Here We Go Again

Here we go again another school official (County School Attendance Officer Dave E. Collins III) is trying to give homeschoolers a bad name (Probably because he is afraid of losing his job). His complaint "Last summer, we had two couples out in the county who were home-schooling their kids. I think one kid was 16 and one kid was about 14 or 15. The kids were working on the farm in the day. The law does not allow us to question the parents. The way the law is written, the parents could circumvent the law by claiming they are home-schooling the children at night."

And what would be wrong with homeschooling your children at night? Many public school students hold after school jobs. So why can't a homeschooling family work on their farm during the day and homeschool at night? The law is 100% right in NOT allowing school attendance officers to dictate when a homeschooler can homeschool.

Another complaint Collins has "Another frequent problem is that of students who dropout of public school during the year and then register with school attendance officers to be home-schooled. What is the problem? Should parents be forced to keep their children in a unsuitable public school until the end of the school year, just so Collins will not have to do extra work? Public school students are free to transfer to another public school at anytime during the school year. Parents should have the option of deciding to homeschool at any point in the school year. After all, lots of parents do not know the condition of the public schools until after their children start attending them. And even if you are perfectly happy with the school one year you may not be the next. All public school teachers are not suitable teachers.

Then he goes on to rant about how a public school parent couldn't get her son out of bed in order to go to school and had to call the police. What on earth does that have to do with homeschoolers? You can bet a homeschool Mom could have gotten her kid out of bed without police intervention.

2005-2006 School year

This is an exciting year for us. Our 16 year old son is going to the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gautier, where he will be studying Computer Science. We are very proud of him, he scored high enough on his ACT to get early admission as well as a full scholarship. The early admission deal meant minimum paperwork for this homeschool mom to fill out. Although I do recommend transcripts for students in Jr High and High School. It doesn't have to be anything fancy just the student's name, social security number, birth date, and ACT/SAT scores along with the courses taken and the GPA.

I have a pretty heavy workload for my remaining homeschool student. We will be studying:

Physical Geography

Runkle World Physical Geography Set w/Hardcover Text & Teachers Guide

(Supplemented with The Learning Companion by Southwestern http://www.southwestern.com/site/common/Products.aspx )

Art Appreciation - 1st Semester

Music Appreciation -2nd Semester

Physical Education - U16 Soccer with Ocean Springs Soccer Organization http://www.oceanspringssoccer.org/

Criminalistics - 1st Semester

Criminalistics - An Introduction To Forensic Science AP by Prentice Hall

Driver's Education - 2nd Semester

Drive Right Driver Education - Student Workbook with Answer Key by Prentice Hall

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/drive_right/

Algebra I Review and then Saxon Algebra II

http://saxonpublishers.harcourtachieve.com/en-US/saxonpublishers.htm

The British Tradition Literature and the Language Arts (EMC Masterpiece Series)

http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/index.php?GroupID=1027

Biology

Living Environment Biology Set w/Student Text & Teachers Guide by Amsco

* Those listed in RED were purchased at the Homeschool Supercenter http://homeschoolsupercenter.com/shop.php

Virtual Schools & Lesson Plans

A K-12 Virtual School

http://www.3dlearn.com/about/index.htm

Some websites that offer lesson plans:

http://www.indianastandardsresources.org/

http://worldbook.com/

http://www.kidzone.ws/

Writing http://www.writingfix.com/

Activities for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince http://www.teachersfirst.com/share/hogwarts/prince/?CFID=1183657&CFTOKEN=75862476

Lesson plans for Lord of the Rings

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/lordoftheringstrilogy/lessons/

Lesson Plans for The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000775.shtml

Learn Calligraphy http://cmcgavren.home.sprynet.com/chiselpt.html

Home Schools Run By Caring Parents

As a homeschool Mother I found Dave Arnold’s article “Home Schools Run By Well-Meaning Amateurs” insulting. What are Mr. Arnold’s credentials? He is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois. So where does a janitor get off thinking he knows what is best for my child, or anyone else's? Maybe HE doesn’t have the skills necessary to homeschool; but I and many other homeschool parents certainly do.

There are many resources available to homeschool parents. If we don’t know enough about a certain subject we are free to engage tutors for our children, enter co-op arrangements with other homeschool parents, find on-line resources, etc. After all the one thing all homeschool parents have in common is we want the best education possible for our children. I am sure it would surprise Mr. Arnold no end to know that some homeschool parents are retired schoolteachers, who have seen first hand what an abysmal failure the public school system is.

And not all public school teachers are fit to teach. My fourth grade teacher was verbally abusive, my eleventh grade English Teacher didn’t know proper grammar, ask around most people know at least one public school teacher that has no business teaching.

Homeschooling isn’t as difficult as it looks. All you need are organizational skills, and a desire to do what is best for your child. A mega dose of patience helps. After all who knows your child best you are some stranger who has 25 or more other kids in their class to worry about?

Socialization, gee I thought I was sending my kids to school to get an education? Most public schools no longer allow their students to talk in the halls or to talk at lunch so exactly when are these students suppose to be socializing?? There are many opportunities for children to socialize besides schools; recreational sports, church youth groups, and Scouts are just some groups your children can be involved in. And many homeschoolers belong to homeschool groups that get together for park days and field trips. With IM students can even pass notes in class, even if their fellow classmate lives in another city.

Considering what an abysmal failure today’s public schools are doing educating our children parents have every right to seek the best education for their children; rather it’s a private school or homeschooling.

Socialization

When will you children have a chance to socialize? Home-school critics ask. The answer is simple they socialize when we go to church, when our home-school groups get together for field trips, when they go to their youth groups, when they play recreational sports, and when they get together with their friends to just "hang-out".

My youngest son's soccer team won first place in the U14B District Soccer Competition in Gulfport, MS this year and went on to the State Competition in Tupelo, MS.

Link to Ocean Springs Soccer Organizations website http://www.oceanspringssoccer.org/

Why home-school?

Home-schoolers, home -school for a variety of reasons. I home -school because we felt like the Jackson County Public Schools were failing our children, and that we could do a better job educating them. We must have been right our 16 year old starts college this August. He scored a 28 on the ACT and was eligible for early admission.

The advantages of home-schooling
1. Allows students to work at their own pace.
2. Allows students to study in depth areas that really interest them.
3. A flexible schedule
4. One on One instruction.

How can you home-school?

First register your children with the school attendance officer for your school district as home-schooled. Mississippi laws concerning home-schooling http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp?State=MS

Second choose your curriculum. I use the HomeSchool SuperCenter http://homeschoolsupercenter.com/shop.php

Third find a support group. One I recommend is the PEAK Group for the Gulf Coast http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peakgroupgc/