Five Frequently Asked Homeschooling Questions

Families who are considering homeschooling often have many questions.  Below you will find frequently asked questions posed by new homeschooling families.

1.  Is homeschooling legal? 

In the United States, absolutely yes!  All fifty states recognize some method of educating children at home.  Some states offer free public school online, others recognize church or umbrella schools.  Some states do not require parents to even notify the state if they intend to homeschool.  The first suggestion if you are considering homeschooling is to check with your state Department of Education and see what the regulations are for pulling a child from their existing traditional education situation and placing them in a homeschool situation.  If the child has not attended traditional school it may require a different set of notifications.  Homeschooling is legal, but it is extremely important that each family be in complete compliance with their state’s homeschooling laws since those laws differ from state to state.

2.  Where do I find curriculum?

There are several options for finding a homeschool curriculum.  One of the best ways to find out about what curricula are available is to ask other homeschooling families.  Each will have their own favorite curriculum or combination of different curricula. Some families go to homeschool conventions where curriculum vendors present the best of their wares.  Other families search the internet for all or parts of their instructional material.  In states where a free, online public education is offered, the department of education might even provide books, materials, even use of a computer.  Libraries are a great source of educational material, especially where literature and history are concerned.  For early elementary students there are many sources for basic math, spelling, and penmanship worksheets that can be printed from the internet.  Don’t forget to include educational games as part of the curriculum for everything from multiplication tables to spelling and keyboarding games.

3. Is homeschooling expensive?

Homeschooling does not have to be expensive.  Sources of educational material are wide-spread.  For families unwilling or unable to spend a lot of money there are free and low cost curricula to be found online.  The other end of the spectrum are the all-in-one box curricula which may be quite costly, however they do offer many services including lesson planning and grading as well as record-keeping and an interface with the department of education.  Essentially, homeschooling can be as cost effective or as expensive as a family chooses.  There are many options between the two extremes that will accommodate families in all economic circumstances.

4. What if I can’t teach a subject?

Not every parent will feel comfortable teaching every subject.  While most parents will feel comfortable teaching the basics to younger students, when it comes to advanced composition, calculus, or chemistry many parents feel like they are not qualified to teach their students. Other courses such as foreign languages or music instruction often require more teaching than a parent might feel comfortable with.  The answer to this dilemma is to out-source.  Check with local homeschool support groups to see if a co-op offers group classes.  Check with the library to see if they offer courses.  Many times college students earn money through tutoring so check with your closest college or university to see if tutors are available.  Often checking with fellow homeschoolers will show a need and you might join with other families to fund a course.  There are always people who are willing to pass on their knowledge, some for free, some for a fee.  Ask around!

5. Do colleges accept homeschooled students?

In the past colleges might have been hesitant to accept homeschoolers because they were unsure of the amount of preparation homeschoolers might receive.  However, that has changed for the most part.  Colleges find that homeschoolers are generally well prepared for college courses, performing better on standardized tests and required less remedial work than some traditionally educated students.  Colleges also find that homeschool high school students often take dual credit courses which provide both high school and college credit.  Homeschool students tend to be self-starters and are accustomed to studying and preparing projects.  In fact, many institutions of higher learning seek out homeschool students because they find that homeschooled students measure up very competitively with other students.

Finally…

There are, of course, many questions regarding homeschooling and how to begin the process of homeschooling.  Families looking to homeschool need to be legal with their state and local department of education.  Families should look for instructional materials that teach to the student in the way that the student learns.

Support is very important, online searches will provide information on local or regional support groups.  Support groups are a great source both for finding curricula, and for making sure you are legal with the state. Many online curricula provide online forums or help to assist homeschooling families.

The internet and local libraries are great places to begin researching the questions new homeschooling families may have.   Homeschooling is a growing trend and as more families choose this educational option there will be more people with experience to answer those questions

Classroom Management

Four years ago, psychologist Leonard Sax (MD, PhD) wrote a well-received book titled “Boys Adrift.” The doctor tried to answer the question, why have so many young males fallen into passivity and indifference?

Dr. Sax had heard more and more parents complain that their boys stayed indoors most of the time, spent hours on video games, and in general seemed to lack the confidence and esprit de corps that had characterized boys throughout history.

“Something scary is happening to boys today,” Sax concluded. “From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically.”

The book’s full title is, “Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.” Sax lists the five factors right on the cover: “video games, teaching methods, prescription drugs, environmental toxins, devaluation of masculinity.”

It’s worrisome that he seems to like them all. That might be a clue that he has not solved this mystery. Indeed, let’s consider the possibility that none of these theories is the deep answer we want. Let’s start from scratch and consider the things we know for sure.

First of all, critics have often noted that schools seem organized more for girls than for boys. Most boys do not want to be confined to a desk; they would rather be outside playing and competing. Second, not only are boys kept passively inside, they are forced to deal almost the entire day with reading, writing, and arithmetic, probably not their own first choices.

But these factors are historically common. Boys have always been restless at their desks. They have often stared out the window and daydreamed. Furthermore, in many other cultures and ages, discipline was greater; serious academic work was demanded. So it’s not as if there were some golden age when boys had it better. No, they have it worse today, and for reasons that are new.

We are now arriving at the heart of darkness.

Consider that all school activity revolves around two basic skills, reading and arithmetic. Students spend a lot of each day on these and must learn them in order to advance to any other subjects. Failure in these two subjects virtually guarantees failure in all subjects, and in all of life.

Perversely, our public schools, for more than 50 years, have used dysfunctional methods that virtually guarantee failure for the ordinary boy (that is, a boy who will struggle to a degree but finally says, screw this.) 

To learn to read, he is told he must memorize English words as graphic designs. He fails for all the reasons that Rudolf Flesch explained in his 1955 bestseller, “Why Johnny Can’t Read.” Almost as devastating, the boy must learn arithmetic using one of the dozen curricula collectively called Reform Math. These are exceptionally cumbersome and frustrating for children, as has been amply documented.

Now imagine a boy, restless and impatient, locked in a situation he doesn’t really like, engaged in activities he might prefer to avoid. He senses that instruction is gratuitously difficult and tedious. Increasingly, he rebels. Already he glimpses a future hopeless and horrible, where he will never be allowed to succeed.

He comes to school every day depressed and is told to memorize sight-words, which is very difficult to do. If he actually does master 100, the next 100 will overwhelm his brain. Simultaneously, he is made to learn arithmetic in ways that he can’t understand. Even his parents can’t explain to him the techniques he is supposed to learn.

So every day, every week, every month, the ordinary boy stares at a sign flashing in the air: ACCESS: DENIED.

Whatever it is he is supposed to do, he can’t do it. He wants to, he really, really wants to. What else does a boy have but cockiness and confidence? Boys rule! Or they once did. But their sense of being master of any situation is no match for the dark genius of our Education Establishment.

He becomes sullen, then angry. He hears his parents whispering about him. He goes to conferences where his teacher talks about remediation and dyslexia. He’s told he has ADHD. He might need Ritalin.

Imagine when he is seven and failing. Imagine when he is eight and still failing. Imagine when he is nine and more blatantly failing. Imagine how many discussions he has had with his teacher and parents about his inability to do the simplest things. Imagine the interior collapse of confidence. If his parents and all adults in his world think, to put it bluntly, that he is retarded, then he must be.

The signs flash everywhere: SUCCESS: IMPOSSIBLE. DREAMS: CRUSHED.

Dr. Sax put a lot of emphasis on video games but perhaps he has it backwards. Consider that the school world makes boys feel helpless. But the virtual world lets many boys be the smart, extremely capable people they actually are. Which world would you choose to remain in all day?

Dr. Sax puts a lot of emphasis on early literacy instruction, as if this is a strain. Why would it be a strain if boys actually did learn to read? Reading is fun. It’s the con that is the strain. It’s adults pretending to teach children to read but not letting them learn to read that is the killer.

Dr. Sax speaks of masculinity being undervalued. Maybe it’s more directly a case of masculinity hemmed in and, as the school years pass, neutralized.

Finally. one can never escape the impression that there is premeditation in all of this. Does the Education Establishment use these methods to induce a loss of confidence? Then they are evil people. If they don’t know any better, then they are incompetent people.

Better Education for All

One of the very basic things that you need in order to secure a well paying job and a bright future is good education.  Indeed it all begins at home and then school and then college.  But it is at the college stage where you need to make some really important decisions.  From what you are going to study to where you are going to study, these are crucial questions that need answers.  These are in fact the answers that will shape your future.  Therefore you must give some serious thought to what kind of courses you wish to pursue and which college or university you wish to secure your degree from.

What and where?

One of the most important decisions you need to make as soon as you finish high school is the subject you wish to study further.  It could be literature, art, finance, science, engineering, medicine or associates degree detroit.  These are just a few of the popular options out of the hundreds of subjects out there, and you could choose to pursue your degree in any one of these.  What you choose should not depend upon what you like or where your talent lies.  Do not force yourself to study something that you don’t really like just because it seemed to promise a better paycheck in the future.  If your heart is in it, you can become successful studying any subject.

Next comes one of the questions that is topmost on the mind of every student graduating high school: Which college do I go to? There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing a bachelors degree detroit. Some of these are the reputation of the university, programs available, fees, faculty, infrastructure and placement records etc.

Degrees in Engineering

For those interested in engineering and hoping to get a bachelor’s degree in Detroit, there are a number of great colleges available. Engineering is one of the most coveted degrees and has a wide variety of options from electronics to software and mechanical engineering. A typical bachelor’s degree in engineering would take you at least 4 years to complete. For those interested, this could be followed by 2-3 years of specialization in a particular area.

There are plenty of great career opportunities in America and across the world, available to those who have completed their bachelor’s degree in engineering. However, for those who wish to further acquire a stronghold on the subject and do a specialization in engineering, a mba Detroit is the perfect option. It is needless to say that the career opportunities after a master’s degree in engineering are huge and really high on the paycheck. 

Once again, just make sure you do your research and seek admission in a truly reputed engineering college in Detroit that has world class faculty and an excellent track record. Getting admission in a reputable college almost always guarantees a good job at the end of the course duration.

For those looking for something other than an engineering degree or an enhancement to their degree, a good management college in Detroit could award an associate, bachelors or masters degree in business management. In the end, it’s all about where your interest lies.

Hieroglyphics in English

Hey, wait a minute, you’re thinking. There’s no such thing as English hieroglyphics. There are Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sumerian hieroglyphics, maybe some others. But English? No way.

Yeah, you know that. But does a six-year-old kid know that? Not hardly.

You know what this means? The school system can pull a fast one. Teachers point to a word-– “house” -– and say, “This design is pronounced ‘house.’ Memorize it.”

Presto, that English phonetic word is now English hieroglyphics, simply by saying it is. That’s what American public schools did circa 1930; they changed all English phonetic words into English hieroglyphics. It was so easy. What do first graders know?  They’ve got VICTIM written all over them.

If children learn the alphabet, they are memorizing the shapes of individual letters. But a single letter is not so great a challenge; plus, there are only 26 of them.

But what about five of these easy shapes stuck together to make a much more complicated shape like “house”? Or, worse still, something like “business.”  What about this complex shape makes you think of business activity? Basically, that’s how you learn hieroglyphics, one at a time, with as many memory aids as possible.

If you don’t happen to have a photographic memory, you will have to be clever and creative with your mnemonic tricks. Let’s say the word is “face.” Both the “a” and the “e” have a closed shape that could very well be eyes. That’s how you do it.

The problem with hieroglyphics is that each design is hard work and takes up lots of memory. Even very smart people have trouble memorizing 2000 hieroglyphics with instant recall. More ordinary memories might have trouble going past 200 hieroglyphics.

Treating English word as hieroglyphics has few benefits and many obvious limitations. The English language is huge. College graduates routinely know more than 100,000 English words. Nobody knows 100,000 hieroglyphics. Furthermore, having memorized “face,” would you be able to read FACE? The eyes, where are the eyes?

 Historically speaking, it was as though a strange and deadly virus struck our Education Establishment around 1930. They insisted-–absolutely, hysterically insisted--that memorizing English words as hieroglyphics was the best way to go. In fact, it’s the worst way. 

English hieroglyphics, that’s what most little children studied and memorized across the United States for a long time. This method never made any sense. It caused huge damage. It’s the reason we have 50 million functional illiterates.

Virtually all readers of English hieroglyphics are damaged readers. Their eyes tend to flit randomly over the complex designs. Instead of relentless left-to-right movements, their eyes zigzag and jump backwards. Soon these readers are diagnosed as dyslexic. They are said to have ADHD; and must be given Ritalin.

 No, what they need to be given is a lesson in phonics. They memorize the letter names. They learn the sounds (i.e., the phonics) represented by the letters. They learn the blends of these sounds. When children can combine two or more sounds into one sound, they are reading!

 That’s how it works. That’s how simple it is, in every phonetic language all around the world. Once you know the letters and the sounds, there is no limit to the number of words you can read. That’s why English can have 1 million words, some of them long and bizarre like “ibuprofen” and “verisimilitude,” but readers have no trouble.

Conversely, children trying to memorize English as hieroglyphics might stumble over “See Dick and Jane.” They might stumble over “house.” After all, when you think of it as a design, house looks a lot like louse, hoist, horse, dowse, souse, mouse, host, hoses, worse, hurts, etc. Really, that is the primary problem with English hieroglyphics. Every one of them resembles 50 others. A kid could get dyslexia, never learn to read, drop out of school, and end up stealing a car belonging to a literacy professor. Well, at least that would be poetic justice

Techno-Education

Once upon a time homeschoolers might have been considered old-fashioned. This is probably because of the stereotype that homeschoolers are generally homeschooling for religious reasons, sitting around a dining room table doing copy work from historical icons, and learning to read from old public school readers. Like all stereotypes there is probably some basis in truth but today’s homeschoolers are breaking out of that stereotype.

Today’s homeschoolers are often at least as technologically advanced as their traditionally educated counterparts. Part of the reason this is true is because homeschooled students are not sitting isolated in their homes poring over outdated textbooks but are studying the latest available material by means of technology. Many homeschooled students are taking part in distance learning, self-guided learning, and online curricula.

Distance learning

Distance learning or distance education is a method of presenting educational material through correspondence work, or lectures presented on the internet. It allows students to have access to professors and other specialists that might not be available locally. Students generally use the internet to attend classes and are not required to be present at the school at all.

There are many different variations of using technology for distance learning. Some courses are broadcast at a certain time on the internet and all students are expected to log in, similar to an online meeting site. This type of distance learning is called synchronous or live learning. Other courses are uploaded to the internet for the students to use when they have the time. This type of distance learning is sometimes called asynchronous distance education.

Self-guided Learning

Self-guided learning is similar to distance learning. Some universities offer free courses online. While the courses are usually offered not-for-credit, they still represent a large body of information. Most of these courses are online, free, and often contain both video and searchable lecture notes. An example of this type of educational material is MIT Open Courseware. By searching the internet for open course ware it is seen that a number of prestigious universities offer similar open course ware.

Another option for self-guided learning is Khan Academy. Courses available there are not offered for credit. In fact, it might even be considered free online tutoring as many complex topics in math and science are broken down into easily digestible, short lectures.

While this coursework is offered on the internet for free and is a great way for a student to gain knowledge, it is generally not offered for credit. However, there is no argument that this work is an attractive addition to homeschool transcripts and can be a great preparation for taking college entrance as well as CLEP tests.

Online Curriculum

Online curriculum for homeschool students is offered from Pre-K through 12th grade. Sometimes it is difficult to see the difference between distance learning and online curriculum. Probably the main difference is that with online curriculum most of the instruction is presented online as well as most of the coursework. This online curriculum type of learning generally does not have a “live” instructor that the student answers.

Much of the testing is done by the program in the form of multiple choice or fill in the blank answers though in higher grade there are often writing assignments that parents will have to grade for their for their homeschooled students. Online curricula can be used for core education as well as supplemental coursework. One example of an online curriculum is Time4Learning.

Other Options

There are many other opportunities for homeschooled students to take advantage of technology in their educational endeavors. The internet is, in some cases, taking the place of the library. Since many families no longer buy sets of encyclopedias the internet is a great research vehicle. There are many subject specific sites that provide instructional material as well as educational games. Homeschooled students often do not have access to the same textbooks that traditionally educated students do, so learning to use technology affords homeschooled students with opportunities to learn and expand their horizons that they might not have otherwise.

Is your Child Learning?

One of the big questions most new homeschoolers ask is, “How will I know if my child is learning?”

When a child is in public school he or she is constantly tested. Each week there are spelling tests, there are chapter tests on a regular basis, and in many states there is standardized testing. Many parents of public school students decide that if the grades coming home on test papers and report cards are good, then their child must be learning.

When students are pulled from a traditional school setting and placed in homeschooling it is sometimes difficult for the parent to know if the student is actually learning enough to keep up with their grade peers. A big problem is that homeschool students tend to not be tested as often as public school students. But is it really a problem and is testing the only way to know if a student is learning enough?

How Long?

Sometimes it is difficult to tell if a child is learning enough in homeschool because homeschooling generally takes much less time than traditional education.   Homeschooled children generally do not spend as much time on a particular topic as traditionally educated students because they are neither ahead nor behind their classmates. Part of the reason for this is that your homeschooled child is receiving one-on-one attention. They do not have to wait for others to catch up, nor are they holding up other students back if they need to spend more time on a topic. If the student understands the topic then he or she can move on right away.

Traditional education is set up for a traditional school year, in many states that is approximately 180 school days. That is, for each subject an hour of instruction per day for 180 days, or 180 hours per subject. Now, consider this question: Is a public school hour of instruction really an hour? Students must move from class to class, spending time talking to peers, going to lockers, and moving between classrooms and even buildings. A traditional school hour of education might be as short as 45 minutes by the time moving, getting settled, and ready to actually learn are taken into account.

Homeschoolers can take almost all of that transition time out of their day. The commute from math at the kitchen table to history on the sofa takes considerably less time than moving from one end of a building to another and climbing a flight of steps or two.  When was the last time you heard of a traditionally educated student actually finishing a complete textbook in a year?  It is safe to say that a homeschooled student can probably cover more material in a school day than traditional educated students can. It is not unusual for a homeschooled student to complete the entire course in ahomeschool curriculum.

Testing?

Homeschooled students generally do not take as many tests as public school students do. Consequently, less time is spent teaching “to the test”. Teaching to the test limits a student’s exploration of a subject by limiting them to the material that will be tested. Testing is not necessarily a true measure of understanding of a topic.

In fact, standardized tests can be detrimental to students who are from different backgrounds and upbringings. Consider, for example, a standardized test question that asks reasons for the Civil War. Since the Civil War is viewed differently by different ethnicities, as well as different locations, a question designed to show understanding of the reasons behind the war might not realistically test a student’s knowledge.

Another problem with standardized testing is that some students are very test savvy, understanding how to take tests well even if they do not understand the subject matter. Other students are poor test takers and do not do well under the pressures of timed tests. A low score by a poor test taker is not a true measure of their knowledge or learning ability, only their testing abilities.

You’ll know!

It sounds cheesy to say that you will know if your child is learning but the reality is that you will know if your child is learning. You can see it on their faces, you can tell by their attitude, and you will see forward progress.

If your student begins their homeschool day ready to go to school, moves quickly through their assignments, and is hungry for more information, it is safe to say that the student is learning.

If your student can not only give you the instructed materials on a multiple choice test, but can hold a conversation about the material you will know they understand the material. When a student can play the part of the teacher, either giving a speech, or teaching other children in a subject, then that student will have sufficient knowledge of a subject to move on to new material.

Finally, as the parent as well as the teacher it is possible to see the student in all stages of learning. You will not have to depend on a report card, or a test score. You will see your student work through the instructional material, watch them answer questions, and be able to judge for yourself if your student is actually learning.

"Televised Schools"

Growing up in Puerto Rico means being strongly influenced by American culture probably more than in any other part of the world. Radio stations constantly play American music, and the TV is full of American programs; most of them dubbed since Spanish is the first language of the majority.  One of my favorite forms of entertainment is going to the movies, which in Puerto Rico is a completely different experience. Most movies in cinemas in Puerto Rico have subtitles in Spanish and are rarely dubbed (except for children's movies). This meant reading the dialogue in Spanish while simultaneously listening to it in English. As a beginner reader, this proved to be a challenge. Trying to read the words before they disappear forever from the screen was a race against my reading skills I usually lost. But little by little, as my skills got better, I got to the point of being able to understand a whole movie. What a triumph that was! But then my journey switched, and that fluency reading practice became one of the best English teachers I ever had, which says a lot since children in Puerto Rico take English as a core subject  since kindergarten.

                Today, as a bilingual teacher in Texas,  I see children struggling with reading and the English language on a daily basis. This has made me wonder if there are instances in which subtitles and captions have been used successfully to increase reading skills and English proficiency. My experience was not by any means a systematic approach, but maybe with some researched techniques I can improve and replicate it to help struggling readers.

                One of the best examples on how subtitles can help with literacy comes from India. In a 2008 article, Brij Kothari, Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, and Debanjan Bhattacharjee study the impact of Same Language Subtitling (SLS) in readers from three different levels: good readers, early-readers, and non-readers. In the study they track the progress in literacy of viewers of two song programs, Chitrahaar and Rangoli, with and without SLS. Researchers found literacy levels improved considerably on viewers with SLS in all three levels. After five years of schooling, only 24% of children who did not have exposure to SLS became proficient readers. On the other hand, 56% of children with regular exposure to SLS programming became good readers. Researchers stated that, "It is claimed that SLS creates a context in which reading skills are practiced, automatically, incidental, and subconsciously by millions of children and adults. In the process, SLS leads to reading skill improvement" ("Same Language Subtitling on TV: Impact on Basic Reading Development among Children and Adults," planetread.org, January 2008). In other words, not only did viewers practiced their reading skills, but they did it without even knowing it.

                As we can see, captions and subtitles can be a great tool to increase literacy skills, but they can also provide help with second language acquisition. Hsin-Chuan Huang and David Eskey studied its effect on English as a second language students (ESL) with intermediate level. These researchers found many areas in which the use of captions can benefit ESL students and improve a variety of linguistic abilities like: general comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and listening comprehension. Researchers quote

"As Newman and Koskinen stated, students might establish the relationship between words and

meanings through TV’s combination of pictures and sounds. TV’s entertaining qualities make it an easier medium to access than text, and it also minimizes fear of failure in learning" (The Effects of Closed-Captioned Television on the Listening Comprehension of Intermediate English as a Second Language (ESL) Students, Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 1999). In other words, not only it helps with linguistic skills, but it can actually reduce the anxiety students experience when dealing with a second language by making it more accessible and engaging. In fact, Deborah Linebarger describes the level of engagement as: "In sum, television captions, by evoking efforts to read, appeared to help a child focus on central story elements and away from distracting information, including sound effects and visual glitz" ("Learning to read from television: The effects of using captions and narration", Journal of Educational Psychology, Jun 2001).

                Although Hsin-Chuan Huang and David Eskey focus their research on students with an intermediate level of English, we can infer that with certain adjustments this can also be used with all levels. Chrissine Rios from the Kaplan University Writing Center states, "Watching programs in English and referring to subtitles in your first language to maintain the show’s context or clarify a new word can improve your listening skills and show you how English speakers use gestures to construct meaning" ("Practical Ways to Improve Your English", kucampus.kaplan.edu, March 2013). Put differently, ESL students with low proficiency can use captions in their own language to clarify words they don't understand. According to the author, caption videos can even help with body language, a language skill many forget to address in ESL classes.

                The idea of using subtitles and captions in the classroom is not new. From the late 1980's, when the technology started to spread, many researchers and educators have spoken in favor its use as a powerful educating tool. None the less, over twenty years later, its presence in classrooms could still be underappreciated. The amount of lesson choices it provides for teachers to help with reading and language proficiency skills should make it an essential and versatile tool. Teachers could have kids watch videos repeatedly without sound to improve fluency skills or with sound to increase hearing comprehension. The amount of possible uses could be as big as the ingenuity of the teacher, and with the help of parents, students could be watching TV with closed captioning at home turning a normally non-educational activity into something that might help students from all levels succeed academically.