Dateline: May. 23, 2006
I'm in the Carnival!
The 21st Carnival of Homeschooling cordially invites you to a Progressive Dinner Party hosted at Principled Discovery. Dress is casual. Invite a friend and enjoy the food, travel and conversation as we get to know each other a little better.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: May. 22, 2006
You can homeschool for free!
I have started compiling a list of free sites that can be used for homeschooling. It should be done by the end of the summer.
I will most likely use them to supplement our favorite homeschooling program www.time4learning.com, but if you were willing to put in a bit of time, you could manage to homeschool for free using these links found at http://ahermitt0.tripod.com/homeschoolfree/ . This site is great for extra work, or further explaing a concept.
ps. I would post here more often if I could regularly remember my password!
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: May. 1, 2006
THIS AND THAT
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog
In addition to using the time4learning website as Jordans curriuculum, I add a bit of this and that to make her well rounded.
Jordan will be participating in the GA COED pageant in late June, and I am having her do the Tiger Woods " Start something program which is designed to make the kids dream big as well as providing scholarships that will help with thier dreams at the end of the program.
Jackson is more than busy and I try to let him lead in his activities, but I am having him do the Tiger woods program as well.
I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Apr. 21, 2006
Almost done!
Jordan and I evaluated her progress on Time4learning.com and it looks like she will be finished in a about 3 weeks. At that point I will order the CAT standardized exam which she will take, and we will take the summer off.
Taking the summer off means she will use the program only when she wants to. She loves using the playground and she also loves doing the math. She is being promoted to 5th grade next year and has already started 5th grade math and we hope to finish 5th and 6th grade math next year.
After that, she wants to do the local program her brother is using, so this is her last year using time4learning as her main curriculum, but she will probably continue to use it as a supplement.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Apr. 15, 2006
Homeschoolers, do you believe you need more guidelines?
The Chicago Tribune featured a story recently called Few guidelines exist in regard to home-schooling students. The story tells about a woman and her husband who took her brother from her mom for educational neglect...i.e. homeschooling.
The article is very one sided, and the mother gets no chance to defend herself. Nevertheless, the writer takes this news of another homeschool experience gone bad to denigrate homeschoolers as a whole. "State law requires parents who home-school to keep daily attendance records and teach 180 days a year, but it fails to provide for any means of enforcement or specify what subjects must be taught. Indiana, where about 23,000 children are home-schooled, is one of about 30 states that has little say over home-schooled students. "
Scope and Sequence is not what homeschoolers need to teach their kids effectively. (Although letting homeschooled parents know what local kids are learning could he helpful) They need to be able to educate and be educated in a way that brings out their natural skills and gifts.
In the reporters defense, they do throw in comments that homeschoolers feel regulation is not needed... but they don't back it up with facts at all.
The facts are that Homeschoolers as a whole do not need nearly as much regulation as public schooled kids. What is needed are better neglect and abuse protections as a whole. Reading statistics on homeschooling shows that our kids tend to do better academically. The statistics will also show that public schooled kids are in greater danger of violence and premature sex... Studies also show that ratios for abused children are similar for homeschooled and public schooled kids.
Articles like this, I have to say, violently puts me on the defensive. I know very few homeschoolers who don't educate to the level that I do or greater. As for us, one child uses a local middle school program on Thursdays, they both do fine arts and history on Monday, and my youngest child uses www.time4learning.com as her main Homeschool Curriculum One search on the internet for homeschool curriculums will show you that many such companies exist. They would not exist if homeschoolers were not using them.
read my recent homeschooling articles entitled
How to Buy Homeschool Planning Software
How to Develop Homeschool Schedules
and How to get Homeschool Information
Please let me know what you think about this subject.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Apr. 12, 2006
Can the TV be used as a homeschooling tool?
Can the TV be used as a homeschooling tool?
Sure if can catch the right shows on PBS, or hook the computer up to it.
The website describes itself as “a digital video-on-demand” service with more that “4,000 educational videos available for use in the classroom—at any time you wish”. Read more of the review I wrote about
United Streaming, on
associated content.com, which I use to supplement my main curriculum,
http://www.time4learning.com
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Apr. 10, 2006
More on homeschooling and socialization.
How are children really socialized?
Homeschoolers joke that public schoolers are socialized by getting beat up in the bathroom and offered drugs. All jokes have some element of the truth. I have yet to see positive socialization. Study hall no longer exists, and where it does, silence is demanded. Young children are forced to be silent during lunch, while wating on line, while waiting in the classroom, while using the bathroom etc. When they do conversate with each other, it is heavily regulated, or against the rules... which brings us back to the 'Joke'.
Meanwhile, homeschool critics believe (quite seriously) that homeschoolers have no opportunities at all to socialize and are therefor inept. That could not be further from the truth. Althouh not all homeschoolers socialize, most have opportinites for socialization in addition to their academic activities.
Personally, my children have hundreds of opportunities to socialize with other children. I wrote about just a few of the local opportinities available to us in this aticle for Associated Content.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Mar. 29, 2006
When homeschooling is abused
Sometimes I wonder if there should not be more homeschooling controls.
Put the noose away, I am not done.
I just wish there was a way to diffrenticate real homeschoolers from those who segregate thier kids in the name of hate.
This abuse of homeschooling not only abuses the child, and probably wrecks them for life, but also the institution of homeschooling as well.
Worse than the freak homeschooling nightmares that the media is so quick to spotlight to make us all look insane, it the more subtle passing down on rasict views from parents to children. To separate children so that they are not allowed to form thier own views on people in general is wrong.
For instance the Geade girls who are homeschooled by parents who chose the swastika as the symbol for thier cow brand. The children tour the country performing hate songs to all white crowds.
Another example of this abuse is 7 year old Autumn Ashante who writes and speaks poems that incite racial riot, I believe is no more than a smokescreen for her father who has taught her his racial views during their "homeschool" sessions.
And so innocence is lost and homeschooling is abused.
As a homeschooler who strongly believes in what I am doing with my kids, I have to say I am suspicious of when homeschoolers teach their kids from nothing but thier own viewpoint and personal knowledge. A good homeschooler, in my opinion is not so presumptious to believe that they are the end all and be all of the knowledge their children need to get ahead in life.
What outsiders looking in should know is that the majority of use use curriculums that does not stop at the knowledge and belief that we have managed to retain over the years which include out perverted views on the world based on person experiences and ideals.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Mar. 15, 2006
Cheating or Learning, Computers In the Classroom
I watched an NBC newstory lastweek about computers in the classroom. I believe it was called, "cheating or learning". The students were using the computers to take exams. If they did not know an answer, they had to look it up online.... this equated to Online Learning . I thought the idea was cool. I think I'll use it in my homeschooling. Some parents however, were outraged.
When I finished college some 15+ years ago, my boyfriend (now husband) said to me, 'now you have proven you can learn'. I didn't really appreiate the sentiment at the time, but years later I realized he was right. All I had really accomplished in college was to prove I was intelligent to learn... really learn something.
I have continued to learn over the years. If I want to know something, I look it up... in the past 10 years or so, I have looked it up on my trusty computer. Why not teach the children these Homeschool Curriculum .
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Mar. 7, 2006
homeschool myths truths and facts
I spent some time this morning writing about homeschool myths truths and facts.
The myth of socialization has just gotten old. Meanwhile it is true that some homeschoolers do not receive adeqate (according to average standards or better) instruction. However, it is a fact that most of these children do exceedingly well anyway. read more of my blog at: http://nfahm.blogspot.com/
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Mar. 6, 2006
so much for keeping track of my whole week
I go to busy and dropped it... and if last week was busy... This month is going to be a blur,
and I will need to be flexible.
In addition to Jordan Doing her
homeschool curriculum and Jackson
his, We also are participating in the year end ceremony for Masters on April 1. The kids are recreating the 1901 Worlds fair. This is their opportunity to show everything they learned concerning history and the arts this year.
Once that is over, Jordan will concentrate of finsishing the year, and doing a
review before the end of May. She wants to compete in a pageant in June and I want her to take a
standardized test again this year. After the pageant in late June, she will spend July taking a class doing science experiments.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Feb. 27, 2006
a day in the life
I decided to record my week... starting with today to give others and prospective homeschoolers and idea of what us homeschoolers go through... or at least one of us homeschoolers.
the link is here: http://nfahm.blogspot.com/

pic from aquarium visit 2 weeks ago.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Feb. 21, 2006
WHY I USE TIME4LEARNING CURRICULUM
You may or may not have noticed that I insert time4learning links in my blog. That is because I am biased. I use and really love this program and I want others to know about it to.
Here is our story. We started homeschooling in fall of 2002. I spent the entire winter before that reading as many homeschooling books that I could get my hand on, and having the kids try different programs, and sample programs after school.
When the school was over, I had narrowed down my choices to the following:
1. ChildU.com
2. A series of books called "What your ___ grader needs to know
3. Do it yourself classical approach based on a book called the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
We spent the summer trying it all.
In the end, as a novice homeschooler, ChildU.com just made my life a whole lot easier. It is a full,
comprehensive online interactive program that allowed my already tech savvy kids to move at thier own pace. The other option while good, involved a whole lot of teaching on my part.
Yes, isn't that what homeschooling is about? you ask. I guess so, but for me and my kids who had already been exposed to traditional teaching for a few years, seeing me as thier teacher was quite a stretch. It just didn't work... and personally, my patience level didn't allow for the struggle that ensued.
But all did not end happily ever after!
The program, was so good infact, that it was too good. Public and other online schools were intergrating it into their program and we began to lose some of the aspects of the program that we loved so much. Elements were added to make it more compatible with homeschooling that caused problems for us. Over the next year, our second year, we found it harder and harder to use and also found that they were no longer offering phone support to homeschoolers.
So we went back to plan two. By this time I already had the kids enrolled in a one day a week "fine arts and history school". For the other subjects, I went back to the Hirsch books "What your__ grader needs to know. This worked ok. We read each chapter, and searched online for activities that corresponded. We used Brainpop.com, and AAA math.com to reinforce what we were learning. But the Children were bored.
It was at this point that we realized my son needed more outside interraction and my daughter needed more fun. We put my son in another 1 day a week program his current school was running for middle school academics, so now we just have to help him with his homework (and there is lots of it). Then we went searching for a program like childU. It was early summer and my child and I were
reviewing math to prepare for standardized testing. I knew her reading and comprehension were good, but math was shaky. It was then that I discovered time4learning.
As I read and looked through the site, I discovered that it looked alot like childU. I called and spoke to the owner and found that it was indeed the same program from Compass learning Oddyssey, but he tailoring his program for parents to work with thier kids. I was cautiously optimistic.
My daughter spend the six weeks testing herself using the programs chapter tests, and then going back and relearning areas she had problems in. When we took the CAT test for her then grade (3rd). She aced it! I was elated, and wrote to the owner of Time4learning to tell him the news, and to have her elevated to the 4th grade level in this program.
Although the progammers were not quite ready for 4th graders to sign on, They gave us what programming they could and kept in communication with us through the programming process, and a couple of hurricaines two (they are based in florida).
I am glad to say, just a few months later, they are at the top of thier game and my child is learning well, and without any struggle with me. I am so glad I had the patience and good sense to go back to what worked best for us (even if it goes by a different name)... And wouldn't a rose by any other name smell just as sweet?
I am so pleased that this company made homeschoolers a priority and customized this program for us. I suggest you at least
try it. Summer is coming. Use it for review. At such a low monthly subscription price, it wouldn't hurt to try it and find out if it is for you.
As of the time of this post,
Time4learning is available for grades pre-k through middle school.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Feb. 20, 2006
What do olympians and homeschoolers have in common?
A whole lot! More and more top olympic athletes are homeschooled. If thier main focus is in athletics, then why not homeschool online, or with a tutor.
Learning at home, or on the road, one or one can be done quickly, and effortly, and without interruption. Progams, both public and private exist to help the student athlete acheive state and national levels for thier grade. Very often, the homeschooled athlete can accellerate to a pace where they can finish before their traditionally schooled peers, providing even more time for them to excell in their sport.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Feb. 17, 2006
What is important to you as a homeschooling parent?
Oprah validated homeschooling this week. Excuse my failure to happy dance... (no disrespect to Oprah Winfry)
here is the article from www.hslda.org :
HSLDA
February 14, 2006
Oprah Winfrey Responds to HSLDA
In response to our open letter to the Oprah Winfrey Show, HSLDA President Mike Smith received a call from Tim Bennett, the President of Harpo Productions. Mr. Bennett conveyed that there had been an oversight when homeschoolers were excluded from "Oprah's National High School Essay Contest," but that it was too late to amend the rules to include homeschoolers.
Yesterday, HSLDA received a written reply from Harpo Productions, Inc. which recognized that "...homeschooling is an important contributor to the educational success of this country."
HSLDA congratulates Oprah Winfrey for acknowledging that homeschooling is a viable educational alternative and entitled to equal treatment.
I guess my question here is do we really need to be validated? Do we want to be validated? If we cared THAT much about what Oprah, or anyone else for that matter thought wouldn't we be in public schools? I would. So I don't really care about who validates homeschooling.
What I do care about is that they were expressly exluded from her essay contest in the first place? How was that an oopsie?
What I also care about is my child having the freedom to learn in the very best way that is comfortale and coducive to thier learning styles. That they learn free from interference from others. That they can learn in the comfort of thier own homes.
What is important to you as a homeschooling parent?
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Feb. 15, 2006
Back from Vacation
back from vacation
we needed one bad.. we were having a hard time getting back into our old routine work after working at the church so much the last 2 months at the church. I think this intentional break helped!

here is a picture
I will post more soon
... Excuse me but I am still working on making picture movies
now back to
"work"
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Jan. 25, 2006
Teachers Unions, Vouchers, and Homeschooling.
But the teachers themselves have nothing to fear.
Reading one of THE most articulate blogs I have ever read, by gop3.com, on homeschooling got me thinking. (yes that actually happens from time to time):"So how is the government and the teachers unions battling this threat? By fighting school choice and vouchers tooth and nail. If you can restrict a parents access to funds you can force them to use the only system they can afford. I hope and pray that school choice will become more of an issue in the upcoming election and that the amazingly successful programs that exist in this state are extended and expanded."
Not that school vouchers necessarily control or one's ability to homeschool, though it can discourage those considering homeschooling (who haven't done their homework yet).
So why are the teachers unions, in particular, battling the threat of homeschooling? Because if the teachers wizened up and realized the great potential for THEM in homeschooling then the union would have not control over the teachers, and hence the Union would cease to exist. All things, both good and bad must come to an end, and IT IS time for the monster called Teachers' Unions to do so.
And how would teachers continue to thrive in homeschooling independent of the Teachers Union? As Educators. Was that too easy? Teachers are in the business to teach are they not? I hear time and time again that if just one child "got it", or if just one lightbulb would go on, then it would be worth it... Man, I don't think their hearts could handle the possibilities.
My mom was a Special Needs teacher who taught emotionally handicapped kids. She loved her job. But what she loved even more was teaching.... Not record books, not IEP's, Not testing. She loved teaching. She lived her life to teach it... She would spontaneously burst into teaching mode at the drop of a hat. If there was a morsel of knowledge that she could share with an interested person her face would light up, her speech would slow to her lecture speed, and her volume would raise just enough to make sure everyone within a 30X30 foot range could hear her.... and then there was science... she would do back-flips for it. She would get me to draw charts and pictures and help with her presentations. She would spend hours and hours just out of pure enjoyment researching the latest and most exciting thing in science. She made her kids love science! Don't you want someone like that teaching your kids science?
My point is teachers do not need Teachers Unions to teach. Teachers do not need schools to teach. Most especially, teachers do not need a classroom of 30 kids all the same age to teach. Teachers need to love teaching and the subject they are teaching.... and the paycheck would be the gravy.
Lets stop here and do a little math. Sally is a teacher who has become disillusioned with public schools. She contacts an acquaintance in the homeschooling community and lets it be known that she would like to teach individuals her favorite subject: genetics. Within days, 8 families with a total of 12 kids contacts her.
She could decide to teach all 12 kids at once in a group situation and charge them $10.00 each lesson, once a week. Let me rephrase that... In 1 hour teaching time (plus about 2 hours preparation) she could make $ 120.00.
Lets add to this. Six of her 12 art students are having difficulty in math, and she just happens to be a great math teacher as well. She could charge $15.00 an hour for semi private math lessons (no one could argue that math is best learned at an individuals own pace), so in just a few more hours, (2 or 3 semi private classes) she could make another $90.00 in one day. Total made in one day, or one morning of teaching: $210.00. Few teachers double that amount in 1 week!
Now if this same teacher were to travel 20 minutes to the next community and do the same thing, at a homeschool learning center, or local church, then they could make as much as any unionized teacher in just 2 mornings a week. Add a third morning and another community, and they are rolling in it! Not to mention, have time for thier own lives!
It could really happen! For example, I am currently paying a fencing teacher $80.00 per 6 week session for 2 kids. She teaches about 16 kids every Tuesday morning. In three hours she makes $213.00.
Our track coach makes $75.00 in one hour to teach a group of homeshooled kids. He has about 2 of these classes, teaches science as well, and in the spring, coaches at a public school.
In one week, not including what the public schools pay him, he makes at least $250.00 teaching homeschooled kids for 3 hours instruction a week only.
Our piano teacher gets a check from me for $170.00 a month. He spends 90 minutes at my home once a week teaching piano and guitar. If had 2 clients a day, 5 days a week... Just 10 families, his monthly checks would add up to $1700... per month. Just as much as any new public school teacher, and then still have the afternoons to himeslf.
At my sons local homeschool program, I know his teachers (math, science, social studies) get about $35.00 per class and most teach 4 classes a week in about 10 hours a week. $140.00 a week for a very part time job.... Most of them also teach elsewhere.
As I see it, teachers who know how to teach, who are good at teaching have nothing to fear. With more and more parents working from home every year, it is likely that more and more parents will choose to homeschool their kids. You'd better believe that more and more "homeschool teachers" will be needed.
There is only one caveat: Only GOOD AND EXCEPTIONAL teachers will make it in this highly competitive and quickly expanding industry.
side note: with this theory, I am not claiming in any way that parents cannot or should not teach their own... But there are always areas where a parent is either uninterested, unwilling, or unable to teach a certain subject. Most homeschooling parents I know utilize an outside teacher for at least 1 subject, be it art, physed, math, science, or history, or robotics.
Personally, I use an online interactive learning program for my daughter that I guide her through,and my son takes classes outside the home and I help with the 'homework'.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Jan. 20, 2006
Words of the day: Ignorant, Astute and qualifications... (more homeschool bashing)
And the ignorant continue to speak:
Mr. Rick Badie who interviewed my family on home schoolingcontinues to write on the subject. Looks like we have found a local advocate. But the result of the stories in the AJC column/blog are often ignorant responses.
Definitions of ignorant:
adjective: lacking information or knowledge
adjective: lacking basic knowledge
I continue to be amazed by comments like : Once again my answer to those that home school their children is: “Wake up and join the real world. Your little darlings will not be socially adept when they leave the safety of their protective mommie.” A Few exceptions of course are expected and Mrs. Davis just be that exception… Thanks Dave,how astute! (ps. nice grammar)
Definitions of astute:
adjective: marked by practical hardheaded intelligence
And: …So, my point is - she is one of the people who I believe is actually qualified to homeschool her children. My problem is that there are currently no qualifications to homeschool your children. Everyone should not be allowed to homeschool their children. I am a witness to this! My neighbor homeschooled her children for 2 years, and she is barely literate herself… My question here is, and just how did you assess her qualifications?… was there a test or something?
Definitions of qualification:
noun: the act of modifying or changing the strength of some idea
Example: "His new position involves a qualification of his party's platform"
noun: an attribute that must be met or complied with and that fits a person for something
Example: "Her qualifications for the job are excellent"
noun: a statement that limits or restricts some claim
Last and probably viewed as least , I just had to add my two cents: We, the homeschooling parents are awful fortunate that what others THINK does not prevent up from accomplishing our job. My son has set his goals to enter College or start taking college classes at 15 or 16. Having set this goal, I am sure he will accomplish it. To each his own. My daughter on the other hand want to take the Hollywood road to politics i.e. Bono, Schwarzenegger, Reagan. Not my personal goal for her, but to each, her own. The point of homeschooling the FREEDOM. As for “qualifications” for homeschooling parents… Resourcefulness and common sense will do. You’d be amazed how many poor and “uneducated” parents manage to produce Joshuas.
My proof… although I hold a few degrees, none of them have anything to do with education, or even child psychology. I am however resourceful enough to find teachers , and classes for those “subjects” that I am not comfortable teaching and resources to make my job easier.
Results of my comment… more nitpicking… sigh. And so the ignorant continue to speak.
Definitions provided by www.rhymezone.com.. Find rhymes, synonyms, antonyms, definitions, related words and more.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Jan. 18, 2006
An argument against homework is an arugment for homeshooling
At first glance, I was appalled by this article. The reason for my reaction was this comment: “If I wanted to help my children with their assignments, I would home school them.”
Yep, that is what he said!
But I started from the beginning and read it again, and it has a great deal of arguments for homeshooling.
…Homework inhibits learning. I firmly believe this and this belief is based on experience. When I was a student in school, I hated homework so consequently, I rarely did it. And did my grades suffer? Yes, because the teacher gave me a zero when I didn't turn in the assignment even though I received a 100 on the exam. …
…When he received a C on his report card, I met with his teacher and asked her to explain how she gave him a C when he received an A on every test. My argument: A grade on a report card should reflect the student's mastery of the subject being graded. Since he received a 100 percent on every test, he obviously had mastered the subject of spelling. Yet a C indicates only an average comprehension. The purpose of homework (or schoolwork in general) is to help the student learn and master the subject content. If the student can master the subject without doing homework, they shouldn't have to do it. …
…Without homework, children can enjoy the evening without stressing about finishing homework assignments, get a good night sleep, and be ready for a new day of learning.
At one school my daughter attended (ninth-grade), she was being assigned no less than five hours of homework each night. …
While I don’t disagree with this parent I am saddened by the fact that they equate helping their child, and home schooling to a colossal waste of time.
Can you imagine how exceptional these already bright kids ( Without homework, children can enjoy the evening without stressing about finishing homework assignments, get a good night sleep, and be ready for a new day of learning.
At one school my daughter attended (ninth-grade), she was being assigned no less than five hours of homework each night. ) would be if their parent had stopped and “helped” them.. Or better yet, homeschooled them.
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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Dateline: Jan. 17, 2006
My homeschool currculum is the best homeschool curriculum! ??
On occasion someone, somewhere takes the words out of my mouth and all I can do is an emphatic point and nod.
Each family is unique, and each child in that family is unique. There is no one method or one way that will work for every family, or even for every child within the family. I believe that flexibility is the key. Be open to switch curriculums or methods even mid year. If you find yourself needing a change in what you're doing or using, talk to your friends, borrow their curriculum to try for a few days, listen to their views, search the internet. Then make your own choice.
Now I do promote the curriuculum my kid uses, and I believe in it, but do I tell folks it is the only way to go? Noooooo..
But... I do point out that it can be used in different ways for different kids.... for a kid who wants to do everything online it is a full online interactive curriculum. For the book learner who wants to "play" from time to time, it is great... and it is also a great summer review tool or remedial reading program.
So if someone is curious about it, why not recommend it... they won't know if it works until they try it out... and there is a trial period!
This blog entry may include excerpts from my commerical homeschool blog( http://www.nfahm.blogspot.com ). I repost here to share with the homeschool community as well as the general public.to join my homeschool blog mailing list, email me at ahermitt@gmail.com
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