Archive for February, 2007

Home-school swimmers win the right to be regarded as team

BevK February 26th, 2007

Tennessean.com

For the last two years, the home-school swim team VanRyckeghem coaches in Brentwood has worn garish, slightly defiant swim caps.

“Last year was bright green,” VanRyckeghem said. “This year we made them pink and black. I liked the green better. You could spot them all the way across the pool.”

For the last three years, their swim caps have provided the only recognition VanRyckeghem’s team was going to get. Tennessee high school swimming, which is governed by a different organization than most Tennessee high school sports, recognized home-schooled swimmers as individuals but not as a team.

Why not, VanRyckeghem figured, wear caps that said different?

All that changed Thursday night on the eve of this season’s state swimming championships at the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville, when high school coaches from across the state voted to allow home-school teams to participate in next year’s meet as official teams.

Germany: Homeschool family told to give up 5 other kids

BevK February 26th, 2007

Officials suggest breakup would solve dispute over daughter’s home education
WorldNetDaily

German authorities who sent 15 uniformed police officers to take custody of a 15-year-old girl who committed the crime of being homeschooled now have suggested a solution that, in their minds, would “resolve” the situation: the parents should give up custody of their other five children.

Homeschooling In North Idaho

BevK February 22nd, 2007

Article on homeschooling in Idaho that hits all the normal topics.

Idaho seems to be one of the states allowing homeschoolers the most amount of flexibility. Home schoolers do not have to register with the school district or take standardized tests.

What you need to learn about homeschooling

BevK February 22nd, 2007

Effective health care for the homeschooled child requires understanding of the issues, an open line of communication to parents, and the vigilance to ensure that children not covered by the safety net of school screening get the care they need.

This article is a quick look at homeschooling for the pediatric physician who knows nothing about homeschooling. It concludes:

More than 1 million children in the US are homeschooled, a number that increases every year. Relatively little is known about the benefits and drawbacks of homeschooling, and well-designed research in this area is needed.

Because homeschooled children do not have access to the extra health and learning screening provided by schools and teachers, you must be vigilant in following your patients’ health care and monitoring their socialization. You can also direct parents of children with special needs to resources in the community that might otherwise be provided by schools. Most important, maintain a nonjudgmental attitude toward parents who choose homeschooling, so that you can keep the lines of communication open and foster trust.

Read the article to see the recommendations for dealing with homeschooled patients.

Hat tip: HSLDA

Germany: Homeschooler’s parents allowed 1 visit a week

BevK February 22nd, 2007

State keeps girl in custody – but allows supervised meetings with parents

An international human rights group has announced that Melissa Busekros, the 15-year-old German homeschool student taken by a SWAT team from her home and ordered into a psychiatric ward by a judge, for the first time in nearly a month will be able to meet with her parents.

The German court handling her case yesterday gave Melissa’s parents official visitation rights, “but she is still in foster care at an undisclosed location,” according to the report from the International Human Rights Group.

However, “her parents are allowed once-a-week visits with her, which must take place at a government building,” according to the update from Joel Thornton, the president of the IHRG.

Solving the Rubik’s cube blindfolded

BevK February 19th, 2007

You’ve probably seen the television commercial where the kid solves the Rubik’s cube blindfolded. Of course, the commercial doesn’t really prove that the kid solved the puzzle blindfolded. I explained how they could do this to my daughter. Whose response was that she didn’t really care to know how they did it. So, I’ve found a You Tube video that shows a girl analyzing the cube and then solving it blindfolded. Obviously one of those people that would do well at chess seeing all the possible ramifications of a move on multiple future moves. I can’t think like that. But it’s nice there are people that do.

blindfold solving the rubik’s cube

Living like the Jetsons

BevK February 19th, 2007

I told my daughter not long ago that I had expected as a child to be living life like the Jetsons by now. I was sadly disappointed that I had no food machine that I punched in the right thing and out came a complete fried chicken dinner. I also wondered where the air cars were. Well, today’s list of science articles at Google News gave me some hope that maybe some of the Jetson’s lifestyle is not that far away.

Urban road race to test limits of robotic cars

Sand-Skiing on the Moon: Next Sport for Astronauts

Toothless mice can eat again Teeth that were created in a lab dish from single cells have for the first time replaced natural teeth in mice, researchers report.

Science Finds Ways To Regrow Fingers

Oh, and for those that prefer the future as catatrosphe…

Can Earth Dodge Asteroid Heading This Way?

Scotland: Home education ‘hampered’ by tension with councils

BevK February 16th, 2007

Children are being damaged by tensions between Scottish local authorities and parents who want to educate their children at home, according to a new report.

A study by Scotland’s consumer watchdog found some councils intruded into families’ lives, once they had removed children from school, with unannounced visits.

The Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) also highlighted concern over the length of time it takes some local authorities to agree to requests to home educate.
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The report concluded the wide variations in approaches could “foster suspicion” and lead to increased tension between families and council staff which, ultimately, “can be damaging for children”.

Read more in The Herald.

A Lesson in Self-Sufficiency

BevK February 16th, 2007

Shortly after I entered the fourth grade, my mother withdrew me from Minnesota’s public school system and set to teaching me on her own. For her, homeschooling was not an attempt to stall our inevitable separation, as it is for some parents. Rather, part of her competence as a teacher lay in her sense of when to leave me to chart the daily course, if not the greater trajectory, of my education on my own. Hers was a deliberate lesson in self-sufficiency: When the substance of my “homework” failed to satisfy, I was at liberty to educate myself at the local library. And if, on occasion, a difficult question perplexed even my mother, it was up to me to find the inspiration to move forward.

After five years at my dining room table, I enrolled at a formal high school. Certainly, I arrived deficient in some areas of knowledge, just as I was over-familiar with others, but I soon learned that my years of homeschooling, loosely structured and largely self-directed study had taught me early on the most important lesson of my academic career: that even the most skilled teacher is nothing without an able learner, and, moreover, that actively learning is miles away from passively “being taught.”

It is a lesson that the Task Force on Teaching and Career Development, whose report, released in late January, highlighted the sobering state of the College’s “culture of teaching,” would do well to note. By assigning the blame for Harvard’s pedagogical deficiencies wholly to the Faculty with scant mention of undergraduates and their own dismal culture of learning, the Task Force has failed to seize an opportunity of great magnitude.

Read more at the Harvard Crimson.

Caldecott Medal Winner: Flotsam

BevK February 15th, 2007

If you haven’t yet read the 2007 Caldecott Medal winning picture book, Flotsam, you’re in for a treat when you do. This wordless book will have your youngsters hoping some magical bit of flotsam will wash up in their life much as I always hoped to find a note in a bottle even though I lived in the heart of the country about as far away as you could get from any ocean. With digital cameras widely available the notion of creating pictures within pictures should also take off.

FlotsamFlotsam
by David Wiesner
A bright, science minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam–anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there’s no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share… and to keep.

2007 Caldecott Winner (Caldecott Medal Book)

Gone WildGone Wild
by David McLimans
Feast your eyes on these amazing creatures before they disappear. This stampede of wild animals, from Chinese Alligator to Grevy’s Zebra, are so rare, they’re all endangered. David McLiman’s bold and playful illustrations transform each letter into a work of art, graphically rendered with animal characteristics. Scales, horns, even insect wings transform the alphabet into animated life.

Once you take this eye-opening safari, you’ll never look at letters or animals with the same way again. A striking work of art and a zoological adventure, Gone Wild is sure to be loved by children and adults alike.

Caldecott Honor Book

MosesMoses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
by Carole Boston Weatherford (Author), Kadir Nelson (Illustrator)
“I set the North Star in the heavens and I mean for you to be free. . . .”

Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman hears these words from God one summer night and decides to leave her husband and family behind and escape. Taking with her only her faith, she must creep through woods with hounds at her heels, sleep for days in a potato hole, and trust people who could have easily turned her in.

But she was never alone.

In lyrical text, Carole Boston Weatherford describes Tubman’s spiritual journey as she hears the voice of God guiding her North to freedom on that very first trip to escape the brutal practice of forced servitude. Tubman, courageous and compassionate, and deeply religious, would take nineteen subsequent trips back South, never being caught, but none as profound as this first. Harriet Tubman’s bravery and relentless pursuit of freedom are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

This is a unique and moving portrait of one of the most inspiring figures of the Underground Railroad. Kadir Nelson’s emotionally charged paintings embody strength, healing, and hope.

Caldecott Honor Book

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