I found a really cool website last night. It looks like it was put together by my cousin Neil’s boy Nick. Great job Nick!
Month: March 2007
We just got notice that Oregon is going to try to further regulate the activities of homeschoolers. There were a couple of events that created an interesting backdrop to the our receiving the email that describes the proposed legislation. First, just a couple of weeks ago, an article came out in the local newspaper explaining that, after years of trying to make the questions easier on the state assessment tests in math, they had finally given up and want now to just lower the passing test scores so that more will pass. Second, Lorena had a conversation with some people who are very, very involved in their local government school. They have characterized the school as phenomenal. The parents in the community arre said to be heavily involved in both academics and extracurricular activities. The teachers are said to be engaged with and responsive to the needs of the students and the concerns of the parents. The students are said to be receiving a stellar education–one of the best in the entire state.
So, I thought I would just take a look at their state report card. For the school in question, the Federal Adequate Yearly Progress Rating was “NOT MET.” In the last year reported, 45% of the students in the school could not read at grade level and 54% could not perform math at grade level. This gave the school an Oregon Report Card Overall Rating of “Satisfactory.” I was amazed. Here is a school that the State of Oregon says is performing at a satisfactory level. At least one set of parents in the school think there children are getting a phenomenal education there. But by any object standard, the school is failing. We started homeschooling because of the abysmal education our children were receiving at a school that was rated “exceptional” by the state. The school had much higher reading and math scores. I compared that to the test results for homeschoolers in that same area that are available on the Oregon Department of Education Home Schooling page. Of course, for the entire population of students, 50% are at or below the 50 percentile. For the latest homeschool nationally normed, standardized test scores that I could find, the records showed that less than 20% of the tested students fell at or below the 50th percentile. The homeschools, by every measure are doing better than the government schools.
All of the information is in the public domain so, if anyone wants to look at it, they can. I got all of the information on websites run by either the school or the State of Oregon. None of this even considers the wealth of studies that the quality of “socialization” in homeschool settings is better than in government school settings. Here is a web page that describes and links to a small subset of that work. In the meantime, while Rome burns and the legislature tries to further handcuff a group of citizen who provide a stellar education for their children, the big sports issue that really interests the education establishment in the state has risen to the Oregon Court of Appeals.
This is the last in a short series of three posts we are doing for a friend who is starting to homeschool this year. We have no illusions about our homeschooling method and plans being right for anyone else, but we thought it might be a help for others to get a sense for what works for at least one family. The following is links to the first and second of the three posts:
Homeschool methods update – Part 1 of 3 – curricula
Homeschool methods update – Part 2 of 3 – a typical day
Of course, what students do after they finish high school varies greatly. Some get a job. Others join the military. Some take a year off and travel if they have the money. Some start a business. Many go on to college. Circumstances change, but to the extent that we have influence, we have decided that we want Kelly and Christian to be prepared to enter college. There is really no problem for well prepared homeschoolers to get into even the best universities in the nation. It is commonplace to read articles about homeschoolers succeeding at places like Stanford, Dartmouth, Harvard, and good small private colleges like Grove City, Hillsdale, and George Fox. There are homeschoolers in most state run colleges and universities, too. The third and fourth tier private colleges like Linfield, Lewis and Clark, and Willamette here in Oregon have programs to try to attract as many homeschooled students as they can get. So getting into a college is not really too difficult for students who document their academic achievements and test even at just an “OK” level on the SAT or ACT. We are doing ar best to cover those bases.
The challenge with many homeschoolers is that many of them are academically ready to enter college at a much younger age than normal. It is not so much that they are not ready for college, it is more that the college is not ready for them. If we stay on our current track, Kelly will be ready to start taking college courses in just three years and Christian will be ready in four. Of course, there is no way that we want them to leave home at that time. So we have to find a way to keep them academically engaged for two or three years at the college level while they are still at home.
The obvious answer for us is the community college. The government school district to which we pay our taxes is required to pay for community college for those students for which they have nothing to offer academically. Of course it could be argued that they have not ever had anything to offer, but that is a different post. We are fortunate to live within driving distance of both a community college and a major state university. It is not difficult to meet the admission requirements of the community college, so entrance to that system is easily manageable. We will probably start the kids at the there with they idea they will continue there through the age when they would normally have graduated from a government high school. That should help them prepare well for the PSAT, SAT, and/or ACT tests. Volunteer work, a job or two, and continued participation in their clubs, music, and sports should help to round out their preparation. It is up to Lorena and I to continue to document their academic progress. All this should prepare them to get into a good school.
If we prepare well, it will be easier for them to decide where (and if) they want to go to college. We are kind of hoping they will stay at home through a bachelor’s degree and then take a graduate degree as their away from home experience, but that will really be their decision. If things move along on their current course, both of the kids should graduate with a bachelor’s degree by the time they are nineteen or twenty. The other wild-card, is that, if we have the resources, we would like to go someplace for six or nine months to pick up a third language. Whether we can do that and whether the time we take will impact the schooling is something we do not know. Neither do we know whether it will work out like this at all. But we have a plan that we can either follow or modify as time and chance change our circumstances. Even if it does not all go according to plan, it is good to have a plan.
Bryan made some comments earlier about our dear friend Vivian Plews. He also sent along a great picture of the two of them. The comments bear repeating and the picture speaks for itself.
Marilyn Denio announced after Gospel Meeting tonight that Vivian passed away. She was truly a great lady! When we first moved to Newberg in 1972, I was a freshman at Newberg HS, and we went to her home for Sunday AM meeting. Over the years I have come to love dear Vivian very much. So sweet… and always a smile and word of encouragement. Always! I will miss her dearly.
Vivian and Bryan
This weekend was a very busy weekend. We went to the funerals of Dick Nelson and Vivian Plews. Then, my cousin Udo and his wife Damaris from Montana came and spent the night with us on Saturday night. It was very good to have some time with them as Udo was a very good reality check for me on all things spiritual. We did nothing other than just sit around and talk. We bragged about our kids and they didn’t even flinch. Of course, they bragged about their Erika, too, but they should because she is so amazing. We are pretty whipped though after all that socializing. All I was able to do for homeschool this weekend was get next weeks plan completed. I will have to catch up on my corrections tonight.
The good news about homeschool is that both Kelly and Christian have picked their annual research report topics. Kelly will be doing something on the history and care of house cats. Christian is doing his on bombs and projectiles. We are looking forward to learning some amazing things.
Today, I thought I would write a little about a phenomena that has raised its head about this time for the last three years. We have been working hard on our homeschool now for 26 weeks. We are still a couple of weeks from spring break, after which the kids will start on their very interesting research reports. Right now, though, we are all feeling a little burned out. There is a lot of cool stuff going on outside of school: tennis, music lessons, Kelly’s upcoming birthday party, boy scouts, and so on. On top of that, the weather is starting to get nice so it would really nice to be out playing in the sun with the other neighborhood kids. I was thinking something was wrong, but then I thought back on my on school experience, even up into college. This is just spring fever. After spring break, there will be new, fun things about which to think and the fire will get lit again, but right now, we just need to tough it out for a couple of weeks and do well on all those subjects that require serious thinking. That means math more than any other subject. It is hard to do math while one is day dreaming. Well, I talked to the kids and we agreed that each of them are going to try to get through unit 80 by the end of the year. It is an arbitrary goal, but a good one, most of all because it lets them know there is an end in sight and they now where it is.
Until Bryan checks in, I will use his numbers for last week:
Well, Kelly has decided what kind of party she wants to have. It is a “mystery party” we got from Host-Party.com. It is an all girl kind of thing so I think I am going to try to get a buddy of mine and his son to go with Christian and I to the beach or something like that. I have been reading through the party material and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. People coming to the party get a packet that explains who is their character for the party, kind of how that person might act and dress, and some other information. It can be especially good if people really stay in character.
I got up at four this morning to come into work. I have a ton of stuff to get done combined with funerals on both Friday and Saturday. It will be great to see a lot of people I have not seen for a long time.
Last Saturday, we went to the funeral of Martha Axtell, a faithful lady who lived in our town for many years. This Friday, we are going to the funeral of Dick Nelson, another faithful man who also lived in the area for many years. Last night I received a call from my very close friend, Eric Plews. His grandmother, Vivian, who was had a big and wonderful influence on my life, died last night. When we first moved to Newberg before my junior year in high school, Vivian and all of the rest of the Plews opened up their family to us. I am grateful to them and mourn their loss, but Vivian lived a victorious life. We have felt like we were part of their family for a long time–meeting in with them for Sunday morning fellowship meetings and Wednesday night bible studies for many years. One of our best memories was when Grandpa Milo and Vivian’s son Joe decided to have a Mother’s Day breakfast for all the ladies in the field before Sunday morning meeting just shortly after we moved to town. It was such a wonderful success that they did that for many more years.
All of these people had lived long, faithful lives. I am sure they were not perfect, but they surely seemed that way when we were young. It is hard to see that generation go. It has been a help to me, though, in remembering my priorities. All of this is happening at a time when our children are young, just getting started, and need to see someone they respect model what is right. The world is very much different from when Martha, Dick, and Vivian were young, but the issues are still the same. Because the generation that needs to do the modeling is my generation, some of us surely do not seem as able as earlier generations.
I really look forward to Tuesdays. This is the night that Lorena takes Christian to Boy Scouts. They both have a great time there. In the meantime, Kelly and I hang out together at home. I do my exercise while we listen to a debate on philosophy, theology, history, or science. I suppose we will start listening to debates on politics when the presidential election gets closer. If that gets tiresome, we will find some other stuff to read. Tonight, after my exercise, we are going to buy a book that I owe Kelly from a long time ago, and a murder mystery game that she will use for her birthday party. She likes that idea a lot and has been trying to decide which one she actually wants to get.
It is tough right now to stay on track with school. We have been going at it pretty hard for quite awhile without a break. We are ahead of schedule on almost everything, so we are going to take this week for a math breather and just do corrections. Then we will jump in next week and try to make the run to spring break with as much energy as possible. Between now and then, one of our most fun and interesting tasks is to decide what should be the research report topics for the year. The kids have made some super reports in the past and I am looking forward to seeing what they decide to research this year. Work also continues on the next Kaktus Kids issue that is scheduled to come out in May.
As for the weight loss cage match. I was ready for Bryan on Friday. I was actually down seven six pounds, but now when we postponed our weigh-in until today, I got on the scale and was only down five pounds. Rats! It must have been that leftover soup JoAnn brought to us. It was fine soup. Or maybe it was the clam chowder Lorena made. That was fine soup, too.
Well, I worked both Saturday and between meetings on Sunday, so I do not have much to say for myself today. The really nice part of the weekend was that Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah came for the afternoon on Sunday. From work, I went to pick up my cousin Tim to take him to Gospel meeting on Sunday afternoon. He was not in his apartment, so I headed on out toward Tangent where the meeting was going to take place. When I got to Roger’s, Tim’s favorite restaurant, I saw him walking through the parking lot, so I drove over to where he was and asked him if he wanted to go with me.
He said, “Isn’t it Saturday?”
When we got that all squared away, we had a nice chat on the way to meeting and on the way home, too.
I am running like crazy today, so will not have a post. Bryan and I have agreed to postpone our weigh-in this week until Monday. I hope Kelly will post a poem from homeschool later today.
I quote Bryan:
“my weight is heading south again” LOL what does that mean!?!
How do you translate that?
Does that mean you are sagging? Or are you on another business trip to CA?
Ha ha ha! Well, it could mean that my weight is going down. Or it could mean my weight is getting worse (going up). Or it could mean I am going to California for liposuction (my weight is going south). It is my rope-a-dope strategy for the cage match. I am lulling him into complacency! I sure doesn’t look like I am going to win this by losing weight faster them him so I am going to have to win by the wiles of old age. He should not be surprised if packages of Girl Scout cookies start showing up mysteriously on his front porch. But I AM making progress. Just wait until tomorrow’s weigh-in.
Sorry for the light posting, but it is going to be like this for a bit until we get past a few big events over the next couple of days.