The Happy Homeschool

Rachael and her husband were both taught at home as children and are homeschooling their own children. They consider themselves life-style homeschoolers. She talks about how children learn, how she views grade levels and testing, what she has learned along the way, how she has developed great relationships with her teenage children, and much more!

For more information on homeschooling, visit thehappyhomeschool.com

Here are 5 common distortions of sharing:

1. If you are nice, you will share
2. You need to share if asked
3. Everything should be shared
4. There can be rules about sharing
5. Sharing leads to great friendships

Let’s look at these prevalent claims one at a time, keeping in mind that there will be some overlap.
To read more, go to:

5 Distortions About Sharing That Parents Need to Understand

Harnessing music for family relationships

You can avoid the stereotypical musical clash between generations. This is important because music is an important mode of expression and an integral part of social interaction. Here are basic strategies:

1. Start enjoying music with your children when they are young
2. Teach you children how to evaluate music
3. Don’t be self-righteous about musical choices

You don’t have to be musical to enjoy music with your children. In fact, you should help your children to understand that engaging with music is not something restricted to the highly talented or famous. Young children automatically like and interact with music. This can be a wonderfully fun and useful as a part of your parent-child relationship.

To read more, go to:
How to Make Music a Great Part of Your Parent-Child Relationship

If you think it is normal for children to disregard parental concerns about friendships, I have some good news for you. A whole lot depends on the groundwork of trust you have built, combined with some strategies for keeping the subject of friends open. If you take the time to interact in a way that is meaningful and honest with your child, he or she will almost certainly look to you for your support and wisdom.

To read more, go to:
How to be Your Child's Preferred Friendship Coach

When I first wrote this post, my two youngest daughters (who are 33 and 36 years younger than me) were in college and they would borrow my clothes - frequently. They don't borrow them so much any more because they live in their own homes now.

But they often wear the clothes that I have purchased or sewn for them as gifts and receive lots of compliments. Now, it’s not that I am a fashion pro, by any means. However, I am not afraid to be creative or take fashion risks. I have learned that appearing confident is at least half the battle. And I have tried to pass this on to my children.

To read more, go to: 
A Guide to Fashion for Parents Who Want to Impress Their Children

(transcript pending at thehappyhomeschool.com on the post of the same title. Interview: Developing Priorities and Misconceptions of Genius)

Where do you get your ideas of education from? Have you given much thought to the government dictates and cultural expectations? You need to consider just how much these ideas and approaches impact not only your relationship with your child, but also your child’s ability to think for himself.

Here are the basics you need to be thinking about:

• What is education?
• Who should control education?
• What motivates in education?
• What are the goals of education?
• How are relationships involved in education?

If you haven’t really examined these basics, then you are flying blind or letting someone else fly while you don’t even watch.

To read more, go to: How to Make Education a Positive Part of Your Relationship With Your Child

This title is kind of tongue-in-cheek, but kind of not. We can make choices that affect our children’s sleeping habits. We can also, after a certain age, expect them to begin to respect limits. But it is a well known fact that young children are associated with parental sleep deprivation.

How sleep is handled can have a big impact on parent-child relationship due to a few things.

To read more, go to: Teaching Your Children to Respect Your Need for Sleep

Can you explain why your body is yours?

Almost everyone agrees we all own our own bodies. At least everyone thinks they own their own body, whether or not they want to argue about someone else’s bodily rights. No one else can use their brain to tell your mouth to speak or your legs to walk. They may coerce you, but they do not have ultimate control. It is a nicely built in feature that makes self-ownership as obvious as the nose on your face.

To read more, go to:
Guidelines for Children’s Property Rights in the Home

[Week 12 of 52 Weeks to a Better Relationship With Your Child]

Do we need to teach children about death?

At what point should we teach our children about death? And how should we go about it? These are questions that cannot be avoided. From the time a child is old enough to squish a bug or hug a grandparent, death is destined to be part of their lives. It is not really a matter of IF we should talk to them about it, but what we will say.

Obviously, it is going to be hard to talk about death honestly if we have not grappled with the subject personally. If we try to pretend that death is not an unavoidable part of life, we will not be prepared to realistically talk to our children about it on any level. And our children need us to be able to offer insight. If we don’t, they will look for answers in other places.

To read more, go to:

Helping Your Child Understand Death