Getting Ready to Teach

KNOW YOUR OBJECTIVESFirst of all, one needs to decide what their overall teaching objectives will be, as well as objectives for each subject for each school year. It helps to get out a piece of paper and list what it is you wish your children to learn. From experience, I'd say keep it simple for the younger set, listing the most essentials such as Bhagavad gita, Reading, Writing, and Math.

Beware of Educational Clutter

Notes from the homeschooling book, "Schoolproof" by Mary Pride

Two goals are presented in this book- a heart submitted to God, and a service attitude or ability.

Motivational tools are also discussed such as the atmosphere or environment for learning in, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas (the Absolute Truth). Also discipline can become a game. Ideas are given that

Learning About Learning

A good education doesn't necessarily imply going to schools or colleges. One can learn so much on their own. The best thing is to have a strong desire or need to learn and to know how to read, study and get information. Our primary job, therefore, as teachers, is to inspire children enough that will be wanting to learn all they need on their own and know how to go about it.

MAKE IF FUN
All of us

Helps for Homeschooling

GETTING ORGANIZEDHomeschool is a home with a school in it. Therefore it’s necessary to get organized to enhance learning experiences and to keep your sanity. It helps to make a place for everything, and everyone learns to put everything back in it’s place when finished with it. This saves much time and stress. For example, I kept one cabinet for art supplies, one for science experiments, and so

Positive Communication Examples

These were collected from parenting books and periodicals* for improving communication with one's children. They may be useful for learning to state corrections and requests in a positive, constructive way, and to avoid hiding them in endless verbiage.

Instead of saying, “Don’t jump on the couch.”
tell why it's important: “We take care of our couch by not jumping on it. So it will not become

When Home Works

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura wrote:
"No parent is entitled to undertake the charge of the spiritual training of his own boy. He is unfitted for the task by his mundane relationship. Once such a relationship is grasped to be an obstacle in the way of juvenile training, the necessity of sending the boy at the earliest opportunity to the proper teacher becomes self-evident. If the parent continues to

Knowledge and Education

Collected notes about knowledge and real education:

SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE
Transcendental knowledge is the most important. It is received through disciplic succession, from anyone who knows the science of Krsna, and combined with the blessings of guru and Krishna, it gives many benefits such as spiritual power, true self-esteem, greater happiness, freedom, and protection from exploitation. It

Why We Are So Interested in Varnashrama

An excerpt taken from the Iskcon Education Journal, by the late Sri Rama prabhu:

"Sometimes readers may wonder why the Iskcon Education Journal always runs an article or two on varnashrama. If one examines Srila Prabhupada's description of gurukula, it is readily apparent that graduates are meant to fit into a much different kind of society than most of us grew up in.

"Some of the problems

Happy Holy Days

The purpose of holy days is to increase our Krishna consciousness or remembrance of Krsna and to decrease nonsense and the bodily conception of life. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura called them spiritual boosters. Whether at home or one's local temple or both, here are suggestions for encouraging an increase in devotional activity and making holy days memorable:

Have no school if possible or work on