“Portage forum allows homeschoolers to share experiences” plus 3 more

Portage forum allows homeschoolers to share experiences
Alternative form of homeschooling offers little structure, free-spirited learning
Springfield teacher pay proposal off the table
Reid's Tea Party-Backed Rival Preps For TV Interview

Portage forum allows homeschoolers to share experiences

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 07:50 AM PDT

Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 10:45 AM

PORTAGE — Homeschooling provides a chance to bond families together and use everyday life as a learning opportunity, veteran homeschoolers said in a recent forum at the Portage Public Library.

"How can dads be involved?" moderator Mike Winblad asked on behalf of an anonymous audience member.

Jerry and Barb Barret, of Mattawan, were the first to offer guidance from a panel that included Gary and Pam Jones, of Portage, and Pete and Judy Garrison, of Paw Paw.

"He transports the kids everywhere and he offers a lot of curriculum support," Barb Barret said of her husband.

Pete Garrison added the importance of a father's presence after the workday is done.

"A lot of guys play golf after work with their friends," he said. "But it's importance to be home in the evening because Mom has been with the kids all day."

Gary Jones stressed that homeschooling is a full-time career that lasts for years.

"It's a job," he said. "My wife does it every day, just like going to work."

Barb Barret has 12 children and has homeschooled 10 of them for a decade. She discussed the balance and benefits of caring for younger ones while she teaches some of the rest.

"The older kids interact with the younger ones while I teach," she said. "Because of that, they have a very strong bond."

Pam Jones added another example.

"The younger kids really benefit from homeschooling," she said. By the time they get to the lesson, they've already heard it two or three times and they know the answer."

Barb Barret offered an unusual situation that turned out to benefit her children.

"I was stopped by the police for speeding," she said. "I just told him the honest truth instead of arguing or getting defensive. He let me go without a ticket and I the kids learned how important it is to tell the truth. Everything is a teaching lesson."

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Alternative form of homeschooling offers little structure, free-spirited learning

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 09:00 PM PDT

Photo by Submitted

Caitlyn Lemmon gets artsy making Onigiri, or rice balls, while her sister Allyson assists.

Read unschooling mom Amy Lemmon's blog.

Photo by Submitted

Sam Lemmon digs in while learning a little bit about gardening.

Amy Lemmon says every day is different for her six children. Not only are they all homeschooled, but Lemmon describes their education as unschooling.

Basically, the stay-at-home mom uses what's going on around her to educate her children, 1-year-old Willy, 2-year-old Sam, 4-year-old Rick, 9-year-old Jacob, 12-year-old Allyson and 15-year-old Caitlyn.

"I really believe our daily life is education," she said. "I really believe whatever we do, whether we go to the grocery store and have the kids price shop and do math ... everything is learning. It doesn't have to happen at a desk, in my opinion."

The website unschooling.com describes the approach. "Generally, unschoolers are concerned with learning or becoming educated, not with 'doing school.' The focus is upon the choices made by each individual learner, and those choices can vary according to learning style and personality type. There is no one way to unschool."

Unschooling coach Tara Wagner, who travels full time in a Winnebago with her family, described it as an extension of homeschooling. "Unschooling is a form of home education, which is legal in all 50 states," she said. "However, each state will differ in their laws regarding homeschoolers. Some may require annual testing, while others may ask for a portfolio to be kept and still others recognize home education as a civil right free from state oversight."

Amy Hamby-Scott, who is a part of Home School Support at Knoxville Christian School, said in Tennessee, homeschoolers have to umbrella through a school. "They rely on the school system that they're umbrella-ing under to determine if they're homeschooling (the students)," Hamby-Scott explained. So if the school requires testing, the students test there, but the requirements are specific to the umbrella school. This also goes for unschoolers, she said.

The Lemmons use HomeLife Academy. She submits a curriculum to them for their approval, and she gets to choose her own books and materials. She submits grades and attendance online.

The structure of unschooling depends on the teacher, Hamby-Scott said. "One day you might go to a museum and look at art, and that's your schooling for the day." Some work on a subject per day, she said, whether it's art, life skills or going to the grocery store to do math.

Lemmon uses everyday opportunities to help educate her children. Right now she and her husband, Dan, and the children are moving from South Knoxville to Kingston. "So we're talking a lot about distance and mileage," she explained. She often has her children cook with her, which is how they learned about fractions.

"The concept is life is a teachable moment," Hamby-Scott said. "Every aspect of life is a teachable moment."

For Lemmon, that means looking at different subjects and introducing lots of topics to go with her children's interests. For example, one of her daughters is interested in drawing, so she tries to use the arts to get her interested in different subjects.

"Typically my schedule really varies a lot," Lemmon said. "The one thing we do a little more formal is math, and they're required do to a certain amount of math a week, depending on their age." She said they also have varied amounts of reading per day. Instead of using textbooks, they use library books and novels.

"When they have a question, my goal is to provide the tools to find the answers," she said.

She thinks unschooling is what is best for her family. "I think it's a great way to teach children because I believe that there is education happening all the time," she said.

Lemmon said she supports public schools. However, she said, "... I think there are a lot of flaws in our system. I think we spend too much time teaching children for the test and don't help students find the answers for themselves. ... There might not always be one answer to a question."

Hamby-Scott agreed education doesn't have to occur conventionally. "You don't necessarily have to sit at a desk with your eyes on your teacher and do worksheets. You are experiencing teaching through life."

However, Hamby-Scott does not unschool her children. She focuses on the classical homeschool approach instead. "I'm also a teacher by profession, and you know, we do worksheets and sit at a desk and say the Pledge of Allegiance and do multiplication tables."

Hamby-Scott thinks, though, while unschooling and homeschooling are different, some things do still match up. "I'm always in a teaching mode. ... I guess we're all sort of unschoolers."

Wagner, who has a blog, theorganicsister.com, encouraged parents interested in unschooling to get to know their child's interests. "Play, value and enjoy them together," she said. "They are important and so is our involvement." She also suggested to create a fun environment for learning and build on the child's interests while helping to facilitate new ones. Above all, she said to set an example for life-long learning. "Have fun and embrace the creativity, diversity and excitement that life - and unschooling - has to offer."

Jessica Boyd can be reached at 865-342-6369.

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Springfield teacher pay proposal off the table

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 09:20 AM PDT

The latest revision of the 2010-11 Springfield Public Schools' operating budget does not include an across-the-board raise for employees.

The proposal, which is expected to be presented at the school board meeting tonight, no longer includes a 0.5 percent pay increase for employees.

The amount would have offset a contribution increase to the state retirement program.

According to an agenda item for the meeting, states:

"While a minimal salary increase had been under consideration, the govenor's recent cut in state funding to the district of $850,000 has resulted in no salary increase, except for the increase due to advance degrees, in the proposed budget."

The proposal does include money to give a pay bump to the employees who earn advance degrees.

The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. today in the new Kraft Administrative Center, 1359 E. St. Louis. It's the first meeting in the new district headquarters.

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Reid's Tea Party-Backed Rival Preps For TV Interview

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 03:52 AM PDT

There's a sentence that crops up in nearly every article about Nevada's Republican senate nominee: Sharron Angle declined to be interviewed for this story.

The Tea Party favorite is challenging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. So far, she's generally avoided the mainstream media, mostly giving interviews on Fox News and conservative talk radio. But on Tuesday, she will answer questions from veteran Nevada political journalist Jon Ralston on his TV program Face to Face.

There is much curiosity about Angle despite her long political track record in Nevada. She has organized grassroots campaigns on such issues as homeschooling and cutting property taxes, and served four terms as a member of the state Assembly representing the Reno area.

"She was just a fairly marginal legislator, who didn't get much done," Ralston says.

He says she voted no so often that "the joke in a 42-member Assembly where the votes were unanimous or nearly unanimous is that there were several 41-to-Angle votes."

Devoted Conservative Base

As Angle has avoided the mainstream media, reporters have picked over her earlier statements, especially on conservative radio programs. During a call into one of them, she argued that the purpose of the Second Amendment right to bear arms is to enable citizens to protect themselves from the government.

"If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies," Angle said. "They're saying, 'My goodness, what can we do to turn this country around?'"

That comment on "Second Amendment remedies" led the Las Vegas Sun to editorialize that Angle "has no business being in the U.S. Senate."

But her conservative base is devoted. She's a small-government, tax-cutting die-hard. She has talked about eliminating the Departments of Energy and Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. And, when she was part of a candidate debate on Ralston's show before the primary, she said Social Security and Medicare should be phased out.

"We need to phase Medicare and Social Security out in favor of something privatized," she said.

That philosophy earned Angle crucial support form the anti-tax Club for Growth and the Tea Party Express. But since she won the primary, she sounds a bit different. On Fox and Friends, she called the idea that she wanted to get rid of Social Security "nonsense."

"What we need to do is personalize Social Security and Medicare so the government can no longer raid it," she said.

Moderating Her Stance

Some Nevadans see the influence of Washington in Angle's more moderate rhetoric. She did spend the week after the primary on Capitol Hill.

"She made a very good impression when she's met a number of the Republican senators for the first time," said Brian Walsh, communications director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "She talked about what her campaign message is going to be which is focusing on Harry Reid's failed record as a leader for 27 years."

Reid has become increasingly unpopular as Nevada's economy has tanked and unemployment there has reached 14 percent. But since the primary, he has wasted no time in portraying Angle as "wacky".

Ralston says Reid's trying to make Angle so unacceptable "that he can either turn some people to vote for him or vote for this anomalous choice we have on the ballot here in Nevada called none of the above."

Nevadans have the option of checking the box for "none of these candidates." Ralston says he thinks that in this election that choice could get a record high vote. [Copyright 2010 National Public Radio]

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Homeschooling

Tuesday, June 29, 2010