Jobs from the Past

I haven’t posted in a while. The local homeschool group asked me to help with their co-op this fall. I found that preparing took all my extra time, and my writing took a back seat for a while. We had about 70 people attend from babies through to the oldest, me! What fun I had Read More

Homeschool Support Groups: Part Two

Tom & Joanna Wert Family

(by Joanna Wert originally posted on her blog, Fifty Something, as the Letter C of the ABC’s of Homeschooling)

Over 25 years ago, I began my homeschooling venture. At first, I did not know a single other homeschool family. Shortly thereafter, though, I met my first read more

Homeschool Support Groups: Part One

(by Joanna Wert originally posted on her blog, Fifty Something, as the Letter C of the ABC’s of Homeschooling)

Joanna and Tom Wert

Today's topic for the ABCs of homeschooling concerns community. Community equals support, ideas, mentoring, a sense of belonging, and pooled resources.

During your first few years of homeschooling, read more

Teaching Pennsylvania History: Part 5: Major Events

Temper this section of Pennsylvania history with Bible study time about our security in Christ, God’s provision for his people, and disaster readiness (staying close to God, his word, and his people).

Activities Students Can Do About Each Event: read more

Teaching Pennsylvania History: Part 2: The History of Transportation

Different things students can do:

• Look for the words in the below outline on the Internet.
• Visit transportation exhibits at local museums. (Harrisburg State Museum has a great exhibit.)
• Make a scrapbook of pictures from Internet.
• Art and writing projects involving Pennsylvania transportation.

1.   Draw different forms of historic transportation

2. Make up a story in which you must travel via a certain historical form of transportation.

3. Write a report comparing two historic forms of transportation. read more

JCCH Co-op

In my area, the time has quickly rolled around for homeschool co-op classes again. I thought that telling about what we do might help other support groups to try the venture or give some new ideas for groups already offering classes.

Our support group began with four families getting together to share a day of activities. We took turns coming up with what to do. That was 20 years ago. Now the co-op read more

Interview with Heidi Strawser: Homeschool Mother

I first met Heidi online as someone who worked for The Old Schoolhouse magazine and then met her in person at a homeschool convention even though she only lives a few miles from me. Our contact is still online through Facebook. Now, when I think of Heidi, I think read more

Interview with Beth Yoder: Homeschool Mother

Welcome to my blog, Beth. This is a different place for me to talk with you. We usually discuss everything from menus to our work while striding down the walking trail at our local park. Yet I know you have words of wisdom for other homeschool moms since we traveled the homeschool journey at about the same time. 

First of all, would you tell everyone how many children you have, and how many years you homeschooled? read more

Homeschool Project: Ducks

“You want to hatch duck eggs? Sure!”

Those words sealed my fate for the next five months, caring for ducks on top of preparing for a wedding in the family, homeschooling a sophomore, and helping with an aged mother-in-law. I know, the fifteen-year old who asked if we could hatch duck eggs should have been doing all the work. I understand that I should have been wiser about saying yes so easily. I realize that I shouldn’t have ended up in the predicament that I ended up in, but don’t you sometimes make mistakes too? Besides, I thought it would be a great biology project! read more

Interview with Karen Lange: Homeschool Mother

How many years of experience do you have as a homeschool mother?

My husband and I homeschooled our two sons and daughter for grades K-12 for a total of sixteen years. During that time, I was the coordinator of our local support group, and we were actively involved in several co-ops.

Why did you start to homeschool?

We felt led to homeschool after doing some research and talking to friends who homeschooled. One of the main reasons we chose homeschooling was because we felt that the home was the best place for our children to learn. We’d also decided that the local public and private schools were not good options for                                                                                us.

What was your favorite part of being a homeschool mother? Read More

Interview with Matthew Sieber: Homeschool Graduate

What did you like best about being homeschooled?

There is a lot I could say like freedom, efficiency, time with family, free time, and lots more. To pick just one thing, I would say the fact that I wasn’t stuck in a classroom throughout the day.

I don’t know if I want to hear your answer to this, but what didn’t you like? Read More

Interview with Joanna Wert, Homeschool Mother

When we decided to homeschool, we knew only one person already doing it, Joanna Wert. She welcomed me into the Snyder County Homeschoolers, encouraged me about our choice to homeschool, and shared many bits of practical advice about how to do it. I love this dear godly woman. She has been an inspiration, as well as a dear friend.  

How many years of experience do you have as a homeschool mother?

I am currently in my 27th year of homeschooling with just one year remaining after this one.

Why did you decide to homeschool?

I started homeschooling because God led me to do it.

What do you like about being a homeschool mother? Read More

Interview with Amber Schamel, Homeschool Graduate

 One of the delights that I have encountered while working with Helping Hands Press is the people I’ve met. Amber Schamel is one of them. She garnered my attention first when I learned that her parents homeschooled her. Next, I enjoyed reading her books, The Swaddling Clothes and The Healer’s Touch. And in addition, she writes a terrific blog!
amberschamel.blogspot.com

Amber, did you like anything in particular about being homeschooled? Read More

Homeschooling Using a Child’s Interests

1. Find out what your children’s      

Lego Creation by Matt

interests are by observing, asking 

questions, and praying. 

The interests of some of our children showed themselves early and easily. Suzanne liked to make things almost from the day I brought her home from the hospital. Not quite, but it seems like that. I remember fixing up a little corner in our trailer where she could create. A small table, a small chair, and lots of fun things to glue onto paper. Matt fell in love with Legos. Tad’s interests developed more slowly. He drew cars first, then began to notice makes and models on car trips. Ben, at a young age, liked people!  

2. Think and pray about how to use these as motivation, learning experiences, and sometimes, a full year’s curriculum.

My key to Suzanne lay with her skilled hands. We shopped at A. C. Moore often. When I picked curriculum for her, I looked for kits, models to assemble, and things to cut out. When we cleaned our storage room a year ago, she and I threw out six garbage bags of projects she had made. Nothing lost. The value of those projects have shown up in her care for her own home, her landscaped yard, and her joy in her various jobs. 

In her senior year, I let her surge ahead and counted hours for a science course centered around her love of gardening. She gardened, read about plants, studied a little botany, and made flower garden plans. Even her nemesis, math, became easy for her as she studied catalogs, prices, and figured out costs. Another course that year developed from her interest in getting healthier and losing weight. She read lots of exercise and health books. She still loves that kind of book! Some other day, I may tell you how I logged a course using Ben's people interest.

Car by Tad

3. Dare to experiment!

You need to let go of the kind of school that happened inside the walls of a public school building. Most of traditional school depends on what will work with a large group. Homeschooling is different! Let people raise their eyebrows. Put away the fears that want to creep up. God can give wisdom and will direct when we ask.

An excellent resource for using high school age students’ interests is Delight Directed Learning  by Lee Binz

Landscaping by Suzanne

A Homeschool Success Story

Our third born son was the easiest baby, toddler, and preschooler. He played contentedly and never gave us much trouble except when we brought the fourth baby home. When I was busy, he smeared Fast Orange all over himself.

I did a lot of reading to the first two. Number three listened and at a young age answered questions about what I had read. He seemed really smart.

Imagine then my frustration when I had a lot of trouble teaching him to read. I had already taught the other two. This one didn’t respond to the same things. For one thing, he couldn’t remember the words from one day to the next. I taught him the sounds but they didn’t seem to stick in his head. To compensate, I read his other subjects to him, doing oral reviews and tests.  

After trying a few other reading programs, I purchased the Sing, Spell, Read, and Write which is very auditory. From a learning consultant and a homeschool convention speaker, I learned about brain dominance. I made him wear a patch over his left eye to change his visual dominance to match his other areas: hearing, hand, and foot. He did this until his right eye became dominant which only took part of one school year. He did not have peers who made fun of him. In fact, he really never knew he was far behind.The summer he turned eleven, he had a different swimming instructor. Her insistence on him moving correctly fit in with what I have learned about “patterning.” Gross motor skills are very important for brain development. That school year is the year that he learned to read.

His skills continued to improve. I read his other subjects for the rest of that year and some of the next to allow his reading ability to catch up to where he was in science and history. By his junior year of high school, he had become an avid reader, evidenced by the eighty age-appropriate books on his portfolio reading list. He actually enjoyed reading!

I substitute teach in public school where I sometimes work in learning support classrooms. I often see children who have the same problems as my third born. I haven’t seen the success stories that I had with him. 

Above all else, our miracle occurred because of God’s mercy in answering our prayers for our son to learn to read and for me to have wisdom for teaching him. I also had a stubborn hold on promises that I had received while reading his Word.

I hope this encourages some of you who have children who struggle. God can do amazing things! As I sit in my home office, I occasionally listen in on a Bible study that takes place in our home. Our son, the former struggling reader, leads it. 

2017 Note: This son graduated from Word of Life Bible Institute in August with a 3.97 average!

Pennsylvania Homeschool Record Keeping

 Covers of portfolios

What record keeping do you need to do to comply with Pennsylvania Homeschool Law? Four things: attendance, a daily log, a portfolio, and a health record. If you homeschool from the beginning, you only need these things from age eight. Remember though from my last blog, if you already had your child registered in a school, you will need to do one for every year from that point on.

Attendance: 180 days is the required amount of time. The two simplest ways to keep attendance is by dating the log or marking a calendar. I always dated and numbered the log entries, but you can simply cross off the days you have school on a calendar. Students can do this. Just check to make sure that he is keeping up with it.

Log: Another chore we have in Pennsylvania is to keep a daily log. There are several ways to do this but my favorite was to plan my lessons and check off what I did. When the children got older, they could check off as they completed each subject. From reading legal counsel concerning the law, I found that all that is necessary is to list the resources that you used each day. You can do this with a code system on an attendance sheet. M equals Math, etc. List the entire titles of the books you use somewhere and give each a letter code. You can do this on several sheets of grid paper. You can still make lesson plans, but you are not required to turn them in. Include your child’s extra reading with either of these methods so you can compile a book list for the portfolio. 

Example of a log

The Homeschooler's Journal

Portfolio:  Homeschool supervisors, in most cases, the mother, have to be able to prove that their children made some progress through the school year. Samples of school work are to be included in a notebook officially called a portfolio.

Eight to ten samples of each subject for the whole year are sufficient. I set up my notebook with dividers before the school year started and added at least two times, midway and at the end. I kept all the finished, corrected papers in a plastic tub for each child. When I was ready to add to the portfolio, either the child or I sorted the papers into subjects and choose what we wanted to put in. At the end of the year, I added a list of textbooks, a list of their reading, pictures of field trips, and cover illustrations, either photos or a drawing by the child. I included my child’s name and the school year dates on the cover.

Health Record: Here are the health records you need to keep on file.

Every year you are to record height, weight, and Body Mass Index (BMI) You can find a calculator for doing the BMI online.

First year of school: medical exam, dental exam, color vison and stereo vision. (some districts require a TB test)

First and Second Grade: hearing test.

Third Grade: dental exam and hearing test.

Fifth Grade: color vision if you haven’t had it done before.

Sixth Grade: medical exam and a check for scoliosis

Seventh Grade: dental exam, hearing test, and a check for scoliosis

Ninth Grade: (some districts require a TB test)

Eleventh Grade: medical Exam, hearing test

(These exams can be expensive. You may want to contact the school district and see what services you can acquire from them.)

Resources I used to write this:

Pa Homeschool Law a website by Beth Phillips

You've Decided to Homeschool, Now What? by Marsha Hubler

Guide to the PA Homeschool Law by Howard and Susan Richman (I used the Twelfth Ed. May, 2003)

How Do I Start to Homeschool? (Part III) Following Pennsylvania Law

To homeschool in Pennsylvania, parents are supposed to file an affidavit by August 1 for any child from ages eight to seventeen at the beginning of the school year or for a younger child if he/she has already been in public school. Philadelphia residents need to file a notice of intent when a child is six.

You can find an affidavit form at the CHAP site: Affadavit Form 

Step One: Fill out the form and gather the following things you need to submit with the affidavit.

1. Your High School Diploma or GED Certificate
2. Immunization records for each child. (Getting the immunization records if you don’t already  have them can take some time. If you are running out of time, submit the other things and tell the school district that you will get the immunization record to them as soon as you can.)
3. List of subjects you plan to teach with objectives for each.

          Here are suggestions for writing objectives:

             You can use a paragraph or a list format.

             How to figure out what to write:

·         Use the Table of Contents in each textbook, or

·         Use the Scope and Sequence of the textbook company you plan to use, or

·         Write broad objectives. For example. In math this year, I plan to teach computation skills, word problems, and the multiplication tables. In reading, I want to increase reading speed, comprehension skills, and word attack skills.

Step Two: Take your gathered information to either a notary or the Prothonotary Office at your local courthouse and ask them to notarize your affidavit. The notary will charge you. I’ve heard that the Prothonotary Office won’t.

Step Three: Take the packet to your local school district office. Ask for a receipt for proof of submission.

Next time, I will talk about record keeping during the school year. 

How Do I Start to Homeschool? (Part II)

Homeschooling Independently Without an Umbrella school

Curriculum

The best thing to do is to go ahead and choose a curriculum. You have many options and chances are you may want to switch after trying one this year. Most of them will provide what you need and get you up and running your school program. In talking to other homeschoolers, that is a question you should discuss. Ask them what they use and take notes.

Cathy Duffy has an Internet site that talks about curriculum. She has been in the business of reviewing curriculum since I started 20 years ago. You can trust what she says. Some major companies that I would recommend you look at are Abeka, Bob Jones, Alpha Omega, School of Tomorrow, and Sonlight.

Here are two major factors you should consider.

1. How much do you have to spend?

Much: If you have unlimited resources, your options are unlimited. You can buy a complete curriculum with all the bells and whistles and be on your way. Just remember that spending money does not guarantee a good education. If you do more of the planning and choosing, you can take advantage of your areas of expertise and your children’s interests and abilities.

Little: My solution for this is useful even if you have lots of money. I homeschooled for very little. I could have homeschooled for even less, but I liked curriculum and loved to shop for it. One of my friends was very frugal and schooled on a shoestring. She did what I did but limited her purchases more.

First, make a list of subjects you plan to teach and some of your options. Then:

a. Look for used curriculum. Check thrift stores. Ask your local support group for ideas of where to find it. Check out E bay and major homeschool sites. For subjects like math and reading, accompanying workbooks are valuable. For other subjects, workbooks are helpful but not necessary. Check publication dates and make sure you can still get a workbook for that date if you feel you need workbooks.

b. Look for unit studies that give you multi-grades in one book. They are often on one topic and the various subjects are incorporated. You can use free library and online sources with unit studies.

c. Look for ungraded curriculum. I used Spelling Power by Beverly L. Adams-Gordon and Mastering Mathematics by Lez Farmer’s which are ungraded programs for many grades. With these types, a child can work at their own level. Most involve testing and starting them where the tests show to start them. School of Tomorrow curriculum is graded but works this way.

c. Set up an exchange program. I found a woman who had the in between grades of my children. We shared reading books from year to year.

d. Remember that you don’t have to do workbooks and tests. You also can make your own worksheets and/or tests. Be creative. Let them put on plays about what they read or do art to show what they learned. Review and test orally. Make up games for review or better yet have your children make up games.

e. Free stuff. Look for free samples of curriculum. Use the Internet’s free stuff. I found that a neighboring county library offered Spanish online for free. Organizations like the Cornell Bird Watch Program will send oodles of information about birds if you agree to keep track of what you see. I signed up for the post office’s free kits about history for teachers. Use the library!  

2. How much time will you have to devote to homeschooling?

One more thing to consider when choosing curriculum is how much time you have to devote to this. When you have limited time, you need to choose a little differently. Here are a few of my suggestions for those of you with limited time because of a part time job or other commitments that also need attention.

a. A full planned out curriculum is better for those with limited time.

b. Pick easier books that children can work with on their own. Grade level is not as important in homeschool as it is in public except to our pride. School of Tomorrow and Alpha Omega are easier for children to do on their own.  

c. Consider asking grandparents or Dad to help even just for one subject. In that case, you need to let them help choose a textbook that they feel comfortable with.

In summary, expensive curriculums generally take less preparation time. Inexpensive usually takes more preparation time. Spending money does not mean a better education. You can get a student more involved and liking it better when you do more of the planning. Consider used, unit, ungraded, exchanging, no workbooks, and free stuff. Going down a grade level can allow students to work on their own easier. Consider asking for advice from seasoned homeschoolers and for help from your husband and parents. 

How Do I Start to Homeschool? (Part I)

Connect: The best thing to do is to meet with a local person who has already homeschooled for at least a year. I had an undergraduate education degree plus a master’s degree, but I couldn’t have done it without the help I got from another homeschool mother. She invited me to her county’s homeschool support group because my county did not have one at the time. I listened to the mothers talk, borrowed books from their library of homeschool resources, and asked lots of questions.

How do you find a person to help you? Sometimes it isn’t easy. Ask other parents while you watch your children play at the local ball field. Your pastor may know someone in your congregation. Look for a state organization. Pennsylvania has two: Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania (CHAP) and Pennsylvania Homeschoolers. Check out their website for local organizations. Call and ask for someone to help you. The school district may also be able to direct you to someone. In Pennsylvania, they have lists of evaluators and can at least give you those names.

Investigate: Consider your options. School at home comes in two basic forms today. Cyber school and independent homeschooling. Cyber schools may be private organizations or funded by taxes. Some cyber schools demand that a child be online at certain times or a certain amount of time a day. They choose the curriculum. They also have time limits for completing work. For example, one asks for a test a month. Another asks for a certain amount of work to be completed each semester. The public cyber schools provide materials free of charge. They charge your school district for you to take their schooling. You are required to do whatever testing that public school children have to do. Private cyber schools charge for their books and help.

Independent homeschooling can be under an umbrella school who will pick your curriculum, do record keeping, and keep you accountable. They usually require testing at the end of each chapter or unit. Independent homeschool lets you choose your curriculum, keep your own records, and doesn’t require unit testing.*

Be Aware: Rules for homeschooling vary from state to state. One place to find out the rules is the Home School Legal Defense Association at www.hslda.org/ph. Most experienced homeschool parents know the rules for their state. The school district can be consulted, but sometimes they don’t keep up with the requirements as personnel come and go. They can, though, let you know if the school district itself has special requirements. Compare their requirements with the law. School districts sometimes ask for more than is really required. 

Type	Cost	Record Keeping	Choice of Curriculum	Schedule	Require Unit testing
Independent
Umbrella School	varies	School keeps	School choice	Parent choice	yes
Own Making	varies	Parent keeps	Parent choice	Parent choice	no
Cyber-School
Public	free	School keeps	School choice	Depends on school	yes
Private	varies	School keeps	School choice	Depends on school	yes

* Check out the book, You've Decided to Homeschool by Marsha Hubler

Why Homeschool? (Part III)

8. Academic Achievement: Homeschooled students do well academically by scoring on the average of the 80^th percentile on achievement tests. You know what that means? Half of homeschooled students score above the 80^th percentile! Colleges recognize that home educated students are a good thing. Homeschooled teens already know how to study on their own and the majority excel in college.

9. Safety: With the rise in school shootings, many parents feel that their children will be safer at home. Public schools themselves are acknowledging the psychological abuse that can happen in classrooms with their anti-bullying programs. Then there is also the increased peer pressure for drugs, drink, and sex within school walls.

10. Special Needs Children: There are many wonderful people in this world who work wonders with special needs children, but often classes have too many kids to handle or one child causes so much trouble that the others end up with less attention. Sometimes homeschooling is best for a special needs child. Parents who have already dealt with their child’s problem for five years know him and may be wiser about what he/she needs.

11. Extra Bright Children:  I have seen excellent results from very intelligent children being homeschooled. They are allowed to progress at their own rate. There is no waiting for others to finish. They have time to do lots of reading. They develop lifetime interests and get a head start on their future career. Many take AP Courses. AP stands for Advanced Placement which are college level courses offered to high school students.

12. Schedule Conflicts:  Men who work shift work may not be home in the the evenings with their children. Young children especially need time with daddies. Homeschooling can give them that time since school can be shifted to a different time of the day or different days of the week.