Homeschooling Losing ground in Europe

Michael Smith in the Washington Times:

While home-schooling freedom and flexibility continues to improve in the U.S., it appears to be going in the opposite direction in Europe. Germany leads the way as the most oppressive European state, because it routinely fines and threatens to imprison home-schoolers.

While other European countries have not embraced the German methods, there is a move in some countries to crack down on home-schoolers. Read more…

Peter Johnson asked:


Record Keeping is a topic which is frequently bought up at homeschooling meetings and forums, and its importance in the homeschooling curriculum can not be overlooked. Record Keeping for homeschooling is not only legally required in various States, but also provides important goals in your child’s learning experience. An interest-initiated homeschooling approach means that the topic of studies is far ranging and diverse. It can become very confusing to write accurate homeschooling reports, due to the interest-initiated approach to learning being so difficult to classify and pigeon-hole.

Record keeping in homeschooling is vital not only for the sake of regulations, but is also an exciting way to record and document the learning process of the child. When most of the learning is done through play and there is no clear indication of topics that have to be covered, it becomes necessary for the parent to keep some sort of a log which records the child’s progress.

The method for your record keeping can be as simple as a piece of paper and and as complex as a computer pro gramme- it is completely up to you to decide which method will be more effective. If you are participating in a support group, you most likely have set forms and requirements. However, staying on top of daily assignments and reports will make the process so much more efficient and easily achievable in the homeschooling environment.

The most popular record keeping methods used by various home schools are listed below.

Daily planner:

Lay out the plans and the assignments for the week in a teacher’s planning notebook. Check each item as it is covered, and make additional notes if issues arise which might be improved on in the next semester. Maintain a separate area where any additional things can be recorded. This may include educational trips, visits and videos, homeschooling online materials etc. Any extra topics that were covered should also be recorded in this area. Make sure you make a summary at least once every quarter.

Journal:

This can be maintained by either the teacher or the student. This basically aims to keep a log of what was learned and what was done in the homeschooling sessions. No only is keeping a journal of your homeschooling a fantastic way to reminisce in the future, it is also a means to monitor the effectiveness of your teaching and your child’s interpretations of the homeschooling process.

Portfolios:

This consists of a collection of diverse materials that display what the child has achieved and done during the course of his/her homeschooling study. Portfolio assessment is a very effective way to chart the child’s progress. It gives structure to the otherwise loose and flexible form of schooling called homeschooling. A drawing portfolio will consist of some paintings or sketches that are considered the best in that quarter. A language portfolio may consist of essays, stories, reading-logs, spelling samples or letters. Progress in subjects such as mathematics, fine arts, history, science and social studies can all be recorded in this manner. The biggest advantage is that portfolio assessment places control in the hands of the home schooled child. Having a tangible record of what they have achieved in their homeschooling will only serve to motivate them to achieve more and more.

Conclusion

Other than the above-mentioned systems, there are also purchased record-keeping systems that lay out a great checklist and help to automate the homeschooling process. There is now an abundance of homeschooling organizers and planners available online- do use due diligence when considering homeschooling products- preferable use a recommendation where you can see how effective the product is going to be. Whichever method of record keeping you decide on for your homeschooling, it is an essential part of the homeschooling process and will be beneficial to initiate from the start. You never know, your child’s future may depend on this system of record-keeping.



Posted by Nikhil Gupta

Homeschooling: from fringe to mainstream?

Via Yahoo News

COLUMBIA, Maryland (AFP) – When Elizabeth Dean was four, her mother took her out of kindergarten to teach her at home because she could already read the children’s classic “Charlotte’s Web” while the other kids were just learning how to write the letter “C”.

That was 10 years ago and homeschooling was “still on the fringe of acceptability”, Elizabeth’s mother Lisa Dean told AFP in between classes in the family home on the history of ancient Rome, the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, online geometry and English for Elizabeth, 14, and 11-year-old Teddy.

“Ten years ago, folks typically would list their reasons for homeschooling as religious reasons or wanting to fly under the government radar,” Dean told AFP. Read more…

Girl left school at 13, to college at 15

According to this article the girl felt her creativity was being suppressed by the government school.

“It was Lottie’s decision to leave school,” explained mum Melanie.

“She felt the school was killing her creativity especially her creative writing. She was so advanced with her grammar and spelling that her teachers did not believe her words were her own which really upset her. She is also very artistic and highly intelligent for her age.”

“It was her decision to leave, which I of course supported,” added Melanie. Read more…

School districts receive net gain from Homeschoolers

From Kate Tsubata of the Washington Times.

In addition to dispelling the myth that home-schoolers — who pay taxes for schools that they don’t use — are somehow costing schools money, the authors cite studies by other researchers that show the value of home-schooling in other areas: home-schoolers have higher self-esteem, fewer behavior disorders, better academic performance, and more college attendance than their peers in public and private schools. Read more…

Tamma DeHart asked:


Most of the people have difficulties in organizing a homeschool by thinking that they have to teach their child and also doing all the home activities inside the house like cooking meals, cleaning dust and also have to spend some time for their partner. But now there are many non-profit associations who are organizing a homeschool for kids.

To manage homeschooling such organizations are great place to select on. There are great advantageous of such small networks who are organizing a homeschool for there country. In a small group, close relationships can be shaped, examining is easier and interacting in a home is also possible. However as the homeschooling movement increases, so do the social co-operations, support groups and other committees. Some homeschool organizations deteriorate below the weight of larger memberships. Organizing a homeschool in some specific areas have divided so that each group does not become too large. Although further often, social club grow to take the challenge and become more prepared and expand their memberships. They are helping the requirements of more families by raising the number of homeschool organizations.

There are numerous places to get second hand or you can say used homeschooling study materials on the internet. Some homeschool core curriculum supplier has homeschool message boards where you can purchase or list used homeschool books for sale.

To properly organizing a homeschool plan a timetable of when you’ll have school. Many homeschoolers kids have prescribed educational activities five days a week and use the sixth day for outside activities and running errands. You can also employ a yearly calendar to maintain to follow-up your family vacation tours and holidays when you won’t have school. Allocate the beginning and the ending of your educational year. Decide on the quitting time for your school day. This is really works good and then you can plan the rest of your time to utilize on other works although it will also give your children the duty of the work –whatever they don’t finish throughout school hours gets completed later, on their own time.

From time to time you will organize things the mode you want them to be, only to find out that there are not sufficient hours in the day to achieve them all. You require placing main concern on the things that must be done first. Occasionally concerning is easily seen and you know what has to be done contrast to what should be or would be nice to have done.



Posted by Nikhil Gupta

The Carnival of Homeschooling: Summer Transition Edition

Hosted this week at Our Curious Home.

Welcome to the Summer Transition Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.
Summer may have started two days ago, but my routines have not caught up. I feel pulled in two directions at once!

Last month at the standardized testing co-op, I asked the Moms (and a few Dads) how they transitioned to Summer. Many told me, “Testing is the end of the year,” some adding, “If we’ve finished the math book!” One family mentioned the lure of the beach, and the freedom to decide on the day’s activities based on the weather. Two families school year round. Read more…

Diamonds and Toads

We recently got this note from Kate Wolford, Lecturer, Indiana University South Bend.

I run a blog called Diamondsandtoads.com, and am hoping more and more home scholing families will find it. It is geared toward students who are learning to write on the college level. More importantly, it is about the art, study, analysis and research of fairy tales.
The site is geared to students in or preparing for college.
Please don’t let the “fairy tale” focus turn you off. The site does delve deeply into the subtexts and meanings of tales, but in a responsible way. I have had many home school graduates in my fairy tale and writing classes — everyone of them has loved the experience.

Kathy checked it out and found lots of conversations related to aspects of writing fairy tales, it looks very creative. If you have a budding writer of fantasy in the family, be sure to check out diamondsandtoads.com.

The Dumbest Generation…

…Getting Dumber. I’ve been catching up on some reading today and found this column by Walter E. Williams (my favorite economist of George Mason University) confirming one reason to homeschool.

First, the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers. In recent cross-country comparisons of fourth grade reading, math, and science, US students scored in the top quarter or top half of advanced nations. By age 15 these rankings drop to the bottom half. In other words, American students are farthest behind just as they are about to enter higher education or the workforce.” That’s a sobering thought. The longer kids are in school and the more money we spend on them, the further behind they get. Read more…

Carnival of Homeschooling: A Summer Party

This week the carnival is hosted by SuperAngel at The Daily Planet.

I have been so enjoying June! Its been a wonderful month even tho its only the 16th. We had a wonderful get together on Saturday with some wonderful friends! With that get together still in mind, I thought it would be neat to have that as my theme: A Summer Party

At a summer party, you have plenty of food, fellowship, fotos and fun!
Read more…