tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79880162042915990842024-03-05T21:24:20.256-08:00West River Academy, an international private academy for autodidacts, Peggy Webb, DirectorWest River Academy has brilliant and talented students around the world who write about their lives and their learning. Their parents also write to us about their children and how they learn. In this blog, I will share some of their stories with you.Peggy Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16054198470975485220noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-16509511655855508062016-06-24T17:03:00.003-07:002016-06-24T17:03:26.283-07:00Who benefits from standardized testing?<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>A student in our High School Diploma Program is taking a standardized test, and was inspired to research standardized testing in the U.S. Here's her essay on what she learned.</i></span><br />
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<a href="http://blog.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/10278-Round-NCLB-Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blog.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/10278-Round-NCLB-Logo.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="s1">In the past month, night and day, all I have been doing is preparing for my California High School Proficiency Exam, or C.H.S.P.E. for short. If you know anything about me, and my way of thinking, you know that I think standardized testing is completely ridiculous. Spending hours upon hours, memorizing complex formulas to be tested on, only to go home and forget them, and if in anytime in my life I just so happened to need this particular formula, I google it. Now as I was trying to rationalize standardize testing this past week, I fell down a rabbit hole and found out some things I had no idea about, which just proves the validity of my opinion on these tests even further. </span><br />
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<span class="s1">I do believe there should be a way to track underperforming schools, and their major racial disparities, in the quality of education children receive. Presid</span>ent George W. Bush also thought that, and on his third day of Presidency installed the “No Child Left Behind Act.” This program was designed to be data driven and involve testing children every single year in order to identify and fix failing schools, which sounded like a terrific idea. But, the act almost tripled the amount of required tests from six to seventeen.</div>
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<span class="s1">Today in America, students are taking between ten to twenty standardized tests, depending on their grade. That equates to a total average of 113 different tests by graduation, which is an absurd number. The rates at which students are protesting some of these tests is also an absurd number. For example, In May of 2015 an entire class of juniors in Seattle, boycotted the Common Core Smarter Balance Test. Teachers from a school in North Carolina told CNN, that about 20% of their third graders cry when it comes to the standardized tests and that there is actually an official instruction pamphlet on what to do if a student vomits on his or her test. Am I the only one who thinks that if there are legitimate official instructions on what to do if a child throws up on their desk, due to an an overwhelming sense of anxiety, maybe we should try something different? Based on our world standing these tactics don’t seem to be propelling us to the top in education. In 1999, America placed in twenty-eighth place in a group of forty nations who took the International Math and Science Test.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">By the time President Barack Obama was in presidency, he noticed that the tactics we are using aren’t working correctly for optimal results. He took his own education initiatives, and started a program none as “Rack to the Top.” Rack to the Top encouraged states to adopt the common core. While he had good intentions, there are a lot of things terribly ignorant about this program. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">One of these things, which sounds like a good idea if done fairly, is the pay rate of the teachers based on a student’s test scores. While I believe this could be done correctly, in a way that just holds teachers accountable who are lacking accountability, but the implementation of this is completely out of line. One of the approaches used is called the “value-added analysis”, where you pay teachers based on certain test scores. If a student who ranked in the 60</span><span class="s2"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1"> percentile tests higher at the end of the year, the teacher gets a better rating, and unfortunately if the students receives a lower score at the end of the year, the rate of the teacher’s pay also drops. The problem about this, is that tests are so difficult, it is nearly impossible for the children to pass, and only very few do.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">For instance, one teacher in Florida was shocked and suspicious when he found out that only 39 percent of his districts 10</span><span class="s2"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1"> grade class scored an average or above average score in reading on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, also known as the “F.C.A.T.” He decided to ask the school district and legally get the closest thing he could to the F.C.A.T. When he took the assessment it put him, and labeled him under the “poor reader” category. Now the shocking thing about this is the fact that this man has 5 master degrees, has been reelected on the school board 4 times, and teaches 39 graduate courses at six different universities. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">With that being said, I think it’s fair enough to say that these tests fail to reflect ability. So my question was, if these standardize tests are poor for the students and the teachers, then who are they benefiting? The simplest answer; companies such as Pearson. Pearson is the largest of these companies, and as of 2012, are 40% of the testing market. That almost triples their nearest competitor, McGraw Hill. Pearson has such an immense amount of influence over American schools. For example, a hypothetical girl could take Pearson tests from Kindergarten through at least eighth grade, test that she studied for by using Pearson curriculum and textbooks, taught by Pearson certified teachers. Pearson is also the provider of the tests taken for learning disabilities, and the G.E.D. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">In summary, while there is an argument to be made that there needs to be some sort of test to assist with determining high school graduation, proficiency and college placement, the system as it stands, seems to only benefit Pearson and its competitors, not American students. These companies are so powerful; no one really feels like their voice can be heard to change this disastrous system. In order for things to change everyone who believes that there must be a better solution, has to use their voice. Everyone will say “I’m just one person”, but if hundreds of thousands of people say that, think of the impact they would have if they all came together, and instead said, “this needs to change.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">~ Caroline Mehki, CA</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-619939467386666172016-05-06T18:51:00.000-07:002016-05-06T18:51:20.605-07:00A year-end report from a diverse and accomplished teenager<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Our students have a wide variety of interests, and the freedom to pursue them to mastery. Below is a an excerpt from one of our family's year-end report, focusing on the accomplishments and life-learning of 16 year old Kitt. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Kitt has had an amazing year for prizes. First, he completed his eagle scout rank, after going to the board of review (interview). Soon afterwards, he attended a week-long National Youth Leadership Training for scouts, where he was selected as one of the excellent scouts who were requested to serve as future staff. His eagle court of honor ceremony was held, after a bit of planning, too. Kitt has also been on 4-5 campouts this year, including rock climbing at Joshua Tree National Park. Doing most of the work himself, he has built a trebuchet and a teepee out of a tarp.</span></div>
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<a href="https://indclassictrophy.com/image/cache/catalog/Ribbons/R3RBSGC-500x500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://indclassictrophy.com/image/cache/catalog/Ribbons/R3RBSGC-500x500.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="s1">Next, he competed for his 7</span><span class="s2"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1"> year in 4H shooting sports. Although he didn’t achieve his best score in archery, he aced the shotgun with a record 5 out of 5 score. He even hit all 3 practice shots, to bring it to 8 out of 8 shots. That got him the Grand Champion in Shotgun award, as well as winning the high point shooter for the entire club for the season. Kitt has his own bow and target and practices at home as often as he can (when there are no neighbors in residence). He is extremely conscientious about safety rules and proper technique. He even gave a few tips to the adult archery instructor at 4H.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">At county fair, Kitt won 4 Grand Champion prizes. His oil painting of a farmhouse won him Grand Champion in Fine Arts, while his Turkish ebru painting of a tulip garnered Reserve Grand Champion. His copper twisted necklace with blue beads won Grand Champion in Arts & Crafts, and his larger leather Viking belt bag (made without a kit or pattern) won Grand Champion in Leathercraft (other projects). On top of all that, Kitt won Grand Champion for Home Economics, sweeping the prize for the while building for his senior age class. Wow! All total, Kitt got $120 in prize money. He had entered one painting in Fine Arts open class, but that only received a blue ribbon and outstanding. As for the interview section of the fair, Kitt got purple ribbons (outstanding) for all three interviews. They noted how knowledgeable he seemed and confident. His appearance had improved over last year, but the only negative room for improvement was noted that he needs to iron his white dress shirt. Kitt put a lot of time and effort into all the pieces that he made for Fair, including meeting with a special mentor in Leathercraft. He was amazed at the skill of his new mentor and learned a lot from him. Also, his Leathercraft leader was very encouraging and always ready to lend Kitt tools. Kitt put most of his prize money into his savings account, and I treated him to a few new Leathercraft tools as a reward for his hard work. He is already thinking of what he wants to make for next year.</span></div>
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Civil_war_reenactment_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Civil_war_reenactment_1.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="s1">Kitt has also earned his Congressional Award Bronze medal, which will be handed to him at a ceremony in October, when our Congressman will be in our city. For this award, Kitt counts his fitness hours, personal development and volunteer hours. Besides volunteering with scouts (about 15 hours) and the Jr. Optimist club (about 35 hours), Kitt has a regular volunteer service that he does about once a week at the local historic park. He serves as the historic blacksmith there, making items out of metal and explaining both the process and history to park visitors. This year he has logged about 50 hours, including the Civil War reenactment event and the Gathering of the Gunfighters event at the Yuma Territorial Prison historic park. He absolutely loved the Civil War event and got “drafted” to serve with the artillery during a battle reenactment. He was initiated into the group and hopes to serve with them again next year for the reenactment here in Yuma. In the meantime, he has acquired a pattern for Union Army pants which he wants to make with my help. All of his volunteering as the historical blacksmith is done in his historic clothing portraying the 1870’s in Yuma. Kitt was also invited to and attended the Civil War costume ball held by invitation only after the reenactment in the evening. He learned several historic dances while attending. He also listened to Abraham Lincoln (reenactor) give a talk and later had President Lincoln talk to him individually when he visited the forge. As a volunteer at the park, Kitt was given free tickets and attended a historic talk by a President Teddy Roosevelt reenactor, which he enjoyed a lot.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Kitt has earned a few more scout merit badges and enjoys going to workshops for those. Many of the workshops are STEM related, and I count them as science for Kitt. Among others, he earned this year Nuclear Science (visiting a power plant visitor center), Space Exploration, and Engineering. He also likes to experiment himself and to take things apart at home to see what is inside them. Kitt was also invited to go for a free private flying lesson with an EAA pilot. He learned a lot from that and hopes to do it again in the Fall. He even wants to learn about building an EAA plane.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">As for English, Kitt is still working on Spelling and Composition, but this is never his highest priority. He does vocabulary building without even noticing it and has a rich and varied vocabulary. We have several workshops/ programs that he uses but this is an area he needs to improve.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">As founder and president of the college tabletop game club, Kitt hosts game day once a week for 2 hours. That means he has put in over 60 hours in games of strategy and logic. This includes reading complicated instructions and teaching others how to play the games. This is one of his great interests, and he hopes to host even more game clubs next year. He has already spoken to the teen librarian to start there in the Fall as a volunteer hosting a weekly 2-hour game day. Kitt also tried out new games with other people and chooses new ones to buy for himself and the game club.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Kitt also loves to travel and enjoys historical places. He often visits Viking villages and museums in Sweden. Last year he even volunteered at a Viking village for a couple of days. I believe he may do that again this summer. He gave an hour long presentation for a college class about Vikings this year. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">If Kitt had to choose a subject to study in college, he would probably choose archeology or history. He likes the experiential archeology that they employ in Sweden. Last summer Kitt visited Istanbul, Turkey and Helsinki, Finland, besides our home in Sweden and neighboring Denmark. We also geocache when we travel or go for a walk. </span></div>
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~LOB</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-46991377028422051822016-03-25T14:20:00.001-07:002016-03-25T14:20:16.160-07:00Life-learning while being an "au-pair" in Australia<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This blog post features a student who is doing an "au-pair" program in Australia, where she is assisting a home-schooling family with their children in exchange for room and board. Her report illustrates how she weaves online courses, literature, botany and traveling together for extraordinary educational experiences. The pictures are the ones she took of the Blue Mountains in Australia.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">This month I started and completed another course called "Biology meets programming: Bioinformatics for beginners." It was on applying computer programming to analyse DNA and try and figure out various things such as where the replication point is located. It was a really tough course as I haven’t done much biology and have never tried computer programming before. I did ok on the quizzes however the interactive components of the textbook left me very confused as they required a lot of programming and I had trouble understanding how the functions operated and how to create my own. I also didn’t have much time during the week to do the work, and was a little behind from the start. In the end I had to let go of the hope to do well on the course and decided just to try my best to understand what I could. I did learn some interesting things about how the DNA replicates in a certain direction and how certain algorithms work. I found randomized algorithms to be quite interesting even though I didn’t fully understand how they function.</span> Due to the program I ended up making an account for python and doing many of the exercises they offer. Programing is definitely interesting, I think I just need more practice memorizing the language used. I find I have a little difficulty when it comes to understanding more abstract ideas in math, which is a skill I hope to work on.</div>
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<span class="s1">I also started to read a German book called Drachenreiter, which means Dragonrider. It has an English translation that I read many years ago but as I like the author I always wanted to read the original German version. It’s a little difficult as I haven’t read German in a while and occasionally I will need a little extra time to remember a word. It’s a strange sensation to have my reading pace change slightly, but I am enjoying the story. It’s about how mythical creatures exist hidden away from humans and the last group of dragons home is about to be destroyed by humans, so one of the dragons heads off with his kobold friend to find the dragons’ ancestral home. On the way they pick up a homeless human boy who helped them out and he goes on the journey with them.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I did more volunteering at the botanical garden, and it was quite enjoyable. I learned how to take clippings and plant them. The idea is that you peel of the leaves along 1/3 of the stalk and the nip off the top. You also need to scrape away a strip along the bottom with your nail to promote the growth of roots. Before we plant them we also dipped the ends in a compound called clonex, which seals the cut ends and supplies hormones needed for the growth of roots. It’s interesting learning a little bit about the more scientific side of gardening. On the surface it seems so straight forward, you just plant and water them, but there are many aspects to growing a strong plant, and sometimes no matter what you do they can still die.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">For a weekend I went to the Blue Mountains with family I’m staying with for the weekend. It’s an extremely stunning area and we did a lot of hiking along the cliffs. I read that the reason they seem to be blue is because of the way the light refracts through all the dust particles floating around. So the further something is the more dust is in your line of sight and the bluer it seems. We also went on the cable cars and on one we were told the aboriginal story of the three sisters, which are three giant rocks sticking up from a cliff. The legend apparently goes there were three beautiful sisters from one tribe and three brothers from another tribe who fell in love with them. The brothers wanted to take the sisters for themselves but the shaman of their tribe turned them into rocks to protect them. However the shaman then died in a battle between the tribes and no one else was able to break the spell over them again.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBzpeCAJ9Oih2oWvmrZKdinmWc55Xkr_6jB20CODWV3EAZsUMSqr0CqXqN6AGkzEYnTGGC54-yOHIwveel3E1Wwtf7aoJxsLJCgwtYu-f4ZE3tgJRWTGeonONr9iCOg46FzElbYnV9hY/s1600/DSCF1730.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBzpeCAJ9Oih2oWvmrZKdinmWc55Xkr_6jB20CODWV3EAZsUMSqr0CqXqN6AGkzEYnTGGC54-yOHIwveel3E1Wwtf7aoJxsLJCgwtYu-f4ZE3tgJRWTGeonONr9iCOg46FzElbYnV9hY/s200/DSCF1730.JPG" width="200" /></a><span class="s1">On our way back from the Blue Mountains we stopped at a high ropes course. It was my first time visiting one so I was pretty excited. We were given a little safety run-through and then left to go wild. I mostly stayed with the ten year old I look after, and on the most difficult course she was allowed to do she got stuck on the end as you have to jump of a ledge with only a pulley to slow your fall. I had a little time to consider what the repercussions of giving her a push would be, mainly losing her trust in me for a couple days or so, before a worker came and dropped her over the edge. It was extremely physically tiring but very exciting. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I was invited to go on a distant relative’s sailboat and had an amazing time. I had no knowledge about sailing before but I learned quite a bit just watching and was even allowed to help, and steered the boat a little on the way back, although with engine going and the sails tucked away. It seems the boat has to travel in a zigzag sort of way, where it follows the wind one way for a bit then they pull the sail to the other side and turn to travel the other way. The trick is to keep the wind at your back, which sounds pretty obvious but seems easier said than done. They used instruments and little ribbons attached to the sail called tell-tales to let them know which way the wind was blowing.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">~ Rowena, 2016 High School Senior</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-91907055855065955132016-01-08T18:59:00.000-08:002016-01-08T18:59:20.914-08:00Homeschooling teenager becomes pro disc golfer<div class="page" title="Page 1">
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Eagle McMahon is a Senior at West River Academy. Here he shares his experience homeschooling: how he learned to read, his "Notebook" method of planning his studies, and becoming a professional disc golfer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><b>"Homeschooling has been the greatest gift of my life. </b>Many kids dream of being
homeschooled and I have been able to pursue this lifestyle my entire life. It has given
me so many opportunities that I would not have had if I had sat in a classroom all day. I
have gotten to spend a lot of time with my family, giving me special relationships with
my father and grandparents. My father and grandparents are my homeschool teachers.
This opportunity has given special perks over the years. For example, this past year I
traveled across the USA and competed against the world’s best professional disc
golfers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><b><i>Homeschooling is based around me being able to structure my studies around
my interests and create my own schedule. The main lesson it has taught me is that you
do not just learn from school, you learn from everything.
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">My learning process has always been relaxed and fun. I have never felt
pressured or stressed about learning. Because of this, I am calm and confident when I
have to take on tasks. I attribute this to my loved ones for being positive and supportive
of this lifestyle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Going way back in my memory as far as I remember, when I first started off as a
pre-homeschooler, I had many interests that jump started my education. I was into
Legos, Transformers, and trains. I always dove deep into my hobbies and fully
engrossed myself in my interests. I would collect every Transformer, know all of their
names, and transform them in a flash. A fond memory I have of these early days is
when my dad and I built a landscape for my toy trains. It had tunnels, elevation, and
bridges for me to put toy train tracks on. One day we spent all day making a train track
that went throughout the entire house. I learned to take things to a different level while
having fun! My family was always there to help me learn about my interests and support
me in any way they could.
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">During my early years of academics, I remember going to bookstores and picking
out school workbooks. Every time I finished a workbook, which was about every six
months, we would go back to the bookstore and get the next grade. <b>My father used a
method called the “Notebook.” It was a composition book that he used to schedule my
school day. My schedule usually included things like; two pages of math, two pages of
science, two pages of reading/writing, exercise, goal setting, and organizing. </b>I looked
forward to my new tasks every day. Completing these tasks gave me a sense of </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">accomplishment and self-confidence. We still use the “Notebook” method to this day,
and it is still effective as ever. I plan on using this technique for the rest of my life as my
daily to-do lists.</span><br />
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51j3huGXhOL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51j3huGXhOL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="200" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">My greatest homeschool experience is when my father took me on a trip to
Hawaii. I was nine years old and it was after my mother passed. He claims he used this
time for bonding and setting our new life and education in motion. We spent eight weeks
of the winter from January through February to get out of the cold winter. We spent five
of the eight weeks on Maui and the other three weeks on the Main Island. At the time, I
barely knew how to read. One of my father’s main intentions of the trip was to teach me
how to read. I spent a lot of time reading and being read to. I remember the first book I
read, “Fantastic Mister Fox” by Roald Dahl. It was a perfect first book to read for a nine
year old, because it was fun and captivating.<b> We made learning to read fun by reading
on beautiful beaches under the sun. Once I got a hang of reading, I read one book after
the other, completing four Roald Dahl novels in the next eight weeks.
</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">After the Hawaii experience, I realized how special homeschooling was. My
education from ages ten years old to present has been unconventional and different
than most others. For one, I have been able to pursue my love for cooking and nutrition.
My mother and father have raised me a vegetarian, so food has always been a big thing
in my life. My grandmother has always made delicious food and I saw her as an
inspiration to cook food myself. Since I was at my grandparent’s house a lot for school, I
had the opportunity to cook almost every day. I was a natural in the kitchen, had a
knack for spices, and knew how to season food. My grandfather was so impressed with
my cooking skills, that he started to ask me to cook instead of my grandmother.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Another passion of mine is buying and selling. At the time, I was really into
mountain biking. It was a great way to get out in nature and exercise. However, I
enjoyed buying bikes and re-selling them so I could upgrade to a better bike. In the
course of one year, I bought and sold nine bikes. The first bike I bought was $200. The
first premium bike I bought was $1100 and the last one I bought was a $5000 bike I got
for $2500. I used the bike for a year and then re-sold it for more money.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">The way I earned the money was by working with my father and buying and
selling these bikes on craigslist. I was obsessed with selling items (I still am). I also sold
random house hold items and valuable frisbees I collected from playing disc golf. I got
very good at dealing with people and negotiating because I was doing it on a daily
basis. <b>I have learned through this to buy, sell, trade, and use craigslist which are all
valuable things that I will use the rest of my life. These experiences have inspired me so
much that I want to pursue a business career.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BEwMr2S_oI8/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BEwMr2S_oI8/hqdefault.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">I am most proud of what I have done in disc golf. Disc golf is like standard golf,
except instead of hitting a ball into a hole, you are throwing a frisbee into a suspended
metal basket. When I was 9 years old, my father’s friend introduced us to the sport. At
first we liked it, but just thought of it as a simple game. The more we played, the more
we got involved. We played almost everyday. It was a passion we both shared and I
learned a lot on the courses. I learned discipline, focus, patience, and how to control my
emotions. This sport is still teaching and helping me grow to this day.
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><b>From the time I started playing disc golf up until now, it is still very much a part of
my life. I have reached professional status, make money doing it, am ranked one of the
top players in the world, and have five sponsors that support my game and my travels.</b> I </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">have traveled all around the United States to compete against the best players. This
next year will be bigger and better than ever. I will be going to Sweden and Finland to
compete. Disc golf is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and I am fortunate to
be in on the ground level. The growth of the sport is creating more opportunities to
make money. I won $1545 for winning a state tournament! </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">I plan to keep pursuing this and possibly get involved with the business and
marketing side of the sport. This passion of mine has brought out my adventurous side
and has taught me some valuable life skills. I have learned to book my own flights, plan
out my finances, and be resourceful without parents around. Now that I am recognized
as one of the top players, I have my own <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/Discgup" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a> and I do my own video blogs
of my travel experiences. As a result, I have become interested with film production and
photo editing and it is one of my senior courses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">In reviewing all these years, I have realized how proud I am of my alternative
education. It is a unique way of life that most people do not understand. I have never
been in a traditional school setting or classroom. The benefits of being a homeschool
student are outstanding. I have learned many important life lessons through every day
tasks and living life. My closest friends are my family and they have all taught me so
much; from my father exercising with me, my Grandfather teaching me science, my
uncle giving computer tips, and my grandmother with everything. I would not change the
way I have done anything. My classroom is life, everyday, all the time. Only a
homeschooler would know how great it is.
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">I believe the freedoms that come with Homeschooling have helped me
experience more than your traditional student. <b>My classroom one day is in a coffee
shop, the next day the library, the next day a hiking trail, the next day a museum, the
next day the disc golf course, and the next day Hawaii. School is living my life and
pursuing my interest and goals with all my heart. The enjoyment of learning and growing
does not have to be a task. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Homeschooling has enabled me to live in a way that allows
me to be myself. Although traditional schooling may be good for others, I do not believe
it would have been for me. I am forever grateful to my parents for choosing this lifestyle
for my education.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">The whole homeschooling lifestyle has been the greatest gift my parents have
given to me. Now that I am almost ready to graduate and move onto college to start
pursuing a career, I believe I have some ideas about what I want to pursue in the
future. I am planning on studying business and marketing because of my
resourcefulness and talent in dealing deal with people. I would eventually like to own my
own business. I have taken inspiration from others who have created that for
themselves.<b> It seems like owning your own business closely relates to homeschooling in
so many ways. If you are a business owner, you can shape your own schedule, be the
boss of yourself, and create what you want.
</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><b><br /></b></span>
<a href="http://www.discmania.net/wp-content/uploads/eagle_mcmahon_interview_750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.discmania.net/wp-content/uploads/eagle_mcmahon_interview_750.jpg" height="198" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">I am already set up for that lifestyle because of homeschooling. All my
experiences over the years from collecting, buying, selling, traveling, being creative, and
developing a disc golf following has set me up for something big in the future. If I were
to create a business involving disc golf, I feel as if I would already have a mass amount
of support and many options. Homeschooling has taught me to set goals and go get
what you want and what you need. If I need to learn something or get something done,
I know how to go about doing it.
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">I have many goals I want to achieve this year and beyond. As a homeschooler, I
have been taught that there are no boundaries and that you are allowed to think outside
the box. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><b>Humans are capable of great things and all it takes is persistence and the
ability to follow your dreams</b>. I want to live a very prosperous life full of happiness and
confidence. I expect to achieve that because of who I am as a person. Everything that I
have learned and my experiences have taught me that with passion and hard work
anything can be done. If I have the right mindset, I believe I can do anything." </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-44459311152596255282015-12-04T16:33:00.000-08:002015-12-04T16:33:33.758-08:00Homeschooling teen learns martial arts, archery, 4-H and volunteers at a community food bank<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>This essay was written by a high school senior who was homeschooled for his whole life. Homeschooling gave him the opportunity to pursue several interests and volunteer within his community. Here are excerpts from his essay. </i></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Hi, my name is Connor Maricle. I have been homeschooled all my life for which I am grateful. While it is not perfect, homeschooling has helped me with time-management, allowed me to study at my own pace, and has given me time for other activities such as martial arts, archery, 4-H, volunteering, and working. Through these activities I have learned various skills which cannot easily be acquired in a classroom. Although I have not had as many teachers as other students in public school, there have been people who have helped me to learn through active involvement in community organizations. Some examples of people who have contributed to my education are my martial arts instructors, archery instructors, 4-H leaders, food bank employees, and work supervisor.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span><b>Homeschooling has been a positive experience allowing me the flexibility to meet my personal goals, learn interesting subjects at my own pace, and contribute to our community</b><i>.</i> As a young child I remember doing various games, projects, experiments, and activities that provided a solid foundation in the basics of reading, writing, history, math, and science in interesting and fun ways. I had time for reading and playing every day which I believe helped contribute to my imagination and creativity today. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>As the years have gone by I have had the opportunity to study quite a variety of interesting subjects. While some subjects have been more enjoyable than others I have still learned an extensive amount through being homeschooled. I have not gone to a public school, but I have talked to others who have attended, and there seems to be more pressure there than being homeschooled. Homeschooling has allowed me to have plenty of time for independent study<i>. </i><b>I learn faster by doing rather than by reading, writing, or memorizing. If I am enjoying a topic I learn even faster. As such, I tend to learn more through independent study than from learning through a textbook.</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Martial arts has helped me learn many things as well: from balance and a bit of Korean, to morals such as honesty and integrity. The martial art I am learning is Tang Soo Do. The people at the studio are all really nice and excellent instructors willing to help someone who wants to learn. Tang Soo Do is an important part of my life, and I plan on continuing it as long as possible. The atmosphere of encouragement and support from those at the studio is unique in the Tang Soo Do community, and is something I carry inside of me even when I am not there. I hope to some day pass on the traditions of Tan Soo Do. Through Tang Soo Do I have been able to improve my leadership skills by leading the students in various warm-up exercises and by helping some of the lower-ranked students improve their forms and techniques. This has also helped me to gain more confidence in myself.</span></div>
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<a href="http://kidspirit.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/ks-programs/archery/archery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://kidspirit.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/ks-programs/archery/archery.jpg" height="241" width="320" /></a><span class="s1">While Tang Soo Do is important to me it was not my first extra-curricular activity. I was about ten years old when I started archery which taught me more than just how to shoot an arrow. From my instructor I learned the importance of cross-training, the responsibility that comes with a weapon, that a person needs to take everything into account when shooting at a target, and that bows and arrows are not toys. Archery was one of the first incredibly difficult things I tried to learn. <b>From this experience I learned firsthand that it takes time and diligence to get good at something.</b> Many of my classmates dropped out, and once in a while I thought about dropping out as well. I decided to continue and challenge myself to improve. Eventually the school I went to closed, and I took a break before I started lessons again at a new place. I was very rusty at first because even though I had taken archery lessons for four years, my one-year break had dulled my skills. Once I got back in the swing of things I became the best in my class. It was at that point I saw the pay-off from all the effort I had put into archery. While I did feel extremely proud, I believe some of my classmates may have felt discouraged by my “unusual improvement rate”. Overall, archery was an enjoyable sport for me. I’m glad I did it even though I don’t plan on using it in daily life.</span></div>
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<a href="http://winnebago.uwex.edu/files/2010/05/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://winnebago.uwex.edu/files/2010/05/Picture1.jpg" /></a><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>I was eleven when I started 4-H. At first I wasn’t sure whether I would like it or not because it seemed more like an activity my sister would enjoy. After the first few years, though, I started to really enjoy 4-H. Although our club wasn’t very big I still met quite a few people and had numerous opportunities to participate in community events. During my time in 4-H, I learned a great deal about animals (that was my club’s specialty), volunteer work, and how to work with groups of people. I even got some awards in the process. One of the more difficult things I did in 4-H was volunteer at the fair’s Petting Zoo. While it was frustrating at the time because of the high number of young kids, looking back on it I felt it was enjoyable and quite a learning experience in crowd-control and keeping the cavies (guinea pigs) safe. The animals I raised were cavies. Many people in the club had rabbits, cavies, and poultry (chickens, ducks, and turkeys). I had two cavies. Though other people in the club had more animals, I still learned the responsibility of animal ownership. I was also able to participate in fun community service projects through our club, such as: making no-sew fleece blankets for a children’s shelter, designing cards for soldiers, making holiday cookies for the fire department, and sharing my cavies with children at petting zoos. <b>I also learned more about responsibility and leadership skills by being an officer in our club for several years. </b>Our club members were talented people, so I was able to learn important information about a variety of topics. Even though our club was small our district was large, so I had various opportunities to learn from and interact with several knowledgeable and energetic leaders from other clubs.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Shortly after joining 4-H I started volunteering at the Fairbanks Community Food Bank which was my first “real” job. I have done a variety of tasks at the food bank, such as: sorted canned goods, sorted bread, prepared food boxes, boxed produce and meat, and packaged butter, flour, rice, and sugar. It was tedious at times, but also fun. It was also a good learning experience for me. I learned about defects in canned goods, various types of meat, how to set up and manage a short-term or long-term project, and that no matter how damaged something looks in the store it is much better than what may be available at the food bank.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>I am glad that I was homeschooled as it has given me many opportunities for growth and development while still having time for other things that I enjoy. Because of homeschooling I was able to do activities I wouldn’t normally have had time to do. </b>As a result, I met many great people who helped me become who I am today. While I don’t know what the future holds, I feel that I am prepared to start the next part of my life. I am looking forward to future opportunities to make positive contributions to my community.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-25357938430749660322015-11-13T16:45:00.002-08:002015-11-13T16:45:45.489-08:00Cultural Studies, Crafts and Pets guide learning in a Life-long unschooler's lifeOur high school student Austin Hildebrand has been homeschooled all of his life. He has used his heritage and interests to guide his learning. Here's his thoughts on his experience.<br />
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<b>"Being homeschooled is by the far the best gift one can be given when it comes to their education. </b><br />
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I have been told that statement many times before, and I completely agree. Having the opportunity to have my lessons be structured around my interests made them more interesting and it took a lot of time and effort for that to be done for me. <br />
But as a student, you have more freedom to do the things you enjoy, explore deeper into the things that you love or become obsessed with knowing about, and learn from the people you love most. Homeschooling is not just taught by your parents, but the entire family helps out. Which means that you get to spend a lot of quality time learning from your grandparents, parents, various other relatives, and family friends.<br />
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This is precisely the gift I have been given, and I am deeply thankful for every minute of it.<br />
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I have been homeschooled all of my years, starting from pre-school homeschooling. This year, I will finally graduate. Since we have been homeschooling for a long time now, my Mom lets me direct most of my own lessons now to make me learn time management and responsibility. I'll need those skills for college and in life, so she has just directed like a manager and gives reviews for most things. We still take time to do fun stuff too.<br />
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The furthest back that I can remember I'd say it was my Mom buying books that would be easy and fun for me to read because they were about Little Critter or Guinea Pigs. Then I read them daily to my pet guinea pigs. Reading to a pet is a good way to learn, and they love the attention too. I also used to read to my Great Grandmother plus do puppet shows for her while she was staying with us while going through Chemotherapy sessions. It was a nice way to spend time with her that the other grandkids didn't have. We would read together, put her feet in my movable sandbox (that we used to learn how to do archaeology digs in), put a cat or guinea pig on her lap, gave her some tea and muffins that I helped Mom make, then read. My Father was a puppeteer so I had my own puppet stage (a gift from my grandparents) and used puppets that he made for me.<br />
<a href="http://balloonanimals101.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/jumping-jacs-balloons11.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://balloonanimals101.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/jumping-jacs-balloons11.png" height="150" width="200" /></a><br />
I also used to create a lot of craft projects to put around the house, naturally, to make the house more interesting. Like creating an Elasmosaurus across the back of the couch out of papers that my Mom had set aside for me to draw on (recycling them from her work papers). Or making balloon animals for the Homeschooling County Supervisor when she was there to review my school year. She was impressed and took the balloon animals home for her grandson.<br />
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One of my Grandfather's would sneak out of work early so we could go to the movies together. It was a lot of fun and we often ate together after the movie and visited the Lego Store. He worked long hours and lived over an hour away, so going to movies was a way for us to spend time together. Mostly the movies were in the early afternoon, and for most kids that would have been school hours. Since I was homeschooled, we always adjusted our schedule and went while he was available. Homeschooling gives you the freedom to take breaks when you want to or need to. <br />
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I started to learn to cook small things with my Mom and my Grandmothers. Now I can help cook items for big family meals or holidays. What I love most is watching Japanese cooking shows and then trying to make them at home with my Mom. We are learning Japanese and cooking is a good way to learn their culture. All foods have meaning to the Japanese. They go by season, colors, presentation and what each part of that presentation stands for. I have tried a lot of foods I may normally not have tried because it was 'different'. My Step-Grandmother is Korean, so I have also been trying some Korean food and I'm enjoying that too. Also Chinese food, since my Mother liakes that also.<br />
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While we were learning World Geography, part of learning about each country, we would cook foods from it. Also read books from that country (at least folk tales), find movies about it or documentaries. My Mom runs a homeschooling cooperative, so she used to organize field trips that included a lot of cultural themes to them. We don't live in the Washington, DC area anymore, so it is harder to find as many field trip places to go in Iowa for cultural studies. A lot of that has to be done with virtual tours and watching Foreign News programs or documentaries.<br />
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<a href="https://nybookworm.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/fuji-japan-cherry-blossoms-and-mount.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://nybookworm.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/fuji-japan-cherry-blossoms-and-mount.jpg" width="320" /></a>As I mentioned, I'm learning the Japanese Language;<br />
the culture, its history, cooking, music, and about its pop culture too. We have been focusing on Japanese for many years now. As a way to build listening skills, we often take a day or two and have an anime watching or Godzilla movie marathon. Complete with special foods, snacks, and quite often in our pjs. I try to listen to music from Japan and any time the Japanese Language is an option for a movie or program, I choose to listen in Japanese.<br />
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My Mom and I loved the Smithsonian National Zoo, so we used to go there frequently. Our favorites are the Tigers, Pandas, and Red Pandas first. Then we would spent a lot of time with the Capybaras, Naked Mole Rats, Wild Cavies, and Butterfly Garden, and enjoyed watching most of the small mammal house animals. We would spend the whole day wandering around the zoo, taking breaks when needed. My Father says that we adopted most of the zoo animals. Not quite true, but we did try our best. He admits that he enjoyed it too. We mostly adopted the Pandas so we could go visit the babies before they went on display. We'd go see them as often as we could get tickets for and take people with us since we could get a few extra tickets. The Polar Bears were at the other local zoo, we didn't go there as often. We also went to the Philadelphia Zoo several times and once while there, we saw a Naked Mole Rat giving birth to babies. That was the craziest thing we'd ever seen. She would literally kick them away from her as soon as they were born, other members of her family would drag them off to a safe area. It was shocking to see, but still one of our best zoo animal stories to share. The Smithsonian National Zoo was the zoo that we spent the most time at over the years. Sometimes my Father would do puppet shows for the 'Boo In The Zoo' special event fundraiser. One of the puppeteers from his puppet company had worked as an Intern at the zoo during high school, so he helped get our homeschooling group a special tour with all kinds of extra activities. <br />
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We also did special field trips like: a Pirate Boat Adventure, musicals at a special Children's Musical Playhouse, park play dates, toured factories and a recycling center, organized lunch get-togethers with other homeschool families, attending puppet shows of other puppeteers who were friends of ours (other companies) like Dinorock. Dinorock used to let all of us touch the puppets and would explain how they worked. Plus answer endless questions from our homeschooling group about the types of dinosaurs. Often people from other countries would be at the shows and allowed backstage also to see the puppets. It was always fun to hear all the languages spoken, knowing they were expressing amazement and saying the same types of things we did. You didn't have to understand the language itself to know the joy and fascination that the puppets brought to them. The University of Maryland also had a special Henson Puppet and Creature Workshop Exhibit. Since my Dad's boss had been friends with the Henson's, we got a special showing of the Exhibit and were allowed to ask questions. My Dad helped create a puppet display for the Smithsonian Museum. Puppets have been a huge part of our life and they opened the way to many amazing opportunities and experiences that most people would never have a chance at. Performing Arts is a huge part of my life and has taught me a lot of life skills that will help me in the future.<br />
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I used to go to work with my Dad some days too. Sometimes he would be training new people and I'd go to help tell them if they were doing the lines right and where their puppets were looking. Other days I'd go to the schools with him and help set up, watch the show, then help break down the show, clean up and load the boxes back into the van. One summer I worked with him while out visiting. Now I am working with my Mother on doing gigs on Fiverr.com. I'm learning pet photography and using the staging skills I learned from working with my Dad. Now I also learned prop design, lighting skills, set design from my Dad. I get to use it with my Mom now and am learning a new version of it since the stage is smaller and the puppets are squirmy pets. You also have to learn bribery. Food bribes work wonders with the models. Cranky models can make you miss a work deadline. You also have to be quick at taking pictures. I've learned how to crop the pictures and create files to deliver them in.<br />
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For my Senior Year School Project, I am learning to build a website. With this website I plan on blogging about gaming and homeschooling. Eventually, I'd like to start a live stream channel too. In learning to build the website, I am studying coding, concept skills, how to install apps to make the page more user friendly and interesting, also how to blog. Blogging is harder than it sounds. You have to stay interesting to your readers, and do it frequently.<br />
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We have some Native American Heritage, so we used to go to Pow-Wows as much as we could. It <br />
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takes time to travel to them from Iowa, so we haven't been to one in a few years. They are very colorful and highlight a different Native Group each year. We have learned a lot about their crafts, culture, history, and our connection to it. The meaning of the outfits for Ceremonial Dances is very interesting too. Just like Japanese Ceremonial Dances or celebrations, each piece has a meaning in an outfit and the way in which the dance is done, plus the intent that you are trying to accomplish with the celebration. We notice that there are a lot of similarities in Japanese Culture and Native American Culture.<br />
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<i>"Makes it easier to understand and respect when it isn't something new, but already a piece of yourself, just from another country's viewpoint."</i></blockquote>
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We also have German Heritage, so I started to learn German Culture, History, and the language. But stopped for now while I focus more on Japanese. I'll get back to it someday.<br />
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Since we lived in the Washington, DC area for most of my life, politics is the local news. So I learned Government during my Freshman year of High School. There was so much going on that it was better to learn and understand all the important things rather than wait until this year to do it. That is a good thing about homeschooling, you can be flexible with when you learn certain subjects too. I also find watching Foreign News really gives you a new perspective of what is going on in American Politics. Also how it affects so many other Countries financially. Watching how the World reacts to our Country's decisions is really amazing.<br />
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Another thing I love about homeschooling is that we have had the opportunity to really get to know our pets. I frequently have a hedgehog on my lap or near me when I'm writing or reading. Our guinea pigs try to eat books and get wiggly, so I'm trying to train them to do tricks along with their modeling jobs. Each one has a different personality and needs. Over the years my Mom has let me have a wide variety of pets and bug projects. Anything from Triops, hermit crabs, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, cats, dogs, ghost crabs, hatching butterflies and various other bugs, and fish to just collecting bugs from outside to study. I remember going to the park for a hike when the frogs were spawning. Everything moved. There was barely any place to walk that wasn't moving because of a frog. It was a Nature Center that I took monthly classes at but we also hiked and had picnics there a lot. It was also a great place when the cicadas hatched out to catch them and see all the eye colors. Certain eye colors were special and the Nature Center wanted you to bring them in so they could document them. Often we used to go for picnics while homeschooling and then play there while the dragonflies and butterflies were abundant. At the Nature Center close to our house here, we helped catch and tag Monarch Butterflies. Learning about how and why the Government tags them was interesting.<br />
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I think that being home has also taught me a lot of life skills that I will need. I have chores I do around the house, but also my Mom has made me learn how to properly take care of myself and any pets. One of my Grandfather's is teaching me to drive. I just need to be more motivated about it. I know it is an important skill to have, especially while living in Iowa. You can't depend on Public Transportation here, and towns are farther apart so you have to really know how to drive yourself. I'll get there.<br />
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Since I'm in my last year of school, I have to really focus on learning things that will prepare me for college and living on my own, along with my other classes. Before they were just fun parts of our day to do together, but now I know I really need to focus more on doing those jobs well so I can take care of myself and help my Mom out more. My Grandmother said she will teach me to do other life skills like canning fresh vegetables and fruits, plus jellies. I have helped in the past, but she wants to show me how easy it is to have good food around that doesn't have all the preservatives in it. We love to garden, so both of my Grandmothers can and freeze what we don't eat right away. This has been a normal part of my life, so it is good to know how to actually do it on my own so I can help out more.<br />
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I know I wouldn't have had a lot of these kinds of memories if I'd been stuck in a classroom all day. I'd have other memories, but these fit my personality and I've had a lot of fun learning from my family and spending so much time with them. <b>I've been allowed the freedom to grow at my own pace and to dig deeper into subjects that I really like. Really digging into a topic or hobby was not looked upon as me wasting time. Instead, I received continued encouragement to spend time on things that I enjoyed. I still got everything done, just at my own pace and in my</b><b></b><br />
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<b>own way. It has made me into a very good problem solver and a creative person. </b>I like that about myself. I think they are good traits to have for future employment and in general for life."</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-40007172394422350252015-10-16T14:21:00.000-07:002015-10-16T14:21:27.841-07:00Learning through Hub Learning<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">"I learn in many different ways, actually in any way. It’s just a matter of time for how long I can handle it. This depends on how it’s presented. If it is presented in a size 8 font with a wall of text I will last at most 4 minutes. I learn easily with videos. For example, a science video that is about 8 to 20 minutes long keeps my attention especially if it asks questions. I have learned that one of the fastest ways to get correct information without a teacher in front of the room is to post the wrong answer, for instance on an online forum, and then someone will inevitably explain correct comparisons and give neutral answers or facts. I appreciate this way of conveying knowledge rather than just getting someone’s opinion. Then I can think it through and make up my own mind.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">An example of one of the best ways I learn is R/C airplane building. I taught myself to build them so I could have one to fly. That was my motivation to learn. The same learning dynamic fell into place with the mechanical work needed for my quad: I learned how to repair it, do upgrades, design new parts, and maintain it because I was motivated to race. This taught me to complete things and follow my gut instinct, plus this way of learning gives me a feeling of competence and self-determination. I consider myself to be quite skilled mechanically."</span></div>
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<span class="s1">"My High School years were never charted or graphed or tested, nor was I confined in a school room. Instead I spent my time engaged in a wide variety of pursuits. I was happy to be able to spend time learning many different things rather than only doing intellectual book work.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">These years included racing quads, raising my animals (ducks, geese, chickens, and my dogs Shasta and Kermit), working on a horse ranch and learning to take care of the horses and how to maintain the facility for a year, a strong home life with my family, learning guitar on my own (electric and acoustic), working at my Dad’s Electric Bike company, and a few mornings each week doing academics, plus a handful of good friends. Sometimes I had a tutor, like for math, and lots of times my Mom organized groups of teens to learn something together, like Money Education, but really this was for the social I think. Each of these area’s interfaced with other areas of life to network deeper into other competencies. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">My Mom calls this ‘interfacing to network’ - Hub Learning. She told us the story of Robert Kyiosaki teaching himself to swim really well in the ocean tides so that he could surf and spear fish. He didn’t learn to swim just to learn to swim. He had other motives. In fact, when his parents took him to an indoor pool to get proper swim lessons he failed, yet he was an expert swimmer in the dangerous ocean tides who could surf and spear fish.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I learn this way also. For example, take racing: I pay for my own quad and upgrades by working and making money at Optibike. By working at Optibike I learn lots of new skills, including entrepreneurship, marketing and finance, but basically right now I am in charge of motor assembly, electric charger assembly, service, and trouble shooting. I also helped my Dad design a prototype for an Electric Motorcycle as part of an Optibike expansion. I learned Autocad – from Cad Software - to design parts for my quad on the computer. I learned to write a resume’ because it was required to get a Sponsor for my racing. I launched a website to connect with other racers and promote the sport: <a href="http://thecqra.com/"><span class="s2">http://thecqra.com/</span></a> All the repairs and mechanical work for my quad I do myself, plus ordering parts and interfacing with vendors in other countries. I learned these skills so that I could race, not just to learn a particular skill for its own sake. All this revolves around one motivation – this sport I love. All this learning branched out because of the motivation for this one Hub, or focus. This is just one example of how I learned through my High School years."</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-60527021953102271932015-09-18T16:21:00.003-07:002015-09-18T16:21:59.340-07:00Ripple effects in learning
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Ripple_effect_on_water.jpg/1280px-Ripple_effect_on_water.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Ripple_effect_on_water.jpg/1280px-Ripple_effect_on_water.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="Standard">
In education, learning about one topic has a ripple effect across all spheres of knowledge. </div>
<div class="Standard">
As advocates of unschooling, we don't push students to learn specific subjects separately from each other. The underlying assumption in unschooling is that nothing exists in a vacuum, and when you set out to learn one thing you end up learning many different "subjects" along the way. One of our students was learning about Geography and along with studying where in the world things are, she also studied what is happening in those places. Here is what she had to say about what she learned along the way. </div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://gmmuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/World-Refugee-Day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://gmmuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/World-Refugee-Day.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-ZA">"In Geography, one of the topics I covered
was global phenomena and it dealt with a variety of things such as the plight
of refugees. This brought to my attention how many refugees there are here and across the world seeking a safe place to live. This made me
realize how grateful I am for having a place to call my home. Irrespective of
what culture, race, or country we come from, we all want the same things in
life like safety, love and acceptance. This made me think that all current
affairs around the world have a ripple effect, like throwing a pebble in a
pond. If something happens in one country, although it is far away from your
own country, you may still be affected by it." </span></blockquote>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
For a teenager to view current affairs worldwide as having a ripple effect that eventually effects her is an incredible insight to have. She learned so much more than where a country is in the world, or any other bland facts about it. She really delved into what is going on with people in other places. Even when the situations there aren't very pretty. </div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://littlefighterscancertrust.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/ripple-effect.jpg?w=604" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://littlefighterscancertrust.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/ripple-effect.jpg?w=604" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span lang="EN-ZA">She's had a profound realization of unity in the world. Everywhere in the world, people want the same basic things. </span>Perhaps that realization will also lead to an understanding that what she herself does also has a ripple effect around the world. As Mother Theresa said "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-819373999363155942015-09-11T17:16:00.001-07:002015-09-11T17:16:57.048-07:00A peek into Homeschooling in Romania<div class="p1">
<i>There is an active and growing population of families choosing to opt out of the Romanian school system. We are thrilled to be able to support families all around the world with making the educational choice that best suits them. We thought it would be fun to give you a glimpse into what homeschooling looks like for this family in Romania. Here's an excerpt from their year-end report. </i></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.worldatlas.com/img/areamap/4d0da08ecdfa17439515182c059168b9.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.worldatlas.com/img/areamap/4d0da08ecdfa17439515182c059168b9.gif" height="320" width="292" /></a><span class="s1">"I’m very happy with the progress he’s made with his Reading skills. For the moment, he reads in Romanian, very well for his age, but he can also manage short simple English sentences. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">There’s not much to say about Writing skills, as he cannot be bothered with it. He knows how to write, but has no need to do so, apart for the occasional birthday card. Obviously, he types anything he needs to for his games.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">English is another subject where there’s been great progress, mainly due to the fact that in the past few months he has discovered YouTube and he spends hours watching videos of his favorite games. I’d never have thought it possible to learn English this way, but he has become quite confident and he talks in English a lot. Amazingly, he’s started to speak Romanian with an English accent! I’ve downloaded some school books to use next year, so he can learn some basic grammar rules (which I’m sure he’ll find quite boring).</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Mathematics is the only subject where we tried to go by the book and he’s made his way through several books of additions/subtractions, which he can do quite easily, so he has acquired more than the skills required for 1</span><span class="s2"><sup>st</sup></span><span class="s1"> grade. We also tried multiplication and division, but we have to work on this part next year. (We also use several Internet sites for Math).</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://trollingwithlogic.com/astro-gnome/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/kids-chemistry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://trollingwithlogic.com/astro-gnome/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/kids-chemistry.jpg" height="196" width="320" /></a><span class="s1">For the past year, Science studies consisted mainly of a Chemistry/Physics class he was enrolled in. It’s a government subsidized learning center for kids, which offers a lot of different classes. The Chemistry class was quite hard, covering stuff that school children only learn in 5</span><span class="s2"><sup>th</sup></span><span class="s1"> grade and beyond, but everything is explained in simple terms with lots of fun experiments, to make science appealing to seven years old kids. And we had a final test, too, which he passed. So we’re good, as far as Science is concerned. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">At the same center, he took a very interesting course combining History and Crafts. They studied mostly Ancient History and at each lesson they also crafted some object relevant for that particular period, a cardboard Roman shield, an Egyptian pyramid and so on. We also read several books concerning Ancient History, some of them in English. So that’s Social Studies for us.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">He also studied French at the center, but I cannot really say that he’s learned much. A few words, some songs and not much else. We’ll probably have to find some other program, something more fun. Anyway, these classes have been very useful as they gave him some sort of going to school experience and he got to make some friends, temporary, as most friends are at this age. It also helped me put my mind at ease on the controversial subject of socializing and HS."</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Jacqueline ~ Romania</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">There is a mother who is a homeschooling advocate in Romania through her blog, and who is our local contact for our Romanian families. You can visit her blog here http://www.homeschooling.urbankid.ro/</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For our native Romanian readers, here is the year-end report in the Romanian language. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Sper ca ai avut un an (scolar) bun. Noi cu siguranta am
avut. Iata, pe scurt, ce a invatat baiatul meu, P., in primul lui an de
homeschooling.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In esenta, s-a descurcat de minune. Noi nu folosim vreo
programa anume, dar incerc sa acoperim cumva toate materiile relevante. (Am
oroare de programe scolare ca urmare a experientei avute cu fata, care a fost
timp de opt ani in invatamintul public si a avut de invatat pe de rost tone de
lucruri inutile, din categoria celor pe care le uiti de indata ce ai luat nota
la materia respectiva). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Revenind la baiatul cel mic, ma bucur sa-ti spun ca a facut
progrese majore la citit. La ora actuala, citeste in romana foarte bine pentru
varsta lui, dar se descurca si sa citeasca propozitii mai simple in engleza.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despre scris nu prea am ce sa spun, pentru ca nu prea il
intereseaza subiectul. Stie sa scrie, dar nu prea are nevoie sa o faca, doar
cite o felicitare ocazional. Evident, se descurca sa tasteze orice are nevoie
la jocurile lui.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Engleza este o alta materie la care a inregistrat mari
progrese, mai ales datorita faptului ca in ultimele luni a descoperit YouTube
si petrece ore in sir uitindu-se la materiale video despre jocurile lui
favorite. Nu mi-as fi imaginat vreodata ca este posibil sa inveti engleza in
acest mod, dar fapt este ca a prins curaj si vorbeste mult in engleza. Cel mai
uimitor este faptul ca inceput sa vorbeasca si romaneste cu accent englezesc!
Am descarcat recent o serie de manual de engleza pe care intentionez sa le
parcurgem in noul an scolar, astfel incit sa poate invata si ceva reguli de
gramatica, desi sunt sigura ca o sa i se para tare plictisitoare.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Matematica este singura materie pe care am incercat sa o
studiem ca la carte si am parcurs impreuna mai multe culegeri cu adunari si
scaderi, pe care le rezolva cu usurinta, astfel ca este deja peste nivelul
cerut la clasa intii. Am incercat si ceva inmultiri si impartiri, dar este un
subiect asupra caruia va trebui sa insistam anul urmator. (De asemenea, folosim
si diverse site-uri de Internet pentru matematica. )<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
La capitolul stiinte, anul trecut baiatul a fost inscris la
un curs de chimie/fizica organizat la Palatul Copiilor, unde sunt o multime de
cursuri interesante. Cursul de chimie a fost unul foarte serios, cu materie pe
care la scoala copiii o parcurg abia in clasa a 5a sau dupa, dar totul le era
explicat in termeni simpli, cu multe experimente distractive, astfel incit
lectiile sa fie atractive pentru copii de sapte ani. Am avut si un test final,
pe care P. l-a trecut cu bine. Asa ca stam bine la capitolul stiinte.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tot la Palatul Copiilor, P. a fost inscris si la un curs
care imbina istoria cu lucrul manual. Au studiat cu precadere istoria antica si
la fiecare lectie copiii realizau si un obiect relevant pentru perioada
studiata, un scut roman din carton, o piramida egipteana si asa mai departe. Am
citit, de asemenea, mai multe carti despre antichitate, unele in engleza. In
acest fel am acoperit noi stiinte sociale.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In acelasi loc, a mers si la curs de franceza, dar n-as
putea spune ca a invatat foarte mult. O serie de cuvinte, ceva cintecele si cam
atit. Cred ca va trebui sa cautam un alt program de limbi straine, ceva mai distractiv.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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In tot cazul, cursurile acestea au fost foarte utile pentru
ca i-au oferit copilului un fel de experienta a mersului la scoala si si-a
facut si ceva prieteni, temporari, asa cum sunt toti prietenii la aceasta
virsta. In plus, asta m-a ajutat si pe mine sa-mi domolesc temerile referitoare
la controversatul subiect al socializarii copiilor care practica homeschooling."</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Jacqueline ~ Romania</i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-4222560174256520532015-09-04T13:00:00.000-07:002015-09-04T13:00:01.018-07:0010th grade reflection: Son's point of view<br />
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<span style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Now we get to hear directly from the son of last week's homeschooling mom about why school was so miserable for him, and how homeschooling has changed his perspective on life. Enjoy part 2 of this story! (If you missed his Mom's point of view in part 1, you can read it </span><a href="http://westriveracademy.blogspot.com/2015/08/reflections-on-10th-grade-moms-point-of.html" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;" target="_blank">here.</a><span style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">)</span></div>
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________________________________________________</div>
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<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b2/4f/db/b24fdb8b687ff6aac8447ca8722c1542.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b2/4f/db/b24fdb8b687ff6aac8447ca8722c1542.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Entering the tenth grade was
supposed to be a restart from the last year, in which I barely managed to pull
through with less than stellar marks. But my public school career was
completely unsalvageable by the second semester. Sometime around the end of seventh
grade,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began to lose interest in doing
the assignments and projects the administration required everyone to complete
for good grades. The assignments were unoriginal, tedious, and seemed, for the
most part, unnecessary to normal life. While the actual subject matter was
quite interesting to me, the excessive, unnecessary assignments ruined any hope
of enjoying classes. Eventually I stopped doing the assignments flat out,
partially to spite the authority the school had over the student body. My faltering
grades lead to daily screaming matches with my family over what could possibly
be wrong with me. I was failing half my classes by the end of the semester
while my parents were freaking out about my future. I decided that leaving
public school would be the best course of action, as I would not be forced to
follow the same path as every other teenager, and could study whatever subject
I wanted without the school’s overlords pressuring me to do only as they
wished. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The end of the first semester marked
the end of my public school career. I could finally relax, learn what I wanted
at my pace, and not worry about tests and projects failing my education. This
second start with homeschooling felt like a breath of fresh air after my
dreadful high school experience. I was homeschooled before entering public
schools in the third grade, but this time it felt better. The first time I had
no frame of reference to determine whether I enjoyed or not, so it felt much
better to start homeschooling knowing how public schools worked and how
unhealthy it could be. My previous experience with homeschooling may very well
have helped lead me to the many problems I had with public schools and their
authority. </span></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUX39_iDXfvDe11NhzfxaCA2JOxS2bsvi8OJK5U6buE6RQNf3056CiFOTv3yjm-KUf0Fab1m2GH4T2gYd3iEZ-CTzywbeHsrhf-lUZQXgSgDi0by2F0bX4ODlwtRyQyOFMmd-PQulKyKo/s1600/person-835453_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUX39_iDXfvDe11NhzfxaCA2JOxS2bsvi8OJK5U6buE6RQNf3056CiFOTv3yjm-KUf0Fab1m2GH4T2gYd3iEZ-CTzywbeHsrhf-lUZQXgSgDi0by2F0bX4ODlwtRyQyOFMmd-PQulKyKo/s200/person-835453_640.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">About a week or so after leaving school, I was much happier than I had
been in a long time. Slowly I began to move away from the way public schools
want students to think and started thinking of things I could do now that I
wasn’t forced to do only certain things. Now I could finally study recent
history instead of only the American Revolution, or read any book I could get
my hands on, or learn the basics of Javascript on my computer. <b><i>The world is opened up, and I can do with it as I wish.</i></b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">~ Vincent, Colorado</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-75914262088943627522015-08-28T11:03:00.000-07:002015-08-28T11:03:59.614-07:00Reflections on the 10th Grade: Mom’s Point of View<div class="page" title="Page 1">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">It's so rewarding for us to hear the stories of our families who have gained freedom and joy in their lives by getting free of the school system. Read on for a moving story from this mother about how her son went from being an angry teenager to an engaged, alive person pursuing several passions. Next week we will post the son's reflections of his experience in school, and the difference since he has started homeschooling. Check back next week for part 2!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;"> - Peggy and Karen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">________________________________________________________</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.tescoliving.com/~/media/images/healthy%20living/family%20health/depressedchildhero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://www.tescoliving.com/~/media/images/healthy%20living/family%20health/depressedchildhero.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">"Deciding to homeschool/unschool has been an incredible decision for our whole family.
After a very rocky 9th grade year, we went into the 10th grade year with an agreement (from all
of us) that we would not have a repeat of the 9th grade. We briefly discussed homeschooling,
but my son made a decision that he wanted to try school again for the 10th grade. I think he
wanted to be with his friends, and I think there was some hope that things would be better. By
mid-year of the 10th grade in public school, though, my son was a shell of his former self.
Moody, angry, irritable, reactive... those are words that could be used to describe all of us! We
were all exhausted and traumatized by the constant battle to get school work done. As parents,
we were getting scary e-mails and phone calls from the school, and the expectation was that we
better do something about our kid - and fast! The threat was that if we didn’t, we risked letting
our son fall through the cracks, only to become a teenaged failure. This was horrifying to us,
and we didn’t understand what was happening with our son. I am sure the pressure was even
worse for our him! Our bright, observant, thoughtful kid was miserable, and every time we talked
to him about school, he became deeply defensive and angry. We couldn’t figure out what was
wrong, and neither could he. Ultimately, my husband and I decided that our relationship with our
son was more important than his grades. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">Even though we were getting a lot of scary stuff from
the schools, we made a difficult decision to let him succeed or fail on his own terms. This was
really hard, but ultimately, it helped us to make choices that would lead us home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;">Even though we had decided to back off and not take on so much of the pressure we
were getting from the e-mails, robo-calls, and messages from school counselors, we all still
struggled. It was painful to watch my beloved son struggling every day with going to this place
that obviously made him feel terrible! I tried enlisting help from all of our son’s teachers, and
only got a response from 3 of them. I think his teachers cared, but I also think they had a huge </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">amount of work in front of them, and our quietly failing boy in the back row (who they barely
remembered) was not high on their list. This was very stressful, and we were not perfect in our
resolve to let our son fail. We struggled with our own fear and panic. Would our son be OK?
Would he ever have the chance for a full life? Was he throwing away his opportunities for
success in the world? And, even more importantly, why wasn’t he happy? Why was he
struggling so much? He couldn’t articulate this, and the more we asked, the more frustrated he
became with us. We had to really work to back off. It took us a long time to let go, but when we
finally did, it was a watershed moment.</span></div>
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<div class="page" title="Page 2">
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31f%2BNUr8aUL._SY300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31f%2BNUr8aUL._SY300_.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;"><br />I picked my son up from rock climbing on a Wednesday just before he finished out the
fall semester. “Vinnie,” I said, “It looks like you are going to fail some of your classes. Dad can
probably help you figure out how to pass them, if you want. But, more importantly, I want you to
know that there are other ways to become an educated person. Maybe this way isn’t working for
you. There are other options for you. I don’t know what is happening for you at school, but we
can do things differently. If you want to talk with me about options, we can get some dinner and
talk.” To my complete surprise, my son started talking. He admitted that he was about to fail,
and talked about how even though he was interested in the subject matter, he just couldn’t bring
himself to comply with the assigned work. He described how the work felt arbitrary, and how he
felt insulted by the “busywork” of school. He didn’t want to do the things they wanted him to do. I
told him that we could consider a variety of options, and that we as a family would take the
winter break to decide what would be the best option for our son.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;">From that moment forward, I finally felt like the mother I have always been. I
remembered that my son’s life is HIS life. He doesn’t belong to the schools, and neither do we
as his parents. His school’s structure is set up to warehouse hundreds of kids and make sure
they all meet big external standards as a group. This has never been what education has meant
to us as a family. What we value is freedom and joy in learning. We believe that learning is and </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">should be fun, and that becoming educated means you have your head on your shoulders and
can examine the world and your life consciously and critically. <b>Being educated means you know
how to get the information you want and need when you want and need it. It is about being able
to take in information, process that information thoughtfully, and communicate about it
effectively. It is about being able to deepen as a human being, from a well-informed place, so
that you can live a full, exciting, passionate life of your own creation.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;">By the end of the winter break, my son informed me that he had decided to homeschool.
This was the day before school was supposed to start for the spring semester. Vinnie told me
that he was concerned about losing touch with his friends, so we decided that he would go to
school, get as many numbers as possible, and make sure he felt good about this decision to
homeschool. When I talked to him after school the next day, my son had cleaned out his locker
and made his final decision. The relief was absolutely palpable.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://l.thumbs.canstockphoto.com/canstock5700782.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://l.thumbs.canstockphoto.com/canstock5700782.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;">Over these last few months, my son has gone from an angry, unreachable teen to an
engaged, alive person. He is reading again, with as much voraciousness as he did when he was
younger. He has rested and recovered. He has sought out the things he wants to learn. He
started taking online computer programming courses and has found a college degree program
he’d like to get into some day. He traveled across the US for a month with my Mom and sister.
He got to drive a tractor and feed the goats and donkeys and chickens on their farm property in
Texas. He learned to scuba dive, and he is learning to drive. He joined the varsity rock climbing
team and is able to climb three days a week. He got interested in social justice and race
relations, so we watched movies about civil rights leaders, read news articles, and had
discussions about Ferguson and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. He spent time
snowboarding in the mountains, and skateboarding to Dairy Queen. He is exploring what it
means to be a friend, and what it means to say no to people who drag him down. He is owning </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">who he is, and taking responsibility for being an educated person in his own, shining, unique
way. He is becoming himself, in the best way possible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;">Of course, we are not without struggles now. We still have to work on letting go, and he
still has to work on taking responsibility for himself. But this is now in the spirit of joy and
freedom and growth, rather than pressure and threat and fear. This is healthy and challenging,
rather than traumatizing and terrifying. I am so grateful every day that we made this decision to
take back the power in our lives. I am grateful that we could let go enough to see that there
really are options and possibilities in this life. We are not at the mercy of the system, even
though it can feel like it when you’re in the middle of it. <b><i>We are the true creators in our lives, and
we are glad to have reclaimed this for our family."</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'; font-size: 11.000000pt;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px;"><b><i>~ Rachel S., Colorado.</i></b></span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-1957532651953433472015-08-21T15:20:00.000-07:002015-08-21T15:20:19.975-07:00Homeschooler Leads Robotics Team to World Championships<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Our students have diverse interests and accomplishments. In this post we are focusing on the unique accomplishment of one of our students in the world of robotics.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bc/FIRST_Robotics_Competition_(logo).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bc/FIRST_Robotics_Competition_(logo).jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="s1">Sally (name changed to protect privacy) was the Team Lead for a robotics team this year. The team consisted of 50 teenagers from public, private, charter and home schools. They have mentors on the team that have volunteered their services and experiences to assist them. The mentors are either parents of students, employees from sponsoring companies, or members of the community. She says while many of her teammates prefer to work directly with the robot, she loves to be an organizer of people. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Her organizational skill showed as her robotics team was one of the top 600 teams (out of 6,000 teams world-wide) who made it to the World Championships of Robotics. They finished as one of the top 60 teams! </span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This was the first year they have made it that far, and it may be partly due to her improved implementation of the Solidworks CAD program. The 16-year-old says: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">“My inspiration for learning Solidworks CAD came from the fact that our team relied on the 3D computer construction of our robot, yet few students were able to actually use the program. Over the summer of 2014 I took extensive tutorials and online explanations, and I slowly but surely taught myself how to use the program. Through the 2014-2015 season I used my skills to develop small parts that we 3D printed for our robot.” </span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/stories/LegoImages/image05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/stories/LegoImages/image05.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
Sally was introduced to the robotics team through her family; her sister was previously a team lead and her father is the team president. She says that although she was initially drawn to it through family and friends, she came to love robotics itself and the challenge of organizing a team. Now she is considering the idea of specializing in the field of robotics in the future. Meanwhile, she's looking forward to the challenge of organizing and fundraising for the team, as she was voted in as Team Lead again this year. </div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">One of the benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility to devote time to a student’s passions. Sally says:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“Homeschooling has allowed me to be very involved in my robotics team. I have more free time, and I can multitask with my school work and the organizational demands of my robotics team. I am able to keep to a schedule with some flexibility since I have to balance school work, robotics, and soccer. Some days it can be a little crazy, and I have to push myself and remember that I love all the opportunities that I am given.”</span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1">What is the process that she uses to create her learning plan for each year? She describes it like this:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“My mother and I meet at the end of summer to plan my next academic year. It is a mutual process that involves me first professing my interests and what I would like to study and my mother providing feedback. For example, my grandfather gave me a collection of Shakespeare’s plays bound in small, leather books that were brought over from London during World War II by my great-great-grandfather. I brought these to my mother, and we decided that for my English course I would read these plays and write papers concerning them. My grandmother is Hungarian so I picked Hungarian as my language of choice and decided to go to Hungary and stay with relatives there this summer. This year I am taking two classes at the community college since self-teaching and my mother’s extensive knowledge can only bring me so far. The process of picking what I will study that year depends on what I have access to, my interests, and what my schedule will allow."</span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1">It’s quite apparent that she is able to keep her schedule quite full with fascinating activities that are meaningful to her. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-33185290566453197582015-08-13T23:46:00.002-07:002015-08-13T23:46:52.252-07:00How to help create a new paradigm of education<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>How to help create a new paradigm of education</u></b></h2>
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<span class="s2">Lecture style teaching and the increasing volume of testing </span><span class="s3">are</span><span class="s2"> based on </span><span class="s3">the</span><span class="s2"> premise that we can manage and control learning in others. Growing evidence is demonstrating that this method doesn’t work. What really works is to acknowledge that other people, of any age, are autonomous, powerful and intelligent human beings who choose what information that they will accept and what it means to them. If you’ve ever had a conversation with a two-year-old about why a food that they don’t like is good for them and tried to convince them to eat it, you’ll know what I mean. Broccoli chunks on your nose is the most likely result!</span></div>
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<span class="s2">The current school environment of standardized testing, and the </span><span class="s3">assembly-line view of the process of creating education </span><span class="s2">for young humans is failing miserably. </span><span class="s4">How arrogant of adults </span><span class="s2">to think that they can force-feed knowledge into another human being and make them retain it through mindless repetition! Human beings have an amazing capacity to use our brains to be creative, inventive, and make meaning of the world around us. We all have an impact on everyone and everything that we touch, but we are </span><span class="s4">ignorant of </span><span class="s2">of that basic fact. Instead, we often fall prey to the deception that we can actually control anything or anyone. When we let go of </span><span class="s4">trying to control</span><span class="s2"> others and accept responsibility for our impact</span><span class="s2">, we see that everything we do matters. This leads to taking </span><span class="s4">more careful consideration </span><span class="s2">of our words with other people, and of our actions in relationship to our environment. </span></div>
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<a href="http://images.essentialkids.com.au/2013/05/09/4257505/party_wide-620x349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.essentialkids.com.au/2013/05/09/4257505/party_wide-620x349.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a><span class="s2">Children are sponges that absorb everything around them. The most effective way of “teaching” them is to simply create an environment around them that allows for and supports their learning. All it takes is genuinely listening to them when they tell you </span><span class="s3">about the inner world of what excites them</span><span class="s2">, and then taking action to help them find the resources that will take them one step closer to achieving </span><span class="s3">their goals.</span><span class="s2"> If they’re excited about something, then they’ll learn it effortlessly, and retain everything essential to them. If they’re implementing information, then it will become permanent knowledge. If they choose what they are learning, then they will be inspired and joyful about learning it. </span></div>
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<span class="s2">What if instead of schools with rigid curriculum and standardized testing, we had resource centers with passionate learning facilitators and personalized portfolios? These centers exist currently in various forms, but they are in the minority. What if they were the norm and every child had access to them? Homeschoolers create this for themselves through co-ops, support groups, and community involvement. This is wonderful for them, but so many children are still in the standard system and aren’t given this environment. What if this kind of environment </span><span class="s3">were</span><span class="s2"> available to every child? What if every school and every parent were committed to this vision for all children? What kind of world could we all live in, and what kind of future could these children create? </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.paulaonysko.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Take-A-Stand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.paulaonysko.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Take-A-Stand.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a><span class="s2">While this may sound idealistic and pie-in-the-sky, we </span><span class="s5">all can</span><span class="s2"> have an impact in transforming the </span></div>
world into this vision by taking a stand for this in our own homes and communities. It’s so simple. <span class="s2">You can choose to be loving and supportive of the unique individuality of the children (and adults!) that surround you. You can choose to be courageous by raising your voice in your community in support of this learning environment. You can choose to take ownership of your impact in the world. You do have a powerful impact in the world; what will you choose for it to be? This future is possible. Will you take a stand for it?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-69563869444205768382015-08-07T13:35:00.000-07:002015-08-07T13:36:53.644-07:00Homeschooling/Unschooling Resources to start off your "back to (home) school" time!<div class="p1">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzwA8CsJlIX_Ktx_1-Mq2znhXOTIl4MWYAIGZ2lD3P52vsE1WUia_AFEN1XfLHLhnh7UZ86S4Whavtw43g4Oeb3cfDy9SgQb0nq3s1KajDL9pwaY7RNuR1WrZ4Jn-F_cOYrLSAaFleu0/s1600/welcome_back_to_school_chalkboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzwA8CsJlIX_Ktx_1-Mq2znhXOTIl4MWYAIGZ2lD3P52vsE1WUia_AFEN1XfLHLhnh7UZ86S4Whavtw43g4Oeb3cfDy9SgQb0nq3s1KajDL9pwaY7RNuR1WrZ4Jn-F_cOYrLSAaFleu0/s1600/welcome_back_to_school_chalkboard.jpg" /></a><span class="s1"><b><i>"Back to School" </i></b>advertisements are all around you, and you can't help but get caught up in the excitement of planning for a fun year of learning with your kids. We thought we'd contribute the resources and lists that our families have found helpful in their planning. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Whether you are following a curriculum or doing completely student-led unschooling, </span>this is a discount source for purchasing learning materials. </div>
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<span class="s2"><a href="http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/">http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/</a></span></div>
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<b>Free!</b> Who doesn’t love free, online learning materials? This homeschool mom and blogger has put together a great list of free, online educational resources. Even better, she has them sorted by age and subject. </div>
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<span class="s2"><a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2012/12/free-online-educational-resources/">http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2012/12/free-online-educational-resources/</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Another extensive list is here:</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.onlypassionatecuriosity.com/free-homeschool-list/">http://www.onlypassionatecuriosity.com/free-homeschool-list/</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1">One of our families said this about a fun website that they have enjoyed using: </span></div>
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<span class="s1">“We found a site called DIY which is, as the name suggests, do-it-yourself learning based on kids' interests. There are different areas (art, animation, genetics, Legos, astronaut training, etc. - it's very eclectic!) and each area has activities and challenges presented as short videos that the kids can do on their own and earn virtual or real patches for leveling up. The site itself is free, but they also have 4 week camps on the same model that are $40 for the 4 weeks. We signed up for stop-motion animation, one of his skills. It's fantastic for unschooling!”</span></blockquote>
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<span class="s2"><a href="https://diy.org/">https://diy.org/</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1">A popular avenue for learning is Minecraft. Here’s <a href="http://homeschoolencouragement.com/learning-with-minecraft/" target="_blank">“31 days of Homeschooling with Minecraft”</a> for your Minecrafter’s enjoyment! </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Maybe you’re wondering how to “unschool” in the high school years. Here’s an example of how one family does an “unschool curriculum” for 10th grade. (They also have other posts for previous grades!)</span></div>
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<span class="s2"><a href="http://unschoolrules.com/2015/07/unschooling-10th-grade">http://unschoolrules.com/2015/07/unschooling-10th-grade</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Lastly, now that you have a fun variety of activities and learning programs, how do you keep track of what you've been doing? Several families have highly recommended this app as an easy way to track and record what you do during the year. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.homeschoolhelperapp.com/">http://www.homeschoolhelperapp.com/</a></span></div>
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We hope this gets you off to a great start in 2015!</div>
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P.S. Enjoy this homeschool comic to remind you why you're doing all this work and research! ;)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-8648423973440681932015-07-30T14:10:00.000-07:002015-07-30T14:10:19.278-07:00Our High School student shares her experience of Unschooling<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">One of the unique benefits that our school offers is that our students have the freedom to customize their own educational program to suit their individual needs. This can include everything from an eclectic, interest-led, unschooling approach, to purchasing a curriculum for every subject,</span><span class="s2"> </span><span class="s1">as well as everything in between.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">In this blog post we are sharing what a student in our High School Diploma Program says about her experience unschooling. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">“Unschooling is much like regular homeschooling. The only difference is we don’t have a curriculum telling us what we need to learn, and when we need to learn it. I have always had the freedom to choose what I wanted to learn every year. They never told me I had to learn something at a certain time, which I loved. It has made my years of school a million times more interesting! I was never bored out of my mind learning about something that I am not even close to being interested in. My parents have always pushed me to seek what I was interested in, and to always go at it full force. I remember my parents sitting me down every year, and asking me what I wanted to learn. They wrote down everything I said, and made it happen for me. That’s something I will appreciate forever.”</span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1">Two common questions that those unfamiliar to this educational philosophy may have are</span><span class="s3">:</span><span class="s1"> “Will a child learn if they are not told what they should be studying?” and “Will they be socialized and mature if they are not in a classroom with other children their own age?” This student gives her take on these questions. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">“I remember so many of my friends complaining about how much they </span><span class="s3">‘</span><span class="s1">hated</span><span class="s3">’</span><span class="s1"> school. I was never able to relate to my friends because I have never been forced to learn anything. I have always wanted to learn things on my own, and honestly,</span><span class="s3"> </span><span class="s1">nothing has ever helped me out more in life. I am always curious about everything. The urge to learn has constantly kept me moving forward. Being unschooled and having parents that treated me equally as an adult has allowed me to have my own opinions. I feel it has helped me to mature very quickly. One thing that has always stuck out to me when I have a conversation with an adult is that they are always very surprised to hear that I am only seventeen. They say my communication skills are very good. Being unschooled has given me many opportunities that most young teenagers never get because of the limitations of a school schedule.” </span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1">How does she feel about preparing to graduate high school after a lifetime of unschooling?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“So for now, I am finishing up my unschooling adventure and moving on to a new chapter in my life. I am excited and a little anxious for these next few months as they represent the end of an era for me. Thank you for West River Academy. This school has enabled my parents to give me the freedom to learn without the constraints of traditional schooling.”</span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1">We’re happy to support students like this one in their educational journeys, whatever form they may take. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-15577839521338547102015-07-24T14:00:00.000-07:002015-07-24T16:44:41.258-07:00World-schooling an exemplary life<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This week we are spotlighting a family who are world-schooling their children by living at the moment on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. </span></div>
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Originally from a Middle European country, their inspiration to start traveling began with their children 7 years ago. They felt a desire to show them the world; how big it is, and how much is possible. Beyond their own children they feel a responsibility for the world. They strive to live an exemplary life by not smoking, drinking alcohol or using medicine. They are also environmentalists who recycle, are vegetarian and live a low-cost life. Modeling this wherever they live in the world is important to them. They have faith that they world can improve, and want to provide an example of how that can be accomplished.<span class="s1"></span></div>
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<span class="s1">They have a 2 year old son, a 6-year-old daughter and an almost 8-year-old son. The children are naturally curious about new things, and have become accustomed to adapting to new environments. They say that the most important element to traveling as a family is that the children trust them and have confidence in their decisions, because the children know that their own happiness is important to their parents. As a result, they have fun everywhere!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9TeOIkJPnnOI4p_QzhlEUXQJoADqQFQ0Z2LCaePnSskzm3doaHQXdupmXPWshPPuPrByiiCIGylMBYb5wFq1RtA2iM8oS6PeWiX7Bti_oVPhqviWT0Ka2RxtreN7uR3AoGj3q976LII/s1600/10250152_10152827762549780_1119376792209120837_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9TeOIkJPnnOI4p_QzhlEUXQJoADqQFQ0Z2LCaePnSskzm3doaHQXdupmXPWshPPuPrByiiCIGylMBYb5wFq1RtA2iM8oS6PeWiX7Bti_oVPhqviWT0Ka2RxtreN7uR3AoGj3q976LII/s320/10250152_10152827762549780_1119376792209120837_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="s1">The family stays in one location for a year so that they have time to explore their surroundings and experience the local culture. They do not have an easy lifestyle and there are a lot of uncertainties. However, they draw strength from their faith that they can contribute to making the world a better place. They find that if they are stable, then the children are stable too. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">For them, homeschooling while traveling is accomplished through the richness of their environment, as well as from their books and toys. They can use their tablets to access the internet and learn anything they want to know. Their philosophy is that life is experience and experience is learning, so they are always learning!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-65016979945315731962015-07-17T13:43:00.000-07:002015-07-24T15:26:42.185-07:00"Bee" the Change... through Worldschooling!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY-uUcXrRynHBixckWaTFVi-__BLGvUsJaFR3Azd55-R2IrLXLmrG6H5sD8Wep-iA2tnXFxn9zmSfzWOJxJC9o5fFhiz6hFMVoi-w4b0vTxYu9nDoRZxW16kRBdiTeXBqFldx3omOmOvo/s1600/Open+Road+_CB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY-uUcXrRynHBixckWaTFVi-__BLGvUsJaFR3Azd55-R2IrLXLmrG6H5sD8Wep-iA2tnXFxn9zmSfzWOJxJC9o5fFhiz6hFMVoi-w4b0vTxYu9nDoRZxW16kRBdiTeXBqFldx3omOmOvo/s200/Open+Road+_CB.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">Homeschooling provides freedom to explore the world. For some families that is the world immediately surrounding them, and others take the opportunity to go farther from home and make traveling their lifestyle. We have some families here at West River Academy that are “worldschooling” and have taken their education on the road! Let’s hear from one family directly about what they are doing and how it works with their homeschooling. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Meet the “Caring Bees” family: Fritz, Terra, Ky and Kai! They were living a comfortable, normal suburban American lifestyle, but dreamed of roaming the world. Sound familiar? Well, this family took the radical step of selling their belongings and taking off for New Zealand! They created a website focused around their family’s passion for health and bees. Here’s what they say about what is inspiring their focus:</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>“Caring Bees was created because our family is passionate about our health and discovered Manuka honey, specifically, to have amazing versatile natural caring/healing properties, above most other foods and herbs! Also, we have great concerns about the future of our lovely bees and would like to look deeper into this issue, find out what we can do to help and share with the world!”</i> - <a href="http://www.caringbees.com/blog"><span class="s2">www.caringbees.com/blog</span></a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi612nZxpMK3CH496C4zEdFmM_ALk2TaCCx4enP8NOWdzaN6R1fbstzJyYwbNxia__8YFdvmJitoKCfHCRfy2BgIzD_hC7W8Hp0cezjJORi1EAkANDcjYItQ2M-cmtct8pIR-75PCogca8/s1600/Kids_CB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi612nZxpMK3CH496C4zEdFmM_ALk2TaCCx4enP8NOWdzaN6R1fbstzJyYwbNxia__8YFdvmJitoKCfHCRfy2BgIzD_hC7W8Hp0cezjJORi1EAkANDcjYItQ2M-cmtct8pIR-75PCogca8/s200/Kids_CB.jpg" width="149" /></a><span class="s1">I wondered what the children’s reaction is to this big change in their lives. Terra said <i>“Well, actually, we keep praising our kids on how well they are doing with all of the changes and uncertainty a day may bring, while traveling. We are learning so much each day, there is not enough time for anyone to complain or irritate each other, like they did at home. Such a win/win!”</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizjqyvziJYGm_uvvXZ-7eojNRQVCeaXF9Hu8eH65kJLgT0p7OP7HfvdgQ1gvQGX9m2ThBC07y2mvYbhqvw6SCCtjX4qHJ0haA3xp5Ot6cKTufZeOD7x4wCHiET247FAibblgwnU6pY7kI/s1600/Parents_CB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizjqyvziJYGm_uvvXZ-7eojNRQVCeaXF9Hu8eH65kJLgT0p7OP7HfvdgQ1gvQGX9m2ThBC07y2mvYbhqvw6SCCtjX4qHJ0haA3xp5Ot6cKTufZeOD7x4wCHiET247FAibblgwnU6pY7kI/s1600/Parents_CB.jpg" /></a><span class="s1">What does homeschooling on the road look like for them?<i> “Every evening, the kids will journal their day's adventure. Once it is done, they will go further with either research on any questions they need answered, draw what they liked about the adventure or create a project from it. We also use an iPad app called "Homeschool Helper" to keep a detailed log of learning hours and studies. This has been an invaluable tool for us in keeping on track with all different areas of study.” </i></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Curious to see where this adventure takes them? You can follow this family in their adventures following bees and learning from their travels on their homepage <a href="http://www.caringbees.com/"><span class="s2">www.caringbees.com</span></a>, and their social media outlets: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/caringbees," target="_blank">Facebook</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Caringbees/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> <a href="https://instagram.com/Caringbees/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and <span class="s2"><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/Caringbees/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a>!</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>P.S. - Next week, we’ll feature a European family that has been traveling for 7 years. </i></span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-24680684959421312852015-07-10T13:20:00.001-07:002015-07-10T13:20:50.146-07:00A homeschooling year in review<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This time of year we love receiving the year-end reports from our families, who inspire us with everything they’ve been learning over the past year. We leave the content of the report up to each family. Our primary goal is for them to summarize what they feel was of educational value for each child in the past school year.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">We sometimes get inquiries from families who would like to see some samples of what year-end reports look like. To help provide that, one of our families who is homeschooling their 13-year old daughter has given us permission to share the year-end report that they created. They have been homeschooling for the past 6 years. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">This is a great example of how to write a report. It is a short summary of hands-on projects mixed with academics, illustrating an eclectic approach to homeschooling. They say:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“Homeschooling is a journey and we seem to be changing just a bit each year, but I try to include any curriculum we've used or experiences she's gotten to have that contribute to her learning (or as we seem to say more and more: "Anything and everywhere is a chance to learn!”)”</span></blockquote>
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<span class="s2"><b>Materials</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Scholastic Daily Word Ladders, grades 4-6 workbook</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Wordly Wise 3000, Book 7</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Learning Language Arts Through Literature, The Tan Book</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Creative Teaching Press: Sixth Grade Math Minutes workbook</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Math U See, Zeta: instruction book, workbook, dvd, and test booklet</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Holt Science & Technology, Texas Edition, grade 7</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Creating America: A History of the United States – McDougal Littell</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Care & Keeping of You, Books 1 & 2 – American Girl</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The U.S. Government (workbook) – Remedia Publications, 2009</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Wordly Wise, Book 4 – Kenneth Hodkinson & Joseph G. Ornato</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Youth Digital Mod Design 1, Learn Java using Minecraft</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Youth Digital Server Design, Program Your Own Minecraft Server</span></div>
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<span class="s2"><b>Activities</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">We had a house built between June 2014 and November 2014. Our daughter got to see and participate in all of the planning, designing, and creation of our new home. She saw “real world” applications for knowing area and perimeter. She saw framing of the house, wiring, instillation of fixtures, and all of the work that finished the inside and outside of our new home. She also got to see how much paperwork is involved in buying a house!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Activities this Spring included: “Crazy Chemistry” at the local library March 31, a STEM event for girls at St. Mary’s College on May 2, 2015, a visit to the local Civil War Memorial: Point Lookout Prisoner-of-War Camp on May 17, explorations of the beaches around the Chesapeake Bay with our guests on May 17- May 20, a visit to the local Naval Air Museum at NAS Patuxent River on May 19, a trip up to the National Mall which included visits to the Washington Monument, the Vietnam War Memorial Wall, The World War II Memorial, The Lincoln Monument, and the Korean War Memorial, on May 20.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">This Summer our daughter will continue to work on her Java script course and her server design course on the computer. She is participating in Minecraft events at the local library. She attended one on June 30, and she has two more this month: July 14 & July 28. She will be spending the night in the National Archives in D.C. on July 25 and gets to sleep in the rotunda with the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence! In August, she will be taking a Nature Trekkers Art Class August 4- August 7 in Leonardtown, Md. </span></div>
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<span class="s2"><u>Grades 30days 60days 90days 120days 150days 180days Final Grade</u></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Vocabulary 94.8 99.3 93.7 93.3 93.9 97.8 94.6 A</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Language Arts 94.7 93.2 93.6 96.3 95.9 99.2 95.4 A</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Math 91.4 95.4 95.5 93.2 89.9 86.5 91.9 A</span></div>
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<span class="s1">History 96.6 96.4 95.0 93.3 93.8 95.5 95.1 A</span></div>
Science 97.0 99.0 97.4 95.0 96.7 96.6 96.9 AAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-49828705671559720642015-07-06T17:47:00.000-07:002015-07-06T17:47:41.579-07:00Pursuing a passion-driven life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGOsvSMT-TSzltyultLgws6TMypaXTRtK21cRRNgT2j5hOOzg9J-0DL7_kliotJPqlFvSC6onYVJG13dFNrRB1zQ4t2jNc7AsGteZBaSsP1VgjjO2IXkrc75IblPNOfOXKqc_gZaXqYDE/s1600/Chris+Bones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGOsvSMT-TSzltyultLgws6TMypaXTRtK21cRRNgT2j5hOOzg9J-0DL7_kliotJPqlFvSC6onYVJG13dFNrRB1zQ4t2jNc7AsGteZBaSsP1VgjjO2IXkrc75IblPNOfOXKqc_gZaXqYDE/s320/Chris+Bones.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">2015 West River Academy High School Graduate, Chris Bones, exemplifies a life of pursuing passion. In an interview with Entertainment Scoop’s Vivian Adaobi, he answers her question on what drives him with one word: Passion. “Without passion, I would have quit a long time ago” he says. “I wake up early, I go to sleep late, I work and I have fun while I do it! Because, that’s passion.” (Ent Scoop, 4/16/2015; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN5G_8LzkeM"><span class="s2">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN5G_8LzkeM</span></a>)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">He’s been pursuing that passion since he was young. His first experience was acting in a musical theater show at 6 years old. Ignited by the passion of acting, at age 9 he moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma to New York City to pursue a professional career in acting. While there, he played a role on Emmy Award winning daytime television show “One Life to Live”. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">A few years later, in 2009, he followed his love of music to Los Angeles to launch his career as a recording artist. In April 2015 he did his first tour, touring with High School Nation. To see him in action on stage, doing what he loves best, check out his YouTube video “Chris Bones - Live on Tour!” here; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5ZOpOjMHY"><span class="s2">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5ZOpOjMHY</span></a>. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">To get a taste of his musical talent, watch his covers of Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXfDxQNytUM"><span class="s2">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXfDxQNytUM</span></a> and Jealous by Nick Jonas at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kILsV96_WY.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">He is currently working on his first original album, due out this summer. Watch for its release by following his Twitter channel (@thechrisbones) and Facebook page (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/chrisbonesmusic?_rdr"><span class="s2">https://www.facebook.com/chrisbonesmusic?_rdr</span></a>).</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Congratulations to Chris on graduating from West River Academy! We look forward to seeing where his passion leads him to next! </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049035137451106236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-39882089111373373842014-03-20T13:32:00.002-07:002014-03-20T13:32:55.463-07:00Life is beautiful...<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I think you will feel the "joie de vivre" that Grace expresses in her last report to complete our High School Diploma Program. Grace lives in Divide, Colorado and graduated March 15, 2014.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>"Well, February is gone and March is beginning. It’s been one crazy awesome month. I completed my painting for the congressional show and turned it in; the reception and awards ceremony is in a week. Then as soon as that project ended we launched into heavy duty rehearsals for our play, 'A Night of Mystery', which we performed last night and will be performing today. I’m still editing my dad’s book, but I’m a week behind now because of all the time I’ve had to spend on our performance this weekend. On top of all this madness we’re moving this weekend to a new house in town!</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>'Sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself, trying to be involved in so much. Then I realize I couldn’t have it any other way. I need this life, full of adventure and struggle. There’s a sense of achievement and satisfaction that always waits at the end of a huge project. Maybe it’s the light at the end of the tunnel, but then maybe it's just the sun going down after a long day. I cannot even begin to describe the feeling it has given me to complete this painting for the congressional show. I look back at the process and I realize I’ve been strengthened and refined by it in so many ways. I found a way to put my heart and soul into the colors and lines. I hope that if someone stares into my painting they will feel all of the words I try to say, but can’t, all of the emotion that doesn’t fit in common English. I have a new confidence in myself. I CAN do the hard things even when I’m tired. I CAN bring something beautiful into existence even when the pain of the world is pressing on my shoulders.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">"If I didn’t know it before I know it now. I am a person who feels deeply. With deep feelings comes the need for great expression. Obviously I’ve found a lot of solace in painting out the feelings, but I’ve come to regard acting as the air my soul needs to breathe. When I act, I make a connection with the characters I portray; I empathize with their feelings and strive for their goals. In the end I always find that there’s a part of me in that character or maybe that character is part of me. When you act you realize that humans are very multifaceted. We’re all so complex and different, yet so similar. In a way acting makes it easier to see myself as I really am. When I act I look through another person’s eyes; for just a while I see as they see. I gain a perspective from acting that is so different from anything I could conjure otherwise; I need that. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>"Just as February ends to make way for March, this play is coming to its conclusion and a new one is taking center stage. We’re doing 'The Heiress', which is a Broadway classic. I get to play the heroine, and I already know it’s going to be the most challenging part I’ve gotten so far. It’s a drama so emphasis will be on the subtle emotions in the interaction between the characters. This time it’s a teen/adult cast and that will be another first for me since I’ve mainly acted with kids younger than me up to this point. We don’t have a lot of rehearsals between our first read-through and the performance at the end of May, but I think the deadline will help to keep everyone focused. I’m really excited about doing this play for many reasons, but the biggest one is probably that the script allows for such poignant expression. I just can’t wait to dive in.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">"I suppose April will find me just as busy as ever. There are always more art shows, always more long work days, always more blank pages to fill. Maybe if everything was more ordered, if we didn’t try to experience so much, if we didn’t try to love, then it would be perfect, but it wouldn’t be life. Life is beautiful, so amazingly beautiful in a strange, crazy, vibrant way."</span></div>
Peggy Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16054198470975485220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-18316831876606397462014-03-14T13:26:00.003-07:002014-03-14T13:26:45.712-07:00Isabella's Comments as an UnschoolerHere is what Isabella from Hawaii wrote in her educational biography about natural learning:<br />
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<span class="s1"> "It is amazing how much school we do in everyday life. You wouldn't notice if you hadn't been un-schooled, but every time we buy something, sell something, check the time, or do anything as simple as figuring out how many hours are left in the day, we are doing math. Every time we read something, be it a sign, a newspaper, a book, or a poem, and every time we write something, from our name to a novel, we are doing English. Standing in nature, observing wildlife, standing on the beach and watching the tide, feeling the wind in our hair, that's all science. I could take my dog for a walk and that would be PE, I could listen to the old men in my neighborhood talk about the pool hall in 1919 that they cleaned as kids for their first jobs, and that would be history. The point I am trying to make now, and the one my mom and I tried to prove years ago, is that there is a difference between being taught something, and learning something. That difference, no matter how small, was the thing that kept me apart from those with the ability to learn in the classic school setting."</span></div>
Peggy Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16054198470975485220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-56058478008029262602014-02-10T18:01:00.001-08:002014-02-10T18:01:48.353-08:00From Bullying Victim to Unschooling FreedomHere is Josh's story of his educational experiences from Kindergarten as he reflects on the ups and downs of each grade. We don't often get to hear the student's perspective on how traditional school and the people who run it affect the student.<br />
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Josh writes:<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">1/30/2014 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Josh ______<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Longmont, CO USA</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
The first few years of public school were enjoyable for me. Being a
young child, I was very interested with the idea of going to new places,
meeting new people and learning new things. I made friends quickly, had a lot
of fun trying new things, and my teacher absolutely adored me. I had a strong
desire to learn and really enjoyed going to school. Since I am a fairly
optimistic person, I had assumed that the rest of my years spent in school
would be similar. It turned out that I was wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
Middle school proved to be quite a challenging experience. Bullying and
other harassment incidents became a huge problem for me by the time I had
entered 6th grade. Something about me made others feel the need to hurt me in
ways I had previously not thought other kids to be capable of. Following the
advice of school counselors, I tried to ignore it and just focus on my
education. I felt like school was something I had to get through in order to be
successful in life. As time dragged on the bullying became worse, more hurtful,
and more dangerous. During this time I realized that not only are peers capable
of bullying, teachers and staff are too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> I
had started getting into a lot of fights by the time I hit 8th grade. As if the
experience of being in a fight wasn't bad enough, the staff handled it
horribly. I was the one being sent home for 'provoking' the other students. The
ones who were hurting me and hindering my ability to learn were the ones who
never got in trouble for some odd reason. In addition to this, there was a lot
of gang activity going on within the school. Of course, the staff was
completely oblivious to everything that was happening. When I tried to talk
with school counselors about the difficulties I was having, their solution was
to have a meeting with the students involved. The meeting would take place and
kids would promise to stop harassing me.
It sounded good, but their behavior didn’t change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> I
didn't really like any of my teachers during this time. They always seemed out
to get me and tried to place the blame on me. Myself, along with a lot of other
students, were very concerned that these teachers weren't passionate about
teaching at all. Some of them seemed to hate their students. This was further
reinforced by the fact that one of our teachers told us that she was just in it
for the money, and she didn't care if we learned anything or not. After she
told us that, we filed a complaint, but again nothing changed. Trying to learn
and grow in such a negative and hostile environment was definitely a challenge.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
Various incidents occurred over the course of middle school that caused
me to question if a traditional public school education was right for me. The
thing I had once enjoyed had turned me into a rather pessimistic and miserable
person. The three years I spent in middle school wasn’t entirely bad. I did
have the support of a few close friends that helped me through everything. I
suppose that's why I ended up making it through middle school and into high
school. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
Going into high school things started to get slightly better and my
optimism had started to return. It became easier for me to learn as the bullies
started to fade away. There were a few minor altercations, but it was nothing
like what I had experienced back in 8th grade. I enjoyed the majority of my
teachers and classes. I found it easier to make friends. High school brought
along a new sense of freedom that I didn't know could exist in school. We were
allowed a lot of choice in what classes we could take. I really liked selecting
my own schedule too. Within the classes, we had some choices about what
projects we could do. Things were starting to look up and I was hopeful about
being able to complete high school. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> My
promising outlook didn't last very long. After my first semester of high
school, I became very sick. My sleep schedule became very sporadic and I was
sleeping nearly eighteen to nineteen hours every day. I was not able to return
to school because of my sickness. The doctors had diagnosed me with post viral
fatigue, possibly from mononucleosis. I was essentially bed-ridden for almost 6
months. This illness caused me to miss out on my promising high school
experience. Unable to attend school, I lost friends. There were even rumors
going around that I had died. What
happened as a result of getting sick was one of the worst possible things that
could happen to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
The staff at the school caught word of my sickness and they called my
mom and me in for a meeting. They were seriously concerned that I was faking it.
They threatened to take my Mom to court for not making me go to school. They
had thought I was ditching class for several months and treated me like a
criminal. They did not believe that I was unable to attend school, even after
seeing the state that I was in. After the meeting was over, they escorted my
mom out of the building and forced me to attend class. I was unable to make it
through even one class, so I spent the day in the nurse’s office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> I
felt betrayed and confused. They didn't trust me nor did they trust the
countless doctor's reports that we had sent them. It was at this moment that I
realized I simply could not continue to pursue a public education. It was also
the moment I realized that I had actually been hindering my own opportunity to
learn by attending a public school. I wanted to change the course of my
education, but had no idea what direction to head. The public school system had
failed me. I was not a problem kid, but they assumed that I was. Instead of
working with me to figure out a plan for my education that would help me, they
just let me fall through the cracks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> It
was during early summer that my sickness had begun to fade. I started to have a
little more energy and was looking forward to feeling good enough to enjoy my
summer. I was only sleeping 10 to 12 hours a night and felt a little
better. My doctor said that I was
coming out of the worst of it and I would slowly be able to rebuild my strength
in the coming months. During this time my mom received a call from my high
school. They informed her that it was mandatory that I attended summer school.
If I didn’t, then I wasn’t going to pass my freshman year. I didn't really know
what I was going to do at that point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
Unaware of any other options, my mom worked out a plan with the school
to send a teacher over to our house every day. I wasn't particularly fond of
the idea, but it was still better than having to get up and go to a classroom.
It was extremely hard work. I had to essentially do a full semester's worth of
work in less than three months. The good news was that if I managed to pull it
off, I would be able to pass my freshman year and resume my sophomore education
in the fall. Despite the fact that I worked extremely hard on all of my
assignments, they still did not pass me. They had betrayed my trust yet again.
All of my hard work had been for absolutely nothing. I spent three months doing
everything they asked me to do and when I completed what was asked of me, they
told me that it just wasn’t enough and I would have to repeat the semester. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> It
was at that point that my mom and I decided to pull me out of public school. I
cannot express how grateful I am that we made that choice. My mom had heard
about West River Academy through a friend of a friend. She did some research on
the concept of unschooling and we decided it was a good choice. I was then
enrolled in West River Academy from that point on. Knowing that I learned
better in an unstructured environment, I took an instant liking to the concept
of unschooling. I once again was
taking an interest in my education, now that my input was being heard. I loved
being able to choose what I wanted to learn and when. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> It
was as if nearly all of my problems faded away after leaving public school.
Without the pressure of meaningless assignments in memorization, I was blessed
with the time to find out who I was and who I wanted to become. I learned more
in the first six months of unschooling than I had in three years of middle
school. Information-based knowledge is great, but you simply cannot become
intelligent without real life experience. Going out and enjoying life has
proven far more valuable for me than memorizing outdated information from a few
textbooks. Being out in the world experiencing life, rather than being locked
in a classroom is very helpful and important for a person like me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> I
am no longer pessimistic, miserable or weighed down by the atrocities of the
public education system. I am truly myself and I am free. I am allowed to learn
about things that interest me and learn them in my own way. I discovered that I
still love to learn, but am unable to do so in a rigid, outdated and
controlling environment. I now have goals, aspirations and dreams. I have
developed goals that I wouldn't have thought myself to be capable of. I think
that public school made me feel like I was never good enough. Constant judgment
caused me to feel like I couldn't achieve my goals. I felt that since
everything I worked so hard on would be graded, criticized and deemed not good
enough that I developed the attitude of “why even bother doing it at all?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been said that
public school prepares you for life and helps you achieve your goals. My
experience with the public education system has proven the opposite. While I do
agree that it is important to be well educated, I believe that it is also very
important to be able to go about it in my own way. I believe that people should
be allowed to focus on their inherent natural talents and abilities, not forced
to memorize facts about things that hold no interest for them. I am very much a
hands-on learner, and public school didn't allow me the freedom to learn
through exploration. Unschooling has given me everything that I've wanted out
of an education. I look forward to creating my future. I am creative,
optimistic and free, just like I was when I was a little kid.</span></div>
Peggy Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16054198470975485220noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-27718015290459181462013-05-19T18:47:00.000-07:002013-05-19T18:47:20.580-07:00Teen Reports on First Semester of Homeschooling
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">"I’ve highly enjoyed this semester of West River Academy and recommend it for anyone </span>hoping to get away from the drama and biased social conventions of public school and the 4 years of stretched out teachings that most people will never use in the real world. I remember when I was in public school and they tried to scare me with the ideals and expectations of college, but when really they are just feeding you crap. Excuse my unprofessional language but now I know the truth that they are lying. I’m 15 years of age and I’ve <span class="s1">already started furthering my education beyond high school level. Thanks to this program and </span>much support from my mother I’ve jumpstarted my future by at least five years in the making...</div>
<div class="p2">
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"Thanks Peggy for giving me a totally new experience and a different outlook on the educational system and how it works...</div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Sincerely,</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Mathew, Las Vegas, NV USA </span></div>
Peggy Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16054198470975485220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-22510833760396894422013-03-19T18:43:00.000-07:002013-03-19T18:44:05.385-07:00Budding Filmmaker's Self EducationShannon is a 2013 graduate in Santa Monica, California USA who spent his elementary years at a Waldorf school, then did 9th grade in a public school, then chose to self educate through West River Academy. He used internet resources that may be helpful to others. Enjoy his story!<br />
<br />
<div class="p1">
"After ninth grade, I moved to a different city to live with my Dad, who is a film director. It seemed logical to pursue a home-based education, which would allow me to follow my passion of filmmaking with my father. I researched online and found West River Academy, and it is a perfect fit. Now that I don’t have to conform to typical school hours, it allows me to split my time between school and filmmaking. I don’t think there could be a better way to learn about</div>
<div class="p1">
filmmaking than actually working on real films, which is what living with my Dad allows me to do. At public school, each day of the week is tightly scheduled in a pattern that is repeated in exactly the same way every week. Now that I homeschool, every day is completely unique, so there is never a dull or boring moment. Schools that follow traditional schedules take three-month-long breaks in the summer, and due to budget cuts some schools are only open four days a week. Since I actually enjoy teaching things to myself, I don’t take any summer breaks, and instead I manage my time so that my work, study and play are in balance. That allows me to learn more in a year than I ever had before. I research all of my school subjects online. There are so many great ways to teach yourself anything online, whether it’s with Khan Academy,</div>
<div class="p1">
Encyclopedia Britannica, or even YouTube. When I teach things to myself, I can learn things faster and more efficiently. I read hundreds of RSS feeds and thousands of tweets every day. I follow real people that are experts in the subjects I care about, like technology, science and more, and learn from their thoughts and what they link to. There is so much information available online, and there are so many ways to ingest it. I have recently been using a app called</div>
<div class="p1">
ReadQuick, that only shows one word of a book or article at a time. You can control how fast it flashes the words, and as you use it, you are able to read faster and faster. I am up to four hundred and twenty five words per minute, and it saves me a considerable amount of time. I am also learning more things than typical high school subjects, things that are actually practical skills to have in the real world. I work with a small group of coworkers/friends, and I am one of</div>
<div class="p1">
the people in the group who has developed an understanding for the technical details involved in producing feature-length media. Because of that, I am constantly being asked questions on a variety of detailed subjects, which has greatly improved my problem solving skills. Sometimes, I get questions that I can’t answer, so I have also learned to effectively research online and quickly</div>
<div class="p1">
comprehend any knowledge that I need to retain.</div>
<div class="p2">
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<div class="p1">
"I recently watched an inspiring TED Talk by Sugata Mitra, who said “The education system is designed to produce identical clerks to run an empire that does not exist and a manufacturing industry that has gone away.” While trying to figure out how to improve education, Sugata did a test where in a foreign country he placed a computer in a hole in a wall. Kids with no access to education ran up to the computer, and started teaching themselves how to use it. Sugata came back after a few months and they had already taught themselves English, and they were learning about the complexities of DNA. With no help and only a computer, they gave themselves their own education. Sugata is now on a mission to build an online school in the cloud, where the students are also the teachers. One of the most important things I have learned during my</div>
<div class="p1">
homeschooling is that I can start teaching myself almost anything immediately, using the power of the internet. Since I am working on films with hard deadlines, I have also learned the importance of finishing what I start. Missing the delivery date for a film is not an option. I have had to learn how to manage my time efficiently to make sure everything gets finished on time. In the past three years, in addition to learning about the main high school subjects, I have started my career as a filmmaker, and I have developed practical skills that I can use as a adult. Of all of the different schooling methods I have experienced, I believe I have learned the most by teaching things to myself during these past three years."</div>
Peggy Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16054198470975485220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7988016204291599084.post-41281295739293040182013-03-16T22:51:00.000-07:002013-03-16T22:51:20.067-07:00Lifelong Homeschooler Describes Learning ChallengesLauren, from Morrison, Colorado USA writes aboutlearning challenges that she has faced head on and dealt with in a most inspiring way. I hope her educational biography will encourage others who are struggling.<br />
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<span class="s1">March 14, 2013</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Dear Peggy,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">My name is Lauren Smith and I am 18 years old. I have been homeschooled all my life and I am glad that I have had the opportunity of having a unique way of learning that does not involve the same system as regular schools. Mostly, I'm thankful that homeschooling gives me the freedom to learn at my own pace. I don't think I would be doing nearly as well as I am now if it were otherwise.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">In my family, we have a disposition toward what many consider learning disabilities. My father, three of my brothers and I all face challenges concerning information integration, memory, and output; for me it is mostly output. We all have varying degrees of these challenges and they occur in different ways depending on the subject matter. Some things we are perfectly fine with while other things just don't stick easily. With integration, information comes in but our brains don't necessarily have a place to put it, which leads to difficulty with memory; if it's not stored, it's not retained. Output issues involve knowing the information is stored, but not being able to retrieve it and/or communicate it. As you can imagine, this can be very challenging and frustrating at times! </span></div>
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<span class="s1">My education as a whole has involved a great deal of repetition and patience as I am not always able to learn at the pace that I wish. However, I have learned that everyone is unique in every way, including the ways we learn, so it is better to persevere than to despair in the lie that we aren't as good as everyone else. Everyone has different strengths as well as challenges to overcome, and although my brain doesn't fit as well into a traditional educational structure as some, there is nothing wrong with it; everyone's brain is unique. Some people are wonderful at traditional academic subjects while others are wonderful with a more hands-on approach; either way the world needs both to thrive and each is very beautiful in its own way. It has taken me a long time to understand this and every once in a while I forget it, but I always come back to this realization.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">When I was little, I remember school was a fun thing to do. I don't really remember why, but it's most likely because at the time it involved a great deal of art. I have always been fascinated with art, and although I wasn't very good at it when I was younger, in these recent years I have pushed myself to learn more of it. I used a variety of crayons, markers, and paints back then, and whether I was learning my A-B-C's or 1-2-3's it was usually very colorful and more fun than work. This lasted until I started learning how to read. I don't remember the details, but I do remember it was a big struggle. It was then when I first started having difficulties with learning, and suddenly learning wasn't quite so fun anymore. My mother has told me that my brain had a hard time associating letters with sounds, but all I remember is the frustration and tears. After reading finally clicked for my brain, I discovered the joy of the fictional worlds that books contain, and my nose has been in books ever since.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I also have had similar difficulties with math. Adding and subtracting were a fun game, especially when I was able to practice it with M&M's. However, once multiplication and division were added to the mix the numbers would not compute. I have had difficulty with math ever since because it has involved a great deal of almost never-ending frustration, hammering away at a subject that has at times seemed nearly impossible. Along the way I would find hope and encouragement as my brain would finally get it and it all fell into place, then I would move onto the next part and start the process all over again. These days I do fairly well with my Algebra 2, getting mostly A's and B's while I now tackle Geometry. The biggest lesson I have learned from math is to choose a positive attitude in discouraging times. I may not be able to choose all of my challenges, but I can choose my frame of mind while overcoming them.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Thankfully, not everything has been as difficult as reading and math!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Once I became a little older we started focusing on science and hands on activities. I loved learning about plants, insects, and the little creatures that the ecosystem needs in order to thrive. It was fascinating to plant beans and corn as well as other plants and watch their sprouts grow bigger each day. Once they got big enough we moved them from their little peat pellets to the garden and eventually ate the delicious food that they produced. One of my favorite places to go was to the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve. Sometimes in the spring we would get up early and spend the whole day out there looking at all the different plants, bugs, and occasional wildlife. If there is anything that instills more wonder and beauty in my eyes than art, it's nature and life itself.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Another thing I enjoy doing is art. Growing up we always had water color paint, markers, crayons and colored pencils lying around. Every now and then, my siblings and I would sit down together and attempt to paint things that we liked, or something from outside, or whatever we could think of. Although I loved art when I was little, I wasn't necessarily good at it. It wasn't until about four years ago that I decided to apply myself, learning how to draw and learning digital coloring with a photo manipulation program called GIMP. I have come a long way since then, and although I haven't found the time to do much digital coloring this past year, my drawings have greatly improved and I am also looking to explore different kinds of traditional artwork besides pencils.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I am currently working on completing the courses I need to graduate. I have to admit that I do not enjoy subjects such as English, Civics, and Geometry as much as I enjoy History and elective courses such as International Cooking and Art; in other words, my favorite courses have subject matter I can experience while learning. My most favorite subject in my education has to be PE. I have found that physical activity, whether shooting, Tae Kwon Do or riding horses, tends to come more easily to me than bookwork.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I started riding horses five years ago, cleaning out barns and working on general tasks around the stable. After a year or of that, I enrolled in a precision mounted western drill team youth organization called Westernaires. Horses have taught me so much and helped make me into the person I am today. While riding horses, riders need to learn to stand up for themselves otherwise horses won't listen. I learned how to be firm and yet kind, to be calm even in the face of danger, to have confidence in myself, and to trust my equine and human partners. Drill riding also has taught me a great deal. While riding in teams in Westernaires, sometimes riding with fifty or more girls on a team, I have learned to speak up, to pay attention to detail, to have spatial awareness, how to work as a team, how to better myself in order to reach a goal, how to be a leader, and so much more! Horses have given me so much experience in life, and have helped me to grow so much more than I would have ever hoped. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">In thinking of what to do for my future I thought about getting a job and going to college as well as moving out. I realized that in order to do those things I would likely have to take out a loan in order to pay for it all and I don't want to have to worry about working off a debt. So, I expanded my career options to the military because of the many benefits it offers such as traveling, having a well paying job, a place to stay, food, education, insurance, and financial aid to complete a degree if I so wish. On top of all that, I am able to serve my country.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">In looking at possible military options there was a great deal to consider. I’m not interested in combat, so I decided that the Army or the Marine Corps probably weren't the best fit for me. I was more focusing on either the Navy or the Air Force because they offer the opportunity to travel, which is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Ships and the vast open waters of the ocean are wonderful; however, that's not really my interest. The Air Force seems to be a better fit. That branch of the military involves incredible airplanes and interesting intelligence jobs, hopefully out of harm's way, with the opportunity to travel so I decided to choose the Air Force. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">After I graduate high school, I will begin preparing for the ASVAB test. To prepare for it I'll be filling in gaps of knowledge in: electronics, such as the basics of electricity, electric circuits, and electric devices and systems; auto information, such as automobile components and systems; shop, and general mechanics. My goal is to achieve an ASVAB score in the high 90’s like my brothers, for two reasons: it offers more job opportunities and, honestly, I really want to beat my brothers’ scores.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I know that when I join the military I’m not guaranteed the career that interests me the most, however I can put myself in a position to better my chances at obtaining the job I would most like to do by learning a language that they would likely end up teaching me if I did get the job. For instance, I would like to be an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist. According to the airforce.com website, an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist's primary job is to receive, record, translate, evaluate and report on foreign communications and intelligence using a variety of locations, both foreign and domestic</span><span class="s2">. </span><span class="s1">To help me achieve my goal I am studying the Persian language, also known as Farsi. I am learning Farsi now so I can have a head start in case I start having difficulties with it. So far, the speaking and listening have been sticking quite well. The reading and writing is harder to remember because of the Arabic alphabet, but I am also making progress in that. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">As of this moment, I am not certain of what I will be doing after I complete my service in the Air Force, but I plan on using the life and educational experiences that I learn to help guide me to find something that I will greatly enjoy doing.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">My education to this date has taught me many lessons, mostly about myself. I have learned that being unique is something to be celebrated, not discouraged. I have learned that with perseverance and a positive attitude I can overcome most challenges that come my way. I have learned to be patient with myself and most of all, not all lessons are in the classroom. Life itself is an education if I choose it to be, and I choose never to stop learning and never to stop growing. I am grateful for the education I have had thus far and look forward to continuing it in the future.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Sincerely,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Lauren</span></div>
Peggy Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16054198470975485220noreply@blogger.com0