Black Home Educators Embrace Their Cultural Heritage

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Barbara Frank

I was delighted to see this pro-homeschooling article in my hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune.

The article describes the increase in homeschooling among black families. Thanks to homeschooling, not only do these children escape the public school experience, but their parents can tailor their education to include their African-American heritage.

Many people homeschool their children for religious reasons. But we don’t often talk about homeschooling in terms of being able to emphasize our cultural heritage. Parents who take the time to teach their children about their cultural heritage give them something that they’ll always appreciate and cherish. I’m so glad that more and more Americans of all races and cultural backgrounds are giving their children this gift by homeschooling them!

Doing School with Dad

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Barbara Frank

For the last year or so, my husband has taken on the responsibility for homeschooling our son once a week. What a blessing that is! Since we do school in the mornings and I work in the afternoons, having that free morning is wonderful for running errands, doing chores or just playing catch-up around here.

But I’m not the only one who benefits. Josh loves doing school with his dad. They work on fun art projects while playing Tom Chapin cd’s. My husband is artistic and patient, so he’s very good at teaching Josh. They’re used to working with each other in the workshop, so they’ve already established a pattern of doing projects together. (I’m sure the fact that they’re creating things, instead of working on math or reading, only adds to Josh’s enjoyment.

Their most recent project was a nativity scene (figures and stable) that my husband found online. It’s now sitting in our dining room, awaiting the arrival of the rest of our family this weekend.

Having homeschooled my kids since the mid-1980s, I’m starting to want to do other things. My husband taking on homeschooling one day a week has made it easier for me to keep doing the other four days. 🙂

The High School Learning Experience: How Do Homeschoolers Compare?

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Barbara Frank

So, homeschooling parent, think your teens are learning as much at home as they would learn in high school?

We know from our own childhood experience that the school day is full of interruptions and inconsistencies. Whenever you put 30 kids in a room, you create an environment that’s not exactly conducive to concentration.

But something’s changed since we were young, something that makes it even harder to learn: cell phones. Where I live, the high schools banned cell phones until 2007, when they allowed students to carry them as long as they were turned off and put away during class.

Guess what? It was too hard to enforce that rule, so now kids text throughout class. Teachers are worried that students could be texting test answers to each other. Perhaps, but at the very least, I think we can assume they aren’t paying attention to the teacher if they’re busy texting:

“Cell phone use continues to grow. Texting is more common, and many students are adept at sending silent text messages from their pockets. They don’t even look at the keypad.”

One teacher said, “Every kid has one, and they’re used covertly, regularly.”

I understand that today’s kids are good at multitasking, but I doubt that they can absorb much information while they’re busy corresponding with other people via texting.

Homeschooling parents needn’t worry whether their kids are learning as much as their publicly schooled friends. I’d say they’re way ahead of them if their home life affords them regular uninterrupted periods of time for reading, writing and doing math. Seriously, if kids can text during class, public high school has become a joke.

Your Kids’ College Competition Can’t Write

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Barbara Frank

Do you worry that your kids aren’t good enough writers? Are you concerned that by the time they get to college, they won’t have the skills to write papers that will help them pass their courses? If so, don’t worry.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t teach your kids to write well. It’s an important skill to have. But maybe you shouldn’t worry so much, because according to this writer, the competition isn’t too tough. In fact, he says that unless they have a lot of money to pay term paper writers, the competition can barely put a sentence together.

This man writes term papers for a living. College students buy them from him and claim them as their own. He says it’s big business, and that many, many students pass their college classes this way. How depressing is that?

By the way, he claims that college students in one specific course of study provide him with more work opportunities than any other:

I, who have no name, no opinions, and no style, have written so many papers at this point, including legal briefs, military-strategy assessments, poems, lab reports, and, yes, even papers on academic integrity, that it’s hard to determine which course of study is most infested with cheating. But I’d say education is the worst. I’ve written papers for students in elementary-education programs, special-education majors, and ESL-training courses. I’ve written lesson plans for aspiring high-school teachers, and I’ve synthesized reports from notes that customers have taken during classroom observations. I’ve written essays for those studying to become school administrators, and I’ve completed theses for those on course to become principals. In the enormous conspiracy that is student cheating, the frontline intelligence community is infiltrated by double agents. (Future educators of America, I know who you are.)

Remember that the next time you hear someone say that only parents with teaching degrees should be allowed to homeschool…..

A Thought-Provoking Project for Parents and Teens

Posted on November 19, 2010 by Barbara Frank

Most of us don’t understand the extent of our government’s indebtedness, but we do know that we’re saddling our kids and grandchildren with a ton of debt. No one’s happy about that, but what can we do?

Here’s an interesting interactive graphic that will help you and your teen get a handle on exactly what can be done to pay it off. It’ll get you both talking about where cuts should be made and/or taxes should be increased. Each decision you make reduces the debt….but also has repercussions.

Try it and see what I mean. I actually got the whole thing paid off fairly quickly. But I have a feeling some of my decisions wouldn’t be very politically popular. Oh, well, I’m not running for office. But I’d vote for anyone who would make the same cuts I did 🙂

P.S. The time your teen spends on this should count towards a civics or government unit.