Homeschooling

[ritachen]

Hi,mamacat:
Internet resources is a helpful for home schooling,I will recommend a great educational website Beestar.org - Math and Reading for Kids
My son has been using it since April and he enjoys it so much that I decided to share the info with other parents. My kid don’t have much homework from their classroom this year, I thought it would be a nice and easy way for them to do some fun math (and English etc if desired) practices. The website is well-organized, easy to use and follow. The website is well-organized, easy to use and follow.
I like also that every week Beestar sends me an e-mail about Bob`s progress, or a reminder if he didn`t completed all the available for his work.
I think this website is a great way to keep children interested in studying.
Hope you can benefit from it!
Rita

[Dr T]

Thank you for the link Ritachen. I haven't seen Mamacat around for a long time.

[Loudmouth_Mormon]

Going back a few months, I saw this post from Annabelli. She strikes me as someone who finds great value in the public school system, which is fine with me. She also seems to find homeschooling inferior, which is where we have a disagreement.

Originally Posted by Annabelli

Public School is a very structured environment. Children know how to plan for their school day, what will be expected of them, and that there will be no conflicts of interest in their enrollment. There are rules of conduct for personal behavior and achievement levels.

I'm not sure if she's valuing public school here, or devaluing homeschooling. If the former, we got no problem. But if she feels these things are absent from a homeschooling environment, or that they're always best, I would disagree. Children vary in the type and quantity of structure/planning/expectations/rules they need. They vary by age, and also individual children of the same age have different needs.

Yes indeed, many kids do need a lot of structure and expectation setting. My 2 kids are good examples. We can provide them just fine in our homeschool environment.

The teachers in Public Schools are educated in the fundamentals of teaching and concepts of learning. The teachers have studied child development as part of their curriculum for a degree in education.

Most parents cannot provide the basic concepts of education.

I understand the issue here: "Teachers are trained to teach. Most homeschool parents aren't, therefore, homeschool parents can't do as good of a job as teachers."

It sure sounds convincing on it's face. The problem with it is, it doesn't seem to be a relevant issue. How can we tell? Well, if teachers do better than non-teacher mommies, you'd think the children of the non-teacher mommies would have inferior performance on standardized tests. Turns out, the exact opposite is true. Homeschooled kids have superior test results in every age group, from every demographic. In some cases, vastly superior results.

Does this not completely kill the argument that teachers can educate better than parents?

I'll post a bunch of links at the bottom of this post for those who want to do extra research.

I have interviewed many parents who home school their children. They are from all walks of life. One of the characteristics that they all had was "hit & miss" homeschooling values.

I'd like a little clarification on what this means. I suspect it means that there are times when a parent will change a plan, or abandon an expected rule of behavior, or even do a major switch in curriculum halfway through it. Sounds like Annabelli thinks this is not good for kids. I'd ask her to consider what kind of measure we could apply to see if this is correct or not. Again, homeschooled kids have superior academic performance at every level.

Adults will retain an average of a 5th grade level of education after they graduate from high school. Adults with some years of college and even a degree will retain an average of an 8th grade level of academic studies. And that is to say the adult did not major in education.

This may very well be true. And if it is true, it is evidence for what kids need to be well educated. I would suggest "education level of the teacher" isn't near as important as Annabelli (and many others) might assume.

Homeschooling with a private instructor is a practical solution.

Tongue in cheek here - but yes indeed, that's pretty much the definition of homeschooling. Your parent is your private instructor.

Conventions organized for home schooling are basically companies selling products.

Well, a big reason people go to them, is to evaluate or purchase next year's curriculum, it would seem kind of silly if nobody had anything to sell at them... Why is this a bad thing?

My basic response is this: You don't need to attack homeschooling and tear it down, in order to have good reasons to send your kids to public school. The existence of a thriving successful, growing homeschool movement is not necessarily an attack on public schools. Can't we all just get along? You do what's best for your kid, I'll do what's best for mine, and we'll both release healthy, well-rounded, well-educated, mature adults into society.

LM

(the links I promised
Rudner Study 20,760 homeschooled kids across America took the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS; grades K-8) or the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP; grades 9-12).
Results:

Within each grade level and each skill area, the median scores for home school students fell between the 70th and 80th percentile of students nationwide and between the 60th and 70th percentile of Catholic/Private school students. For younger students, this is a one year lead. By the time home school students are in 8th grade, they are four years ahead of their public/private school counterparts.

CATO/Fraser Institute Analysis
These guys look at the history, recent growth, academic performance, and socialization aspects of homeschooling.
Results:

This paper has established that home schooling is a thriving educational movement both in Canada and the United States. It has also empirically demonstrated that the academic and socialization outcomes for the average home schooled child are superior to those experienced by the average public school student.

US Department of Education Study
The National Center for Education Statistics looks at demographics such as number of HEK's in the US, their characteristics, parent's reasons for homeschooling, and public school support.
Results: The study doesn't look at academic performance, but is very interesting to see who we all are. A similar study is found here.

National Home Education Research Institute
This organization's mission is to:
* Produce high-quality research (e.g., statistics, facts, findings) on home-based education (homeschooling).
* Serve as a clearinghouse of research for the public, researchers, homeschoolers, the media, and policy makers.
* Educate the public concerning the findings of all research on home education.

Here is a state-by-state breakdown of homeschooling laws.

[sgallan]

FWIW, I like Saxon for math. My 6th grade aged child is working in the HS Algebra book and rarely needs my help it is so well set up.

For English/reading I am having her do GED stuff. I figure by the end of her technical 6th grade year she could pass the GED.

Science is Scholastic science, various chemistry kits, astronomy (we have a nice telescope) and basically stuff that makes science fun.

Social sciences is eclectic now. She has studied history going back to pre-history. Social studies has been thrown in all over the place. She watches various educational TV programs (I pick them) for specific interesting learning. Also, a lot of geograpy using written and on-line resources.

Writing.... dang, she wrote a 15 page short story. A really good one. On (mostly) her own. She basically woke up in the middle of the night and penned the first two pages. Then she tried to follow it up, but it didn't even seem like the same person. So I had her outline the rest, using the original two pages, and told her to write when she 'felt it'. She did and it worked. I don't think I wrote 15 pages of anything until I got into grad school.

PE - Black belt, national rated/champion wrestler and all of that training, boxing, and more activities than I can remember.

Art/humanities.... get help from the school district.... she is the Junior High/Middle School band President. She plays percussion (1st chair), baritone, keyboard, and guitar.

Other..... whatever I find interesting. We travel a lot (for the wrestling), so she gets a good real world look at geography as well as geology. For example; we went to the Grand Canyon which is a terrific geology lesson and it's done in a way that makes learning 'cool'. Something the schools - teaching to the test - don't often do.

Yeah I did some bragging, but if you have a talented kid, homeschooling is an excellent way of bringing out those talents instead of accepting mediocrity.

[cncnaw]

Originally Posted by mamacat

wow this is so much great information...great ideas....thanks so much for sharing with me! i would love to explore all the areas spoken of here. i did some reading about charlotte mason and i like her style, esp for early childhood. it seems quite similar to waldorf.

i'd like to address what each of you has said soon, but will take some time to absorb it all first.

here's the waldorf homeschooling site we follow....Kytka is an amazing lady ~

http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com/

thank you again for such great repsonses.

love, mamacat

Mommacat would you mind discussing waldorf with me a bit more? we are looking into this for next year for our 2nd grader. Im wondering what curriculum you use.

[Elgama]

i;m only at the nursery/early year stage the idea is as I understand it at this stage that children learn using all the senses and providing each day with a predictable rhythm - using natural material such as wood toys, beeswax crayons etc I don't follow it slavishly but we try to bake bread and do some art work everyday. And take note of the seasons

Also do a lot of Montessori bits which is enabling children to do things for themselves as much as possible by finding ways for them to reach things

-Charley

[Fiannan]

Too much of public education is geared towards making kids into good consumers and thinking the "right thoughts". Now before you start thinking this sounds conspiratorial please view some of this BBC series "The Century of the Self". One then can ask why the same school culture evolves in just about every school in the USA:

The Century of the Self 3 of 4

This is a four part series. It's well worth your time to view -- and if you are a home schooler then you might consider integrating it into your curriculum for your kids.

[momtothreebabies]

hi !! Im new here and loving it! I homeschool my three kiddos and really enjoy it. Here is a great resource for lds homeschooling-- i get to brag a little because it is mine!
www.ldsforeverfamilies.com
and our big site and store
LDS Forever Families - Home
Hope you have fun looking around! We just had a fun zoo day at the st louis zoo, and im planning something fun for fall, the beginning of "school". Hope this helps!

[mychildrensmother]

We are looking at radical unschooling our four children.
I am still reading and watching great youtube videos on other unschooling families.

[Loving_Wife]

I home schooled my now 17-year-old son. When I started home schooling with him he was 8-years-old. The school failed my son on so many levels. He is extremely intelligent and was so bored in school it was a challenge to get him to even go.

He graduated from High School at 15-years-old and now at 17 has just finished his first year of college. Did I go to college and get a degree in education, no I did not BUT I did a good job home schooling my son and my three girls love being home schooled. They get the same yearly tests that the public schools give and they have always tested above the grade average.

Home schooling, at least in our home, is not about sitting home. It's about getting out and doing practical training. An example is when we go food shopping the girls keep a list of how much was spent. They figure out what is a better deal based on weight and price. We go on hikes and take along a book and identify various plants and if we see them, animals. We have a garden where they learn about the weather, plants and how to have a successful garden that produces food. They do have book work that they have to do as well. They play sports, in general they have a much better education than the local public school can give them.

For me the best part is they are not exposed to bad influences that abound in public schools. My children are given examples of what their father and I expect of them. They are taught "old-fashioned" family values and at their age, when they are the most impressionable, we limit their exposure to bad influences as much as possible. That being said our children are in no way naive or sheltered. They have friends who do not have the example my children have and my children always come away from the experience thankful for what they have!

I would agree that not all parents are able to home school but for those that can and want to they should be supported. I do not believe that the government knows my children best or what is in their best interests. Some of what is taught in public schools is against our beliefs and we would rather teach them the same information but have us their to answer their questions. That being said not all of my children are home schooled. Right now I only have half of them home schooled. But do plan to add the two youngest children within the next year.

I know my rights and one of those rights is to home school my child if I so choose to and I do!!!