Not Another Homeschool Blog

Oh yeah, that's why I homeschool

Looking at my 6'2" 17 year old homeschooled senior, I got a big nostalgic today. I went back to the beginnings of my homeschool blog and started reading. This post reminded me of when homeschooling started looking like a good idea.

I homeschool because I got mad!

When I look back at the reasons I decided to homeschool my kids, I still get pretty angry. I first heard of homeschooling when my son was only a few months old. My husband came home and suggested that we homeschool our kids. A colleague of his was doing it with pretty good results. I wasn't happy to say the least. Nor was I kind...

read more Here: http://nfahm.blogspot.com/2005/12/i-homeschool-because-i-got-mad.html

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Homeschool Resource Meme!

I've been not exactly tagged by Happy Elf Mom! Ready? Here goes:

1. One homeschooling book you have enjoyed: The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. It was used heavily in the first few years of homeschooling and is now still a constant resource for checking facts and brushing up on history.

2. One resource you wouldn't be without: a computer. Like Happy Elf Mom, it has been my single most important piece of equipment for homeschooling and beyond. It has allowed me to work while homeschooling. It has allowed my kids to homeschool more independently, and it has provided a plethora of free online resources.

3. One resource you wish you had never bought: Language arts books by Stobaugh such as American Literature Teacher Text: Encouraging Thoughtful Christians to be World changers (Broadman & Holman Literature) They are more Christian World View books than language arts. That's great if it is what you want, but it is overkill and takes far too long to complete a lesson. If your child goes to church and/or takes Christian instruction in other forms, this is not necessary. Because I started writing in the books, I didn't feel I could sell them, so I used them as a guide instead of a curriculum.

4. One resource you enjoyed last year: Hippocampus.org. It helped my kids study history and science independently of me and each other, which they really appreciated. I just wish they had created more subject guides. We could use language arts, biology, and chemistry!

5. One resource you will be using this year: So I took a plunge and decided to try out Georgia Virtual School to get my kids used to dealing with teachers before college. What was I thinking? They already take classes for all of their arts and electives. I think the program is harder on me than on them because I don't want them to mess up their GPAs, and this online school gives very little wiggle room on handing in assignments and the learning schedule is quite strict. But if they can hang in there, they will be able to deal with even the most demanding of teachers in college. Don't know if we are going to do this for semester 2 yet, but my daughter insists she is learning so much more this way, even if her grade doesn't show it.

6. One resource you would like to buy: IPads. No, we don't need them, we just want them. I feel like school would be more portable, even more portable than with laptops. I could experiment more with different online resources and learning games, and we could get rid of a lot of paper around the house.... I think.

7. One resource you wish existed: I wish there was a Time4Learning for big kids.... past middle school. I think it is an excellent way to learn and frees up time for other activities.

8. One homeschool catalog you enjoy reading: The IKEA catalog. Wait, that's not for homeschooling.... But it is for organizing. So, that's my choice and I'm sticking to it.

9. One homeschool website you use regularly : KhanAcademy.org Great for drilling and refreshing math skills.

10. Tag six other homeschoolers: Ummm... Happy Elf Mom didn't tag anyone, so why should I. If this looks like fun, just go for it. Enjoy, and let me know if you do this un-tagged post.

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Visit the CitySchooling Blog

If I could change one thing about our homeschooling journey, we would be doing it in NY where I was raised.... or I would at least like to think so. I am so jealous of this blogger at the cityschooling blog.

But then if I had never left NY, so many things would be different. I may have never married my sweetheart who has dragged me all over the country. I would have never seen education, or the lack of from so many different views. I may have put my kids in the same Catholic Schools I went to and have been satisfied with it. So, while I don't like to have regrets, I do wish my kids had had a city experience like I had. But we are probably exactly where we need to be.

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Homeschool Transcript Happy Dance

Just spoke to the people at my son's top choice college. They got his homeschool transcript and they like it. They really, really liked it.

Since they have rolling admissions, my son just needs to send a few more items and he will then know in 2 weeks time if he is accepted. It will feel great not to stress about college for an entire school year.

I will share more of the transcript process when I know that the process has been completely successful.

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Favorite homeschool websites

Enjoy this video/slideshow of our very favorite homeschooling websites for high school students. And they're free.

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Big Changes in GA High Schools

This is interesting

Georgia wants to overhaul its high school curriculum, making it more like college with courses tailored to what students want to do after they graduate.

#Under the proposed plan, students would choose a "career cluster" that would lead them through the classes they need to either go on to a two-year or four-year college or to go straight into a job. The plan — which is expected to be taken up by the state Board of Education sometime this fall — would unravel the single-track approach instituted by former state schools Superintendent Kathy Cox that assumed every student was going to college.

I find this interesting because GA has changed it's high school curriculum just a few years ago, making high school so stringent that students not aiming for college would have no choice but to drop out. I was wondering how long it would take to notice. I am not against stringent high school programs, but the past few years have been overkill.

Not that I am exactly crazy about the new course of action either, but it's at least more realistic.

Under Georgia's plan, students would take the same general core of classes with basics like algebra, English and history. At the end of their sophomore year, students would choose a cluster to determine what advanced classes they take.

#For example, a student in the health sciences career cluster wanting to be a certified nursing assistant would take nutrition and wellness, chemistry and physical science — and go straight into a job after graduation. A student wanting to be a doctor would take Advanced Placement biology, physics and biotechnology and go to a four-year college.

This is being billed as making high school more like college in GA. I don't see that, but I am curious to see where this is all going.

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Georgia Virtual School Drama

Every other Friday night when assignments are due, I find myself cyber stalking my kids accounts to make sure their courses are entered. If they are late, they will lose 10 points a day.

Daughter forgot one test completely, so I sent her to do it. When she was done, the score had not calculated, when it finally did she had a low grade. Fortunately, it was just one of several quizzes this week. My problem is that we could not access the site for a couple of hours today, so I don't know if the site was still having problems, or if she did not know the material. I have been on the internet for enough years to know how software glitches work.
(I made a note in her notebook about the site being down, just so that when final grades are issued, I can compare my notes to her grades to see if there is a pattern. If there is, I will adjust accordingly.)

Speaking of the site being down for a couple of hours, my son announced that all of his work was complete. So why is he downstairs right now just a few hours from deadline entering again? I have no idea. He was able to prove to me that he did the work. Could it be because of access problems with the site earlier today?

Don't know that I can blame it on Ga Virtual School though since our internet provider SUCKS! Take that Charter. We went for two days last week without access.... that didn't help get any school work done. However, I could get to other sites today, just not the online classes.

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