Watch Out, Fashionistas! Homeschooling is Now the Hip Thing to Do! :-)
Watch out, fashionistas! Homeschooling is now the fashionable thing to do. I came across a cool article today about “Why Urban, Educated Parents are Turning to DIY Education” and couldn’t help but sharing:
I remember when my mom homeschooled us, there was very little support. It wasn’t the mainstream thing to do and people could be pretty critical. Today? There are several million successful homeschoolers in the United States and this number grows by 15% yearly. Chances are you know someone who is homeschooling their children. With the Internet and local support, homeschooling is not only easy, it’s a vibrant opportunity for families to grow and learn together.
It’s refreshing to know that more people like us are choosing to educate their own children. We’re not the stereotypical homeschoolers: rural, blue-collar, very religious, etc. Most aren’t. We’re highly educated professionals who live in the 13th largest city in the US. We’re modern parents who realize that factory-style, one-size-fits-all-education doesn’t fit our kids.
What do you think of this trend?
From Crayons to Condoms: Do You Really Know What’s Going On At Your Kid’s School?
From Amazon.com
I was bored Friday night and needed to something new to read. After a bit of digging around in the education section on Amazon.com, I found Steve Baldwin and Karen Holgate’s “From Crayons to Condoms: The Ugly Truth About America’s Public Schools.” The title intrigued me and it got good ratings, so I downloaded it to my Kindle and dug right in. What I was about to read shocked the socks off me.
We all know how much of today’s culture is steeped in political correctness, but do you really know how much that affects your child’s education? This book is an intriguing collection of parent and teachers stories about extreme political correctness (agenda pushing, gay education, sexuality, morals, religion, atheism, etc) in America’s public schools. Parents often run into problems with their child’s school, but when they try to talk to the school about it they’re bullied, intimidated, or told they’re the only one who has an issue with the subject. They aren’t taken seriously in some cases and in other cases are treated very poorly. We ran into that problem at Ethan’s old school. This book proves that you’re not alone. This book wasn’t written to attack specific schools or to promote homeschooling, but instead to point out a growing trend in today’s schools. Parents: listen up.
America’s schools were once a world standard. Today students are promoted and given A’s to help their self-esteem without being taught the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic… not to mention American history and government. More time is spent on teaching kids “politically correct” attitudes and values than real academics. Our test scores show just how much good that did. Our schools aren’t performing well because they don’t focus on academic achievement. Instead, faddish educational practices (cooperative learning groups with group grades, inventive spelling, whole language instead of phonics), self-esteem programs, and social engineering occupy our kids.
Here’s an interesting quote from the text from one of the stories, “It is apparent that academics are no longer the primary focus of today’s public education system. The following quote from our former superintendent, in our school newsletter, shows what educators consider important for today’s student:“The skills employers most desired were behavioral and social skills. The least important skills were academic basics like math, science, computer literacy, and foreign language.”
Here’s another passage that stood out: “Today, parents dare not assume that books their children read are okay just because they are approved by the school or sent home by the teacher. Parents need to monitor what their children bring home. They may be surprised or even shocked. Because we couldn’t find other parents to help us, the district now requires high school students to read books describing the rape of virgins, spousal abuse, suicide as a peaceful solution to problems, extramarital affairs, transvestites, the occult, prison rape, and murder.” Many of the stories shared by parents included experts from their kid’s middle school and high school English class books that were vividly sexual. WHAT happened to the classics?
When it comes to sex education, what are your kids really learning? Here’s what one teacher told her 13-14 year-old students: “If you have sex, do it with zest and enjoy it!” That’s definitely get hormonal young teens to keep it in their pants, don’t you think? Another class learned about the “joys of gay sex” and had bulletin boards displaying pornographic gay magazines in their school’s halls, as well as information about gay centers and parties. Parents brought this to court in California, and the judge ruled that these materials were educational. Educational? Hmmm… I think I’d rather have my kids learn calculus instead of how two consenting adults enjoy time together. That information is not only inappropriate, but in no way prepares them for life.
Other parents wrote about rap music played during math class. Kids in one school are evaluated for math levels, then put in cooperative groups with much lower-performers and given group grades.. what happens to their drive and determination when they get C’s in math due to classmates not pulling their weight? Ninth graders performed plays using obscene language. Kids were assigning books about female genital mutilation. Kids were surveyed about how much money their parents make and who their parents’ friends are, as well as about their own personal sexual habits (9th grade). No wonder Johnny is learning anything! Do you really think he’ll be able to complete with his Chinese peers in the competitive business world when he grows up? No. He can’t comprehend what he reads or do basic math without a calculator. But at least he knows why Carlos has two daddies and what those daddies do in bed. Some things are important after all.
This book is for every parent. It doesn’t matter if you’re a republican, a democrat, or somewhere in-between. You need to be aware of what’s going on behind closed doors and the impact it’s having on the next generation of Americans. Some of the stories made me irate. Others were great examples of what parents can do if they step up, work together, and fight injustices in their schools.
Check it out on Amazon.com or at your local library. I can’t wait to hear about what you think!
Top 5 Reasons Why Homeschooling is Bad (Warning: Extreme Sarcasm Ahead!)
Image via Wikipedia
With the homeschooling movement growing 15% each year and social acceptance blossoming, some educators are on the offensive. They scream about the “socialization problem” and the lack-of-credentials held by home educators. They demand that higher regulations and restrictions be imposed immediately and that the homeschooling steam train be brought to a screeching halt. To help them out a bit, here are the top 5 reasons why homeschooling is bad. This list is for any parent considering homeschooling as well as those who have been doing it for years. (DISCLAIMER: You’re about to enter an extreme sarcasm zone. Nothing you are about to read should be taken seriously. 
)
You Have To Spend a Lot of Time With Your Kids
If you don’t enjoy spending time with your kids, homeschooling is not for you. Who in their right mind wants to spend so many hours a day watching their child learn, discover, and grow? Who wants to deal with that same child through every struggle and difficulty? The terror! Outsourcing childcare from the earliest days of life is simply what we do nowadays. School hours are parent time, blissful hours of child-free time in some cases and hectic hours of work-madness in others. Regardless, the fewer hours a day you spend with your children, the higher your sanity levels. So what if you miss those little milestones and memories. It’s not like they grow up too fast or anything.
Your Kids Will Be Smarter Than Their Peers
Survival of the fittest ended with industrialization and equality is the American way. Who gives parents the right to give their child an academic head-up on their competition? If American kids are failing academically, yours should be too. Sure, the Chinese are learning math and English practically from the cradle, but that won’t impact your baby in any way, shape, or form. You don’t want your child to feel un-cool, now do you? It’s not fair to provide your beloved junior with all of your resources. If their peers aren’t learning Latin, French, and physics, yours shouldn’t be either. It’s just not right to make your child stand out to the college admittance officers at that Ivy League School. Imagine how much it’ll hurt your neighbor’s feelings when their slacker-son doesn’t get in as well.
Your Kid Won’ Be Attending Cool Keg Parties
You just don’t see homeschooled teens partying all night at unsupervised, beer-infused keg fests. Those homeschooling parents are simply too involved in their kid’s lives. These helicopter parents are suffocating their children’s growing identity. It takes too much effort to infuse morals in wild pre-teens and teens. These poor kids are probably dragged to church on Sundays too. There should be a law against that. We should just let our kids be kids, no matter what the consequences. They’ll have so many great memories, forever preserved on Facebook for the viewing pleasure of their college admittance officers and future employers.
You Have To Put In A Lot of Time and Effort
We’re all busy. Work is insane, life is crazy, and the primetime hours are packed with delectable television programming. Who wants to spend sacred moments planning lesson plans and researching curriculum? Who wants to maintain a portfolio of their child’s scribble-scrabble, let alone an attendance record? It’s much better to ship our offspring off to school every day and not think twice about it. Who cares if they won’t start learning a foreign language until high school? It’s America. We speak English. Who cares if their math skills are minimal and can’t compete in the world market? That’s what calculators are for. Who really wants to spend the time and effort investing in their child’s future if someone else can do it for them? I’m just saying… “me time” is for me. Sure, my children’s school years are a relatively small percentage of my total life and are pretty important, but I can’t afford to miss this season’s TV lineup!
Your Kids Will Turn Out “Weird”
Now, you don’t want your child to be different, do you? Doesn’t everyone want their teenie-bopper daughter to be boy crazy and name-brand obsessed, living in a techno-world of texting and moral-free, parent-ignoring bliss? Every boy should know the fine arts of wedgie-giving and locker-room potty mouthing. Every young teen should be fluent in the finer-points of sluttiness and human sexuality. Who wouldn’t want their kid smoking pot and skipping class? Who wouldn’t want their kid to experience bullies first-hand and stumble through cliques and peer pressure during their formative years? Depriving your child from these rights-of-teenage passage is simply inhumane.
DISCLAIMER: In case you missed it above, this article in no way reflects the author’s true beliefs about homeschooling. It should be read as a satire.
Skulls, Fur, and Creative Kid Scientists
Alex and Her Partner Hard at Work
No childhood is complete without dissecting owl pellets at least once. Do you remember doing this in elementary school? I sure do. I don’t particularly recall if it was in school or in girl scouts, but I remember being simultaneously grossed out and enthralled. When I told the kids that we would be performing this infamous experiment this week at Science Club, they were ecstatic. Alex was bouncing off the walls this morning with excitement, “I get to dissect fossilized pooooooooop!” I know it’s not technically fossilized waste products, but it does sound a bit more sanitary (and interesting?) that way. Plus, it’s the learning experience that counts, right?
This was our first Science Club meeting with Jacksonville Homeschool Kids and it was great. The turnout was huge and Alex quickly bonded with several other girls her age. I prepped Ethan lots this morning so that he knew what to expect and how to act. As you may know, he has a social disorder that makes interacting with others (especially in groups) extremely difficult for him. He didn’t actually talk to or interact with any other children today, but he didn’t throw any tantrums or spend the class crying either. Progress!
Alex paired up with another first-grade girl and Ethan paired up with Derek. I wasn’t actually expecting Ethan to take part, so I was very happy about this. They each got to put on plastic gloves and got a jar, a foil-wrapped owl pellet, and a toothpick to tear it apart. Alex and her partner got a worksheet to fill out with their observations. They began by writing about what they thought the purpose of the experiment was and what they expected to learn. One question asked, “What do you already know about owl pellets?” Alex’s answer? “It is owl poop” (PS: It’s not poop. It’s technically owl barf that’s been sanitized for science experiments).
We parents filled the jars with water, then our scientists plopped the unwrapped pellets in and swished them around carefully. We helped the children strain them and put the pellet on paper towels for dissection. Alex’s paper asked something like, “What was your reaction after the pellet was strained?” Her answer: “Eeeeew!” It did look pretty gross!
The kids carefully pulled apart the pellet with the toothpick to discover what the owl ate and recorded their findings. Alex found 3 mouse skulls, lots of bones, fur, and grass. Ethan and Derek’s pellet had bones, grass, and lots of mud. This led to some interesting conversations on digestion and how humans and owls eat much different things. I mean, can you imagine eating a mouse fur, bones, and all? Bleah.
The kids all had a blast and learned a lot, especially about sitting still, following instructions, and working cooperatively. I look forward to the day Bella is old enough to participate! Her current stage makes participating in things like this a bit difficult. We’re lucky to have such an awesome homeschool group here in Jacksonville and are thankful to the home educators who put this program together. Alex is already anxiously awaiting the next Science Club meeting. Who knows what we’ll learn next?
Ethan unwraps the pellet
Alex and her new friend
Derek swishes his jar to help soften the pellet before dissection
Alexandria the scientist
There was a great turnout for Science Club today!
What Does a Typical Homeschool Day Look Like?
Science Experiment Time!
People have wildly different ideas about what a typical homeschool day looks like and there’s a good reason for this. No two homeschool days are just alike, and homeschooling families teach in vastly different ways. When I started researching homeschooling, I found that reading about how other home educators filled their days was extremely helpful. To make it simple, I’ll just list Alexandria’s activities since she’s the only one officially of school age. Here’s what first grade looks like on an average Monday in the Melville home:
8:00-9:00- Free play time
9:00-9:15- Memory Work
School starts with Classical Conversations memory work. I put the CD in the X-box and Alex dances while she practices Week 3′s new memory work. We also have them printed out on cards. This week she’s memorizing the names of the Greek and Roman gods (history), Latin noun endings 1st declension (Latin), the parts of an animal cell (science), the parts of the Hebrew Empire (geography, prepositions al-at (grammar), and counting by 5’s and 6’s.
We love the Classical Conversations memory work. Some weeks are harder than others, but Alex loves learning new things and proudly recites them. We review the CD in the car too and she still tells me the facts she learned weeks ago. The purpose is to help her develop knowledge pegs from which to further her education as she progresses through school. When’s it’s all set to music, it’s hard not to memorize the “songs” and have fun!
9:15-9:30: Piano practice.
9:30-10:00: French
Today we completed Unit Two of our French for Kids program, learning to answer questions with “oui” or “non” and then advancing to using “j’aime” and “je n’aime pas” to answer questions. The CD is fun to listen to and the workbook is bright and colorful.
Next, Alex practiced her French color flashcards we made a few weeks ago. She has them absolutely mastered now and is very proud of herself. We finished up with lots of time to spare, so we brought out the iPad. She spent the rest of French time reviewing the alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers, and body parts in French on the iPad. I’m loving her ever-expanding French vocabulary!
10:00-10:40- English (phonics, writing, spelling, reading).
Alex began this period by working on her new spelling words, writing each word four times on her worksheet. We’ll review them lightly throughout the week and then test on Friday.
For Phonics, we use Horizons Phonics and Reading. Today we covered Lessons 27 and 28 and their accompanying reading comprehension material. Next she watched Hooked on Phonics Second Grade Lesson 8 on DVD and read the accompanying workbook material. This lesson ended with her reading “The Puppy Look,” which was quite wordy and challenging. She did awesome.
10:45-11:15- Story Circle
This is a fun time where we explore books, songs, nursery rhymes, and music. Circle time! All of the kids take part. They each choose books and we form a circle on the living room carpet. We put some fun, light music on and read each child’s selection. Today we read “The Ants Come Marching,” “Green Eggs and Ham,” and “Oliver.”
Next, we cracked open “What Your Preschooler Needs to Know” (Derek’s favorite) and practiced singing some favorite nursery rhymes. We got out the drums, maracas, and other small instruments and each child had a blast playing and singing. Then, each got to choose one to perform for everyone else. The others gave lots of applause. When they got to “Ring around the Rosie” they all held hands and skipped around the carpet (besides the baby of course) and keeled over with laughter.
11:15-12:00- Math!
Alex chose to do math via Time4Learning.com today. She has a choice between that and our Horizons Curriculum every day. We love Time4Learning.com because the lessons are so engaging. It’s an awesome supplement. Today she finished her section on fractions and entirely completed a new section on the principles of addition and subtraction. She finished up just in time for lunch.
12:00-1:00- Lunch and play time
1:00-2:00- Social Studies
The little kids go down for naps at 1, so that gives Alex and I lots of one-on-one time. We curled up in the chaise lounge and cracked open The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. This is another text we absolutely love. Year one covers Ancient Times, from the earliest nomads to the last Roman Emperor. We love the easy-to-read-aloud stories that bring history alive in fun and interesting ways. Today we read about Ancient Africa (Ancient Peoples of West Africa, Anansi and Turtle, Anansi and the Make-Believe Food), The Middle Kingdom of Egypt (Egypt Invades Nubia, The Hyksos Invade Egypt), and The New Kingdom of Egypt (The General and the Woman Pharaoh, Amenhotep and King Tut). Since we did an in-depth unit study on Ancient Egypt in July, Alex loved this section and enjoyed hearing stories about some of the Pharaohs we studied. King Tut is her definite favorite.
2:00-2:30- Science
Today we did an experiment about making air do work. We got a plastic sailboat and a long plastic bin, which we filled with water. How could she make the boat move without touching it? Alex experimented by blowing the sailboat to move it across the water. She wanted to find out if it would move faster if she blew it harder and how it would sail if she loaded it up with a little doll and then later some coins. How many coins could we load into the boat and still make it float? How many pennies? How many nickels? We did an accompanying worksheet and also recorded all of our observations.
2:30-3:00- Alex’s Free Learning Time
Alex and Derek are still busily playing with the bin of water. It has become an entirely different experiment now. They’re seeing what floats and what doesn’t float and roaring with laughter. They’re all wet and the table is a disaster, but it’s awesome to watch and they’re really learning so much! I’ll let them continue as long as they like (until they lose interest or I need to set the table for dinner, whichever comes first 
.
Today was an awesome and productive day. Some days we accomplish less, some days more. Some days we have outings, other days are purely academic. The best part is that while we do meet my pre-set goals each week, how we reach those goals is largely child directed. If Alex is totally into piano, I let her extend her practice time. If we’re on a unit study, she could spend hours on a project if she so desires (like Egypt! ). We just shift things around a bit, and it all works out well. We are having so much fun and Alex is learning more than I ever thought possible.
Our New Adventure: Homeschooling!
Kitchen Science!
School starts in Duval County next week and I’m nervous. Why? It’s not because of early morning bus drop-offs or conflicting schedules. It’s not because of intense homework loads or childcare issues. I’m nervous for an entirely different but great reason. We began homeschooling our 4 children this summer and love it. It just seems so much more real now that they won’t be joining their classmates in the bus-line! This fall marks our official début as a family of homeschoolers.
We happened upon homeschooling this spring as a last-ditch effort to turn our son’s behavior around. Ethan has social anxiety disorder, among other things, and was placed into the local public school‘s “mixed abilities” preschool class to help him overcome his difficulties. After six months in school, he was a changed child… and unfortunately not in a good way. Rather than improving, my normally docile son had become aggressive. He hit and kicked his teachers when asked to do simple things he didn’t like to do. His temper tantrums were out of control. I was being called at home because of behavioral issues several times a week. Not only that, the boy who was so confident in naming his letters, colors, and shapes suddenly couldn’t seem to name any of them anymore. The boy who had been in speech therapy for so long was becoming extremely difficult to understand when he spoke, perhaps because he was modeling his speech after other severely handicapped classmates (I’m not sure exactly the reason). Finally, in mid-spring, the problem hit a terrible peak. I was driving home one afternoon when I got a call from a familiar number: the office. The problem was not so expected. Ethan had been put in time out for throwing a tantrum and had started an electric fire by sticking something into an uncovered outlet. The fire had been quickly put out and no one else was hurt, but Ethan had burned his arm quite badly and I needed to pick him up right away.
I was in a blind panic and drove across town as quickly as possible. His teacher relayed the story again, including the fact that she couldn’t possibly watch every kid at every moment and stating that it was “both of our faults” this happened. My son could have been killed while in her care. He did know better, but I don’t blame him for being improperly supervised or for his classroom being improperly childproofed. My husband and I had discussed what we should do about his deteriorating behavior for a while now and this sealed the deal. Ethan would be homeschooled. We had a lot of work to do.
I’ll have to admit, I wasn’t particularly thrilled at the prospect of homeschooling Ethan. I didn’t want to deal with his intense issues 24/7. I enjoyed the break from him and his tantrums. Yet, what we were doing wasn’t working. Public school was definitely not the answer.
We plunged into homeschooling head first. The first few weeks were rough, his outrageous behavior getting on my last nerve. Then something miraculous began to happen. Ethan’s outbursts decreased dramatically. He started smiling more. With help from his behaviorist, he began engaging and really enjoying learning. After a few months, most of his troublesome behaviors had vanished. He was learning. He was thriving! He didn’t act out aggressively or cry and scream when things didn’t go exactly his way. The difference was night and day. The Ethan of today is practically unrecognizable from the Ethan of 6 months ago.
When school let out for the summer, I began homeschooling my older daughter Alexandria as well. She’s a very advanced little reader with a passion for learning. She had fun at school, but was always bored out of her mind and getting into trouble for talking. She was the “teacher’s helper” because she was too far advanced. She wasn’t pushed to learn anything further either. This summer we tried something new. I let Alex learn at her own pace. The results were amazing. We did school each morning of the workweek, learning grammar, phonics, math, social studies, science, piano, French, geography, and more. We read hundreds of books and went on lots of great field trips. We made learning fun and challenging and had an absolute blast together. Alexandria exploded academically. Her expanding vocabulary and knowledge base blow me away.
My husband and I had a revelation. We had stumbled upon something big. We did our research and discovered that other homeschooling families were having similar successes. Homeschooling is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to the failing public school system and homeschoolers are thriving. They do as well as or better than their public school peers across the board. According to HSLDA (The Homeschool Legal Defense Association), homeschoolers score in the 85th percentile on national achievement tests while public school students score in the 50th percentile. Colleges are seeking them out. They’re entering the workforce as well-educated, well-rounded, capable, and self-motivated citizens. Was this really an option for us?
We had a ton of questions. How would homeschooling work with my husband’s busy work schedule? How would I juggle teaching and my own writing career? How could I successfully integrate the younger children into the school day? How would our lives change, and were we ready for these changes?
It turns out, it’s super easy to homeschool in the state of Florida. Simply write a letter of intent, send it to the proper office, and you’re set. At the end of the year, have a teacher evaluate a portfolio of your child’s work. We began searching for curriculum and choosing a wide variety of materials. We dove into homeschooling and found out that it was a great match. The children love their school time and we’ve had countless fun, productive, and memorable mornings this summer. We’ve become involved with our local homeschooling community and have made some great new friends. Not only are the children learning more than they ever would in our local public school, but we’ve also become closer as a family. I’ve learned how to enjoy spending time with my children a whole lot more than I used to. The children have learned to enjoy each other’s company more as well.
We’ve discovered that there’s a whole new world out there that doesn’t involve public schooling. I don’t have to worry about music, art, or PE being cut from my daughter’s school. Funding and budget cuts aren’t a problem. I don’t have to worry about bullies or peer pressure (too much anyway). I know who my children’s’ friends are and what their families are like. I can help my children reach their true potential in this amazing day and age. With the internet and a city full of classes and social activities, there’s a wealth of knowledge right at our finger tips.
This is the story of how one busy, bustling military family came to be a family of homeschoolers and the lessons we’ll learn along the way.
Related articles
- Homeschooling FrAnTiCs (multipurposemom.com)
- Introducing the How to Home School Guide – A Tool Written By Homeschoolers for Homeschoolers (prweb.com)
- Homeschool Planning: Back to Homeschool (thehappyhousewife.com)
- Announcing a New Resource Dedicated to Homeschool Fiction (prweb.com)
- Applying College Well : Tips for Homeschoolers (education.com)
- Do Parents Have a Right to Homeschool? (education.com)
