The Happy Homeschool: Recent Episodes
Laura Blodgett
transcript pending - to find out how to subscribe to The Happy Homeschool Heartbeat (and see the written transcript of the episode when it gets done) go to https://thehappyhomeschool.com/dilemmas-in-discipline/
You can read the transcript and find links mentioned at https://thehappyhomeschool.com/how-parents-should-think-about-rebellion/
To read the full transcript, go to: https://thehappyhomeschool.com/the-truth-about-children-and-peer-pressure/
To read the transcript go to: https://thehappyhomeschool.com/helping-children-learn-how-to-evaluate-adults/
Amanda Trumpower writes for Jesus lovers who dig dragons, detectives, and droids. Writing ever since she could hold a crayon, she’s happy to have upgraded to a keyboard. She’s a twin mom, second-generation homeschooler, D&D enthusiast, and board game fanatic.
She has a masters degree in Library & Information Science, which she describes as the least impressive masters degree in the world because no one is aware professional librarians are required to get one. Back when she wore her librarian cape, she thrived on planning events; building relationships with tweens; and helping senior citizens recover their email passwords.
As a follow of Christ, her worldview is based on what the Bible says and her best understanding of how to apply it. Whether her books contain an overt Christian message on the page varies on a book-by-book basis. Her books will never contain swearing, graphic violence, or explicit sex. (Books for older teens and adults may have thematic elements not appropriate to young children.) All books will conform to a Christian worldview–though certainly not all the characters–and while the journey may be difficult, all main characters come to a place of hope brought by the peace of knowing God.
To enter the book giveaway mentioned at the end of the podcast, leave a comment at Interview: Meet the Author of Collar Cases Mysteries for Children and Book Giveaway saying something you enjoyed about the interview. Children can enter with the approval and supervision of a parent. One entry per person. Participants must live in the continental United States. The contest deadline is April 30, 2022 at midnight Mountain Daylight Savings Time. A winner will be notified in the comments by May 7, so check back to see if you won! If the winner does not respond before May 21, 2022, a new winner will be chosen from the same comments made by the aforementioned deadline.
Before beginning such a conversation with a child, an adult needs to examine his or her own substance choices and assumptions made about them. If a substance affects our mental state, does that make it inherently bad? If you answer yes to that, then you have to examine anything else you do because it makes you feel good or if it affects your ability to make certain decisions. [Week 36 of 52 Weeks to a Better Relationship With Your Child]
To find the links mentioned, go to: https://thehappyhomeschool.com/what-liberty-minecraft-can-teach-you-about-life-an-interview-with-nathan-dempsey/
To sign up for the THH Dangerously Helpful Homeschool Dispatch, click on the following link: https://thehappyhomeschool.com/the-key-to-conquering-all-your-teaching-challenges/
https://thehappyhomeschool.com/how-your-attitude-about-gender-affects-your-relationship-with-your-child/
To read the full transcript, go to https://thehappyhomeschool.com/how-to-read-a-book-relationally-with-your-child/
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]
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]
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 thehappyhomeschool.com
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 don’t have to be musical to enjoy music with your children. In fact, you should help your children to understand that engaging with music is not something restricted to the highly talented or famous. Young children automatically like and interact with music. This can be a wonderfully fun and useful as a part of your parent-child relationship.
To read more, go to:
How to Make Music a Great Part of Your Parent-Child Relationship
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 support and wisdom.
To read more, go to:
How to be Your Child's Preferred Friendship Coach
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 any means. However, I am not afraid to be creative or take fashion risks. I have learned that appearing confident is at least half the battle. And I have tried to pass this on to my children.
To read more, go to:
A Guide to Fashion for Parents Who Want to Impress Their Children
(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 motivates in education?
- What are the goals of education?
- How are relationships involved in education?
If you haven’t really examined these basics, then you are flying blind or letting someone else fly while you don’t even watch.
To read more, go to: How to Make Education a Positive Part of Your Relationship With Your Child
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 to: Teaching Your Children to Respect Your Need for Sleep
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-ownership as obvious as the nose on your face.
To read more, go to:
Guidelines for Children’s Property Rights in the Home
[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 talk to them about it, but what we will say.
Obviously, it is going to be hard to talk about death honestly if we have not grappled with the subject personally. If we try to pretend that death is not an unavoidable part of life, we will not be prepared to realistically talk to our children about it on any level. And our children need us to be able to offer insight. If we don’t, they will look for answers in other places.
To read more, go to:
Helping Your Child Understand Death
Let’s begin by asking “how important is the idea of categories or subjects for any learning?” Your answer to this question will partly be affected by how you see the concept of subjects. Is it a springboard for learning, or is it a dungeon, a master to be obeyed?
I think it can be helpful to distinguish between different types of subjects and even though I am going to do this, I think there is some overlap. Some types of subjects will fit in the different categories or types depending on how they are approached.
To read the transcript, go to:
How to Think About Subjects for Homeschooling
Your children are subconsciously observing your attitude toward money from a young age. They see:
- how you talk about it
- how you spend it on the household
- how you spend it on fun
- how you spend it on them
- how you cooperate with the other parent about it
- how you save it
- how you share it
- how you guide them in using it
Soon enough, they are trying to figure out how they can access money, because it is an important step to independence.
To read more, go to:
8 Ways Your Child is Watching You Deal with Money
Maturity is often claimed as a measure for independence, or when a person can be recognized as an adult. Yet everyone knows adults they would describe as immature. Maybe the concept of maturity is not well understood or used consistently.
To read more, go to
How Your Attitude Toward Maturity Affects Your Child
Why is morality a “dirty” word?
I think I know why “morality” is a dirty word to some people. Two main reasons:
- It is confused with cultural preference
- It is applied conveniently
Cultural preference can cover anything from dressing according to religious code to using vocabulary acceptable to political groups. Convenient application usually involves making excuses for what was going to be done anyway.
To read more, go to: How Your Attitude Toward Morality Affects Your Child
Faith versus superstition
What do you have faith in? Before you can answer that, you have to have an idea of what is meant by faith. True, words can mean different things to different people. However, a concept is a concept by any other name, to misquote Shakespeare.
The crux of the problem with agreeing about what faith is is that some people equate it with superstition while others say it is believing in something based on evidence. I am in the latter camp, so that is how I will use it in this discussion.
To read more, go to How Your Attitude Toward Faith Affects Your Child
Any religion is a system of behaviors that are considered necessary to both prove and act out a person’s real or supposed convictions about the meaning of life. At best, religion is evidence of internalized truths. At worst, religion is a way to manipulate people’s fears.
To read more, go to: How Your Attitude Toward Religion Affects Your Child
People love to laugh. The proverb “a merry heart is good like a medicine” has been understood for thousands of years. Laughter makes people feel better. Yet, human nature too often has a way of twisting what is good and using it in destructive ways. This is also true of humor.
To read more, go to
How Your Use of Humor Affects Your Relationship With Your Child
Would you be curious if I suggested to you that scientific studies on child development do more harm than good? I do suggest this, and for two main reasons: ...
To read more, go to Secrets to Understanding Child Development and How This Affects Your Relationship With Your Child
Respect is something that has to be earned. It cannot be demanded. The deepest levels of respect are based on spending time observing a person’s choices and attitudes. The potential for respect is greatest with those who see us regularly face the demands of life. Many of such demands fall in the category of work.
To read more, go to thehappyhomeschool.com How Your Work is Key to Gaining Your Child's Respect
To read more, please go to How to Use Rules as Good Tools With Your Child at thehappyhomeschool.com
To read more, go to How the Family Schedule Affects Your Child at thehappyhomeschool.com
To read the transcript, or to sign up for my Best 25 Homeschool Tips, go to:
How Your Attitude Toward Other People Affects Your Child on thehappyhomeschool.com
A good parent-child relationship is something that needs to be built early and regularly. When the relationship is good, stress is more manageable, problem-solving is more rewarding, and progress is sweeter. To read more about homeschooling, visit thehappyhomeschool.com
Do you want a happy homeschool and great relationships with your children? In this first episode, I give the basics of how that can be done and what will be discussed in the future to encourage and inspire you to achieve this for your own family.