(Originally printed in a 1991 catalog) [Our ages in 1991. Joy - 9. Hope - 8. Grace - 7. Abel - 3.] Many moms have called and written asking for a schedule of what a typical day is like at the Timberdoodle. I hope they haven’t been too disappointed to discover that there are few average days here at the Timberdoodle. None-the-less, here is a thumb-nail sketch of what we try to accomplish every day. 6:00 AM Rise and shine! Well, better make that just rise. As in all families, there are morning people and there are those who don’t...

(Originally published in a 1992 Timberdoodle catalog.) How do you teach your children and maintain the rest of your responsibilities? It is not as hard as some might think. First of all, we are very content with being homebodies, so we do not spend huge amounts of time on field trips or on other activities that pull us in too many directions. Second of all, as soon as our children can read, they assume a large measure of the responsibility of getting their school work done. So our first priority is to develop adequate reading skills in each of our youngsters. Some...

This question on Facebook yesterday got us thinking:Timberdoodle: I read your catalog cover to cover when it comes, and I love your thoughtful reviews of homeschooling resources. I’m wondering, though, about what feels to me like an increasing number of DVD/computer-style resources that “replace” parental involvement. Yes, homeschooling parents are busy, but isn’t spending time with your kids as they learn a major part of the whole point? What is your perspective on this?Tricia Groenewold Van Dyk What a fascinating observation! We actually have quite a few reasons for selling independent learning tools and after a little discussion here, these...

Deb: Hope, what question are we looking at today? Hope: Well, the question we’re looking at today is one that probably every homeschooling family encounters. It is, “What do I do when my child doesn’t want to do the school work? Deb: Actually, I don’t think you see this much now [at the beginning of the year] because we’re all in the honeymoon stage, but probably around Christmas time, and certainly when you start up again, it’s like, “Oh, do we have to do this?” What are some of the reasons kids balk at doing their school work? Hope: Well, there’s a lot of...

The stunning Mosdos textbooks are massive, so “How do we schedule this?” is a fair question! Hope: Our question for today is about the Mosdos literature program. You guys have given us feedback that it looks like in an amazing program, and it really is, but it looks a little bit overwhelming. So the question is, what would a day look like in Mosdos? What would it look like to do it daily? How do we actually implement all this wonderful information? Pearl: Well, I think there are a lot of different ways to do it because Mosdos has so many different...