And so we meet again...

I gave in. I was weak. I went against my better judgment and sent my kids to public school for a year. Again, I am not against public school. I was a public school teacher. My big reason for not liking public school for my kids is that I want so much more for them.

My kindergartener did great. I liken her to that weed that can grow through the tiniest crack in your driveway. She is inquisitive and a fast learner and will blossom anywhere. It's a great quality, but it also challenges me to not be neglectful.

My 2nd grader had a horrible year. I could go on and on for all the reasons it was a horrible year, but I won't. Let's just say, it wasn't his fault. He is a brilliant child and I've had my fair share of gifted students. If my daughter is the weed that will grow anywhere, my son is the delicate flower that requires the exact amount of sunlight, water, plant food and maybe even singing. He isn't just a fast learner...he came into this world with a knowledge and understanding that surpasses his age. He grasps the concept within the first half of the lesson. So as you can imagine a public school classroom is no place for him where the teacher has to teach until ALL the kids have it mastered. A great teacher can see when a kid is ready to move on and s/he has the ability to juggle 20+ kids working on a multitude of levels. It isn't an easy task and I have yet to find a teacher who could do that for my son.

So here we are again. The only option I see for us is homeschooling. I thank God that I was given the gift and desire to teach. I am becoming increasingly aware that all my education was to prepare me for this calling. Oh, I fought it. I won't lie. I really thought I could figure out a way to make public school work or sell all my belongings to send them to private school. But then I realized that I am exactly where God wants me to be.

Please stick around and see our ups and downs as we enter into what I hope will be the best days for our family.

Freedom of Choice...no, not abortion...Education!

A friend of mine sent me the link to this article

Confessions of a home-schooler

I read it. I liked it. I really didn't think much of it until another friend pointed out the number of letters that had been written in response. Right now, it is over 550! Now, I don't have the time to read that many letters so I randomly clicked on different pages and read some of the responses. Let me say it right now, I really hope I never encounter one of these people while I am out with my kids! The hatred and ignorance some of these people have for those that are different is unbelievable.

I will never understand why people who send their kids to public school feel threatened by those of us who chose to homeschool. If that is what you chose, that is fine. Really! Is it because we make them feel guilty? It is like the author of the article was saying, if you are talking to someone who says they have decided to be a vegan. You might feel compelled to respond with, "Well, I rarely eat meat", even if it isn't true.

I could sum up in one sentence what "they", the ugly commenters think about homeschool parents.

We are uneducated, rich, fundamentalist Christians who couldn't hack it in the workplace so we chose parenting as a career and now we create a "school" in hopes to keep our children locked away from the real world.

News flash, parenting is a career! Your job as a parent starts the minute the 2nd line shows up on the pregnancy test and it ends....never! One popular reason for the hate is that all homeschoolers are fundamentalist Christians. That is simply not true. Sure, it sounds like something to say, but it doesn't hold any water. Another reason is that all homeschoolers are "privileged". Right. Every homeschooler is the wife of a Hollywood plastic surgeon. Gee, I wish I knew what to do with the piles of money in my house. I am really getting tired of having to tell my housekeeper to just dust around them.

All of this hatred leads me to wonder what would happen if all of us homeschoolers reversed the definition and flung it back on public school parents.

They are educated, poor, Atheist who couldn't hack it taking care of their spawn, so they shipped them off as soon as possible to a free, government run institution in hopes that the teachers there would raise their children.

No, I don't really feel that way. But, it just goes to show you that this might be what public school parents are thinking we are saying about them.

America is the land of choices. We have choices for just about everything. You are never going to find someone who is exactly like you. Does that make them wrong? No, it makes them different.

A Call For Help: No summer vacation and longer school days

Obama is making his list and checking it twice. First, it was health care and now it is education. I am always happy when Washington starts talking about education reform, but the happiness is always mixed with a dose of apprehension. I know that the people who are making decisions about education, have no idea what really goes on in classrooms. Go read just a few pages of Bush's failed No Child Left Behind and you will see exactly what I mean.

What is Obama proposing? He would like to see little to no summer vacation and longer school days. I see where he is going with this, but we've tried year round school and it lasted about a year. I am sure that there is a way to make it work, but you'd have to get the football coaches on board. Summer vacation has long been blamed as the reason our schools are failing. Some say that the 3 months kids are off of school are a waste of time. I agree! When I was a teacher, we spent at least the first 6 weeks reviewing. However, everything in our country revolves around the September to June calendar. I think this will be the cause of the majority of the resistance.

The article says that kids here spend 1,146 instructional hours, which comes out to 6.36 hours per day. Not true. They are at school for 7 hours and they might get 3 hours of instructional time. That would be only 540 hours! Longer school days aren't going to produce the results they are after. Kids can only take in so much and if they go longer, than that would mean a few more breaks. So, if you add 3 hours, then that would really only add about 1.5 hours of instructional time. Schools would have to pay for the maintenance costs and the salaries of teachers would have to reflect the extra time. I am in support of P.E., music and art, but really what do our kids learn in these classes?

The real problem plaguing our school system is the money that is attached to standardized tests. There is so much emphasis on these tests that the teachers only teach the test, which in my opinion test nothing.

I think Obama and his staff are on the right track as far as knowing that the system is severely broken. But, if we are going to look at other nations to see what they are doing, look at their entire system and see what is working and what is different.

Sure, they go to school longer, but what do the learn, how is taught and how is it assessed?

More School: Obama would curtail summer vacation

No Bubble Needed

The minute you tell someone that you homeschool, you get a variety of responses. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you might get a look of wonderment followed by, "That's awesome. Good for you." However, there are times that you will hear, "You know, you can't protect your child from everything!" Duh! I am not on a quest to raise my children in a bubble.
This kind of thinking has resulted in a generation forfeiting their childhood! I don't buy into that thinking.

I CAN protect my children from a great deal of twisted beliefs that society says are just fine.
My children don't need to think it is fine to have a boyfriend/girlfriend in 2nd grade. My children don't need to think it is acceptable to disrespect adults. I don't think my daughters need to dress like a teenager when they are 5! I don't take my kids to see most movies because I don't want them repeating the lines of the movie. How about raising kids to be ladies and gentlemen? I plan on raising my kids to be respectful and polite. I think our country would benefit greatly if we moved away from the Desperate Housewives way of thinking and moved back towards a Leave It to Beaver mindset.

We have become so complacent. We don't even flinch when a commercial for erectile dysfunction comes on during a "family" program. Have you watched ABC family? It is not for families! I can't protect my kids from that? Yes, I can. We don't think twice about buying our 5 year old daughters shirts that say, "I love Zak Efron!" How does a girl that young even know who Zak Efron is? Again, I can protect my daughter from this! Kids will eventually learn the "ways of the world". However, we as parents are in charge of setting that timeline. I know my kids will learn about sex, but not at 8 and not from a sitcom on TV. I know my kids will learn about drugs, but not at 12 behind the playground after school. I know my kids will learn all kinds of colorful language, but not from me or the shows they watch on TV.

Now, I know I can't protect my kids from hearing the guy at Wal-Mart who can't string together a sentence without using a few four letter words. But at least when they hear it, they won't be able to say, "Hey, I know what that means."

Protecting children is a constant battle. I know I can't put them in a bubble and prevent any exposure to the world. Yet, I am not about to throw in the towel.

Edited to add: I agree with Busygoddess...preparing your kids is important! That is what I meant by YOUR timeline. You get to decide when you teach your kids about things. Notice, I said YOU, not TV, other kids, etc. Thanks for the comment Busygoddess.

New Math is Dead & Reform Math is Circling the Drain

This past week I heard about 5 people say something about "this New Math". It makes me laugh. It seems New Math is still getting blamed for poor math skills some 30 years after its death. That's right people, there is no such thing as New Math anymore. Now, if you were in school in the 60's to early 70's, you might have actually been taught New Math. But starting in the mid-70's, Reform Math replaced New Math.

Here is the brief history of math instruction:
1900-1957...Traditional Math
Traditional Math is exactly that, traditional. Students work alone and are taught basic skills using the skill and drill method. The lessons are teacher driven and the tests are basic pencil and paper. Traditional Math met its demise when the Russians launched Sputnik in October 1957. This was the wake-up call...Americans are failing in math compared to the rest of the civilized world.

1960's...New Math
New Math came to the rescue. It promised to boost students' performance in math. It failed miserably! New Math required that students of all ages learn mathematical laws and principles. Students didn't learn math using drill method, but through trying to understand how to apply math law.

1975-Present...Reform Math
Enter the beginning of Constructivism. Students "discover" math rather than learning it. Math concepts are not drilled. Teachers facilitate rather than teach. I believe that this works to a point, but as with anything, an all or nothing approach usually leads to failure. The benefit of Reform Math is that students began to love math again. The downside is that students are not learning basic skills, don't know their fact families, and have little mathematical understanding. Yet, the schools expect these students to score well on standardized tests.

It is amazing that the current method of teaching math (constructivism) and the current method of assessing math (standardized test) were never meant to co-exist. Constructivism calls for the elimination of grades and standardized tests! The purpose of lessons in a constructivist classroom is to build or construct your own meaning. It moves away from memorization and regurgitation of correct answers. Yet, the current assessment tool, the TAKS, is a standardized test!

All of this causes me to ask the question, who is in charge of making these decisions? My guess is people who have had little to no classroom experience and who's degrees, if in education, are decades old. I find it so bizarre that the people responsible for making decisions about public education at the state and national level know virtually nothing about education. How can we expect excellence from our students when we have designed a system that sets them up to fail?



I found this funny joke:

Teaching Math in the 1950s (Traditional): A logger sells a load for $100. His production cost is 4/5 of the price. How much is his profit?

Teaching Math in the 1970s (New Math): A logger trades a set “L” (of lumber) for a set “M” (of money). The cardinality of set “M” is 100. The cardinality of subset “C” (his cost) is 20 less than “M”. What is the cardinality of set “P” (his profit)?

Teaching Math in the 1990s (Reform): A logger sells a load for $100. Her production is $80 and her profit is $20. Your assignment: underline the number 20.
(notice the logger is now female!)

Please pass this along to anyone who still thinks there is such a thing as New Math.

10 Reasons to Homeschool

There are a variety of reasons to homeschool. In years past, most parents chose homeschool because they wanted to provide their children with a religious education. Today, however, many parents chose homeschool because they want to provide their children with a better education. The cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all instruction that they schools provide allows for zero individuality or creativity!

I found this article written by a gentleman with a Ph. D. in education. Although I don't have the level of experience or education that he does, I relate to him. I have a masters degree in education and experience teaching in a public school. People like us don't fit the description of typical homeschool parents. I must not here that there isn't really a "typical" homeschool parent anymore. I do believe that you will see more and more teachers choosing homeschool for their own children because they know far too well the inner workings of a school...and it isn't pretty.

Here is Dr. Sherman's article, including his 10 reasons to homeschool. I couldn't have written it better myself!

Cute Homeschool Shirt

GreatHomeschoolTShirts.com

I love this shirt. I am not really a t-shirt kinda gal, but if I was, I would wear this shirt with pride.