Home School Online

There is a brand new game in VocabularySpellingCity – VSC WordFind! The mouse is back and he’s on a word-finding mission. Help him by using the letters in each spelling or vocabulary word to make as many words as you can! The more words you find, the higher your score. Stumped? Click the Hint button for a sentence or definition clue!

VSC WordFind: The Featured Game for May

WordFind is a Premium game, but ALL members can use their own word lists to play this exciting new game during the month of May.

So the students’ favorites games:

Word Search, Unscramble,  Parts of Speech,  Hangman (HangMouse), Crossword Puzzle, and Word Find.

Enjoy!!!!

The homeschool world is pretty dismissive of the idea that education should be built around mastering a defined set of skills and knowledge. This might be the single biggest difference between the public education system and homeschoolers. And when homeschoolers do want a standards-based education, they tend to focus on choosing that type of curriculum without looking beyond it to the standards on which it is based.

The school systems are built around the concept that educational goals and standards can be established for each grade and subject and that the achievement of these standards can be successfully measured on standardized tests. Teachers are directly  responsible for making sure that the standards are taught so they need to think about and understand them.  The current generation of standards and tests in schools are about to be replaced, in most cases, by a new set of standards, the Common Core. The introduction of these  new standard will be closely followed by a new type of more efficient and effective computer-based adaptive tests.

I just read an article which counselled teachers about how to set up a standards-based curriculum. It seemed to really place a great deal of responsibility directly on the teachers.   So,  as an intellectual exercise, I thought I’d adapt that article and rewrite it as advice to  homeschoolers for setting up a standards-based curriculum. Weird exercise, I know.  So, lets try for the moment to figure how a standards-based homeschool program might be put together.  Here are the steps (taken from this other article):

1. Research: Read  about the standards. Educate yourself so you can understand what each of those educational objectives really means paying attention both to the parts which explain how achievement can be measured and how the standard is best taught.  There is lots of discussion about these issues.

2. Plan: Once you’ve done your research, you must decide what curriculum or sequence or plan of attack you are going to use to teach these standards.  Will each subject be taught independently or will you have an interdisciplinary set of learning activities?

3. Educate: It’s time to start teaching. I wouldn’t actually spend too much time planning since as you start teaching, you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t.  Many people understand pretty curriculum that their initial choice of approach or curriculum is not going to work for their family.  Try and error is part of the process. Also, some things work for awhile, then they get old.  Switch. Keep it interesting, novel, and fresh.

4. Document: Document what you’ve done with work samples, pictures, anecdotal records, student reflection — anything you can. Have plenty of information to back up anything that indicates level mastery. One way to avoid formal assessments is have lots of other ways that indicate what’s been studied and learned.

5. Celebrate! Do celebrate success — every step of the way! Many decisions to change can be viewed as lessons that you’ve learned.  To paraphrase Edison who said about what others were saying about his continued failure to find a successful filament for an electric lightbulb: “I like to think that I’ve successfully ruled out thousands of possible filaments, moving me ever closer to focusing on the right one.”

Bottom line: Education in the schools is totally focused on educational standards and the measurement of achieving them.  Being a homeschooler, we are free to totally or partially abandon this approach. I would recommend using the standards only as a resource but it is more efficient to actually focus on finding a curriculum that fits your family and assume that they’ve done a good job integrating the significant educational standards within the curriculum.

For more practical advice on setting up a homeschool program, I’d recommend:

An Intro Guide to Homeschooling

Homeschooling and a Child with Dyslexia

A Guide to Homeschooling a Child with Dyslexia

Note, this article is being recycled from a few years ago on this same blog. The accidental homeschooler article has been a most popular post over the years.  It is reprinted with permission from the original author.

While some families know from the start that they want to homeschool, others arrive somewhat accidentally.

These are families who had initially put their children in traditional schools. Then, something happens. Perhaps this “something”  happens over and over or different accidents happen. Sometimes there are a few classroom or school changes but it still is not working. The problems can be with other students, the school culture, the academics, or the faculty and staff. But over time, the parents realize that traditional schools are not working and they become convinced that the available schools are unacceptable.

I Never Thought I Would Homeschool.

Although many are people of strong faith, these families start to homeschool not for religious or philosophical reasons, but as problem solvers trying to do the best for their children.

I never thought I would homeschool, but after trying my son in several different schools, we were at our wits end. Our son was miserable in school and doing badly.

After one particularly bad day when he came home in tears and humiliated, we agreed to try homeschooling for the rest of third grade. That was two years ago and it has really worked out for son

One Particularly Conflicted Mother Got me to Thinking

There was one particular conversation that got me thinking about these families and the process of suddenly jumping into homeschooling. One mother who had called to find out about our curriculum, felt it important to explain to me that:

I don’t really believe in homeschooling and I don’t want to do it, but I have to because of my children and the way schools worked. I only want to do the best thing for my children.

I was somewhat speechless trying to think how that made her different from other homeschooling parents, or any parents for that matter.

Many Families Start on the Homeschooling Path in a Bumpy Conflicted Manner

I noticed that she is far from being the only one who followed a bumpy conflicted path into homeschooling. I coined the Accidental Homeschooler term to describe those starting to homeschool motivated by a process of elimination, not because homeschooling is their primary choice.

Are Most Homeschoolers Accidental?

While we believe that homeschooling stastistics are poor given the size and signficance of the movement (Is 5% of the K12 population believable?), I believe that about half of today’s homeschoolers started in traditional schools. So, with some fear of over-generalizing, here are some characteristics of accidental homeschoolers that I have observed:

• Accidental homeschoolers often have the impression that they are unusual in that they are only homeschooling because it’s the best option. Many seem to feel that this sets them apart from other homeschoolers.
• Accidental homeschoolers decision to homeschool often resolves a crisis, or series of crises, with the children, the school, and sometimes within the family.
• Many accidental homeschoolers have been preoccupied trying to make traditional education work for their children so that when they finally give-up on schools and decide to homeschool, they find themselves with no preparation and no real idea what homeschooling means.
• Accidental homeschoolers start with real trepidation and often with little to no enthusiasm for their endeavor.
• The number of people starting as accidental homeschoolers is increasing now that the public has broad awareness and acceptance of homeschooling.

Since we get a lot of these calls from these families in transition, we have created a free guide with ten key ideas to help them through the transition into homeschooling. The advice includes how to avoid mistakes in an initial buying spree, how to layer in an overall homeschool program, how to connect with other homeschoolers locally and online, and how to build an appropriate mix of activities for each day.

The Homeschool Melting Pot

We’ve noticed that the accidental homeschooler label only applies for a limited period to these homeschoolers. After a deschooling transition period, parents become immersed in their new approach to education and lifestyle. Their initial anger with the education system which they feel failed them melts away as they adapt to their new life. They seem to forget that their decision to homeschool was one of necessity, not a deliberate choice.

“I had starting homeschooling when I found that the schools just did not work for my children. My initial attitude was bitterness with the schools and the blunders and accidents that had forced me to take on the education ourselves.

Over the years, a funny thing happened. I began to notice that there was nothing regrettable about the fork in the road that I took and the homeschooling path that I was on. I shifted from being a critic of the schools to being a homeschool advocate. I noticed that many of the friends I made that first year experienced a similar metamorphosis

This Accidental Homeschooler became an Enthusiastic Homeschooler

Article by John Edelson of Time4Learning.com, a leading online curriculum for homeschoolers. To discuss accidental homeschooling with other parents, join this thread on the parenting forum.