COMMENTS

• Tiffany says:

  September 19, 2025 at 10:48 am

  Really love this addition Donna! Thank you!

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• Erin says:

  September 22, 2025 at 1:48 pm

  I cannot agree more about the importance of actually being home in homeschooling! We have eight children, the oldest of whom will graduate this year, so I have been at this a long time now. The pressure to be out and about almost constantly has increased significantly in just the last twelve years. The opportunities for outside activities have become so numerous, and so relentless in their push into the home, that it is very difficult to resist them. We know only one other family that rejects outside activities as much as we do – most are out an about at least three days a week during the school day. The older I become the more I think that this intrusion of the outer world into the smaller and more intimate circle of home and the interior spiritual life are at the heart of many of our societal problems. We are losing the center of our very selves in our constant drive to be elsewhere: distracting ourselves from our interior life with the noise of external things, the emptiness of our homes because we are elsewhere, the focus on national or international affairs as opposed to the happenings in our own towns and neighborhoods, even the focus on largescale ecological problems at the expense of caring for our own local environment. Our circles of knowledge become ever larger, but ever emptier of real meaning or even concrete experience. We can talk intelligently about climate change, for example, but know little about the ways the natural world outside our door changes with the seasons. We thus have no real love for the piece of nature which actually surrounds us and our discourse becomes more academic than personal. This is a dangerous situation that I believe can only be remedied by individuals and their families choosing to be truly present in their own small corners of the world more than they are present in the larger one. I am not advocating ignoring the world at large, just putting things in their true order of importance. This is doubly true of our relationships with our children and families.

  I have found the following to be useful in ensuring that my family is actually at home. We do a homeschool co-op associated with our particular religious denomination twice per month. That is the only outside activity my younger four children do. That time of the school week (Friday morning) is also the only time we do any out of the house activities, such as trips to the zoo or museum. Keeping strictly to this rule keeps me from allowing activities to slowly creep in without notice, upsetting the overall rhythm of the week and drawing us out of the house. My older children do more, but we stick with activities intended for children in brick and mortar school. These obviously take place after public school lets out and thus their time at home is also protected. They are able to have the outside activities that they need at their age while their younger siblings need to be home is also met. I find that there is an added benefit in the activities which mix them with non-homeschooled children. The general value system of our co-op is fairly homogenous due to its religious nature. This is good for our younger children as they are not confused by some of the crazier child inappropriate attitudes so common today. Their worlds are uncomplicated and they are allowed to simply be children doing child things. Our older children do encounter these topics through their activities with the kids in public school. I like this, as it has allowed them to encounter these difficult topics while still at home where we can discuss them together. If our activities were only with homeschooled children, they may not encounter these ideas until they went to college. Yes, we could bring them up ourselves. However, I think there is real value in hearing these ideas from people that embrace them and discussing them both with those individuals and with us. As they become older, they need this stretching of both experience and worldview without being totally thrown to the wolves and becoming overwhelmed and confused. It is a gentle stretching, but a constant and necessary one fitting to their ages. This approach – little to no activities in the younger years and activities intended not just for the homeschooler in the older years – has been very beneficial for our family as a whole.

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• Adi Shakti Khalsa says:

  September 22, 2025 at 10:32 pm

  Thank you, Donna. I have read these tips in your numerous books, and live by them, but to hear your voice again is something we need as mothers. This short video has me in tears, and I think it’s as simple as “you get it.” You get us, you guide us, and I want to thank you for making a video because your voice heals us as well.

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