Are your children learning? What is keeping them from learning? Those questions and many more might be answered in this article by Jessica Hulcy:

If 100 random people were assembled and asked to draw a picture of a “school” setting, every picture would have students sitting at a desk either reading or writing, because those two activities represent school to the vast majority of Americans. But you can bet there would be another common denominator between all the pictures, and that would be serious faces on all the students going about their work in silence. Yet, current research shows this typical school setting is not the best way to enhance learning and retention.

Memory Blockers

The latest brain research has identified cortisol, the hormone released in the brain during stressed or agitated states, as the one brain chemical that prohibits information from sticking in the memory areas of the brain. Cortisol is released during times of stress and anxiety into the brain by the adrenal gland…

Read more in this article about the effect of cortisol on our children’s brains and learning.

Jessica Hulcy goes on to say:

…Homeschooling is a daunting task for any mother to undertake. The key to stimulating learning is a stress-free environment filled with smiles, laughter, and movement. Movement and laughter create an atmosphere in which kids love the learning process and willingly read more about the topic and write more about their experiences. As good teachers and concerned parents, we want our children to be lifetime learners who enjoy the education process. We want them to feel like learning is fun, not drudgery. We want them to be excited and anxious to find out what cool thing they are going to study next.

Is your school filled with laughter? Are your kids excited about learning new things each day? Does your curriculum help you to be a great teacher who makes learning joyful, exciting, and fun? It is time to start releasing fertilizer, not weed-killers, in our children’s growing brains!

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Needing help for your home schooling journey:

https://hef.org.nz/2011/needing-help-for-your-home-schooling-journey-2/

And

Here are a couple of links to get you started home schooling:

https://hef.org.nz/getting-started-2/

and

https://hef.org.nz/exemptions/

This link is motivational:https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-what-is-it-all-about/

Exemption Form online:https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-exemption-form-now-online/

Coming Events:https://hef.org.nz/2013/some-coming-events-for-home-education-during-2013-2/

This notion that the children belong to the state, that their education must be provided for by the state … is inimical at every step to liberty.” – J. Gresham Machen

The swelling legions of homeschoolers poke a subtle rebuke at America’s ever expanding nanny state. Under both parties, Washington has systematically invaded private spheres and co-opted public services historically performed by local bodies. But a spontaneous groundswell of freedom minded folks has continued America’s rich inheritance of rugged individualism.

The God-fearing, flag-waiving, gun-toting homeschool crowd embodies the American spirit of mutual self-reliance. You won’t encounter a more neighborly bunch. Their children thrive without government “help.” Their support networks blossom sans the state’s sanction. Meanwhile, taxpayers waste a fortune securing abysmal academic results. In 2012, SAT scores fell to their lowest level since tracking began. As spending soars, assessment scores plummet.

The modern homeschool movement comes largely by Christians aghast over an academic establishment overrun by progressives. Schools long ago became laboratories for instilling statism and distilling politically correct groupthink. Values clarification anyone? With public education increasingly geared toward multicultural agitation against America’s godly heritage, many parents resolved to safeguard the hearts, souls and minds of their young.

At least 1.5 million students receive home-based academic instruction. The ranks of homeschoolers are rising rapidly across every social strata, faith and ethnicity. While many families lack sufficient means for someone to stay home, it’s not generally those affluent enough to afford exclusive parochial education. The highest homeschool participation appears in households with incomes ranging from $25,000 to $75,000. The homeschool community reflects a cross-section of Americans; the children of truck drivers and lawyers, whites and blacks, rich and poor, Christians and unbelievers…

Read the rest of this article here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/billflax/2013/01/22/want-to-tell-the-state-to-stick-it-homeschool-your-kids/

“The use of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible.” — Woodrow Wilson

I love this article:

How cooking advances learning

By Laura Grace Weldon

It’s easier to cook when our children aren’t in the way. Bubbling pots and sharp knives, after all, are hardly child-friendly. But the kitchen shouldn’t be off-limits to kids.

Yes, dinner takes longer to make when Mason snips the cilantro to shreds and Sophie reads the recipe out loud. And you’ve got places to go — probably places to take your darling children, like T-ball practice or that great science program at the museum.

Cooking can be educational.

But how much, really, do our beloved children benefit from a steady schedule of, well, scheduled activities? We tend to forget that ordinary activites, such as cooking together, can be flexible, hands-on, purposeful experiences too.

As they snip, read, and converse with us, our kids are learning physical, mental, and social skills. Here’s how cooking can be educational for them…

Read what Laura writes about Mirror neurons,  Meaning, Responsibility, Higher-level learning, Sensory learning, Active learning, Simplicity, Skill building, Purpose, Getting started here:  http://www.culinate.com/search/q,vt=top,q=a+child%27s+place+is+in+the+kitchen/279413