I’m ordering Jessie Wise’s First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind as well so I’m looking forward to that coming in the mail. I love buying my homeschool books online. Who on Earth wants to go shopping with a brood as big as mine?

FH: Do you belong to any homeschool organizations?

JM: I belong to our local community homeschooling organization and I participate on my homeschool board yahoo forum.

FH: Do you meet with other homeschoolers on a regular basis?

JM: I wish I met with other homescholers more often but I find that we’re always meeting with kids wherever we go. Being part of the community homeschool association allows us to attend regular social gatherings as often as we want.

FH: What educational opportunities or resources in your community have you made use of?”

JM: We frequent the library weekly at least and we visit our Science Center regularly. The kids participate in some of the classes and field trips that the local community association puts together like fencing, gymnastics, camping as wells as trips to the Zoo, local farms. Homeschoolers seem to be community oriented and our local homeschoolers are trying to make it easier for locals to get information and access to local growers. This has been a great learning experience for the kids about our own consumption and how our food is grown.

FH: Do you have a daily homeschool routine or does your daily schedule vary from day to day?

JM: We try to stick to a schedule as long as the schedule serves us and not the other way around.

FH: What does a typical day and/or week look like for your family?

JM: Generally we have a schedule. After breakfast Laurelyn has a nap, David watches a movie and the older kids and I start school. By the time David’s movie is finished the older kids are involved in their different projects and are less likely to be distracted by him. We go outside for the afternoon and do hands on learning with the different subjects the kids especially interested in on any given day.

Our weeks looks busy every other day. I try to have every other day be a slower day so the kids don’t get burnt out from all their after school activities.

FH: What have you found most rewarding about homeschooling?

JM: I love the freedom. We can go to the fire station because one of the kids wants to know what the firemen wear to keep them from burning in the fires or we can read all day and putt off our ‘book studies’ until tomorrow. I love the self confidence that homeschooling has given back to my kids, especially Jason. I love watching one of my kids find a question they want answered and searching for the answer on their own. They know they can come to me if they want but they also know that they have all the ability they need to find information. I am proud of my kids every day for their ingenuity.

FH: What have you found most challenging about homeschooling? What are the biggest stressors in trying to do a good job of homeschooling your children?

JM: My time is no longer divided by long quiet spaces while the kids are at school. I have to manage my personal time very well or I will easily get behind. My biggest stressor is having the ideas for our homeschool day organized so that I can be ready with information and activities when they’re minds are ready to absorb it. I worry that I’m not doing enough.

FH: How has your homeschooling experience differed from your expectations?

JM: I thought that homeschooling would be like a full time job, just like it is for public school teachers. I expected to be working on homeschooling constantly. I have found that once my first year and a half was over and I had gotten over my fear of failing my children that I am more than capable and I can do I with less time than I expected. I know now where to go and what I want to do to be prepared for school in the morning. It’s actually a lot easier that I expected and it’s much easier than having them in public school because my time is mine to manage.

FH: If you have been homeschooling for several years, what changes have you found yourself making as you discover more about your kids as learners, and rethink educational goals and methods?

JM: I’ve only been homeschooling for 2 ½ years but so far I’ve discovered that book work is not the best approach for my kids. If we are going to use a book we don’t do every lesson from front to back. Instead we pick and choose and as soon as they have grasped the concepts we move on to the next lesson we choose.

FH: Do you have a long-term plan for how long you will homeschool?

JM: My plan is to homeschool as long as it is working for my kids. If they are still learning and developing a love for learning then I will homeschool until they’re going off to university.

FH: How has homeschooling affected your lives as parents? How do you balance homeschooling with your own need for grown-up time?

JM: I think homeschooling has been great on my marriage. Chuck is very supportive and he is extremely appreciative and impressed with everything I do for our family. It allows him to appreciate his good fortune in marrying such a wonderful and humble person, don’t you think? Chuck and I balance our school, work and family time by making our Friday night dates very important. If for some reason we can’t go out then we set aside some time to watch a movie or go for a walk.

FH: What challenges and benefits have you found in homeschooling more than one child? How has your family’s particular combination of ages, genders, personalities, interests, etc., shaped your homeschool as a whole?

JM: We have a relaxed and fun environment because that’s the only way to keep the kids’ attention when there’s two little kids that need my attention as well. We also have to be relaxed because we get interrupted by snack time or nursing time or nap time or snack time again. I love having several ages and personalities though because it keeps it fun and I am always needing to find some new way of doing things. It makes it enjoyable for me as well. I like change.

FH: How do you make homeschooling work for your family’s schedule and lifestyle? Has a parent’s work/schedule changed to accommodate homeschooling? Does a parent work from home?

JM: My husband is now working from home so that we can better take advantage of the local independent advantage of homeschooling. I can homeschool the kids from anywhere so we might as well do some traveling, right?

FH: What, if any, misunderstandings about homeschooling have you encountered from your family, friends, neighbors, etc.

JM: I have started having people do pop quizzes on my kids but I quickly point out how rude that is. I feel like I have been met with lots of support although I don’t have any friends who have started homeschooling.

FH: How do you answer questions about your kids “socialization” ?

JM: I’ve only had people who don’t know me well ask about social interaction. People who know me know that my kids get plenty of social interaction.

FH: What encouraging signs have you seen that homeschooling will prepare your children well for adulthood?

JM: My kids are self starters. They decide they want to see something or build something or know about something and they set off to get it themselves. They have also had great opportunities to learn about their community because we are out in the community more often then if they were in public school.

FH: If you could pick a famous person, living or dead, to homeschool your kids for the day, who would you choose and why?

JM: My mom. I believe that children need to feel loved in order to learn and the only person who can love my children almost as much as I do would be my mom. She’s also a natural teacher and fun to boot.

FH: What is your homeschool “dream scenario”?–if time, place, money, location, etc., were no object…

JM: My dream scenario would be us living in France temporarily. Chuck will be out getting pain au chocolats for breakfast while the kids and I started our homeschooling day. We will do school on a blanket under a shady tree while the little ones are playing in the garden. When Chuck gets back we all sit together eating our breakfast and discussing what we’re learning about. We end school with lunch and then spend the afternoon exploring the area and learning about the history of where we are. That would be perfect!

This is an ongoing series — if you are a homeschooling family interested in being profiled, please contact us.

NOTE: Although this list emphasizes homeschooling, (since that’s what we do) it’s not limited to information only useful to homeschoolers. Regardless of the form of “school” you’re using, your kids are learning all the time — and so are you.

Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense
The author is not only a wonderful novelist, but also a public school teacher who teaches his own children at home. Inside this slim and beautifully readable volume are thought-provoking insights from the both perspectives.

Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School
Author, Grace Llewellyn, is a go-to guide for those with a bent toward “unschooling”. Even if you weren’t previously inclined, this might change your mind.

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education
The same author as above — helpful information for people homeschooling/unschooling with teenagers.

The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart
A beautifully simple parenting guide that encourages you to follow your instincts and common sense. If you’re tired of “methods”, this might be for you.

The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child’s Classroom
The title says it all.

Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling
This list would certainly be incomplete without some wisdom from John Holt (aka: The Godfather of Homeschooling).

Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Things Better
In this more recent and lesser known book, John Holt once again challenges the educational status-quo and offers ideas for how to give your kids a creative and self-motivated love of learning.

The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost
This book just might change the way you think about EVERYTHING. (If that doesn’t spark your curiosity, you deserve a life of monotony.)

Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn–and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less
Memorize less, play more, and emulate Einstein? Sold! The authors (also psychologists) of this book validate what many parents know by instinct (but can forget): kids need to play and explore; kids are learning all the time; hurrying intellectual development doesn’t work out in the long run and can actually be counter-productive. Don’t make your kids’ learning about scores and tests, as these provide only a narrow view of learning and development.

A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play
From the inside flap: “Even for very young children, unstructured creative time in the classroom is waning as teachers and administrators are under growing pressures to measure school readiness through rote learning and increased homework. In her new book, Vivian Gussin Paley decries this rapid disappearance of creative time and makes the case for the critical role of fantasy play in the psychological, intellectual, and social development of young children.”

Beyond the Rainbow Bridge : Nurturing our children from birth to seven
A Waldorf-inspired guide for living happily with young children. Even if you don’t know a lot about Waldorf education and/or don’t completely subscribe to all the principles, the ideas in this book can be helpful for any parent who wants to provide a peaceful environment and learning that goes hand in hand with “the natural rhythms of everyday life”.

Heaven on Earth
A wonderful Waldorf guide from a teacher/author in our own hometown of Charlottesville, VA.

How to Talk so Kids Can Learn
The author of classics “How to Talk So Kids Will Listen, and Listen So Kids Will Talk” and “Siblings Without Rivalry” presents ideas on communication specific to education.

The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling
A book that dares address the “S” word. Buy this for your skeptical in-laws.

Real-Life Homeschooling: The Stories of 21 Families Who Teach Their Children at Home
One of the most valuable sources of information for homeschoolers is other homeschoolers. Hearing the wildly varying tales of how other people homeschool can be inspiring and reassuring to newbies and old pros. The author of this fun collection of family profiles focused on DIVERSITY — if you think homeschoolers are all alike, think again.

During the coming year, Family Hack will be presenting a series of profiles on homeschooling families. Let us know what you would like to hear about from these families.

Ken Robinson is right up our alley. This 20 minute talk is terrific…and quite funny.

Related Posts:
Classroom To-Go: Brain Builders for Kids on the Road.
A Simple Trick to Turbo Charge Learning a Foreign Language.

“Why do they call it homeschooling if we’re never home?”
— A favorite bumpersticker

I grew up (and was homeschooled) in a rural area, where it took an hour to get anywhere and an average of two hours to get the place you needed to go. My parents figured out in pretty short order that if we didn’t take advantage of our time in the car, I wasn’t going to have much in the way of formal education. Car time evolved into one of the most focused and structured part of my homeschooling life. In fact, I think one of my main motivations to get my driver’s license was to get away from algebra.

I’ll occasionally hear my homeschooling-parent friends lament a day of travel or errands as a day “lost” from homeschool. Of course, I find myself thinking “what are you talking about? That’s the best time to do schoolwork. Hey, the kids are strapped in; they can’t get away!” Of course, in all seriousness, homeschooling on the road does present challenges: reading and writing, probably the backbone of a lot of your school activities at home, are difficult, if not just impossible to accomplish in a moving vehicle; reading can cause carsickness, and writing with anything sharper than a crayon is probably a bad idea. But, if necessity is the mother of invention, these limitations should only inspire us to greater creativity. I’m firmly convinced that travel time is a great homeschool opportunity. Here are some good resources to jumpstart learning on the go.

Contain The Car Chaos:

You don’t really need any complicated gear in order to learn on the go. However, a few simple items that provide you with a work surface and/or containment for your educational paraphernalia can be very helpful.

Travel Tray
This handy travel tray straps around your child or their seat–easy to use in the car or on a plane. I especially like that it has a lip on the edge to keep things from rolling off.

Backseat Organizer Tote
Great for keeping things within your child’s reach, so you don’t need to keep retrieving when you’re supposed to be driving.

Portable Learning Tools and Games:

Personally, I’m not a big fan of electronic games and toys. Even the good ones are too easy to overdose on. Some of them can be quite handy though for letting a child study and play certain kinds of games, even when you aren’t available to participate. I’ve found that keeping a few electronic toys and games in the car is a good compromise; a time limit is built in and the novelty of having them in a limited space and time makes them all the more valuable for holding your child’s interest.

Math Wrap Ups
These are a wonderfully compact and portable, easy-to-use, self-correcting math practice tool. Available in different levels for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Geosafari Laptop
We’ve got the big “desk top” version of this, but now they make a laptop version that is much better for the car. Don’t let the name “Geosafari” fool you, they cover way more than just geography.

Math Whiz
A little gizmo for independent math practice.

Magnetic Sodoku
Good brain exercise. Check amazon.com for magnetic travel versions of your favorite games.

Audiobooks:

Car time is a wonderful time to share great music with your kids. Don’t overlook other audio resources though. Car time is also great for learning foreign languages, and listening to history and literature. Check your local library for children’s audiobooks; you can also rent or buy from sites like Booksfree.com
, RecordedBooks.com or download from iTunes, Audible.com or Simply Audiobooks .

As your child gets older, you can utilize audio courses from The Teaching Company or through RecordedBooks.com. These recordings give you access to lectures from great professors at colleges and universities around the country—in your car, whenever you want—and for a fraction of the price of tuition!

But, in the meantime, some of our favorite audio resources for elementary-age homeschoolers:

Story of the World Audiobook
A history series often utilized by classical homeschoolers, but a great read/listen for others as well. There are also supplemental activity/workbooks available.

Beethoven Lives Upstairs CD
A great way to expose your kids to great classical music, including interesting stories about the source. Check out others in the classical kids series.

Jim Weiss’s Shakespeare for Children CD
Seek out other cds by Jim Weiss: everything from Robin Hood to Greek Myths to bedtime stories.

Fun Spanish for Kids CD
We really enjoy these fun language-learning cds from Beth Manners. There are three cds available in both spanish and french.

Magic Tree House CDs
Kids love these time-travel adventures: good for beginning independent readers; also a great listen in the car.

Misc. Travel-Friendly Activities:

Geography Sticker Book
Even though more traditional pencil-on-paper workbooks will usually be left at home (don’t worry, your kids probably won’t complain…), there are a lot of great resources out there in the area of educational coloring books, stickerbooks, etc. Check out Dover Publications for hundreds of ideas in one spot!

Lyra Beeswax Crayons

We especially like block crayons for travel, since they don’t roll away!

String Games Around the World
Unless your kids start tying the strings around each other’s necks, this is a good, safe, game for the car (optimally, involving a lot of quiet concentration!). Check out other Klutz books for more travel-friendly games and craft projects.

Brain Quest for the Car
The Brain Quest cards seem to be made with travel in mind: they’re a great compact size and come in a variety of subjects and grade levels. Perfect for a family quiz game in the car.

Although we’ve only scratched the surface of travel-friendly education methods here, hopefully you’ve come away with some good ideas to try—whether you homeschool or not! There are a lot of other good ideas out there—please share yours in the comments.

• Mango: Learn a New Language Online
  Mango says they “make learning a new language incredibly fun and simple.”

• Education Portal: Free Foreign Language Courses Online
  Ahem…again with the FREE. We’re liking the trend here.

This is the background story of how a family with two small kids lives the mobile lifestyle talked about in the best selling book the “4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss. This blog will feature lots on in depth, detailed posts on how we’ve made “family hacks” to get the most out of our time, money and mobility.