The next post in my little series. One of the hardest parts of taking dictation from a kid can be getting started. If you sit down at a table with a pencil and a piece of blank paper and say, “Tell me a story and I’ll write it down,” you might get lucky, and you might [...]

Post #2 in a month-long project, described here. If dictation is such a powerful tool–which I’m hoping to convince you that it is–why don’t more families do it? Why is it simply mentioned in passing in books about kids and writing? One reason. I’ll bet you can figure it out. It’s not a technique used [...]

Welcome to a new, month-long project here on the Wonder Farm! Come on in, and find a seat! For the month of September, I’m planning to focus my posts on a single topic: taking dictation from kids. I’ll be posting much more often than my typical once-a-week dispatches. I’m hoping that some of you will [...]

Because watching my Lulu go off to school in my last post wasn’t enough… This weekend Chris and I brought H to NYU. I started writing a maudlin post with lots of wrenching details like the sight of H’s boxers intermingled with the family laundry for the last time, and the sorrow of shopping at [...]

Seems like just yesterday I was writing part 1, when H decided to go to high school as a junior, after homeschooling all his life. This time it’s Lulu. She’s starting at the same school, as a freshman. (While her brother, meanwhile, has graduated, and is off to college.) It wasn’t a sudden decision. Lulu [...]

This happens often. I’ll be chatting with a new homeschooler, and this person will ask what we do each day. I’ll explain that we aren’t unschoolers, that we have a habit of doing something together most days, but that I try to follow my kids and their interests. At this point the fellow chatter usually [...]