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Believe...
Sep. 8, 2008
Why I Homeschool: An Introduction
I first got the notion to homechool when my children started acting. Denali had always begged to be an actress, and around age 10 I finally conceded and found her an agent. Utah, being the squeaky clean environment it is, is a breeding ground for wholesome Disney and Disney-like productions. Denali was quickly cast as extras and featured in one movie after another. After "No Child Left Behind" the schools started cracking down on students who missed school for various reasons, and even though Denali is an honor student and did all of her homework on set, the school started punishing her for her ambitions. Parents of other students thought it unfair that she was making an A in a class she missed while filming. I disagreed. I felt it was harder for Denali to do the work on her own without in class instruction, and deserved the grades she earned. In the end, the teacher bowed to the parents of other students, and refused to give Denali the A she deserved for the work she completed, replacing the A's with C's.
The last straw for me was when Denali developed bleeding ulcers. Kids are cruel, and their parents are even more cruel. It's ok to take up dance, cheer, soccer, baseball, gymnastics, even singing, but take up acting, and people are just plain jealous and mean. Denali didn't want to go back to school, so we took up homeschooling. The first attempt was student led. I picked up some books from Barnes and Noble but mainly Denali chose what she wanted to learn. She was very into global warming and vegitarianism, so we studied it. Every question she had became an assignment; a quest for the answer. Denali is a gifted student, learning to read at age 3, and skipping a grade from Kindergarten to 1st grade when the teacher figured out she could read Charlotte's Web. A student led approach to schooling worked very well with Denali, since she was a little sponge and had the desire to learn.
We have a mixed family; blended. A Brady Bunch of 3 girls and 3 boys, 5 of whom lived with us at the time. Our two youngest are 6 weeks apart. Although they are the same age, they are very, very different and have different educational needs. Aidan, the older of the two, has a bit of ADHD but does very well on medication, Broden, is Autistic with Aspberger's Syndrome. As described above, children can be extremely cruel, and Aidan was having a hard time with other kids teasing his Autistic brother. He got angry when they called him "retarded" and burst into tears when people called Broden "crazy". Aidan soon found himself in fights, protecting his brother's honor as well as his own. Since Aidan was also missing school due to his filming schedule, it was decided he'd also homeschool.
My first attempt at homeschooling was basically an experiment. Some things went very well, where other ideas fell flat. I feel the children received a great education on history, science and the arts, but my instruction fell short in Math. The kids were raising rabbits, so our science became rabbit genetics. Their 4H project became their Science Fair exhibit. Both children received many ribbons at the county and state fairs. By the end of the year, Denali really wanted to go back to school. She wanted to go to a "real middle school" with dances and the like. Aidan, on the other hand, really wanted to just stay home. In the end I decided to put them both back in school (I have had extreme health issues I'll discuss in a different entry), and enrolled them in a Catholic school. No, we are not Catholic, but I wanted to find them a sheltered environment with a great education. Denali did very well academically, where Aidan did not. Towards Winter, Aidan developed some severe digestion issues and missed a lot of school being sick. He had a hard time catching up. Later on we found out Aidan was being bullied at the school, beat up for bus money, and being called "Nobody". I again have pulled Aidan from traditional schooling.
I also tried the Utah Online High School for Allina and Carson. Both were punished by their high school for missing class for being in movies. Carson soon returned to public school when the next semester started. Carson is doing very well, as long as I stay on him and push him in the right direction. Allina, on the other hand, decided school was not for her and received her GED. Allina has always struggled in school, and while not Autistic like her brother, has learning, emotional, and psychological challenges of her own. These challenges made the traditional schooling atmosphere easily to manipulate for Allina, and also allowed her to fall through the cracks. I guess there are worse things in the world, but as a parent, her deciding to quit school at 17 broke my heart. I only hope that someday she sees the importance of education and finishes high school at the very least.
While cruising the Internet, I happened upon a fantastic site: K12.com. After reading all of the material, and much research, I decided that this program is FANTASTIC! I was able to order materials for Aidan according to his needs and current level. For instance, he needs extra help with English and Language Arts, so we are stepping back a year to brush up on what he missed while being sick. In two weeks I have already bumped him up a year in Math. I am also using the Rosetta Stone French software to teach Aidan the French Language. So far, so good. After racing through the Math book, we are sending it back and awaiting harder material. Right now, Aidan is thoroughly enjoying Literature, French, Language Arts, Earth Science (they even sent him ROCKS!), US History, and Art.
I intend to use this blog to track our trials and tribulations. His sister Denali may shortly follow, as her attitude and behaviour has been hideous since she started regular public school. She is 12 now, almost 13, and I do not like the local middle school whatsoever. She has also become quite lazy, and I am quite unhappy with the lack of education she is receiving. Someday, if this program works out well for Aidan and possibly Denali, Broden may follow as well. Public education is becoming quite a challenge as he progresses through grades, but really stays the age of a 2nd grader. If he is not accepted into cluster school before 7th grade, or if the cluster classroom is not able to meet his needs, he too will be tested for the K12 program. Aidan is also making a blog. He had one on Livejournal before i stumbled upon this site. I will update later with the link :) That's it for now. More to come I'm sure.
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