education

Principle-Centered Home Education

by Alison Moore Smith on November 10, 2011 · 10 comments

This is the third in a three-part homeschooling series. It was first published in 1996 in Super Learning Tools. Although my theories have morphed somewhat over the years, this series represents the beginning process of forming and implementing our homeschool and educational philosophies. In the March/April issue, you learned that we are not unschoolers and [...]

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Why I Do Not School-at-Home

by Alison Moore Smith on November 9, 2011 · 19 comments

This is the second in a three-part homeschooling series. It was first published in 1996 in Super Learning Tools. Although my theories have morphed somewhat over the years, this series represents the beginning process of forming and implementing our homeschool and educational philosophies. When my husband and I, at the suggestion of our oldest daughter, [...]

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Why I’m Not Unschooling

by Alison Moore Smith on November 8, 2011 · 28 comments

This is the first in a three-part homeschooling series. It was first published in 1996 in Super Learning Tools. Although my theories have morphed somewhat over the years, this series represents the beginning process of forming and implementing our homeschool and educational philosophies. When I joined the growing home education movement I was astounded to [...]

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Math Stinks!

by Guest Blogger on October 13, 2011 · 2 comments

By Mary Rubin Stuart The trouble came on Harriet Callahan slowly. As a high school freshman she had been placed in a science and math honors program and began the year enthusiastically. But after a few weeks in first-year algebra, Harriet felt confused and scared. “I’d sit there and hear my teacher talking about variables [...]

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Research Paper Guidelines

by Alison Moore Smith on October 8, 2011 · 5 comments

My first research paper — for my high school AP English class in 1982 — still gives me nightmares. The process of typing out an enormous paper was foreign and intimidating. My topic: J.D. Salinger. I pulled an A, but not without pulling an all nighter and much of my hair out. My last research paper [...]

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How Can I Pay for College?

by Alison Moore Smith on August 20, 2011 · 7 comments

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of UPromise for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine. I am a big believer in calculating return on investment. In accounting parlance: ROI = (gain from investment – cost of investment)/cost of investment But in layman’s terms it means calculating the efficiency of an investment. [...]

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Collaborize Classroom

by Alison Moore Smith on January 27, 2011 · 3 comments

This post brought to you by Collaborize Classroom. All opinions are 100% mine. When it comes to school stuff, I’m not a huge supporter. With all the resources and infrastructure, our schools could be second-to-none. But with all the competing interests and egos — not to mention billions of dollars — they’ve become a hodge [...]

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School Science Fair Projects

by Alison Moore Smith on January 25, 2011 · 6 comments

I put school science fairs right up there with the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. More often than not, it’s a competition between parents. But done right — which might mean allowing your children to do the work (and the learning) themselves — there is no better way to understand a science topic than by doing [...]

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Building the Smith Family Home: A Music Video

by Alison Moore Smith on December 3, 2010 · 3 comments

Belinda’s fall 2010 semester project for History of Creativity at BYU was all about the project that’s been consuming our family for the past couple of years: construction of our custom home. Now that our home is complete (well, for the most part) and we are moved in (well, for the most part), we can [...]

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Get Your Master’s Degree Online

by Alison Moore Smith on May 4, 2010 · 0 comments

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of USC. All opinions are 100% mine. Forget the commute. Forget bussing. For the past 16 years we’ve been homeschooling. For the past nine years our own businesses have been our sole means of support and for the past seven years all our businesses have [...]

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Best Gifts: College Finals Survival Kits

by Alison Moore Smith on December 13, 2009 · 7 comments

One of my odd recurring nightmares is that someone walks up to me on campus and casually mentions a test in one of my courses — a test I knew nothing about. The panic I felt is familiar to many college students. With my two oldest children attending a university (one senior, one freshman), I [...]

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Best Toys: Art Supplies

by Alison Moore Smith on October 12, 2009 · 3 comments

Sure, we’ve got the usual box scratch paper, bins of broken crayons, mismatched sets of colored paper, watercolor sets with black mixed into the yellow, clogged glue bottles, and dried up glue sticks. The usual. But when we really want to do artwork, we get out the special stash of the good stuff. Elementary School [...]

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