Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Students Taught by Mom Achieve at High Levels

Here is the second part to the other post. You will notice it includes not only the section about homeschoolers outperforming traditional schools, but there is also sections on working from the office and home while homeschooling your child; socializing your child (a huge misconception to the non-homeschoolers); the child's choice of schooling and then the cost of homeschooling. Both of these articles from Park Cities helps others to know that we homeschoolers are not weird, that we are normal people just like them. :-P

Issue Date: May 4, 2007, Posted On: 5/4/2007

Students Taught by Mom Achieve at High Levels
Study claims children educated at home outperform those in traditional schools

By Karen Eubank
Special Contributor

Staff photo: Allison Slomowitz
Vanessa Trevino made the transition from being educated at home to classes at SMU.
The most recent and comprehensive study of American homeschooling, done by Dr. Lawrence Rudner of the University of Maryland in 1999, concluded, “In every subject and every grade level of the tests, homeschooled students scored significantly higher than their public and private school counterparts.

“Overall, test scores for homeschoolers fell between the 75th and 85th percentiles. Public school students scored at the 50th percentile, and private school students scores ranged from the 65th to the 75th percentile,” it said Universities around the country, including Harvard, New York University, Purdue, and the University of Texas are welcoming homeschooled students.

Southern Methodist University even has a dedicated admissions counselor in place for homeschoolers, Sarah Spooner.

Spooner urges homeschooled students, as well as those from traditional educational backgrounds, to get in touch with colleges they are interested in during their junior year of high school.

“Get to know your admissions counselor; they are your advocate. Don’t wait until the last minute,” she advised.

SMU typically receives 20 to 30 applications a year from homeschooled students.

Vanessa Trevino is in her first year as a dance major at SMU. She was homeschooled her entire life and said she had no trouble being admitted.

“I just sent in my application and had my dance auditions,” she said. Transitioning into a classroom environment was not a problem, and she loves living on campus.

“Homeschoolers are very bright students and are doing really well,” Spooner said. “I don’t know of one school that would not want a homeschooler.”

HOMESCHOOL AT THE OFFICE
Families have found clever ways of educating kids at home without giving up their jobs.

There have been cases where employers allow older children to come to work with Mom or Dad and “office” down the hall.

The parent checks on progress during coffee breaks and is able to have lunch with their child. Parents have worked out flexible schedules, changed shifts, and hired tutors and nannies to work with kids to enable them to fulfill work obligations and school at home.

Cecile Evans works full time as an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. She also manages to educate her son at home.

“We rise at 6 a.m., study until 10, then I go to work from 10:30 to 7:30 [p.m.]. My son works on the lessons and projects that we covered that morning,” she said.

Evans’ son was struggling in ninth grade at a private school. Last October, she found out he was reading at a fifth-grade level. Evans took him out of school, had him tested, found out his learning style, and went to work.

Within four months, she said, he was reading at an eighth-grade level. While she focused on reading, her husband worked on math.

SOCIALIZING YOUR HOMESCHOOLER
The comment that seems to elicit the biggest laugh from homeschooling parents is asking them about the “socialization issue.”

The Fraser Institute, a Canadian independent research and educational organization, reports “The average homeschooled student is regularly involved in 5.2 social activities outside the home.”

David McCullough, a professional artist with a show at the MAC, made a lifestyle choice to homeschool his four sons.

“They all played sports and played with neighborhood kids. If anything, they were more socialized, and in a more sensitive way to the different socioeconomic levels in our neighborhood,” he said.

THE CHILD’S CHOICE
Homeschooled children head back to public and private schools for many reasons. High school is often a time when they want to try out the traditional experience.

Vela Tomba has three daughters. Her oldest is now a sophomore at NYU.

“She had a very successful homeschool career and was offered scholarships to several universities,” Tomba said.

Her youngest daughter ended her homeschooling in eighth grade.

“She did not miss a beat transitioning into a traditional school setting,” Tomba said.

COST OF HOMESCHOOL
You can homeschool with a library card. There are homeschool stores that carry both new and used curriculum, most of which can also be ordered from the Internet. Most families spend an average of $200 per child in the elementary years, and that can double in the high school years.

Some Parents Opt for School in the Kitchen

The following came from my state associations e-newsletter. Since it was about some "local" families, I wanted to post it to my homeschool blog instead of my educational issues blog. The next week’s article will examine the issue of the proper socialiation of homeschooled children, as well as their prospects for higher education, according to their website. BTW, Park Cities is over in the Dallas area.

Issue Date: April 27, 2007, Posted On: 4/27/2007

Some Parents Opt for School in the Kitchen
Locals bypass private, public choices to educate their children at home
This is the first in a two-part series examining the experiences of local residents with homeschooling.

By Karen Eubank
Special Contributor

What do a plastic surgeon, a talk show host, a veterinarian, an artist, and the maitre d’ at The French Room have in common? They have all chosen to homeschool their children.

The face of homeschooling has changed dramatically in the past 10 years.

According to the National Home Education Research Institute, in 2002 almost 2 million students of all ages were being homeschooled. This is a 500 percent increase from the 1990-91 school year.

Tim Lambert of The Texas Home School Coalition reports that about 300,000 children are educated at home in Texas and cites research from NHERI showing a national growth rate of 15-20 percent per year.

Why are the homeschooling ranks growing at such a rapid pace?

The Fraser Institute, a Canadian independent research and educational organization, has published some of the most recent information on homeschooling. In the report “Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream” by Patrick Basham, findings indicate, “the principal stimulus [for homeschooling] is dissatisfaction with public education.”

WHO’S DOING IT?
Park Cities resident Amy Pruitt and her husband, Bryan, a plastic surgeon, are in their ninth year of educating their five children at home. They had three main reasons for homeschooling: academic excellence, instilling their own spiritual values, and efficiency.

“We can accomplish more at home, in less time, and we feel we can offer academic excellence that will surpass what a private school can offer,” Pruitt said.

She customizes a curriculum for each child and in doing so maximizes their individual potential.

“No one loves our kids more than we do, and I felt I had the dedication, commitment, and discipline to educate them at home,” she said.

Homeschooling has allowed the Pruitt family the flexibility to travel and educate along the way. They have had American history lessons brought to life on trips to Washington, D.C., and Boston, and the family headed to France for the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

New York, Philadelphia, Rome, and Florence are on the agenda this year.

BECOMING A QUALIFIED TEACHER/PARENT
Even parents who long to teach their children at home often doubt their ability. Parents don’t have to be teachers, college graduates, or even high school graduates to homeschool their children.

The Fraser Institute’s research shows, “having at least one parent who is a certified teacher has no significant effect on the achievement levels of homeschooled students.”

The children of parents who never completed high school still scored 55 percentile points higher than public school students from families with similar educational backgrounds.

Parents don’t have to take on calculus, either. There are tutors, co-op classes, online courses — something to fit every need and level. Most families take advantage of co-op classes at some point in the homeschooling years.

“Co-op classes are not designed to take the place of parents educating the children at home, but to provide enhancement opportunities in the overall education of the student,” according to the Richardson Home School Teaching Co-op registration packet.

The class descriptions read like a syllabus from the best private school. Latin, Government and Justice, Introductory Logic, and Multimedia Art are included in the extensive catalog.

Most of the teachers hold degrees in their fields, and the classes are run in an organized manner, meeting one or two times a week. Students get to select one class or several and experience a classroom situation.

“Before children are school-age, most parents have taught them to walk, talk, and count. They’ve already ‘homeschooled’ their children. It doesn’t take someone with a teaching background to be a homeschool parent. It just takes someone who is willing to work at it, learn along the way, and who loves their children,” said Cindy Eckhoff, a mother of four who has homeschooled for 14 years.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Are we done yet?

It's getting closer to the end of May. Almost all of my sons outside classes are done. He has one more theater/chorus class tomorrow and then the presentation on Friday, then he is all done. I will be glad though. I won't have to drive him all over the place (but I'll still have to drive my grown daughter to wherever she needs to go...sigh!). Now he can spend all his time on finishing up his studies. I guess the extras that I had planned can be done once he finishes all his regular book work. It's no big deal. He'll still be learning something even if it's not done in coordination with his textbooks. I wish he would do things a little more systematic, but he just isn't that type of kid. He does learn and he is smart. Maybe he's not Mr. Genius, but he is a smart kid. And he's turned into a normal kid. Something I never thought I'd see. It must be the blonde hair. lol! Anyway, his learning style is not what I had planned but if it fits him and it works, then I'm okay with that. You see, he doesn't like me to "interfere". He is quite happy doing all his work on his own without me "butting in". He's at an age now where he really doesn't need my help anyway and if he does have a question he comes and asks me or he looks it up. I plan on giving him the exit test for the Texas TAKS test once he finishes all his textbook work. Although he's only in 9th grade, if he does well on the TAKS test, then I'll know that he is up to standard according to the Texas Education Agency which I could care less about anyway, but it's one way to judge how well your child is doing. I do plan on taking what find out from this test and using it to plan my next years curriculum. Any gaps that I find will be filled and any subjects that he knows well enough, I can skip over. I'm trying to get him to think outside the box when it comes to outside activities (a professional baseball game, a visit to a gardening site, motor cross racing, etc.) so I need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to his curriculum (which in turn would get him to thinking outside the box too!). I need to be a little more forceful when it comes to getting him to do things that he doesn't want to do. I really feel that by doing stuff that may not interest you, can help you to learn about those things and also develop a little respect for the people who do those things for a living. For example, gardening and landscaping. You add math and science to the mix along with physical education. You develop a respect for the people who do this sort of thing for a living. It could also lead to a love of doing this sort of thing for yourself. Education is where you find it. You can get most of your education from books but you need to experience some of that education personally by doing things. Book learning is good and a person needs it, but if you only learn from a book, how can you experience life too?

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Update on my son

My son seems to be feeling better. He still gets tired though which is to be expected. We haven't done much in the way of school work though. He went to his theater and chorus class yesterday and did fine. They sit mostly anyway so he didn't overdo it. Today he has a history class but it's just watching a video and he can either sit or lie on the floor to watch it. Tomorrow we are going to the zoo. I plan on getting a wheelchair for him. I don't want him to get too worn out. I figure by sitting in a wheelchair and having your mom push you around would give him a laugh. After all mom hasn't pushed him in a "stroller" since he was little. lol!

Found out about this driving program coming up in May. The kids learn about driving safety, drunk driving, what to look for in a used car, automobile safety tips and get the opportunity to learn and practice handling a car in emergency situations. They practice controlled skids and maneuvering out of a skid and hydroplaning. The class is taught by actual race car drivers. Now how cool is that? They do require the kids have either their driver's license or a valid learner's permit by the time of the class. So we will have to get him the driver's handbook so he can study for and take the test to get his permit. When I told my hubby about this class, he said he wanted to do it too. Too bad it's for 21 and younger. lol! I guess I should get over to the site and sign up for it before it's too late. We have about 2 1/2 mths to study for this, so that should be long enough for him to memorize the manual and pass the test. Don't you think? ha!

I found another algebra book. This one is called "Illustrated Effortless Algebra". I skimmed through the book and it seems to be very helpful. There are loads of illustrations that help explain the different formulas and equations. I think that I could even learn algebra from this book! I just hope it helps my son better understand what he is doing.

We are going to Scarborough Faire during school days. We will meet up with some other homeschoolers. We've been a few times in the past on regular days and really enjoyed ourselves. There aren't as many vendors during school days, but that's okay. The kids get a free coupon so we can come back again with hubby. I think it'll be fun for the kids. Someone suggested the teens dress up. I think that would be fun. If they do, I'll post pics here with the new digital camcorder/camera my hubby got me.

Next week it's back to work for my son. I didn't push him to do any school work this week. I figured he needed to just rest and relax. It was kind of like an early spring break for him even if we normally don't do spring break. I'm going to have to fix our school schedule since he'll be going past the time I had set for school to be over. Oh well, it's not like we haven't gone past our deadline before!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Thank goodness we homeschool!

I am so glad we homeschool otherwise I might be faced with my son missing many, many days of school. He had been sick last week from what I thought was a cold. But as the week went on, he started complaining of his throat being sore and extremely tired. I didn't think he had strep throat because he didn't have the telltale signs of it. I also didn't think it was the flu because he didn't have an upset stomach or any of the other symptoms of the flu. So I reached back in my memory of when my daughter had the same symptoms, and my first thought was mono. But I thought, no that couldn't be because he doesn't drink or eat after anyone and I KNEW that he hadn't kissed anyone either (or at least I didn't think he had). I decided though on Friday that I had to take him to the doctor just to ease my mind. Sure enough after blood was drawn and the doctor finished his exam, he concluded that my son did indeed have mono. Oh joy! At least it wasn't leukemia which was one of the diseases running through my head!

It will take several weeks for him to recuperate from this disease. He will just have to take things easy and not over do it. Good thing he doesn't play any contact sports. He does bowl on a Sat. morning league so that may have to be curtailed for now.

We have several events coming up that I'm a little concerned about. One is our local homeschool zoo day. I've already sent in my reservation along with my money. They do have a limited number of wheelchairs at the zoo, so I'm thinking I will get one. I'll have to take the paperwork the doctor gave me showing that he has mono just so the zoo staff won't think I'm trying to pull a quick one on them. He also has a Theater and Chorus class on Tues. in which they are working on a play they will perform at the end of the year. I told him I would talk to the instructors and explain the situation, but I felt that he could sit there and read his part or sing or whatever it is that they do. He can participate in the physical activities only if he feels like it. There is a homeschool dance coming up March 10th. I think he'll be okay to go to this. It's still a few weeks off. He can always not dance if he wants to.

I remember when my daughter had mono. She was home for about a week, then went back to school but was only there for a few days I think before coming home again. She missed a lot of school that semester. I remember when she did go back to her history class, there was a student teacher who was not very nice. I don't think she cared if my daughter was sick or not. She expected her to turn in the work that was assigned even though the student was allowed so many days to turn it in after being out sick. That probably contributed to the many reasons we decided to homeschool.

We will take our time with his school work. I'm not really on a schedule, but I would like for him to be finished with all his work by the end of May this year. Anyway, I won't push him to do several hours of school work at one time each day. I told him he can do a little bit, then rest for a little bit, then go back to his school work. He'll be fine and things will work out in the long run.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Where do YOU homeschool Seuss-style!

I thought this was kind of cute.

I will homeschool in the bed, I will homeschool on my head.
I will homeschool on the floor, I will homeschool out the door.
I will homeschool in a group, I will homeschool eating soup.
I can homeschool in a car, I will homeschool near and far.
I can homeschool in my lair, I can homeschool ANYWHERE!

Friday, February 16, 2007

Texas Driver License Requirements

There is a new bill in the Texas House concerning stricter requirements for kids to get their license. The new bill would require students to be in class a certain amount of days. Normally something like this would not affect homeschoolers but in this case the writer of the bill, State Representative Ryan Guillen has added that homeschoolers must also be in attendance for 80 days. If they aren't in class for that amount of time, then the parent or guardian is suppose to report this information not to the DPS (who the public and traditional private schools report to) but to the local public school superintendent. Now if I don't normally have any contact with my local school district, why should I want to start now by reporting that my child hasn't attended class? If my child has not attended his/her homeschool classes, then that's my fault. My state homeschool association has this posted on their website:

http://www.thsc.org/hb1091.asp

HB 1091 by State Representative Ryan Guillen would change the law to make it stricter for students to get and keep a Texas driver license. It treats home schools differently from private schools – requiring the current number of days (80) rather than 90% of the classes offered, as is required for private and public schools. 90% of classes would be 153 days for public school or traditional private school attendance. The bill requires automatic revocation of driver licenses for students who fall below attendance of 90% or 80 days for home school students. While public school and traditional private school officials are required to report this to the DPS, home school parents would report to the local public school superintendent rather than DPS as other school officials. This is a major issue for us. Finally, if a high school student over age 15 withdraws from public or private school to home school, it appears that they would be required to wait at least 80 days before they could obtain a license.

THSC representatives have visited with Representative Guillen’s staff and expressed our concerns and opposition to the bill. They were completely uninformed about home schooling and said it was inconceivable that parents should have this kind of freedom from state control. We made clear that we intend to keep it that way. We will continue to monitor this bill and let you know if and when action is needed.


Representative Guillen evidently doesn't like homeschoolers since he states that us parents should be more controlled by the state as far as schooling our children goes. Where does he get off? He doesn't represent me. And I resent the fact that he wants to force me to have contact with a school district who I normally have nothing to do with! You can check out his website at: http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist31/guillen.htm
There you can see exactly which area of Texas he resprents and then maybe you'll understand why he wants to get something like this passed.

I really hope that this bill gets shot down. This is an unfair bill not only for public and traditional private schools but also for homeschoolers because according to the TEA are private schools. Just because they crossed out the word "homeschooler" in parts of the bill, does not mean that we are exempt from that section. To me it only confuses me more. Is my child subjected to the 90% of the day classes are offered or the 80 days preceeding the date of the application? Which is it? Am I a private school or just a homeschool?

You can check out the bill yourself at: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/pdf/HB01091I.pdf

I'm so mad about this bill that I couldn't even think straight enough to write a proper blog. Plus the fact that my internet is messed up or something weird is going on with it.