Monday, September 28, 2009

Home School Websites for Ideas & Inspiration

We have a twitter account on which we follow and are followed by several hundred homeschooling families. As a result I get alot of tweets that lead me to the personal homeschool website of some of these families. I don't have to tell any educator that there is every species of homeschooling family out there that one can imagine, with almost as many philosophies of education. And, of course, you parents know that, too.

What I find wonderful about the websites that I visit as a result of the tweets I receive, is the variety of point of view and ways of handling the children's education. And it is all free. The diversity in families and motivation and thought leads to an abundance of differing activities and directions. I love to read about their lesson plans or lack of and the activities they pursue, the imagination they show and the sincere desire that all of the parents have to do the best they can for their children. They are sharing their experiences, successes and failures, free on their websites.

On two sites I saw just today, which I particularly liked for different reasons, the primary teaching parent was the mother. The first family indicate that they are Christian, the second is non theist and they intend to educate and raise their children without religion. The first mother has been using public information films from the mid-fifties to teach her children valuable lessons and tweeted today about a film from the 50s on how radar works. She and her husband have made these old films into pod casts, which they make available on their home school website for less than a dollar. This family says they are an eclectic homeschooling family with an eclectic homeschooling website, http://hmhomeschoolers.com/. The site name is "Homemade Homeschoolers." Check out their podcast on how radar works and others on their site.

I had to go on the website of the second family just because of the title, "Raising Three Thinkers." Yes, they have three children. I love that play on words. Go to http://www.raising3thinkers.com/ and at the top of the September 24, 2009 post you will see this quote from Albert Einstein, "I never attempt to teach my students; I only attempt to provide the condition in which they can learn." That is an educational philosophy, I can embrace. There is plenty to appreciate on this site as well, with some very interesting links.

On both as on many homeschooling family sites you find inspiration and creativity and a desire to share the educational experience. In my experience this is the time of year homeschooling families really get serious and parents begin to look around for support and resource. I recommend checking out homeschooling family websites whenever you run in to them, for the free ideas and inspiration, whether you are a homeschooling parent or a professional educator.



Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams

Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com

Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."