We’re on Spring Break this coming week. For me, that means getting caught up on work around the house, doing some things with my family, and not blogging.
Instead, I’m pre-posting excerpts (for this Monday through Friday) from five books that have had a major effect on me, in order to share them with you. I’ll be back posting “live” the week of April 6.
In the meantime, if you’re a homeschooling parent looking for lots of homeschool articles, you’ll find plenty at my site.
I wonder if the average citizen really understands just how cost-efficient homeschooling is?
Back when I was homeschooling all four of my kids, the most I ever spent in a year for “school” was probably $1500, and that was when my two older kids took high school by correspondence.
That was a while back, but I have a hard time imagining someone today even spending $1000 per child to homeschool them. The thing is, educating a child costs far more in time than in resources, and we moms don’t invoice for that time.
As for resources, a Bible, a public library and some good museums are really all you need. The rest is gravy.
And there’s plenty of gravy in the public schools. Get a load of this, from today’s Wall Street Journal:
The state now spends roughly $13,000 per public-school student in Chicago, but the money has done little to reverse a dismal high school graduation rate of 51%.
Holy cow! For $13K annually per child, most homeschool parents could homeschool their children through graduation, and pay off the mortgage early with the money left over.
Ok, so March is halfway over, I know. But better late than never, as they say: the March issue of “The Imperfect Homeschooler” newsletter is now available.
Want it hot off the press each month? Just sign up here. 🙂
Renae at Life Nurturing Education is hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling this week, which is based on the theme of Top Ten School Supplies. She has an nice variety of posts, too.
Elementary School Children with Heads Down on Desk During Rest Period in Classroom
I don’t get it. If something doesn’t work, why would you want more of it?
President Obama recently spoke about his goals for public schools*. He acknowledges that American students have fallen behind young people in much of the rest of the world, but his solutions include longer school days and a longer school year. He said this even though he also admitted that his mother had to augment his own education by making him get up to study at 4:30 a.m.
I’d go on about this but someone else has already done a fine job of it. Check out Judy Aron’s take comparing President Obama’s speech to hearing a real expert speak about what’s wrong with public education: your friend and mine, former public school teacher and homeschool advocate John Taylor Gatto.
* where he chose not to send his own children