October 11 was International Day of the Girl. I am sorry it got past me. I had never heard of it before. In Oct 11, CNN profiled the International girl day movement and featured what girls think about education and their future.
The article made me think of the Muslim girl, who the Taliban put a hit on, and how much more important education seems to be to people who can't get it compared to those of use who seem to take it for granted. Then I started thinking about the education of girls... more specifically, homeschool girls.
A blogger friend recently commented on a blog about me not seeming like "one of those
College visit recap
So I took my daughter, a 16 year old, homeschooled senior, to Wesleyan College, a school she'd been looking at for a few years, this past weekend.... Actually, it was Sunday and Monday.
Three of the four schools she has applied to have been women's colleges (and I think I'll discuss that later), and each college has a different draw for her. The ideal school would be a smash-up of the three. The thing she likes the most about this school is it's personality. I.e. the way the people just... are. The kind of people it attracts. The women of Wesleyan College from an outsiders perspective seem to be, fierce and independent, with a wicked sense of humor, and tons of love and guidance. My daughter fits into this demographic well. If we would take this college, and sit it in the geographical location one of the others, and the theater reputation of the third, they would have her deposit and this conversation would be over. Based on the draw of the other two colleges, her excitement for this school had sank to the bottom of her list to the point that she began to sulk about the visit, but once she
Three of the four schools she has applied to have been women's colleges (and I think I'll discuss that later), and each college has a different draw for her. The ideal school would be a smash-up of the three. The thing she likes the most about this school is it's personality. I.e. the way the people just... are. The kind of people it attracts. The women of Wesleyan College from an outsiders perspective seem to be, fierce and independent, with a wicked sense of humor, and tons of love and guidance. My daughter fits into this demographic well. If we would take this college, and sit it in the geographical location one of the others, and the theater reputation of the third, they would have her deposit and this conversation would be over. Based on the draw of the other two colleges, her excitement for this school had sank to the bottom of her list to the point that she began to sulk about the visit, but once she
Homeschooling with humor
Let's face it. Our kids are going to get on our last nerve. We are also going to get under their skin.
I love it when traditional school parents say things like, "I could never homeschool my kid, I don't have the patience, temperament, etc". All I could think is, "I don't have those things either"... yet I homeschool.
How do I do it?
With humor.
Here are some examples:
Child is in the middle of a melt down on the floor (this could be at home, or in a store). You stop, bend down, pat them on the head two or three times, and nonchalantly say "you're gonna be ok". Make sure your sarcasm is dripping. Then walk away. They won't have any choice but to stop.
When your kid is telling you what he will or won't do, tell him it is completely up to him. He can
I love it when traditional school parents say things like, "I could never homeschool my kid, I don't have the patience, temperament, etc". All I could think is, "I don't have those things either"... yet I homeschool.
How do I do it?
With humor.
Here are some examples:
Child is in the middle of a melt down on the floor (this could be at home, or in a store). You stop, bend down, pat them on the head two or three times, and nonchalantly say "you're gonna be ok". Make sure your sarcasm is dripping. Then walk away. They won't have any choice but to stop.
When your kid is telling you what he will or won't do, tell him it is completely up to him. He can
Kris Kardashian Jenner against homeschooling?
Not that it matters to any homeschoolers I know, but I am sitting in a hotel room flipping channels and came across the Kardashian's show.
The two younger girls are apparently doing some modeling and such and said they were behind in school. They asked their mom ( again) if thy could be homeschooled and she forbade it and said that she wanted them to have the typical highschool experience.
But here's the deal. Typical high school students aren't also models. If they are going to be models and travel as much as they do then they need to be homeschooled. If school is going to come first and they can't be homeschooled then they shod quit modeling or at least save it for summer vacations. Period.
I think Kris is being ridiculous.....errrr. I take that back.
Edit... Update... Spoke too soon. They hired a homeschool teacher service. Should have known if they brought it up they would resolve it one way or another.
The two younger girls are apparently doing some modeling and such and said they were behind in school. They asked their mom ( again) if thy could be homeschooled and she forbade it and said that she wanted them to have the typical highschool experience.
But here's the deal. Typical high school students aren't also models. If they are going to be models and travel as much as they do then they need to be homeschooled. If school is going to come first and they can't be homeschooled then they shod quit modeling or at least save it for summer vacations. Period.
I think Kris is being ridiculous.....errrr. I take that back.
Edit... Update... Spoke too soon. They hired a homeschool teacher service. Should have known if they brought it up they would resolve it one way or another.
From Homeschool to Online School to College (Guest Post)
I am off to a college visit with my daughter. Thought this was a good time to leave you with a pretty informative guest post I've been holding onto. Enjoy.
Notes From a Homeschooled Mom has before written about what it takes to prepare homeschooled students for college, and for getting the jobs they ultimately want. Estelle Shumann builds upon this conversation with the following blog post, which talks about how the technological advances in education (especially online education) help homeschooled students with college preparedness in a way never before thought possible. Estelle writes at http://www.onlineschools.org, a website dedicated to online education.
From Homeschool to Online School to College: Technological Advances Prepare Students for the University
As technology has encroached into seemingly every facet of modern life in recent years, the nature of homeschooling has changed as well. In the past five years, online education programs have gone from a strange niche to a mainstream multi-billion dollar industry. As the technology facilitating online
Getting them to learn independently
I recently wrote about 5 homeschool battles I have stopped fighting. One of these battles was trying to teach teenagers. I mentioned that it was important to teach them a love of learning before they turned 13, because if you did, they would take over their own instruction.
Since I received a request for more information on this point, I thought I would oblige.
Developing a love for learning is a wonderful thing. It means that your kids can't wait to open their books when they get up in the morning, and are avid researchers who like to report their findings back to you. I think the key is not so much to develop this love for learning but to not squash it. Children are naturally curious and enthusiastic learners. We as adults then to have them put aside what they want to learn in order to steer them toward what we think they should learn. This makes them begin to resent learning and they will rebel against it.
Of course, not all of us want to be unschoolers allowing the children to lead their own education. There are things we feel they should learn, and it is our job to make sure they learn it. But we can find compromise and balance that will get us what we want and give them what they want.
For my own children, what I did was have them learn from my checklist in the morning, and after lunch, gave them 3 to 4 uninterrupted hours to explore their own interests. They taught themselves to cook. They played games. They researched random things on the internet. They read voraciously, and my son taught himself to build computer and create websites... all this happened before the age of 13.
By allowing them to learn on their own, and observing how they learn, I was better able to formulate their high school curriculum to fit how they seemed to learn and their interests. I was able to gather their curriculum, and create a syllabus with daily checklists so they stayed on task. They were allowed to move faster if they pleased. They were allowed to slow down if they needed it as well, and they were encouraged to ask me for help. They rarely did. I also allowed them (within reason) to let me know when something wasn't working, and we would find another approach to learning the subject matter we were attempting.
For the most part, this really worked. I let them explore in their younger years to make them eager learners, and they rewarded me by continuing to be eager learners. However, we did have our hiccups. Sometimes they would proverbially pat me on my head and say "sure mom, I'll get you that term paper right away", or they would just try to skip over whole chapters because they found it boring. It was my job then to push back, and offer consequences and rewards as appropriate to get the work done.
In addition to the philosophy that I have laid out above, I also kept a bag of one-liners that I used to encourage them and/or keep them in check.
~ Only boring people get bored. Find the excitement in it.
~ The only person who will get hurt by you not trying your hardest is you.
~ I already graduated high school and went to college. If you take my advice, you can do it too.
~Do I look like Google? Look it up.
~You are awesome
~I love you.
I hope that helped. if this needs any more explaining, please ask. Sometimes I assume that you already know the stuff that is in my head.
FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com
Since I received a request for more information on this point, I thought I would oblige.
Developing a love for learning is a wonderful thing. It means that your kids can't wait to open their books when they get up in the morning, and are avid researchers who like to report their findings back to you. I think the key is not so much to develop this love for learning but to not squash it. Children are naturally curious and enthusiastic learners. We as adults then to have them put aside what they want to learn in order to steer them toward what we think they should learn. This makes them begin to resent learning and they will rebel against it.
Of course, not all of us want to be unschoolers allowing the children to lead their own education. There are things we feel they should learn, and it is our job to make sure they learn it. But we can find compromise and balance that will get us what we want and give them what they want.
For my own children, what I did was have them learn from my checklist in the morning, and after lunch, gave them 3 to 4 uninterrupted hours to explore their own interests. They taught themselves to cook. They played games. They researched random things on the internet. They read voraciously, and my son taught himself to build computer and create websites... all this happened before the age of 13.
By allowing them to learn on their own, and observing how they learn, I was better able to formulate their high school curriculum to fit how they seemed to learn and their interests. I was able to gather their curriculum, and create a syllabus with daily checklists so they stayed on task. They were allowed to move faster if they pleased. They were allowed to slow down if they needed it as well, and they were encouraged to ask me for help. They rarely did. I also allowed them (within reason) to let me know when something wasn't working, and we would find another approach to learning the subject matter we were attempting.
For the most part, this really worked. I let them explore in their younger years to make them eager learners, and they rewarded me by continuing to be eager learners. However, we did have our hiccups. Sometimes they would proverbially pat me on my head and say "sure mom, I'll get you that term paper right away", or they would just try to skip over whole chapters because they found it boring. It was my job then to push back, and offer consequences and rewards as appropriate to get the work done.
In addition to the philosophy that I have laid out above, I also kept a bag of one-liners that I used to encourage them and/or keep them in check.
~ Only boring people get bored. Find the excitement in it.
~ The only person who will get hurt by you not trying your hardest is you.
~ I already graduated high school and went to college. If you take my advice, you can do it too.
~Do I look like Google? Look it up.
~You are awesome
~I love you.
I hope that helped. if this needs any more explaining, please ask. Sometimes I assume that you already know the stuff that is in my head.
FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com
Remember when travel was fun?
I spent two hours today trying to find an inexpensive but quality hotel for Sunday night so I could take my daughter on her preview weekend and theater audition for one of her college choices. It was exhausting. The college is in a bit of a rural area and it was difficult to find a local hotel. Then the ones I found had sketchy reviews, and that made me nervous. I finally found one recommended by the college and payed a little more than I wanted in hopes that I could avoid spiders and bedbugs.
Do you remember when travel was secure? You'd call a travel agent, or go through the phonebook and call a few hotels for quotes, then you would book your trip on nothing more than a verbal handshake. I don't remember every having a bad experience, I think it was because the travel agent knew you were coming back to visit them if anything bad happened on your trip.
Do you remember when travel was affordable? Even 15 years ago, in the early days of internet travel websites, I could book flights to Las Vegas or LA for a decent price, and still have money left over for your rental car and hotel. Now, I can barely afford the gas to drive two hours and have one overnight
Do you remember when travel was secure? You'd call a travel agent, or go through the phonebook and call a few hotels for quotes, then you would book your trip on nothing more than a verbal handshake. I don't remember every having a bad experience, I think it was because the travel agent knew you were coming back to visit them if anything bad happened on your trip.
Do you remember when travel was affordable? Even 15 years ago, in the early days of internet travel websites, I could book flights to Las Vegas or LA for a decent price, and still have money left over for your rental car and hotel. Now, I can barely afford the gas to drive two hours and have one overnight
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12 grade year of homeschooling, Finishing Strong
We are almost done with my college prep series. There will still be a video on completing the transcript. Stay tuned... meanwhile, ...
