I have about 10 blog posts on this issue floating in my head. While I think it is abysmal that teachers are not paid well, I also do not believe that can be laid completely at the feet of the legislature. As with any political issue, there are many facets and more than one valid opinion. As a homeschooler, who pays taxes that fund public education but doesn't use public education, I wonder how I should respond to this issue.
We don't send our children to public schools for a variety of reasons. We choose to homeschool. We think it is best, we have been called to do it.
However, rather than debating our stance on the strike or listing the reasons we homeschool or waxing philosophical on why we don't love public schools, this post is a list of websites we have utilized in our homeschool journey.
If you are new to homeschooling, or just thinking about homeschooling, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. It is easy to turn your children over to the "experts" in a brick and mortar school (public, private, hybrid/homeschool) and trust for the best. But you do have many options. Hopefully, this post will give you information to begin your journey with a question or two already answered.
One of the newest homeschooling methods is the online public school model. Entities such as EPIC Charter Schools, K12, and Connections Academy are examples of this quasi-homeschool (it is really public schooling at home) trend. It is totally free, and some like EPIC even provide funding for electives such as martial arts, photography, and art classes. A public school teacher (they don't teach in brick and mortar schools, but are hired as part of the public school system) oversees your child's education. Depending on the program, the parent has varying degrees of freedom and choices in subject matter. If you want to have the same or very similar instruction at home as in the local public school, this might be a good choice for you. If you have an issue with WHAT is being taught in public schools, this may not be the best fit for you as a homeschool family.
In Tulsa, OK, there is a hybrid private school/homeschool option. Although I think several private schools are embracing this model of part-time students, the school SPECIFICALLY designed for part-time brick and mortar/part-time homeschool is CEA. We had homeschooling neighbors who went to CEA. They loved it! School at the CEA campus three mornings a week, the rest of the week traditional homeschooling. It was too expensive for us, so I do not have direct experience. I snagged this from their website:
Christian Education Alliance is a unique education ministry to home school families in the Tulsa metro area. Founded in 1994, CEA’s mission is to provide limited classroom instruction to home school students, helping parents provide an excellent academic foundation for their children. An equally important aspect of the program is a commitment to the promotion of godly character.
In addition to its educational mission, CEA is a community for like-minded homeschool families providing opportunities for social interaction through field trips, socials, service projects, and other activities. CEA families embrace a learning and social environment that encourages students to develop healthy friendships, freeing them to concentrate on deepening their relationship with Christ and serving others.
Then there is what I will call "pure" homeschooloing, where the parent has all the control with little to no outside oversight or input or funding.
{There is a little bit of debate in the homeschool community whether the other two are actual homeschooling, and the disadvantages of this kind of thing, but for the purpose of this post, I'm going to let that slide. Please don't argue this in the comments. I get it, OK? I'm just laying out the options.}
We have always been this kind of "pure" homeschoolers except when our daughter was enrolled in the local public school 4-year-old program, a semester when we were public schooled in Iowa, and the next two semesters in Iowa when we were homeschooled but required to register with the public school.
You can think of homeschooling as a continuum. On one end is the keep-up-with-public-schoolers. These parents align classes and subjects according to the public school schedule of subjects. If the public school does Earth science in 8th grade and Biology in 9th, they do too. If this is what you are leaning towards in your homeschool journey, you will purchase textbooks geared toward grade levels and subjects. The Oklahoma PASS (academic standards) page may be helpful to you.
On the other end of the spectrum are the unschoolers. The beauty of this kind of schooling is that it is child-directed, meaning if a child is interested in dinosaurs, you will study about dinosaurs until the child has satiated his or her curiosity. It may be trips to the library, an archeological dig, museums, etc. [We have never been brave enough to try this for very long. Doesn't it sound like a magical time? Momma or Dad has to be organized enough to get materials and guide learning. And what if the child loses interest in school? You have to be creative enough to inspire desire to learn. It sounds like no school, and I fear it would be in my house, but it is not. Not at all. This is a very valid means of homeschooling!]
Leaning a little in the middle are the other kinds of homeschooling. They are the hybrids. Delight-Directed homeschooling is very similar to unschooling except that "Delight Directed studies still require direction and structure. There are still requirements to be met and core subjects to be taught. Delight Directed Homeschooling takes into account each individual child’s learning styles and interests, but it also recognizes that children are foolish and ought not to be “left to themselves.” (Proverbs 29:15)"
A little more structured is the Charlotte Mason style of homeschool. Charlotte Mason was a big proponent of good, living books. She advocated learning from experience and what she called twaddle-free books. Stories written about historical events as opposed to a paragraph in a textbook. Children in a Charlotte Mason homeschool narrate to show comprehension (basically summarize the book with vivid details in the child's own words). They explore nature to learn about it (similar to unschooling, but directed by the parent) - drawing what they see (or taking pictures in our case) and using reference guides such as the Nature Study Handbook to look up information about what the child saw. Children are exposed to many, many subjects in short lessons. Simply Charlotte Mason and Ambleside Online are two big names that follow Charlotte Mason's philosophies. It sounds similar to delight directed, but she was also a huge pusher of good habits (for both mother and child).
Unit studies are another hybrid. In unit studies, all subjects are learned as they relate to a core topic. So if you study Ancient Greece, you will read literature from the time such as myths. You will study the Pythagorean Theorem and other contributions from ancient mathematicians. In fact, you will almost certainly read a biography or two of mathematicians, philosophers, etc. Church history of the time is studied as well (if you choose), along with European geography. Science would be covered as you study Aristotle, Archimedes, and the like. Konos is a big name in unit studies. When my children were young, we used several Konos unit studies. (I relearned how to knit and crochet and weave in one unit!)
Sonlight curriculum is literature-based but much more structured like a public school. It is a complete grade-based curriculum with daily lesson plans. The booklist is similar to Charlotte Mason's style of books, but it feels more like a traditional school setting. I have never used Sonlight, but many friends have and loved it! If you are a former public school teacher looking to homeschool like my dear friend Emilie, you may very well LOVE it, too.
If this confuses you or overwhelms you, here are some websites that may give you guidance:
What's your Homeschool Personality?
The Homeschool Style Quiz
The Five Homeschooling Styles (written by Sonya over at Simply Charlotte Mason, it is a little biased)
No comments:
Post a Comment