Encouragement & Inspiration

Our Summer Vacation Summer vacation – how often did you get this writing assignment as a school-age kid? I personally enjoyed putting pen to paper each September since our family did a fairly good job of making sure a good vacation happened sometime during the summer break. Some years, we went on a camping trip...

Eric Carle’s Comments on Home and School On May 23, 2021, Eric Carle passed away after a lifetime of achievements spanning 91 years. He is best known for his illustrated children’s books including Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He illustrated more than 70 books, writing most of...

Are Government Preschools a Good or Bad Idea? You may have heard that the current presidential administration is proposing that the government get into the business of providing “free” preschool. Of course, it won’t be free. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of the idea....

You Learned That You Really Can Homeschool In February 2020, you may have believed there was no way you could ever educate your kids at home. Maybe you thought it would be too hard, that you were too impatient or disorganized or simply not smart enough. Or perhaps you had the confidence and the chutzpah...

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2) In Romans 12:1–21, the apostle Paul pens a wonderful admonition that I would humbly summarize in three points: Think like Christ. Be like Christ. Do like Christ. Renewing Your Mind to Think and Be Like...

The fight for truth is never over. The title of this article is  1776 v. 1619 — an obvious play on two contrasting projects. Learn the difference and teach your kids the truth about history! For years, homeschooling parents had to face the common question, “What about socialization?” But for many families, socialization was actually...

There has been a slow and steady trend of grade inflation, and this is not helping our students. Is there homeschool grading inflation in your homeschool? Let’s take a look at what happens when everyone is super! The Slow and Steady Trend of Grade Inflation I remember being a Teacher’s Assistant when I was in...

Join with the team at Apologia for a homeschooling prayer, or two, or three. We challenge you to pray for homeschooling as it continues to rise across the country. During the summer of 2020, the Apologia team committed to praying every day from June 19 through September 7. Our motivation was the fact that tens...

Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. (Matthew 12:25) When I attended public elementary school in the late 1960s, we started each school day by saying the pledge of allegiance. As I progressed through junior high and into high school during the ’70s, reciting...

What school choice are parents making as schools open back up following lock downs? Let’s take a look! COVID-19 changed everything about education in 2020. In the past year, I’ve written several articles (including this one) about how COVID-19 has dramatically affected K–12 education. I discussed several surveys from last spring indicating that numerous parents...