BevK October 29th, 2006
http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=242934
I found this article because it references a mom who is considering homeschooling because she doesn’t like the reform based math program being used at her son’s school. Which is interesting because I finished an article two days ago titled “The Different Faces of Mathematics” which discusses the two sides to the debate over math curricula in American schools and how homeschoolers can steer their way through the different methods to find what’s best for their child. It will publish on November 1. http://eclectichomeschool.org/
BTW, this really was a coincidence. I wasn’t looking for a hook to talk about an upcoming article. The cool thing is that this article makes a good supplement to the list of further reading I include with my article.
BevK October 29th, 2006
http://www.13wham.com/new…49-93C997ED8315
Mr. Bacher has the right idea when he says, “I don’t think an elderly senior citizen should sit back and watch the world go by, they should take an active role and be a part of it.”
At a time when they are free to pursue their own hobbies and travel in retirement, a growing number grandparents are now home schooling their grandchildren.
Fred Bacher, of Marion, is 76 years old. He said it was a no-brainer to sign up for the job to home school his grandchildren.
“When someone in the fourth grade asked my grandson Justin if he wanted drugs, I said, ‘You’ve got to stop, I’m pulling you out and teaching you at home,’” He said
Bacher started the job four years ago and since then has added two more students, grandsons Ryan and Cory. Bacher admits it was a tough start he had to bone up on the subjects before he started teaching. They have a full day of all the core subjects including health, speech, and Spanish.
BevK October 29th, 2006
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4565777
A southern Utah polygamous sect has shuttered its school buildings and returned to home schools - a move that comes as pressure mounts to investigate allegations of educational neglect in the community.
The Jeffs Academy has moved out of the former public school building it used for the past four years, and the Barlow and Holm family school buildings are empty. They were among about a dozen private schools set up by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous sect based in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
The shift to home schooling, according to several sources, is aimed at shielding children and families from the media and government scrutiny triggered by the search for and arrest of FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs.
BevK October 29th, 2006
http://www.timesunion.com…&storyID=529757
Preach it John, preach it!
Your Oct. 8 edition featured three stories relating to home-schoolers who want to play on public school sports teams but can’t because of a state regulation. I run the New York Home Educators’ Network (http://www.nyhen.org), the statewide group that’s open to all home-schooling families. I can tell you that this issue is more complex than your stories indicated. If home-schooled athletes want to give up educational freedom for a spot on a team (for example, by enrolling in school), that’s their choice. But that choice must not diminish others’ educational freedom. The real solution isn’t to allow home-schoolers on public school teams; it’s to replace interscholastic sports with community-based sports. If the same leagues were run by municipalities instead of schools, there would be no distinctions between public schoolers, private schoolers, and home-schoolers. There would be only residents, all on an equal footing.
BevK October 29th, 2006
http://www.zwire.com/site…7&PAG=461&rfi=9
News Flash: Homeschoolers do well in real world. Not a surprise to homeschoolers is it?
This Ozarks Newsstand article gives homeschool graduates a platform for telling it like it is. Here’s a sample:
“The education I received didn’t merely prepare me for the next academic level, but also instilled in me responsibility, moral values and a love of learning,” he said. “Academically, the transfer between homeschooling and college was smooth. I found no gaps in my education. Like everyone, I struggled in some areas more than others. However, even in the areas in which I struggled, the accountability and desire to learn provided by my homeschooling background, combined with the expertise of professors, helped me to improve quickly.”
BevK October 29th, 2006
http://www.wnd.com/news/a…RTICLE_ID=52661
Walden Media is confirming plans for a national education outreach initiative with the homeschool community.
“Walden develops films based on core values, classic literature, and compelling lives,” said company co-founder Michael Flaherty. “Homeschool parents and students are natural partners in this mission because they demand family-friendly, educationally significant entertainment.”
The work is beginning immediately, with special books, websites, radio resources and educational and faith materials being assembled for the coming 2006 Christmas launch of “Charlotte’s Web” and the soon-be-available “Amazing Grace.”
BevK October 26th, 2006
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/oct/06102503.html
Yowza! They mean business in Germany in their anti-homeschooling stance.
German police have resorted to physically dragging home schooled children to school, a report from WorldNetDaily revealed this morning, in the latest assault on families attempting to educate their children themselves.
“On Friday 20 October 2006 at around 7:30 a.m. the children of a home educating family…were brought under duress to school by police,” a report from the Network for Freedom in Education stated. The NFE describes itself as politically and religiously neutral.
German authorities have relied on Nazi-era legislation that outlawed home education to prevent parents from keeping their children out of the public school system for religious or social convictions. The law forbade home education in order to prevent “the emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions.”
Joerg Grosseluemern, spokesman for the NFE, said the Remeike family “have been home educating their children since the start of the school year, something which is legal in practically the whole of the [European Union].
“However, on this morning, they were confronted by police officials, who, in an incredibly inconsiderate manner, forced their crying children into a police car and drove them to the school. The police stated that they had been instructed to continue this measure in the coming week.”
BevK October 26th, 2006
http://www.news8austin.co…=173248&SecID=2
Homeschoolers do great. Professional teachers can’t believe it.
In response to those who say homeschooling does not prepare students for life in the real word, the NHERI reports surveys have shown adults who were home educated participate in local community service more frequently than the general population and go to and succeed in college at an equal or higher rate than the general population.
Critics of homeschooling say it is impossible for a parent to know how to teach a wide array of subjects without training.
“We are professionals,” Dianne Birdwell, a high school history teacher, said.
She responds to the idea that public schools do not teach enough about faith or religion by saying that parents need to teach their children about those subjects after school.
“We know how to teach and you need to be their parents,” she said.
BevK October 23rd, 2006
I’ve decided that it would be fun to have eclectic homeschoolers share about their Christmas traditions and favorite Christmas recipes for the upcoming holiday season. We’ll post the responses we get December 1 online at the EHO website. http://eclectichomeschool.org
You can answer the following questions or present your traditions in your own way. Send your responses to christmas@eho.org.
What Christmas traditions do you carry on in your own family that you did as a child or your spouse did as a child? Is there a history to these traditions?
Have you created new Christmas traditions for your family?
How do you teach your children the meaning of Christmas?
Do you celebrate advent in your home, and if so, how do you do this?
Do you have traditional foods that you eat at Christmastime? If so, would you be willing to share the recipes? [Please include any and all recipes that you make every year.]
Please share any other aspect of Christmas holiday season that you think would interest our readers.
BevK October 20th, 2006
I read the news about the school forbidding tag and decided not to comment. Just more nanny state silliness. At times it makes me weary. But after reading Spunky’s post [http://spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2006/10/game-of-tag_20.html], I decided to say something about that and her longer comments on the use of tags to denote a student’s academic interests and abilities.
First on tag. I heard last night on the news that a Maryland school had to close because 50 of the students and teachers had come down with the Norwalk virus. The school has to completely sanitize the school and playground before students can return. So, there’s danger just by walking in the door.
Second on the tags. Do you remember the Monty Python sketches with John Cleese as the Minister of Silly Walks? Well I wonder if there isn’t somewhere an office of silly educational ideas.
I used to be a school librarian for a small Christian school that my children attended prior to homeschooling. Someone before my tenure had thought it was a great idea to stick big round colored dots on the primary level books to denote reading levels. This accomplished two things. Struggling readers avoided checking out anything that might be “hard reading.” Proficient readers made a big deal over the fact that they didn’t check out the baby books. Lovely. I was constantly reminding proficient readers that some of the “baby books” were really quite better reading and pushing the struggling readers to read something they thought sounded good even if it might challenge them a little. All could have been avoided if those dots weren’t so prominently displayed on the spines of the books.
Kids certainly segregate themselves into cliques easily enough without the adults providing color coding to assist them.
