Archive for May, 2009

Big rise in home-schooling

Thursday, May 28th, 2009
“Published Date: 28 May 2009

MORE Sheffield children are being taken out of school and taught at home than ever before – with numbers having tripled over the last 12 years.
Over 170 youngsters in 118 families are currently being home educated in the city, compared with just 50 in 1996, according to a report to councillors. The actual figure may be higher, as parents have no legal obligation to tell the local authority t hey have taken their children out of conventional schooling….”
To view the complete article visit:
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Big-rise-in-homeschooling.5307812.jp

Posted in England | No Comments »

Community colleges expand options for home-schoolers

Monday, May 25th, 2009

 ”By Karin Kapsidelis

Published: May 25, 2009Like his brother and sister before him, Nathaniel Frost has been sort of home-schooled. But not exactly.

“I actually world-school my kids,” said his mother, Mindy Frost.

Nathaniel left the traditional classroom in the fourth grade, when his elementary school balked at giving him six weeks off to travel to Nepal with his parents.

Now 14, he has just finished his first year at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. His older sister and brother spent two years there after they left Chickahominy Middle School when they were in the seventh and eighth grades.

They left because “one day I just decided I wanted to offer them more opportunities,” their mother said of Natalia, now 21, and Trevor, 23.

“I actually un-schooled them for about a year. I just sort of let them find their own niches.”….”

For the complete text please visit: http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/education/article/SARG25_20090524-220625/269782/

Posted in Unschooling, Virginia, college | No Comments »

Policy revisions could hurt home-schoolers, Proposed changes could make it impossible for them to graduate

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

“A proposed policy revision in the Indian Prairie school district would require many home school students to repeat years of school to graduate with an Indian Prairie diploma.

In Monday’s school board meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Nancy Valenta and School Improvement and Planning Director Mike Popp presented a policy revision that would require home school and private school students in District 204 to present proof that the school they transfer from is accredited before they can apply transferred credits to graduate from the district.

The revision, which would affect section 702.05 of the policy manual, would cut the first two sentences of the current policy, which state the district will accept credits awarded by home or private school. Credits currently transfer as pass-fail unless they have been accredited by an external agency.

A new sentence would be introduced which reads: “Credits and grades awarded by home school will not be reflected on the high school transcript unless the grades are certified by a district-approved external accrediting agency.”

Losing credits

The policy would effectively prevent home-schoolers from graduating in the district, said Chris Klicka, senior counsel at the Home School Legal Defense Association, a nonprofit home school advocacy organization. Many home-schoolers choose to teach at home because they oppose the accreditation process, and accreditation is also an added difficulty for the parent….”

For the complete text please visit: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1586094,D204-Rule-changes-home-schoolers_na052109.article

Posted in Board of Education, Graduation, Illinois | No Comments »

Home-Schoolers Sweep Spelling Bees

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

“They’re difficult to pronounce and all but impossible to spell. But good luck convincing 12-year-old Timothy Webb of that.

“I had it right away,” he said.

The Newbury home-schooled student won the 2009 Vermont spelling bee and is now headed to the national competition. He spends about two hours a day studying, memorizing up to 50 new words at a time. He even dreams about vocabulary.

“You think of words and act out scenes with those words. It’s very weird. I’m losing it,” he says.

Mom MaryBeth says, “He loves spelling and my husband and I have no idea how he’s so good. He sees it once and he remembers it.”….”

For the complete article visit: http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=10398763

Posted in Vermont | No Comments »

HOME-SCHOOLING: Choice sought in driver training

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

“By Michael Smith | Sunday, May 17, 2009

Although home-schoolers have won their freedom to teach their children at home in every state, one issue continues to be a problem. It’s whether parents should be allowed to teach their children how to drive.

Despite the freedom to teach every other subject at home, parents in most states are forbidden to teach classroom driver’s education. (Maryland does not allow parents to teach the classroom portion of driver’s education, but Virginia does. The District has no classroom requirement.) …

In October 2000, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs conducted a research project on the effectiveness of parent-taught driver’s training. In comparing teens who had completed a National Driver Training Institute parent-taught driver’s education program with National Insurance Co. statistics for teen drivers, the study found the parent-taught teens had fewer speeding tickets, fewer accidents, fewer tickets for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and fewer traffic fatalities. …”

For the complete article please visit: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/17/home-schooling-choice-sought-driver-training/

Posted in Driver's Education, National News, Washington DC | No Comments »

A class apart at home

Monday, May 11th, 2009

“Although growth is not as spectacular as in the United States or Britain, the number of Swiss parents educating their children at home is rising.

Mounting discontent with the state system, bad influences at school, poor moral and religious instruction and the cost of private schools are some of the main reasons inspiring more parents to choose home schooling.

In the US the number of families who educate at home has tripled from 850,000 in 1999 to over 2 million. In Britain it is estimated that about 50,000 children are presently schooled at home, but the number is increasing fast.

Growth in Switzerland is much more modest, but it is now thought that close to 1,000 children are being taught at home. …”

For the complete article please visit: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/A_class_apart_at_home.html?siteSect=105&sid=10669139&rss=true&ty=st

Posted in Switzerland | No Comments »

Serving up aces

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

 

“Alex Byington
The Daily Times		  

Published May 7, 2009

Home-schooled his entire life, Jordan Rux really only had one love — tennis.

Routinely competing in tennis tournaments for most of the last 14 years, going to school was never really practical for someone who’s schedule centered around where the next competition was being held.

“I was home-schooled so I could play tennis,” Rux explained in a phone interview this week. “I was traveling six months out of the year, so I was home-schooled out of necessity more than anything.”

A native of Kerrville, the home schooling apparently paid off as he’s now returning serves and drilling aces for the No. 6-seeded Baylor men’s tennis team, which will travel to Tulsa, Okla., this weekend for the first two rounds of the NCAA Team Tennis Championships….”

For the complete article visit: http://dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=57de574a358fe427

Posted in Texas, athletics | No Comments »

Home-schoolers perform play

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

“By Moriah Bemke
For the Stevens Point Journal

What started as a group of home-schooled kids might very well become an ongoing drama club, after the presentation of the two-hour drama they have been working on since the beginning of the school semester.

Elementary, middle-school and high-school students all worked together for nearly four months making backdrops, costumes and memorizing lines to finally accomplish this performance April 23.

The drama, which took place at Community Church, was a spin-off from the book “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” This is the fifth book in the series “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Students from fourth to 10th grade received character roles…”

For the complete text please visit: http://www.wisinfo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009905070339

Posted in Extra Curricular Activities, Wisconsin | No Comments »

Home-schoolers learning finances from parents

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

By KEN de la BASTIDE
Tribune staff writer
Parents make a financial decision when they elect to home-school their children. But the loss of a second income provides the opportunity to teach how to live on a budget.

Two Howard County families involve their children in fiscal decisions. They encourage budgeting and saving as teaching tools.

“The philosophy of home school is it’s our responsibility to teach our children,” Lisa Kilmer said. “[Children] are exposed to all our daily lifestyle decisions.”…”

For the complete text please visit:  http://www.kokomotribune.com/local/local_story_124235718.html

Posted in Curriculum, Indiana | No Comments »

Opting out: Why one parent chose to educate her children at home

Friday, May 1st, 2009

“by Ruhubia Akbor
April 15, 2009
SIX-YEAR-OLD Ismail Iftikhar doesn’t go to school – he’s not playing truant or been excluded, in fact, he’s a good boy who is literally at the top of his class.

For Ismail is being home-educated, and each day at 11am he settles down with his books and is led through his studies by his mum, Sahida Bano.

The 31-year-old, from Clarksfield, took the move to take her child out of mainstream education at Beal Vale Primary, Shaw, two years ago.

She is not on her own, as there are now 55 children across the borough who are being educated at home. They are all from different backgrounds, but their parents share the same belief – that they can do it better….”

For the complete article please visit:  http://www.oldhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/1108603_opting_out_why_one_parent_chose_to_educate_her_children_at_home

Posted in England, Support | No Comments »