Not Another Homeschool Blog

Georgia third-graders needed to answer correctly fewer than half the questions on the state's reading test to be promoted to fourth grade, educators disclosed Tuesday. The "cut score" — the number of correct responses needed to pass — was 17 of 40 questions, or 42.5 percent. story here: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0604/30stateboe.html  

Georgia third-graders needed to answer correctly fewer than half the questions on the state's reading test to be promoted to fourth grade, educators disclosed Tuesday. The "cut score" — the number of correct responses needed to pass — was 17 of 40 questions, or 42.5 percent. story here: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0604/30stateboe.html  

Since it has been raining almost nonstop for the past two or 3 weeks, I have allowed my children unlimited access to educational channels on the TV. They like to keep it on Animal Planet. Here is what they have learned 1. How babies are born (from watching dogs and horses etc, have babies) 2. care of animals and not to abuse them 3. Consequences of not being careful with animals (from watching the emergency animal hospital show) 4. Countless info on veterinary medicine (they have the stomach to watch the goriest things) 5. About life and death. I never could have taught these things to them on my own.

... and parents are ready to send them back. Won't you be glad when school starts back?  That question was asked of me twice today. The first time it was my well meaning, young, with no kids chirpractor who could tell they were stressing me because he had his hands on my neck while the children were slapping each other.  I replied " you didn't read my t-shirt?" it is t-shirt I designed atcafe press.com .  He stepped back and looked down and said "ooooohhhh! Never mind!"  and mentioned that a great deal of his families homeschooled.  He just didn't know I did too.  We laughed it off. An hour later my kids and I were at the checkout waiting for my reciept as the darn register had jammed and they had to go to the office to get me a copy.  My kids are still slapping each other... and I bark "stop"!  A lady walks over to me and says won't you be glad your when school starts back.  I just look at her as I am on the phone with my bank to mak...

I just found this article about a teen in Montana who initiated her homeschooling career. "Sixteen-year-old Beth Gates of Manhattan, Montana is one such trailblazer. Before beginning her high school years, Beth decided - with her parents' blessing - to retire from public school. The modern school culture, after all, can be a social rat race. "I was tired of the cliques, the gossip, the drugs, and the drinking," says Beth of the decision to become a homeschooler. She has even coined a phrase for these adolescent distractions: "the drama." My son at the age of 8 made a similar decision.  When he found out I planned to homeschool his sister, he said to me..." If she's not going back to school, there is no way I'm going back to that place". 

It seems to me that homeschoolers are always on the defense. We have to answer as to why our kids are not in schools when other kids are. We have to explain and prove to relatives that our children are not being neglected and that they are actually learning. We have to show statistics of homeschoolers standardized tests vs public schoolers. We have to give lists of outside activities to prove our children are "social" if not "socialized" Actually, no one holds a gun to our heads and makes us explain any of these things, but we always feel like we need to, don't we. Personally, every time I do a virtual mind dump about homeschooling in order to get someone's approval, I feel like a great big idiot, and I seldom get the response I want anyway. So why do I do it? Why??? We homeschool... period. No one has the right to demand proof from us as to what or why we are doing it... not our relatives, not our friends, and most especially not ...

That title isn't meant to reflect my sign, although I am a Gemini.  It is more to reflect where I am right now with my homeschool philosophy.  On one hand I treasure the unschooling movement and ideals with unschooling means interest-led or child-led learning but on the other hand, classical homeschooling also tugs at my heart.  Classical education is described here:  The "classical" method began in the Middle Ages and was the approach used by some of the greatest minds in history. The goal of the classical approach is to teach people how to learn for themselves. The five tools of learning, known as the Trivium, are reason, record, research, relate, and rhetoric. Younger children begin with the preparing stage, where they learn basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. The grammar stage is next, which emphasizes compositions and collections, and then the dialectic stage, where serious reading, study, and research take place. http://www.homeschool.com/Appro...