| Sunday, April 15, 2007 |
| The High Costs Of Homeschooling |
by Ricky Lim
Most people think that homeschooling is cheap since there is no need to pay for school fees and other miscellaneous fees. However, that is further than the truth.
In truth, homeschooling expenses can be greater than if you send your child to a regular public school. Public schools are partially funded by government funding whereas for homeschooling, there is no such funding available from the government. There are several non profit and support groups who do fund homeschooling but usually it is on a case by case basis.
Let’s look at some of the costs involved when homeschooling. Obviously, you still need to buy or acquire textbooks, course materials, study aids etc. Secondly, you need furniture. Examples are tables, chairs, lighting, computer equipment etc. Thirdly, include accessories such as pens, erasers and paper. Lastly, as your child progresses into higher grades, you may not be able to teach your child. As such you may need to hire a tutor which can be costly. Lastly, you should also consider any other curriculum such as dancing, piano lessons etc as these do cost quite a lot over the long run.
Also, you should also not discount the fact that one of the parents will probably not be working due to homeschooling. That means a loss of household income for the family.
These are just some of the costs associated with homeschooling. The reality of homeschooling is while it can be a good form of education for your children, you should consider the cost of homeschooling very seriously. Homeschooling is a serious commitment in both time and money. Make sure you plan ahead before proceeding.
Ricky Lim is the founder of http://www.homeschooling-guide.info where he regularly write homeschooling articles to help educators and parents. Visit his site for more Home Schooling Resources, Tips and Information |
posted by All About Home @ 6:30 PM   |
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| Saturday, April 14, 2007 |
| Making Time For Yourself While Homeschooling |
by L. D. Mairet
Making time for yourself while homeschooling seems like a dream. There are several tips that you can do to help yourself while you are staying home and giving so much to others.
First, get up an extra half hour to an hour before your children do. Make your coffee, read the newspaper, whatever you like to do just to start the day off relaxing. Eat a little breakfast to get you going. I personally enjoy sitting out on my back porch, drinking my decaf coffee, and enjoying some fresh air. Nice and relaxing not to mention quiet. Don't think about anything other than just relaxing. I know its hard because there are so many things you could be doing, but don't. Take the time for yourself. Everybody demands a lot out of you and you play so many rolls during the day, wife, mother, cook, house cleaner and educator. It's a lot of stress and you deserve the time for yourself.
Next, take about 15-20 minutes to do some exercise. If your children are awake, they can join in too. It will be great for the both of you. I know if your anything like me you dread the "E" word. I'm not telling you to go lift weights or do some extremely high impact workout. A low impact workout will do just fine. I prefer yoga for relaxation and exercise and your children will have fun with it too.
Get ready for the day. This is a step that most of us stay home moms just don't do. It's easy to not get ready for the day, or throw on a pair of sweats. However, I have found that when you get ready for the day you actually feel better about yourself and it reflects in your attitude for the day. Positive mental attitude will help give your children the best you.
Get dinner started. I know its morning but night time is a very stressful time for all families. If you have an idea of what you are making for dinner it will relieve a little stress off of you in the evening. Thaw your meat, throw in a crock pot meal, whatever you have planned for your evening meal. Now your ready to start your morning homeschool routine and your refreshed and ready to go with no worries.
In the evening, take another 30 minutes for yourself. Take a nice relaxing bath, go for a walk, write in a journal, whatever you can do to take time for yourself. Remember this time is for you. Don't do too much thinking or worrying at this time. This is time to think about NOTHING but relaxing. You can worry later!
Before you go to bed, make sure the house is clean and ready to go for tomorrow. Do your dishes so you don't have to worry about them when you get up. Set out your favorite coffee mug and get your coffee ready to start in the morning. It's going to be another refreshing day tomorrow!
About The Author
L. D. Mairet is a mother of four, former teacher with a triple major in education, and a previous educational preschool owner. You can swap and share lesson plans at her sight http://www.topchoicesite.com/free-homeschool-primary-lesson-plans-and-resource-sharing-center-html
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| posted by All About Home @ 9:33 PM |
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| Friday, April 13, 2007 |
| How To Prepare Great Homeschool Lesson Plans |
by L. D. Mairet
A key factor to preparing great homeschool lesson plans is realizing that all lesson plans are not "set in stone". Meaning that you do not have to follow a lesson plan word by word. A lesson plan should be used as a guide to help in your teachings.
Another key factor in preparing great homeschool lesson plans is realizing that yes, sometimes, your lesson plans may fail. It is what you learn from that failure that helps you to prepare future excellent homeschool lesson plans. If something doesn't work for your child, analyze it, find other ways to teach the same objective.
Get your child involved in lesson planning time with you! Set a time to go over next weeks lesson plans with your child. Tell your child what objectives you need to meet next week in each core subject area. Find out what your child wants to learn about in that area. Ask them to help pick and choose the activities that they will be learning. Not only is this great for you because your child helps while you are preparing lesson plans, but it is good for your child as well because they feel empowered over their education. Your child will be more interested in school time by helping prepare lesson plans with you.
Don't be scared to get off the subject! Be flexible in your lesson plans. If you are teaching your child and your child gets interested in a subtopic that you are teaching, go with the flow! For instance, your objective today in science is to teach your child about 3 different types of spiders. As your teaching this objective, your child becomes very interested in "Why spiders have eight legs?" Instead of telling your child "that's not what we are learning about today", why not learn about it today? This is when they are interested in it, right now. Not later, but now. Stop what you are doing and start learning. You can always go back to the three types of spiders at a later time or another day.
Always keep your child in mind while preparing lesson plans. You know your child best. Adapt prepackaged lesson plan and curriculum to meet your childs needs and interests. Teach your child the way they want to be taught, not the way you want to teach.
If you incorporate these stategies into your lesson plans you will find that your child should gain more interest in their activities ans lessons. You may get a little relief with your preparation as well. Everybodies happier and ready to learn!
About The Author
L.D. Mairet is the mother of four children, former teacher with a triple major in education, and former educational preschool owner. You can submit and share free lesson plans with other homeschool educators at her site http://www.topchoicesite.com/free-homeschool-primary-lesson-plans-and-resource-sharing-center-html.
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| posted by All About Home @ 4:22 AM |
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| Thursday, April 12, 2007 |
| The Social Aspects Of Homeschooling |
by Ricky Lim
Going to a regular school is more than just education. School kids get to mingle with their peers and teachers and in the process acquire social skills that are important when they progress into adult life.
Some critics have criticized that homeschooling does not fulfill this aspect of education. Since the child is studying alone at home, it does not give him/her the opportunity to pick up social skills. Some critics even pointed out that homeschooling children are less able to express themselves compared to the regular school goers.
However studies have shown quite the opposite. Public school children are put under fiercely competitive school environments. The net result is that they lack the confidence to initiate or hold a conversation. They do not know how to interact with other age group people. Some seems to have no social skills at all! This is indeed worrying.
On the other hand, homeschooling children are more aware of the implications and purpose of their learning. They are also able to make intelligent comments and are more attentively when studying.
The studies concluded that public school goers pick up bad influences from their peers while homeschooling children are shielded from such negative influences.
In my own opinion, homeschooling children are better prepared with the tools necessary to face the world. Being shielded from negative influences from their peers plus the positive influences from parents will help them to be more versatile and a more well-rounded individual.
Ricky Lim is the founder of http://www.homeschooling-guide.info where he regularly write homeschooling articles to help educators and parents. Visit his site for more Home Schooling Resources, Tips and Information |
| posted by All About Home @ 6:18 AM |
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| Wednesday, April 11, 2007 |
| The 10 "Be's" of Homeschooling |
by Lorraine Curry
1. BE AVAILABLE! Homeschooling is not hard, nor do the actual classes need to take much time, but it is important that your children find you available 24/7.
2. BE INTERESTED! Keep your child's heart, and their hunger for learning, by being interested in all the do and bring to you, even the worms!
3. BE A PARTNER IN LEARNING! Teach researching skills when they are young, creating a habit to serve them when older.
4. BE FLEXIBLE! Do not be so set in schedules and classes that you miss the real learning, bonding and loving experiences.
5. BE THRIFTY! Homeschooling does not have to cost an arm and a leg. God can direct you into terrific opportunities and resources for learning.
6. BE ORGANIZED! This is so important for our peace of mind! Our schools and our homes will run much smoother when we conquer this area.
7. BE DILIGENT! Consistency and schedules are important! Habit and hard work at God's priorities, teach more than we realize!
8. BE THE EXAMPLE! When our children see that we are under an Authority, and obedient to Him, they will likewise subject themselves to God's and parents' authority.
9. BE LOVING AND KIND! Maintain your peace and don't chase away the Holy Spirit by "blowing up." We can do all things through Christ! It helps to make sure you have a quiet time every morning, no matter how early you must get up!
10. BE BLESSED! Homeschooling is a wonderful opportunity and lifestyle that we would not trade for any other! Enjoy your children. Before you know it, they will be stepping out of your arms into life!
About The Author
Copyright 2006 Lorraine Curry. Lorraine Curry is the author of 5 Star books, Easy Homeschooling Techniques and Easy Homeschooling Companion. See FREE articles, checklists, copywork, subscriptions, ebooks and more at http://www.easyhomeschooling.com
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| posted by All About Home @ 3:00 AM |
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| Tuesday, April 10, 2007 |
| Homeschooling: Answers To The Most Common Misconceptions About Homeschooling |
by Steadman Issenburg
Although almost 2 million families homeschool their children, there continues to be many misconceptions about the entire process. As always, it's best to help illuminate the facts instead of feeding the misunderstandings, and so here are the answers to the most common misconceptions about homeschooling.
1. A homeschool education simply cannot compare to a more traditional one.
Actually, test scores seem to indicate that homeschooled children in general test well above average across the country regardless of income, race or the level of education of the parent.
2. Homeschooled children will not be able to get into college.
This is also a misconception as more and more colleges and universities are admitting homeschoolers into their program including such well recognized institutions as Harvard and Yale. In order to qualify for these schools, homeschooled children will most likely have to submit samples of their work, along with letters of recommendation, and CLEP and SAT test results in order to verify the quality of their education.
3. Homeschooled children are not able to develop social skills.
Many people seem to feel that if a child does not attend a public or private school, they will not be able to develop the social skills needed to function well in the adult world. However, the negative behavior problems associated with many children in the school system has been well documented in recent years, and there is no firm evidence that simply attending school helps children develop social skills that will be valuable later on in life.
Most homeschooling parents realize the need for their children to interact with others of their own age as well as adults too, and so they often arrange for well supervised activities where their children can socialize with others of many different age levels. Quite often, there are even homeschool support groups in various areas that help supply social experiences for the families that take part in their group.
4. Homeschooling is only for the wealthy as it is very expensive.
The truth is that homeschooling can be as expensive as you wish to make it. There are expensive homeschooling materials and curriculums that are available complete with video instruction. However there is no evidence that such educational materials are any more effective overall than more simple and inexpensive ones. Many families who homeschool can find excellent used books and materials online, or even make use of those that are found at the local library. At any rate, the evidence seems to suggest that homeschooled children even from the poorest families often seem to be getting a quality education and scoring well on their test scores.
5. Homeschooling is not legal.
Actually, homeschooling is legal in every state in the United States, although there are different governing requirements set out by the individual states. Some states seem to be more homeschool friendly than others, but there are successful homeschoolers in every state in the country.
If you're considering homeschooling your children, do not be surprised if you meet with opposition and resistance from family or friends who may bring up some of the misconceptions that are covered in this particular article. Hopefully the information provided here can help you better answer these misunderstandings when they arise.
Steadman Issenburg writes on many consumer related topics including education. You can find home school materials and homeschool programs and more by visiting our education website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steadman_Issenburg |
| posted by All About Home @ 2:21 AM |
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| Monday, April 09, 2007 |
| Home Schooling...A Quiet Revolution |
by Angie Hewerdine
In the last 30 years or so, a quiet revolution has begun, and it’s changing the way people look at the compulsory nature of school forever. What started out in the 60’s as a radical choice made mostly by parents concerned about the lack of religious teaching in public schools has evolved into something spectacular...something so perfect that it seems intimidating. And it’s available to any family willing to make the change.
So often, when people find out that my kids do not go to school, I get responses like “ Oh, I could NEVER do that. I’m not smart enough.” or “I don’t think I could stand being with my kids all day every day.” and “You must be really disciplined.” Truth is, I don’t have a college degree, but I am absolutely ‘smart enough’ to be a home schooling parent, and I have every right to do so. I don’t necessarily consider myself a disciplined person, either, and that is just one of the multitude or reasons why home schooling is a perfect match for our family.
There are many reasons why a family might choose home schooling over public or private school. A child may have an illness or disability for which public school cannot provide proper care. Of course, public schools try hard to be politically correct, and will do what they can to assist any children with difficulties, but it’s hard enough for one adult teacher to watch over and effectively control a class of 25 ‘normally functioning’ students, much less having one or two kids thrown in who have very special medical and physical needs.
I can think of no environment more nurturing, more secure and loving, especially for a physically ill or disabled child, than the comfort and familiarity of their own home and attentive parents. After all, who understands a child's needs better than an attentive parent?
Home schooling is perfect for Moms like me who work from home. It gives flexibility and plenty of time to spend with the amazing individual minds that society calls my children.
Perhaps the child has been labeled ADHD and put on medication. These narcotics subdue the active child, effectively enabling him to sit still longer and to ‘pay attention‘ to what the teacher deems important...a necessary requirement in school. Home schooling, however, imposes no such limitations. If your child needs to bounce, to talk, to run or even to roll, these things can be allowed and even encouraged in a home schooling environment.
The negative and long lasting effects of the commonly prescribed drugs are now coming to light. Concerned parents are becoming more skeptical of physicians quick fix diagnoses and the schools insistence that such things are required to keep the classroom ‘functioning‘....especially when it involves their own children.
Perhaps the child just doesn't excel in school, has discipline problems or just plain 'hates' it. Why make them do something they hate every day? Why not give them the joy that comes along with being free to learn on their own time and focus on what interests them?
No matter what the reason a home schooling parent gives for taking their child out of school, one thing is certain. Home schooling is growing in popularity to the point where almost everyone knows someone who is or was home schooled. It may be a quiet revolution, but it's voice is growing louder year by year.
About The Author
Angie Hewerdine is a Home Schooling Mom, Writer and Successful Home Business Owner with a driving passion for helping people change their lives. She has assisted many in recognizing and achieving their personal and financial goals. For more information she can be reached at 1-800-491-4758 or visit her website at www.TheTimeForChange.com.
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| posted by All About Home @ 10:03 PM |
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| Saturday, April 07, 2007 |
| Planning Your Homeschooling Effectively Takes Creativity |
by David Black
Homeschooling is a growing trend across North America. An estimated 1.2 million children are home schooled on a part time or full time basis currently in the United States.
Many parents make the decision to homeschool their children, and in doing so are privy to some clear benefits. Homeschooling allows you to tailor a specific education to your child's individual needs, something that is often lacking in the public or private school systems. Homeschooling also allows you and your child to learn together, creating not only a valuable learning experience but strengthening family bonds. Add to this the fact that it is often prohibitively expensive to send multiple children to private schools, and we can see why homeschooling has become increasingly popular.
One of the most important aspects of homeschooling your child is coming up with a clear plan and set of goals. One of the greatest aspects of homeschooling - its complete flexibility - can also be one of the most difficult if it is not approached directly. Without a clear plan, you run the risk of creating a scattershot education that puts your child out of place with his or her peers.
So when you begin homeschooling, you should come up with a clear set of general goals. Think about why you want to homeschool your children, and what you want them to get out of the experience. What, generally, do you want your child's education to encompass? Once you have answered these general questions for yourself, begin to split your child's education into various subject areas. For each subject area, you want to come up with a timeline and set of goals.
A good place to start in terms of a timeline would be to look at the standard curriculum for your child's grade in a public or private school. While it is almost certainly true that one of these reasons you've selected to homeschool your child is to go beyond and outside this standard curriculum, you also want to make sure that your child does not fall behind his or her peers in a given subject area.
Come up with your plan by looking at the standard expectations for a given subject level and then working backwards: how do you want to achieve that level of knowledge? What are the targets for each week? By setting these targets you can establish a timeline and curriculum that allows for effective homeschooling.
Clearly, one of the points of homeschooling is its relative flexibility, and you by no means need to stick to a plan in a completely rigid manner, but don't let this tempt you into avoiding one: although it may seem wonderful to have an entirely "organic" education for your children, this can easily go awry. If you constantly let your child's learning be dictated exclusively by his or her interests, gaps will appear in her knowledge. Instead make a clear educational plan that allows for flexibility. Plan what your child is going to learn, but leave the "how she will learn it" some breathing room: as you begin the process of homeschooling you'll learn how your child learns best, and can begin to incorporate this into the lessons.
By coming up with a clear educational plan you arm yourself with one of the most essential tools to effective homeschooling.
About The Author
David Black is giving away a free report on Tips For Home Schooling Parents on his website http://www.yourhomeschoolingtips.com/teachme/index.htm. Over 1 million children are homeschooled across the United States.
usanaking@hotmail.com |
| posted by All About Home @ 9:13 PM |
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| Friday, April 06, 2007 |
| Choosing Your Homeschool Curriculum |
by L. D. Mairet
Choosing your homeschool curriculum is by far the most important foundation of homeschooling. I strongly suggest buying a prepackaged curriculum for your base curriculum. A prepackaged curriculum will give you lesson by lesson, step by step, strategies and resources for your lesson plans. Let's face it, we're not super heroes. We can't possibly know everything in every grade level and every subject area. A prepackaged curriculum will give you a great 'core' foundation on which to teach your child.
Make sure to get a curriculum that encompasses all core subject areas for your child/ren. Core subject areas include math, science, social studies, language arts and reading. A bonus would be to find a program that includes music, art, and P.E. as well.
Make sure that all lesson plans are included in your prepackaged curriculum. Some curriculum even includes workbooks, testing, and select materials. Many companies will even allow you to view samples of their curriculum prior to purchase.
Know what you are getting into upfront. Will there be extra curriculum or materials to purchase? What about workbooks? Are they included? Ask the company to provide you a complete list of what is included in the curriculum or kit that you are buying.
Keep in mind that curriculum will be your biggest expense in your homeschool budget and sometimes cheaper is not always better. Research the value that you will be getting for your money with all curriculums you are interested in.
People ask me if they can homeschool their child without buying prepackaged curriculum. The answer is "YES". However, I would highly advise against it. As a former teacher in the public school district, I realize that having a strong curriuclum foundation base is key to your child's education.
Supplemental curriculum or lesson plan swapping and sharing, is excellent to add to your child/rens curriculum. Use your core prepackaged curriculum and then add your own ideas or other lesson plans to help reinforce the learning process. For example, your curriculum has you do a lesson plan with your child on graphing. You research other graphing ideas and find a lesson plan on graphing M&M's. This sounds like fun and now you can do both graphing projects with your child to reinforce the learning process.
Remember that the curriculum that you choose is just a foundation or building block to help guide you through the teaching process with your child/ren. You know your child the best. Adapt lesson plans to their interests for a more enjoyable learning experience.
About The Author
L. D. Mairet is a mother of four, former teacher with a triple major in education, and a previous educational preschool owner. You can swap and share lesson plans at her sight http://www.topchoicesite.com/free-homeschool-primary-lesson-plans-and-resource-sharing-center-html |
| posted by All About Home @ 5:42 PM |
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| Thursday, April 05, 2007 |
| The Top Ten Steps To Success In Homeschooling Children |
by Steadman Issenburg
Homeschooling has become very popular in recent years, but it is not for everyone. Some parents and children do extremely well in a homeschooling environment, while others seem to struggle. So what characteristics are needed for parents to be able to successfully homeschool their children? Here are some of the most important steps that lead to homeschooling success.
1. First of all, you'll want to make sure that you have a good relationship with your children and enjoy being around them quite a bit of the time. If you have lots of emotional and behavioral difficulties in interacting with your children, homeschooling may not be the best choice for you.
2. As far as academic requirements are concerned, just be sure that you know how to read, write, and handle basic math such as addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication.
3. Having good communication skills is also vital to being a good parent teacher, so try to develop your listening and speaking skills as much as possible.
4. One important quality to cultivate in order to be successful in homeschooling your children is patience. Unless you are an extremely impatient person, you should be able to develop this quality to the point where you can successfully teach.
5. Developing observational skills is important to successful homeschooling as well. You need to be able to determine when a child needs extra help and attention in certain areas by simple observation.
6. Of all the qualities needed for homeschooling, perhaps the one that has more of a bearing on your success is developing a sense of humor. You need to be able to keep the daily lessons as fun as you can, and be willing to laugh at yourself, not taking yourself and the children too seriously.
7. Being persistent in the face of opposition can be very important to homeschooling success as well, as many families face resistance from family or friends that can sometimes be very discouraging. However, perseverance in the face of this opposition can oftentimes cause them to accept your decision later on.
8. Having the ability to organize and prioritize your daily schedule and activities is a very big ingredient for success in homeschooling. It will often seem as if there is not enough time in the day to get both your schoolwork and housework taken care of. The better your organization skills in this area, the better results you'll usually get.
9. Having both parents united in the desire to homeschool their children is an incredibly important step for success. If one is not sure about the process or is openly opposed, it can easily turn into a recipe for failure.
10. As your children grow you'll need to be able to be flexible enough to adjust your teaching methods and styles to be able to be most effective with each new lesson.
Of course, there are no perfect parent teachers, but if you continue to develop the traits listed above, they can help lead you along the pathway to homeschooling success.
Steadman Issenburg writes on many consumer related topics including education. You can find homeschool worksheets and used homeschool books and more by visiting our education website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steadman_Issenburg |
| posted by All About Home @ 7:13 AM |
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| Wednesday, April 04, 2007 |
| Home Schooling – There Are Some Disadvantages |
by Kris Koonar
There are a number of advantages to home schooling your children. They get the educational material you know they should be getting. They get the one-on-one attention you know they deserve. Moreover, they don't encounter any of the problems with schools today like drugs and bullies. While you may know about the advantages, you should certainly take some time to think about the disadvantages to this method of educating your children before you enroll them in your personal academy.
If you think you are ready to home school your children, consider the following. First, think about whether or not you are truly ready to stay at home and spend hours on end instructing your child. Don't forget that being an instructor involves subject area research, create a curriculum, and assessing your child's competence. Next, think about whether or not you truly have the effective teaching skills necessary to help your child understand the concepts you are attempting to teach. You should also make sure that you are able to offer your child subject material that is correct. Furthermore, be sure that you truly understand your child from an academic standpoint. Knowing your child's strengths and weaknesses is an important part of the educational process. In addition to academics, part of the importance of school is socialization. If you are unable to provide activities for you child to help with the socialization process, home schooling probably is not for you. The last thing you should consider is whether or not you feel you can be solely held responsible for your child's education and knowledge.
Home schooling may seem like the perfect answer to your child's education problems, but unless you can competently provide instruction and socialization activities, it would be best to steer clear of the entire process. You want your child to get a good education to help them get a solid start in life, and you simply cannot do that if you are unprepared to dedicate yourself to your child's education.
If you need more information visit http://www.citizenschool.com to learn about Home Schooling and a High School Diploma or if you prefer phone 1-800-736-GRAD (4723) or email studentservices@citizenschool.com. Internet Marketing done by Crackmarketing.com
About The Author
Kris Koonar is President of Crack Marketing (www.crackmarketing.com) leading a team of Internet Marketing Consultants with over 5 years of experience and 100's of projects. He is also writer of an Internet Marketing Course called "The Website MBA" (www.websitemba.com). Kris can be contacted at 1.877.270.7170 or kris@crackmarketing.com.
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| posted by All About Home @ 4:46 PM |
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| Monday, April 02, 2007 |
| 35,000 Lost to Schooling |
Madeleine Brettingham
One in four parents who home-educate children provides little or no teaching
As many as 35,000 home-schooled children are not receiving even a basic education from their parents, according to inspectors, prompting calls for a change in the law.
Despite the stereotype of creative middle-class parents educating their children at the kitchen table, a quarter of home-schooled children are doing little or no work, officials claimed.
Tony Mooney, a home education inspector with seven years’ experience, said: “Schools are told in such fine detail what they need to teach and yet parents can get away with doing nothing at all.”
Local authority inspectors fear some families are using home education as an excuse to evade problems with bullying, poor attendance or disruptive behaviour. They are also concerned that child welfare could slip through the net because parents are not obliged to agree to home visits.
Eunice Spry, the foster mother convicted last week of abusing her children by forcing them to drink bleach and beating them with a metal bar, had withdrawn her children from formal schooling.
Up to 150,000 children in England are estimated to be home-educated. Figures are inexact because families are under no obligation to notify their council. Although many home-educators are committed individuals who see home-schooling as a way of developing their child’s interests, inspectors estimate about a quarter of parents provide nothing.
Myra Robinson, an inspector with nine years’ experience, regularly sees children who have been withdrawn from school for an inadequate alternative. “All the rights are in favour of the parent,” she said. “But who is going to stand up for the rights of the child?”
The circumstances of a significant proportion of home-schooled children are “a real cause for concern”, she said. Recent cases include a boy with learning difficulties who was unable to speak coherently by the age of five, or write his name by 10, and received no visible support.
Other pupils were unable to produce work samples on demand or demonstrate an understanding of basic skills, despite parents’ claims about their level of education.
“One girl said she worked in the library but didn’t seem to know where it was,” Ms Robinson said.
Laws on home-schooling are relaxed and parents are under no obligation to follow the national curriculum, set a timetable or agree to a local authority inspection. Inspectors would like the Government to tighten the law. But home-schooling organisations are keen to protect parents’ freedoms.
Anne Newstead, a spokeswoman for the charity Education Otherwise, admitted some parents were using the home-schooling label as an excuse, but said: “We shouldn’t all be tarred with the same brush.
“We know, for example, that some schools are encouraging parents of persistent truants to register as home educators to get their attendance figures up. This sort of thing isn’t good for the majority of parents who do the right thing.”
The Department for Education and Skills said it had been considering proposals to change the regulation of home-schooling but had no plans to publish them in the near future.
from http://www.tes.co.uk |
| posted by All About Home @ 5:05 AM |
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| Sunday, April 01, 2007 |
| German Homeschooler Accused of 'School Phobia,' Removed From Family |
by Eva Cahen
CNSNews.com Correspondent
March 30, 2007
Paris, France (CNSNews.com) - Homeschooling advocates and religious freedom campaigners are outraged over a decision by German officials to force a teenager into a foster home after taking her from her family because she was being homeschooled.
Fifteen police officers took 16-year-old Melissa Busekros from her family home in the Bavarian city of Erlangen last month and placed her in a psychiatric ward for evaluation.
According to published reports, she was diagnosed with "school phobia" and described as having too much devotion to her father and his beliefs. She was also criticized for showing unconditional solidarity with her family.
Youth welfare officials have now placed the teenager in a foster home in a secret location, and she is only allowed supervised visits with her family for one hour a week.
Germany has a compulsory education law, and school attendance is mandatory.
German homeschooling advocates report that parents who teach their children at home have had to pay fines and in some cases have lost custody of their children.
Joerg Grosseluemern of the Network for Freedom in Education in Germany said Melissa's case is the worst he has ever seen. Officials probably resorted to the psychiatric ward to take her away from her parents, he alleged, because at 16, she is no longer obliged to attend school.
Grosseluemern said Germany's mandatory schooling law dates from the Third Reich when Adolf Hitler wanted the state to indoctrinate children in the Nazi philosophy.
"Today, politicians say homeschooling creates parallel societies,' he told Cybercast News Service . "They are afraid that parents who have their own views will isolate their children from the rest of the world and will live their lives isolated from society.
"But that is not happening in countries where many children are being homeschooled, like in the United States or Great Britain," Grosseluemern argued.
The Busekros family has five other children, but Melissa was the only one being homeschooled. Her parents decided to teach her at home in 2004, when her school wanted her to repeat seventh grade after getting poor grades.
Youth welfare authorities were unable to take action until recently, because she spent the following year studying in Australia.
Although in Melissa's case, the family's motivation for homeschooling was based on disagreement with the school system, Joel Thornton, president of the International Human Rights Group, said that faith might also be a factor in German authorities' opposition to homeschooling.
"The primary movement in Germany that is homeschooling right now is religious-based and that may be part of the reason for the hostility," Thornton said.
Authorities may also have been confused, he said, because there is a Baptist church located on the bottom floor of the building where the family lives - though they do not belong to it.
Homeschooling is allowed throughout most of Europe, even if it is heavily regulated, but there is quite a bit of hostility against Evangelical churches, which are often viewed as sects, Thornton said.
In Melissa's case, most of the support for the family has come from German homeschooling advocates or international religious groups. German religious groups have mostly stayed out of the case, he said.
"There is fear in Germany when you challenge the government," explained Thornton.
He noted, however, that the most important task was to reunite Melissa with her family.
"The long term fight is to legalize homeschooling in Germany - regulate it if you want but decriminalize it. The short term [fight], in this instance, is to get Melissa back to her family," Thornton said.
Other than the weekly visits, the family is not allowed to communicate with Melissa. According to the family, authorities refused to allow her to see letters of support sent to her from around the world, claiming they might be "dangerous.
"The family is fighting to regain custody of their daughter and have filed a civil action against the government officials who took Melissa from her home - illegally, they claim.
from http://www.cnsnews.com |
| posted by All About Home @ 5:16 PM |
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