1.5 Million Homeschoolers in the U.S.

American Parents Lose All Confidence in Public Schools

For Homeschooled Graduates - Homeschool Alumni

H/T Maureen Wittmann

Then please join Homeschool Alumni

Homeschooling "Fans"

Insight Scoop's Homeschooling, It's Not Just for Fantatics Anymore

In their post the reference this article Hoover Institution's Homeschool Goes Mainstream

At the time we decided to homeschool, we were happy with the public school our then 2nd grader was attending. But we knew as he grew older, we wanted him to have good influences from peers and we saw a problem in middle school and high school. We tried Catholic school when he was in the 8th grade and 9th grade. It was tough trying to find ways of paying for an increase in tuition. And, we probably would have made some sacrifices had the religious part of his education been more orthodox.

Our son made the difficult decision for us when he asked to be permitted to homeschool again.

Our son was always a good student. His father and I are convinced that homeschooling has really helped him excel as a student. He did not have to suffer through the peer pressure part of school.

We joke that when he graduates he will be the Valedictorian of his class ;-)

The History of Homeschooling

The video is a preview of a documentary coming out in 2009.

H/T to Maureen Wittmann

I must admit this preview did frighten me a bit. All the warnings I heard from a homeschooling pioneering friend of mine rushed to my memory. She warned us not to flaunt the fact that we were a homeschooling family. She warned us not to take state money offered to homeschoolers for books and computers. We started homeschooling in the mid to late 90's. I thought my friend was a bit overly-protective until I reminded myself exactly what she and other homeschooling families went through to pave the way for homeschooles like us.

In fact, I found Hawaii to be homeschooling friendly. Maybe I was a bit naive but I listened to my friend regardless of my feelings. I owe it all to homeschooling families like my friend's that made homeschooling relatively easy for my family to homeschool.

I am very glad I heeded her warnings. I hope the new homeschooling families will heed the warnings too.

Homeschooling

Gregory and Martine Millman did not set out to homeschool their children, at least not consciously...

First Things - A Home for Homeschoolers

H/T Tito

PARENTS, 54 UNIQUE BENEFITS OF HOMESCHOOLING

Shared by Sue

The following is a recent article by Joel Turtel

Homeschooling (or low-cost internet private schools), can have the following extraordinary benefits for you and your children:

1. Be with Your Family
2. Set Your Own Schedule
3. Vacation When You Want
4. Choose curriculum that best suits the needs of your child
5. Be totally aware of the state and progress of your child's education
6. Keep your child away from un-necessary peer pressure
7. Keep your child away from the bad influence of other children
8. Love, nurture, and teach your child the character and morals you value most
9. Make learning fun
10. Make learning as "experiential" as you want...

To read the entire list of 54 reasons, check out the article.

Today was a typical day of homeschooling. Joey attended his astronomy class at the university. Upon arriving home, I asked if he would like to take a break and run some errands with me. So off we went walking. We ended up getting our hair cut, getting our dog treats made in the USA and picking up a tasty little lunch. On the way we met some friends and chatted with them. When we got home, we had lunch. Then Joey started doing his regular homeschooling work.

By 1:35pm, his homeschooling day was finished. It is now 2pm and he is blogging for fun.

Tomorrow is his Saint's Name day (St. Joseph the Worker). We might just head of to morning Mass and then celebrate with breakfast out.

You can't do things like that with your child if he or she attends a regular school.

Homeschooling College

Alexandra of Happy Hearts at Home has the info.

Addressing Those Homeschooling Concerns

H/T to Fr. Daren a teacher who respects the choice to homeschool.

Original Source: HERE

1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over- priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

Tips for Making Homeschooling More Exciting

H/T to Deena who is in my Catholic homeschooling groups.

I love #4. And, we do #6. Actually, my DH suggested I borrow his laptop and head over to our nearest Starbuck and homeschool Joey from their. Who I am to disobey the head of the family ;-)

4. Do some of your schooling at Barnes and Noble or Starbucks. Seriously. Take the Friday freewrite to the mall or the local coffee house. Finish your math for the week at the library or at a park. Do you see a pattern here? Get out of the house more, not just for music or dance lessons and errands.

Check out the rest at A Brave Writer's Life in Brief: Refreshing the Homeschool Plan

Back-to-(Home)School

especially if that teacher is your parent

As is our family homeschooling tradition, Joey and I attended morning Mass together and we prayed for a successful homeschooling year. We then went out for breakfast. Joey chose Big City Diner as a change of pace. Unfortunately dear old dad also began work today so he was unable to join us. Such is the life of a college professor.

The following back-to-school prayer is courtesy of Sarah

We thank you for the fragrance of a new box of crayons, Lord,
the rainbow in each perfect row;
thank you for each bundle of snowy white notebook paper,
awaiting fresh possibilities.
May they remind us that you make all things new
and bless us with abundance.
Thank you for this ruler,
for every eraser that tops every pencil.
May they help us remember to measure our blessings
but never your boundless love for us,
to allow for the making of mistakes
as a normal part of human learning.
As we lay out our new clothes
for these first days of school,
help us remember to put on Christ each day, too,
and to “clothe the naked” as he asked us.
But mostly, God, help us remember
that Jesus is always our best and most devoted teacher—
that we never outgrow all his lessons
on how you want us to live and to love.



and Easter

Teacher Blessing

Bless our teachers, Jesus,

with wisdom and good humor,

with an understanding heart and open mind,

with great love for following you.

—Prayer Services for Parishes



Student Blessing

Jesus, fill our children with your peace,

teach our children how to pray,

show our children how to love.

—Prayer Services for Parishes





Christ’s love and our faith in that love

should pervade everything we do—work, study, play.

-St. John Bosco

Popularity of Homeschooling

Hat tip to Tito of Custos Fidei

Although religion is one of the major reasons parents choose the homeschool route, it’s not the only reason. School safety, liberal coursework and quality of public education can be factors.

Popularity of homeschooling rises nationwide, curriculum concerns, safety cited

Local Event - Science Event for Homeschoolers

H/T OLOGH

The School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is pleased to announce that the 9th SOEST Open House will be held on October 19th and 20th, 2007. On behalf of the Dean of SOEST and the Open House Planning Committee, we would like to invite you to attend this year’s Open House.

For more information check out SOEST Open House

Prayer Request for a Homeschooling Mom

Please pray and continue to keep in your prayers, homeschooling mom Heather who is undergoing brain surgery today. Also, please pray for Heather's family.

For more details, please visit Margaret Mary's Blog

Homeschoolers for Life

Members of the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Homeschoolers of Hawaii at Monday's Hawaii March for Life.

H/T to Cause of Our Joy



From their Mission Statement:

The purpose of Homeschoolers For Life is to create a coalition of
homeschooling families dedicated to promoting the principle that life is to be
respected at all stages of development from conception to natural death.

Click title above for to visit their site.

Homeschooling - We Will Survive!

Picture courtesy of Inegria Greetings

I don't know about Joey, but I am feeling the pressure that half the school year is passed and we are still not finished with the 2nd quarter. Yikes!! I am actually losing sleep because we need to be done by mid-May.

So thanks to my friend Denise's, post Surviving the Homeschool Panic, I think we will survive.

"It hits every year right around now. Getting cranked up in January after Christmas is hard enough, and once you do get going again, suddenly, the end of the school year, which way back in the fall seemed a mere speck on a distant horizon, rushes toward you, filling your field of vision with catastrophe".

Some excerpts:

I know what it is. This year was going to be different. This year you were going to be perfectly ORGANIZED. This year every form was going to be turned in on time. This year you were going to plan well ahead for all kinds of wonderful, enriching field trips. This year you would do lesson planning weeks in advance and you would have all your supplies on time. This year you were going have a schedule that ran like a well-oiled machine and you would not spend entire quarters of hours searching for lost sneakers.

Well, actually for us, I think it was too many field trips that put us behind. We unofficially belong to four groups of homeschoolers. Three Catholic and one honor society group. What can I say, they offer great field trip opportunities.

And it wasn’t just the external things that were all going to go right. This year you were going to be perfectly patient and never raise your voice. This year you were going to calmly ferry the children from place to place while you played classical music CDs in the car. This year you were going to go to bed each night knowing that you had spent the day in the most productive manner possible — and your husband was going to find you in a good mood. Not like last year when he asked you if you were going to bed soon and, surrounded by stacks of paper, you gritted out through clenched teeth holding a pencil, “Do I look like I am anywhere near being ready for bed?”

This is a day-to-day struggle when someone you know and love is an opininated young lad.

January is when we really have to get a grip. Might as well, you know. It is too late to turn back now. In for a semester, in for a year.

So don’t panic. You still have nearly half the year to go. You will adjust and reassess. You really are doing a great job. And as for the perfection that eluded you — hey, there’s always next year.

Good advice!

Source:
© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange

Mary Kochan, Senior Editor of Catholic Exchange, was raised as a third-generation Jehovah’s Witness. She is a member of St. Theresa parish in Douglasville, Georgia, and she is homeschooling two of her grandchildren. Her tapes are available from Saint Joseph Communications.

Vatican to Catholic Homeschoolers - Good Job!

H/T to Easter and Me Monk, Meander

As a Catholic homeschooling mom, I could take the opportunity to tell homeschooling naysayers, "I told you so" But I won't :-) The following article speaks for itself.

Vatican to Catholic Homeschoolers: "I truly admire parents, who take on this great commitment"

VATICAN CITY, December 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Three veterans of the United States Catholic home school movement spent Thanksgiving week in Vatican City meeting with officials of various congregations and councils of the Holy See to discuss the positive results of Catholic home schooling. Dr. Mary Kay Clark, Director of Seton Home Study School, as well as Dr. Catherine Moran,
President of the Catholic Home School Network of America, and Mrs. Virginia Seuffert, home schooling mother of 12 and a frequent speaker at Catholic Home Schooling conferences, were encouraged by the positive response of the Vatican prelates.

Many of the prelates were already familiar with Seton Home
Study School, a Catholic home study program in the diocese of Arlington, Virginia, which has been operating for the past twenty-five years, with a current enrollment of approximately 11,000 students. Officials were presented with textbooks from Seton Press, the publishing arm of the school, and the largest publisher of Catholic schoolbooks in North America with over 100 titles
and hundreds of thousands of books sold. Students are enrolled primarily in the United States, but also from many countries from around the world, such as Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, Mexico, the Philippines, Japan, the Czech Republic, Germany, Colombia, and India.

The home school envoys emphasized to the Vatican cardinals and bishops the primary importance of the Faith in Catholic home schooling. They explained that when parents teach the Faith to their children on a daily basis, teaching not only with textbooks but through the daily practice of prayer, good example, and frequent reception of the Sacraments, children will develop a love for the Faith and vocations will increase. They quoted one Midwest bishop who says that over a five-year period, 23 percent of young men graduating from one home school cooperative in his diocese entered the seminary. They pointed out that Justin Ferguson, the seminarian who gave the first reading at Pope Benedict's papal installation mass, is an alumnus of Seton Home Study School.

Click title above for the entire article.

Featured Artist - William

The artist is a former Hawaii Catholic homeschooler William. My friend emailed me these photos recently and I told her I'd to share them with others by posting them on my blog.

As you can see by the photo, William creates his masterpieces in wire. He seems to have captured the graceful movement of the horse, hasn't he?