Can you help me learn more about materials for homeschooling?
Question:
Do you homeschool your kids? If you do, do you use your local library? What for? What do you wish your library had or could do for you? Do you want books, electronic resources, or just meeting space? Do people homeschooling for religious reasons have different needs then those homeschooled for other reasons (lousey schools, etc).? We're open to any suggestions or any resources that could help us out.
Answer:
First, meeting space is WONDERFUL. There are so many co-ops and activity groups, and seemingly never enough space.
Since you can't please everyone, go w/ some basics. You can really do homeschoolers a service by giving them the foundational tools. It's unreasonable to expect a library to carry an entire curicullum, and even if it did, it would be checked out by 1 person!
Get the fundamental tools and train your staff to point people in the right direction, that would be the most valuable.
You may already have these, but the E. D. Hirsch series "What Your nth Grader Needs to Know" is excellent. It's not religious so everyone can use them. It's a great place to point someone who comes in and asks, "Where do I start for home schooling?"
http://www.amazon.com/what-second-grader...
This book is a solid resource, and by the name it makes sense to have it on your shelf, "Mary Pride's Complete Guide to Getting Started in Homeschooling"
http://www.home-school.com/catalog/pages...
Videos: My wife uses tons of these to augment various subjects, history and science in particular. Most come from our public library.
"The Way Things Work" video series is pretty good, while fairly inoffensive.
You'll also find the Moody Science Videos to be excellent in content, although they have an overt religious tone
http://www.christianbook.com/christian/b...
I'll have to get back to you on the history videos.
Another thing, there are historical fiction novels by G.A. Henty, which are very popular w/ home schoolers. They are well written and draw students (especially boys) into reading and they teach much history. It would be good to have those on your shelves, regardless of where the budget is earmarked.
Just thought of something else: Does your state require forms to be sent for homeschooling? A binder w/ current forms that can be photocopied would also be invaluable. Having the statutes and mailing addresses available would be good too.
And, since folks here provided you w/ some great web-sites, make sure those are bookmarked somewhere at a reference computer, and have photocopiable printout of those bookmarks available in the binder.
If you're talking periodicals, you can look below as well.
Our reason for homeschooling is not so much "lousy" public schools as it is that we can tailor our kids education to their needs and interests (my older son is gifted). The fact that we can include religion in our homeschooling is an added bonus, as we were already covering it before we started homeschooling.
Our library has fairly decent resources, as far as homeschooling is concerned. We can find books about most of the major players/events in history and science at kids' levels. What I'd like to see more of is the minors (lesser known people/events) written at children's levels. Fortunately, my older son is able to read adult level books on most anything, but they are not always written in such a way as to interest an 11 yo.
The other thing I'd like to see is more recent homeschooling "guides" - the reference works our library has are at least 10 years old and, with the expansive growth of homeschooling in the last several years, are completely useless. I'm talking about things like curriculum reviews and guides.
One of the best resources for homeschooling materials (both about hs'ing and for hs'ing) is Rainbow Resource Center (their website is listed in sources). They have a 1000+ page catalog with just about everything a homeschooler could need.
If you need more specifics or have further questions, please feel free to email me.
Hi.
I think you should evaluate the grade level needs of the homeschoolers. At the elementary level, readers and basic workbooks are the greatest need. ABEKA is an excellent curriculum. For middle school, Electronic access is needed, along with a selection of neutral subjects, ie: mathematics, foreign language. For high school, the same needs and additionally, test prep matierials for SAT,ACT, etc. It should be noted that homeschoolers DO teach evolution, but it is properly presented as a THEORY. Apologia science has Chemistry, Physics and Biology that present a creationist view on natural sciences. Our children were homeschooled their entire lives, and the local library was a tremendously helpful resource. Some people do practice un-schooling, or free style learning, so I am not sure how their needs would be different. Check HSLDA.ORG, or google homeschool resources, you may be surprised how much is out there. You could see if the local area has a support group, and contact them for some type of needs analysis.
Well, first of all, thanks for explaining what you are doing, it will help us answer you accurately.
Your assumption that we homeschool because we don't want our children to learn about evolution is based on stereotyping and misinformation. I teach my children about both sides of that issue.
OK, here's some answers:
yes, I homeschool my children. this is our 5th year.
Yes, we use our local library. I actually use three city libraries to find all the info I need. Last year, I used a lot of living books to teach from, so I used the library for absolutely everything, mainly history though. I would like to see more classics of literature in the children's section that has not been dumbed down. I see a lot of "revised" works and they are not worth the time. I use the library now mainly for extra reading for my second grader, and we enjoy historical fiction readers, series, things like that. My highschooler uses the library for research and extra reading for her classes as well. When we are studying something and my children are interested in that particular thing, we go to the library and look for books about that subject so we can learn more. We also use the library for books about holidays, elections, traditions, stuff like that. Space shuttle taking off on a mission? Off to the library for space books. Thanksgiving coming up? Books about thanksgiving are coming home with us.
Electronic resources are wonderful, the larger library I use has a very nice collection. Large collections of reference materials are nice. I've never used meeting spaces in our libraries, but each library I use has ample table and chair space for us to go in and use for our work. Sometimes we just need to get out and look at someone else's walls while we are working (lol) so we like to go spend the day at the library and study.
As to the needs of people homeschooling. Categorizing people in to different groups based on reasons why they homeschool is a difficult thing to do, because there is no clear cut definition of the terms you are using. For example, when you say "religious reasons" you may mean something completely different than I do. Your definition of a "lousy school" may be different than mine.
But I will try to briefly explain my reasons, and see if this helps you. I am a Christian, and that has influenced my decision to homeschool. In my area, Christianity is not allowed in the ps system, so my children were not getting a rounded education. I do use a christian curriculum, but that does not mean I ignore "all things" not Christian. My children are as versed in evolution as they are in intelligent design, able to discuss both sides equally. They do not get that in PS where I live. They also are learning the religious heritage of our country, something else they skip over in the ps system where I live.
another reason I choose to hs my kids, is that the schools in my area are continually lowering their standards. I use our state standard testing system as a point to which I will never allow my children to fall academically. We are able to work at an advanced pace and we use advanced materials, compared to the ps grade level materials.
I homeschool because I want my children to have the best education possible, and I define "best possible" as being able to custom fit study materials to my children. I choose home education so my children can be exposed to a variety of ways of thinking, not just what the state mandates as acceptable. (now that is probably the exact opposite of what you were expecting a "religious" homeschool person to say, isn't it?) i choose homeschooling so my children will understand the importance of family. I choose homeschooling so my children can excel and be leaders, and not followers. I choose homeschooling so my children will learn how to learn. I choose homeschooling because I can, I have the freedom to do this.
For your research, I would highly suggest you check the Home School Legal Defense Association website, hslda.org to help you understand homeschooling more.
While it concerns me that there is such a lack of understanding about home education in this country, I commend you for searching out honest answers.
I live in Texas, and our laws are different than most states, but we have a great statewide group here that has tons of information on their website, Texas Home School Coalition, thsc.org
Try them for some information too.
Good luck and thanks for searching out the truth instead of stereotyping us in to a box.
My children *homeschool* themselves!
They do sometimes use the local library for resource material. The home-school section was recently "reduced" by those that objected to any christian content. It would be good to see a better selection of books: classics from the early 1900's, historical fiction by G.A.Henty -- the entire set would be nice to see, autobiographies of prominent people in history.
The library already has electronic resources --- but we use our home computer for most of our needs on the Internet. Many groups in our area do use the library for co-op meetings, and for support group meetings.
Needs depend largely on wants. Home-schooling in my house consists of the basics. Math, writing and reading is the foundation of all learning.
Be sure and go to Brian Ray's website: http://www.nheri.org
He is a prominent research specialist. The site is the National Home Education Research Institute. The statistics and truth about home-schooling is phenomenal!
My original reasons for home-schooling have changed with the years. At first it was due to the poor quality of material in our schools, and the shabby state of moral behavior. There were many reasons --- one being the "dumbing down" of material that I learned while I was a public school student. In the years that have passed (18+) during our home-school process I have learned that I home-school my kids just because it is the right thing to do for them. I do it because I have seen them learn at an awesome rate.
I do it because it works.
They have always been successful with tests --- they score at least 2 grade levels above the one they have studied at the time.
My children have been their own best teachers for the past 8+ years. They use a self-teaching program called the Robinson Curriculum.
My 2 graduates are doing very well. One has a great job and supports his wife and 3 chidlren. The other is in college and is an 'A' student. My 2 home students are in 10th and 12th grade. They know how to think. They are good writers, excellent readers and mathematicians. Their math scores are never below 95% accuracy and often at 100% every day. They teach themselves through Algebra with very minimal help.
You will find great information at:
http://www.hslda.org
http://www.oceanetwork.org
http://www.home-school.org
http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com...
Let us know how your project turns out!
We homeschool. We use our library for books and DVDs. I wish our library would allow us to advertise for a homeschoolers meeting group. Our library is plentiful in everything we have needed so far. If my local one doesn't have it, another one is likely to, and they transfer them back and forth. I love that.
We don't homeschool for religious reasons, and I have no qualms about my kids learning evolution. In fact, I WANT them to learn a balanced view of evolution AND creationism.
That's the problem with many schools. A student doesn't get a balanced view, they only get one side of the story and only if it's PC.
I homeschool my children because I feel the public school is letting trash be taught. No one should be able to push their agenda on anyone else. California did a dis-service to the country. But I first started to homeschool my children because there was more focus on English as a Second Language children than the advanced children. In fact there was no advance Kindergarten available. My son was reading at the age of 4.
What can the library do for homeschoolers? Have a meeting place available for large groups, look into some of the literature based programs we use (IE Sonlight, Five in a Row) and carry the books, offer book club for children with a weekly book discussions. That is just off the top of my head. I am using Five in a Row and my library has hardly any of the books I need.
While our family is Catholic, we teach evolution in our science classes, as our faith does not believe that the Bible precludes the possibility of evolution. :)
We do not use the local library, simply because I do not drive, so getting there would be a pain. Instead, we go to thrift stores when my husband can drive me, and used book stores. Garage sales, Wal-Mart, etc. Also, being avid readers we have hundreds of books in the house as it is, including two encyclopediae.
We make a lot of our own art supplies, like clay-dough, paints, etc, and purchase construction paper, crayons, markers and suchlike at the dollar store. Another respondent mentioned Rainbow Resources, and they're great. Also http://www.oriental.com for inexpensive craft kits/supplies. We adore our microscope and telescope, both of which came from the Discovery store and are extremely useful and fun tools.
We use the computer a LOT, both software programs and website research. The internet is one tool we absolutely could not live without, there are many excellent sites for literature, science, history and so forth out there. I build about 75% of my curriculum around things that I find on the web. The other 25% is workbooks from Barnes and Noble and reading in regular books.
Our reason for homeschooling is that our three boys all have severe ADHD and mild to moderate Asperger's Syndrome, and they were doing very badly in school from a social/emotional standpoint. They were tortured by the other kids and invariable came home crying or beaten up. They are thriving at home and finally have friends who accept them for who they are.
I was looking into homeschooling my kids a few months ago, and I came across this company, called them up, and wow, they are GREAT! It takes a lot of dedication so I hear, but I think it's totally worth it. One of my kids is constantly sick because he is in first grade, and they just don't have time to wash their hands before lunch, or there's some parent that had to work and sent their kid to school sick... I hate my kid being sick because that means that our whole family is sick. I just hate being sick so much. I can't get anything done and I feel like I was sick 70% of the time when I was in school due to poor hygiene of other people, and no one told me until I was older not to touch my eyes or my nose or my mouth without washing my hands first. God, I could have saved myself some grief and aggravation had someone just told me. Anyway, it's great if you have enough education to do it, and enough discipline to get your children involved in extracurricular activities where they get to interact with other kids their own age.
No i get my mom homeschools me, but i can still help answer your questions. Yes we use are local library to borrow movies, and sometimes borrow books to get more information on are reports. i wish it had like days where we could just go in and have like art classes and stuff... meeting space is fine for me.. My parents don't homeschool me for religous resons, it's because my parents don't want to send us to a public school, and theprivate schools are sooo excpensive, so we went with homeschooling. It is free, and i love it!
First of all, let me begin by saying that most homeschoolers do not hide their children from evolutionary teaching, but rather, desire to have them interpret our world from a Biblical worldview. Let me give an example. Suppose we observe the fact that all vertebrates have similar skeletal structure. The evolutionary viewpoint would assume that these vertebrates are all interelated and evolved from oneanother because of these similarities. In contrast, the Biblical worldview would ascribe to the fact that the similarities in nature attest to the fact that we have one Creator.
Sorry, I am rather off topic. To answer your question, most homeschoolers would use a lot of material that would be used in any other public or private school. So a portion of the budget could be spent just as you would spend money for other educational material. However, materials dealing with methods of teaching, learning science at home, etc. might be useful.
Additionally, having a homeschoolers day in which various speakers in literature, science, and history come to the library could prove to be a valuable resource to the homeschooling community. Electronic material such as foreign languages for children and mathematical programs that encourage children to learn while playing a game might also be useful.
Textbooks with a Christian perspective might also prove useful. There are thousands of textbooks available today that teach from a biblical worldview (example Answers in Genesis Books, material on the Founding Fathers from a Christian perspective---David Barton, etc.). For more information on homeschooling textbooks, I suggest you go to www.visionforum.org or abekabook.com. Also, consider looking at Timberdoodle.com or Rainbow Resource Center.
Hope this helps.
you always need a pencil and notebook, textbooks, and anything else you need to bring to your class.
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