From: Homeschooler's Notebook To: "Helps for Home Educators" Subject: Volume 5, Number 5, January 30, 2004 Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 21:51:31 -0800 ============================================================ the Homeschooler's Notebook Encouragement and Advice for Homeschool Families ============================================================ Vol. 5 No 5 January 30, 2004 ISSN: 1536-2035 Circulation 18449 ============================================================ Copyright (c) 2000-2003 Lynn Hogan. All Rights Reserved. ============================================================ Welcome to the Homeschooler's Notebook. Send your contributions to Lynn@unitstudyhelps.com for publication! If you like this newsletter, recommend it to a friend! We all need to be helping each other with our schools! Directions for subscribing and unsubscribing are below! DELETED AD HERE ============== IN THIS ISSUE: ============== Notes from Lynn: -- Support Groups Revisited Helpful Hints -- Entertaining the Younger Set Question of the Week: -- Postcard Exchange? Reader's Response -- Homeschooling High School Lynn's Picks -- Deal on Leap Pad Software Announcements --Subscriber Information Including Archive Retrieval --Sponsorship Information ================= NOTES FROM LYNN ================= I got this letter from a mom a couple weeks ago in response to my comments about being part of a support group: "You mentioned that you discouraged anyone from going it alone. From my experience I would discourage anyone from joining a group! It was terrible. The mothers were very catty and competitive, worse than at school! Constantly comparing the children, their abilities, their teaching techniques, everything. Then doing the "one-upmanship" Till I couldn't stand to be around it. I didn't want to play those types of "games". I found groups discouraging." I talked to another support group leader that informed me that they were no longer going to do a support group with leaders and meetings and newsletters. They have decided to just become and area e-mail loop and try to have get-togethers and field trips as they come up instead of assigning responsibilities, etc. A few folks had done virtually everything necessary for the group for several years and the group as a whole was not "stepping up" to share responsibilities. Both of these situations truly grieve me. Many homeschoolers are somewhat rebellious and independent by nature and that can lead us to NOT be truly supportive of one another. It's hard when we get together with other parents to not want to share about how well school is going for us on our good days. It is sometimes difficult not to see that others are not having an easy time of it. I am sure that many of the parents that the mother above was talking about had no clue that they were being rude. They may have just been so grateful to have a good day or week or whatever (which they may not truly have had the confidence to believe would ever happen) that they did not realize that they were being rude and bragging. I don't have all the answers to either of the situations above. I just know that true support is mutual support and is not dependent on one or two people. If you are in a support group and are watching your leaders get "weary in well doing", how about offering a hand. If everyone does just a little, the load can be so much lighter. If 10 people carry a boulder, they will not be crushed. One or two folks will be crushed quickly. In regards to the first letter, I have committed myself to make sure at each support group meeting I attend that I am looking to help others that may not be having a great time of homeschooling. Some of us are doing it, but are not very confident. That's what support groups are for. Holding up the arms of those who are weary or insecure. My method may work fine for my home, but changing another mom's school from top to bottom makes her school like mine, not hers and her family is not the same as mine. If you want to help a mom, see if you can find out what is going well in her school and help her to build on those things instead of suggesting that she toss everything she is doing to do it your way. That's the difference between support and telling someone what to do. We can all use suggestions that are uplifting! So, have you been an encouragement to someone this week? Will you join with me to try and find someone you can encourage? Sometimes all a mom needs is a smile, a prayer or a cup of coffee and someone to tell them that she CAN do this. You CAN be a great help to someone, even if you aren't perfect. As a matter of fact, especially if you are not perfect! DELETED AD HERE ======================= HELPFUL TIPS: Here's Your Chance! Send YOUR Ideas Along to Lynn@unitstudyhelps.com ======================= Entertaining the Younger Set People so often ask what can they do with the younger ones while busy with the older kids. I have two ideas here that others might enjoy : Marshmallow Construction Using a box of toothpicks and a bag of miniature marshmallows, my kindergartner really enjoys constructing. With a marshmallow on either end of the toothpick, he builds palaces, with fancy entrances and a lookout tower. He's made a "hamster wheel", pyramid. Rooms can be square, triangular, or a parallelogram. For Math he made a base of 5 x 5 boxes, with 4 x 4 boxes on top, all the way up to a 1x1 box on the very top. Nails and Elastic Bands Grid My husband took a plank of wood, and banged in a grid of 10 by 10 nails. They enjoyed helping with that ! Then my preschoolers make patterns with elastic bands on this, or "plastic bands" as my 20 month old says ! My husband keeps commenting on how busy it keeps them. - Rachael ======================== ASK YOUR QUESTION ======================== Have you a burning question that you can't ask just anyone? Send it to Lynn@unitstudyhelps.com and we'll see if a smart subscriber can't help you out. (Editor's Note: You can also post your QUESTIONS at the message board to see what others might have to say. The address is: http://www.voy.com/89720/ --- Do you know of an active postcard exchange? The one we were doing seems like its dying and my children just recently started doing postcard exchanges and they love it... - Dona ======================== YOUR RESPONSE ======================== NOTE: my publication of these responses does not necessarily mean that I endorse a product or an activity. You make your own decisions about how these responses might work in YOUR school! PLEASE SEND YOUR RESPONSE TO Lynn@unitstudyhelps.com --- I have a question about homeschool mom the senior year. I have talked with moms that don't give grades, those that unschool etc. How are seniors prepared for life after homeschool. What about GED? Or do some give diplomas from their school; Also I am looking for ideas for a homeschool graduation and maybe reception. I would like to hear from someone that had one for their senior. ----- We actually didn't call it a senior year (since we didn't call any of the other years names) You wrote: How are seniors prepared for life after homeschool. My daughter decided to leave home and wandered for the summer. For the fall I encouraged her to rent a room from a tenant of mine, so that I could keep some tabs on my daughter. So I'd say it was supervised living on her own. She passed her last test for the GED in February or March so we had a party with a couple who are friends of ours...dinner and a cake and took her pictures in a new outfit that I had bought her along with a mortar board which we happened to have. Grandma gave her a card with some money. She seemed to be quite satisfied and feel recognized which is what its all about I think. So I'd suggest a mix of what your child would like and what you 'know' that they would like. ----- I graduated my oldest son last year. I don't give grades for schoolwork. But my husband and I did create a transcript for him. And that required us to put a grade value on the work he had done. If he mastered a subject, he received an A. It wasn't that difficult to look at the work he had done and give him a grade for it. You also need to keep a rough idea of how many hours your child spends on a certain subject. Was it a whole year? Or just a semester? He also took the SAT. We had him start taking it in 10th grade. In Virginia, you have to submit a standardized test score for your child each year and the college SAT score works as well as the Iowa or any of the other tests. By his senior year, he was used to the test and the process and did quite well. He only applied to one college - a small Christian college. They required the SAT scores, a transcript, and a "curriculum vitae" which is a description of the materials you used to teach plus any extracurricular activities. You also had to fill out an application which included reasons why you wanted to attend the school - basically an essay. Every college is different. It's a very good idea to start looking at colleges no later than their junior year. And go visit the campuses of the places they are interested in attending. Talk to the folks in admissions. Attend a couple of classes. Visit the cafeteria (food was high on my son's list of things to look for.) Check out the dorm rooms. All colleges have days when they open their campus to visitors. And if you can't make that day, they will arrange a day for you to come visit. As for graduation - our state has a graduation ceremony that includes walking across the stage, cap & gown, presenting the diploma, etc. But my son wasn't interested in "pomp & circumstance". So instead we did a small ceremony with our local support group. They always have a gathering that celebrates the achievements for the year. We call it Homeschool Showcase. Kids can play piano, sing, display projects that they did, etc. That's when we did his graduation. We had a cake and his dad and I gave him a diploma that we had ordered on-line. It was specifically for homeschoolers and it was quite lovely. It's not an accredited diploma so it doesn't mean much as far as getting into schools. But it's a diploma. I also made a memory book for him. It had a timeline of his life and then special folks sent cards and letters for me to put in congratulating him on graduation and encouraging him in this next phase of his life. But there are many, many options available. Several of our homeschool families have kids that started taking courses at the local community college their senior years. They are now attending full time and working towards and Associates Degree. >From there, they will go to a four year school. Another young man chose to join up with the Air Force ROTC. He received a full tuition scholarship to Virginia Tech. He was not in any type of ROTC program before that. And others choose not to go to college at all. They go into apprenticeship positions. Or straight into the work force. - Roben ----- As far as how seniors are prepared for life, I believe that this is something that happens as a result of years of homeschooling. I think the article at this link says it better than I could. http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=1161 . Also, I worked until I was thirty years old. I had at least 15 jobs. (sometimes before I was married I liked to work 2 or 3 jobs at a time so I wasn't home alone.) I was bonded and I even had a secret government clearance for 7 years in fact I was security chief for the company which means I supervised all the secret material and got clearances for all the other employees. I never once had to show my diploma. But if you really feel better having one, make one on the computer. Or, during his/her senior year you could use curriculum from a school that issues a diploma at the end (you have to turn in all tests and homework for them to grade...) your child could get a GED or have them go to community college for one year. Graduation ceremony - I have heard of people having cap and gown and a hall or church where they carry the whole thing out as if it were a huge class. Including naming your child valedictorian and having them make a speech. I have heard of taking them on a vacation with just the parent who taught them. Or holding a dance with their friends to kind of take care of that "prom" thing too. - Deb ============== LYNN'S PICKS ============== I went to Amazon.com this week and noticed that they were having a sale on their Leap Frog items. They have a buy 2 get a 3rd free with free shipping. I always like to save money and thought you might want to know about this arrangement. http://www.unitstudyhelps.com/to.cgi?l=Leap_Pad_Deals =========================== SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION =========================== There are opportunities for you to be a sponsor of this newsletter. If you are interested, drop an e-mail to marketing@stretcher.com with "Homeschoolers-Notebook" as the subject. We'll send you some information on how to be a part of this ministry! EDITOR'S NOTES: All contributed articles are printed with the author's prior consent. It is assumed that any questions, tips or replies to questions may be reprinted. All letters become the property of the "Homeschooler's Notebook". (Occasionally your contribution may have to be edited for space.) Again, I welcome you to the group. Feel free to send any newsletter contributions or get in touch with me at Lynn@unitstudyhelps.com or catch me on ICQ(#6729825) or AOL Instant Messenger at: LH for Jesus. You can also find helpful links at my website: http://www.unitstudyhelps.com This Ezine is listed in 'The Free Directory of Ezines: http://www.freezineweb.com/ as well as this other directory: http://www.ezinelisting.com/patrick/index.php?aff=Lynnusa2000 =========================== SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION FOLLOWS, IF IT DIDN'T SHOW UP JUST EMAIL ME AND I WILL FORWARD THE COMPLETE INFORMATION IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN FUTURE ISSUES. ===========================