I’m taking a break from my series about Homeschool Priorities to bring you an installment of Worthy Reads. This is because my reader has been filling up with interesting articles, and I need to clean it out.
But first, I have to thank Simple Homeschool for including me on their Weekends Links. What an honor! I’m especially humbled because I’m so busy with my boys that I don’t get a chance to read other blogs as much as I like, so I really appreciate the shout out. And for anyone who is a new subscriber, thanks so much for following me. You really encourage me to keep going.
Here are some Worthy Reads I’ve come across in the last few weeks. A few of them were passed on to me by my awesome Twitter friends. Thanks, guys!
Homeschooling
In Praise of Homeschools – Excellent argument FOR homeschooling.
Why an innovative educator cares about homeschooling / unschooling and why you might too and
The Innovative Educator’s Guide to Getting Started with Unschooling – This whole blog looks like it’s worth following!
What the U.S. Census says about homeschool families – “A disportionate percentage of homeschooled students are boys — 58 percent, even though boys are a slight minority in the U.S. school population.”
Regarding Boys (These will also be added to my post Worthy Reads for Raising and Educating Boys, which is my attempt to compile information on this subject.)
Teaching boys to be men – Interesting article about a boy’s school in Kenyan newspaper. The quote I found most provocative in the article: “Why boys? Though she knows she might sound unpopular, Purity believes that the girl child has been empowered at the expense of the boy.”
Teacher and dad Michael Reist urges retooled approach to raising boys in new book
Anything Boys Can Do…Biology may play only a minor role in the math gender gap: Scientific American
Education
What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success – “Finland’s success is especially intriguing because Finnish schools assign less homework and engage children in more creative play.”
Why Schools Don’t Value Spatial Reasoning – Very interesting, and I agree with this. My 2-year-old seems to excel in spatial reasoning, so this topic is of interest to me.
Why Don’t We Value Spatial Intelligence – After reading the article above, I had to go to the article he cited – another good read.
Your Storytelling Brain – a bit of neuroscience related to my favorite topic, storytelling. My favorite quote: “What stories give us, in the end, is reassurance.”
Parenting
Why A Teen Who Talks Back May Have a Bright Future – “Effective arguing acted as something of an inoculation against negative peer pressure. Kids who felt confident to express themselves to their parents also felt confident being honest with their friends.”
If you’ve found any worthy reads lately, please leave a link in the comments!
Mama of Letters 
I appreciated the link to Spacial learners. laurent is very spatial & non-sequential. Things like reading and math are slow to take hold for him. His brain is wired for hands on and random thought. This makes him an excellent artist. I am so thankful he is not in school because I really think he would view himself much differently in an environment geared for non-spatial learning. As it is, he has an excellent self worth and esteem because he knows he’s really good at his art and building and whole bunch of stuff. And if he struggles with math and reading, well.. it’s not a struggle in our home – it’s a journey and I’m so glad I can give him that.
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Renee, thanks for the comment. Though it’s still early to tell, I think my 2yo is the same way. When I looked at a learning style assessment for the 5yo, I noticed that I could check off EVERY point under kinesthetic learner for the 2yo! So I’m also really glad that I’m not sending him to school for the same reasons you gave about Laurent. Yay for homeschooling!
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