Latest news with #homeschooling
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What Is Tab Time? A Cozy Show For Preschoolers That's Perfectly Balanced
As a homeschooling dad of four kids, including an inquisitive and energetic 3-year-old, I've seen more children's programming than I can count. From flashy cartoons to old-school reruns, I've sat through my fair share of noise and nonsense. But now and then, a show comes along that makes me want to sit down and watch with my preschooler. Tab Time is one of those rare gems. Hosted by Tabitha Brown—a woman affectionately known as 'America's Mom' by many fans of the show Tab Time is a preschool series that first launched on YouTube and has since expanded to platforms like Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. This cozy show for preschool-aged children seamlessly blends live-action moments, animation, musical interludes, and a calm, nurturing energy into short, meaningful episodes designed explicitly for a young audience. It doesn't just entertain, it genuinely supports learning and social-emotional growth in a way that respects young kids' intelligence and their need for calm. And frankly, it respects parents as well. That might be the secret sauce here. Tab Time Is A Show That Knows Its Audience Each Tab Time episode begins with Tabitha welcoming kids into her 'garden of imagination,' where she explores a big question for the day. These questions are always age-appropriate: Why do things grow? What is love? Why do we feel mad sometimes? She speaks directly to the camera, giving kids space to think and respond, just like they would in a well-run circle time or Montessori classroom. My 3-year-old daughter is completely locked in during these episodes. The show speaks her language—visually, emotionally, and intellectually. Whether she's dancing to a song or watching Tabitha explore dirt and seeds, she's not just watching—she's participating. The show's structure supports this beautifully. After Tabitha introduces the theme, she moves on to segments like 'How Things Grow,' a recurring highlight that utilizes real plants and soil to make science hands-on. Later, there might be a cooking bit, where she shows how to make something simple and healthy, or an imaginative animated story set in a whimsical world called Imagination Land. And always, there's an emotional or social message at the center: kindness, self-love, honesty, gratitude. Gently Teaching Real Lessons Is Where Tab Time Shines There's something unique about the way Tab Time approaches learning. It never feels like it's shouting lessons at kids. There are no high-pitched characters bouncing around the screen or jarring sound effects that give you a headache after two minutes. Instead, Tabitha speaks gently, clearly, and with genuine affection for her audience. One episode my daughter particularly loved was about anger. Instead of presenting anger as something bad or scary, Tabitha explored it as a normal, healthy feeling that needs expression. She guided the viewer through a breathing activity and showed how even adults get mad sometimes—and that's okay. That episode led to my daughter practicing breathing exercises the next time she got frustrated—a small but powerful shift. And when it comes to science, nature, and creativity, the show delivers just as well. The planting segment didn't just lead to curiosity—it led to her wanting to water our garden, asking questions about roots, and checking daily to see if sprouts had appeared. The cooking segments inspired her to help prep snacks with me in the kitchen. For homeschool families, it's a goldmine of natural extensions that feel intuitive. Supporting Characters That Spark Joy A big part of what makes Tab Time feel so welcoming and complete is the presence of Tabitha's lovable sidekicks. Characters like Avi the Avocado, DJ Khrafty, and Lenny the Lightning Bug aren't just there for laughs—they play key roles in helping children understand and apply the day's lessons. Avi brings playful energy and curiosity, often prompting Tabitha to explain things in more detail or act out examples. DJ Khrafty is the music and arts expert, encouraging kids to get creative and explore their imagination through crafts and rhythm. And Lenny offers gentle wisdom and a dose of heart, often popping up in Imagination Land to deliver affirming messages or help guide the story forward. Each sidekick adds a unique spark, giving the show variety while reinforcing the central themes of the show, which often center on mindfulness, problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking —building blocks that our children need to grow into well-rounded adults. Your preschooler will also probably love the likes of Burnie the Oven Mitt and Starla the Spatula, who bring their own calming but fun nature to the world. Representation That Matters As a parent, I also appreciate how Tab Time reflects a diverse, inclusive world. Tabitha is a warm, grounded Black woman who speaks from experience and models emotional maturity in every frame. Her presence alone offers representation that's sorely lacking in most children's media. And for a young child who's just beginning to understand the world, seeing someone like Tabitha leading the way with kindness and calm is a gift. Beyond Tabitha, the show occasionally features guests who contribute to the day's lesson. But no one ever takes away from the core focus: helping preschoolers feel seen, heard, and loved. Why Parents Love Tab Time Tab Time does something most shows don't: it respects the developmental window of early childhood without pandering. Episodes are around 10-12 minutes long, the perfect window for a 3-year-old's attention span. They're ideal for slotting into morning routines, winding down after lunch, or transitioning between homeschool activities. For families like mine, that kind of flexibility is a must-have feature for a children's TV show. More than that, the show offers real opportunities for co-viewing. I don't always sit through the shows my toddler watches, but I make time for Tab Time. It's not just screen time—it's together time. The messages are so easy to understand for a young child that they open up real opportunity to talk about critical thinking, creativity, cooking, and many other concepts my young daughter is just now starting to learn about and understand at her young age. Another reason parents love it? The show doesn't sugarcoat real feelings. It lets kids ask questions and imagine solutions. It encourages kindness without turning it into a catchphrase. It builds confidence without turning kids into performers. And it invites calm into homes that, let's face it, often feel overstimulated. What You Can Expect as a Parent If you're curious about what to expect when watching Tab Time, here are a few things to keep in mind: Episodes begin and end with grounding, affirming routines. Think breathing exercises, stretches, and reminders that each child is loved. Each show is built around a central question that encourages your child to think critically about the world around them. The content is slow-paced and kind-hearted, which is refreshing compared to so many fast-moving children's programs. You won't need to 'pre-screen' episodes—they're all positive, respectful, and free of hidden agendas. You might even walk away learning something yourself. For homeschooling parents, episodes can be easily integrated into themed days or unit studies. Watching 'How Things Grow' can inspire a desire for gardening time. An episode about emotions might serve as the foundation for building a feelings chart. Unlike shows that give kids a dopamine rush and leave them wild afterward, Tab Time settles the room into a comfortable rhythm. There are plenty of shows that entertain preschoolers, but if I'm being honest, 100 viewings of Bluey or Spidey & Friends leave me wanting a break. Tab Time doesn't just entertain and teach the ABCs or 123s; it also teaches presence. It teaches self-worth. It teaches kids how to breathe through hard moments, how to wonder about their world, and how to feel safe asking questions. As a dad who's trying to raise a kind, curious, and emotionally resilient group of children, Tab Time is one of the few shows I can recommend without a single caveat. It's warm, gentle, affirming, and best of all, it speaks to young children the way we want the world to talk to them. And in my house, that makes it a keeper. Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
5 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Black home schoolers push back against racist, unregulated curricula: ‘They called slavery immigration'
In 2018, Dr Timberly Baker decided to home school her children after a local school in Arkansas failed to challenge her eldest child. Her daughter, Baker said, is gifted. But despite routinely testing off the charts during standardized exams, the school had no plan on how Baker's daughter could take more advanced classes. Still new to home schooling, Baker decided to use a Christian curriculum, solely due to its ready-made lesson plans and promise to produce a school transcript in case her children later enrolled into mainstream schools. But Baker, a researcher and associate professor of educational leadership at Arkansas State University, found the lesson plans 'problematic', especially with regard to social studies. A lesson about the 'triangular trade', the transatlantic trading system where people were stolen from Africa and shipped to western colonies to be enslaved, proved to be a final straw. The curriculum 'mentioned enslaved Africans as one of the products that were being shipped, but as a product, rather than in their humanity as individuals and as people', Baker recalled. Baker came up against a common problem facing many parents of color choosing to home school their children: a lack of inclusive, educational material. Even as home schooling becomes more diverse, educational material for families is still mostly conservative, Christian and eurocentric. Major educational companies have been repeatedly condemned for racist and inaccurate material and accused of failing to implement major changes. This isn't a question of dated curriculum, said Jonah Stewart, interim executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a home schooling advocacy group. 'Those curricula are alive and well'. In light of the gap, some Black home schoolers have taken it upon themselves to create a more comprehensive curriculum, often as a formal tool that can be used by other families. Baker chose to supplement her child's education on the triangular trade by having her watch Roots, a miniseries about enslavement based on Alex Haley's eponymous novel, reading library books, and by speaking with familial elders about their personal relationship to enslavement. 'I took on the responsibility of correcting what I saw as inadequacies or just incorrect perceptions that came out of the curriculum I chose,' said Baker. The rate of Black parents home schooling their children has steadily increased for years, skyrocketing during the Covid-19 pandemic as education shifted to online platforms. In 2020, the number of Black households home schooling went from 3.3% to 16.1%, a five-fold increase between April and October of that year. Preliminary data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 2023 on home schooling showed that Black students and their families participated in virtual schooling at higher rates than other groups; future data collection on the state of home schooling and other education methods has now ended after the Trump administration gutted the NCES. Home schooling is increasing in popularity among the general population, said Stewart, and growing more diverse. The school choice movement, which encouraged parents to explore educational options for their children outside public school, has had a resurgence under Donald Trump, who has simultaneously escalated attacks on public education as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within classrooms. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding for schools that fail to eliminate their DEI planning. Last month, Trump also signed an executive order that instructs the dismantling of the Department of Education, a key campaign promise. Home schooling laws vary from state to state, with a general lack of oversight, said Stewart. Only a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, require home-schooled children to participate in standardized testing for assessment. Other states don't even mandate that parents notify state officials if they unenroll their children from formal schooling. The lack of regulations on home schooling is a double-edged sword, said experts. With more lax rules, families are able to teach and learn Afrocentric culturally-specific material without state interference, said Baker. But, extremists have also taken advantage of limited regulation. Home school materials, particularly from Christian publishers, have been known for teaching creationism versus evolution. Some home schooling material has described slave masters as 'caregivers' for enslaved people and the practice of slavery as 'Black immigration'. Rightwing material remains a baseline throughout home schooling education, with some parents sharing even more hateful material with their children. In February 2023, the Ohio department of education investigated a group of home schooling parents who reportedly dispersed pro-Nazi material in a local home schooling group. 'When states do take the effort to ensure that basic education is occurring in core subjects, it is protective against those really extreme iterations of home schooling,' said Stewart. 'It doesn't fix everything, but it is a way of just capturing intent to educate.' For Black families, many who have reported racism and bias in public education, home schooling is a way to guarantee a culturally affirming educational environment for their children by having greater control of the lesson plan and education, said Najarian Peters, a professor of law at the University of Kansas and researcher of home education. 'We continuously have these issues with Black children in formal education, where they are disproportionately represented in exclusionary discipline, and special education that does not seek to amplify their individual talent, but categorize them as inferior learners.' Delina McPhaull, the creator of Woke Homeschooling curriculum, which is available to home educators looking for inclusive education material, sought out home schooling in 2016 after the killing of Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager in Florida, by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was later acquitted, sparking massive outrage across the country around racially motivated shootings. Home schooling for her family, McPhaull said, was largely due to her conservative school district in Keene, Texas. 'Seventy-seven percent of the people in this county voted for him,' McPhaull said, referring to Trump. 'These were the people educating my kids.' Home education has been a 'tradition' for Black families, dating back to the 18th century, said Peters, a time when enslaved people were prohibited from learning how to read. Prince Hall, a prominent abolitionist in Massachusetts, ran a school for Black children out of his home after decrying the lack of educational opportunities. The African Free School, a school for children of enslaved people and free Black people, was founded in New York City in 1787. In the 1970s, fundamentalist Christians launched the current iteration of the home schooling movement as a way to avoid what they described as moral failings in public education, such as sex education and teachings on evolution. Organizations such as the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), founded in 1983, were born out of conservative anxieties about attacks against home schooling and school choice. It remains a right-leaning leadership base with connections to groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom. Will Estrada, senior counsel for the organization, contributed to the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. The potential for extremism, especially given the involvement of far-right individuals in home schooling advocacy networks, is a part of the 'good and bad of the wild, wild, west of home schooling', said Baker. 'When we talk about home schooling being a part of school choice, it is a choice,' she said. '[It's] probably one of its purest forms in terms of schooling action, because it is so unregulated.' For Black parents and their families, the ability to craft a more individualized curriculum has become a pathway to help correct flaws in home schooling curriculum for themselves and others. McPhaull's Woke Homeschooling curriculum has served over 13,000 families since 2019. Home schooling cooperatives, like Brown Mamas in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have helped support and empower families looking into home schooling as a possible refuge for their children, including with access to culturally appropriate material. Peters added: 'When we talk about a deficiency in materials, that's not the end of the conversation. That is just a pathway to really dig into the agency, self determination and subsidiarity engagement that Black parents have consistently done since the founding of this country.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Black home schoolers push back against racist, unregulated curricula: ‘They called slavery immigration'
In 2018, Dr Timberly Baker decided to home school her children after a local school in Arkansas failed to challenge her eldest child. Her daughter, Baker said, is gifted. But despite routinely testing off the charts during standardized exams, the school had no plan on how Baker's daughter could take more advanced classes. Still new to home schooling, Baker decided to use a Christian curriculum, solely due to its ready-made lesson plans and promise to produce a school transcript in case her children later enrolled into mainstream schools. But Baker, a researcher and associate professor of educational leadership at Arkansas State University, found the lesson plans 'problematic', especially with regard to social studies. A lesson about the 'triangular trade', the transatlantic trading system where people were stolen from Africa and shipped to western colonies to be enslaved, proved to be a final straw. The curriculum 'mentioned enslaved Africans as one of the products that were being shipped, but as a product, rather than in their humanity as individuals and as people', Baker recalled. Baker came up against a common problem facing many parents of color choosing to home school their children: a lack of inclusive, educational material. Even as home schooling becomes more diverse, educational material for families is still mostly conservative, Christian and eurocentric. Major educational companies have been repeatedly condemned for racist and inaccurate material and accused of failing to implement major changes. This isn't a question of dated curriculum, said Jonah Stewart, interim executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a home schooling advocacy group. 'Those curricula are alive and well'. In light of the gap, some Black home schoolers have taken it upon themselves to create a more comprehensive curriculum, often as a formal tool that can be used by other families. Baker chose to supplement her child's education on the triangular trade by having her watch Roots, a miniseries about enslavement based on Alex Haley's eponymous novel, reading library books, and by speaking with familial elders about their personal relationship to enslavement. 'I took on the responsibility of correcting what I saw as inadequacies or just incorrect perceptions that came out of the curriculum I chose,' said Baker. The rate of Black parents home schooling their children has steadily increased for years, skyrocketing during the Covid-19 pandemic as education shifted to online platforms. In 2020, the number of Black households home schooling went from 3.3% to 16.1%, a five-fold increase between April and October of that year. Preliminary data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 2023 on home schooling showed that Black students and their families participated in virtual schooling at higher rates than other groups; future data collection on the state of home schooling and other education methods has now ended after the Trump administration gutted the NCES. Home schooling is increasing in popularity among the general population, said Stewart, and growing more diverse. The school choice movement, which encouraged parents to explore educational options for their children outside public school, has had a resurgence under Donald Trump, who has simultaneously escalated attacks on public education as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within classrooms. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding for schools that fail to eliminate their DEI planning. Last month, Trump also signed an executive order that instructs the dismantling of the Department of Education, a key campaign promise. Home schooling laws vary from state to state, with a general lack of oversight, said Stewart. Only a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, require home-schooled children to participate in standardized testing for assessment. Other states don't even mandate that parents notify state officials if they unenroll their children from formal schooling. The lack of regulations on home schooling is a double-edged sword, said experts. With more lax rules, families are able to teach and learn Afrocentric culturally-specific material without state interference, said Baker. But, extremists have also taken advantage of limited regulation. Home school materials, particularly from Christian publishers, have been known for teaching creationism versus evolution. Some home schooling material has described slave masters as 'caregivers' for enslaved people and the practice of slavery as 'Black immigration'. Rightwing material remains a baseline throughout home schooling education, with some parents sharing even more hateful material with their children. In February 2023, the Ohio department of education investigated a group of home schooling parents who reportedly dispersed pro-Nazi material in a local home schooling group. 'When states do take the effort to ensure that basic education is occurring in core subjects, it is protective against those really extreme iterations of home schooling,' said Stewart. 'It doesn't fix everything, but it is a way of just capturing intent to educate.' For Black families, many who have reported racism and bias in public education, home schooling is a way to guarantee a culturally affirming educational environment for their children by having greater control of the lesson plan and education, said Najarian Peters, a professor of law at the University of Kansas and researcher of home education. 'We continuously have these issues with Black children in formal education, where they are disproportionately represented in exclusionary discipline, and special education that does not seek to amplify their individual talent, but categorize them as inferior learners.' Delina McPhaull, the creator of Woke Homeschooling curriculum, which is available to home educators looking for inclusive education material, sought out home schooling in 2016 after the killing of Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager in Florida, by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was later acquitted, sparking massive outrage across the country around racially motivated shootings. Home schooling for her family, McPhaull said, was largely due to her conservative school district in Keene, Texas. 'Seventy-seven percent of the people in this county voted for him,' McPhaull said, referring to Trump. 'These were the people educating my kids.' Home education has been a 'tradition' for Black families, dating back to the 18th century, said Peters, a time when enslaved people were prohibited from learning how to read. Prince Hall, a prominent abolitionist in Massachusetts, ran a school for Black children out of his home after decrying the lack of educational opportunities. The African Free School, a school for children of enslaved people and free Black people, was founded in New York City in 1787. In the 1970s, fundamentalist Christians launched the current iteration of the home schooling movement as a way to avoid what they described as moral failings in public education, such as sex education and teachings on evolution. Organizations such as the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), founded in 1983, were born out of conservative anxieties about attacks against home schooling and school choice. It remains a right-leaning leadership base with connections to groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom. Will Estrada, senior counsel for the organization, contributed to the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. The potential for extremism, especially given the involvement of far-right individuals in home schooling advocacy networks, is a part of the 'good and bad of the wild, wild, west of home schooling', said Baker. 'When we talk about home schooling being a part of school choice, it is a choice,' she said. '[It's] probably one of its purest forms in terms of schooling action, because it is so unregulated.' For Black parents and their families, the ability to craft a more individualized curriculum has become a pathway to help correct flaws in home schooling curriculum for themselves and others. McPhaull's Woke Homeschooling curriculum has served over 13,000 families since 2019. Home schooling cooperatives, like Brown Mamas in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have helped support and empower families looking into home schooling as a possible refuge for their children, including with access to culturally appropriate material. Peters added: 'When we talk about a deficiency in materials, that's not the end of the conversation. That is just a pathway to really dig into the agency, self determination and subsidiarity engagement that Black parents have consistently done since the founding of this country.'
The Independent
14-07-2025
- The Independent
Family of four ‘fed up' of living in the UK relocating to Thailand
A Nottinghamshire family of four, led by Dale and Kim Smith, is planning to relocate to Thailand with minimal belongings in pursuit of a better quality of life. The family felt increasingly "trapped" and "fed up" with rising living costs, disengaged schooling for their children, and a desire to escape the routine of UK life. To finance their move, they intend to sell their home, car, and most possessions, arriving in Bangkok with "nothing but a bag of clothes" and a pot of savings. They plan to homeschool their children, Noah and Molly, hoping they will learn new languages and cultures while exploring Thailand, starting in Bangkok and Hua Hin. The family aims to leave the UK by November, with their house going on the market in August, and Dale is documenting their journey on TikTok, gaining significant attention.
Wall Street Journal
10-07-2025
- Wall Street Journal
Meet the Moms Who Homeschool at Disney World
For most children, school means crammed classrooms, soggy sandwiches and bell schedules. For some, it means doing workbooks at Cinderella Castle, writing thank-you letters to Rapunzel and grabbing fresh churros during snack break. These are the Disney home-schoolers—parents who've swapped schoolbuses for monorails and now treat the parks as a classroom.
