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About Tavia Fuller Armstrong
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Blog postGilbert Gottfried, well-known comedian and actor with the unmistakable voice, died from complications of myotonic dystrophy type 2. According to his publicist, his death was caused by ventricular tachycardia, an arrhythmia associated with myotonic dystrophy. This rare disease, which affects only about 1 in 10,000 people, is a form of muscular dystrophy which, according to the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation causes a host of "varied and complex symptoms, including skeletal muscle problems, exc
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Blog postHey there! I see you, parents of newly virtual schooling kids. I know a whole lot of you, maybe most of you, would have never chosen this option for your children's education if not for the pandemic. Maybe you are doing virtual school because that is all that is offered right now in your district, or maybe because your family has one or more high risk members you want to protect. Perhaps you are out of work, or working from home, and you just wanted to give this whole school-at-home thi
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Blog postRaise your hand if you didn't exactly plan to be doing school at home.
You might guess from the title of my blog, and my first book, my journey into homeschooling wasn't a planned excursion, either. No, my family wasn't pushed out of the classroom by a global pandemic, but we did end up homeschooling largely due to circumstances beyond our control. From the overcrowded local elementary schools and the abysmal lunchtime policies to the fact that public school just wasn't meeting my chil -
Blog postIt has been a while since I've written anything for my blog. The stories I wanted to write didn't seem like all mine to tell. Such is often the case when you are writing about the lives and experiences of your children, especially if your childen have disabilities. Although the things my kids were going through affected me as well, it still didn't feel right to talk about publicly unless and until they seemed ready to share. But like many homeschooling moms, I've discovered that in spite of c
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Blog postInfertility is a condition like no other I know. There is the pain, the longing, the anguish of yearning for a child and feeling like a failure, all the while dealing with the intrusive nature of treatment options and the well-meaning but often hurtful opinions of family and friends. And of course, the unending feeling of standing in an unmoving line while others inexplicably get their turns. Will your turn ever come?
Yes, I've been there. For nearly a decade before my twins were born, and -
Blog postFour years ago, I submitted a pitch to write for a relatively new magazine in the homeschool market. It was an inclusive magazine, open to homeschoolers of all types, and completely free of advertising connected to the Common Core. I'd read some of the back issues, and was excited to join the team of writers, but little did I know how far Learning Tangent Homeschool Magazine would come in such a short time.
Today, Learning Tangent was named one of the top 15 education magazine -
Blog postIn the weeks leading up to a new school year, many homeschooling parents become anxious about how much their kids will accomplish. Will their little ones learn enough to stay on track with their peers? Will their teens earn enough credits to graduate as planned?
It's so easy to get overwhelmed, not just in the planning of it all, but in the day to day execution of the school year itself. How can you keep from getting buried under a stressful mountain of schoolwork and administration -
Blog postIf your kids are anything like mine, they are huge fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Guardians of the Galaxy films are some of our all-time favorites, and I knew that the kids would be shocked to hear that writer and director, James Gunn, had been fired earlier this week.
Whether you agree or disagree with Disney's decision to terminate Gunn, this situation presents a unique opportunity to discuss some tough topics with your kids, which is exactly what we spent time doing a -
Blog postIf you or your kids have not yet been ghosted, I'm sorry to say it is likely to happen. Life is a series of relationships, some lasting forever and others ending, in partings both good and bad. Ghosting is one of the most cowardly and disgusting ways a person can end a relationship, and it is a growing problem in today's society.
Ghosting is one of the more painful experiences a person can endure, whether in a dating relationship or a friendship. I think it can be even more painful when it -
Blog postIs your child taking the PSAT this year? You'd better double check the list of required items, so they will be prepared. Here's what to take with you on testing day.
The proper photo ID
Last year, as my twins were getting ready to take their practice run at the PSAT, I suddenly realized they did not have the proper ID as required by the College Board. Since they were taking the test early, ahead of their junior year, neither of them had a driver's license or learner's permit y -
Blog postIf you are a homeschooler, signing up for the PSAT is more complicated than if you were enrolled in public school. According to the College Board website, homeschooled students need to reach out to a local school to register to take the PSAT in the fall, and the recommend doing so four months in advance.
The PSAT is administered at many public and private schools, and you can do a search on the College Board site to find locations near you. Not every site listed will have space avai -
Blog postJust in time for back to school, my first book, The Unplanned Homeschooler: My Disorganized Path to Homeschooling Success, is available for 75 percent off the list price if you make your purchase at the link below using the coupon code, SUCCESS.
This book is perfect for new homeschoolers or anyone who needs encouragement as they move forward in their homeschooling journey, especially those of you who are feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all.
I understand that homeschooli -
Blog post"If I can do it, you can, too." It's a message we hear repeated over and over. It's an attractive and affirming sentiment that I'd never thought about much until one of my kids casually said, "Nuh uh," at the end of a television commercial.
It got my attention, such that I actually hit pause on the TV remote and asked what he meant.
"I can't balance on a soccer ball," he replied, noting the stunt the actor on the commercial had performed. & -
Blog postSome people think homeschooling has to be expensive, but one of the best parts about homeschooling is that you can save tons of money on back to school. I didn't even have a clue how much I could really save until I'd been homeschooling for a few years. Now I know!
Having grown up going to public school, I was really trapped in the mindset that I needed to buy all the supplies on the back to school list to have a successful year. It's just not true. Homeschoolers aren't likely to need new -
Blog postDisasters can happen to anyone, and when they do, the best you can hope for is that you are somewhat prepared to handle the damage. One of toughest things we, as homeschoolers, go through when facing a disaster is the complete or partial loss of our children's educational supplies. You may have hundreds or even thousands of dollars invested in your homeschool materials! How can you teach if you lose your curriculum and all the extras that go with it?
A couple of years ago, a homesch -
Blog postThis week brought the greatest controversy I have witnessed in the homeschool community since I started homeschooling nearly a decade ago. I am talking about the renaming of the Laura Ingalls Wilder award by the Association for Library Service to Children. The award is now named the Children's Literature Legacy Award, a title that the association feels better represents "its core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect."
There was a lot of hysteria fo -
Blog postWe all know oxygen is essential for respiration for most of the animal kingdom, and carbon is the essential building block of all living things. We know mercury is commonly used in thermometers, and calcium is responsible for strong bones. But did you know that your car might not start if not for antimony? Or that Rubidium is essential in the functioning of the GPS system so many of us rely on today?
The more you know about the elements of the periodic table, and how they relate to -
Blog postAre you still searching for the perfect homeschool organizer for your family? Well, great news! This year's edition of The Unplanner is now available on Amazon for just $7.99.
If you are looking for a professionally bound homeschool organizer that is affordable, easy-to-use, and has attendance sheets for up to six students, you'll want to check out The Unplanner. There are lots of homeschool planners on the market, but The Unplanner is different, because it has just the pa -
Blog postIn my last post, I mentioned that I had been doing all sorts of things that made me happy this spring. Most of them involved dirty and exhausting work, like rebuilding a deck, cleaning up flower beds, planting flowers and power washing just about everything my hose could reach.
I literally ruined clothes over the past few weeks with layers of sweat, grime, grease, deck stain and even blood, but the work was so fulfilling, because I was doing things I couldn't physically do a year ag -
Blog postI took some time off this year, from the things that probably should have been on the front burners, to catch up with things I needed, or simply wanted to do. I let my blog go dormant for a few months, and I took several weeks off from school. I even quit cooking altogether for a while.
And what did I do instead?
I planted flowers. Lots of flowers, in baskets and pots and in flower beds that had been neglected so long I had to practically dig them up and start from scratc -
Blog postThis month, my post, 6 Important Things Your Middle Schooler Needs to Know was featured on Year Round Homeschooling by Misty Leask. I was excited to help her kick off a month of insightful posts aimed at families who are homeschooling middle school kids.
There are so many lessons for middle schoolers to learn, and during this month-long series parents will receive a wealth of knowledge from many homeschool bloggers. You may find advice to help with teaching math, or science, or fore -
Blog postOver the years, I have had more heart-to-heart conversations with my kids than I can count, and many of those have been about our roles as homeschoolers. So many of us tend to focus on our own responsibilities, as educators, and largely forget to teach our kids about their own responsibilities, as students.
Don't fall into that trap!
When our kids grow up, they will face expectations both in their family life and in the workplace. We have to train them to accept their r -
Blog postDid you know students can take the PSAT for practice, without it counting against them, as long as they take it before their junior year? That's what my twins are doing, and frankly, I'm a little jealous.
Knowing that students often raise their scores on the SAT and the ACT when they take it more than once, I can't believe more of them don't take advantage of the opportunity to take a practice run at the PSAT in their sophomore or even freshman years of high school. But they probably don't -
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Are you raising a child who tends to personify everything? I was one of those kids. I remember with almost embarrassing clarity one boring afternoon in my preteen years when I determined the gender of the numbers 0 - 9. For whatever reason, 2, 3, 5, -
Blog postFor all the negative imagery we see on the news and in social media, I really don't believe the world is falling apart. I don't believe we're on the brink of a race war, or that most men are out to victimize women, or much of anything the media might have us believe about our fellow human beings for the sake of ratings. I believe that at the heart of it, there is more that unites people than divides them, and if we could all just try to treat each other the way we'd want our kids, or our grandmo
