The latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

While you are waiting for the next Carnival of Homeschooling you can checkout the latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival hosted at journey-and-destination.

A thought about learning from experience

From Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list:

We all learn by experience
but some of us have to go to summer school. -Peter de Vries (1910-1993)

The next stage in buying things?

For most of recorded history people have bought things in stores.  Then companies like Sears started selling things via catalogs.  Customers could select the items they wanted and have them shipped to their home.  Lately this trend has been accelerated by the internet by companies like Amazon.

Maybe we'll have a third approach now, Popular Mechanics reports on Urbee 2, the 3D-Printed Car That Will Drive Across the Country.  The article starts with:

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In early 1903, physician and car enthusiast Horatio Nelson Jackson accepted a $50 bet that he could not cross the United States by car. Just a few weeks later, on May 23, he and mechanic Sewall K. Crocker climbed into a 20-hp Winton in San Francisco and headed east. Accompanied by Bud, a pit bull they picked up along the way, the two men arrived in New York 63 days, 12 hours, and 800 gallons of fuel later, completing the nation's first cross-country drive.

About two years from now, Cody and Tyler Kor, now 20 and 22 years old, respectively, will drive coast-to-coast in the lozenge-shaped Urbee 2, a car made mostly by 3D printing. Like Jackson and Crocker, the young men will take a dog along for the ride—Cupid, their collie and blue heeler mix. Unlike Jackson and Crocker, they will spend just 10 gallons of fuel to complete the trip from New York to San Francisco. Then they will refuel, turn around, and follow the same west-to-east route taken by Jackson, Crocker, and Bud.
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It would be really cool to be able to print things we need right in our own home!

Public schools support the bullies

Recently there has been a lot of news about bullies.  This issue is getting lots of exposure.

Yet the truth is sometimes government schools help the bullies.

Federal Court Upholds School Ban on American Flag T-Shirts explains how bullies were supported by the school officials.

The article starts with:

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Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a California high school’s prohibition on American flag t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. The case is Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School District, and while it might get the law right, it certainly highlights a worrying trend in American schools: the inability or unwillingness to protect students whose speech is unpopular.

On Cinco de Mayo, May 5, 2010, three students wore American flag t-shirts to Live Oak High School. Live Oak, according to the Ninth Circuit, had a history of gang and racial violence. The students who wore the American flag t-shirts were threatened with physical violence. Rather than discipline the students who made the threats, the school decided to tell the American flag t-shirt-wearing students that they could either turn their shirts inside-out, or go home. Two of the students went home, and the students collectively sued the school district in federal district court, claiming that the school violated their First Amendment rights.
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It is amazing to me that we have drifted so far.  Fifty years ago the students threatening violence would have been dealt with.  Now the officials at these government schools cave.

Just another reason to homeschool.

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Post Olympic edition

Susan is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Corn and Oil.

She starts the carnival with:

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The Sochi Winter Olympics ended a couple of days ago. Many of us watched various winter sports such as ice skating, hockey games, snowboarding, skiing (sometimes with a gun), along with the curious art of curling. Fitting every day lives into those 17 days of competitions, many non-Olympian homeschoolers also found a gainful way to educate too. Looking back at the Putin-powered Olympics, we’ll celebrate some Olympians who educate at home to keep up with their athletic passions and schedules. The real life homeschooling experiences shared by our Carnival participants also display the distinctiveness of a home educated family life. We’ll keep doing what we do every day, whether it’s surrounded by snow and elite physical training or those of us just taking a nature walk through a park. Enjoy!
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Humor: "Just Don't Go" of Parody of "Let It Go"

My wife came across Just Don't Go:



The weather man did a great job.


For reference here is the original version of Let It Go:



For some reason once I get this song in my head it can take hours, or sometimes even days to get it out of my head.


We also like the Alex Boye version:

Our oldest will be leaving the home soon

Our oldest daughter will be leaving our home in April.

Here are a few of her thoughts about homeschooling and moving out:

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Some months ago I was asked by my dad to write a couple paragraphs about a homeschooler entering the workforce.

Now I have been asked to write on leaving home for the first time. This April I will be leaving home and traveling over halfway across the country. Faced with the tremendous change I have reflected on how being home schooled has prepared me to leave home. I will be echoing much of my workforce post; many of the points are the same. Homeschooling has made me self-driven, self-reliant, and probably more capable in laundry, cooking, and other homemaking skills then the average young adult.

Homeschooling has made me self-driven. One style of home schooling we went through was a weekly checklist. Mom would make up a checklist of all the school things we were supposed to accomplish in a week. Then she trusted us to schedule our own time. From this I learned how to budget time and stay focused.

As homeschoolers we often got to do weird or unusual projects. One year a group of us decided to organize a youth conference. Except for the parents driving us around, none of us could drive; we put the whole thing together ourselves. We held planning meetings, decided on a theme, found speakers, arranged for food, and picked out music all by ourselves. The youth conference was fun and several kids drove a couple hours to attend. This and other opportunities taught me to be self-driven.

One side effect of being home schooled is in your home all the time (except when you are not). When you are home your mom often has you help around the house. I have helped with sick younger siblings, done laundry, cooked, cleaned dishes, been shopping, cleaned more than the average young adult simply because I am home more.

Being home schooled has given me the skills I need to leave home and take care of myself.

Please remember to send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The next Carnival of Homeschooling will be held here at Corn and Oil.

This will be the 426th edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.

As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me.

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The snowman edition

Sarah is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at SmallWorld.  She has some lovely pictures of snowman.

The carnival starts with:

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Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling! I'm glad you're visiting here at SmallWorld at Home. Let me introduce myself for those who are new here. I'm halfway through my 14th year of homeschooling, currently with an 8th grade son and an 11th grade daughter. Our oldest son—who was homeschooled all the way through— is finishing his senior year in college.

But enough about me; you're here for the Carnival! We have a little something for everyone on this homeschooling journey with this carnival, from kindergarten to college. And here in the South we actually some real snow this year, so I'm including lots of snowman photos from fellow local homeschoolers. For some of these kids, this was their first snowman-building experience. Just a few days after our big snow, we have daffodils starting to pop up. Such is life in the South.
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What do we do without technology?

My mom forwarded this story on to our family:

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We had an outage at my place this morning and my PC, laptop, TV, DVD, iPad & my new surround sound music system were all shut down. Then I discovered that my iPhone battery was flat and to top it off it was raining outside. I went into the kitchen to make coffee and then I remembered that this also needs power, so I talked with my wife for a few hours. She seems like a nice person.
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I worry that this may be true for some families.

Homeschooling and my relationship with my neighborhood school

All of my children have been homeschooled and have never been enrolled in a public school k-12 class.  My children did attend a parent participation preschool through the continuing education program, but technically I was the student.   However, I still have had many contacts with the public school over the years.

We’ve had many foster children enrolled in public schools.  I still drop off and pick up two of our former foster boys at school from time to time to help at their parents.

Our son has also received speech therapy at my neighborhood school from the age of 3 to nearly 7 years old.  We would still be receiving speech therapy at the school, but the district found a way to get out it on a technicality, something to do with the fact that we homeschool by registering that we are a private school.   This change in policy was motivated by the recent budget/staffing cuts. The staff at my neighborhood school would love to continue to provide services if the school district would allowed it.

Recently, I requested a full evaluation for my son from my neighborhood school.  The school district is obligated to provide this service even if the child is not enrolled at the school. I found the information in the evaluation very useful and appreciated hearing their recommendations.  In some ways, it was easier for the staff than a typical IEP (independent education plan) meeting.  They could make recommendations but they were not obligated to provide services since he is not enrolled at the school.  Since I was only looking for recommendations, they were able to speak freely.  If I had been interested in enrolling our son in school, the meeting would have been less relaxed since then the school would have been burdened with the legal requirements of their suggestions for the IEP.

The bureaucratic red tape was still pretty amazing.  The special education teacher wanted to indicate that our son qualified for special education service even if he would NOT be receiving services since he is not enrolled at the school.  The school psychologist insisted he didn’t qualify because a child has to fail first before special education services can be offered regardless of how obvious the child’s needs.

I found it interesting how surprised the special education teacher and the school psychologist were  by son's demeanor.  Our son has a significant speech impediment which was characterized in their evaluation as moderately severe.  However, he has no behavior problem or social anxiety.  The report said that he "came to the testing situation willingly and appeared at ease....answered questions when asked and initiated conversation....."  The school psychologist was impressed by how animated he was when he talked and how "adult" his facial expressions seemed.

I explained that he had three teenage sisters that spend a great deal of time with him.  Also, he has never been teased about his speech and there is a teenage boy with Tourettes who attends our homeschool co-op.  Struggling or being different is just normal in his world. They were impressed but still seemed to think that it would be harder for him when he hit the "real' world.  After the meeting was over, it occurred to me what I should have said.  Both the special education teacher and the school psychologists were foreign born and spoke with an accent. One of them had a very heavy accent.  I wish I had asked her when was the last time someone teased her about how she speaks. I doubt it has happened recently.

I sat in on an IEP meeting for one of our former foster children.  The child did not qualify for services under the district rules even though he badly needed accommodations.  A certain staff member talked openly about how she could thwart the district rules by claiming to provide a different service under a different regulation when the intent was to provide the services that had originally been denied. 

I admit that sometimes my interactions with the school have been a little awkward.   I may come across as condescending since there are so many aspects of public schooling that are so broken. Sometimes, the school staff and parents seem overly defensive to me.  I realize that parents and staff alike are trying to make the best of it but I keep wondering why so many people are content to put up with it.   Other times, the roles are reversed and I feel a little defensive when dealing with school staff.  I have gotten that tone of voice that suggests that homeschooling is equivalent to child neglect.

Still, I have really like the school staff that I have worked with over the years.  I especially love the secretaries at my neighborhood school and how they treat me son.  I have noticed many school staff going the extra mile to do what they can in spite of district policies. 

I don’t know how to “fix” public education.  I respect the people who try (as long as they don’t raise my taxes to pay for it.)

We are just going to assume you are a slut

‘Who’s The Daddy?’ Homework Assignment Prompts Parent Complaint is sad on a couple accounts:

First the homework assignment is painting a picture that it is OK to sleep around. 

Second, I am surprised that only one parent complained.

Hat tip: A few from Facebook - Carolyn, Spunky

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - Lincoln’s wisdom edition

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up at HomeschoolBuzz.com.

Gary starts the carnival with:

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Welcome to the Carnival of Homeschooling – Lincoln’s wisdom edition.

Tomorrow (February 12) is Abraham Lincoln’s 149th birthday. He was the 16th President of the United States, only just starting a second term when assassinated in 1865. He remains one of the most influential and beloved figures in US history. Perhaps this was in part because of his wisdom and wit which lives on in his quotes – quotes sprinkled throughout this edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling along with the collected wisdom and humor of this weeks carnival participants.
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Enjoy.

The answer is YES!

Today I’m going to review a few of the reasons why I think more parents should be homeschooling. I believe that 75% of the children in public schools would benefit from being homeschooled and 95% would be no worse off. (How is that for a brash statement?)

Fairly often when the question of homeschooling comes up some parent will wonder if they should homeschool and then list reasons why they don’t think they should or why they couldn’t. I admit it is hard to line up the pluses and minuses. There is no simple algebraic equation will takes a set of inputs and gives a simple one quantity answer. Education is a messy business. There are lots of factors to consider.

There are situations in which some children may be better off by going to public schools. If the parents went through our government schools and graduated functionally illiterate, then maybe the parents couldn’t handle the educational load need to teach their children. Sometimes as a single parent there may not be enough time in the day to hold down a job and to educate your children. And there are a few children with special needs who can benefit from specialists at public schools.

But the academic rigor of government schools has fallen and continues to fall. Homeschooling gives parents a chance to make sure their children have a chance at a decent education.

It seems like half the news articles these days about education will mention bullying. For a variety of reasons our society is a lot more tolerant of bullies than we used to be. Now the victim will suffer for months and years with the bully getting a slap on the hands. As parents we need to protect our children. Sometimes the right thing to do is to yank your child as fast as you can.

People often attack homeschoolers as having missed out on some mystical “socialization” like without government schools children will grow up to socially inept, when the reality is that too often the “Lord of the Flies” environment of public schools are turning out children who have weak social ties and struggle to make connections.

My answer to most people who ask if they should homeschool is an emphatic YES!

Please remember to send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The next Carnival of Homeschooling will be held here at HomeschoolBuzz.com.

This will be the 424rd edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.

As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me.

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up at The Foodie Army Wife

Constance is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at The Foodie Army Wife.

She starts the carnival with:

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Today I am honored to host the 423rd Carnival of Homeschooling. Yes, you read that right. The 423rd. This Carnival was started back in 2006 as a weekly event connecting homeschooling families and sharing with one another. Now that I think about it - that is right about the same time I started blogging, and when we began "homeschooling for good".

A lot has happened in that amount of time...for example.

We've moved 5 times.
Lived in Alaska.
Chased the Northern Lights.
Went through 3 deployments.
And we graduated 2 of our kids.
Some things haven't changed. We still have a school mascot who thinks he needs to "help" with school time.
Though he has gotten a little bit bigger.
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Enjoy!

Watching our children grow up

As our older two daughters grew older they increased their focus. They became more disciplined about staying on top of tasks and managing their time. They were pretty responsible about owning their education.

But our young daughter was often distracted. She seemed to have a harder time staying on task. She might finish an assignment and then take a “short” break which ended up being an hour or two. Our impression was she just wasn’t as responsible about doing her school work as her sisters. Though to be fair part of it may just have been that we were subconsciously comparing her at 10 to her sisters who would then be 14 and 16.

This has changed noticeably this year. Our youngest daughter, at 13, has stepped it up a level or two in being on top of her school work. She is much better about making sure she gets her assignments done. Both Janine and I have noticed the change. She will even do school work in the evening, without any prompting from us! And recently she’s been asking me to help get her out of bed at 7:00 AM so she can get a jump on the day.

She isn’t perfect and still gets distracted at times. But I no longer worry. She is heading in the right direction. She wants to be responsible.

We've long know that some children need extra time for their brains to develop before they start to read.  I really didn't start reading until I was nine or so.   Maybe we just need to relax and realize that some children will mature into young adults at different rates than others.

I’m so glad that homeschooling allows us the chance to work with our children at their pace.

Please remember to send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The next Carnival of Homeschooling will be held here at The Foodie Army Wife.

This will be the 423rd edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.

As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me.

The latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is up: Some Unconsidered Aspects of Physical Training

The latest Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is at Joyous Lessons.

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - the Winter Edition

Monique is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Living Life and Learning.

She starts the carnival with:

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This week I’m hosting the Carnival of homeschooling for the 3rd time. Hooray! I love reading all the entries that I receive and I hope you do as well.
 
I love reading what other homeschoolers are doing so that I can gleam new ideas or solve some of my own problems and get new resources. There’s so many great resources out there and it’s all for free, the problem I have is keeping up with so many blogs.
 
Encouragment
 
We’re getting into the dead and cold of winter, it has been such a cold winter for us here we don’t want to let the kids out. It’s that cold. My dog runs out to use the washroom, and runs right back in. This is my energetic Labrador retriever who would rather play outside than come in. Yes, that’s how cold it is.
 
Which also means that we shouldn’t really have any distractions from homeschooling right? Well, we shouldn’t anyways, but I find myself getting into a homeschooling lull after the holidays so we’re having fun playing board games and enjoying some family time together while the books can wait. Do you get those winter blues after the holidays? Well, perhaps you need some encouragement.
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Are you hesitant to tell people you homeschool?

Last week Gracy Olmstead wrote Why It’s So Hard To Come Out of the Homeschool Closet. She makes the point that as homeschoolers we are often reluctant to tell people that we homeschool our children. It can be hard to stand out as the odd one in a crowd. Gracy is building on posts by a few other people who have recently talked about how parents may be slow to tell others that they have started homeschooling. (Out Of The Homeschooling Closet and Owning Up to Being a Home Schooling Parent)

Thirteen years ago when Janine and I started homeschooling we were a bit cautious about telling people. Partly it was because we were still learning the value of homeschooling. After a couple years we become more comfortable about how the education experiment was going and we were more confident about the value of homeschooling. We could see great benefits to our children, and to the other homeschoolers we hung out with.

Today Janine and I are willing to bring up the topic of homeschooling in a conversation when it is appropriate. Whereas ten years ago we might have tried steering the conversation on to other topics. Now that we have become sold on homeschooling and recognize the many great benefits we have no problem admitting that we are homeschoolers.

I think part of the reason why many people fearful to come out of the homeschool closet is because they are still new to homeschooling. They are still learning the value of homeschooling. My guess is there are very few long time homeschoolers who are shy about owning up to being homeschoolers.

If you are hesitant to admit you homeschool, my advice is to take it easy and don’t worry about it. After another year or two you will have much greater confidence that homeschooling is a viable option.

Reminder - Please submit your post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. The next Carnival of Homeschooling will be held here at Living Life and Learning.

This will be the 422nd edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.

As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me.

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - the Robert E. Lee Edition

Alasandra is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Alasandra's Homeschool Blog.

Alasandra starts the carnival with:

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Robert E Lee was born on January 19, 1807 in Stratford, Virginia. His father, Colonel Henry Lee, also known as "Light-Horse Harry," had served as a cavalry leader during the Revolutionary War and gone on to become one of the war's heroes, winning praise from General George Washington.
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Enjoy!

Teaching our children some of the really important lessons

Over twenty years ago I started using a Franklin planner. The company merged with Stephen Covey’s company to produce the Franklin-Covey system. Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People had a large impact on the approach suggested for using their planner. One of the key components is to really ponder on your most important values and record them. These values help you recognize the various roles you take on in your life. Then as you do your weekly planning you reflect on your values and roles. This helps you focus on the things which are really important to you and helps you not to be distracted by things which seem urgent but are of little worth.

When I first started using this system and the planner I spent several hours pondering on my values and roles. I dutifully recorded them. Life seems to be hectic and unfortunately I get distracted, so I don’t sit down every week, but on average I manage to sit down a couple times a month to reflect on the most important activities in the upcoming days. I’ve found the Franklin-Covey approach a great help in keeping me focused and making sure I am working on what is truly important to me.

I believe having a system like this can help us be much, much more impactful than if we just kind of float along. In addition to teaching our children how to read, do math, know a little bit about history and so on, one of the really vital things we can teach our children is how to organize their lives so they will not flounder but move purposefully forward.

As our children have gotten older Janine and I have encouraged them to step back and make goals. We’ve asked them to take charge of their lives. We’ve worked to give them the tools and techniques to manage themselves. In one sense this may be one of the most important lessons we teach our children.

Is Higher Education doomed?

Michael Staton claims The Degree Is Doomed.  I enjoyed the post.

It starts with:

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The credential — the degree or certificate — has long been the quintessential value proposition of higher education. Americans have embraced degrees with a fervor generally reserved for bologna or hot dogs. Everyone should have them! Many and often! And their perceived value elsewhere in the world — in Asia in particular — is if anything even higher.

From the evaluator’s standpoint, credentials provide signals that allow one to make quick assumptions about a candidate’s potential contribution to an organization and their ability to flourish on the job. To a prospective student (or parent), the value lies in assuming these signals will be accepted in employment markets and other times of social evaluation. These signals have long been known to be imperfect, but they were often the only game in town. Thus, a degree from a top university has been seen to contain crucial information about a person’s skills, networks, and work habits.

Higher education, however, is in the midst of dramatic, disruptive change. It is, to use the language of innovation theorists and practitioners, being unbundled. (Some more of my thoughts on higher-ed unbundling can be found here.) And with that unbundling, the traditional credential is rapidly losing relevance. The value of paper degrees lies in a common agreement to accept them as a proxy for competence and status, and that agreement is less rock solid than the higher education establishment would like to believe.
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Physics has a concept called momentum.  Things will keep going the way they are going unless there are significant forces.  I can see reasons why the college degree may lose its value, but I don't think it will happen over night, and it maybe that only some degrees lose their value.