“Homeschooling In Texoma On The Rise” plus 3 more |
- Homeschooling In Texoma On The Rise
- Virtual School Now a Reality
- Library Notes
- Erasing the Divide Between Schoolwork, Play
| Homeschooling In Texoma On The Rise Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:16 AM PDT While 4.5 million Texas students are kicking off the start to a new school year, another 300,000 are staying home. Homeschooling in the Lone Star state is on the rise and as Newschannel 6 Lindsey Rogers found out, the same is true in Texoma. In the last five years, the number of Texans choosing to homeschool has grown about 20%. "We see a couple dozen new families joining our community every year," homeschool mom Kathleen Griffin said. The organization Home Educators Around Texoma, or H.E.A.T., estimates anywhere from 250 to 300 families homeschool in our area. That could be as many as 800 students. Across the state, some families are opting to homeschool because they can no longer afford private school. But Duncan said, in Texoma, she hasn't heard families give the economy as a reason. "We believe home education is the best academic option for our students. Also the flexibility of scheduling and the freedom to choose the curriculum and design a course of study that fits the needs and interests of the individual students," Duncan said. In Texas, parents who homeschool are not required to register with any agency or to get their curriculum approved. They just have to have a curriculum that teaches reading, spelling, grammar, math and good citizenship. "It gives families more time to share and teach values and faith," Duncan said. One of the main reasons Duncan decided to homeschool her seven children was because they were constantly moving. We found that's the case with many Texoma families. "We were military so when we moved to Idaho in 5th grade my parents didn't like the schools and by the time we moved here we were just used to being homeschooled," Megan Griffin said. She is a 16 year old senior and has been taking dual enrollment classes at Vernon College and when she graduates she'll have enough credits to be classified as a sophomore in college. "We moved faster and my mom was able to push us harder than the schools were. That was the biggest difference for me," she said. Other parents may choose to homeschool because of safety, peer pressure concerns or even medical reasons. "I have asthma and it was easier for me to be homeschooled because my mom could like help me," homeschooled student Katie Jenkins said. While there are many benefits to learning at home, critics point out the lack of social interaction. We found Wichita Falls homeschoolers have a variety of extracurricular activities and cooperative group classes where they can meet new friends. They offer everything from sports and theater to music and social functions. "There are things I feel like I'm missing out on but there are other things I can do. A part of me wants to go back to public school but it would be hard to get back into the routine and I've made friends through the homeschool group," homeschooled student Anna Griffin said. If you're new to homeschooling or interested in more information Homeschool Educators Around Texoma will be hosting a forum on September 16th. It will be at Lamar Baptist Church in Wichita Falls from 6-8 p.m. Lindsey Rogers, Newschannel 6 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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| Posted: 02 Sep 2010 02:02 AM PDT September 2, 2010 Zion Zion-Benton Public Library, 2400 Gabriel Ave., (847) 872-4680. Homeschool Networking Group: An informal, parent-run meeting for all homeschoolers and those just thinking about homeschooling will be held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Bring a snack and a drink, along with a craft or board game for the kids while parents network. Storytime Kickoff: Children 6 and younger can bring their parents to the library for an introduction to storytimes from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday or from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9. See and experience storytime, ask questions and meet storytellers Miss Pat and Miss Robyn. Exploration Junction: Kindergarten through fifth-graders are invited to explore the arts and books on at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday. Exploration Junction is part of the Wednesday Explorers program, which features a new program every Wednesday during the school year. Chess Club: All ages are invited to come and play the world's oldest war game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Share strategies and skills for all levels. Back to School Fair: Find out about the free online tutoring service and encyclopedia from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 11. Tour the youth services department and discover the free educational and fun activities available. The first 50 families to attend will receive a free bag of school supplies. Lake Villa Lake Villa District, Library, 1001 E. Grand Ave., (847) 356-7711. Speaker: Freelance photographer/educator Paul Berg will present a lecture on his five-week journey to the Indian sub-continent at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. The presentation will feature Berg's photos and will cover historic sites and cities including: Agra (the Taj Mahal), the cities of Rajasthan (Jaipur, Jodphur, Jaisalmer and Pushkar) as well as Kolkata (Calcutta), Darjeeling and the remote Andaman Islands. Bring a lunch; beverage and dessert provided. Registration required. Look your best: Professional make-up artist Fran Meyers will share tips and secrets for looking your best for job interviews at 7 p.m. Sept. 9. Registration required. Round Lake Round Lake Area Library, 906 Hart Road, (847) 546-7060. Beginning Quilting: Learn the basics of quilting at 6 p.m. Sept. 9 and 23. For ages 16 and up. Registration required. Travel series: See pictures, hear stories and learn about traveling to Ireland at 2 p.m. Sept. 11. Drop-in for adults. Gurnee Warren-Newport Public Library, 224 N. O'Plaine Road. (847) 244-5150. Math tutor: A volunteer math tutor, substitute math teacher Wilbert Stroeve, will be available from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays starting Sept. 8 to help kids in grades fifth to 12th. Teen Fun: Gather a team to compete in Hunger Games from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 11. Contests include archery, gross food eating, trivia and more. Registration required. Toddler-Palooza: Kids 2 to 5 (and an adult) are invited to Toddler-Palooza at 10 a.m. Sept. 11. Participants will clap, tap, sing and dance their way to early literacy. Children must be registered in advance. Art Bus: Bubba the Art Bus will visit from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 11. Families are invited to climb aboard and use their imaginations to create art out of recyclables, household items and other fun stuff. Children must be accompanied by an adult. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Erasing the Divide Between Schoolwork, Play Posted: 02 Sep 2010 05:06 AM PDT CHARLES TOWN -- Whether it's the middle of the day in August or late at night in September, Amy Mason of Jefferson County is happy to let her kids decide what they'd like to do — play Wii, send e-mails, read a paperback, draw horses, make a lava lamp or bake banana bread. There's no such thing as a "school day" or "summer break" — it's all just life, and she says her kids learn plenty. "We wake up every day with excitement and joy and anticipation," said Mason, who has two sons, 11 and 2, and three daughters ages 9, 6 and 4. "We do what we enjoy, and we learn new things every day." Some people call the Masons' approach "radical unschooling," while others describe it as child-centered, self-directed learning. Because West Virginia and other states don't break down homeschoolers by the style they employ, it's difficult to know whether the relaxed method favored by Mason represents a trend. What's for certain, Mason said, is she's found unschooling to be an ideal fit for her and her children. Mason said children learn the same way as adults: by doing chores and pursuing what interests them. "Learning doesn't have to come from a textbook or a workbook," she said. "We learn science from getting out in nature, going to a park or the zoo or an aquarium. We learn math when we use it to make a recipe or figure out if we have a dozen cupcakes, how many can each person have. We never stop learning." A typical day at the Mason home in Huntfield might include playing board games, spending time on the laptop, watching a movie, examining butterfly eggs, picking tomatoes, bicycling, drawing, building with Legos, baking, playing the piano, reading, singing, meeting up with friends, taking care of pets and riding horses. "People ask me how I can stand to be around my kids all day, and my response is, 'How could I stand to be apart from them?''' she said. "I can't imagine sending them off in the morning and not interacting with them all day long." Mason said when she takes her children to birthday parties or other gatherings with "schoolers" — students enrolled in conventional public or private schools — questions about homeschooling typically follow. "Other parents will start grilling me — 'How are your kids going to make it in the real world?''' she said. "My response is, 'What is the real world?' In so many ways, schools are nothing like the real world. In the workplace, do most adults interact only with people who are the same age? Do they sit back and wait to be told what to do and when? "My kids are with me every day in the real world. We go to stores and to the vet and talk to people and ask questions and find the answers we need to know." Ethan, 11, who said some of his favorite pursuits include fishing, hiking and studying "the interesting parts of history," believes many people question homeschooling because they don't understand what it involves. "I like that I learn at my own pace," he said. "If someone thinks homeschooling isn't a good idea, it's probably because they haven't tried it." Roots of Unschooling Mason, a native of Harford County, Md., who settled in the Eastern Panhandle six years ago, said her approach to education once was as traditional as could be. She earned a degree in elementary education at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore and taught second grade for several years. But she stepped onto a different path after she heard about homeschooling. "I was pregnant with Ethan, and we were interested in home birth," she said. "As we networked with people about that, we heard about homeschooling, and one thing just led to another. The more I saw of homeschooling, the more homeschoolers I met, the more I liked the idea." Mason said she knew from her time teaching that much of a student's school day is taken up by waiting in line and taking care of the other logistics necessary to move groups of students from one activity to the next. There's also the lack of enthusiasm that colors so many children's experience at school. "My children will talk with their cousins about school — hours of homework, how much they hate math," Mason said. "Kids have so much of their creative spirit and their natural desire to learn just drummed out of them." The term "unschooling" dates to the mid-1970s and came from the late John Holt, the author and educator credited with spawning the homeschooling movement. Holt, formerly a fifth-grade teacher, originally spoke out about the need to reform schools. But over the years, he came to believe that schools themselves — a staple in the United States only since the late 19th century — simply were not a good idea. Writing in his magazine, Growing Without Schooling, Holt recommended a curriculum-free approach to learning. One reason home works better than a school setting, Holt explained, was that school puts unnecessary stress and pressure on children and distracts them from their natural sense of curiosity about the world. "The anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember," Holt wrote. "(It) drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don't know." Unschooling also sounds a lot like the Montessori approach advocated by Maria Montessori, the Italian physician and teacher who in 1907 described a love of discovery as a child's "true normal nature." According to the Montessori method, a teacher's role is simply to provide an enriching atmosphere and to remove obstacles standing in the way of learning. Relaxed vs. Rigid Approaches Unschoolers say the self-directed Montessori approach that works so well in preschools across the world also works for homeschoolers. Some advocates of unschooling favor their approach over the tact taken by homeschoolers who follow a rigid curriculum and schedule and basically attempt to duplicate the school experience at home. For the Masons, unschooling followed a period of frustration. "I can see why some homeschooling parents just throw up their hands and send their kids to school," Mason said. The early years of homeschooling were filled with fun and joy, Mason recalled. "But when my son turned 7, things started getting less and less fun," she said. "He was losing his desire to learn. It was becoming a chore, one we both hated." The family moved from the Well Trained Mind, a classical approach to home education, to the looser Charlotte Mason studies, which involved short lessons with nature as their base. "That worked fine until math and reading — which used to be favorites — became hated," Mason said. Having chosen to homeschool to safeguard her children's love of learning, Mason found herself stressed out by coaxing her kids to complete their lessons. Then she had an epiphany. "I realized I was doing at home exactly what I wanted to avoid by sending them to school," she said. "I did a lot of soul searching and researching and found unschooling." Instead of a schoolroom where Ethan and his sister Claire would sit and work, the nook off the living room became a place to store games and other resources. Mason even adjusted the yellow sign that hangs over the entryway. Instead of saying "Kids At Work," the sign now reads "Kids At Play." The effect was immediate, and the change left the whole family feeling happier, Mason remembered. Her interactions with her children were positive, her stress level took a nosedive and she no longer had problems sleeping at night. "It was as natural for us as our home birthing, organic food and cloth diapers," Mason said. "We were living a natural life. It was made for us. The joy returned. The love of math returned to the point where now they beg to do math. "But if they want to go weeks and weeks without picking up a math workbook, that's cool, too. Learning takes place all of the time in our house because they want it, and they love it." What's Ahead? Mason said she feels confident the unschooling approach she adopted two years ago is working for her children in a variety of ways, including the fact that the licensed teacher who reviews her children's portfolios each year has described the work completed by Ethan and 9-year-old Claire as at or above grade level. In the latest evaluations, the reviewer praised Claire's poetry and song lyrics as "astounding" and took note of Ethan's top finish in a regional art show. "I also know it's the right thing because whenever we're out, my kids will chitchat with store owners or farmers or the waitress at a restaurant or whatever adults we encounter, and I always hear how mature and polite and bright my children are," she said. Another sign for Mason comes when she sees Ethan engrossed in a building project or Claire spending hour after hour devouring a new novel. "I have a lot of moments like that, where I have no doubt this is exactly what we're supposed to be doing," Mason said. "I have to trust my children, and I do." Do Kids Need Classrooms? On the other side of West Virginia, another mom who fielded skeptical questions about homeschooling for years now can point to her children's stellar accomplishments as proof that kids don't need classrooms to learn. In Calhoun County in the 1970s and '80s, Deirdre Purdue used a relaxed, child-centered approach to homeschooling with her son, Jed, and daughter, Hannah. Jed, a graduate of Harvard who went on to Yale School of Law, today is a tenured law professor at Duke University. He's also a well-known author of works such as 1999's "For Common Things: Irony, Trust and Commitment in America," which prompted mentions in Time and other magazines, as well as a glowing profile in The New York Times. His younger sister completed her studies at Brown University and the Yale School of Architecture. Today, she is an AIA-accredited architect working in New York City. "Poor little deprived kids," Deidre Purdue joked. While there are no statistics available for how many students in West Virginia are unschooled, it appears that homeschooling continues to be a popular choice for thousands of families. According to the West Virginia Department of Education, the number of homeschooled students has remained at close to the same level — between 6,200 and 6,500 — through the past decade. During that time, West Virginia's total public school enrollment remained at about 281,000 since 2002-03, according to state officials. Mason said she is excited about the years to come and the chance to continue to work with Ethan and Claire. She's also excited to help her younger children — Daisy, Evie and Xylon — as they begin their formal school careers by recording projects, trips and activities in their unschooling portfolios. Mason said being her children's teacher keeps her fully engaged. "Letting children pursue what they have a passion for is a lot of work," she explained. "When your child gets fascinated by solar flares, you've got to be ready to get him to the library or help him track down other resources so that he can develop that interest." She said her children's enthusiasm for learning provides her with a constant energy — and makes every day an adventure for her, too. "We are living in the real world every day and having conversations with real people of all ages and all religions," she said. "We learn about many different jobs because we see people doing their jobs everywhere we go. We question everything because we want to and can. "We don't do the things that everyone does because everyone else does them. We do what feels right and makes us happy. We are happy people, and we love being with our family every day — living, learning, growing." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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