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Showing posts with label getting started home schooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label getting started home schooling. Show all posts

Nov 6, 2010

Home School Progress Report 2009

Home School VS Traditional School!

I just read this great article about homeschooling and traditional schooled children. This new study provided by HSLDA Home School Legal Defence Association paints a good picture of how home schoolers are doing compared to institutionalized educated children. This study showed only slight differences among home schoolers academically and huge differences among home schoolers and traditional schooled children. This study looked at home schoolers from all areas including family income, children per family and more. This is definitely worth reading and it didn't take but five minutes.

You can read this report here Home School Progress Report 2009

Apr 23, 2010

Unschooled Children Learn Because They Love Life And Learning!

"The Best Way To Learn Is To Teach!"

A great saying but if you are an unschooler you might prefer this one.

"The Best Way To Learn Is To DO!"

I agree with both, unschooling as well as homeschooling is a one of a kind learning experience for the whole family. The parents learn by guided teaching and answering the many questions of a young healthy mind. And the kids learn much, much, more by doing things them self, looking up a topic and searching for the answers. The children learn because they love life and learning! And the topics they study are topics they have chosen to learn.

The fact is you learn and absorbed waaaay more when you are interested in the topic, you have a driving desire to learn it. The information has more value to you, you will remember it and be more likely to use it.. Not only that life experience is a great teacher and can teach us all the subjects as long as we stay active! Homeschooling / unschooling is not for the lazy, but active life loving learners.

If you went to school like me you would probably remember constantly being forced, bribed into learning and absorbing info that you just were not interested in at the time or not at all. It was a chore to learn and not fun ( so not what learning should be about ) and all so they can test you on it later. In unschooling you and your children learn because you want to know about something.

No stickers, or points are earned for learning, or bribed to the child in order that they make them self learn. The only reward is self satisfaction, a great self esteem, and the all around good feelings of bettering ones self.

Not that these things can't be achieved in a school, only that these things are achieved as unschoolers feel in a better way and without all the extra negative stuff that can come out of public school or even a private school. Homeschooling provides a safe place where your children can learn about them self, their family, the world and anything else they are interested in! Apposed to being away from their family 7 hours a day Mon-Fri most weeks a year, were they are taught in a production line fashion.

In conclusion to this post, I feel that homeschooling and unschoolng offer us freedom to learn and grow in the direction our hearts take us. I am glad I am learning about unschooling as well as homeschooling and the best part is I am absorbing everything I learn because I want to learn it.

I love to learn about many things and have only begun my education since I have been an adult. I went to school my whole childhood up until I was 16 years old were I finished school at home. That is when I really started educating my self on topics like health, and exercise. I even loved learning about it so much I got my personal training certification at 18 years old and worked at a gym.

I can honestly say that school taught me how to read, write, spell, and do basic math. My real education was the unschooling I provided myself at the age of 17 when I graduated from high school independent study.

I hope I have inspired you to look into homeschooling and the unschooling philosophy for your family. If you already home school I hope that by me sharing with you what I am learning about it you may also have the desire to continue to learn about this wonderful way of living life with your children!


More from this blog on Unschooling:

Eclectic Homeschooling

What is Unschooling? Home Schooling

The Unschooling Handbook



Jan 30, 2010

Homeschooling Is Not Easy!

We have been homeschooling for two years officially, I have two children ages six and three. I wanted to do another real post, I do not want to come across as a super mom! I am not a super mom although I wish I was lol! I made the choice to home school because for me and my family it is best and it is not an option for me to send them to public school.

Even though I believe in what I do and would do anything to do it, it is still hard and what is even harder than the actual schooling part is having my children with me 24/7 most of the time it is fine but I wish I had a break and more time to myself that is what makes it so hard, I am just being real. On a positive note I do have my kids with me all day, they go to the store with me we, and most places which is a pleasure most of the time. Also my kids are not perfect and do have some behavior problems ( my oldest the most ) this also makes homeschooling difficult.

Instead of giving up and sending them to school and never dealing with these problems we are able to fix them and teach our kids how to fix them in themselves. I have seen to many good kids being labeled BAD and kicked out of school, or kids who never really dealt with their problems and leave school on their own to early simply for lack of coping skills and the right attention.

My point is homeschooling moms and kids are not perfect and we have problems and good days and bad days but if this is something you believe in you must do it threw good times and bad, don't give up keep moving forward, always change yourself for the good so you can impact your children in a positive way!

Read parenting books and get help when you need to but don't give up!

Jan 19, 2010

Online Home School Programs

    I wanted to post more about home school options this time focusing on online home school programs. There are many choices for home education and some of it may depend on the state you live in. I wanted to give you some information so you can know a little more about what is available to you and your children, and help you get started in finding the right program for you and your family.

Many of these online home school programs offer free curriculum, one on one support with a teacher, online classes the children can attend as well as online testing, I have also seen some that offer free lap top computers for each child enrolled. Many of these programs are Internet based and do require kids to be on the computer a certain amount of the time but even this is dependent on the age of your child and learning skills. I would assume that the average child spends a good amount of time with online activities but that is the world we live in and children need to acquire those skills as well.

Some of these online schools are private which you would be responsible to pay for their services and curriculum, but many online home school do offer the online public school option and these are free to families who live in states that acknowledge these programs.

One option is a online home school program that I have heard good things about in the forums among home school moms. Some said it is way to structured and others say that is what they like about it. It is called K-12 and this online home school is offered to families in every grade K-12. Established in 1999, the K-12 mission "To provide any child access to exceptional curriculum and tools that enable him or her to maximize his or her success in life, regardless of geographic, financial, or demographic circumstance."

"K¹² offers outstanding, highly effective curriculum that enables mastery of core concepts and skills for all kinds of minds"


K-12 does offer the online public school program for elementary to Jr high and high school, in many states, check into it for your state by requesting info from K-12.

Another online home school program that I have heard good things about is Connections Academy. They also offer the free online home school programs and is available in many states as well. 

"Connections Academy schools are growing throughout the United States. Working with state education officials, leading education publishers, and curriculum experts, Connections Academy ensures that our program meets the highest accreditation standards in every state we serve as well as our own standards for excellence. To learn more about our free, quality public education offered in your home state, simply select your local school below."

Connection Academy began operations of its first schools in two states in the Fall of 2002. In September of 2004, Connections Academy was sold. The company now operates schools under management contracts from charter schools or school districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin. Connections Academy provides a new form of free public school that students attend from home.

This is a unique program that combines:

Strong parental involvement of homeschooling
Expertise and accountability of public funded education
Flexibility of online classes


I will post more about these types of programs later but these are two of the best in my opinion from what I have heard and read about on their sites. There is a wide range of online home school programs with many different curriculum and methods to choose from you just have to pick what will be best for you family.

We use a home based public school program much like the online options only located in our town and without having to use the computer. I did look into the K-12 and the Connections Academy programs for my kids but chose to go with our local program but I am still open to these programs and may be using one in the future. It is nice to know we could pretty much move any ware without changing schools.

You can visit these sites and request more information if you would like to learn more about what these programs can do for you and your family!

Dec 2, 2009

Home Based Charter Schools

      A home based Charter is a public Charter school that offers a home based schooling program available to us in our town. They do use state curriculum and all rules apply the same as any public school. The difference is the parents not teachers or schools are in control. 

We get several curriculum choices and can use the curriculum as we see best for our child. We have an advisory teacher for support and to help us use and choose curriculum if we need it. We keep attendance and have to turn that in as well as 3 work page samples once a month, which is very easy and the requirements are very reasonable. 

Not unlike what we would have to do anyway if homeschooling privately. They also offer extra curricular classes and events which are not required but an added bonus. Our advisory teacher who is a certified teacher also home schooled her own 3 children so she knows the game! 

California is a low regulation state for home schooling see Home School Regulations.
We have chosen to use the Charter program so I wanted to give you an update on how it's all going. What are your Home School Options ?

With this program we have a advisory teacher who is available during the week and we see about once a month. She was a home school mom to her three children, they are now grown. She assist us in curriculum selection and all curriculum is provided for free from the school, as well as any other workbooks we may need. The also give us vouchers to buy school supplies at the school stores, we love this!

They offer classes for my children to attend and we love the science class at the local nature museum. At the school there is other resources, and materials for us to use as well.

I am thankful to have this program right in our town, there are many home based charter schools to choose from and you would have to check with you state to find programs like this for your family. You may also be able to use a online charter program depending on were you live but I think this is pretty widely available.

The problems with a program like this in my opinion is, we do have to use state standard curriculum for now this is fine but in the future I may not want to use a state run curriculum.

We do however get to use any curriculum we choose but we do not have the option of the state paying for it, for example a religious curriculum etc.

Starting in 2nd grade children have to participate in state testing and we do have to turn in attendance and progress records, ideally I do not like it but I understand why it is done, and it helps me to have a record of our hard work.

If you are just starting out like we were last year, then a program like this may be right for you. If you home school already I want to know about your school, do you go threw a program like ours or do something else?

Nov 20, 2009

Home School Regulations

What States Are Best For Home Schooling?

There are four levels of homeschooling regulation in this country:

1. states with essentially no regulations.
2. states with low regulations.
3. states with moderate regulations.
4. states with high regulations.

States with no regulations are the best for home schooling. The more strict the regulations the less freedom parents have to teach their children how they want, when they want and what they want! For us this is important while, we do agree with teaching kids the basics, children should not be slaves to curriculum or doing the same things everyday. Home schooling should be free with the whole family learning what they love!

Many states allow home schoolers the freedom and flexibility in their curriculum's, and in the amount of time they decide to spend on educational activities. Currently, there are 10 states that fall into this category: Idaho, Alaska, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Connecticut, and New Jersey. These states require no notification. They do not have to notify the district in any way of their intent to homeschool. There are no forms to fill out, no phone calls to make. Even if one decides to pull their child from public school in order to begin homeschooling, there is not even a form to sign.

The states which have low regulations, require only that the parent notifies the district in writing of their intent to homeschool a child of compulsory attendance age. These states are also highly home school friendly as they require no testing, no reporting, and no home visits. Currently there are 15 states which fall into this category: , Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas,Mississippi, Alabama, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Delaware and Washington D.C.

States with moderate regulations, require written parental notification, they also require state standardized test scores and professional evaluation of the homeschooling students' performance. If the district within which the homeschooling family resides felt, after this testing and evaluation, that the homeschool was not fulfilling its legal requirement to educate the student to the state's standards, they could revoke that family's right to homeschool. These states are not considered overly homeschooler friendly. Currently 20 states implement this program: Washington, Oregon, Colorado, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Maine, and Hawaii.

The strictest level of homeschooling regulation in our country, requires notification, mandatory state testing, professional evaluation, and may also include curriculum approval, reporting of hours and progress, teaching certification of the parent and home visits by state officials. These states would not be considered the best for homeschoolers, knowing this info I would not live in one of these states. They are not homeschooler-friendly, allow little to no flexibility, and may just be states that homeschoolers prefer to avoid all together. Fortunately for most homeschoolers, there are only 6 states which currently fall into this category: Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

States may very in their enforcement of regulations. Some states may or may not have some of the regulations listed, this info is intended to be general you still must do your own research for your state and each individual state. My article is not a substitute for your own research and what is best for your family!

Now that you know this important info if you are planning on home schooling and moving consider the home school laws in the state you choose it could mean the freedom to home school your kids the way you feel is best for them. You know your children the best and in time learn the ways that is best for the learning of your children. Children should also be free to choose what they learn, learning the things that interests them the most.

Thanks for reading please comment!

To Your Families Success!

Joanne

For more on state home school laws visit HSLDA

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