Chad Said:

Home Education Help, Convincing Parents.?

We Answered:

You don't say how old you are; I assume upper school or high school. You're asking for resources you can show your mom to convince her home ed or some other option is preferable. This is like convincing someone that blue is the best color. What is right for one person isn't right for another, but there are some generalizations that usually hold.

First, a short economics lesson. People typically are willing to pay for goods and services based on their value. In other words, private education can be very expensive. In general terms, 'you get what you pay for'. If people got the same quality education from public schools, private schools wouldn't exist. You can compare public/private/home ed by comparing acceptance rates at colleges, SAT scores, future earnings potentials, etc., but there are far too many variables to use those results to say one is better than another. What you can do is look at what you value in education and see how your choices fit your needs. Most parents would choose small class size; academic rigor and depth and breath of study as important criteria; typically this is what is offered by independent (or private) schools. People are willing to spend $20K or $40K or more per child for this advantage. If it weren't worth it, people wouldn't pay for it.

You mention three career paths you're interested in. They are extremely varied. It's difficult to decide without introduction to many options. You will get these opportunities in high school and college. Being with other people, in a formal educational environment will force these exposures on you (a good thing!)

You say you want to be a forensic anthropologist, an accountant or a 'just a writer'. Besides being varied, they are mostly rigorous academic programs. The college program will be demanding, you will have long days and you will have tons of work. Private school students are typically the best prepared to make the adjustment from high school to college. Often the first two years are easy for them, while others struggle with the increased work load, the stress and the expectations.

I suspect the root of your unhappiness is apparent in four words, buried in the middle of your 10 paragraphs: "And not having friends." There is no reason that you shouldn't have friends in boarding school. In fact, boarding school promotes close relationships because you live, study, and socialize with the same group of people. Is it difficult for you to find others you identify with and have a rapport with? Do you have other good friends, besides the best friend you mentioned? If this is difficult for you, I can see why you want to return to your familiar situation and be close to your friend. But, you should never make a decision based on one other friend (they can move away, find other friends, or you may in time not feel so close to them). You need to form other friendships at school. You might go to the counseling office and tell them you feel socially isolated.

Best of luck to you.

Katherine Said:

I am writing an home education plan for 14 year old, i need help in writing one and writing education goals?

We Answered:

When I homeschooled my son, more than any other subject, I wanted to teach him a love of learning and give him an interest in discovering new things on his own. If you can accomplish this then it will be of more help to your 14 year old than any specific skill you could teach him. I suggest that in the beginning of your homeschooling adventure you base your learning plan completely on his interests. People of any age are more motivated to learn about things that interest them. For example... if what he likes is video games then start him reading and researching cheat codes on his favorite games. This doesn't sound like work but it will improve his reading and his internet research skills. You can take it farther by having him put together a paper telling you why this is the best game out there or whatever topic you choose. While he is enjoying the subject material he is also improving his writing and even possibly his critical thinking skills. Simple math skills can be taught using ordinary household chores. Baking a batch of cookies and other recipies can be used to teach fractions and measurements. Helping with household finances by writing checks, researching how much it would cost for an 18 year old to live in their own apartment and helping clip coupons and shop within the family food budget are all things I used as life skills and math lessons for my homeschooled son. I would suggest you look for various ways such as these to 'unschool' your 14 year old and only use a prepared cirruculum as a reference guide for yourself. Good luck and enjoy yourself! Homeschooling can be a lot of fun.

Esther Said:

Home Education: How can I convince my Mum?

We Answered:

I don't necessarily know how you would convince your mother to get behind you on the idea of being home schooled, aside from telling her the fact that a home education is just as good as any other ( sometimes even better depending on the area's schools one is avoiding ) and informing her that it doesn't require that much more than the child's cooperation and attention to their school work.

Yes, you can find pre made lesson plans or school curriculums. These can be found on online websites that support home educations and package a grade year's school books. I'lll show you some websites, but I wouldn't know if they would do you any use because I have the feeling you don't live in the states as I do. The only advise I could give you is to do an online search of homeschooling and homeschooling curriculums on your computer and it would find sites relating to such topic and within your country. Many home schooling websites understand the concept that you are new to a home education and have created stores that offer to send pre made lesson plans for a specific year grade.

The success of home schooling typically relies on that individual being schooled. Do they take their studies seriously? Will they work hard? Are they going to do well in their independent studies? Also, home educations usually are very independent; the student reads the day's lesson plan and begins, the school day is done when the day's work is completed. This type of independent education is similar to what one does in a college education, so it is a prefect preparation for higher independent school experience. But the question is--- who will grade your work? ( and it can't be you ;D )

Signing up for Education Otherwise. Wikipedia tells me that. . . .yeah, that is a good idea. I don't really know the laws that would go for your country, here they change from state to state, so take a look at them and see what your next move for your lesson plans would be.
http://www.education-otherwise.org/legal… I say this because some places force all children in the area to use the public school's lesson plans and take standardized tests yearly.

I believe you when you say that you aren't just interested in a home education so you could skip out of going to school. The work and the effort that goes into making home schooling work is worth way more than doing it to sleep on the job. If one thought that home schooling would be a breeze than they would be in a surprise when they began the school year. Also, I know what it is like to want a great education and everyone around just seems to want to throw paper balls and make jokes.

For Homeschooling Curriculum
http://www.homeschool.com/
http://www.homeschoolsupercenter.com/new…
http://sonlightcurriculum.com/
http://amblesideonline.org/

You can email me if you are curious to anything else or have a more direct question you want answered. ;D
---Hope this helps.

Pamela Said:

Home schooling resources online or in Louisiana?

We Answered:

Hey don't pick on my High school too bad! LOL! I graduated in La as well and found the same thing. I wouldn't send my kids to a private school in this state either (and I am Christian)! Home School here is so easy. If you want I can e-mail you a copy of the letter we use to HS under option 2 (private school). If you haven't done so yet look at the laws at HSLDA www.hslda.org

For Curriculum we use Sonlight but it is Christian. If you wanted to you could skip the Bible lessons. A few people here use K12 and from my understanding it can be secular. You have to search to find what you are looking for. Also try to find a curriculum fair. You might find something there that appeals to your family.

I don't know where you are but in St Tammany they have an awesome Home school group that offers a Co-Op. If you are in Tangipohoa, or Washington it's the only group in the parishes.

Feel free to email me with any questions! Good Luck!

Shelly Said:

Should the west learn from Japan and send all immigrants home?

We Answered:

Listen to Laura R. because she is right. I have been living in Japan for over 20 years now and have a Permanent Residence Visa. This does not entitle me to vote here or get a retirement pension, but that soesn't bother me. In other respects, I have the same rights as a Japanese National. I wouldn't change my nationality to Japaneses, although many foreigners do.
In my city, there are 5000 legal Brazilians, followed by Peruvians, Chinese, Koreans. In the lower percentages there are the Australians, Americans and British. Then there is a small class categorised as "others" which include Russians and Indonesians etc.
Then there some people who are here illegally; those are the ones the Japanese Immigration Office worries about and deports them if they catch them.
It is hardly worth the effort, as getting a legal visa is easy enough.
Most people agree that Japan is a better place all round due to the influence of people from other cultures (this includes the majority of Japanese who are very hospitable and kind.)
There has been a rise in the crime rate; especially petty crime, but nothing is perfect and most serious crimes such as murder are committed by Japanese themselves.
I think you must be referring to the Filippina "hostesses" whose visas were not renewed. The move was to target the pimps and the terrible conditions they kept these girls in, rater than to deport the girls for being aliens. It does seem a bit discriminatory as the streets of Tokyo are filled with Eastern European prostitutes and African pimps, but it was really the organized crime that was being hit and all the pimps were Japanese mafia.
I am sorry that the immigrants in Britain are behaving so rudely. But Britain had its problems when I was living there and most of them were caused by British vandals and hooligans and rapists and killers ... not a very good example for immigrants.
So now it seems there is a lot more violence and trouble and easier to pin the blame on minorities rather than clean up your own backyard.

Wallace Said:

How do you choose the best home-school program?

We Answered:

The first thing you need to do is figure out what your kids' learning styles are. For example, you might have a visual-tactile learner, who needs lots of hands-on work. The other child might be an auditory learner who needs to hear the information.
You do not need to buy a packaged curriculum for your kids, although many people do. The advantage of such curriculums is that they do the work for you - in a sense. Everything you need - if you like the curriculum - arrives in boxes at your home. The disadvantages are that they are expensive and might night fit your child's learning sytle or the subject matter you wish your child to learn. Here is a site with many reviews of such materials: http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/

Socialization is easy. There is a big, wide, wonderful world out there. If you let your children find their own interests, you will be able to provide many, many opportunities for socialization. Clubs, teams, volunteer work, and homeschool park days (google your town and the words "park day) to find the one closest to you. Your kids can also keep any friends they have from school. It's not an either/or situation.

For PE, you again follow your kids interests - soccer, martial arts, other team sports, swimming, bike riding, ballet, hiking, etc, are all wonderful ways to stay physically fit. For example, my child does martial arts, horseback riding, and plays a mean game of soccer on park day.

Art - museums, concerts, videos and my favorite - the library.

Remember - this is real life, not the artificial "life" offered by schools. Anything is possible.
Enjoy!

Benjamin Said:

where did your links to education resources go? It used to be on the home page,. Likewise, the regional searc

We Answered:

who knows.