Yusuf Olawale Idris 
I recently attended the open house of a DC-area playgroup based on the Reggio Emilia method, an educational approach for young children that developed in Italy after World War II. At the open house, the playgroup’s founder emphasized the importance of a child’s “third teacher,” his or her environment. (The first and second teachers are parents … Read more
In How to Tutor Your Own Child, I emphasize the educational value of simplicity, silence, and boredom. Along those same lines, I was struck by this quote about the benefits of aloneness from “The Writer as Psychotic,” an article by author Philip Yancey: Brain scans reveal that aloneness is central to the creative impulse; sensory deprivation allows the synaptic loops … Read more
In How to Tutor Your Own Child, I discuss the role that the Internet plays in students’ intellectual development. Though search engines may be an effective tool, I’m concerned about how the Web makes us so quick to Google for answers. Think about the process of discovery that’s lost in Googling. Here’s a non-academic example: Can you … Read more
I posted the following question on the How to Tutor Your Own Child Facebook yesterday: If your child’s friends like poorly written but popular books (e.g., Twilight), is it better to (A) convince your child to avoid these books in favor of better literature, even if no one else he or she knows has read these books OR … Read more
This weekend I watched Life 2.0 (2010), the August film for the Oprah Winfrey Network’s (OWN’s) documentary club. Life 2.0 follows players of Second Life. If you’re new to the name, Second Life is “the Internet’s largest user-created, 3D virtual world community.” Every user creates an avatar, an in-world character whose physical characteristics the user controls. Once enveloped in Second … Read more
This Saturday, I had the pleasure of speaking as part of the Center for Student Opportunity‘s bookfair at the Barnes & Noble in Bethesda, Maryland. Yes, we were in front of the cookbooks, but we were actually talking about preparing for college. The event’s main speaker was Doris Davis, an educational consultant who formerly worked as part … Read more
How do you know if you’re having the appropriate level of involvement when helping your child with schoolwork? I recommend keeping the following points in mind: Don’t do anything for a student that he could be doing himself. Your goal is to build the student’s skill set. He or she should come away from your interactions with … Read more
Most traditional essays include a thesis statement, which is where a writer states the paper’s central point. Though there are exceptions, basic thesis statements are generally one sentence long and located at the beginning or end of the paper’s introductory paragraph. A strong thesis statement… …makes an argument. Ask yourself: Can I support my argument with evidence–as … Read more
Until recently, I only had a hazy understanding of the difference between homeschooling and unschooling. For clarification, I read Unschooling 101: Top 10 Questions About Learning Without School, by Sara McGrath. Here’s my current understanding: When we talk about homeschoolers, we’re talking about the broad category of students who learn outside of the full-time American school system. … Read more
After investigating the difference between homeschooling and unschooling, I was curious about the definition of radical unschooling. To get one educator’s take, I read Radical Unschooling: A Revolution Has Begun, by Dayna Martin. Here’s Martin’s definition: Radical unschooling, which expands unschooling philosophy to parenting, means you extend that same trust to other areas of your child’s life, like foods, media, … Read more
