Homeschooling | 100 Words

Book Recommendations, Homeschooling, Parenting

Seven Laws of the Learner

September 19th, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

The same Hebrew word means to learn and to teach. Do you realize the significance of that? We can’t separate teaching from learning … Teaching is what the teacher does in the student.
Seven Laws of the Learner by Bruce Wilkerson

Seven Laws of the Learner changed my outlook. I had taught at two universities and homeschooled my sons over a decade before I read Wilkerson’s book and watched his DVD series. I more clearly saw my ultimate responsibility with both parenting and homeschooling and made immediate changes.

I had expected too much maturity and independence from my teenagers. If they weren’t learning, whether academically or non-academically, then I wasn’t teaching.

Regarding homeschooling, I took ownership of their weekly literature and biology vocabulary. Tiddlywinks were the markers and M&Ms the reward for Bingo vocabulary games. (My youngest claims he would have learned the words faster if I had let him fill up on M&Ms before Bingo started.) I looked for hands-on activities as I had done in earlier years. I stopped assuming that my guidance and creativity were less needed.

Another excellent parenting /teaching resource is Summarization in Any Subject: 50 Techniques to Improve Student Learning by Rick Wormeli.

Book Recommendations, Homeschooling, Parenting

A Year Of Learning

September 5th, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

With Miss Agnes the world got bigger and then it got smaller … she told us all the things that were bigger than us, the universe and all that, and then all the things that were smaller. Too small to even see.

Before Miss Agnes came, we didn’t know people like us could learn that much …
The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill

I was intrigued when I first saw The Year of Miss Agnes in a catalog. While I was on a library waiting list, a dear friend gifted me this book.

As I read about this Alaskan, one-room schoolhouse in 1948, I longed for a slower pace that allowed for more music, the wall map from my homeschooling years, and the timelines I never made.

I wasn’t alone. The villagers in the book get drawn into the learning adventure. One carries a timeline in his pocket. Another studies the class map. A few meet with Miss Agnes after hours to improve their reading. For me, it was a reminder to be a life-long learner.

I think I’ll work my world map puzzles.

PS There’s a sequel, Miss Agnes and the Ginger Tom.

Decisions, Homeschooling, Parenting

Advice Versus Experience

November 8th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

I don’t believe in advice. I offer experience and hope.
Tracee Ellis Ross

I don’t believe much in advice either, Tracee. Along the way, I’ve received too much from people who have no knowledge or have never walked in my footsteps. (I remember both the humor and the hurt from those situations.)

I’m also guilty. Long ago and far away, I chose a new homeschool curricula. It was computer based and made my life easier while my family cared for my mother. Within weeks, I was recommending my discovery to other families. By the end of the year, I was pointing out the curricula’s faults and giving different advice. My friends needed my seasoned experience—not my untested advice.

Even seasoned experience has not stopped others or me from giving and receiving bad advice.

What do I wish we all knew before sharing experiences and offering hope? To ask questions first to see our experiences are helpful.

Never miss a good chance to shut up. Will Rogers

Homeschooling, Parenting

Unhappy Happiness

October 25th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

A parent’s job is never to make their kids happy or smooth every bump in the road… Children learn by messing up, getting frustrated, and not getting their own way.
Becky Kennedy, Mom and Clinical Psychologist

Thank you, Becky Kennedy, for standing up for what I believe—something I understand more after seeing the unhappiness that comes from making children happy.

I’m hurting these days. As I teach and prepare lessons for my eager-to-learn students, I think of certain children I love and wish I could teach. I can’t. Why? Their mothers are absorbed in making sure they are continually happy. Therefore, they are academically behind, socially impaired, and often unpleasant to be around.

Otherwise, they are great kids. or could be if their moms didn’t try to keep them happy at all costs—costs which fall on parents, siblings, neighbors, and the teachers who are required to teach them.

As the mother of adult children and the friend of many mothers of adult children, here is what I’ve learned along the way. Even if you should make children happy, it is impossible. The only path is to do what is best for them—which rarely involves happiness.

Decisions, Homeschooling, Parenting

Following Other Families

September 6th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.
Henri Nouwen

I thought the perfect families and homeschoolers showcased in magazines and at conventions could show me the way. It turned out they could only give me a picture of the destination because they had never been in my parenting and homeschooling desert.

I don’t regret what I read and attended. I do regret not realizing the journey presented could not be replicated. There were many reasons. The advice-giving parents were from a different generation. They had different challenges and resources. Others had not finished their journey and so they only thought they knew the way.

As the school year geared up, and the challenges abounded, my peers and I rarely had people who could lead us. We stumbled around together and eventually made it.

Almost twenty years have passed since my sons graduated. The desert has changed during that time. As your school year progresses, may you have people to lead you and the wisdom to know who they are.

Thank you, Marie Hannah, for surviving the desert and returning to guide others.