Archive for the ‘Homeschooling’ Category
Homeschooling is as much a lifestyle choice as it is an educational alternative. Your beliefs about child development, learning theory and life in general will influence the homeschool philosophy you embrace.
Many parents begin homeschooling with a particular style and shift to other methods as they gain experience.
1. Unschooling
Believe that children learn best when they follow their interests. Unschoolers often follow no formal curriculum, but they do include workbooks, textbooks, and other structured aspects if the child’s interests lead to them.
Expose your children to a variety of people, places and experiences and involve them in everyday life. Help them explore their areas of interest.
Keep in mind that learning opportunities are everywhere – in doubling recipes, divvying up cookies, writing thank-you notes, exploring the backyard, and visiting the zoo, museums and historical sites.
2. School-at-Home
Subscribe to the belief that learning occurs through the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. School-at-home adherents, like formal educational institutions, follow structured lesson plans with set curricula.
Involve the student in lesson planning as appropriate.
Take advantage of the growing number and variety of school-at-home prepared curricula. When choosing a curriculum, keep in mind your child’s interests and learning styles. Remember that you can adapt, supplement or discard any curriculum as needed. Read the rest of this entry »
At last, concrete answers to the perennial challenge to homeschooling families: “But what about college?” Use the practical hints below to help your homeschooled child get into (and succeed in) the college of her choice.
1. Begin with the end in mind. If you know now that your homeschooled 14-year-old has the potential and interest to pursue college, start gathering and organizing information about admission requirements for representative schools.
2. Maintain your child’s portfolio diligently. It will form the basis of your homemade “transcript,” or, for some schools, can be substituted for one.
3. Contact the schools your child is interested in attending to find out if they have special admission requirements for homeschooled students.
Some (Stanford, for example) have created guidelines to help homeschoolers with the application process (and Stanford has admitted numerous homeschoolers).
4. Apply with confidence. More than 900 colleges nationwide, including many rated as “highly selective,” regularly admit homeschooled students. In many ways, the homeschool experience helps your child stand out from the masses.
5. Focus on areas other than transcript information. Many colleges state that certain parts of the application package, such as SAT II and ACT scores, letters of recommendation, and the application essay, are given greater weight when considering homeschoolers for admission. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the many benefits of homeschooling is the variety you can achieve when you’re schooling just a few students, as opposed to a whole classroom. Here’s how to use the benefits of homeschooling to make learning fun.
1. Make every day an adventure. Education is everywhere. Don’t try to fit everything in, but follow the day as it unfolds and experience the wonder of learning as opportunities present themselves to you and your child.
2. Operate within your child’s gifts. Understand where your child excels and utilize their abilities to help the learning process along. You only have one student to deal with, so there is no danger of excluding another child by catering to the talents of one.
3. Change your surroundings. Another benefit to homeschooling is that your school can be anywhere, even outside on the swing set when you’re having fun. This is a great place for those kinesthetic learners who need to be in motion for them to learn anything.
4. Take a field trip to make learning fun. No bus is required for a single student, or permission slip to travel. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can drop everything and go where the lesson can become real to your student.
If you’re doing multiplication tables, for instance, go to your local produce department and ask your student to calculate the number of oranges in seven cases. Show him how important it is for the produce manager to know how many oranges are in stock for ordering purposes. Read the rest of this entry »
In the past. families were the first to teach their children; prior to compulsory school attendance, most education was provided by the family, church or community. Today more than three million children are taught at home.
Quality of Education
Some parents choose to homeschool based upon the quality of education available to their child in the public system.
Lower-income counties may not have up-to-date textbooks or school supplies that a parent thinks are necessary for a successful education.
Parental Control
Parents who believe in creation, as opposed to the theory of evolution, will want to pass along that belief to their children. Most public schools present evolution as fact, and do not allow the presentation of creation.
Tailored Teaching Plans
Not all children learn in the same manner. Homeschooling allows parents to tailor the school day to the student’s preferred learning style, such as performing experiments as opposed to reading all day from a textbook.
Strong Family Relationships
When children are at school eight hours a day, parents get little interaction. Homeschooling allows quality time, built upon learning and sharing new skills together.
Flexibility
Homeschoolers can easily adjust schooling around illnesses, family emergencies or vacations, without the need to check school calendars.
Homeschooling is the ultimate way to get involved in your children’s education and allows parents to tailor the curriculum to their kids’ individual needs.
You get to impart your values, share the excitement of learning and spend lots of quality time with your kids. But being their teacher also requires a huge level of commitment, so take a good look at what’s involved before you step up to the chalkboard.
1. Analyze your lifestyle to see how well suited you are for home schooling. Since lessons are so individualized, you’ll be able to fit a lot of education into just a few hours each day–but you have to be supremely organized and able to devote your full attention during those hours.
2. Ask other homeschooling parents about the pros and cons of teaching their own children. Find homeschoolers in your area at HomeSchoolCentral.com.
3. Contact parents who tried but gave up homeschooling to get another perspective. A nearby public school may be able to put you in touch with parents in your area.
4. Buy ready-made plans, take online classes, check out software or video lessons, use an “unschooling” approach that teaches through real-life activities or incorporate a mix of all of these.
5. Join a local support group. Some groups study together, go on field trips and take turns teaching each other’s children.
6. Ask your school district whether it will provide you with books, materials or other educational support. Some districts allow homeschoolers to attend school part-time and participate in music or sports programs.
7. Create and maintain a comprehensive portfolio for each student, which will provide the basis of assessing your child’s academic progress. Read the rest of this entry »
Parents choose to homeschool children for a variety of reasons, but making the decision to homeschool means following state or local regulations. The homeschooling laws in Washington State cover the parents’ educational requirements along with mandatory testing and curriculum requirements for the children.
Parent Qualifications
In order to homeschool a child, the parent must have one of the following qualifications. The parents must have earned 45-quarter units of college level credit or its equivalent in semester hours.
They must attend a parent qualifying course. Washington State law states the parent must complete a course in home-based instruction at a postsecondary institution or a vocational-technical institute.
Additional qualifications include the parent working with a certified teacher that meets with the child at least one hour per week, and lastly, the local school superintendent must certify the parent qualified in home-based instruction. Additionally, parents can only homeschool their own children, no one else’s.
Official Withdrawal
Parents with children over the age of eight that attended public school must officially withdraw them from the public school system.
Declaration of Intent
According to Washington State law, each year, parents must file a Declaration of Intent to Provide Home Based Instruction with the superintendent of the local school district. Parents obtain this form from the school superintendent. The declaration does not prevent parents from using the public school system for part-time use or ancillary services.
Compulsory Curriculum
Parents must include the eleven required courses in the home-based curriculum. The eleven courses encompass reading, writing, spelling, language, math, science, social studies, history, health, occupational education, and art and music appreciation.
The curriculum does not require separate instruction of each topic. One topic can simultaneously cover multiple areas of the curriculum. The curriculum must last the same number of hours as the total annual hours per grade level set by approved private schools. Read the rest of this entry »
The laws governing homeschooling in Washington are a bit more stringent than other states. Full attention to the laws is required before beginning to homeschool. Read a brief overview of these laws below.
1. In Washington, running a homeschool or running an extension of a private school out of a home are both acceptable homeschool options.
A traditional homeschool requires the parent to be supervised by a certified teacher, to have 45 college credit hours, to have completed a course in home education, or to be considered qualified by the local superintendent.
Under the private school option, a parent must be under the tutelage of a certified teacher that works in the private school.
2. When a homeschool is an extension program of a private school, there are no forms or paperwork that is required. For the traditional homeschool option, a notice of intent must be filed with the local superintendent by September 15 or within two weeks of any public school quarter.
The name and age of the child that is effected must be included, and must indicate of a certificated person will be providing the instruction. The form that is used for this notification is determined by the local superintendent. Attendance should average 180 days a school year or 1000 hours over the grades one through 12 years.
3. There are no kindergarten home school requirements in Washington since compulsory school attendance does not being until the age of eight.
4. For traditional homeschools, the student must annually take a standardized test that is approved by the state board. This test must be administered by a qualified individual. In place of this test, the child can be evaluated by a certified teacher.
The results of either form of testing do not need to be annually submitted to anyone. The parent instead must keep all results as part of the child’s permanent academic record. The private school option requires that the student be assessed by a certified person.