The Happy Homeschool

view links mentioned at The Most Important Thing to Teach Your Children - Who God Is

When children start to become aware of current events in the world, it can be overwhelming. A lot depends on how the influential adults in their lives respond to such things. [Week 32 of 52 Weeks to a Better Relationship With Your Child]

To read the transcript and see links to other subjects mentioned, please go to Guidelines for When Your Child Asks Why

To see the transcription of this podcast, including links referred to, please go to Does Technology Destroy Children's Creativity ?

To read the transcript and find the links mentioned, go to: The Dilemma of Letting Children Have Pets

Sooner or later, every parent is faced with how to fulfill the parental responsibility in feeding a child no matter what a child’s preferences in eating. [Week 28 of 52 Weeks to a Better Relationship With Your Child]

To read the transcript, go to Helicopter Parenting versus Supervision

To read the transcript, go to: How to Embrace Your Role as Parent

To read the content, please to to  How to Help a Child Who Feels Rejected by Friends

What are your goals for your child? To help our children set good personal goals, it helps to figure out what our goals as parents are. [Week 24 of 52 Weeks to a Better Relationship With Your Child]

To read more, go to: Guidelines for Children's Privacy in the Family

Here is an interview with Rebecca of Dissident Mama. She and her husband have taught their three sons at home for many years. In the interview she describes her learning process as a homeschool mom and why she thinks anyone can teach their own children.

Teasing is not something unique to the world of children. In fact, my husband teases me a lot. When trying to understand teasing, we really need to look at each instance and each relationship. All teasing is not equal. Here are some reasons people tease each other:... To read more, go to: Help Your Child Get a Grip on Teasing

A child typically means all or one of the three following things when they claim something is not fair: I want it, too. (Or don’t want it, too) I don’t understand. Do you love me? To read more, go to: How to Fine Tune Your Child's Sense of Fairness

My children have good memories of chore time. In fact, so do I. I believe there are two main reasons why. I approached chore time with a cheerful attitude and I came up with a system that combined learning, encouragement, and reality. To read more, go to: How to Get Your Children to Do Chores Cheerfully

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 t heh...

Here are 5 common distortions of sharing: If you are nice, you will share You need to share if asked Everything should be shared There can be rules about sharing 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: Start enjoying music with your children when they are young Teach you children how to evaluate music Don’t be self-righteous about musical choices You do...

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 supp...

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 an...

(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 m...

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...

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-...

[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 tal...