GWS :: forty-seven

19 November 2014 by Kortney

fire cider I think that being really smart is the ability to live well–that is in harmony with one’s own needs and the needs of the rest of the world. Really smart is the ability to solve problems.

I would never tell the school board this, but my goal for my own and my children’s education here at home is to get better and better at solving problems, and at meeting needs.

That is our curriculum here; those are the “basics.” Math and reading and such are the frills.

–Andrea Kelly-Rosenberg in Growing Without Schooling Issue #45

Find more reading goodness at Wednesday With Words!

GWS :: forty-six

12 November 2014 by Kortney

Reading begins in the home.

Children acquire knowledge before coming to school that lays the foundation for reading.

The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for reading is reading aloud to children.

–from the 1985 National Academy of Education Commision on Reading

in Growing Without Schooling Issue 45, archived here.

Our new reader (pictured above 5 years ago!) is enjoying listening to books on tape and reading along with the text in hand. She has been doing this with D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths and Anne of Avonlea.

You can find more read aloud inspiration and ideas on Sarah’s podcast called

Read Aloud Revival.

More good quotes can be found over at Wednesday With Words at Dawn’s place.

GWS :: forty-five

13 August 2014 by Kortney

Miquon Set of all 6 Student Workbooks | Main photo (Cover)

What Lore Rasmussen found, to her great interest and mine, was that even after doing a particular worksheet completely correctly, a child might do that same worksheet half a dozen times or more before moving on to something else.

Apparently the children got much pleasure and satisfaction from doing something they had struggled to do the first time more easily and confidently each time.

Only when it became so easy that it was boring did they decide that they had enough–and they were the best judges of this.

–John Holt in Growing Without Schooling

Issue 14 archived here.