Category: Family & Education

Sanctuary Is the Place We Call Our Own

A software sales rep I know treasures his hour-long commute from his home to his office in Northern Virginia. As he heads down I-66, joining the dense traffic after Manassas, he lights up a cigar, listens to the radio or a podcast, and relishes his time alone, suspended between the responsibilities of family and the…


Mom of 5 Offers Advice to Parents New to Homeschooling

Amber Shimel is a homeschool mom of five, a university professor, and the author of “Homeschooling Simplified: Practical Tips and Encouragement for the Journey.” As more and more parents continue to opt out of the standard school route and head down the homeschooling path, I asked Ms. Shimel about her experience as a homeschool mom…


How to Be a Great Volunteer

Every organization from the Red Cross to a neighborhood garage sale relies on volunteers for free labor, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Here are a few ways to be the volunteer everybody wants helping them. Be Enthusiastic Choose a cause that excites you. By showing up ready to work hard and make…


Is Your Life a Career or a Mission?

In “Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work Is Always Ahead of You,” Stephen Covey set out to answer questions such as “How can you pull yourself out of a midlife crisis?” and “How can you contribute once you’ve achieved success?” Covey died before finishing “Crescendo,” but his daughter, Cynthia Haller, who had worked…


Advice From 13 Successful Education Entrepreneurs on How to Take the Plunge Into Non-Traditional Schooling

It’s a great time to be an education entrepreneur! Parents are eager for access to diverse education options. They continue to explore alternatives to district schools, including homeschooling, microschooling, virtual schools, learning pods, low-cost private schools, and charter schools. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that public schools lost more than a million students during the pandemic,…


Winter Warriors: Some Lessons From Valley Forge

Christmas 2022 will be long remembered for the savage winter storm that struck much of the United States. Buffalo, New York, saw four feet of snow and deadly low temperatures. A friend in Minneapolis-St. Paul told me that the weather service there once cheerily reported that the temperature would climb to 6 degrees the following…


Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Finding the Child Within

My 3-year-old niece loves collecting trash. Whether it’s a piece of shiny plastic, a discarded box, or a pinecone she found outside, she becomes very upset when you take her treasures away. In the mind of a child, a worthless item becomes the most cherished object on earth. This attitude makes gift-giving easy. For Christmas,…


Read-Aloud: From Crib to College

In an interview with Winsome Sears, now Virginia’s lieutenant governor, Armstrong Williams asked Sears to name one major problem in Virginia. Sears responded that 85 percent of black eighth graders in the state are functionally illiterate. The astonished Williams had his fact-checkers look up that statistic while Sears continued speaking, and they found that 85 percent of black…


Dear Next Generation: You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind To

I want to offer to young people that they can do anything they put their minds to do; happiness and success are very personal and individual. When I was 11, we moved from the city in California to rural Idaho. So when I wanted to go to a friend’s, I would complain to my dad….


Teaching Language Arts at Home: An Unhurried Approach 

Jan McGrath is a homeschooling mom and creator of “Tell Me a Story,” a writing program for home educators. I recently asked her about her experience homeschooling and for advice for parents when it comes to teaching reading, writing, and foreign language. Here’s what she said. The Epoch Times: What led you to homeschool your…