Sunday, January 7, 2007
Who Represents Homeschoolers in Washington, DC?
Ideally, no one should, since education issues are really issues that should be left up to each state.. (sigh) .. but since our Federal Government is unconstitutionally meddling in affairs of education, and now in the affairs of homeschoolers...
I ran across a nifty letter that you can draft to your newly elected Congressional delegation. I want to thank those who have come up with the initiative to communicate with our Representatives to let them know that we are a diverse bunch, and that no one group speaks for us. I made a few changes to their letter and came up with my own version:
Read the entire article including a sample letter by clicking on the title above.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Youths learn ABCs at homeschool
Youths learn ABCs at homeschool
Cooperative gives alternative education for families
January 2, 2007
BY VILA SCHWINDT | Journal Staff Writer
Garrett Pogue is only 4, but he joins his older brothers and sisters in the dining room at 9 a.m. when they start school with their mother, Rosella Pogue, as teacher. Gabriel is only 9 months, but he's usually close by, too, because he wants to do what his family is doing.
Homeschool regulation: The Revenge of the Failures
WorldNet Daily Commentary
Posted: January 4, 2007
By Bruce N. Shortt, Ph.D.
In their never-ending effort to "help" homeschoolers, public school bureaucrats periodically try to increase homeschooling regulations. This makes K-12 education perhaps a unique endeavor: it's a field in which the failures regularly, and astonishingly, insist that they should be able to regulate the successful.
Read entire commentary by clicking on the title.
Posted: January 4, 2007
By Bruce N. Shortt, Ph.D.
In their never-ending effort to "help" homeschoolers, public school bureaucrats periodically try to increase homeschooling regulations. This makes K-12 education perhaps a unique endeavor: it's a field in which the failures regularly, and astonishingly, insist that they should be able to regulate the successful.
Read entire commentary by clicking on the title.
Visit Judy Aron's New Blog - Consent of the Governed
Judy works with Deborah Stevenson of National Home Education Legal Defense (NHELD) where she is responsible for providing parents across the nation with a wide variety of important information on legislative issues as well as various topics concerning parental rights, education, and the dangers of universal mental health screening.
Her new blog, Consent of the Governed, will enlighten and enliven! It contains timely, important messages relevant to today's American family. Visit her blog today. Just click on the title above.
Her new blog, Consent of the Governed, will enlighten and enliven! It contains timely, important messages relevant to today's American family. Visit her blog today. Just click on the title above.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Homeschooling Motives
As veteran homeschooling parents know, some difficult times will come. One day you’ll wake up to piles of laundry that your children are using to play hide and seek in. Ice and snow have locked you inside for days and your teenager seems to be in a comatose state until the phone rings. Life Happens! You will wonder why on earth you had the idea that you could homeschool your kids, run a household, and maintain your sanity.
Now is the time to pull out your list of “Why We Homeschool Reasons”. What? You didn’t make a list? This is a tool that is imperative for all homeschool parents. So determined was I that people would not stare at us when
we played outside or went to the corner store, that I wrote a letter explaining that we were homeschooling and outlined all our reasons for doing so. Then I made copies and circulated them among neighbors, friends and family. I filed a copy away, so that I could pull it out when my courage needed bolstering.
To help get you started, some common homeschooling convictions (which you might have forgotten) are:
• You, the parents are the first and the natural teachers of your children. You’ve taught your children from birth. You love and care about them more than anyone else and have the greatest interest in their success in this life and for eternity. Additionally, the state or government does not “own” you or your child. Alarmingly, this truth has been argued and challenged lately by those who believe that children are a commodity of the state. So, it’s important that you hold tightly to your parental rights.
• You want the best character training for your children. Your family has an important system of beliefs and values to instill and a heritage to pass on to your children. Through the golden opportunities provided by time, role modeling (values are caught not taught), work involvement and encouraging service to others, values are learned and character is built.
• You want your child to have a positive socialization experience while avoiding peer dependence.
Children in a traditional, institutional setting who spend more time with their peers than caring adults become socialized by the culture of their peers. (Most of us have a struggle with peer pressure which is revealed, for instance, in the way we feel when we are confronted by our friends about homeschooling -- and by the way we want someone to tell us how to homeschool -- what materials to buy, how many hours to spend, etc., and why we tend to cast side-glances at how others are accomplishing home education.) This might be unconscious, but it is real, and it is at the root of many of our own self-esteem issues. We want something better for our children. And, today, the school-setting is rife with competition, and worse, bullying. There is now a very real safety threat to consider that did not exist 20 years ago.
• Remember those academic bonuses: You have the opportunity to create a custom-made program for each child. Good homeschools are families that encourage a relaxed environment, the learning style of the child, real-life experiences, hands-on experiences, field trips, much open discussion and a life of balance. Good homeschools become relationship and student centered as opposed to book, teacher, and peer-centered.
Now, this can be hard to see on those difficult days, so make sure you are writing in a journal at some point, noting the good days when that ‘light goes on’, or when you all had a good, long laugh with a humorous book or game.
• That brings us to this important point - You are homeschooling because you want the time to renew your family relationships. Homeschooling is ushering in a restoration and healing of the family in this country. The whole family is key to a healthy society. Homeschooling provides vital opportunities of growing together and learning life-skills as a family.
These are just a few to get those creative juices flowing and give you the encouragement you need.
Take a minute to reflect and to seriously consider the reasons why you have chosen to homeschool your children. What are the prime motivators - are they positive or negative? It makes a difference in your attitude.
Write down your convictions. It will reinforce and strengthen your resolve and it will help you
clarify your discussions when someone asks,”Shouldn’t your children be in school today?”
Now is the time to pull out your list of “Why We Homeschool Reasons”. What? You didn’t make a list? This is a tool that is imperative for all homeschool parents. So determined was I that people would not stare at us when
we played outside or went to the corner store, that I wrote a letter explaining that we were homeschooling and outlined all our reasons for doing so. Then I made copies and circulated them among neighbors, friends and family. I filed a copy away, so that I could pull it out when my courage needed bolstering.
To help get you started, some common homeschooling convictions (which you might have forgotten) are:
• You, the parents are the first and the natural teachers of your children. You’ve taught your children from birth. You love and care about them more than anyone else and have the greatest interest in their success in this life and for eternity. Additionally, the state or government does not “own” you or your child. Alarmingly, this truth has been argued and challenged lately by those who believe that children are a commodity of the state. So, it’s important that you hold tightly to your parental rights.
• You want the best character training for your children. Your family has an important system of beliefs and values to instill and a heritage to pass on to your children. Through the golden opportunities provided by time, role modeling (values are caught not taught), work involvement and encouraging service to others, values are learned and character is built.
• You want your child to have a positive socialization experience while avoiding peer dependence.
Children in a traditional, institutional setting who spend more time with their peers than caring adults become socialized by the culture of their peers. (Most of us have a struggle with peer pressure which is revealed, for instance, in the way we feel when we are confronted by our friends about homeschooling -- and by the way we want someone to tell us how to homeschool -- what materials to buy, how many hours to spend, etc., and why we tend to cast side-glances at how others are accomplishing home education.) This might be unconscious, but it is real, and it is at the root of many of our own self-esteem issues. We want something better for our children. And, today, the school-setting is rife with competition, and worse, bullying. There is now a very real safety threat to consider that did not exist 20 years ago.
• Remember those academic bonuses: You have the opportunity to create a custom-made program for each child. Good homeschools are families that encourage a relaxed environment, the learning style of the child, real-life experiences, hands-on experiences, field trips, much open discussion and a life of balance. Good homeschools become relationship and student centered as opposed to book, teacher, and peer-centered.
Now, this can be hard to see on those difficult days, so make sure you are writing in a journal at some point, noting the good days when that ‘light goes on’, or when you all had a good, long laugh with a humorous book or game.
• That brings us to this important point - You are homeschooling because you want the time to renew your family relationships. Homeschooling is ushering in a restoration and healing of the family in this country. The whole family is key to a healthy society. Homeschooling provides vital opportunities of growing together and learning life-skills as a family.
These are just a few to get those creative juices flowing and give you the encouragement you need.
Take a minute to reflect and to seriously consider the reasons why you have chosen to homeschool your children. What are the prime motivators - are they positive or negative? It makes a difference in your attitude.
Write down your convictions. It will reinforce and strengthen your resolve and it will help you
clarify your discussions when someone asks,”Shouldn’t your children be in school today?”
The Gingerbread House
Family Daze
The Gingerbread House
By Debbie Farmer
I have to confess that every year in December a strange feeling comes over me. Oh, it's not like I start adopting stray cats or wearing men's shoes or anything like that. It's more like a sudden desire to do all of the domestic things that I wouldn't think of doing the rest of the year—like making bread from scratch or crafting nifty items out of coat hangers and pairs of old pantyhose.
Now, this may not be a shocking transformation for some people, but anyone who knows me knows that I’m the type of person who glues loose buttons on sweaters and who will toss a frozen pot pie in the microwave, press start, and feel that that can be called “baking.”
But not in December. Frankly I have no idea why this happens. Maybe I'm subconsciously trying to make up for lost time. Or perhaps it's my way of building lasting family memories for my children. Or maybe it's all of the rum in the eggnog. Whatever the reason, it has happened again this year.
I know because the other day my children and I tried to make a gingerbread house. Well, mostly, it was me trying to get the kids to help me make a gingerbread house, but you get the idea.
Now, if you are sitting there thinking that a person who can barely make a sandwich has absolutely no business constructing an entire gingerbread house without supervision, you are right. But, let's face it, only certain types of parents are strong enough to resist a Gingerbread House Kit with the words “fun” and “easy” in big, red letters on the top—and I'm not one of them. Besides, it came with everything we'd need: frosting mix, gum drops and prefab gingerbread walls. All in all, it would take fifteen minutes to piece together. Twenty, tops.
My children listened (mostly to the TV in the living room) as I read the directions out loud.
“To make frosting, add one cup of cold water to confectioners’ sugar and stir until thickened.”
Then I measured the water into the special cup included with the kit and poured it into the bowl.
But, as my son stirred it, I began to suspect there was some kind of problem.
“Mom,” he said. “Can I stop now?”
I looked into the bowl and the frosting was still thin. So I reread the directions, and it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, “one cup” meant the first line on the special plastic cup and not the second. Naturally, since I couldn't take the extra water out, the easiest thing to do would be to put more confectioners' sugar in. But my kitchen being what it is, the closest thing I could find was a handful of flour and eleven packets of Sweet and Low.
I sprinkled them in when no one was looking then I continued reading the directions: Let frosting stand for 60 minutes. Sixty? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be the one who has to tell one bored preteen and one even more bored teen that this is going to take an hour longer than I thought. Besides, if I let them escape now, with the promise to return in sixty minutes’ time, I knew my son would return—I mean, hey, frosting is involved—but I wasn’t so sure about my 14-year-old daughter.
Now, at this point you would think I'd have accepted reality, given the kids the go-ahead to go and wandered away to watch Christmas specials on television. But noooooo. Instead, I slathered frosting on the edges of the walls, stuck them together, and dried the house with my blow dryer.
Then my son and daughter used the frosting to stick gumdrops and eight tiny, plastic reindeer on the roof. Granted, my daughter helped with some protesting, but she relented, and I managed to take several pictures between grimaces, so it looks like my daughter wasn’t wishing she was at a mall with her friends. Years from now, in my senility, all I’ll know when I look at the pictures is that we once bonded over gingerbread. And when she let her guard down, truth be told, my daughter did look like she was enjoying herself.
But if my past experience with Christmas crafts has taught me anything it's that moments like this just don't last. So, frankly, I wasn't too surprised when all of the reindeer slid off the roof and were buried beneath a pile of loose gumdrops.
“Cool, an avalanche,” my son said.
Call me weird, but as I stood there blow-drying the remaining gumdrops to the eaves, I secretly couldn’t wait until January, when I could go back to my simple, undomesticated ways.
Sometimes it's better that way.
* * *
Debbie Farmer is a humorist and a mother of two kids, holding down the fort in California. She is also the author of Don’t Put Lipstick on the Cat and can be reached at www.familydaze.com, or by writing familydaze@oasisnewsfeatures.com.
The Gingerbread House
By Debbie Farmer
I have to confess that every year in December a strange feeling comes over me. Oh, it's not like I start adopting stray cats or wearing men's shoes or anything like that. It's more like a sudden desire to do all of the domestic things that I wouldn't think of doing the rest of the year—like making bread from scratch or crafting nifty items out of coat hangers and pairs of old pantyhose.
Now, this may not be a shocking transformation for some people, but anyone who knows me knows that I’m the type of person who glues loose buttons on sweaters and who will toss a frozen pot pie in the microwave, press start, and feel that that can be called “baking.”
But not in December. Frankly I have no idea why this happens. Maybe I'm subconsciously trying to make up for lost time. Or perhaps it's my way of building lasting family memories for my children. Or maybe it's all of the rum in the eggnog. Whatever the reason, it has happened again this year.
I know because the other day my children and I tried to make a gingerbread house. Well, mostly, it was me trying to get the kids to help me make a gingerbread house, but you get the idea.
Now, if you are sitting there thinking that a person who can barely make a sandwich has absolutely no business constructing an entire gingerbread house without supervision, you are right. But, let's face it, only certain types of parents are strong enough to resist a Gingerbread House Kit with the words “fun” and “easy” in big, red letters on the top—and I'm not one of them. Besides, it came with everything we'd need: frosting mix, gum drops and prefab gingerbread walls. All in all, it would take fifteen minutes to piece together. Twenty, tops.
My children listened (mostly to the TV in the living room) as I read the directions out loud.
“To make frosting, add one cup of cold water to confectioners’ sugar and stir until thickened.”
Then I measured the water into the special cup included with the kit and poured it into the bowl.
But, as my son stirred it, I began to suspect there was some kind of problem.
“Mom,” he said. “Can I stop now?”
I looked into the bowl and the frosting was still thin. So I reread the directions, and it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, “one cup” meant the first line on the special plastic cup and not the second. Naturally, since I couldn't take the extra water out, the easiest thing to do would be to put more confectioners' sugar in. But my kitchen being what it is, the closest thing I could find was a handful of flour and eleven packets of Sweet and Low.
I sprinkled them in when no one was looking then I continued reading the directions: Let frosting stand for 60 minutes. Sixty? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be the one who has to tell one bored preteen and one even more bored teen that this is going to take an hour longer than I thought. Besides, if I let them escape now, with the promise to return in sixty minutes’ time, I knew my son would return—I mean, hey, frosting is involved—but I wasn’t so sure about my 14-year-old daughter.
Now, at this point you would think I'd have accepted reality, given the kids the go-ahead to go and wandered away to watch Christmas specials on television. But noooooo. Instead, I slathered frosting on the edges of the walls, stuck them together, and dried the house with my blow dryer.
Then my son and daughter used the frosting to stick gumdrops and eight tiny, plastic reindeer on the roof. Granted, my daughter helped with some protesting, but she relented, and I managed to take several pictures between grimaces, so it looks like my daughter wasn’t wishing she was at a mall with her friends. Years from now, in my senility, all I’ll know when I look at the pictures is that we once bonded over gingerbread. And when she let her guard down, truth be told, my daughter did look like she was enjoying herself.
But if my past experience with Christmas crafts has taught me anything it's that moments like this just don't last. So, frankly, I wasn't too surprised when all of the reindeer slid off the roof and were buried beneath a pile of loose gumdrops.
“Cool, an avalanche,” my son said.
Call me weird, but as I stood there blow-drying the remaining gumdrops to the eaves, I secretly couldn’t wait until January, when I could go back to my simple, undomesticated ways.
Sometimes it's better that way.
* * *
Debbie Farmer is a humorist and a mother of two kids, holding down the fort in California. She is also the author of Don’t Put Lipstick on the Cat and can be reached at www.familydaze.com, or by writing familydaze@oasisnewsfeatures.com.
Opting Out or Doing Better? Real Reasons to Homeschool (Alice Bachini-Smith)
Opting Out or Doing Better? Real Reasons to Homeschool (Alice Bachini-Smith)
So, you don't want to homeschool. Social isolation, no peers to learn with, no specialist teachers and no serious discipline when it comes to studying are not your idea of the best education for your kids. Add to that the weirdos you've met who take this route, and the fact you would be losing half your income, and the idea is not just out of the question, it's insanity.
Read the entire commentary by clicking on the title.
So, you don't want to homeschool. Social isolation, no peers to learn with, no specialist teachers and no serious discipline when it comes to studying are not your idea of the best education for your kids. Add to that the weirdos you've met who take this route, and the fact you would be losing half your income, and the idea is not just out of the question, it's insanity.
Read the entire commentary by clicking on the title.
Are More Parents Choosing Homeschooling Over Private School?
THE CHOICE OF PUBLIC, PRIVATE, OR HOME SCHOOLING
By Eric J. Isenberg
Occasional Paper No. 132
National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education
Are more families choosing home schooling over private schools?
Over the last decade and a half, the number of home schooled students has grown dramatically. An estimated 1.1 million students are now home schooled each year. Previous research suggests the family values and local school quality influence student enrollment decisions. However, it is less clear why some families may choose home schooling over other private schooling options. A new paper by Eric J. Isenberg uses data from the National Household Education Survey and secondary data sources to examine preferences for home schooling. The author finds that families are more likely to engage in home schooling if the mother has abundant time but scarce income, and if the state public school finance system is centralized, making Tiebout sorting less efficient and private schooling more costly. Preferences for home schooling are especially strong among well-educated parents with younger children. Home schooling of older children is more sensitive to child-specific behavioral needs.
New Occasional Papers from the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education can be viewed at http://www.ncspe.org/list-papers.php
Director Dr. Henry Levin
212-678-3857
Levin@exchange.tc.columbia.edu
General Information
212-678-3259
ncspe@columbia.edu
By Eric J. Isenberg
Occasional Paper No. 132
National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education
Are more families choosing home schooling over private schools?
Over the last decade and a half, the number of home schooled students has grown dramatically. An estimated 1.1 million students are now home schooled each year. Previous research suggests the family values and local school quality influence student enrollment decisions. However, it is less clear why some families may choose home schooling over other private schooling options. A new paper by Eric J. Isenberg uses data from the National Household Education Survey and secondary data sources to examine preferences for home schooling. The author finds that families are more likely to engage in home schooling if the mother has abundant time but scarce income, and if the state public school finance system is centralized, making Tiebout sorting less efficient and private schooling more costly. Preferences for home schooling are especially strong among well-educated parents with younger children. Home schooling of older children is more sensitive to child-specific behavioral needs.
New Occasional Papers from the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education can be viewed at http://www.ncspe.org/list-papers.php
Director Dr. Henry Levin
212-678-3857
Levin@exchange.tc.columbia.edu
General Information
212-678-3259
ncspe@columbia.edu
Monday, November 13, 2006
Home, for some, is where the school is
By PATRICIA STEELE, DAILY SUN
BUSHNELL — Children taught at home miss out on so many experiences that children who attend public school get to experience every day.
Their parents are thrilled about it.
“I don’t live in a vacuum,” Amy Weed said. “Most members of my family do not homeschool their children, so I hear the stories of the kindergartners who come home wanting explanations for things I’m not quite ready to discuss, especially with a 6-year-old.
“And teasing and harassment and the stress of state testing. My children do not need these things.”
The more Weed heard, the more she became determined to homeschool her children, Emily, 14, and Isaiah, 6. Emily has been homeschooled since kindergarten, while Isaiah just began kindergarten.
Go to original article by clicking on the title.
BUSHNELL — Children taught at home miss out on so many experiences that children who attend public school get to experience every day.
Their parents are thrilled about it.
“I don’t live in a vacuum,” Amy Weed said. “Most members of my family do not homeschool their children, so I hear the stories of the kindergartners who come home wanting explanations for things I’m not quite ready to discuss, especially with a 6-year-old.
“And teasing and harassment and the stress of state testing. My children do not need these things.”
The more Weed heard, the more she became determined to homeschool her children, Emily, 14, and Isaiah, 6. Emily has been homeschooled since kindergarten, while Isaiah just began kindergarten.
Go to original article by clicking on the title.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Private Decision
For a variety of reasons, enrollment in non-public schooling alternatives is on the rise
By Paris Achen
Mail Tribune
After homeschooling their nine children for five years, Eagle Point residents Brad and Jacinta Marsh sent their three eldest children to Guadalupe Education Center to give them a Catholic education in a school environment where the class size is no more than 12.
Read full article by clicking on the title.
By Paris Achen
Mail Tribune
After homeschooling their nine children for five years, Eagle Point residents Brad and Jacinta Marsh sent their three eldest children to Guadalupe Education Center to give them a Catholic education in a school environment where the class size is no more than 12.
Read full article by clicking on the title.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Homeschool parents: Kids not sheltered
Sunday, October 22, 206
By MICHELLE PITTMAN
The Express-Times
One of the most common concerns critics express about home-schooled students is they will have a hard time later in life getting along with others.
Not interacting with peers when they are young robs home-schooled students of basic social skills, critics claim.It is a concern, because it's tied up with what how sheltered do you want your child to be," said Saul Grossman, a professor at Temple University's Department of Education Leadership and Policy Studies. "A lot of home-schooled kids are pretty sheltered, and you have to ask if that's best for the child."
But many home-schooling parents insist it's simply not true.
"Many people assume the only way a child can learn to play with others is to be in a classroom of 20 other kids the same calendar age, sitting at desks six hours a day," said Jill Drake, one of the founders of The Kids Homeschool Network. "How does spending your entire day with age-grouped peers prepare you to socialize in the diverse real world? Other than 13 years in public school, when do you spend the majority of your day with people within two years of your age?
Read entire article by clicking on the title.
By MICHELLE PITTMAN
The Express-Times
One of the most common concerns critics express about home-schooled students is they will have a hard time later in life getting along with others.
Not interacting with peers when they are young robs home-schooled students of basic social skills, critics claim.It is a concern, because it's tied up with what how sheltered do you want your child to be," said Saul Grossman, a professor at Temple University's Department of Education Leadership and Policy Studies. "A lot of home-schooled kids are pretty sheltered, and you have to ask if that's best for the child."
But many home-schooling parents insist it's simply not true.
"Many people assume the only way a child can learn to play with others is to be in a classroom of 20 other kids the same calendar age, sitting at desks six hours a day," said Jill Drake, one of the founders of The Kids Homeschool Network. "How does spending your entire day with age-grouped peers prepare you to socialize in the diverse real world? Other than 13 years in public school, when do you spend the majority of your day with people within two years of your age?
Read entire article by clicking on the title.
Monday, October 09, 2006
CRASH COURSE
CRASH COURSE
IN CLASSROOM COLLECTIVISM
By: Frederick Meekin
Each year as the school year gets underway, I write a column about the mandatory communalism that takes place in numerous schools across the country where unsuspecting students and parents are forced to surrender their supplies to educational authorities, deemed by the state to be of superior enlightenment than those actually acquiring the school supplies, for redistribution as these demagogic pedagogues see fit. While satisfying to write as there are few topics as visceral as one’s school experiences and the attachment one has to one’s possessions, somehow these most debated of my epistles somehow felt incomplete as they primarily dealt with a symptom rather than the underlying disease. For the socialistic communitarians that have infiltrated the public school system and taken it over for the most part do not primarily want your paper and pencils; the thing the really lust over are the hearts and minds of your children.
Usually, those concerned about the state of the public school system are told that if they don’t like how things are run, they are perfectly free to withdraw their children and pursue private or home-based alternatives to their liking. Overall, better advice could not be given; however, in the years and decades ahead such wisdom will prove to be charmingly naive and old fashioned.
For if things continue along their current path, there will probably be a day when it will be against the law to educate one’s offspring in anything but a state-run school. Already devotees of secularism and radicalism are laying down the perceptual framework necessary to bring about the paradigm shift as to whom has the ultimate authority over the minds of the young.
Colleges and Universities go on Homeschool Recruiting Spree
by Josh Montez
by Josh Montez
| | |
| |
With an estimated 2-million homeschoolers in the U.S., news reports say homeschooled kids are in demand because of their considerable academic skills.
Gloria Mohler went to a Baptist college in Iowa and pursued artwork on the side. She says her college didn’t turn her away because she graduated from home school.
“I was warmly welcomed; there were many other homeschoolers that went to this school that I attended and it was quite evident that, sometimes, the homeschoolers did study more and they felt more personal responsibility.”
That’s exactly what colleges look for. Barmak Nassirian with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers says it has taken homeschoolers and colleges about 10 years to get to know each other a little better.
Read article by clicking on title.
Homeschooling Makes the Grade
The number of Hoosier families relying on homeschooling has risen by 400 percent in the last five years.
Locally, much of that growth is coming from children who previously attended the region's lowest-performing schools.
In the 2005-06 school year, at least 23,455 Indiana families obtained private school numbers from the state -- a voluntary step -- to pull students from schools to try another approach.
No ISTEP tests. Often no desks.
Sometimes no textbooks.
While local districts have seen dramatic increases in the number of children homeschooled, the total is still small: Just 2 percent of students statewide are homeschooled.
Locally, families are using parent-designed education to further educational beliefs, pursue religious training or avoid the pitfalls of public and charter schools.
Ethnic families embrace it
Local trends track national ones, showing a stronger embrace of the homeschool option among ethnic groups, particularly black families.
Read article by clicking on the title.
Friday, October 06, 2006
School Violence Putting a Focus on Homeschooling
While parents do it for various reasons, some may start looking at recent violence in schools as a viable reason to homeschool thier children.
October 4th, 2006 @ 7:59am
KSL Newsradio's Chelsea Hedquist reporting
It's been a horrible couple of weeks for public schools, with fatal shootings in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Wisconsin. We've also heard stories of teachers sexually abusing their students. It's all got parents questioning the safety of public schools, and taking a closer look at homeschooling.
Six-year-old Jack Blackburn sits at his kitchen playing with his blocks. This is just another part of his school day. He and his brother, Marcus, are homeschooled by their mother, Nikki Blackburn.
"We've been toying with physics lately," said Blackburn. "We've built mouse trap cars, we have been talking about simple machines and how they work."
This learning environment is far removed from the violence we've seen this past week in schools. But Blackburn says her choice to homeschool was about being committed to her children's education, not about safety.
To read this article, please click on the title.
October 4th, 2006 @ 7:59am
KSL Newsradio's Chelsea Hedquist reporting
It's been a horrible couple of weeks for public schools, with fatal shootings in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Wisconsin. We've also heard stories of teachers sexually abusing their students. It's all got parents questioning the safety of public schools, and taking a closer look at homeschooling.
Six-year-old Jack Blackburn sits at his kitchen playing with his blocks. This is just another part of his school day. He and his brother, Marcus, are homeschooled by their mother, Nikki Blackburn.
"We've been toying with physics lately," said Blackburn. "We've built mouse trap cars, we have been talking about simple machines and how they work."
This learning environment is far removed from the violence we've seen this past week in schools. But Blackburn says her choice to homeschool was about being committed to her children's education, not about safety.
To read this article, please click on the title.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
A new chapter in education: unschooling
Note: They are just now learning about unschooling??? Hmmmm.
To read entire article from MSNBC please click on the title.
Controversial home-taught approach lets kids take the lead in learning
To read entire article from MSNBC please click on the title.
Controversial home-taught approach lets kids take the lead in learning
By Victoria Clayton
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 12:22 a.m. ET Oct 2, 2006
It’s a Monday afternoon in Mar Vista, Calif., and while other 9-year-olds might be fidgeting at their desks, Isobel Dowdee has played all morning and is now joining her mother and two sisters on a big blanket in their front yard.
Mom, Heather Cushman-Dowdee, keeps the younger girls, Fiona, 5, and Gwyneth, 2, busy drawing pictures. For Isobel, she’s made a large grid with numbers down the side and across the top so her daughter can fill in the multiplication answers. Not that Cushman-Dowdee cares if Isobel does the chart. It’s just that the girl actually wants to do it. Occasionally they play math games or sing counting songs.
For the past three weeks this has been the ritual — Math Mondays they’ve taken to calling it. Yet Cushman-Dowdee bristles at the idea that this is any kind of mathematics class. That’s absolutely against what she and her husband, Kevin Dowdee, believe in.
“The kids love it so far, but I am open to them changing their mind. We adapt and alter what we are doing all of the time,” says Cushman-Dowdee, an artist and cartoonist.
The Dowdees’ ultra-relaxed learning is called “unschooling.” It’s a fast-growing subset of homeschooling that turns traditional education on its ear.
A new chapter in education: unschooling
Note: They are just now learning about unschooling??? Hmmmm.
To read entire article from MSNBC please click on the title.
Controversial home-taught approach lets kids take the lead in learning
To read entire article from MSNBC please click on the title.
Controversial home-taught approach lets kids take the lead in learning
By Victoria Clayton
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 12:22 a.m. ET Oct 2, 2006
It’s a Monday afternoon in Mar Vista, Calif., and while other 9-year-olds might be fidgeting at their desks, Isobel Dowdee has played all morning and is now joining her mother and two sisters on a big blanket in their front yard.
Mom, Heather Cushman-Dowdee, keeps the younger girls, Fiona, 5, and Gwyneth, 2, busy drawing pictures. For Isobel, she’s made a large grid with numbers down the side and across the top so her daughter can fill in the multiplication answers. Not that Cushman-Dowdee cares if Isobel does the chart. It’s just that the girl actually wants to do it. Occasionally they play math games or sing counting songs.
For the past three weeks this has been the ritual — Math Mondays they’ve taken to calling it. Yet Cushman-Dowdee bristles at the idea that this is any kind of mathematics class. That’s absolutely against what she and her husband, Kevin Dowdee, believe in.
“The kids love it so far, but I am open to them changing their mind. We adapt and alter what we are doing all of the time,” says Cushman-Dowdee, an artist and cartoonist.
The Dowdees’ ultra-relaxed learning is called “unschooling.” It’s a fast-growing subset of homeschooling that turns traditional education on its ear.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Hitting the Books at Home
Families still drawn to educating children at home
BY SHELDON TRAVER
Appeal Tribune
September 27
SILVERTON – While rarely completely isolated, traditional home schooled children are often considered different or strange among students in mainstream classrooms
However, changes are afoot as more parents break ties with traditional brick and mortar schools and turn to home schooling as a workable alternative. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, these changes are happening at a quicker rate than previously experienced. One study conducted by the governmental agency showed there were roughly 850,000 home schooled kids in 1999 and 1.1 million by 2003.
Read article by clicking on title.
BY SHELDON TRAVER
Appeal Tribune
September 27
SILVERTON – While rarely completely isolated, traditional home schooled children are often considered different or strange among students in mainstream classrooms
However, changes are afoot as more parents break ties with traditional brick and mortar schools and turn to home schooling as a workable alternative. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, these changes are happening at a quicker rate than previously experienced. One study conducted by the governmental agency showed there were roughly 850,000 home schooled kids in 1999 and 1.1 million by 2003.
Read article by clicking on title.
UC Riverside Taps Into Rich Vein of Homeschool Students
An “Information Day” is set for 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 7 on campus to answer questions about a homeschool admissions program based on the review of a student portfolio.
(September 13, 2006)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) -- Robert Wilkinson of Chino Hills was homeschooled all his life, and will be among the freshmen who start at UC Riverside this month.
Robert, 17, submitted a portfolio of his work that earned him a spot on campus and a scholarship offer. He was one of 16 people who applied through a year-old admissions program that uses a faculty committee to review the work of homeschooled and other nontraditionally educated students. His homeschooled sister, Stephanie, earned a place on campus the year before in the traditional way, with a combination of high test scores and grades.
Click on title to read entire article.
(September 13, 2006)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) -- Robert Wilkinson of Chino Hills was homeschooled all his life, and will be among the freshmen who start at UC Riverside this month.
Robert, 17, submitted a portfolio of his work that earned him a spot on campus and a scholarship offer. He was one of 16 people who applied through a year-old admissions program that uses a faculty committee to review the work of homeschooled and other nontraditionally educated students. His homeschooled sister, Stephanie, earned a place on campus the year before in the traditional way, with a combination of high test scores and grades.
Click on title to read entire article.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Blacks take education into their own hands
Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, September 25, 2006
Suisun City parents Benjamin and Tanya Marshall are part of a new homeschooling movement led by African American families fed up with the public school system.
Nine years ago, the couple put their oldest son, Trevaughn, in kindergarten after discussing teaching him at home. When he had a substitute teacher several times in his first six weeks, they pulled him out.
"We felt like it wasn't the right environment, especially for an African American boy," said Tanya Marshall, 36. "The teachers were young and nervous. Black males were not being challenged and ending up in special ed."
Trevaughn, now 14, has been taught at home ever since. The couple also homeschools their two younger sons, 11 and 9, and their daughter, 12.
"We wanted to be the main and driving influence in our children's lives," said Benjamin Marshall, 37. "We didn't want them socialized with marijuana smokers and pregnant teens."
Go to the article by clicking on the Title above.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Suisun City parents Benjamin and Tanya Marshall are part of a new homeschooling movement led by African American families fed up with the public school system.
Nine years ago, the couple put their oldest son, Trevaughn, in kindergarten after discussing teaching him at home. When he had a substitute teacher several times in his first six weeks, they pulled him out.
"We felt like it wasn't the right environment, especially for an African American boy," said Tanya Marshall, 36. "The teachers were young and nervous. Black males were not being challenged and ending up in special ed."
Trevaughn, now 14, has been taught at home ever since. The couple also homeschools their two younger sons, 11 and 9, and their daughter, 12.
"We wanted to be the main and driving influence in our children's lives," said Benjamin Marshall, 37. "We didn't want them socialized with marijuana smokers and pregnant teens."
Go to the article by clicking on the Title above.
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