notes from the homeschooling handbook
the homeschooling handbook
by mary griffith
in general, a really good overview with lots of resources.
ch. 3: structure, or can we wear our pajamas to school?
unit studies: “Basically, the idea is to use soe topic of interest as a jumping-off poit for a complete unit of study…A good dinosaur unit study might include vocabulary and spelling words, math activities (figuring out sizes of dinosaurs relative to your house, perhaps), geology, biology, art (drawing or sculpting dinosaurs), and many other traditional school subjects all woven around the central topic of dinosaurs.” [p. 57]
unschooling:
“Unschooling parents become experts at helping their children find resources for learning what they want to know….
“I search out all manner of things I think my children might be interested in and leave them where they are accessible…Where I do have hopes or expectations for what they will learn, I try to make sure they see me putting that kind of knowledge to use…
“I think it is really important for the parents or at least the homeschooling parent to set an example of interested learning. I can’t imagine expecting my kids to become interested and active in a wide variety of activities if I didn’t have a life. It also give them the freedom to seek their own paths because I am not on top of them all the time — I am pursuing my own interests. Homeschooling can be very liberating to everyone in the family and can become a way of life that will not necessarily change when the kids move out.” [p .61]
school calendars:”Where homeschooling regulations require 180 days of instruction…or whatever the relevant statute demands, they make their school year the length of time necessary to meet that legal minimum. During that portion of the year, the family is careful about recording all learning activities properly, with everything neatly categorized…Once the statutory minimum is reached, the family simply quits keeping the ‘official’ records and goes on homeschooling accoring to their own interests and plans rather than the state’s.” [p.64]
ch. 5: money and other practical matters
“Public school distance learning programs are rapidly becoming more available. Eugene, Oregon-based Cyberschool offers hight school credit courses worldwide over the Internet in a variety of subject areas.” [p.86]
books and newletters on frugal living: Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn, the Cheapskate Monthly, and the Frugal Corner [p.88]
ch. 6: the primary years
“What Your [Kindergartner/1st-5th Grader] Needs to Know” series
by E.D. Hirsch Jr
Peterson Field Guides - http://houghtonmifflinbooks.com/peterson/
natural science reference books for child through adults
Cuisenaire - http://www.etacuisenaire.com/
Educational manipulatives & supplemental materials for grades PreK-12 in math, reading, science and early childhood
an idea: reading books about real families, e.g. the Little House, Little Britches series by Ralph Moody, and Redwall series.
ch. 7: the middle years: exploring the world
Greenleaf Press - http://www.greenleafpress.com/
“Resources for parents and children on Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, & Modern History, Literature & Art. The ORIGINAL (and still the best) resource for teaching history chronologically. History & Biographies for Children. History, Literature, & Art presented in a Christian, biblical worldview.”
“Whatever your approach, it’s important to keep your focus on your children and what works best for them, whether it fits into that favored methodology or not…It’s far easier and far more effective to tailor your tools and techniques to your children than try to force your child to adapt to unsuitable tools.” [p.108]
“My experience so far with the others shows that kids are eager to be a part of the adult world and will learn to write, read, and calculate if they see those skills used around them. So I think out load a lot and do things like taxes, writing letters, going over the budget, whatever, when they are around instead of after everyone is asleep. I don’t sit down and give a ‘lesson,’ but I don’t hide the workings of adult life, either.” [p.117]
“Usually the adult work world is separated from family life. Mom and Dad go to work outside of the home while the children attend school. I choose to work with my children in tow, and even though it is hard, it is worth it. My children humanize my business. They are constant reminders of my priorities: love, family, and work. I am there when they need me, and we are always working toward a more harmonious and loving family.” [p.119]
“Some suggestions for making informal mentorships and apprenticeships work:
- Make sure your child is genuinely interested in pursuing a mentoring arrangement and that he has a clear idea of what he would like to do…
- A younger child may need you to make the initial contact for her…Use all your friends, neighbors, and relatives to help…It’s always easier to start with a referral…
- Be very clear about the terms of any arrangement, and make sure they are fair to both parties…decide what the responsibilities of each party will be and how uch time will be expected. You may decide on a limited trial period, subject to renewal by both parties, or you may opt to let the arrangement run for as long as the parties are happy with it.
- If the situation works out, you may want to ask the mentor to write a short description of the work your child has done or the skills and knowledge your child has gained. (With older childrn, you may want it to take the form of a letter recommendation.) some kind of formal record of the experience can be helpful in finding future mentors or in completing job or college applications.” [p.120-121]
ch. 8 the teen years: finding a direction
educational television: ITV and PBS
finishing early:”…homeschooled teens often finish their secondary-level work and are ready to move on to something more challenging by fifteen or so. Because most states compel school attendance until at least age sixteen and often until eighteen, you’ll need to check carefully into your state’s regulations about graduation and diplomas.” [p.132]
licenses and permits: “When your teen gets a job (other than casual employment such as baby-sitting and lawn mowing), you’ll also need to look into work permits.” [p.133]
ch. 9: evaluation and record keeping, or how do we know they’re learning?
“Our evaluation process is simply being aware of her strengths and weaknesses, supporting her desire and ability to learn, and giving extra attention to areas we think might need extra attention. Our goal in all this is not to intimidate or demean her, but rather to reinforce her natural desire to explore living in the world successfully.” [p.139]
portfolios: an “authentic assessment [that] provides a means of looking directly at students’ work as evidence of understanding and mastery of material. Portfolios are simply collections of student work designed to present a reasonably accurate picture of the student’s accomplishments.” [p.142]
standardized testing: “Many homeschooling families decide that standardized tests are the least intrusive and easiest method of evaluation their state allows…families may choose to have their children tested at regular intervals as a means of assuring themselves (or their relatives) that they are ‘keeping up’ with conventionally schooled students. Others simply believe that, because standardized testing has become such a widely used tool by schools and employers, it’s best to get their kids use to taking such tests…” [p.150] some examples: Stanford Achievement Test and Iowa Test of Basic Skills
“Criterion-referenced tests attempt to measure whether a student has mastered specific material. They measure a student’s knowledge against a specific body of knowledge determined by test makers. Norm-referenced tests compare each child’s test performance with the performance of a group of students who have already taken the test. Such tests are designed to produce results along a classic bell curve, with most individuals scoring near the middle, buthave above and half below the median.” [p.152]
ch. 10: finding learning resources
besides local public libraries, “Don’t forget college and university libraries in your area…” [p.159]
community resources: “Homeschoolers involve themselves, with various community resources on several different lives: First, and most common, is simply making use of services offered — for instance, taking a class at a museum or buying a product from a local business. Next, …arrange to visit a local factory to see how furniture is made or take a tour of the local blood bank to learn how it works. Individual homeschoolers may work as volunteers or apprentices within the community, often finding such opportunities after exploring many options. Finally, some facilities may in turn provide services for homeschoolers after they’ve had experience with homeschoolers working as volunteers for them.” [p.160]
museums and other cultural instititutions: “…environmental history programs (ELPs), know more familiarly as living history programs…[with] docents acting the parts of residents of the exhibited site and period.” [p.163]
Bizarre Stuff You Can Make in Your Kitchen - http://www.bizarrelabs.com/
“A large collection of classic home science experiments with illustrations.”
ch. 13: special circumstances
“…what most professionals to is no different from what an observant, caring parent does,mostly modeling whatever skill they are trying to ‘teach’ and trying different approaches until one works. With a lot of patience and a little research and a lot more patience, you can do it, too.” [p.222]
ch. 14: beyond homeschooling
“The typical high school senior is a very busy person. In additions to keeping up with her final high school courses and perhaps a part-time job, she spends most of the autumn taking admissions tests for college… Before she notices, graduation is past…and she’s off to college. As she becomes accustomed to living on her own, making her own schedule, and choosing her, she realizes that she never really considered why she is going to college and finds herself wondering what on earth she is going to do with the rest of her life.
“It’s a pretty familiar scenario to many of us who…go off to college with the sneaking suspicion that going off to college is the only thing we’re really qualified to do. Most secondary schools simply are not very good at helping students evaluate their strenghts and interests and decide what they want to spend their lives working at…
“…Even the most formal, structured homeschool curriculum leaves teens with plenty of time that they can decide for themselves how to spend. Many homeschoolers end up being just as busy as their schooled counterparts, but they have more control over what they do with their time…They begin to get a feel for the possibiliteis of life as adults while they still have support fro home. With the experience of doing real, useful work, homeschoolers can be both more realistic and more optimistic about their options than their schooled peers.
“Homeschoolers alsohave another big advantage as they consider their future. Simply by being homeschoolers, they free themselves from some of those automatic assumptions about college and jobs. They don’t assume that college is their only acceptable option, and they investigate all kinds of possibilities most high school graduates never consider.” [p.230-231]
interesting resources cited
oak meadow school - http://www.oakmeadow.com/
author describes it as a relatively inexpensive “less structured private program” [p.85]
from the web site:
“international accredited distance learning school…”
“…homeschooling courses for parents and children, based upon the same philosophy that had worked successfully in the day school. Our homeschooling approach was simple and natural, but it proved to be very effective: give children a safe, nurturing environment, creative activities for head, hands, and heart, lots of appreciation and time to unfold naturally.”
clonlara school - http://www.clonlara.org/
“…extremely flexible with its services and specializes in helping unschooling families with its Home Based Education Program (HBEP).” [p.85]
from web site:
“…innovative, private school serving 5 through 18 years old students in Ann Arbor. Clonlara School is accredited by the National Private School Accreditation Alliance.
Students who enroll in Clonlara School have the best of both worlds: Home education and private school enrollment.”
along with a curriculum the high school age student can get a formal transcript and diploma.
saxon curriculum - http://saxonpublishers.harcourtachieve.com/
math, reading and phonics and spelling curriculum
key curriculum - http://www.keypress.com/
“innovators in mathematics education”
SRA instructional products - http://www.sraonline.com/
“…preschool to 8th grade products for reading, phonics, Direct Instruction, language arts, mathematics, science, art, social studies, test preparation, world languages and early childhood instruction. SRA/McGraw-Hill is a division of McGraw-Hill Education, the largest pre-K through 12 educational publisher in the nation, and a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.”
Homeschool World - http://www.home-school.com/
the offical web site of Practical Homeschooling magazine
Home Education Magazine - homeedmag.com
” Home Education Magazine is the oldest, most respected, and most informative homeschooling magazine, available via subscription and in libraries and bookstores nationwide.
Founded by a homeschooling family in 1983 and still published by those founders, every issue includes 8-10 feature articles which address the interests and the concerns of homeschooling parents.”
Family Unschoolers Network (F.U.N.) or FUN Books
“The Family Unschoolers Network promotes the belief that learning can be fun for the whole family. Our primary purpose in unschooling is to keep alive the spark of curiosity and the natural love of learning with which all children are born. We want our children to accept learning as a natural part of living, and an ongoing process that continues throughout life. We want their learning to remain an integrated process in which all subjects are interrelated. We also want to allow them the time to pursue a subject as fully as they want, rather than imposing artificial time constraints on them. We believe these aspects of learning are limited by the traditional implementation of a curriculum, and we choose to homeschool as a way to circumvent those limitations.”
Muslim Homeschool Network & Resource - http://www.muslimhomeschool.com/
“First, to provide the Muslim home schooling community with as many choices and resources as possible.
Second, to create and maintain networking resources for Muslim home schooling families. No matter where a Muslim home schooling family resides, we want to insure that they never feel alone.”
Moore Fondation - http://www.moorefoundation.com/
“Hand in hand with homeschooling parents providing individualized curriculum, educational materials, and unit studies for Homeschool along with aid in learning disabilities, and gifted education…
“High success comes when close individual attention is paid to the needs of the student, following their interests and allowing them to mature at their own rate, with emphasis on work (for pay), and service (in the home and in the community) with these non-academic learning opportunities receiving equal time to book learning. As the children learn to be diligent in their work application, it has been demonstrated that this diligence caries over into their academic performance as well as they mature.”
Konos Curriculum - http://www.konos.com/
“Unit study curriculum based on character traits”
Edmund Scientific - http://scientificsonline.com/
“…catalog of science goodies still has kids pouring over it covetously.”
Garlic Press - http://www.garlicpress.com
“…publishes the Straight Forward Math Series.”
“…sign language, math, English, or literature…”
The Drinking Gourd: Multicultural Home Education Magazine
E-mail: TDrinkingGrd[at]aol[dot]com
Multicultural magazine specializing in math and science information; includes catalog of software.
books
John Holt and Growing Without Schooling - http://www.holtgws.com
Deschooling Our Lives
by Matt Hern
“…a solid and readable overview of alternatives to conventional education”
In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child’s Personal Learning Style
by Thomas Armstrong
“…suggestions are based on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.”
You Are Your Child’s First Teacher
by Rahima Baldwin
“…Waldorf-inspired view of child development is one of the more readily available books on Rudolf Steiner’s approach to teaching children.”
Trust the Children: An Activity Guide for Homeschooling and Alternative Learning
by Anna Kealoha
“…an impressive collection of activities in music, math, art, language, logic, nature, and more…”
Good Stuff: Learning Tools for All Ages
by Rebecca Rupp
“…a terrific collection of recommendations for books, games, tapes, catalogs, and more, all sorted by subject area…especially useful to unschoolers and others looking for innovated learning tools.”
college admissions and life after homeschooling
And What About College: How Homescholling Leads to Admissions to the Best Colleges and Universities
by Cafi Cohen
“…documenting a homeschool eduction, researching and choosing colleges, and preparing the application package.”
Un-Jobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook
by Michael Fogler
“…ideas for making a life instead of merely making a living.”
The Independent Scholar’s Handbook
by Ronald Gross
“…guidance and advice for becoming an expert in any field by working independently of classes and institutions.”
humanities & arts
Audio Forum - http://www.audioforum.com
“Extensive selection of foreign language audiotapes…”
Boomerang! The Children’s Audio Magazine About Big Ideas - http://www.boomkids.com/
“Something like a monthly 70 minuts of NPR for kids: news, features, stories, jokes, and more…Apparently irresistable to kids.” for ages 6-12
Cricket Magazine - http://www.cricketmag.com/
“Great literary magazines for kids at various reading levels, with stories, games, and other activities.”
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