Archive for the ‘Homeschool’ Category

Next year is going to be even more exciting than I anticipated.

Jewel will be five, and we will start doing more “schooling” with her. I’m not a believer in a bunch of “work” for the K set, but she is actually very enchanted with the idea of “doing school,” so who am I to argue? (We’re doing some now, of course).

But there’s a new dimension being added to the mix: Nick is coming home.

After two years in the magnet music program at a high school in the area, he has decided that public school really is not such a great idea after all. This dovetailes with our ideas about having the family accompany Wolf for his Air Force technical schools, so we’re all agreed.

Now… How?

I’ve never done High School, and diving into the Junior year is more than a little intimidating.

We used Sonlight for 8th Grade, and really enjoyed it, so that seems the likely choice for the main chunk of curriculum.

He did AP World History in 9th Grade, and is doing AP Psychology this year. The natural progresson would be for AP English Language and AP U.S. History next year, which he is interested in doing.

I’m thinking the most effective way to accomplish that is through Florida Virtual School. It’s free as Florida residents, which is a nice bonus.

Then there are just a couple of open questions: Algebra 2 and Chemistry.

He didn’t care for the math we used in 8th Grade (ALEKS), so we’re definately looking for a new option there.

• Teaching Textbooks is the recommendation from Sonlight. I’ve also heard good things about it from others. A little pricey?
• Math U See is something a lot of folks use, but I haven’t heard much about their High School levels.
• I know there are tons of others out there… an overwhelming number of choices…

And Chemistry?

Sonlight offers the Apologia program, which is also the only one I’ve heard other High School homeschoolers mention.

Obviouly, a web search turns up a ton of options, but who knows what’s any good?

And do we do any extras?

It seems like an awful lot of work we’re committed to already.

But what about all those extra things we’d like to do?

• Bible is included in the Sonlight, so we don’t need anything else formal in that area.
• I guess he’s done with music, so we won’t worry about that.
• A homeschool co-op I follow is offering a great buy on Dave Ramsey’s financial class for High Schoolers. I think this would be such a valuable thing for him…
• We may try Spanish, but language learning has not gone well for us in the past. Rather than presenting it to him as “his” class, I’m thinking I’ll just have him work along as I try to learn with Jewel.

I’m anxious to get everything nailed down, of course. Even though I’ll probably wait and have it shipped to our address at the training base, I don’t like the “up in the air” feeling.

Any comments, suggestions, recommendations?

Welcome, one and all, to the Carnival of Homeschooling!

It’s been a rough time for us lately… Unemployment… New job, but underemployed, and having to move out of our house… Living in the RV with three kids and four cats…

And we just learned that my Father-in-Law has been diagnosed with lung cancer (He’s going through a troubled recovery from throat cancer, beginning two years ago, and his wife has just been through a bout with cancer as well). We’ll be heading for Mississippi tomorrow to spend a week with the family there.

Nothing like struggles to make you re-evaluate your priorities!

With that in mind, I present this, the

Carnival of Homeschooling – “What Matters Most” Edition

To my regular readers, I feel I must add the disclaimer. Since this carnival is open to all homeschooling bloggers, there may be sites and content here that I would not otherwise link from this blog. I have indicated such content, where possible.

And to the carnival participants and any new readers, a disclaimer for you, as well. Although the Carnival of Homeschooling is not Christian, I am. Please feel free to simply skip over areas of my post which do not apply to you, and enjoy the remainder.

Here, in no particular order, are some priorities that have come into focus for us recently… with this week’s bloggers illustrating my point!

What Matters: People

In this instance, it means that being with Grandpa right now is worth hubby taking time off work, pulling my marching band kid out of school for a week… Family matters more than any of that “stuff.”

Mrs. White has some great suggestions for quick and easy lessons that are fun for mom to do right alongside the kids, in Efficient Teaching Ideas for Busy Homeschooling Mothers Part Three posted at The Legacy of Home.

Laughing together is a GOOD thing – and so is cooking together! Check out Cristina’s Home Spun comic strip #440 posted at Home Spun Juggling.

Tammy relates how the 2010 Great Backyard Bird Count is about her family as much as the birds, at Adventures On Beck’s Bounty. Susan Ryan is on the same page, with Citizen Science posted at Corn and Oil.

What could be cozier quality time than reading together? Dave Roller enjoys reading to his children from Poems for Children Nowhere Near Old Enough to Vote, as he shares at Home School Dad, and Amy shares Read Aloud Thursday – including a Mr. Linky roundup of others’ read-aloud lists – at Hope Is the Word.

Susan Gaissert presents an insightful look at The Consequences of Saying Yes at The Expanding Life.

Tonya discusses people-sensitive curriculum choices, in Choices, Choices, Choices: Choosing Curriculum posted at Live the Adventure.

Lizzie just wants to touch base, and offers her School Update at A Dusty Frame.

Catherine appreciates the flexibility to meet her daughter’s specific needs, in Math Slowdown, posted at Petticoat Government.

Katherine sends out kudos to her local children’s librarian at No fighting, no biting!.

What Matters: Obeying God

Oh, so many things, but let me use an illustration I am in the process of writing a post about in and of itself: Do we tithe 10% of the unemployment check that is already not enough to pay the bills? Oh yes, we must!

Tiana Krenz’ wonderful contribution this week discusses our choice to homeschool in light of How Doing Something “Good” Can Keep You From Obeying posted at God Made, Home Grown.

Oh, the joy! Lara DeHaven shares her children’s delight in Honor Your Parents posted at Texas Homesteader.

What Doesn’t Matter: The Lastest, Newest, Trendiest…

We just plain don’t need to spend the time, energy, money, and stress chasing after or worrying about it! Sheesh! And you know what, so many times, the tried and true “old-fashioned” way works best anyway.

Jennifer Bogart shares An Oldie, But a Goodie for penmanship at Bogart Family Resources.

Perfectly on topic here, Deana describles how to Make Your Own Word Family Review Cards (for Preschool) over at The Frugal Homeschooling Mom.

Jamie describes the simple and classic methods she’s using in A day in the life… posted at Jam Side Up.

What Doesn’t Matter: Other People’s Opinions, “Conventional Wisdom”

Even the well-meaning folks don’t know your circumstances and your family the way you do. And just because “everyone says so” is absolutely no gurantee that it’s right or good in any given situation! As homeschoolers, of course, most of us have no problem being “unconventional” with our schooling – we just need to carry the mentality even further.

Summer discusses respecting her son’s developmental pace in Reading And Not Reading posted at Wired For Noise – and what a cute video! (Please be advised there is language that will be objectionable to some in this blog (including the header), although none in this specific post).

Barbara Frank invites us to reconsider – Is College Worth the Cost? at Barbara Frank Online.

Avivah allays some fears with her insightful post, Do You Have To Be Smart to Homeschool? at Oceans of Joy.

Linda Dobson explains the transition of Reinventing the Learning Lifestyle on PARENT AT THE HELM.

Amy shares her “confession” of switching to a more unschooled approach for her kids’ sake, in How To Suck the Joy Out of Learning posted at Did I Say That Outloud?.

Sarah discusses her patient philosophy of The Road to Independence, Part I on SmallWorld.

Janine reminds us that this holds true even if “other people” is a whole government, in Have you heard the news? posted at Why Homeschool.

What Matters: Honesty / Dealing With Reality

As much as we have faith that God can handle anything, nobody is served if we hide our heads in the sand and pretend that there is not a problem at the moment. This applies, in our recent life situation, to all kinds of areas – finances and health being the most obvious.

Similarly, Carol Topp, CPA warns about the danger of Fraud in a homeschool group at HomeschoolCPA.

Dolfin offers a candid look at their Hebrew-learning fruatrations in Rosetta Stone Check In posted at Lionden Landing.

Nothing says reality like a budget! Tricia Cobb presents Home Economics 102: Budgets posted at Home School MamaMi.

What Matters: Getting the Job Done

Sometimes it’s about having the right tool for the job. Sometimes it’s a skill. Often, it’s just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, and doing whatever it takes to get ‘er done.

Here’s some tools to help:

Kim shares some terrific kids’ Cleaning Lists at Kim’s Play Place.

Char presents The Best Valentines Printables posted at Printables for Kids.

Denise presents Week 1 Worksheets posted at Blogging 2 Learn.

Dianne M. Buxton presents Your Potential To Get More Flexible – And How To Do Effective Ballet/Sports/Cheer Leading Stretching posted at Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes.

ChristineMM offers her selection of a Homeschool Curriculum List for My Seventh Grader 2009 to 2010 posted at The Thinking Mother.

Rachel Lynette presents 20 Question to Ask Kids posted at Minds in Bloom.

Beverly’s setting a great way to get some support and interation, with Homeschoolers Respond – Recap #3 on Beverly’s Homeschooling Blog (About.com).

Misty has collected a 2010 Winter Olympic List of Websites at Homeschool Bytes.

And last, but never least, Miss Amanda reviews some project resources in He’s a Posterboy on The Daily Planet.

What Doesn’t Matter: Perfection

Well, it was bound to happen. Somehow the email forwarding glitched, and these poor folks’ carnival entries were lost in cyber-space! Belatedly, then, here are the [ahem] first four entires this month!

Margy discusses Writing the Personal Statement at Homeschool High School.

Learn about The Power of Compound Interest in Homeschooling at Nolo Promittere.

Read some School Humor at It’s All In Here. (Please note that this blog contains some mild language and thematic elements).

Dana asks the question: Is the current Roscommon Acres.

Thank you for reading… Please let me know if you find any errors or broken links!

I want to extend my hearfelt thanks to the bloggers who submitted these interesting, challenging, and diverse posts for your reading pleasure. As always, it has been a joy to read through them all while putting the carnival together.

Please take a moment to post a link to the carnival on your blog, as well as adding it to any social bookmarking sites you use (try the “Share This” link, below) — help spread the word about homeschooling, and the carnival, and send some traffic to all these terrific folks.

Don’t forget to send in your post for next week’s carnival, as well! Just click on over to the easy submision form at Blog Carnival anytime before Monday at 6pm Pacific.

I am pleased to announce that As For My House is hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling next week.

We have hosted the Carnival a few times over at Life on the Road. You can swing by there and check out our the last adventure, The RPG Adventure Edition.

I’m writing this post in the hopes that you’ll join the party!

If you have a blog, you’re welcome to submit an article:

• The post can be new or old – anything you’ve written is fair game!
• Your *blog* does not have to be about homeschooling, only the post you submit.

It’s easy to submit with the Blog Carnival form.

You can also find more info at the website that runs the carnival, “Why Homeschool“.

Just be sure to send in your submission by Sunday night, then come back by Tuesday to read all the other wonderful entries.

…And if you know anyone else who blogs homeschool, please spread the word!!

Hope to see you “there”!

Join me today at Our Home School: Carnival of Homeschooling #197, hosted at Walking Therein.

We participate in this carnival regularly, and will be hosting again in November. If you have never checked it out, there’s no time like the present!

I’m sure you’ve already heard, since the Net is buzzing with it… President Obama would like to lengthen the school year in the U.S. – either lengthen the days, or add days to the schedule, or both.

One of the reasons cited is that “Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” (Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the AP). “I want to just level the playing field.”

However, just a few paragraphs down it points out that our school children have more school hours annually than the kids in Asian countries who continually beat our scores in math and science.

So?

Maybe it’s not that simple.

Or rather, maybe it is that simple, but they’re looking in the wrong direction.

After all, a lot of schools and districts have already tried variations on this – lengthening the school day, lengthening the year, year-round school schedules…

One of the better ideas, I think, is the simple switch to “block scheduling” that schools here use: only 3 classes each day, for 2 hours blocks, alternating days to get the same six classes in. This lets teachers have less daily time spent on non-educational time (taking roll, etc.), and a long enugh stretch of time to really get into a lesson.

Progress, perhaps. A tiny step towards a common homeschool philosophy of doing something long enough it get it done, rather than cutting off at some arbitrary time.

But clearly, not enough.

I’ve heard a lot of lamenting in the last few years from friends with children in public and private schools alike – too much homework.

Some friends of ours with a nine year-old daugher say that they spend an average of three hours per day doing homework with her!

Three hours a day? On top of the seven or so hours in school?

Wow.

In three hours a day, homeschooling, I could complete all the “sit down and study” work that a child that age requires. Things like music, P.E., cooking, and field trips fall into a different category, naturally, and can be done when and how we want.

So if I have to spend that three hours working with my child anyway, why the heck should I send them to school?

And homeschooled children consistently out-perform their public (and privately!) schooled peers… So it would seem that it really is just that simple.

I truly believe that what the U.S. school system needs is not more school, but better school.

I’m not a school expert. I don’t know what the answer is for that national picture.

But for me and my house, better school is school at home. On our terms, in our time.

First, let me welcome all my homeschool-blog-reading friends to our new locale. Glad you made your way over here from Life on the Road!

Before I really get started, I want to share two recent news items that reinforce some of the most important reasons we homeschool.

First, I kid you not, the Lego Ban:

There’s really not much that needs to be said after that, is there?

The second item is the speech Barak Obama will be giving to all school children on Setember 8th. William Jacobson’s article Ask Not What Your President Can Do For You, and his corresponding post on the Insurrection Blog (watch those two videos!) sums up my feelings about this indoctrination very clearly.

This whole line of reasoning and questioning is backwards. It may have become lost in the mania, but HE works for US, not the other way around.

And no, this is not Obama’s “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” moment.

But let me get back to the issue of the day in our house… A bright 4 1/2 year old.

Is it Pre-Home-School, or Home-Pre-School, or ??

The biggest “problem” we have right now is that I’m not a big fan of “busy-work,” and I tend more towards the philosophy that at this age they need to be learning to be good people, not struggling to master certain facts.

Jewel watches her big brother, though, and very much wants to “do school.”

So far we’ve just found useful ways to play – writing letters on her magnetic writing pad, or on paper, reading together, and of course homemaking skills.

But I also decided to take a chance and dabble with the Weaver Interlock curriculum this year.

Things I like about it:

• Three days-a-week schedule (vs. five)
• Solidly Bible-based (not just including Bible study, but acutally structured around the Bible, and using it in all subjects)
• Lots of “real-world” activity (nature walks, etc.)
• Reading from “real” books, not special readers (the reason I liked Sonlight for Nick)
• No rote work (at this age)

Sounds pretty good, eh?

Now the challenge is figuring out what to do with the littlest one.  He’s too interested to do something else by himself, and too disruptive if he’s involved…

P.S. Don’t forget to enter our “Housewarming Party” drawing for a set of 3 Homestead Blessings DVDs!