First, the breaking news — Cardinal Peter Turkson, 61, the Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, the eloquent “relator” or general secretary of this month’s Synod for Africa, will succeed Cardinal Renato Martino (photo below), 77, as the head of the Vatican’s…

A North Carolina district judge has ordered a homeschooling mom to send her three children to public school, saying that although they are "thriving" with higher-than-average marks, they lack exposure to the "real world."

As part of divorce proceedings between North…

When I was considering home schooling, one concern I had was that the children and I would feel isolated. My husband and I have had seven mailing addresses in our I2 years of marriage. Some of those homes were far…

 February is the shortest month of the year.  So the calendar tells us.  But homeschooling mothers know better.

We know that February is actually the longest month. 

The weather is too cold to take the children out, and the children are way…

Homeschool conventions always have great workshops on how to get started, how to teach, and how to select better curricula.  I’ve yet to see a most useful topic: Surviving the Pencil Wars.

A pencil is more than just a tool with…

When I was a little girl I used to love to watch the butterflies, particularly monarchs, as they gracefully swooped in large numbers through our backyard in late August. There seemed to be hundreds throughout the day passing through. I…

You may homeschool, but I couldn’t,” a mom a year tells me.  Today was this year’s day.”That’s what I said.  If I hadn’t been called by God, I wouldn’t homeschool.”

The mother on the other side of this conversation stared skeptically.  

I…

Yesterday, in the grip of the flu, I stumbled to my computer to check my mail, only to be greeted by this, chirping from my inbox. In part, a reader writes:

I love your blog, but honestly, reading it makes me want to quit homeschooling…. I can never imagine myself doing what you do. Do you even sleep??… I just feel very small and incompetent next to all the things you have done and do with your kids.

And I really wanted to cry, but I knew it would make my head hurt worse. My feelings weren't hurt. I was just so sad for this lady. Why do women do this to themselves? We all do it. We all compare ourselves to someone and come up short in our own eyes. And then we are discouraged and we kick the dirt around at our feet and figure it's all hopeless because we can't reach some other person's standard. We're not supposed to reach some other person's standard!

Let's peek in on a recent conversation between Perpetua Felicity and her mother.  Perpetua Felicity (Peppie to her friends — if she had any) is a homeschooled 13 year old, who has been wondering about all the things she hasn't…

Well, it has been decided; Patriots versus the Giants and for many football fans the outcome is inevitable.  Tom Brady and his Patriots will have no problem defeating the Eli Manning and the Giants.  No matter which team you are…