BevK editor@hsblog.org December 17th, 2007
Media Fans Flames of GOP Religious Divide
In an article that is ostensibly supposed to be about the many Iowa homeschoolers that are supporting Mike Huckabee, the Washington Post pins the reason to the fact that homeschooling parents must hate Mormons!
Home-School Ties Aided Huckabee’s Iowa Rise
Washington Post
Huckabee’s name is no longer a mystery to Iowa’s Republican voters, in large part because of an extensive network of home-schoolers like Roe who have helped lift his underfunded campaign from obscurity to the front of a crowded field. Opinion polls show that his haphazard approach is trumping the studied strategy of Mitt Romney, who invested millions only to be shunned by many religious conservatives such as Roe, who see the former Baptist preacher from Hope, Ark., as their champion.
BevK editor@hsblog.org December 11th, 2007
If you’re still looking for family Christmas presents, Buffalo Games has some great puzzles and family games.
http://www.buffalogames.com
The store link is http://www.puzzbuffs.com
BevK editor@hsblog.org December 3rd, 2007
An article about homeschoolers and college admissions in Iowa. You can read the article here, but my favorite part was the last statement made by a homeschooler concerning homeschoolers’ preparation for college and general ability to adapt.
“Maybe there are some who haven’t dealt with others, that hole up in their house, but not anyone I know. We get out.”
I loved that, “We get out.” We sure do.
BevK editor@hsblog.org December 3rd, 2007
Long article on whether homeschooling is a good thing or not. The article is found at Jewish Exponent, so there is also information about Jewish homeschooling.
Some excerpts:
Ed Collom, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Southern Maine, who has extensively studied the phenomenon, said that he finds homeschooling to be a collective endeavor. Collom, who is not Jewish but is an analyst of this type of education, earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California-Riverside and has written scholarly works about homeschooling.
“Home-schoolers rarely teach in isolation,” he said. “[They] have been very effective in forming their own networks.”
On the other side of the fence, Janine Remillard, associate professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, said that homeschooling could potentially limit a child’s exposure to new ideas, experiences and perspectives.
“Collaboration, communication and interaction are critical components of learning,” she said. “These components are not easy to build into a one-on-one situation.”
Read more…
BevK editor@hsblog.org December 3rd, 2007
Laurel Springs School asks homeschool students aged 5-18 to answer the question, “What’s Cool about HomeSchool?” through creative and entertaining videos. This YouTube contest gives homeschoolers everywhere the opportunity to tell their unique story and show people why homeschooling is a creative, exciting and realistic alternative to traditional education.
The deadline is now Jan. 7, 2008. First prize is $250.
Read more…
Contest Link
BevK editor@hsblog.org November 26th, 2007
You may not have the grades, the money or even the means to get to a physics class with one of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s best lecturers.
But if you have an Internet connection anywhere in the world, you can watch a video of the Dutch-born physics professor, Walter Lewin, swinging on a cable across the front of a lecture hall in his “Classical Mechanics” course to demonstrate that weight doesn’t affect the time it takes a pendulum to complete a cycle of motion.
And you can do this for free.
Read more and find out how you can participate.
BevK editor@hsblog.org November 26th, 2007
In addition to 15 new Christmas resource reviews, the Eclectic Homeschool Online has posted their first batch of Christmas resources. More to follow on December 1.
Visit the home page at http://eclectichomeschool.org/ for links to the reviews and following resources.
- Christmas Unit Study
Bible lessons, books, lesson plans, and many more resources to help your family emphasize Christ’s birth this Christmas.
- Christmas Articles at EHO
A sampling of all the Christmas articles over the last several years
- Selecting Toys for Christmas Presents
Some suggestions
- Charles Dicken’s Christmas Story - Cricket on the Hearth
- Christmas Weblinks
- Help Others This Christmas
- Christmas Crafts
- Origami Christmas Ornaments
- Goodies in a Jar - Great gifts
- Christmas Recipes
- Eclectic Kids Christmas Learning & Play Space
More Christmas stories, games, crafts, and downloads
- Good Stories for Great Holidays: Christmas Stories
BevK editor@hsblog.org November 26th, 2007
Interesting information in this article on homeschoolers applying to college in Utah. This in particular:
Home-schooled students are asked to have an ACT score of at least 27, if they don’t have a valid GPA, meaning one not standardized by an organization. Some home-schooled students have GPA’s because they are enrolled in programs that provide grades. Scholarships also are more difficult to attain for home-schoolers, with academic scholarships at BYU based on ACT scores. Traditional students are given a half-tuition scholarship with a score of 29. Home-schooled students will be awarded half-tuition scholarships with a score of 31.
This higher score for homeschoolers nonsense is outright discrimination. What it says is that we trust school systems to provide accurate grades but not homeschool parents. This totally ignores grade inflation and other grading problems in public schools. If you don’t believe homeschoolers’ grades are legitimate, fine. How does making other requirements more stringent (requirements that can’t be fudged by either party) be fair?
At UVSC, the requirements aren’t as stringent. Michelle Lundell, UVSC’s associate vice president of student services, said students who have been home-schooled are treated like other students.
What a concept treating homeschoolers like other students. You could ask any disinterested bystander, and they would be most likely to say the first policy was unfair.
BevK editor@hsblog.org November 26th, 2007
School choice takes its toll on a small school system in Montana. Well, at least this article makes it seem like homeschooling is part of the reason for declining enrollment in the Big Sandy school system.
The article ends with this:
This spring, just 21 seniors will graduate. In another three years, that number is expected to shrink to eight.
Optimism swells as class sizes begin to grow, starting with second grade. As she finishes her school lunch, Heppner watches the kindergarten class of 18 march outside for recess.
“When you watch the kindergartners file out of the cafeteria, that’s huge,” she said. “There goes our future.”
The article is full of the problems that declining enrollment has brought. Because they are a public school, they are required to offer students certain classes. Sometimes that means a teacher teaching one student. Remember that this is Montana, so the population isn’t huge to begin with.
This is really a lament for the passing of traditions. There are solutions to the problem, but none of them include maintaining the traditional structure. I think we’ll see more of this happening especially in sparsely populated areas.
Read more…
BevK editor@hsblog.org November 26th, 2007
Michael van der Galiën blogs about questions asked to presidential candidate Mike Huckabee including one on homeschooling.
The first blogger who was allowed to ask a question - I forget her name right now - asked the Governor about his view on home-schooling, standards for schools, and what he did with it in Arkansas. She sounded critical in this regard. Huckabee defended his record by explaining that his opponents then, and the ones who were Governor before him, were incredibly harsh on home-schoolers. In short, he tried to limit the damage for home-schoolers / improve their situation as much as possible, but that wasn’t easy.
Read more at The Van Der Galiën Gazette.
