Events, happenings, ideas, and meanderings about homeschooling in Manitoba. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 2 Mar 2009 07:33:00 -0600 Mon, 2 Mar 2009 07:33:00 -0600 Homeschooling goes boom in America 74 percent increase in number of families teaching own children Posted: January 05, 2009 By Chelsea Schilling © 2009 WorldNetDaily  A homeschooling movement is sweeping the nation – with 1.5 million children now learning at home, an increase of 75 percent since 1999.   The Department of Education\\\\\\\'s National Center for Education Statistics reported homeschooling has risen by 36 percent in just the last five years. \\\"There\\\'s no reason to believe it would not keep going up,\\\\\\\" NCES statistician Gail Mulligan told USA Today. A 2007 survey asked parents why they choose to homeschool and allowed them to provide several reasons. The following are the most popular responses: Concern about the school environment, including reasons such as safety, drugs or negative peer pressure – 88 percent A desire to provide religious or moral instruction – 83 percent A dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools – 73 percent Nontraditional approach to children\\\\\\\'s education – or \\\\\\\"unschoolers\\\\\\\" who consider typical curriculums and standardized testing as counterproductive to quality education – 65 percent Other reasons, such as family time, finances, travel and distance – 32 percent Child has special needs (other than physical or mental health problems) that schools cannot or will not meet – 21 percent Child has a physical or mental health problem – 11 percent Parents who report that they homeschool to provide religious or moral instruction increased from 72 percent to 83 percent from 2003 to 2007. Above all other responses, parents cited providing religious and moral instruction as the most important factor in the decision to teach their children at home (36 percent). The second most important issue was concern about the school environment (21 percent), while the third reason was dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools (17 percent). Research has shown the positive effects of homeschooling through the years. While some critics say teaching children at home may stunt their social growth, Dr. Brian D. Ray, president of National Home Education Research Institute, reveals homeschooled students fare well or better than public and private school students in terms of social, emotional and psychological development. Additionally, homeschoolers earn higher marks than peers who attend public schools. In Academic Leadership, and online journal, Dr. Ray and Bruce K. Eagleson also cite findings from at least three nationwide studies across the United States and two nationwide studies in Canada. \\\\\\\"The home educated in grades K to 12 have scored, on average, at the 65th to 80th percentile on standardized academic achievement tests in the United States and Canada, compared to the public school average of the 50th percentile,\\\\\\\" the report states. Three studies also show that demographics, income and education level of homeschooling parents are generally irrelevant with regard to quality of education in a home setting. On average, homeschoolers in low-income families with less formal education still score higher than state-school averages. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/664816/ Mon, 2 Mar 2009 07:33:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/664816/ Free contest where kids can play against others to beat world records in Math. Check it out at www.worldmathday.com Oh and did I mention it was free?? World Math Day: March 4th, 2009 "Uniting the World In Numbers." This event is planned to start at 6:00 am on Mar 4, 2009 at www.worldmathday.com. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/664713/ Tue, 3 Mar 2009 07:24:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/664713/ Here's a virtual opportunity to step through inauguration day alongside a president-elect right from morning worship service to the evening inaugural ball.  http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/       http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/648220/ Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:01:02 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/648220/ Here's a great family outing suggestion: Lockport's 21st Annual Winter Festival - it look like it's full of fun activities.  Find at more at their website: http://www.lockport-childrensfestival.ca/ Enjoy!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/647525/ Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:14:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/647525/ The Web Gallery of Art A must for homeschool families - and anyone who wants to expand their children's world. Choose your own classical music as you browse. Besides browsing, you can make postcards - accompanied by music - to send to up to 20 friends. You can also download a classic desktop and order prints you like. http://www.wga.hu/index1.html http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/646678/ Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:06:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/646678/ The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is very excited to be hosting our second Storytime Writing Contest! We have two creative fiction categories: adults (16 and up, 2,500 words or less) and children (15 and under, 1,500 words or less). We will begin to accept submissions on January 5, 2009, and continue through midnight, March 16, 2009. Staff from The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, as well as independent contractors, will review each entry and select fifty finalists in each category. Those finalists will be listed on the TOS website by title, author, and city. From there, a panel of judges who are "experts in the field" will select the Grand Prize Winners! The Grand Prize Winners (one adult and one child) will receive: • $100 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store • Grand Prize Package valued at more than $1,000 from our sponsors! (See list of prizes below.) • Publication in the Summer 2009 issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine • Publication on www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com • Certificate of Achievement The top two winners, as well as eleven finalists in each category, will have their stories published in an E-Book, which will be available for sale at the Schoolhouse Store! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/642735/ Thu, 8 Jan 2009 07:20:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/642735/ Be sure to check out Currclick.com - they are offering 28 titles free for download! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/625459/ Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:48:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/625459/ Hi everyone!  TOS is pleased to offer some exciting sales till the end of November in celebration of American Thanksgiving and the official beginning of the Christmas Holiday Shopping Season.  Have homeschooling friends in the US?  This is a great time to bless them with a gift subscription.  There are greats specials within TOS's online store.  Here are the details from the publisher: The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is having an amazing sale on subscriptions during their annual Black Friday Sale November 26 – 30. For those 5 days only, they are actually lowering their new one-year U.S. subscription price to $7.95! That's the price you would usually pay for just one issue at a bookstore! This is their lowest price ever on the magazine and they want all of you to take advantage of this offer and share the info with your friends. Please don't miss out. Your one-year subscription will pay for itself time and time again as you receive practical tips and Biblical encouragement to keep going strong in your commitment to homeschooling and to the Lord. Since it's a quarterly magazine, they even have a monthly subscriber's only E-Newsletter called Teacher's Toolbox that will give you seasonal teaching ideas and a free E-Book download! It's like joining a unit study of the month club! The free E-Books alone are valued at almost $250/year. It's really perfect for people who are homeschooling on a shoestring or just wanting to add in some little extras to your teaching. Plus during the Black Friday Sale, they have all kind of bonus gifts when you spend $50, $75, $100, or $150. Some are electronic downloads that you can download immediately, while other are physical products mailed from various vendors directly to your home. Visit The Old Schoolhouse store at: www.TheOldSchoolhouseStore.com Order Yours Today! And don’t miss out on this great price!!!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/625029/ Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:34:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/625029/ Be sure to check out this awesome learning opportunity:  Exploravision Awards.  Designed for K–12 students of all interest, skill and ability levels, ExploraVision encourages kids to create and explore a vision of future technology by combining their imaginations with the tools of science. All inventions and innovations result from creative thinking and problem solving. That's what ExploraVision is all about. Since 1992, more than 245,000 students from across the United States and Canada have competed in ExploraVision. But this is much more than a contest. ExploraVision can be the beginning of a lifelong adventure in science, as students develop higher-order thinking skills and learn to think about their role in the future. To enter ExploraVision, students work in groups of two, three or four — simulating a real research and development (R&D) team. A teacher serves as team coach, and you can also choose an optional mentor. Each team selects a technology (or an aspect of a technology) that is present in and relevant to their lives First, the team explores what the technology does, how it works, and how, when and why it was invented Next, the team imagines and explores what that technology could be like 20 years from now Finally, each team prepares an in-depth report that conveys its vision to others. Check out their website for more details: http://www.exploravision.org/entry-process/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/614817/ Wed, 5 Nov 2008 08:03:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/614817/ Hello Everyone! This is an emphatic plea for support group contacts from all over our fine province.  I'm talking about all those little and large coffee support/CoOp groups.  I'd love to make a listing available on this site for each region.  Will you help me?  Please respond as a comment to this entry with contact information about your group and general area. Thanks! Giselle PS  There may even be a special surprise gift instore, just for responding, for one of you!         http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/595486/ Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:42:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Manitoba/595486/