Early bird Registration for UWG

Early bird registration for the Unschoolers Waterpark Gathering 2014 is only $35 per family until December 31st! We're confirming more speakers and will have that information for you soon! We also have some new teen activities planned including a Sunday night pizza party, Mad Hatter Tea Party, an Interest Fair and a special Teen Fine Arts Show. Plus our usual fun evening events like Henna fun night, movie night, family dance and talent show. And our days are packed with speakers and funshops. You can get more information about registration, events, speakers and funshops on our website.http://www.unschoolerswaterparkgathering.com/

The event will be held May 19 - 22nd in Ohio. 

When Less Is More: The Case For Teaching LESS Math in School

Author Peter Grey has written yet another wonderful article I highly recommend you take the time to read.

In 1929, the superintendent of schools in Ithaca, New York, sent out a challenge to his colleagues in other cities. "What," he asked, "can we drop from the elementary school curriculum?" He complained that over the years new subjects were continuously being added and nothing was being subtracted, with the result that the school day was packed with too many subjects and there was little time to reflect seriously on anything. This was back in the days when people believed that children shouldn't have to spend all of their time at school work--that they needed some time to play, to do chores at home, and to be with their families--so there was reason back then to believe that whenever something new is added to the curriculum something else should be dropped.

John Holt on TV Footage!

This is a wonderful "flash back" to 1981 and the growing pains of the early modern homeschooling movement, not to mention founding father John Holt.  This is not some 4 minute sound bite but is a complete TV show, including vintage TV commercials, so plan accordingly.

Enjoy!

John Holt on Phil Donahue Show

Cyber schools flunk, but tax money keeps flowing

By STEPHANIE SIMON | 9/25/13 11:14 PM EDT Updated: 9/26/13 12:44 PM EDT

Taxpayers send nearly $2 billion a year to cyber schools that let students from kindergarten through 12th grade receive a free public education entirely online.

The schools, many managed by for-profit companies, are great at driving up enrollment with catchy advertising. They excel at lobbying. They have a knack for making generous campaign donations.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/cyber-schools-flunk-but-tax-money-keeps-flowing-97375.html#ixzz2gW6BtpH8

Reminder: This expo is this coming weekend!

Will I see you there???

Free Homeschool Student ID cards through the end of September!

From the Alpha Card website:

AlphaCard believes that every student should have a real student ID card, but homeschooled students don’t usually have access to them. We've decided to do something about it by offering homeschooled students FREE professionally printed photo ID cards through the end of September.

There won't be any shipping fees or attempts to sell you anything. As part of our AlphaCard Cares initiative, this is truly a free program with no strings attached that reflects our commitment to giving back to communities in need.

• Free professionally printed Photo ID Card
• Shipping & Handling included--no strings attached
• Offer valid through 09/30/13 (or while supplies last)
• This program is restricted to the U.S. only.

Click HERE to visit the AlphaCard website.

Catch a Spark!

  

http://app.nationalproduction.wgbh.org/e/es.aspx?s=2531&e=91424&elq=c0c29ac3574b42bf974476a13c07bb80

Do you have anyone in your family who has trouble learning from a book but learns well from documentaries and audiobooks? Me too! Textbooks aren't a good fit for many. I strongly encourage you to learn the way you learn best - and encourage others to do the same. 

A favorite resource of mine was, and still is, the SPARK newsletter. If you are always on the lookout for good quality math, science, and history resources than you should certainly click here to subscribe to this wonderful free newsletter.    

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/newsletters.html

Illinois Lowers Compulsory Attendance to 6 Beginning in Fall of 2014

No surprise, but Governor Quinn did sign the bill lowering the compulsory attendance age to 6 beginning next Fall. 

Here is one article with details.

While this doesn't have a direct impact on Illinois homeschoolers (under most circumstances), it does, of course, have an indirect impact on all of us. 

How will the Common Core State Standards Affect Homeschoolers?

This past Wednesday I attended a debate about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) hosted by Congressman Randy Hultgren. I sincerely applaud his efforts.

The debate took the form of two people "for" the CCSS, two "against", and a moderator. There wasn't much of a difference between the two camps though. The moderator was with the Heartland Institute < http://heartland.org/common-core >  and only one member of the panel really had a real "pro" CCSS position. 

Here is the primary argument for: It is a lot better than what we had. 

This is certainly true. These standards are a lot better. The standards Illinois had before were confusing and were written in such a way that any child at almost any level would meet those standards. 

These facts are also in support: 

A) The CCSS are designed to be minimum standards. Bare minimum. It is always hoped that students will far exceed the minimums required of them.

B) The CCSS are supposed to be 85% of a classroom's curriculum. The other 15% is up to the school and teacher. 

C) There are a lot of skills not mentioned in the CCSS - so they can be and should be included in the discretionary 15%. Saying "it isn't in the CCSS" is not an excuse to not teach it.

D) There are no provisions for special needs students. All students are expected to meet the minimum standards. This said, clearly not all of them will and, likewise, many students will exceed these minimum standards. It is up to the schools to deal with special needs students on an individual basis.

E) There is no national curriculum. There are many thousands of curriculum providers labeling their materials as CCSS compliant. It is up to the school to decide if the material is appropriate for their use. 

The arguments against can be broken down into three categories:

1) those about the history of American education, 

Many of us believe that education should be locally controlled. Many of us know that education isn't specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution so should be controlled locally (remember the 10th amendment?) and many of us are still a bit peeved with President Jimmy Carter for forming the Dept. of Education and on and on with abuse of power.... none of these issues make the CCSS themselves bad. It simply means folks are frustrated that they are being shoved down our schools throats. 

http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/tag/education-without-representation/

2) those about the PARCC testing associated with them, and finally, 

Many people are very upset with the standardized testing required under CCSS. The tests cost about $29 per time and per student, take place three times each year and are computerized (so require schools to have a computer for each test taker). (So, the cost of all the new computers plus the $90 per student are an unfunded mandate.)  If you got frustrated over the current two weeks of testing a year - you ain't seen nothin' yet. The samples of the tests though have shown all kids of issues including poor formatting, difficulty inputting math answers and psychological assessment questions that will apparently be added to the Gates Foundation "birth to death" tracking system under development. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/03/student-database-gates-foundation_n_2800684.html   Again though, while this is a huge issue...  none of these issues make the CCSS themselves bad. 

3) those about the  CCSS's themselves. 

Finally we get to the CCSS themselves. The primary complaint had to do with teachers not teaching something because it wasn't listed in the CCSS (see C above) and that there is no incentive for a teacher to teach something that isn't going to be on the PARCC test. This implies that schools will only ever strive to meet the bare minimum.

The main complaint then is that the bare minimum included in the CCSS is far too low a standard. 

So how might this actually affect homeschoolers? In a nutshell, it only affects you as much as you want it to.

 

You can choose a curriculum that is CCSS compliant. Many of those that are aligned to the CCSS are designed to meet or exceed the CCSS. This doesn't make them bad or good. 

There are also many non-compliant materials still available and some curriculum providers have two versions available so if you want non-compliant you should always ask. Obviously too, if you choose to unschool orcreate unit studies & lapbooks  they clearly don't have to be compliant. It remains your choice. 

In Illinois you have no required testing so you don't need to worry about your student having to take the PARCC test. If you do choose some form of annual testing you are in control. Some states do require testing and specify tests but I haven't heard of any that are planning on requiring the PARCC tests for homeschoolers. 

All in all, are homeschoolers affected? While we are certainly affected as part of the greater society I don't think we are specifically and directly affected. We have choices!  

How American Homeschoolers Measure Up

Have you seen this?
http://www.topmastersineducation.com/homeschooled/

(Not that we ever doubted!)

Crystal Lake Park District Classes now open!

My Math & Science Club for ages 8-11 is back on Thursday afternoons and my
Biology Pt 1 (Microscopic Life and Biochemistry) will be on Monday afternoons starting the first week of September. You can register for these two and more at  
You can register by clicking HERE.

Classes to be offered:
Karate (2 levels!),
Phonics, Read, Write, & Fun
Art/Paint/Clay
Pen and Mouse Club House Artist
Art - MultiMedia
Cooking
Math & Science Club
Biology Pt. 1: Microscopic Life

Looking for some decent, educational apps?

Check out Common Sense Media's wonderful list of apps!


Common Sense Media's back-to-school-guide

Response from the Dept. of Education Regarding College Admissions

I am not the originator of this information. I am forwarding it with permission though and encourage you share it as well! 


From: StudentAid@ed.gov
Subject: 81 RE: Form submission from: Contact Us
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:09:11 +0000

Thank you for your inquiry about federal student aid.

The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, requires that a school award federal student aid only to students who are sufficiently prepared. Effective July 1, 2012, a student is considered sufficiently prepared if he or she has

     * has a high school diploma,

     * the recognized equivalent of a high school diploma (such as a General Educational Development [GED] certificate), or

     * has completed a home-schooling program approved by the student's state.

Though homeschooled students are not considered to have a high school diploma or equivalent, they are eligible to receive federal student aid funds if their secondary school education was in a homeschool that state law treats as a home or private school. Some states issue a secondary school completion credential
to homeschoolers. If this is the case in the state where the student was homeschooled, the student must obtain this credential in order to be eligible for federal student aid.

For homeschooled students in states where secondary school completion credentials are not provided, the student submits to the postsecondary school a transcript or the equivalent signed by the parent or guardian that lists the secondary school courses completed by the applicant and documents the successful completion of a secondary school education.

The U.S. Department of Education is responsible for administering federal laws that apply to education. The Department does not determine what provisions are included in the law or how language is used in the law. Changes to the current provisions or language used in the law would require Congress to pass additional legislation. However, the Department is prohibited from lobbying Congress, and it does not recommend or provide lists of lobbying groups.

We hope this information is helpful.


E-Mail Unit
StudentAid.gov
Federal Student Aid

Let us know how we are doing. Please take a moment to respond to a survey regarding the response you received in this e-mail. Your answers will help us to improve our service. You may either click on the following link or copy the Web address into your browser:

https://fafsalivehelp01.ed.gov/FSAICWebAPI-EN/ESSurvey/ed_survey.jsp?rs=e&rt=w

-----Original Message-----
From: studentaid@ed.gov [mailto:studentaid@ed.gov]
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013 2:59 PM
To: StudentAid
Subject: Form submission from: Contact Us

Submitted on Mon, 07/22/2013 - 15:58
Submitted by anonymous user: [131.103.137.124] Submitted values are:


Email Address:
    --Question Type--
    Question Type: General Question


Message:
The language regarding the eligibility of home schoolers for financial aid is rather odd and is creating some unusual (and impossible to fulfill) requests by colleges and universities for documentation from home schoolers. Home schooling law is different in every state and what might be done in one state is not necessarily done in 49 others.  For example, states do not "approve"
home schooling -- they may, or may not, require notification that a student will be home schooled, but they do not "approve" that notification; they may, or may not, require some sort of occasional review, testing, or demonstration of compliance, but the states are all over the board on that issue and many require nothing at all, even notification.  States certainly do not approve "a homeschool setting."  Taken together, this makes the phrase "completing a high school education in a homeschool setting approved under state law"
curious and confusing.

How could the language be amended to strike "setting approved under" and replaced with "in compliance with"?

How Am I Smart? Free Download!

Free Download from GHC: How Am I Smart? Posted: 21 Jul 2013 11:00 PM PDT This post is sponsored by Great Homeschool Conventions. Beginning today through July 31, Great Homeschool Conventions is giving away a digital copy of Dr. Kathy Koch’s book,  How Am I Smart? A Parent’s Guide to Multiple Intelligences. How Am I Smart? A Parent’s Guide to Multiple Intelligences is an important tool to help children and adults recognize and value a treasure trove of giftedness that may lie unrecognized and underutilized. Released by Moody Publishing in February 2007, Dr. Koch’s book turns the theory of multiple intelligences into a readable, understandable, and useful tool to help children and adults make the most of their “smarts.” –from the GHC website Every homeschool parent can benefit from reading this insightful book. Be sure to sign up for your FREE download before July 31! Free Download from GHC: How Am I Smart? is an article from Contented at Home.

A free online Algebra text? You bet!

Here is another free resource!

This post by Henri Picciotto has not only good information about why students often find traditional Algebra textbooks to be lacking, but also offers links to a free textbook (which he wrote) that attempts to make Algebra accessible to more by adding in manipulatives. Yeah manipulatives! 

http://blog.mathedpage.org/2013/07/a-new-algebra.html

Homeschool High School for Free? Sure!

You can homeschool for free by using materials from the public library and on the Internet. You can, of course, spend thousands on a bunch of curriculum too. My family, typically, went the free route. 

Check out the following sites for amazingly good quality free courses: 

https://www.khanacademy.org/

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

http://www.learner.org/

Escape from Childhood Free Download!

Just forwarding on a terrific offer: 

Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:37 pm (PST) . Posted by:

"Pat Farenga" tmonk132001

I just want to let you know about a free Kindle download today and tomorrow
of John Holt's book Escape From Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children.
You can find the link to the download, and an article Holt wrote for
Psychology Today about the ideas in this book, at www.patfarenga.com. You
can read Kindle books on your Mac, PC, tablet, or smartphone with these free
apps: http://tiny.cc/5w1grw.

Best wishes,
Pat

Winter Session classes at the Crystal Lake Park District begin soon!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful and healthy start to the new year! As we think about the coming year it is time to get registered for upcoming classes!

At the Crystal Lake Park District I am offering a 6 week Junior High and High School Genetics class on Monday afternoons and Math & Science Club classes for the younger set on Thursday afternoons. The winter session's Math and Science Club "over view" topics will be oceanography and decimals.

To register for these classes and many more (including Cooking, Art, and Karate) please visit the Crystal Lake Park District  web page.