Writing Because We Love To: Homeschoolers at Work by Susannah Sheffer

This is the 8th post in my series about books related to teaching, learning and homeschooling.

(See my earlier post for a description of the series.)

Writing Because We Love To: Homeschoolers at Work by Susannah Sheffer is a book about "what children do when they are in charge of their own writing lives." By "in charge," Ms. Sheffer means truly in charge—not simply free to choose from a teacher's pre-selected list of writing options, but free to decide what, when, how and why they'll take the thoughts in their heads and turn them into words on a page.

Typically, teachers are the ones deciding what will go on during a writing lesson and what kind of feedback they'll offer their students. The problem with this approach is that it turns students into passive recipients. Or, as Ms. Sheffer writes:

"If you're sitting in a class that you didn't choose to take, being taught something you're not sure you wanted to learn in the first place, it may be difficult or even impossible to think about what you want from a teacher and whether you're getting it."

Contrast this with a situation where a student has "sought out a teacher because [she] has already come a certain distance on [her] own and now thinks a teacher would be helpful." That's the situation my homeschooled daughter was in when I first contacted Ms. Sheffer back in the late-1990s.

At the age of seven, after two years of public schooling, my daughter had lost nearly all her early interest in writing. The way in which writing was being taught in school killed her desire to write. She felt frustrated and betrayed by her clunky fine motor skills, which couldn't keep up with the pace of her thoughts, and so she abandoned writing altogether for almost an entire year. (One of the perks of homeschooling was that we had the freedom to set aside a despised subject for a while and take it up again later.)

During her year off from formal writing instruction, my daughter learned how to touch type (thanks, Mavis Beacon), and when she was able to type fast enough to suit her purposes, she went back to writing poems, stories and journal entries. Her passion for writing had returned, as I'd hoped it would.

By the time she was approaching her teens, she had written stories she didn't particularly want to show to her mother—not because they contained anything particularly shocking or inappropriate, but because she knew the sort of feedback I was likely to provide wasn't what she needed at the time. She sought an impartial mentor, someone who could give expert, unbiased advice on how to make her story more compelling. She might ask me later to proofread her work before she submitted it to a writing contest or magazine (such as Stone Soup, New Moon, or Teen Ink), but during the early stages of her writing process, my copyedits were not the answer.

So I was grateful when I found a notice for Susannah Sheffer's services in an issue of Growing Without Schooling magazine (discontinued as of 2001, unfortunately). After calling to make arrangements, I slipped my daughter's cover letter and printed pages into a large manila envelope, with a check to cover the consultation fee, and put them in the mail. Within a week or two, the pages came back with Susannah's edits and responses to any questions my daughter had asked. It was exciting for her to be treated like a real writer, getting feedback from a real writer, and it inspired her far more than any contrived writing prompt or scripted exercises ever had.

As for me, I learned from Ms. Sheffer that it's important for students to be able to tell their teachers, "Here's what I'm deciding to write about, here's why I'm writing it, and this is what I want from you." As a home educator, I had examined hundreds of writing tutorials and mountains of "language arts" curricula, but none of them advised me to start by asking my kids what—if anything—writing meant to them. (Well, that's not quite true: Families Writing by Peter Stillman came pretty close.) Looking back now, I shake my head when I recall the times I attempted to "teach writing" to my children by focusing on their spelling, grammar and punctuation. It's not that writing mechanics don't matter, because of course they do—eventually. It's just that learning how to write well demands so much more of us.

About a year ago, I found a paying job doing work I love: I'm currently an editor for Author Accelerator, and I help writers who are eager to finish and publish their books. Every week, my writers submit their pages to me electronically and, within a few days, I send them back my detailed feedback. Over time, I get to know the writers with whom I'm working, and it is always a privilege to be on the receiving end of their stories. Like Ms. Sheffer, I "will always struggle with how best to help them, how to respond appropriately, meaningfully, and in ways that they can truly use." And I'm continually awed by the courage and tenacity of those who are determined to improve their writing and get their novels finished.

Looking back now on the work that Ms. Sheffer did with my daughter, I realize she must have felt similarly about the students she helped. In the Introduction to her book, she writes:

"More than anything else, I hope readers [referring to readers of her book] will come away with an appreciation of the competence young people can achieve and the insight and reflection of which they are capable. . . . We can all learn from these writers who are writing because they love to rather than because they have to, and who have the time and the opportunity to figure out what best serves their work."

I wish you and all students of writing the precious gift of time and opportunity to express yourself with words.

Home Learning Year By Year by Rebecca Rupp

This is the 7th post in my series about books related to teaching, learning and homeschooling. 

(See my earlier post for a description of the series.)

"There are many roads to an educational Rome," writes Rebecca Rupp in her book, Home Learning Year By Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School. While she isn't the first to advocate moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to education, she is the only experienced homeschooler I know who has written a comprehensive book aimed at helping those who want to design their own course of study.

I remember when I first came across her book. I was feeling anxious, eager to try something new but not entirely sure how to go about it. I hadn't been homeschooling for long, maybe a few months, but I had already reached a point where I knew the curriculum I'd borrowed from the school wasn't going to work for us. The pre-planned activities were contrived and unrelated to my daughter's interests, and she quickly became bored with the worksheets and textbooks. Now what? I wondered. My trouble was that I had no experience with designing my own curriculum. I'd been assuming I'd be able to depend on McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton-Mifflin to lead the way.

Home Learning Year by Year was just what I needed at the time. It offered me guidance without being prescriptive. Instead of mandating "What Your First Grader Needs to Know," it outlined a typical program of study while allowing for individual differences. Her goal was to help parents become familiar "with the general course of the standardized educational curriculum," but only so that they could use it "as a reference point and a guideline rather than a set of predetermined assignments."

And that's exactly what I used it for: a reference and a guideline.

As a reference, the book offers recommendations for books, websites, games and more. While the recommendations—particularly the URLs—are mostly out-of-date now, they were incredibly helpful during the pre-Internet years, back when I first started homeschooling. Thanks to Rebecca Rupp, my kids and I were introduced to:

• Funny history books by Kathleen Krull and Jean Fritz
• Entertaining math stories, creative hands-on activities, and the remarkable Marilyn Burns
• Janice Van Cleave's science experiments (for all grade levels)
• . . . and much more

As a guideline, Home Learning Year By Year was essential to me because my kids straddled multiple grade levels throughout their homeschooling years. I would skim the chapters to get a sense of how my children were doing in various subjects and adjust my plans accordingly. For example, if at the age of seven my daughter was already comfortable with "fourth-grade" mathematics but hadn't yet figured out how to use a dictionary, I might spend a little time showing her how guide words work instead of recommending yet another math game to her.

Home Learning Year By Year was a book I turned to again and again because it comforted me to see that even though I wasn't dictating what my children should learn from one year to the next, they were always making progress, mastering different skills each year. I took Ms. Rupp's wise advice to heart, and I share it with you here:

"No parent should view the standardized curriculum as cause for worry. Children vary, and homeschoolers inevitably will find that their more-or-less first grader isn't quite standard. . . . The standardized curriculum can indicate academic areas in which kids need extra help and support—or creative substitutes and alternatives, or stress-reducing periods of being left alone. Variation, though, is normal, and our many individual differences are what make the world the interesting place it is. Kids are natural learners, and each will find his or her own best way to learn."

In Their Own Way by Thomas Armstrong

This is the 4th post in my series about books related to teaching, learning and homeschooling. (See my earlier post for a description of the series.)

When I started homeschooling, I didn't know anything about learning styles. My daughter and I seemed to learn in pretty much the same way—we both loved using language. We thought in words, played with words, increased our understanding with words. So, to help her learn, I just did what came naturally to me.

As she got older, though, and as my younger daughter reached school-age, I began to scrutinize our word-centric approach. Not that learning through reading, writing and conversation wasn't effective. So far, it had worked pretty well for us. But I had reasons for wanting to experiment with other methods.

When my oldest daughter was maybe five or six and had been reading for a few years, I worried she was spending a little too much time with her nose in a book and a pencil in her hand. (Yes, I realize it's an enviable "problem" to have, but we neurotic parents have to find something to worry about, right?) I wanted her to experience the world through all five of her senses, and to explore what might be latent talents. I thought it would be good for both of us to stretch ourselves in other directions.

At about the same time, I began noticing that when I read to my younger daughter she seemed less interested in the words in the books than she was in the rhythm of the words. She loved the singsong stories of Dr. Seuss, the poems of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, and pat-a-cake games. She also tended to spend almost as much time watching my face as a I read as she spent looking at the book I was reading. Although these differences between her and her sister were subtle, I noticed them and started thinking about what they might mean. I wanted to prepare myself for the possibility that my three kids might not all learn in the same way.

So, what would teaching and learning in other ways look like? 

Looking for answers, I read Thomas Armstrong's book, In Their Own Way, which describes seven kinds of intelligence (paraphrased below): 

1. Linguistic—learning by saying, hearing and seeing words. 
2. Logical-mathematical—learning by forming concepts and looking for abstract patterns and relationships. 
3. Spatial—learning by using visual cues, looking for abstract patterns and relationships.
4. Kinesthetic—learning by touching, manipulating, and moving. 
5. Musical—learning through rhythms and melodies.
6. Interpersonal—learning through dynamic interaction (socializing) with other people. 
7. Intrapersonal—learning when left alone (independent study, self-paced instruction, individualized projects and games).

This gave me the terminology I needed to think about the differences I'd been observing. It also helped me to think of creative ways to reach my kids when they were struggling to learn something new. Instead of simply handing them a book (which is what I would want for myself), I'd find a way to use music or movement or discussion groups—or whatever worked best—to help them reach their "Aha!" moments. 

Each of us possesses all seven kinds of intelligence but in varying degrees. This means it's theoretically possible for all of us to learn in the same way, but it's harder for some than others. If we want to nurture the innate intelligences in our children, why force them to rely on only one or two of those intelligences? Pay attention to what resonates with them. Give those linguistic learners lots of books and opportunities for writing, but allow the kinesthetic learners to follow their passion for "role play, dramatic improvisation, creative movement, and activities of all kinds involving physical activity."

Over the years, I've spoken to many homeschooling parents with two or more children who were amazed at how different their kids were from each other. Parents who had hoped to reuse the same books or curriculum for the whole family were often dismayed when they discovered that the writing program or math games (for example) that worked so well for their firstborn child simply bored or frustrated their other children. Curriculum swaps helped ease the financial burden of having to use different materials for different kids in the same family, while reading In Their Own Way helped us to understand why it was necessary and worth the trouble to seek out alternatives.

For More Information on Multiple Intelligences (MI) Theory

In Their Own Way is based on the work of Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences (which he wrote about in his own book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences). For more information, refer to the following sites:

• MI Oasis—Howard Gardner's Official Website of MI Theory
• Howard Gardner—Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson

This is the second post in my new series about books related to teaching, learning and homeschooling. (See my earlier post for a description of the series.)

A few years after Homeschooling for Excellence was published (see last week's post), David Guterson (and yes, I mean that David Guterson, the English teacher made famous by Snow Falling on Cedars) wrote an excellent book called Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense. Within my local and statewide homeschooling communities—and I presume elsewhere across the country—his book quickly replaced, or at the very least supplemented, Homeschooling for Excellence. It became the resource we most often recommended to those with a budding interest in homeschooling.

"If homeschooling means foremost teaching one's own, it also means answering questions about it put by friends, relatives, even strangers." 

Family Matters is the best book written for those who genuinely want to know why anyone would choose to homeschool. Homeschoolers struggling to counter opposition from friends and family who don't yet understand or support their decision can use the book to fuel their arguments or, better yet, hand out copies to their critics. Although I've noticed opposition tends to fade as others see how well homeschooled children do over time, the first years are usually the hardest for families and therefore the time when a homeschooling parent needs the most support. That's where Family Matters comes in handy.

When I first started homeschooling back in the 1990s, I met many women who felt crushed when their husbands, parents, neighbors, or any number of other important people in their lives, argued against homeschooling, claiming it would "ruin" their kids. These women, troubled by the doubters and critics in their lives, were usually determined to homeschool regardless, not because they were stubborn but because their hearts were telling them that homeschooling was the best option for their children. I admired their courage and felt their pain when they would say, "I'm going to do this no matter what, but I'd much rather do it with his (or her) support."

"Give them a copy of this book," was what we veteran homeschoolers would say. "It's very persuasive."

Someone who is dear to me was among the skeptics when I started homeschooling. I think his bias against the idea came from all the years he had spent in academia. He was a sociology professor at an Ivy League institution, so how could I expect him to imagine a life without school? I would need to prove to him that a homeschooled student could obtain rigorous academic instruction and adequate socialization, but I knew that would take time.

So I gave him a copy of Family Matters—and waited for his reaction.

He called me about a week later to tell me that he was feeling much better about my decision to homeschool. He said he still had some reservations but it was beginning to make sense to him. He was willing to keep an open mind, and that was enough for me.

"Teaching is an act of love before it is anything else." 

By now you may be wondering what's in the book that makes it so compelling. The power comes from Guterson's willingness to look at homeschooling from the perspectives of those who are opposed to it. Skeptics who read his book are open to what he writes because he gives them a chance to voice their concerns before he addresses them. Like a skilled debater, he anticipates all the common objections, acknowledges the valid points, and then offers his rebuttals.

Guterson writes with authority because he has a personal connection to the people who hold the views he's presenting—and countering—in his book. For ten years, he was a teacher in a high school, facing opposition from those who couldn't understand how a teacher could decide not to send his own kids to school. Likewise, he heard arguments from his father, a criminal defense attorney, who was philosophically opposed to home education. So these aren't straw man arguments he's knocking down; they represent serious concerns about the academic, social and political efficacy of homeschooling, and he takes them seriously. When he writes about "why homeschooling makes sense," it's clear he's thought long and hard about his reasons before putting them down on paper.

As for what the objections are and how he counters them, you'll have to read the book to find out.

"My central notion has been a simple one: that parents are critical to education and therefore public educators—and everyone else—can learn much from those who teach their own."

Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax

This is the first post in my new series about books related to teaching, learning and homeschooling. (See my previous post for a description of the series.)

When I started homeschooling in the 1990s, it was nearly impossible not to have heard of Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax. The book was talked about and shared at practically every homeschooling meeting and conference I attended. The book was recommended to relatives, skeptics, and those who were new to the idea of homeschooling.

Why was the book so popular? Because at a time when most people still doubted whether children could receive an adequate education without attending school, David and Micki were boasting about how their homeschooled children had been accepted into Harvard (see The Harvard Crimson article, "Homeschoolers are at Home at Harvard").

I was just one of many parents who were happy to be able to present the book as evidence, saying, "Look! Here's proof! Homeschooling works!" The Colfax family gave the rest of us homeschoolers a rallying cry. If one homeschooling family could prepare their kids for such high levels of success, why couldn't we all? Reading their book helped us believe anything was possible.

Even now, when I search for the book online, I find people who continue to rave about it. Many consider it THE book to read if you're thinking about homeschooling. And why not? The Colfax kids weren't just accepted into college. They were super-achievers. The oldest son, Grant, graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude and went on to Harvard Medical School. In 2012, President Obama appointed him Director of the Office of National AIDS policy. His younger brother, John Drew Colfax, worked his way through Harvard Medical School after earning his MA and law degree at the University of Michigan. He is now an emergency medicine physician. Their younger brother, Reed, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and went on to Yale Law School. He's now a partner at Relman, Dane and Colfax.  The youngest child, Garth, was still being homeschooled when the book was written, and unlike his brothers he didn't end up at Harvard. He went to a junior college and currently works with a nonprofit organization helping people with developmental disabilities.

What I feel made the Colfax's book so notable, as well as controversial, was what it revealed about the way they ran their home school. They didn't rely on a prescriptive standardized curriculum or school-approved program, which many people still believe is the best and only way to effectively educate college-bound students. In fact, much of their time was devoted to homesteading, working hard on a family ranch in California. They were largely self-taught (autodidactic), learning what they needed to know when they needed to know it, an approach some would refer to as "unschooling."

Back when I read the book for the first time, I remember having mixed feelings about it. On the plus side, the book inspired me to attempt an educational alternative that wasn't simply a carbon copy of school at home. I realized "homeschooling" was a misnomer—"family-centered learning" was closer to what I had in mind. I started thinking about the world as our classroom, where everything we did could be viewed as a learning opportunity. It was very liberating, and I'm grateful that David and Micki were willing to expose themselves and their family to public scrutiny so that I could learn from their experiences.

And yet, I couldn't help feeling inadequate and overwhelmed when I compared what I had to offer my kids to what the Colfax family was doing. They were learning how to set up and run a ranch as a family business, while I was showing my kids how to knit a scarf and do their own laundry. Not only did I not know how to do what they were doing, I didn't even want to try. I remember thinking, I don't really care whether my kids go to Harvard or not.

I didn't want "getting into a prestigious university" to be the standard by which my kids would be measured and evaluated, but it felt as though that's where Homeschooling for Excellence had set the bar. The more I heard people talking about the book, the more I began to worry that it might not be wise to crow about the connection between homeschooling and Harvard. Having heard so much about how homeschoolers can get into selective colleges, would people start pointing to other outcomes as examples of homeschoolers who had failed to provide an adequate education?

I sometimes wondered how the youngest Colfax felt about his brothers' success and the book's popularity. I can't be the only one to have questioned whether Homeschooling for Excellence would have been written and widely recommended if Garth had been the oldest rather than the youngest child. While I don't doubt that his parents were equally proud of all their children, we live in a society that tends to judge people by their credentials.

I think that's why, after I finished reading Homeschooling for Excellence, I felt the need to develop my own goals for homeschooling, my own standards for evaluating whether we'd been successful. I confess I hoped my children would choose to go on to college, and I'm glad they all did, but "get into college" wasn't ever on my list.

In case you're curious, my goals for homeschooling ("Homeschooling for Life") are listed below. How might your own goals be similar or different than mine?

Homeschooling for Life—Our Family's Goals

• Read for pleasure and to obtain information. 
• Write well enough to connect with friends, record events in your life, and make your ideas known to the world.
• Speak clearly enough to be heard and understood when asking a question or articulating your thoughts.
• Calculate solutions to problems by working with the “universal language of numbers” and in this way explore ideas that can be expressed more effectively with numbers than with words.
• Experiment with materials in the physical world. Form questions, observe what happens, be tenacious but open-minded when looking for answers. 
• Think carefully and critically to solve real-world problems and avoid jumping to conclusions.
• Create something appealing to your heart and soul. See, hear, smell, taste and touch appealing works created by others.
• Locate yourself humbly within the grand scheme of things. Study enough geography, history, and social studies to place current events in context and empathize with people from different times and cultures.
• Care for others and yourself with compassion. Love wholeheartedly.
• Apply your talents to make this world a better place.

A New Series of Posts: Books About Teaching, Learning and Homeschooling

I believe we all know what it's like to need help. Whether we are homeschooling parents, professional educators, student mentors, instructors or coaches, we've all had moments when our own expertise wasn't enough. When that happens, where do you go for advice?

Back in the 1990s, before everyone started carrying the internet around in their pockets, my options were limited. I relied heavily on the library. Although I did my best to connect with experienced homeschoolers, that wasn't always an option. Where I live in rural New Hampshire, homes are widely scattered, and homeschoolers are even fewer and farther apart. So, to become a better parent and educator, I turned to the wisdom collected in books.

I started with books about homeschooling written by homeschoolers, but then I broadened my selections to include books written by education researchers, professional teachers and psychologists. I read about parenting, education, cognitive psychology, child development, and human motivation. These authors who shared their knowledge helped me to understand and form my own ideas about what it means to teach and learn. And, whenever I came across a particularly good book, I would start recommending it to other homeschoolers.


Books were so foundational to my experience as an educator that I can't seem to help someone who is thinking of homeschooling without mentioning at least one or two titles. That's why I've decided to write a series of posts on this blog about my favorite books, specifically the ones related to education, and what they have meant to me. I'll begin with the oldest and dustiest ones, the treasures I latched on to when I was just starting to think about homeschooling. Then I'll work my way up to more recent releases.

The first book in my series will be Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax.

While I'm writing these posts partly because I'd like to reflect back on what inspired me, I'd also like to start a discussion here about what inspires you.

If you'd like to join in, just post a comment below and tell me which writers, past or present, have most influenced your choices as an educator. Which ideas resonated with you—and which ones turned you off? What impact have the best (or worst) books about parenting and education had on you?