This coming weekend A(age 18) will walk, Lord willing, with her fellow homeschool seniors in our local associations homeschool graduation ceremony (her final graduation of the season). I decided this time to have some fun, and finally present her with a diploma that better reflects her homeschooling years than the stuffy, formal, but official type she already has from dealing with her junior college.| Almost Unschoolers
A week ago, we attended A(age 18)'s graduation from junior college. I can't help but to compare and contrast the roll of "parent" at an event like that verses that of "parent/educator" at a similar homeschooling event, like a say a homeschool prom (which we happened to have had this weekend)| Almost Unschoolers
I declared it "summer break" yesterday. | Almost Unschoolers
It's not too often I get to craft with my children, anymore. As they've moved into their middle and high school years, they've embraced arts more than crafts, and have left my cutesy crafting style behind in our sentimental past.| Almost Unschoolers
I keep seeing anti-college memes being shared across social media. You know the ones? With Jim or Jane or whoever, the silly student who is racking up ridiculous amounts of college debt, studying "worthless" subjects, and facing future unemployment...| Almost Unschoolers
We decided to throw A (age 18) a simple game day style party to celebrate her graduation. At least it sounded simple to begin with. That was before I saw her guest list, and realized we could have anywhere from 5 to 30 teens and twenty-somethings showing up.| Almost Unschoolers
If you are in the process of enrolling your first teenager into their freshman year of college, then you have probably either hit, or are just about to, a disturbing lull in the admissions process. Don't worry, this is very normal.| Almost Unschoolers
Ten years ago (was it really that long ago?) I was blissfully blogging about how to homeschool with a toddler in the house.| Almost Unschoolers
I (along with 45 million other people) binge watched the Netflix original series, The Umbrella Academy, back in February, when it first came out...| Almost Unschoolers
Drawing by E (age 14)| Almost Unschoolers
We celebrated the first of A(age 18)'s three graduations, yesterday. Sadly, all I have to show for it, other than a left-over cupcake, a signed and notarized diploma, and a lingering smile, are a few blurry and backlit photographs.| Almost Unschoolers
I've been keeping an eye out for simple little ways to build excitement towards A(age 18)'s high school graduation. I'd like it to feel special, not just like the end of another school year. And, I'd like it to stand out from the two graduations we've had in the past, to be at least slightly individualized for her - something that's not always easy after the years spent functioning as a group.| Almost Unschoolers
I know these "how to pay for college" posts aren't technically homeschool issues. Public and private school parents have to deal with college expenses too. But, moving children from homeschooling on into college and careers can be one of the first big bumps back into mainstream society, and it can be intimidating.| Almost Unschoolers
One of the older kids has a trip, planned for this summer, to teach English in Asia (with a legitimate organization and traveling with a very trusted, and travel-seasoned, family member). I'll hopefully have a lot to post on that later in the summer, but for now we've been having fun checking out what the Internet has to tell us about the differences between the countries of Asia and our own, so we can all feel like we're in on the trip.| Almost Unschoolers
We finished up the science books we've been working through this year, early. Instead of rushing out in search of something new, I gave the younger children (ages 12-16) a volume of Marshall Cavendish's "International Wildlife Encyclopedias", and ask them each to try reading about one animal a day, as part of our new "use what's already on our shelves" initiative.| Almost Unschoolers
D (age 16) finally got around to taking the reading and writing portions of the Accuplacer (college entrance exam) test, yesterday. | Almost Unschoolers
I had some time this weekend, so I decided to print-up and add the finishing touches to A(age 18)'s "official" high school diploma. She has one coming from our local homeschool association, ordered from an print company, that we'll present to her at the homeschool graduation, but this is the one we'll use in our private, home ceremony, and have notarized (which is why it isn't signed yet) to present to her dual-enrollment college before they can issue her an associates degree for her credit...| Almost Unschoolers
Once you and your future college student have pursued all of the standard avenues for funding tuition and other collegiate expenses, it can be tempting to think about returning to the work-force yourself, to help out.| Almost Unschoolers
For those of us who attended universities during happy days of growth and expansion, the shifting sand of the current collegiate landscape can be startling.| Almost Unschoolers
I had a chance to watch Disney's Mary Poppins Returns with four of the kids today - my two oldest (ages 19 and 21) and my two youngest (ages 12 and 14). | Almost Unschoolers
I posted a few weeks ago about the Swedish metal band's history themed songs. Then, a week or so ago one of my local homeschooling friends sent us a link to a video announcing a new YouTube history channel exploring all the history behind the songs.| Almost Unschoolers
With all the teen dystopian novels we've been reading lately, our literary diet has begun to feel a bit unbalanced with mind candy. For our next "read together" novel I wanted something that offered more vocabulary meat, but with a story light and airy enough for spring reading (we tend to be restless in the spring). That generally means Jules Verne to me, but I was thinking we'd read pretty much everything of his - until I realized it's been nearly ten years since we read "Around the Wor...| Almost Unschoolers
The girls finished up the math I had planned for the year on Friday. We also finished reading our latest book together on Friday, and listened to the last lecture from our latest Modern Scholar series, and ran out of videos in the Crash Course series we've been watching. Which had me back at a planning crossroads this morning.| Almost Unschoolers