Posts by Maura Muller

It seems that many of my favorite homeschooling blogs have been featuring “A Day in the Life” essays lately, and there have been a few nods to spending time at libraries, but no one mentions homeschooling exclusively using library materials. So, I will, because we do!

The New York Public Library is building a large-scale Out of School Time presence throughout its three boroughs, where we serve tens of thousands of children and youth every day. We are building a team of talented, committed and enthusiastic volunteer educators who recognize the NYPL’s role in enriching the lives of the young people we serve. Please consider joining us...

Algebra Problems. Or should I call them challenges? The past few months have been pretty challenging for both my son who is learning algebra, and for me who has to teach it to him. Once again, the the library comes to the rescue!

This summer we hit a snag so I turned to the library for assistance. We were doing well with Pre-Algebra in Life of Fred last year when we came to word problems. My son's eyes glazed over. I was losing him. Math was no longer fun. Now it was hard work and he wasn't 

"You're not going to homeschool for high school are you? How can you possibly teach all those subjects?"

I guess my husband's friend had no idea how insulting his comments were, but they made me laugh. Of course you can homeschool through high school if you have a plan! We've been homeschooling our son since 4th grade using the resources here at NYPL, why would we stop now just because he's headed to high school? Our friend's comments reminded me that it was time to start doing some research and planning to map out the next few years of 

This coming Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day and so this weekend is a great time to participate in Earth Day volunteer projects.

Need some ideas? The New York Public Library has many books on Earth Day including some interesting ones like Earth Day Crafts by Carol Gnojewski and True Green Kids: 100 

April is National Donate Life Month. It is also National Volunteer Month. Becoming an organ donor could be the ultimate act of volunteering to help others.

In New York, nearly 10,000 people are currently waiting for a life-saving organ transplant and every 15 hours, one of them will die due to the critical shortage in organ donors. Currently, New York ranks 48th in the nation with just 21% of residents enrolled as registered organ donors. Are you an organ donor?

Many people do not become organ donors until someone they know 

It's scholarship season and many students will be thinking about who they should ask for a recommendation letter to help secure a scholarship. If you've been an active volunteer, asking your volunteer supervisor is a great idea. While volunteering can be personally rewarding for you and beneficial to the organization that you volunteer with, it can also help to add needed money to your tuition fund.

Many scholarships have a necessary component of community service. Academic and athletic performance is important, but being a volunteer can give scholarship applicants a 

As the holidays are upon us, many teens and their families start thinking about fulfilling community service requirements for school. Winter break is coming up and it might be a good time to get some volunteer hours completed. It sounds simple, but finding volunteer opportunities for kids is not always that easy.

Most schools only require a small number of hours per student each year; 10–20 hours of community service. Many organizations will not accept short–term volunteers. They'll accept 

As New Yorkers get ready for Back to School this week, I'll be loading the trunk of my car with library books and heading off with my family for our own version of school.

We call it "homeschooling at the library." With a library card and our library books, we can take our school anywhere. Next week it will be to New Hampshire and