More Homeschooling News in California

John Stossel has a good article that's worth reading in its entirety, but here's the salient point:

That's reasonable news. But why is education the business of government? It's taken for granted that the state is every child's ultimate parent, but there's no justification for that in a free society. Parents may not be perfect -- some are pretty bad -- but a cold, faceless bureaucracy is no better.

I link to John even knowing that he hates chiropractors. The same argument could be made for health care choice, John. Millions of happy people who have gotten well and live healthy lives support chiropractic. Why should the government interfere? But I digress....

The amount of resources going toward education could be given back to the people. Imagine having that money and choosing your child's school. Yes, there is an economy of scale with public school education, but there is also so much waste it's breathtaking.

As I've said before, I'm no ideologue when it comes to education. Public, private, home--any choice can be a good choice depending on the circumstances. This is clear though: I'm for freedom of choice. And the way California is going, freedom is being taken away.

Multiplying My Troubles

I've been relatively silent about home schooling mainly because we've been humming along, thinking deep thoughts and generally grooving on the togetherness, man. This week has brought more irritation than most and I'm not sure if it's hormonal or ants-in-pants or some combination of the above.

I'm feeling pressure to plow through the curriculum, to keep us on time, with the holidays quickly approaching. Most other home schoolers don't seem as compulsive as I am and their serene Zen quality kinda freaks me out. Don't you people realize that the future of your child is built one day at a time! Well, of course they do, they're just further along the road than I am and more experienced.

Today's placidity is being rippled by learning a new and difficult concept. Both kids are in tears which hardens my stance. This is math, not the Sudan. Why don't they have some perspective? I suppose I was frought over multiple multipliers when I was eight but I don't remember it and really don't care. This idea must be burned into the hard drive, or else. Or else math, for the rest of this year will be hell. Today the hard work of laying the challenging foundation must be laid and it's being bought with a price. My nerves are shot and their emotions are frazzled.

Zealous home schoolers and public schoolers and private schoolers rarely honestly assess the negatives of their choice. Home schooling while lovely (three months and were still relatively happy!) has it's drawbacks. In fact, it was the main one I was concerned with: time for me to think and do something for myself. Children are greedy little beings and would prefer non-stop, 24-hour interaction from their parents.

So, I'm happy overall but I need to figure out the rest of this balance thing. My answer today will be National Geographic TV watching in the afternoon. Educational and peace for me. Hopefully.

School Stress Evaporates At Home

The stress in our family has lessened so significantly since starting to home school. My kids already had severe test anxiety at the ripe old ages of 7 and 9. That's a problem. The result of their anxiety was a defeatest attitude: if they couldn't be guaranteed super-success, they didn't want to try. I don't think yoga at school would have helped much. It might have helped a little. Maybe getting rid of homework would have helped the generalized anxiety. In fact, I'm quite sure it would have helped.

Two and a half months into home schooling and the results are promising. More relaxed family (including me--an unintended benefit) and more relaxed kids. Shhhh, don't tell them, but the tests I write for them are harder. I'm pushing them to comprehend. They are being forced to remember not just what, but why. And still, they are more relaxed. They have also received their first "bad" grades and survived. They are learning to go back again and study and get it and then try again.

With home school, there is no homework. Well, not like is generally understood. They are reading and reading the "required" texts but they don't realize what they're doing. When we talk through and do assignments off of books they enjoy reading, they're doing work, they just don't really notice.

I wasn't sure at the beginning, the curriculum scared me because of its simplicity, but I simply must sing the praises of Math-U-See. It is amazing. The comprehension of math concepts is so complete and simple. The kids are motoring through it.

Another curriculum, this one for handwriting called Handwriting Without Tears, is nearly miraculous. My son, who has problems with deciding where to put the pencil and has fine more strength problems viewed learning cursive with apprehension. He literally looked suspiciously at the text book. Not now. Loves it. My husband said, "He wrote that?!" It's been pretty amazing.

We are also using Sonlight for Reading, Vocabulary, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar, History, Geography, and Bible. It is a literature-based curriculum and it's fantastic. The text books are original works. The kids are reading a couple Robert Lewis Stevenson poems a week. They are learning a couple Aesop's fables a week. They are reading out loud. They are explaining the moral of the story. They are creatively writing. Each week, we are going through a couple pieces of children's literature.

For people like me who find the notion of putting it all together daunting, the Sonlight system is flexible yet structured. The only work I add for myself, is more testing. At least every other week, I put together a comprehensive test for the kids to make sure they are retaining what they learn. This week, they have learned the basics about the Phoenicians, Spartans, Athenians, the architecture of columns, the story of Romulus and Remus, Rome, the Olympiad, Homer's Odyssey (which they are dying to read), Eastern Europe, Romania, Italy, what was significant about Mecca and the rise and fall of King Saul, the rise of David and the friendship between David and Jonathon. That's a lot. And that's all on the test. Plus dates for the Peloponnesian War and the original and reinstated Olympics. It's definitely a survey of History and Bible this year. It will be the foundation for the next four years when we go back and look, in depth, at those times.

And they aren't stressed. Can you imagine? They love it. We haven't had an art project or science project in a while. We have made cave man pictures and created hieroglyphics. When we get to Pompeii, we'll explode a volcano. They have more time for the arts--music and drama are during school hours. Dance is after school twice a week.

All in all, I don't think the stress in school comes from the volume of material or even the focus on testing. The running from one activity to another, the inability to slow things down to have a question answered, the frustration of having play-time or recess taken away to finish up work, the inability to get a drink when thirsty or run to the bathroom without missing something, the boredom when a topic is already known, the pressure to perform during timed tests (in second grade) and on and on. The schools must meet the needs of many kids so some of the flexibility needed to reduce stress just can't happen. I'm amazed at the stellar job the teachers do. It is certainly not easy.

So, it's admirable that the High School principal wants to put in a program to reduce stress for kids. That's an excellent goal. I'm just not sure it's possible.

Home Schooling: Week 3, Is the Honeymoon Over?

First of all is it Home Schooling or Homeschooling? I see it both ways and I don't know the proper usage and it bugs me.

Both kids were in a puddle of tears today. I'd say that's a resounding success. Why were they crying? I actually pushed them to comprehend what they were reading. They had to write a one paragraph summary of the story thus far. The faucets turned on when they had to re-write the sentences into something coherent. That's called editing. Not that I do it, but do as I say and all that. The paragraph summary will be happening every day from now on, they've been informed. They're not happy.

".....Elementary School was so much easier!" Wahhh!

Yes it was. Welcome to Dr. Melissa's den of home school horrors. You can enter any time you like, but you can never leave.

After reading through the curriculum, I realized that I hadn't been mindful of any goals for this education other than get through the pre-made syllabus every day. But after training my mind with the book The Well Trained Mind, I decided that I needed to be more focused.

My goal is simple: Comprehension. I want my children to actually understand what they're learning. Memorization is the foundation, of course, but if they don't "get it", especially the Autistic one, the kids might as well be a computer. So I renewed my math and writing teaching efforts. And the vocabulary test is long and challenging. And they hate it.

But then we jumped in the pool, while the other kids were still in school and all was right with the world.

When does the honeymoon end? Because this one hasn't lasted long at all.

NEA Resolution on Home Schooling

Well, I'm back from our first home schooling field trip. We toured the capital, watched Senators debate legislation, met with our Senator, spent time with our Representative's staff, toured the library of Congress, toured the Supreme Court, visited the war memorials, saw Panda's at the National Zoo, learned geology at the Smithsonian, ate lunch at Union Station and the Reagan Commerce Building, toured the White House, and watched the sun set across the Lincoln and Washington Memorials. In three days, the students learned about architecture, civics, history, art, science, politics, biology and economy.

At home, we prepared for the trip by reading about Washington D.C., learning about the three branches of government, how America came to be, and what a Democracy is. The kids had the time of their life.

The National Education Association was busy, too. Here is their resolution on home schooling:

"B-75. Home Schooling. The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being born by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.

"The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools...."

Just to clarify the NEA position:

1. Home schoolers receive less than comprehensive education.
2. Home schooling parents should pay their school taxes and pay their child's education costs at home.
3. Home schooling teachers, even those with more education than teachers, should be state licensed.
4. Home schoolers must use state mandated curriculum.
5. Home schooling children should NOT be able to enjoy any extra-curricular activities that their parent's taxes pay for.

In short, teachers will be happy to have the home schooler parent's tax money, teachers would like no responsibility to deliver services such as athletics to home schooled children, and teachers would like to shackle parents with the same curriculum they, themselves resent being forced to use. In fact, No Child Left Behind is reviled by the same NEA, yet they would enforce these strictures on others:

Reform is coming to No Child Left Behind, but the question is what kind. Teachers unions, which bitterly oppose the law, are pushing to relax its rigid testing rules and penalties.

"It narrows the curriculum," said Joel Packer, a policy manager for the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union. "Particularly in reading, there is this increasingly strict curriculum being imposed that teachers feel doesn't treat them as professionals and is taking creativity out of the classroom."

Part of the reason parents choose home schooling is to creatively meet the child's needs. The NEA would like to restrict this flexibility, of course, while demanding relaxed requirements of them, so their success as teachers isn't tied to their students.

Special Education has especially enjoyed this laxity. Children are given ridiculously easy requirements to meet and then the education is deemed a success when the child meets them. Everyone looks like a champ. The child falls hopelessly behind.

Not all teachers stink. In fact, many are very good. We are not talking individual teachers here. The overall educational experience is being compared. And teachers are scorning home schooling even though home schoolers have stellar outcomes when compared to public schools.

Maybe when the NEA gets it's house in order, they can share their wisdom with home schoolers.

Homeschooling Confession

I'm worried about when I'll blog. Gah! What have I gotten myself into?

Home School Conferences: Steer Clear or Be Zombified

So I go to the Home Schooling Conference today. It almost scared me straight...into public schools and all that that implies.

First, the registration line stretched to the door. Ahead of me were two families and twenty kids. One lady had four blond, blue-eyed boys ages two to five. Cute as widdle buttons, they were. Ahead of her a bigger, motley crew. Who has time for a bath when there's one bathroom for sixteen kids? Be fruitful and multiply, indeed.

After filling out paperwork, receiving badges, a complimentary nap sack filled with a plethora of Helpful Information, I thought this is just the beginning. Holy crap! I'm screwed! All this paperwork, the pressure, the people. They have sixteen kids and home school and I can't even change my kid's soaked diaper by lunchtime.

It got worse and scarier. There were the ladies with do rags. I think they're Mennonites, but I'm not sure. Hey, that's alright. I'm all for religious freedom and what not. Still, what up with wearing the nun-hat and having sixteen kids? No make-up, clothes without buttons, every kid looking like a Van Trapp reject. Forget the curtains, I think that kid is wearing a repurposed pillowcase. This scene kind of confirms stereotypes, you know?

And then you see them altogether. Hundreds of children, pale, obedient, absurdly intelligent children, with intense, unyielding eye contact. I was in Village of the Damned. Who are these zombie children and what planet did they come from? None of them pushed or shoved. No punching. No whining. No tans. No muscle tone.

You see, there are a variety of reasons people don't home school. Reason number one: Zombie Children. Oh, they're nice to talk to. Their breadth of knowledge is superseded only by their depth of understanding. They'll share interesting anecdotes and give pithy comments and you will slowly start backing away because you are terrified. And by you, I mean me. My philosophy professor in college was more superficial. People see these kids and they see mini-adults who have all the qualities they wish their children possessed and yet, when they see them in real life, they get say to themselves, "You know maybe I was too hard on Johnny's teacher last year. Our problem is our excessive expectations. Why are we so obsessed with the alphabet? Sheesh! There's always fifth grade!" And off to public school Johnny goes.

I almost ran way. Truly. The kicker was throwing up a bit in my mouth at the subservient women shuffling a few steps behind their pasty, underemployed husbands. You know the guy, he's always working on some "mission work" or he stays at some crappy job because he's "ministering" to his co-workers which is code for he's ministering to the secretary while bringing home an STD and 200 bucks a week. (That was just wrong.)

And all this happened before I walked into the exhibition hall. Once there, I found some normal people, but I had to seek for a while. The Boy Scout guys were normal--muscle tone, firm handshakes, familiarity with fire arms. The science guy from the Natural Science Museum was abnormally normal--gaunt frame, pony tail, toothy grin. The sports people all acted normal, too. And when I went to the booth that featured the curriculum I was curious about using with my children, teenage boys greeted me. Nice, but smartalecky, too. Normal teenagers! Jackpot! They were helping out their moms, who were normal. I'm buying that curriculum for one reason only: the normal kids.

All in all, I think it's better if I don't go to home schooling conferences. Home schooling is freaky enough without witnessing all the terrifying evidence that the product from this endeavor will be a freaky kid. Freaky smart. Freaky kind. Freaky friendly. Freaky. Freaky. Freaky.

And on a different, but similarly surreal note: Target was nuts today. Are people worried about being drowned in a flash flood or killed by a falling tree courtesy Hurricane Dean? No. They are worried about saving sales tax on the clothes they are buying for their kids at full price. No one seems to realize that the big discounts come over Labor Day and the 40% off then far exceeds the 10% tax savings now. So Target was mobbed and the rain poured outside. Again.

And Dean screams. But that's a problem for a different day. Today, t-shirts and jeans.

Target had an ignored water display and the few emergency kits were nearly sold out. In The Woodlands there are three semi-prepared people. And I am one of them. My husband guffaws at my preparation. We'll see who's laughing come next Wednesday. It probably won't be me. I'm the over-prepared optimist. I hope it won't happen, but just in case.

I'm an optimist. I'll home school, but my kids will turn out normal. That notion was debatable with a public school education, but somehow, being chained to the kitchen table doing flash cards with me will make them normal. See? That's what makes me an optimist.

Homeschooling & Headaches

I have the coughy, stuffy, head-achy, nose faucety, eye-watery, sinus cloggedy, kind of cold today. On a positive note: the kids are playing quietly, there is no screaming, and the sun is shining. Finally. All that Global Warming has kept my Houston pool at the brisk 85 degree temperature in mid-July. Normally, it would be a bath-tub by this time of the summer.

You know how I had a .00005% doubt about homeschooling? After the last two weeks, the doubt has risen to 50-50. I'm thinking about going back to my original plan--continuing public school for the kids through fourth grade and peeling them off one-by-one to home school.

Ironically, Madame Blueberry is protesting. She got her mind wrapped around home schooling and now wants, really, really wants, to do it. Ugh. I've talked before about my concern for my mental health and after this summer, my concerns have not diminished. We've had a great summer, really. But last week was H-E-Double Toothpick time and I worry.....about no escape.

Aighhhh! Go to work part-time, get a Nanny and send the kids to public school. Or, homeschool.

Decisions Decisions

Well, the decision is 99.9995% made to home school. Madame Blueberry was putting up some resistance. She's worried about missing school friends. To soften the separation, we're having her pals over for her birthday and some new home schooled pals she met at dance class, too.

My son is over the moon. Now, it's on to curriculum and setting up the school room. We have work to do and this summer is flying past--even though it's been raining every day for a month. Oy!

Here are the topics for the kids: Bible, Grammar, Literature, Creative Writing, Penmanship, Latin, Math, History, Science, and maybe some Spanish. Art and music will be incorporated--piano lessons, music theory, art and art history, music history, etc. Basically, a classical education.

Physical education will come as sports and ballet and other forms of dance. And they'll have drama. I'll try to take them to the library once a week. And when they get a bit older, they can start working at the office for a few hours. Boy and Girl Scouts for civics. And, of course, I always take them with me when I vote.

What I'm most excited about is giving them some true historical perspective. So far, they've learned victim history. Now, for some broader views.

Home Schooling Considerations

Dana, a homeschooling mom, asked me why I am considering home schooling and what it meant to worry about my "last neuron". I'll answer the second question first. I'm a person who needs silence and solitude and lots of it. Some people would argue that parenthood is antithetical to either silence or solitude and I would agree. I look forward to summer vacation and then look forward to school starting again. The kids go back to school. The odds improve. (Only one toddler at home.) Blessed peace during nap time. Blessed peace during Mothers Morning Out when I take the toddler to a church developmental program (play time with a teacher). I love these times. I actually get to finish a task uninterrupted. Bliss. So yes, I worry about my mental health with home schooling. When would I get this time?

The die-hard home-schoolers will snort derisively at my selfishness. I've heard a pious home schooling mom say, "You wanted children, right? Why would you entrust their education to the state?" It could be argued that the responsible decision is to send a child to public school. I could easily retort that with some home-schooled children I see, the only teacher they have stinks. Home schooling isn't magical. Or rather, it's as magical as the parent who teaches. Let's face it, some parent's aren't magical or even adequate.

My daughter has had truly magical teachers the last two years. Her teacher last year should be bottled and replicated. She was amazing. Her team-teachers this year taught with energy and sensitivity. My son, on the other hand, has suffered in education purgatory, aka Special Education. Special Education is a special hell where no one takes responsibility and the customer gets condemned and excused for performance simultaneously. Finally, we prevailed in getting him placed in a regular education classroom where his teachers and I attempted to make up for two years of under-achievement--by his teachers. He worked doubly hard this year, essentially learning two years of curriculum in one year. All that and he was described by the school as mentally retarded. Right. How many "normal" children learned their times tables up to 12 in one month?

Here's more about why home schooling appeals:

• My son does get exhausted working so hard at school, but then we spend one to two hours per night slogging through what he didn't "get" during school.
• My son cannot share when awkward or dangerous social situations occur, so we can't talk about it.
• My daughter is already talking about other girls and boys who are "boyfriend and girlfriend". There is kissing. These are second graders.
• My children can extensively discuss the injustices of slavery and the tragedy visited upon Martin Luther King, but cannot discuss the significance of democracy or freedom.
• My children can walk in line like soldiers, they can follow rules, but they are having independent thought driven out of them. What happens when they stop coming home and asking questions--all the p.c. garbage gets funneled in unchecked.
• The educational emphasis is crazy. Content that I learned in college, they're cramming in in second grade. Earth science to weather to biology to anatomy and physiology to astronomy--you name it, the scientific concept was covered. Why? I suppose it's for the 50% of kids who drop out of high school. At least they'll know the parts of a bee. Sheesh!

Anyway, these are the ideas I'm batting around. More thoughts?

Home School Flirtations

The end-of-year madness has begun. The next two weeks will be one activity after another for school and extra-curricular stuff.

And, I've had two people talk to me out-of-the-blue about home schooling. I'm torn about it. It would free us up to do some more interesting things, but I'm worried about losing my last neuron. Any thoughts?

Home schooling...
	Is a better option than public schools.
	Is a worse option than public schools.
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Germany: State Determinism

The notion of individual liberty is not German. Can you imagine a 16 year old being forcibly taken from parents because they home school? This case is disturbing on so many levels. The Dr. Speak is what bothers me the most. Can't you just hear the soothing tones of a superior cooing about what is good for you? Check out the doctor's notes.

No I.Q. tests, no physical symptoms, she is healthy and fine, but this is what the Doctors say:

Melissa Busekros was examined by us. She has a childhood emotional disorder, severe school phobia and an oppositional denial-syndrome. Melissa lacks insight into her illness and the need for treatment, and considers herself healthy and her behaviour fully normal. M. needs urgent help in a closed setting if need be, and subsequent special education treatment to ensure schooling.

As it isn't furthermore not possible for the parents to judge the danger to their daughter correctly, and make the necessary decisions about the daughter's further development or the type and length of the treatment and the schooling, the responsibility for her residence, healthcare and representation before officials and authorities should rest with the youth welfare office in Erlangen.

By reason of the ascertained findings, at the present moment, we must proceed from the assumption that the child's welfare is endangered and also the conditions for inpatient placement a therapeutic special education facility are met. By reason of the severity of the symptomatology, the provision of stable and dependable contacts with peers and adult caretakers as well as the development of Melissa's very limited mental ability to cope with pressure can only be assured in such facilities.
M. is incapable of leading the self-determined and self-structured life she wishes. The necessary measure is necessary for avoiding a considerable endangerment to her further physical and emotional development, and it can only be implemented in a special education setting, as previous experience shows that she whould avoid other measures.
In addition, M. needs professional child and adolescent psychiatric treatment and care, that can be implemented in an outpatient setting. By reason of the detected clinical-psychiatric disorders, Melissa Busekros' psychological health has already deviated from the condition which is typical for the respective age for at least one year. M. has met the requirements for granting integration assistance as per (SGB VIII) §35a, section 1, sentence 2, No. 1, because without future professional therapeutic help there is the danger that her participation in the life of society is restricted.

Her psychological health has deviated from the condition which is typical for the respective age for at least one year? Does that mean she is immature emotionally, developmentally by a year? These pictures surely demonstrate a deranged family.

Paul Belian points to this Washington Times op-ed. Read the whole thing. In case you're not absolutely convinced that Europe and America have entirely different notions of what democracy, freedom, etc. really mean, here is evidence.

Home-schooling has been illegal in Germany since Adolf Hitler outlawed it in 1938 and ordered all children to be sent to state schools. The home-schooling community in Germany is tiny. As Hitler knew, Germans tend to obey orders unquestioningly. Only some 500 children are being home-schooled in a country of 80 million. Home-schooling families are prosecuted without mercy.
Last March, a judge in Hamburg sentenced a home-schooling father of six to a week in prison and a fine of $2,000. Last September, a Paderborn mother of 12 was locked up in jail for two weeks. The family belongs to a group of seven ethnic German families who immigrated to Paderborn from the former Soviet Union. The Soviets persecuted them because they were Baptists. An initiative of the Paderborn Baptists to establish their own private school was rejected by the German authorities. A court ruled that the Baptists showed "a stubborn contempt both for the state's educational duty as well as the right of their children to develop their personalities by attending school."

And here, according to World Net Daily, is the German state's solution:

German authorities who sent 15 uniformed police officers to take custody of a 15-year-old girl who committed the crime of being homeschooled now have suggested a solution that, in their minds, would "resolve" the situation: the parents should give up custody of their other five children.

Totalitarianism begins with indoctrinating children, as Hitler well knew.

In 1937, the dictator said, "The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."

"It is beyond belief that Germany is still enforcing a law that was written for one reason only – to be used by Hitler to control and indoctrinate German youth. It had no other redeeming value," said Shoshona Bat-Zion on a homeschoolers' blog.

And here is why U.S. homeschoolers should be concerned:

A Democrat Senate and a Democrat president could ratify U.N. treaties such as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, or the European Convention on Human Rights, which is an offshoot of the U.S. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

That is the foundation being cited by the German government to ban homeschooling entirely, and to indoctrinate public and private school students into a sexualized, socialist society.

More information at the links, should you like to act.

Home Schooling Socialization

One of my concerns about home schooling, besides the fact that I'd be the teacher, is that my kids wouldn't get the variety of subjects--art, music, sports, and other group-oriented activities. I don't worry about the vague "socialization" issue. First, that assumes that school kids are social. Most I see are asocial. But I must say, some of the kids who come out of home schooling are socially strange. And I wonder about their confidence level in a competitive environment when they've never been around people to compete against.

Kim Du Toit says:

6. We wanted to control the content of what they read, or saw on TV or on the Internet. This was especially true during the pre- and early-teen years, so that we could teach them right from wrong.

Yeah, there’s a lot of control in all the above. That used to be called “parenting”, and we’re not ashamed of it. Kids are not adults: they need guidance, rules and regulation, and just as importantly, they need to know why the rules and regulations exist.

So if at some point in the future they screw up, or make mistakes, at least they’ll make them knowing that the responsibility was entirely their own, and that ignorance was not a factor.

Well, I'm not sure as a parent I'll feel less responsible for my kid's outcome because he's a public-school product. I just keep coming back to that vague weirdness thing. Maybe what is weird is unadulterated sweetness that never got beat out of them.

Via Dr. Helen