Have You Caught the Spark? Homeschooling with Kindle

by Susan A. Howard

It is no secret that I am a big fan of good literature and consider it the key component of any homeschool curriculum.  I am also a fan of the sensual experience of holding, smelling, flipping through the pages of a book.  So, I was convinced that I would not take to the new and soaring e-reader phenomenon until my husband bought me a Kindle two Christmas' ago. 

What I have found is that whatever I thought I would miss in tactile pleasure I have regained in the enormous convenience, economy and functionality of the Kindle.  Now, I am not promoting the Kindle over similar devices.  I have experience with only one brand of e-reader.  I expect that other devices have similar functionality, so if you wish to project my glowing review onto other devices feel free, as long as you don’t hold me accountable for any differences between devices!

For the purpose of literature-based homeschooling, the Kindle has proved to be invaluable for several reasons.  The first is economical.  At just over a hundred dollars, the Kindle costs less than many textbooks.  When you then consider how much free and relevant data you can store on it, the economics make even more sense.  Most of the classical literature you would want your student to read throughout his school years is available on Kindle for free.  You can also send PDF and Word documents, study guides, articles and email attachments to your Kindle.  Many of these documents can be purchased off the web or acquired for free.  So, your overall documentation and materials cost for the school year would likely be less with than Kindle than without it if you and/or your students read a lot of literature during the year.  And in the years to follow (unless you have a propensity to replace devices with every upgrade in technology) the costs should go down even further.

For convenience, you can’t beat the Kindle.  Not only can you and your students can carry around most of their homeschooling material in a device as light as and as small as a thin paperback, but you can download additional material from anywhere in a matter of minutes.  You can search the material in your Kindle easily, annotate the material, and lookup definitions instantly as you read.

Finally, especially when you use the available leather covers, the Kindle feels and handles very much like a real book, with this difference:  It doesn’t become awkwardly unbalanced and fall out of your grip when you’re three fourths your way through a chunky novel like Les Miserables!  And although it is probably not the best idea to read your Kindle in the bathtub, I do it anyway.  I often forget I am not reading a paper based book.

So if you’ve been holding off buying a Kindle or other e-reader because you weren’t sure it would really meet your needs, I would encourage you to suggest to someone that it would make a really good gift!

(P.S.  Amazon did not pay me to say any of this.  I’m just sharing my personal experience.)

Homeschooling Ourselves - Benefits We Reap

I have always contended that among the benefits of homeschooling, a superior education for our children is only one. Those of us who have muddled through home education would probably recognize the by-product of our own continuing education and personal growth. As I prepare files for the printer I realize that my own foray into the world of novel writing and publishing is evidence of the benefits I have enjoyed from educating my own children.

As a child I struggled with reading and writing. I come from a family of competent writers, none professional but all talented. My mother writes poetry, my eldest sister: short stories. Another sister has built a library of ideas for non-fiction and fiction if she could just get all the probono writing she does for organizations, non-profits and her husband’s job out of the way. I always wanted to develop the vocabulary, the clever phraseology and the logically structured arguments that my siblings and parents seemed to utilized with ease. But poor eyesight and an excessive interest in television discouraged my interest in books. Consequently, I fell behind in developing the necessary skills to express myself verbally.

My high school drill-sargeant-of-an-English-teacher taught me that clear writing comes from clear thinking. And clear thinking comes from access to the vocabulary needed to express abstract ideas. But I knew I could think. I knew I had good ideas worthy of defending. After weeks and weeks of painstaking work, rework, editing and advice, I managed to eek out my first A- on my final English paper as a senior in high school. To me, that effort meant that I had the heart and determination of a writer, but definitely not the required toolset.

But after my own children entered school, I quickly realized that they were not getting the education that I did, meager as it was compared to that of my own parents. I tried private schools and alternative ed and came to realize that it was up to me to make sure my children had the concepts and skills they would need to become self-sufficient, life-long learners. So I began homeschooling, not realizing that through my efforts to teach I would learn so much.

My three eldest children had vastly different personalities and intellectual strengths. My first was a natural reader and writer. She read incessantly and began writing and illustrating stories in the second grade. Her younger brother read above grade level but could hardly string a sentence together. The youngest was scary-smart in all areas, and challenged me to determine the difference between intellectual readiness and developmental readiness. When it came to teaching writing, I had a mind-bending range of requirements. Each child needed vastly different instruction, motivation and technique, and each offered me in return a different lesson on my own weaknesses and strengths as a writer.

My youngest daughter taught me to always start simple. Just the facts. Say it as plainly and succinctly as you can. My son, the middle child, taught me how to negotiate the logical flow of a piece of writing. My eldest taught me how to create a lasting image in the minds of my readers. And years of correcting vocabulary tests, essays, creative writing assignments and literature analysis gave me the facility of using language to express myself both creatively and logically. But it was when my daughter and I spent hours discussing her own attempt at novel writing that I began to see how much I understood story, character development, pacing, suspense.

So now that my three eldest are on their way to and through higher education, I have been able to put these skills to use for my own personal gratification and hopefully the enjoyment and benefit of others. My first suspense novel, Critical Mass, is now available on Kindle and will soon be available in paperback. I invite you to take a look. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed learning how to write it!

You can see my book on Amazon, here.