{"id":16,"date":"2011-01-10T00:05:50","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T00:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mediarhetoric.com\/blog\/?p=16"},"modified":"2012-06-18T21:04:26","modified_gmt":"2012-06-18T21:04:26","slug":"guest-post-theresa-bond-a-familys-decision-to-homeschool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mediarhetoric.com\/blog\/guest-post-theresa-bond-a-familys-decision-to-homeschool\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post (Theresa Bond)–A Family’s Decision to Homeschool"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was honored to have been asked by my friend Theresa Bond to write a guest post <\/a> on her blog Our Life In Words <\/a>about my thoughts on what home school children need to learn before attending college.<\/p>\n

To start off my academic blog, \u00a0I wanted to ask Theresa why she started to homeschool and her thoughts about the overall educational system. In this post I think you will find lots of insight into one parents concerns and how she hopes her girls get the education they deserve.<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoy Theresa’s post. I think scholars everywhere can learn more about the decisions of homeschooling and stand behind parents who are not only caring for their children, but also educating. I hope you will start to follow Theresa because she has a lot of insight on what goes on before they hit the college classroom.<\/p>\n

\n
Thank you, Janet, I am honored to be your first guest blogger and to discuss something that is near and dear to my heart: the American education system.<\/p>\n

This year, after five years in the public education system, my husband and I elected to withdraw our two daughters, ages 8 and 10 from public school and to educate them at home. \u00a0When our girls were little, I had dreamed of volunteering in their classrooms and their school, working hand in hand with their teachers to hone their skills and helping them with science projects and book reports. \u00a0When our oldest daughter began school, we learned that as a result of safety concerns schools are locked and parents are not permitted past the school office. \u00a0I was classroom mom, but that meant, in some instances just dropping off a craft for Halloween or December Recess party. \u00a0There were no opportunities to volunteer in the classrooms, because all of the children\u2019s time is spent on rigorous academics to prepare for state standardized tests.<\/p>\n

Beginning in second grade, from the first day of school kids are reminded daily that they will be taking a very important test in the spring. \u00a0Every assignment is preparation for that test. \u00a0Teachers complain that they don\u2019t get to be creative in their classrooms because they need to cover everything on the test so that their students are familiar with various topics when they appear on the test. \u00a0Children are given monthly benchmarks to predict how they will do on these tests and where they need extra help. \u00a0In theory this sounds great. \u00a0In practice, it puts a lot of stress on educators and that stress transfers to the children.<\/p>\n

I am a reference librarian. \u00a0I have always been a voracious reader, as is my husband. \u00a0We seldom watch television, we are usually found with a book in our hand. \u00a0When our girls were little, \u00a0I spent hours reading to them, looking at the pictures, predicting what would happen next, discussing things like \u201cwhat would you do if this character came over for a playdate?\u201d \u00a0My girls were both starting to read before they started school and they enjoyed it. \u00a0They soon saw it as a chore. \u00a0I was told that they were not good at inference, when they were told that a troll lived under a bridge and parents warned their children not to play with the troll, but one boy did and what did they think happened? \u00a0My daughter answered that she thought the troll would be nice to the boy and be his friend. \u00a0She was six. \u00a0The teacher emailed me to tell me that this was an inappropriate response. \u00a0She had been told that the parents warned their children about the troll. \u00a0\u201cBut she is thinking of fairy tales and Disney movies and Shrek, \u201cI explained. \u00a0To which the teacher answered, \u201cThe test doesn\u2019t want her to consider fairy tales, Disney movies and Shrek, they want her to only consider the information she is given.\u201d \u00a0I could understand that. \u00a0I could go along with that.<\/p>\n

But over time, I started to wonder, if all of these kids are expected to think the exact same way, who will be our future leaders? \u00a0Who will be our medical pioneers? \u00a0Our entrepreneurs? \u00a0Our innovators?<\/p>\n

As time marched on, I saw how the effects of the stress of these tests affected my daughters. \u00a0My younger daughter vomited every Sunday evening. \u00a0I kept her home on Monday, but she was fine. \u00a0It was nerves. \u00a0My older daughter worked with her guidance counselor for test anxiety, and still on the first day of the NJ ASK in fourth grade, she woke up screaming that she could not see. \u00a0At first, I was panic stricken, then I realized that it was nerves over the test.<\/p>\n

I began to notice other things as well. \u00a0The teachers no longer taught for mastery, but just to introduce the concept so that it was not foreign when they children saw it on the standardized tests, they hoped that some would get it correct. \u00a0My girls\u2019 teachers spent one week in second grade on multiplication facts. \u00a0That was it. \u00a0One week. \u00a0Then they had to move on to fractions, decimals, percents, metric conversions, volume, etc.<\/p>\n

I am a reference librarian now, but my undergraduate degree is in psychology and sociology. \u00a0I understand various educational concepts. \u00a0I could see a benefit to spiral instruction, but I didn\u2019t really see it working. \u00a0I saw it making my children more anxious because they knew that they did not really understand it. \u00a0I was given the option of paying for tutors for them, but decided that I would work with them \u00a0myself over one summer. \u00a0Both of my girls advanced 4 reading levels in 10 weeks, they had only progressed 4 reading levels the previous 10 months and only progressed 2 and 4 reading levels respectively in the next ten months.<\/p>\n

I saw concepts being introduced in their classrooms: airplanes, World War II, and animal life and my girls would come home and research these topics on the computer by themselves and create their own booklets about them. \u00a0They had a natural curiosity, a desire to learn and research.<\/p>\n

After realizing that we accomplished more in one summer than they had in the previous or proceeding years, we didn\u2019t want their natural curiosity quashed and we began researching homeschooling in earnest. \u00a0We read blogs. \u00a0We joined a local yahoo group. \u00a0We sough out other homeschoolers. \u00a0We researched curriculum. \u00a0And we decided that we could do this.<\/p>\n

It has been the best experience of our lives, next to having kids, of course.<\/p>\n

We look forward to each day.<\/p>\n

My girls are voracious readers, devouring books. \u00a0Sometimes they choose the book, sometimes I do. \u00a0Sometimes I pick a genre and they pick a book within that genre. \u00a0We discuss the plot and sub plot and characters. \u00a0We use story maps and character webs. \u00a0Sometimes, the girls write book reviews for their blogs. \u00a0Other times, they write what they think the main character\u2019s favorite movie or song or television show would be and they defend their answer with information from the story.<\/p>\n

Both of my girls love to write. \u00a0They write stories all the time. \u00a0In school, my third grader would be expected to write a five paragraph essay, but I am not sure if three years of schooling is enough preparation for effectively writing at that level, so we have broken it down. \u00a0We work on organizing our writing, we work on different kinds of paragraphs. \u00a0We work on word choice. \u00a0With only two students, I can give them each the individual help that they need.<\/p>\n

Our math program, Teaching Textbooks, has won awards. \u00a0It is all on the computer. \u00a0There is a lecture and then some practice questions, based on how a student does there are exercise questions and extra help available on-line.<\/p>\n

We all love our history program, Story of the World. \u00a0It presents history chronologically as a narrative. \u00a0My girls were fascinated with out study of Egypt. \u00a0We made a model of the Nile and flooded it, we made scrolls and wrote our names in cuneiform, we had an Egyptian feast, we watched BBC documentaries. \u00a0We were fortunate enough to see the King Tut exhibit in Manhattan. \u00a0On their own, my girls built a pyramid with legos and \u201cburied\u201d treasures inside, they made a sarcophagus out of clay and begged to watch the documentaries again.<\/p>\n

I have not found a science curriculum that I love yet. \u00a0I want something with a lot of experiments. \u00a0I admit that I did not enjoy science in school, but have come to realize that was because it was all rote memorization and I didn\u2019t really understand it. \u00a0We are part of a homeschool co-op with a wonderful science teacher who does experiments that really make science make sense, even to me! \u00a0On our own, we have worked through several science kits, which have taught chemistry concepts.<\/p>\n

We took part of the month of December off and I had an opportunity to reflect and evaluate what is working and what is not. \u00a0We are starting this term a little more laid back, allowing things to happen, connections to be made, spending time on the areas we are interested in or where we are struggling. \u00a0Today, my younger daughter and I spent more time on her writing assignment from yesterday because she was not understanding it. \u00a0A couple of days ago, my girls had some extra time, so they created a village for their American girl dolls, which they blogged about here and here, after editing the photos with photo editing software. \u00a0My husband asked them who the mayor of the village was, which lead to a discussion of the role of the mayor and why organization and representation are important. \u00a0I think this kind of learning, that is tailor made to the child\u2019s needs will benefit them greatly. \u00a0I think my girls will be confident, know how and where to get information and how to defend a statement.<\/p>\n

It is our purpose to allow the girls to explore their interests as well as the core curriculum of language arts, math, science and history. \u00a0I have heard of home school children with on-line businesses. \u00a0Our girls are interested in fashion and jewelry making; our oldest daughter loves to make things with fimo clay. \u00a0Our girls have the time to pursue these interests. \u00a0We are considering starting an etsy account, where they can learn presentation, as well as money management and a whole host of things involved with running a cottage business.<\/p>\n

I see the issues with homeschooling and we try to address them, by being part of a homeschool co-op, where they have friends and experience different teaching styles. \u00a0My girls take sewing and music lessons, we are part of a homeschool park group and I have the ability to run a homeschool program at the library where I work. \u00a0Also, once a week, I start school at 3pm and the girls come with me and hang out with some of their friends from school who come to the library after school.<\/p>\n

I think homeschooling is the best of all worlds. \u00a0We can see where our kids need extra help and find ways of offering it. \u00a0I have heard it said before that no one cares about their child\u2019s education more than the parents. \u00a0In that vein, as our girls grow, we can look for new ways for them to explore the world and hone their critical and higher order thinking skills, so that by the time they enter the college classroom they are eager to learn in their chosen field of study.<\/p>\n

We are taking homeschooling one year at a time. \u00a0Right now, both girls are saying that they want to homeschool forever, but that may change and that would be fine. \u00a0\u00a0Much of the research I have done on homeschool through high school suggests that some, if not most, of homeschool high school is self-led, a combination of on-line, distance learning and a student deciding what they want to learn, researching the curriculum and learning on their own. \u00a0I hope that if my girls decide to homeschool though high school that they will have the self-discipline necessary for this kind of learning, although I am sure that many parents monitor this type of learning to keep the student on track. \u00a0I am sure we will figure that out when -and if- the time comes. \u00a0Should they opt to homeschool through high school, starting at age 16, our state allows any student to take 6 credits at the community college level. \u00a0I would like to see the girls take laboratory sciences at the community college, as well as other classes in which they are interested. \u00a0\u00a0In our state, those credits combined with a passing score on the HSPA (High School Proficiency Assessment) allows a homeschool student to get a general state high school diploma (not a GED). \u00a0I also know students who have presented portfolios of their work to colleges and were granted admission at both Rutgers University.<\/p>\n

We talk to the girls about career choices and college often. \u00a0We would like to see them both go to college, however where they go and what they choose to do will be up to them. \u00a0We are working on developing skills, such as critical thinking and research skills that can be built upon over the next several years in an effort to prepare the girls for university. \u00a0I would hope that with experiences of teaching them how to research what they want to learn about, having the time and the freedom in a relaxed environment to make connections, the higher order and critical thinking skills that we work on in a variety of ways and taking on challenges in a non-competitve environment will give our girls the confidence and desire to learn and take on more challenges in the college classroom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n