A look at what homeschoolers buy and different ways to reach the homeschool market.

Classical education has at least two distinctive features. First, it operates out of an ancient pedagogy, one that shaped the western world. The trivium is how our ancestors learned, memorizing first, synthesizing second, and then putting it all together in beauty. But the classical model is not only classical in its method, it is classical in its content. That which we study through the trivium are the great works of the western world. That frightens some people because many of these great works are difficult to read. They are big books. Explore why these types of books are so important.

Many parents have objections to using fiction in their homeschooling: it isn't a good use of time, it offers opposing worldviews, it isn't useful. But it can stimulate the imagination and allows a child to put himself in another's place. Douglas Jones discusses why fiction is good for children.

There is nothing like the summer break to step back from the madness and take a good, long {and honest} look at your previous year of homeschooling. It can be difficult in a large family to accommodate everyone’s individual desires, but you can at least listen to them and try!

An artist, blogger, painter, and mother of six (that's right, six) kids from ages 5 to 13, Denise is the queen of multitasking. In addition to managing a household of eight, the Southern California mom homeschools her three oldest boys – Noah, 13, Diego, 12, and Solomon, 10 – teaches art, and does duty as a baseball mom. There's no such thing as a set-in-stone schedule in the Cortes family. But within the swirl of noise, chaos, laundry, and huge grocery bills, this 38-year-old mom is obviously doing something very right.

Alpha Omega offers complete curriculum packages from a Christian perspective. Products include Switched-On Schoolhouse®, their computer-based curriculum. For the student who enjoys a more traditional approach, they offer a worktext curriculum, LIFEPAC®. The Horizons curriculum is most effective for students who master concepts more quickly and enjoy learning at a faster pace. If your students learn best in a group where they can build upon each other's accomplishments, The Weaver Curriculum® is the program for you. They also have Power-Glide, a comprehensive, independent-study, foreign language series for the student desiring to learn a foreign language. And, for the student who needs to develop or enhance reading, spelling, and comprehension skills they offer ARC™.

The Clonlara School philosophy is that a school must empower learners to participate purposefully and eagerly in their own education. The program gives students a lot of choice: choice of curriculum, resources, method and timing.

Some basic tips for starting a homeschool support group. This article has three parts--be sure to continue on to each part. The first part focuses specifically on how to find other interested parents. Part two discusses how to communicate with the group, conduct meetings, and decide on a direction for the group. The final part of the article addresses the nuts and bolts of support group management--money issues, dealing with difficult people, and delegation.

It must be clear at the outset that there are no sure-fire rules of education that apply to all children at all times. Reishis Chachmah quotes a Midrash that it is easier to raise a legion of olive trees in the Galilee, where the soil and climate are not conducive to growing olive trees, than to raise one child in the Land of Israel, even though Israel is conducive to proper education, since the atmosphere itself helps to imbue one with wisdom and holiness. Children are not objects to be fashioned at will, but rather human beings who have their own free will and can reject, if they so choose, even the best education. The most a parent can hope to achieve, as Chiddushei HaRim points out regarding all learning, is to put the words of Torah on the heart of the child so that when the heart opens up, the Torah found on it will sink into the receptive heart.

Friends or relatives who’ve heard of your homeschooling plans may have already asked, “But what about socialization?” If you’re thinking about homeschooling, you might have even wondered this yourself. This continues to be one of the most commonly asked questions of homeschooling parents, despite decades of academic research and anecdotal evidence showing that homeschooled children are generally significantly better “socialized” than their institutionally-schooled counterparts. Each family will answer the question differently, but here’s some food for thought as you form your own views on socialization.