Help Our Troops
BevK November 30th, 2005
http://allthingsconservat…soldier__1.html
If you’d like to do something for soldiers and their families this Christmas, All Things Conservative has a list of organizations that help in all kinds of ways.
Archive for November, 2005
EHO Dec 1 Update
BevK November 30th, 2005
Sometime late today or early tomorrow (remember I’m West Coast, so late and early may be different for you), I will be posting the December 1 Eclectic Homeschool Online update.
This issue features are Christmas resource including the Madonna and Child Coloring Book we have available for download and our Christmas unit study resources.
We’re also posting on articles on the Chronicles of Narnia, a science article on the properties of glass including a very cool animation of Prince Rupert’s Drop, and a classical homeschooling article on Why Study Greek.
We have 16 new reviews including a selection of Narnia resources. We’re also posting two new Christmas crafts.
I’d better get back to working on the update if I’m going to post it tonight.
Homeschooling High School
BevK November 30th, 2005
http://www.pntonline.com/…ll.html&id=6688
He started homeschooling in high school. ::::nudge nudge::::: to all you parents who think homeschooling high school is too hard.
He started writing software as part of his homeschool work. His first assignment was to write a program to teach his sister math. He came up with a binary numbers (flash card) program he called Mathmatica. He wrote lots of other educational software helpful to parents homeschooling their children during his high school days. He also created his own game in Quick Basic and became the person all his friends and relatives called with computer problems.
Home Education Seen As Timely Solution to Failing Public Schools
BevK November 29th, 2005
http://headlines.agapepre…/11/232005e.asp
I have a friend who is something of a homeschool evangelist. She’s gotten more people to start homeschooling than anyone else I know. I know her one-on-one communication style works. I’m just not sure it’s the kind of thing that can be bottled and mass produced. I wish the organizers of this project well.
An effort to double the number of home school students in the United States is off and running, and already the response has been positive. E. Roy Moore, the man behind the launch of the “Homeschooling Family to Family” project, believes the time is right to push home education.
Home-schooling in the modern world: Success of home-schooled children
BevK November 29th, 2005
http://seattletimes.nwsou…85_woman29.html
Another convert.
Like many critics, I used to feel vaguely sorry for home-schooled kids. What a shame, I thought, that they might be deprived of the well-rounded education and social skills to become integrated, productive members of society. I never thought to question why cafeteria food fights or the predatory pack habits of teenage girls would be better for molding productive members of society.
This uninformed, critical opinion lasted precisely until I met my first home-schooled children several years ago. Within one month I met five home-schooling families, and their 13 children were among the most polite, well-adjusted, socially adept and academically advanced kids I’d ever seen. Being home-educated seemed to have given them a confidence and maturity — and yes, social skill — far beyond their years. They had many friends, but didn’t seem dependent on their peers for approval — a far cry from what I remember as a kid.
Parents mad over new math curriculum
BevK November 29th, 2005
http://www.harktheherald….ticle&sid=69573
They’re not exactly counting on their fingers, but some parents in the Alpine School District are taking math into their own hands.
The district has implemented Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, a math program officials say satisfies the state’s requirements and teaches students “basic number facts.”
The curriculum uses a practice called “debriefing,” during which students share their methods for solving math problems, and the class then discusses that method. Traditional methods for solving a problem are acceptable, but other methods are allowed, as well.
But parents say the curriculum does not teach children multiplication tables or long division and leaves students unprepared for higher education and careers. Some parents are turning to homeschool, charter schools and private schools for the math instruction they say their children need.
What they don’t get at school, they’d better get at home. I’ve seen parents spend hours with their kids helping them learn what the school can’t find time to teach. When the amount of material reaches a tipping point, parents realize that life would be easier if they did it all. Usually these parents are already doing all the hard stuff, the learning that is difficult for their child. They get the tears and frustration and never the fun and joy that learning with their child should be.
Public School Access
BevK November 29th, 2005
http://www.homeeducator.c…-6article15.htm
While it is steadily becoming a trend for individual states to permit homeschoolers to have wide range public school access in the U.S., relatively few homeschooling families actually use this resource.
One of the main reasons that parents forgo public school offerings is most likely due to many of the same reasons that they opt against full time public school attendance for their children. Another is simply that they are not aware that public school access is actually a possibility. In most cases, there is no outside advertisement for existing services and programs by public schools other than direct school involvement; obtaining current scheduling necessitates frequent parental inquiry.
Michele Giroux gives some good information and advice on participating in public school on a part-time basis.
How Homeschooling Isolates Me
BevK November 29th, 2005
http://www.homeeducator.c…3-6article2.htm
That headline made you look didn’t it. Well it’s not what you think. This is an essay by a homeschooled student on the virtues of homeschooling.
Freedom to Learn Who You Are
BevK November 29th, 2005
http://www.homeeducator.c…3-6article1.htm
You’ll want to read this entire article by a homeschooler who graduated after twelve years of homeschooling and thinks her homeschool education is an advantage to her.
Was it a protected one? In a way, yes. I was not hidden away from the world, sheltered from all cruelty, but I was kept out of the harsh social scene in which kids, especially high-schoolers, must either sink or swim. School kids’ social lives are centralized, and so popularity is essential: if you are rejected in school, you have nowhere else to go. This gives the in-crowd tremendous power. Since I made my friends here and there instead of having to fight for survival in that one setting, I was never at risk for the level of teasing and exclusion that takes place in schools. Some would say that this freedom from the in-crowd’s power must harm a child by failing to prepare them for the harsh realities of life. I disagree. Making children face relentless, inescapable peer pressure does not prepare them to face adult life: more often, it weakens and confuses them and teaches them to judge themselves by the opinions of others.
Schooled in Streaming
BevK November 29th, 2005
http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=9203
Homeschoolers are embracing streaming in growing numbers, just as they embraced the Internet in the mid- to late-1990s, presenting significant revenue opportunities for content providers.
My husband and I have been looking at different modes for streaming content for other purposes than homeschooling. The advent of Flash streaming makes this type of content much more doable because file sizes are small and the media clarity is wonderful.
