The National Wildlife Federation is doing a nationwide event called "Hike & Seek." As they describe it,
Explore the Great Outdoors with Hike & Seek!
Looking for a fun outdoor event the whole family can enjoy? We have just the thing!
Hike & Seek is an outdoor adventure specially designed for children ages 3-10.
Join us for a family-friendly 1-2 mile hike and discover exciting activities along the way including a scavenger hunt, nature games and crafts, live wildlife displays, stations along the trail with our volunteer naturalists, the chance to meet Ranger Rick and so much more.
This is exactly the sort of thing homeschoolers know about, and do, but these are happening all over the country on the weekends, so everyone can participate. Some cities have already had their Hike & Seek, but many have not; go check to see if it's near you.
Want more secrets about what homeschooling is REALLY like? Go to learning dangerously.com and see my videos about what to consider before you homeschool. Even if you could never imagine homeschooling, maybe the statistics about homeschoolers being, on average, happier and getting higher test scores intrigues you. Leave your email under WORKSHOPS and I'll let you know when my new webinar Secrets of Successful Homeschooling Families: What they know that you can use, is up.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
Time, Part 2
In the previous blog, I suggested that if you homeschool your children will have plenty of extra time to work on new projects or interesting sidelines and they might become more authentic versions of themselves and this, we all may agree, would be a good thing. Now let's speak of the downside of homeschooling:
YOUR time.
The parent at home is going to be counting out Me Time in sand grains. Or shot glasses. These wonderful offspring, they're always around. Even if they aren't sitting next to you as you two figure out phonics, fractions or philosophy, even if they are in their room or the garage, using all this lovely extra time to start their business or write their book, you still aren't alone and there's a pretty good chance that child is going to need to make a quick trip to Best Buy, or Michael's, or the library to get something in the next few minutes. Some days I find myself envying people with long commutes; all that gorgeous time spent going 2.3 miles an hour on the 405, finishing a thought in their heads.
(People who actually travel on the 405 every day, feel free to find me and beat me with a mallet for trivializing your pain.)
Have more than one child? Have a child with special needs? Double what I just said. If you're an introvert, you certainly can homeschool, but know that if your children aren't introverts, this is going to drain you. And then they get older, and they sleep less and you get a house like mine, where the kid only goes to bed 90 minutes before I do and there are days where I feel as if I've been doing a radio call-in show for twelve hours straight. I've come to appreciate my insomnia because while I look like Skeletor, it's the only time of the day I can truly call my own. Well, plus the cats.
This utter lack of self time shouldn't scare you off of homeschooling if every other part seems to make sense for your child and your life, but it's something to consider. You're going to have to consciously look for places in every day where the kid is here and you are over there; those sports teams and after-school activities are a Godsend for many reasons. And if the extracurricular activity asks you to volunteer, be smarter than I am and offer to do fundraising or helping to sell ads. Yes, it's awful to beg for money but it beats being the already drained introvert who becomes the assistant coach who shuns help taking down the goals just for a few minutes by herself.
Not that I've done that.
Want more secrets about what homeschooling is REALLY like? Go to learning dangerously.com and see my videos about what to consider before you homeschool. Even if you could never imagine homeschooling, maybe the statistics about homeschoolers being, on average, happier and getting higher test scores intrigues you. Leave your email under WORKSHOPS and I'll let you know when my new webinar Secrets of Successful Homeschooling Families: What they know that you can use, is up.
YOUR time.
The parent at home is going to be counting out Me Time in sand grains. Or shot glasses. These wonderful offspring, they're always around. Even if they aren't sitting next to you as you two figure out phonics, fractions or philosophy, even if they are in their room or the garage, using all this lovely extra time to start their business or write their book, you still aren't alone and there's a pretty good chance that child is going to need to make a quick trip to Best Buy, or Michael's, or the library to get something in the next few minutes. Some days I find myself envying people with long commutes; all that gorgeous time spent going 2.3 miles an hour on the 405, finishing a thought in their heads.
(People who actually travel on the 405 every day, feel free to find me and beat me with a mallet for trivializing your pain.)
Have more than one child? Have a child with special needs? Double what I just said. If you're an introvert, you certainly can homeschool, but know that if your children aren't introverts, this is going to drain you. And then they get older, and they sleep less and you get a house like mine, where the kid only goes to bed 90 minutes before I do and there are days where I feel as if I've been doing a radio call-in show for twelve hours straight. I've come to appreciate my insomnia because while I look like Skeletor, it's the only time of the day I can truly call my own. Well, plus the cats.
This utter lack of self time shouldn't scare you off of homeschooling if every other part seems to make sense for your child and your life, but it's something to consider. You're going to have to consciously look for places in every day where the kid is here and you are over there; those sports teams and after-school activities are a Godsend for many reasons. And if the extracurricular activity asks you to volunteer, be smarter than I am and offer to do fundraising or helping to sell ads. Yes, it's awful to beg for money but it beats being the already drained introvert who becomes the assistant coach who shuns help taking down the goals just for a few minutes by herself.
Not that I've done that.
Want more secrets about what homeschooling is REALLY like? Go to learning dangerously.com and see my videos about what to consider before you homeschool. Even if you could never imagine homeschooling, maybe the statistics about homeschoolers being, on average, happier and getting higher test scores intrigues you. Leave your email under WORKSHOPS and I'll let you know when my new webinar Secrets of Successful Homeschooling Families: What they know that you can use, is up.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
"Yes, but..."
That steadfast commenter of the Internet, Anonymous, responded to the last post about time-management:
This is true, however there is just as much time "wasted" in driving or walking to see other people during the day, going to outside vendors or destinations in homeschooling. I would argue that there's better teaching one on one, but don't understand the argument about too much time wasted in schools. I see so many people who can't even sit through a meeting if the discussion isn't directly about them. Do we want to encourage people to only look out for themselves and have no patience? Overall I think the homeschool/school time "wasted" is a wash and we should just be worrying about what is the best educational model for a child to become a well rounded adult.
Anonymous is right about a few things. Time not specifically spent on education during a student's class time is not always time wasted, nor is every second of homeschooling another step closer to winning the Scripps Spelling Bee. But it's a leap to go from "Hey, into every life a little rain must fall and some time will be sucked up so you might as well get used to it" to "This will produce me-firsters and those morons who can't tolerate a simple business meeting unless we give them a birthday cake."
First, in a CBS study done of homeschoolers in one college, they had, on average, a higher GPA at the end of the first year, and then again at graduation, than students who has come in from a bricks-and-mortar school, and they're also more likely to graduate in four years than the traditional student. For these students, it would appear they've learned to work within a system with all of its challenges and opportunities and intermittent bureaucratic tedium.
Second, those me-firsters with patience issues? Statistically, the odds are quite high that they went to a bricks and mortar school. Just saying. I will never use any medium to declare "HOMESCHOOL IS GREAT AND AWESOME AND ROCKS AND YOU SUCK FOR NOT DOING IT!" In fact, I'll be the first to admit that not only do I not think it's for everyone, I'm not even sure it's for us. Maybe I'm hurting the kid. Time will tell. What I do know is that, in a more creative world, families would have many more options concerning the education of their children than we do today; options that stressed learning over management and imagination over containment.
I'm starting to hear about students who are in high-school for the morning and working on their own projects in the afternoons, which can include independent study, internships or community-college classes. A recent article in WIRED about the teacher who created a revolution within his class by letting his students learn how to learn should be mandatory reading for anyone thinking about educational reform.
Which is why I liked the comment from Anonymous so much. Whoever you are, you're as concerned about where education is headed as I am.
"...we should just be worrying about what is the best educational model for a child to become a well rounded adult"?
Well, I couldn't agree more.
This is true, however there is just as much time "wasted" in driving or walking to see other people during the day, going to outside vendors or destinations in homeschooling. I would argue that there's better teaching one on one, but don't understand the argument about too much time wasted in schools. I see so many people who can't even sit through a meeting if the discussion isn't directly about them. Do we want to encourage people to only look out for themselves and have no patience? Overall I think the homeschool/school time "wasted" is a wash and we should just be worrying about what is the best educational model for a child to become a well rounded adult.
Anonymous is right about a few things. Time not specifically spent on education during a student's class time is not always time wasted, nor is every second of homeschooling another step closer to winning the Scripps Spelling Bee. But it's a leap to go from "Hey, into every life a little rain must fall and some time will be sucked up so you might as well get used to it" to "This will produce me-firsters and those morons who can't tolerate a simple business meeting unless we give them a birthday cake."
First, in a CBS study done of homeschoolers in one college, they had, on average, a higher GPA at the end of the first year, and then again at graduation, than students who has come in from a bricks-and-mortar school, and they're also more likely to graduate in four years than the traditional student. For these students, it would appear they've learned to work within a system with all of its challenges and opportunities and intermittent bureaucratic tedium.
Second, those me-firsters with patience issues? Statistically, the odds are quite high that they went to a bricks and mortar school. Just saying. I will never use any medium to declare "HOMESCHOOL IS GREAT AND AWESOME AND ROCKS AND YOU SUCK FOR NOT DOING IT!" In fact, I'll be the first to admit that not only do I not think it's for everyone, I'm not even sure it's for us. Maybe I'm hurting the kid. Time will tell. What I do know is that, in a more creative world, families would have many more options concerning the education of their children than we do today; options that stressed learning over management and imagination over containment.
I'm starting to hear about students who are in high-school for the morning and working on their own projects in the afternoons, which can include independent study, internships or community-college classes. A recent article in WIRED about the teacher who created a revolution within his class by letting his students learn how to learn should be mandatory reading for anyone thinking about educational reform.
Which is why I liked the comment from Anonymous so much. Whoever you are, you're as concerned about where education is headed as I am.
"...we should just be worrying about what is the best educational model for a child to become a well rounded adult"?
Well, I couldn't agree more.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Why To Homeschool
Here's a reason to homeschool: time.
The dirty secret of education–even in the best-run school–is that a good part of the day is spent handling administrative details. such as taking attendance, gathering homework, handing back homework, and getting students from class to class. It's as much a managerial process as an educational one and if you have–as any class will–a few lively or disruptive students, the time spent in non-educational pursuits will tend to expand.
When my daughter started at a French immersion school when she was seven, the first words she learned in French were "Matthew, what are you doing? Stop it and sit down!" My daughter's pronunciation of that phrase was flawless, but I still question whether it was worth the tuition we were paying. Any parent who homeschools will tell you that the educational basics are usually covered in about half the time it takes in a bricks-and-mortar school. This leaves the student the luxury of being able to follow interests, get a job or an internship (if they're older), and generally use that extra time to explore who they are and what kind of person they'd like to become.
Or maybe your worst fears come true and your children decide to use all that newfound time to play Minecraft until they become block-shaped themselves. I've never said homeschoolers were any better than the average child, and I never will. But my experience has been that this extra time adds up, every day, every week, every year to where it affords options and opportunities which the family didn't have before homeschooling. And options are always interesting.
NEXT: A reason why not to homeschool: time.
The dirty secret of education–even in the best-run school–is that a good part of the day is spent handling administrative details. such as taking attendance, gathering homework, handing back homework, and getting students from class to class. It's as much a managerial process as an educational one and if you have–as any class will–a few lively or disruptive students, the time spent in non-educational pursuits will tend to expand.
When my daughter started at a French immersion school when she was seven, the first words she learned in French were "Matthew, what are you doing? Stop it and sit down!" My daughter's pronunciation of that phrase was flawless, but I still question whether it was worth the tuition we were paying. Any parent who homeschools will tell you that the educational basics are usually covered in about half the time it takes in a bricks-and-mortar school. This leaves the student the luxury of being able to follow interests, get a job or an internship (if they're older), and generally use that extra time to explore who they are and what kind of person they'd like to become.
Or maybe your worst fears come true and your children decide to use all that newfound time to play Minecraft until they become block-shaped themselves. I've never said homeschoolers were any better than the average child, and I never will. But my experience has been that this extra time adds up, every day, every week, every year to where it affords options and opportunities which the family didn't have before homeschooling. And options are always interesting.
NEXT: A reason why not to homeschool: time.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Rules for homeschooling in Thailand
Thinking about homeschooling in Thailand? Here's what you need to know.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Who benefits from homeschooling?
If studies are any indication, while nearly all demographic groups show an improvement in test scores, Hispanic and African-American children show the greatest gains.
Dr. Brian Ray's book, Strengths of Their Own, has the results of a study of over 5,000 homeschooled students and reports that:
Another important finding of Strengths of Their Own was that the race of the student does not make any difference. There was no significant difference between minority and white homeschooled students. For example, in grades K-12, both white and minority students scored, on the average, in the 87th percentile. In math, whites scored in the 82nd percentile while minorities scored in the 77th percentile. In the public schools, however, there is a sharp contrast. White public school eighth grade students, nationally scored the 58th percentile in math and the 57th percentile in reading. Black eighth grade students, on the other hand, scored on the average at the 24th percentile in math and the 28th percentile in reading. Hispanics scored at the 29th percentile in math and the 28th percentile in reading.
Me again. Am I saying homeschooling will Save Us All and Is the Future and is Totally Awetastic !!!1! I'm still prepared to have the kid look at me in the years to come, roll her eyes and say "Um, Mom? My education? You tanked it. Thanks. Here's your decaf cappucino, no foam." And I'm certainly no fan of measuring education exclusively by test results. But this study merits attention.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
College application link
Do you homeschool or are you thinking about homeschooling your child through her senior year? You need to know how the changes to the Common Application will affect you.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Why "Dangerously"?
So why is the blog "Learning Dangerously"? Why isn't it "Learning Happily" or "Learning Confidently" or, if my life is any indication, "Learning in ratty t-shirts and yoga pants"?
Because education is a risk. At many times, it's a zero-sum game; if you put your child in School A, they can't go to School B. You decide to let your child become a high-level gymnast by 15, they aren't going to have the time to become a professional pianist by 17. When confronted with this fact, we parents do the research, think about the needs of our family, cross our fingers, and plunge in. After we make the choice, we frequently act as if a) that was the only possible choice or b) it was the best possible choice. But what it really is is a gamble. It used to be that if you behaved yourself, got the grades, attended the right schools and chose the right major, your life was secure and predictable until retirement. That's not true any more.
So if the tested path isn't a guarantee, then maybe there isn't a reason not to try something new. Take a chance. Learn dangerously. Maybe we will as a society look back a century from now on this generation of homeschoolers and view them with the same affectionate contempt we reserve for people who used to think you could determine personality traits through the shape of the skull. Or maybe a few of these individuals will have changed everything. Either way, people are learning dangerously, and oddly, and wonderfully, and I plan to keep watching them.
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