HS Comments on the Fly

A positive article from what looks like North Dakota was published yesterday. An excerpt for your reading pleasure:

Kenan, 8, takes a break from the piano to whoosh down the second-floor stairs on a cardboard-and-comforter sled.

Ah … doesn’t that bring back fond memories of stairs sledding in your own home?

Who would revive society if everything collapsed? Homeschoolers….

Yeah, probably not.

But if you enjoy fantasies, you’ll want to read about how the Homers got it right.

Here are my three favorites because I am just so sure you are dying to know:

We don’t look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they’re in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we’re doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

Don’t ask my kid if she wouldn’t rather go to school unless you don’t mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn’t rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

Stop assuming that because the word “home” is right there in “homeschool,” we never leave the house. We’re the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it’s crowded and icky.

Honorable Mention goes to:

If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you’re allowed to ask how we’ll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can’t, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn’t possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

You too can read The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List.

I know I have mentioned the Burns family before, but this bears repeating.

The Burns family is about to leave San Diego for their run to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. They hope to circumnavigate the globe, so it will be fun watching. If you are in need of a world geography project for your homeschool, this could be it.

To catch you up, they left Alaska a few months ago on their Catalina 36. It is a 36-foot sailboat with one mast. I have no idea which model or year they own, but here are some photos of a similar boat’s interior. A 36-foot boat can only have so many configurations. Can’t you just imagine homeschooling in there?

Currently the passengers are:

• Dad as Captain
• Mom as 1st Mate
• Son as 2nd Mate
• Daughter as Cabin Girl
• Bob as Crew

Each of the passengers blog every few days, so you get the kids’ viewpoint, too! They have a photo gallery, too.

It sounds like they’re doing a correspondence course for homeschool.

It reminds me a bit of reading the Pardeys’ books except the Pardeys went around the world the other direction, I think. It’s been a while since I read their series, so my memory is a bit sketchy. I think the Pardeys traveled east while the Burns are heading west.

Canadian think tank, The Fraser Institute, recently released a report on homeschooling and it’s making a little bit of news. (Article 1, Article 2).

A few of the findings (paraphrased by me):

• Homeschooled students do well even when parents’ educational levels are low.
• Homeschooled students are not isolated social misfits.
• Homeschooling costs less than classroom schooling.

Here’s quote from the actual news release :

Hepburn said evidence clearly demonstrates that home education may help reduce the negative effects of some background factors that many educators believe affects a child’s ability to learn, such as low family income, low parental educational attainment, parents not having formal training as teachers, race or ethnicity of the student, gender of the student, not having a computer in the home, and infrequent usage of public libraries.

“The research shows that the level of education of a child’s parents, gender of the child, and income of family has less to do with a child’s academic achievement than it does in public schools.”

I think this is fairly critical. It sounds like homeschooling sort of “levels the playing field” for those whose socio-economic standing isn’t considered ideal.

In public schools, a student’s income level seems to play a role in how well a student performs academically. Yet this study shows that income isn’t a factor in homeschooling. Why might that be? Do you think the public school teacher inadvertently gives the better dressed students higher grades? Or does she teach the better dressed students with more vigor? Maybe she just ignores the students in high-water pants a little bit, but still enough to make a difference in what the student learns.

While public school teachers are surely trying to be impartial, they are human and prone to forms of prejudice just like everyone else. Has there ever been a study done on public school teachers’ prejudices and the effect on student outcomes? One thing’s for sure, a homeschooling parent is not going to be prejudiced by the income level of their own students. That might explain why “… income of [homeschooling] family has less to do with a child’s academic achievement than it does in public schools.”

Maybe there’s some other explanation for this “leveling of the playing field” effect. Any ideas?

For years I’ve been having my children teach me (or each other) what they’ve learned, knowing full well that it’s one of the best methods of learning. You know, nothing strenuous … just asking, “Tell me something interesting that you learned” coupled with something like, “Really? How?” or “Why did they do that?”

So who’d have thought I’d find this quote on my box of tea yesterday?

To teach is to learn twice.

The box said it was by Joseph Joubert. I looked it up, and sure enough, Joseph Joubert wrote it around 200 years ago. You can find the documentation at this link.

Also on that page are two other quotes that I found startlingly apropos:

The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he believes to be of value. ~Bertrand Russell

For the truly inquisitive, the quote is from the Celestial Seasonings Antioxidant Plum White Tea box — a very pleasant tea.

‘Tis the season to shuffle books, or maybe you’d prefer the term redistribute. Recently I sorted quickly through my books, culled 1500, and off they went to the thrift store.

I only have one year of homeschooling left and many of the books were part of our home library “just in case.” You know, just in case someone needed something to read or had a sudden interest in some event, topic, or person. It was difficult parting, though, because I still wanted to read many of them. An example would be Nina Brown Baker’s He Wouldn’t Be King: The Story of Simon Bolivar. I got rid of some really great books and a few duds, too. So now I’ve got a little more room on my bookshelves.

Last year about this time I also performed a book purge, though not as extensive. I took those to the local homeschool book swap. That was a little strange. Many of the folks selling their stuff had really good prices on their curriculum and books. However, very few people were buying. It seemed really strange. Even Sonlight and Usborne titles in immaculate condition didn’t sell for even 25 or 50 cents. I hid a nice, pretty old-fashioned-looking Henty for $5 in the middle of a box as a treat to the person willing to search. So that was fun to watch. She was so surprised to find it. I can’t remember the title, but it was one I bought but ended up not using because, for us, Hentys didn’t live up to their hype.

At the end of that sale, I donated a bunch of the books to some group that claimed to provide curriculum to “destitute” homeschooling locals and gave about 5 boxes to the thrift store to be sold at exorbitant prices. So that purge went well also.

Anyway, I feel so much lighter after getting rid of 1500 books. In just another year, I’ll get to do it again. I’m sort of looking forward to it.

Our current motto is “So easy a homeschooled can do it,” which was inspired by our friends the Geico Cavemen.

Today, though, Amy over at Inside the Foil Hat Blog is linking to Link and Rhett who warn folks to “Beware the homeschoolers.” It’s an excellent sentiment, so it’s imperative that it be adopted as our new homeschool motto. It’s part of Rhett and Link’s Viral Boom.

I’ve tried Amy’s soap. Its suds are thick and creamy. I got the Rosemary Mint w/Dead Sea Mud. She’s got all sorts of different soaps, pots of fragrant shea butter, and other spa goodies. Go check ‘em out!

Well, here are a few posts of interest to homeschoolers. They are comments made by college instructors about some homeschool students they’re dealing with, plus replies. It makes for interesting reading, possibly instructive … or not.

Tammy in Topeka Is Tired of T. [Who Was Homeschooled]

response for Tammy — How to School the Homeschooler

Homeschooled or Unschooled?

We Hear From Some of the Homeschooled

Che was homeschooled.

I’m not kidding. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was homeschooled. Beginning in 1934, he attended homeschool. His homeschooling continued until he started attending primary school in 1937. It was probably during the ages 6-9 since he was born on June 14, 1928.

I’m guessing his parents decided to homeschool him (possibly) because of his asthma. But what do I know?

So, someone should design a Cafe Press shirt with an image of Che Guevara on it and the label “Homeschooled” above it. I bet it would sell.

Source: Wikipedia

I know you’re wondering why I was reading Che’s Wikipedia article. It was because we were discussing the Bay of Pigs today.

According to the article, Che shot himself in the face during that invasion and lived to tell the tale.

The trivia just never ends, does it?