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Homeschool Siblings

Many people are writing, writing, writing about homeschool.  The process, the problems, the resources, the pros and cons.  But few people have written about something that I think is a prime PRO of homeschooling.  My children are friends with each other!

I’m not comparing, bragging, anything!  Just observing.

My kids enjoy one another.  They share some interests and have learned to respect the interests of their sib and to participate in that activity at times.  Look, when other kids are here…FORGET IT!  The boys go hither and the girls go yon.  (well, sort of!)  But when the kids have free time together, they actually enjoy one another’s company!

Their bond has happened inspite of differences in gender, interests, age.  They include one another and share many secrets, inside jokes, and expressions of affection.  They seek one another out for help, advice, humor sharing, lesson help, hold hands, and simply enjoy being together.  They even play together, at times, when friends are over visiting one or both of them.  Maybe it comes from the simple fact that they spend more time together.

Add to this, when one has a friend, that person is also a friend to the other as well.  Now, isn’t that nice?

It wasn’t like that in my family!  We had lines through the rooms, seperate everything, and frequent fights.  I firmly believe that it is a homeschool environment that doesn’t create unnatural divisions that has encouraged their friendship.  They have their moments.  They are, after all, very different and very busy.  But, overall the bond between this brother and sister is a wonder to see.

If they were in school, would I see a different story?  Would Elizabeth find it cool ONLY to hang with the 13 year olds?  Would John refuse to every touch anything “girly”, thereby forfeiting his play with his sister?  I can only guess that the division between them would have happened long ago and would be firmly in place at this point.

I heard laughing in the family room the other day.  I walked in to find them pushing the couch across the room, laughing at themselves as they slipped and slid onto the floor.  I walked out of the room with a smile in my heart and on my face, leaving them alone, together.

And I’m not going to kid you, this “perk” of homeschooling is worth everything to me!

Posted: August 24th, 2010 under Uncategorized - 1 Comment.

Defending Homeschool?

The “usual” criticism of homeschooling stacks up like this:

• Socialization
• Curriculum
• Multiculturalism
• lack of testing
• homeschoolers have fewer resources
• poor quality of teacher
• homeschoolers are ideologically-driven
• homeschooled children are ill-equipped to function in society
• and keeping funding from the public schools.

I am delighted to take each of these issues separately.  I have researched and read thousands of pages of materials AS WELL AS being a parent who homeschools.  Additionally, as my disposal, a huge group of families with whom I am familiar that homeschool.  Each child in the world is unique.  Homeschool, public school, private school, other learning arrangement, no learning arrangement.  Each child reacts to events in their own unique way.  I mention this because, while writing this piece to “defend” or support homeschool as a choice, I feel compelled to say that there is no single perfect choice for bringing up one’s children.  Each choice, as is normal in life, requires making decisions in which one gains things and one loses things.  So, I feel it is necessary to point out that any point I make either “for” or “against” homeschooling can also be made for public or other educational school or learning system.  There is not a school in the world that does not have as a part of it’s system the poorly-socialized, learning-disabled, or generally “outside-of-the-box” students.  Some learning environments, however, make these students feel comfortable, confident, and successful, however, while others make these students feel ostracized, hopeless, and left out.

I also feel no need to “defend” homeschooling.  It needs no defense!  My sincere effort is to be honest and supportive of families who seek to educate their children.  I’m sure my enthusiastic tendencies supporting homeschooling will be obvious.  I think that is goes without saying, too, that an issue of this kind can only be brushed with broad generalities by people who have not homeschooled.

I have always wondered about the agenda of those folks who get online or go public with these negative and blasting messages of anti-homeschool.  Why are they so vociferously negative about a lifestyle that is unfamiliar to them?  How can these folks judge an entire lifestyle choice through one or two struggling families or children?  Homeschoolers are typically in the minority and there are, often, few statistics on homeschoolers as a population.  Honestly, for every negative story about homeschooling you can point at for me I can point out one hundred negative stories about the public schooling system, or any other educational system available to the public.  Also, for each negative story of homeschooling you can point out, I can point to a hundred quietly successful homeschool families who are raising remarkable, caring, productive, and thinking children.

Let’s start, ta dah!, with Socialization and socializing opportunities.  Nearly every single article or argument of this sort begins with “socialization” or socializing opportunities.  Those on the “con” to homeschooling side say the homeschoolers have few opportunities to hang out with other kids, peers, and people in general.  They say the students benefit from the amount of peer interaction available at most schooling options that meet in a building together.  I would say that there is quantity and there is quality.

I don’t deny that my children don’t see and interact with other children their own age each day.  No.  They interact with people of all ages each day.  They are actually in the real world!  In fact, many homeschooling parents report that “socialization” is the PERFECT reason to homeschool.

As for curriculum, there are so many different lines of curriculum for homeschoolers out there that I can see no criticism on this point.  I am in the unique position to have seen MANY fantastic sets of materials.  I carry some; some, I do not carry at this point.  (Usually for financial reasons and not because of the merit of materials!)

Suggesting that homeschool children are not living their lives in a multicultural environment is, again, the claim of a person who does not homeschool.  Without pointing out the homogeneous nature of most school districts, it nearly goes without saying that the world contains all ethnic groups…and that is the school that homeschoolers attend.  The school of the world.

In fact, it is on this point that I can promise, a homeschooler has wonderful and enriching opportunities to learn more about various cultures and lifestyles.  Even without including families associated with homeschool groups, the world in which we life is vastly diverse and colorful.  If you do not currently have people of other races and creeds as a part of your “friend list”, please work harder!

Homeschool styles vary from family to family.  I wouldn’t even try to assure a reader that all homeschoolers are tested regularly.  In fact, many homeschoolers are pleased to report that passing a test is the least reason for learning.  As my young son of nine years said to me just the other day, “Learning is it’s own reward”.

Also, many institutions and groups offer a variety of testing opportunities.  If a family is interested in having their children’s levels tested, those options are available to them with very little research or cost.  In our home, achievement test results are not the main goal why we homeschool.   It is simply one of the many tools we use to guide us in educating our children.  Some states require testing for their homeschooling families and some do not. If a family seeks to test their children, public and private resources abound.

For the critic who suggests that homeschoolers have fewer resources available to them, I, again, would insist that we have more!  Homeschoolers are not limited by the number of books in the school library, we have the huge city library system as our resource!  Homeschoolers are not limited by the faculty on staff at the local school.  Every adult and child we come in contact with is a potential instructor.  Homeschoolers are not limited by the school’s lab, sports, theater, extra curricular opportunities available through a school.  All of these options in our community-at-large are available to us!

Further, these community and other resources are not available to our children for fifty minute blocks, for as long as the lab is open!  The resources available to any individual homeschool family is limited only by their ingenuity and resourcefulness.  Resources aren’t doled out to children in lines waiting to use them and they aren’t available only for the duration of a “unit”.   Children who homeschool have the wonderful opportunity to stay with learning units until they are ready to move on!

Through our local homeschool group, our family has had at our disposal university lab facilities, university library and theater facilities, community theater and sports, ranches, gardens, telescopes, ponds, small businesses, quarries, cave systems, airports and other public transportation… The list is endless.  In the end, our children are given one-on-one learning opportunities as well as individualized strategies.  I fear the children in the school system are truly suffering from fewer resources than homeschooled children.

The claim that our children have a poor quality of teacher is rude as well as inaccurate.  It may be true, I couldn’t say, but it’s hard to prove one way or the other. There is no need to point out that every school on the planet has wonderful, innovative teachers as well as teachers that are ineffective or unmotivated.  So, without putting our various school systems on trial, it is not going too far to say that the vast majority of homeschooling parents that I have ever met are highly-educated, strongly-motivated, and generally effective.  I have read that homeschooling parents trend to be higher socioeconomic families, though I have known incredible homeschooling parents who operate on a shoestring.  It is just not possible to suggest that the quality of the parents teaching and the children teaching themselves is “poor” in any way as a general rule.

In every group that has ever existed, there have always been the slackers and the poorly-motivated.  I’m certain that this exists within the ranks of homeschooling parents as well.  But for the most part, the parents that I have known have taken the time to teach themselves the psychology of learning, learning styles, schools of learning, special needs education,  and other issues related to being effective teachers for their children.  We, as parents, are always learning and improving our approaches.  Why would anyone assume that parents don’t research and learn as much as possible about what works when teaching children?  Aren’t these the children that mean the most to us?

It is true that many homeschoolers are ideologically driven. I, personally, am driven by the ideology that emphasizes the belief that human beings are fundamentally good and that they try their best at any given moment.  Even the critics.

It is also true that some families have chosen to homeschool for ideological reasons.  And why not?  Don’t most schools operate under certain ideologies as well?  Human beings all operate with their own sets of ideological frameworks.  The wonderful bonus of homeschooling is that it allows us to operate under ideologies that our children seek for themselves as well.  Add to this, the ideology of being “outside of the box” as most homeschoolers are, is not well-supported in the school systems.  Come to think of it, the schooling systems in the world are far too ideologically-driven for my comfort.

Homeschool and public or private school systems have extremists as part of the population.  This doesn’t allow us to single out any group as being more troubled by these radical ideologies.

Lastly, is it true that homeschool families are keeping funding from the public schools?  Well, I am certainly paying my taxes!  And how absurd to suggest that my child is a mere means to an end for the school system!  I do pay my taxes AND we don’t use the resources that they purchase.  If the schools are struggling with resources, it isn’t because I haven’t done my civic duty.

Our country celebrates it’s liberty and choice.  I celebrate liberty too whenever we homeschool.  Besides, I dislike putting the public and private schools on the defensive.  Not everyone can or should homeschool!

Posted: August 20th, 2010 under Uncategorized - No Comments.

Tween/Teen Reading List

Of all the emails I get asking for homeschool book recommendations, my largest single request falls within the preteen  category which would be books for ages 9 to 12.  Somewhere around this age, readers get choosier about their reading or parents get frustrated when all their kids want to read is Captain Underpants or the “Twilight” series.  There is nothing inherently wrong with the popular reads.  It’s nice to have one of your children read one of these titles and announce that it is “lame” and offers nothing of interest to them!

Allowing your kids to read these lightweight and popular books is no problem as long as their reading diet includes other works of weightier content.  As the parent, we often want to offer some other titles to lead them into a direction that offers some substance.

There are many choices out there.  Some are great reads and some are…some don’t quite reach the bar.  As a heavy reader myself I have found that you sometimes have to read quite a few books by frogs before you fine a true king or queen or writers.  Along these lines, I began putting together a list of tween/teen books that I can highly recommend.  Each of the following books I have read personally and many I have used with my book clubs to the delight of the readers in them!  I have purposefully NOT included “classics” as you can find these lists everywhere!

Here is my list and I welcome YOUR recommendations too!

Poetry collections are real treasures.
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
The 39 Clues by various authors
ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON’S INCREDIBLE VOYAGE by Alfred Lansing
HATCHET by Gary Paulsen
HOLES by Louis Sachar
ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O’Dell
JULIE OF THE WOLVES by Jean Craighead George
LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel
MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN by Jean Craighead George
THE PERFECT STORM: A TRUE STORY OF MEN AGAINST THE SEA by Sebastian Junger
TREASURE ISLAND by Robert Louis Stevenson
THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE by Avi
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS by Maya Angelou
ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris
NIGHT by Elie Wiesel
OCTOBER SKY by Homer Hickman
EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Jonathan Safran Foer
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
THE OUTSIDERS by S. E. Hinton
ERAGON: INHERITANCE by Christopher Paolini
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J. K. Rowling
THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkien
THE LOST YEARS OF MERLIN by T. A. Barron
REDWALL by Brian Jacques
THE THIEF LORD by Cornelia Funke
AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS by Gennifer Choldenko
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier
JOHNNY TREMAIN by Esther Forbes
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd
SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER by Bette Greene
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley
WITCH CHILD by Celia Rees
BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE by Dee Brown
FAST FOOD NATION: THE DARK SIDE OF THE ALL-AMERICAN MEAN by Eric Schlosser
THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM OF HIS TIME
by Dava Sobel
Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel
PROFILES IN COURAGE by John F. Kennedy
WASHINGTON’S CROSSING by David Hackett Fischer
THE JOY LUCK CLUB by Amy Tan
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston
THE WHALE RIDER by Witi Ihimaera
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon
THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown
THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold
ROMEO AND JULIET and WEST SIDE STORY by William Shakespeare, Arthur Laurents, & Stephen Sondheim
THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini
THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver
THE PRINCE by Niccolo Machiavelli
BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett
MY SISTER’S KEEPER by Judi Picoult
PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf
BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg
THE BRONZE BOW by Elizabeth George Speare
THE CHOSEN by Chaim Potok
THE MISTS OF AVALON by Marion Zimmer Bradley
NOT THE END OF THE WORLD by Geraldine McCaughrean
PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant
THE CITY OF EMBER by Jeanne DuPrau
ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card
THE GIVER by Lois Lowry
I, ROBOT by Isaac Asimov
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Jules Verne
JURASSIC PARK by Michael Crichton
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert A. Heinlein
Avi, The Crispin: Cross of Lead
Avi, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Blue Balliett, Chasing Vermeer
Brandon Mull, The Candy Shop Wars
Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Jon Scieszka, Time Warp Trio Series
Christopher Peter Grey, Leonardo’s Shadow: Or, My Astonishing Life as Leonardo da Vinci’s Servant
Cordelia Funke, The Thief Lord
D.J. MacHale, Pendragon Series
Edward Ormondroyd, David and the Phoenix
Eva Ibbotson, Island of the Aunts
Gary Paulsen, Hatchett
Gordon Kormon, Schooled
Alan Gratz, The Brooklyn Nine
Hester Velmans, Isabel of the Whales
Jean Craighead George, My Side of the Mountain
Joseph Bruchac, The Code Talkers: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War II
Wm. Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night”
Justin F. Denzel, Boy of the Painted Cave
Lois Lowry, Gossamer
Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series
Scott O’Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphin
Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society

Posted: August 9th, 2010 under Uncategorized - No Comments.