Homeschooling
By: Ginger | August 28, 2009 | Category: Home and Family
Around the country most kids have, or are about to, return to school. But my friend's kids are getting ready to return to the dining room table. One of my old high school friends homeschools her children. I find this idea interesting because homeschooling seems like such a tremendously scary responsibility, and apparently it can be, but it also has some wonderful rewards.
Originally, their family pursued the traditional route for educating the kids through enrollment in public schools. They were mostly happy with that traditional route, until they had to move to another part of the country. They enrolled the kids in the new school district, but very quickly they determined that the school curriculum was lacking in challenge. The kids had already covered the material and were bored.
Furthermore, her kids were being bullied by some students. When my friend discussed the academic and social situations with the teachers and school officials, she repeatedly felt they offered no solutions and were dismissive to her concerns.
She researched their state's homeschooling laws. My friend, who had been a teacher for years, researched state educational requirements and located resources that were available to parents for purposes of homeschooling. At that point, they decided to take the leap, and they pulled their kids out of school. My friend set up school in her own home. That was years ago and it works very well for them.
She follows state guidelines and curriculum, but incorporates a variety of field trips to museums, libraries, state parks, and a host of other educational activities. Homeschooled kids are allowed to participate in local school sports and other activities, so her kids get plenty of social interaction. They take the same standardized tests as nonhomeschooled kids.
I asked my friend if she enjoyed “relearning” things as she goes through the lessons with her kids. She confessed that when she was young, she didn't have much interest in some subjects. She is learning new things right along with her kids and she loves that aspect of teaching them. I find that really cool and appealing. I confess, I want to enroll in my friend's home school. She'd probably have to start me back at the 3rd grade level.
Anyway, here are some federal resources that may be of interest to folks considering homeschooling:
- National Center for Educational Statistics compiles statistics on the number of kids that are schooled at home, the characteristics of homeschooled vs. nonhomeschooled kids, and why parents choose to homeschool.
- Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
- Online Educational Resource Information
Since homeschooling is considered a matter handled by each state, your best bet is to work with your local school district to locate curriculum and guidelines. Most states have homeschool coordinators to help parents who wish to school their children at home. Remember, you pay taxes, therefore your kids are allowed access to the same resources that are available to public school children.
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As one example of this, I am required in my state to submit a letter of intent to homeschool by July 1 of each calendar year. The district is required to send me a copy of the regs and a form on which to fill out my child's home instruction plan within 10 days. I am then required to submit the plan by August 15th. Every year, the paperwork *arrives* around August 15th, despite the fact that I've sent in my child's plan (formatted in Word) weeks before. Fortunately, our laws are also worded in such a way that delays in district response to our paperwork constitute tacit approval. I'm also regularly told to submit my paperwork to the Sup. of Curriculum and Instruction, despite the fact that the law clearly specifies the District Superintendent as the recipient of all homeschooling paperwork.
In another recent example, a homeschooling parent in my state was told by her district that she was required to submit her quarterly reports on dates consistent with the district's grading periods/report cards. This is illegal. Parents submit evenly spaced dates of their own choosing, regardless of the length of their homeschool year. My family homeschools year-round, so we submit reports in November, February, May and August.
Homeschooling parents need to make sure they understand the regs. in their state, for their own protection and the protection of other homeschooling families. If one family capitulates to illegal demands by a district, all families in that district are affected.
WRT curricular guidelines, most states have grade level or subject specific curricular standards available in .pdf format. The series of books titled "What Your __rd Grader Needs To Know" are also a popular resource. However, as long as you are fulfilling state regs., you are free to plan your own curriculum in all states, as far as I'm aware. Many parents do a four-year world history rotation, which is out of alignment with most public school courses of study. Parents also add subjects, such as foreign languages not offered in public elementary schools.
Thanks for the article!
Sarah Cannon.
http://grassrootshomeschool.blogspot.com
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This is so ignorant. By sticking with government guidelines and resources, one ends up only with ... the same old same old bare minimum government standard. If the author's friend chooses to use the government's recommendations, that is her valid choice as a parent using her authority and free choice, though it seems a strange decision, if indeed the lack of academic challenge was a serious consideration (as the author implies). But recommending that all home schoolers use the same approach ignores the greatest virtue of home schooling -- the ability to do better than the government.
Indeed, if a home schooling family aspires toward academic rigor, the government is the place to avoid most assiduously, especially in the elementary and middle school grades. One's best bet for academic rigor is to survey the resources that are out there in the big wide world -- bigger than the government, even, natch -- and choose what is best for the individual student(s) in question. A good starting point for this type of investigation is the online forum called "The Well-Trained Mind" at http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/index.php . There, one will find academic rigor.
Many families choose home schooling to deal with issues other than academic rigor -- disabilities of various flavors, the ability to pursue serious work in the arts, faith issues, bullying (as the author mentions), and others. In none of these areas, does the government have a positive record. Although I have neither time nor space to discuss these issues individually, I think it is not difficult for the reader to grasp that it is the government's deficiency in education that encourages (and sometimes drives) families to seek alternatives.
I find the notion that the deficient service provider should be one's point of reference for obtaining alternatives to be laughable at best.
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