Posted on 27th February 2008 by mishakennedy in miscellaneous
homeschooling, miscellaneous, montessori, unschooling
Sarah writes:”How does this [unschooling] enable your children to get their diploma and college level education? I don’t know what it’s like in Vermont, but in Ontario certainly having some sort of post-secondary accreditation is necessary to get a decent paying job.
“I am for homeschooling to some degree, although I also see some benefits in public education for Christian kids, and also like the ideas of Montessori. I plan to homeschool my daughter for her first few years and then supporting and tutoring her through public school, but my main desires are to a) bring her up to know and choose God; b) to equip her for life and work in the world; and c) to give her a basis on which she can understand and relate to others to effectively be a witness in the world. If I can accomplish these goals, she will have the best foundation I can give her.
“While I understand the concept of tailoring education to a child’s needs, particularly as advocated in Montessori, I’m not sure how you can truly allow child-directed education without ending with gaps in their knowlege bank / skill set.”
First off, thanks so much for writing.
Ahh…the “decent-paying job,” it’s the foundation of our motivation for almost everything in our first 18 years isn’t it? Getting rid of the notion that I had to gear my life and my children’s life in order to get a decent-paying job is one of the first hurdles I had to leap. I have found that the majority of very unhappy people I have known in my life work in “decent-paying jobs.” I don’t want my children to have that as their motivation for living. I don’t know how else to say it. Working hard at something you love must be paramount. I’ve learned to be very frugal so that I could work for $12 an hour as a reporter for a daily newspaper. Without that experience, I would never have had the opportunity to publish books and articles with major publishers and publications. I’ll leave it at that for now…I have much more to write on the topic, but I risk losing the main idea behind this particular article.
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Technorati Tags: homeschooling, miscellaneous, montessori, unschooling
Posted on 12th February 2008 by Mish in food | frugal
aspartame, diet soda, food, frugal, health, soda
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We all know that drinking soda in’t good for you. It’s full of sugar, caffeine, and artificial whatevers. The average 12 ounce can of soda has about 100 calories in it. Drink 5 or 6 a day and you might as well have gone to McDonald’s for lunch. So in an effort to make soda “better” for us, companies came out with diet soda – replacing that evil sugar with aspartame. Although aspartame has been billed as “safe” by our government, I believe it to be far from true. (more…)
Technorati Tags: aspartame, diet soda, food, frugal, health, soda
Posted on 9th February 2008 by Mish in miscellaneous
classes, freelance, miscellaneous, writing
Just a quick note to let you know that I will be posting stuff about my books, writing events, classes, and other thoughts and opinions on my new blog: http://mishkennedy.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Mish
Technorati Tags: classes, freelance, miscellaneous, writing
Posted on 8th February 2008 by Mish in frugal
family, food, frugal, green
Keeping a pantry full of items with which to make many meals is one of the best ways to save money in the long run. Make a list of the ten top meals your family likes to eat. Break down the recipes into their ingredients – and how much you need to keep of each on hand for one week. Then start shopping your sales. If one of the items on your list is diced tomatoes and you notice that your local supermarket is having a sale on them, then stock up. Don’t just buy enough for the week, buy enough for the month. That way, when an item is not on sale, you’ll be able to skip it one week and buy other items that are on sale. Consider your freezer an addition to the pantry and stock up on items there too – no not frozen waffles and tater tots, but frozen veggies and meats, if you eat meat (being a veg, is more frugal…and green). Being able to “shop” for the day out of your pantry is one of the best investments you’ll make – and always having a stocked pantry, means you won’t be among those clabbering at the store for the last gallon of milk during a snowstorm!
Technorati Tags: family, food, frugal, green
Posted on 4th February 2008 by Mish in breastfeeding
breastfeeding, family, health, kids, mothering
Looking over the news this morning, I wandered over to Mothering.com one of my favorite sites for all things parenting, and came across a blog post that someone wrote about this article on Babble.com.
The post was fairly typical, but the comments that followed it were what appalled me…not because I found them unusual, but because, frankly, they bored me. There were probably 14 comments all detailing why you should breastfeed, how you should only nurse, how bottlefeeding is bad, etc., etc. Now, I am completely in favor in breastfeeding. I encourage it to new moms whenever I can. I have written many articles detailing the benefits of nursing…and I fully support the Nestle boycott – as well as vilify the formula companies that try to make moms believe that formula is just as good as breastmilk.
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Technorati Tags: breastfeeding, family, health, kids, mothering
Posted on 4th February 2008 by Mish in miscellaneous
blog, debt, miscellaneous
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