So, the notion of regularly reading blogs has hit the mainstream. CBC, for example, is reporting that:

“Researchers from the University of California-Irvine presented their study, which they said was the first to look in depth at the readers of blogs, on Wednesday at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in Florence, Italy.”

“They found that regular blog reading can become ‘an Internet ritual,’ with the content secondary to the process of checking for new posts. The researchers said this is much like the routine of checking e-mail regardless of whether a new message is expected or not.”

“Sometimes, even the usefulness of the blog content itself can be less vital than the activity of reading or skimming the blog to fulfill a person’s particular routine….”

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This is the first in what could be a series of articles on how parents can develop a “Home Curriculum Plan” to home school. This “Home Plan” will be like a blueprint or a map. It is like a blueprint because before you can build a house, you need to build a foundation upon which everything else is connected. Or, it is like a map because in order to get to a destination, you have to know where you are going to begin with. 

 But, let me assure parents, flexibility can be built into any Home Plan.Essentially, what I will be doing here is what I used to do when I taught teacher education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

First and foremost, like anyone who teaches, parents need to be able to articulate what they believe about teaching and learning — their personal philosophy or orientation — because before anyone can determine what their priorities are they have to know what is important to them as individuals and as parents and what isn’t. For example, one parent might believe that “learning by doing” activities and field trips are the key components of their child’s learning. Another, might prefer a more structured situation.

So, in a notepad, write down the answers (in rough or point form) to the following questions.

1. Why do you want to homeschooling? Or, why do you home school?
2. What are your goals as a homeschooler? Short term? Long term?
3. How do you want your children to benefit? Short term? Long term?
4. What do you believe is the purpose of a good education?
5. How do you think children should be taught and why should they be taught that way? 

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