Notes From A Homeschooling Mom

No shame in not passing CLEP

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:42:00 +0000

I just read an awesome homeschool blog where the mom was celebrating a CLEP pass. It is very exciting.

I touched on CLEP exams some time back as my hope was that my son would put a ton of college credits behind him before graduating. But Alas, that did not happen. He did get 6 English credits that the college he is going to will accept, and plans take one more in math before the end of this school year. Maybe he will even attempt one of the two tests he did not pass last time. But in the end, he is the type that needs to actually sit through the class to pass it, so his CLEP success has been limited.

Let's face it CLEP exams are HARD. It is a college level test, so there is no shame in not passing it when you are only 15 or 16 years old. There may be shame in not trying though. For us, even when he did not pass, it was a learning experience in figuring out his strengths and learning how to study. Studying for the tests have also given him the exposure needed to pass the classes in college when he takes them formally.

Next year, my daughter plans to spend her entire senior year taking CLEP exams (she failed one as a high school Freshman and hasn't wanted to take one again) Now she plans to take at least 4. I feel like she will have an easier time as she just barely missed the one she did fail, and now she is older and more mature.

One important thing to remember is that CLEP is not for everyone. Students should look at the colleges they hope to attend to make sure that CLEP exams will be accepted. If they aren't, you can still take a few CLEPs to prove your worth, but you may have better success getting AP tests or SATIIs accepted for college credit.

Read: Homeschool Questions and Answers: AP and CLEP Exams

How to Study for the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP

Getting Carried Away with AP?

Taking the CLEP route

Update on Mystery Illness in Le Roy NY... PANDAS???

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:18:00 +0000

The school-contracted illness in LeRoy NY may be coming to light. Dr. Siegel says it could be a chronic strep infection that causes the illness caused PANDAS, but it is being covered up. Kids and parents are not being given the information on their illness. This may actually be a public health risk but no one's talking.

There is a serious problem when parents aren't allowed to get information about kids health issues.

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Mystery Illness at Le Roy High School in Upstate NY is troubling

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:57:00 +0000

I have read what the experts have to say, but am having a tough time swallowing it.

After baffling doctors there is a diagnosis. A condition called Conversion Disorder.
"This is subconscious, they're unaware of what they're doing," explained Dr. McVige
Which makes Conversion Disorder very complicated to diagnose and treat.
The disorder is caused solely by psychological factors, not a neurological or other medical condition.
"What it is...is maybe stressors, things that are uncomfortable events in your life mount up inside and kind of manifest itself in a physical manner," continued McVige.

12 girls at one highschool all get the same illness and they are calling it hysterical? I am not a medical expert, but it appears to be environmental to me. Maybe it's even food-bourne?

(note: changed video... other video stopped working)

Several of them are now being homeschooled.

I wonder if this can't be somehow related to a disorder called PANDAS

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My final word on Georgia Virtual School

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:52:00 +0000

I just answered a series of emails regarding previous posts I made about Georgia and so I thought I would share my final word on the program. It is not that I want to discourage homeschoolers from using the program, but I do want homeschoolers to be careful about putting too much weight on the program.. Here is my reply to an email requesting Clarification:

Here's the deal. To be successful you have to spend two-plus hours per day per class. They even say that in orientation, but my kids and I heard that and said " that's just crazy" and spent the hour a day that they've always spent, per subject. Eventually, we realized that that was not going to cut the mustard and adjusted. It it was too late.

Top that of with programming glitches (that we were able to prove existed) that deleted completed work and my kids ended up dropping two of thee classes. I am not saying don't use GAVS. I am saying tread lightly. Take the one or two classes that you know you can't help your kid with and then make sure she/he has enough time in the schedule to work on it. Keep in mind that six classes through GAVS means 12 hours a day studying. That leaves no time for creative outlets, sports, or sleep.

On the plus side, it was engaging and my kids learned a ton... More than they felt they had ever learned in any in-person class. I just think the school system goes overboard to compensate for lack of face time and grading is also harsher than it would be in an actual classroom.

~free online curriculum at http://freehomeed.com

How did your family react when you announced you were homeschooling?

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:52:00 +0000

When I let my family know were were homeschooling, they weren't exactly all nice about it.

Some of the reactions/ comments:

"One day they are going to outlaw that homeschool mess!"

"I'm not surprised, I always thought you were crazy" (and that was from the supportive person)

Or the relative that came to me at the end of each year and said, "so are you putting the kids back in school next year". I finally had an emotional outburst and she stopped.

And there there are the relatives that just talked about us behind our back.... now they all want education advice. Interesting.

Does this video sound familiar? Actually, I would prefer my family were this nice.

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Yes, we wear our pajamas

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:18:00 +0000

I had to share this homeschool video. This cool homeschooled kid sums it up pretty well.

Oh, and yeah, we wear our pajamas too. I try to buy pajamas that look as much like street clothes as possible in case I want to make a quick run and don't want to bother getting dressed. i.e. yoga pants....

I tried yoga once.

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Tim Hawkins, and homeschooling

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:35:00 +0000

I've always done my best to not even suggest to my kids that they need to homeschool the next generation, but I do know my daughter has no intention of sending her own kids to school. Will she be at traditional homeschooling mom? Probably not. She intends to work in theater and drag her kids along... whatever that means. I wonder if her future will look anything like Tim Hawkins.... She's definitely a younger, darker, female version of him.

I just came across a video by Tim Hawkins, who was homeschooled and is now homeschooling his own.

I really like the fact that homeschooling kids turned adults manage to find their passion in life and are able to chart their own paths. I feel like he has done that.

Tim Hawkins per Wikipedia: Tim Hawkins is a Christian comedian, songwriter, and singer, best known for parodying popular songs, such as Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take The Wheel" and "The Candy Man" stand-up material based on marriage, homeschooling and parenting. Hawkins has released three CDs and five DVDs of his material since 2006. In 2007, Hawkins began to release his comedy on the Internet, with his videos gaining more than 50 million views on YouTube and Facebook since.

More Time Hawkins Videos Here.

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Their Homework Said What? Makes me glad we homeschool

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:09:00 +0000

Brief synopsis:

I just wanted to talk about an item in local/national news.

A school near me sent home math worksheets with references to slavery. For example, If Fred got two beatings a day.... or Each tree had 56 oranges, if 8 slaves picked them equally, how much would each slave pick?

Ok this is kinda sickening.

I am not saying homeschooling will protect your child from what other people stupidly thinks are good ideas, because you can't escape dumb... but it does illustrate why it is important to be in charge of your child's curriculum. Hence... homeschooling is a really good idea.

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Video Coaching for a Midsummer Night's Dream

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:10:00 +0000

YouTube is an excellent source for homeschool lessons.

Here is a video series where a teacher talks about a Midsummer Night's Dream.

He suggests watching the video. I recommend reading the book and watching the video, and viewing his series. (as I write this he has completed two videos and promises to complete the final one... I have every confidence that he will complete the series.)

Enjoy
Video 1

Video 2

Video 3: coming...

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Homeschoolers and the GED

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:06:00 +0000

Transcript (summarized)

I just want to do a quick video about homeschoolers and the GED.

I hear a lot of people ask me how I prove that homeschooling is complete, that it is done, that the child has learned enough. And when I answer that we look at what others are doing and what the colleges have done
and write a transcript and a diploma, I get strange looks.

Then people ask, what about the GED. What about the GED?

There are some instances where the GED would be helpful to the homeschooler, for instance, in my state, it is very had to get into a state college with just a homeschool diploma. They tend to require that homeschoolers show proof of education far over and above what a typical applicant into a state college would be required to show (there are a few state colleges that have an exception). The best way for a homeschooler to get into a GA state college is to have an exemplary SAT or ACT, take extra SATII tests, and/ or do well on the GED exam. This is grossly unfair.

Another reason to take the GED is to get into a community/tech college. They would have the same issues as with any other state college.

Most homeschoolers, however, tend to go to private colleges to continue with religious freedoms and for small class sizes, etc, so the GED is not necessary. You just have to show a homeschool transcript and SAT or ACT test scores and these colleges accept homeschoolers readily.

Some time ago, I wrote an article entitled Why homeschoolers will not take the GED and the reasons are:

It's kind of demeaning. You're telling me that I have to take same test that a high school drop out would take when my level of education is probably higher than most who have graduated.

It carries a lot of stigma. It says that this person could not complete what an average high schooler could complete when in fact, homeschoolers tend to do a lot more than that.

But I am not saying that a homeschooler should not take the GED, I am saying that they don't have to and they shouldn't have to unless they really want to.

Read homeschooling articles here:

Homeschool Questions: Diploma
1/18/2008
In a recent article I wrote, I discussed that for homeschoolers the GED carries a stigma that they could not handle high school. This article answers questions at arose from that article.
Why Homeschoolers Will Not Take the GED
1/11/2008
There are many people under the impression that a homeschoolers should take the GED exam to prove they know enough to graduate from homeschooling. Homeschoolers disagree.

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When homeschooled kids hate homeschooling

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:49:00 +0000

Transcript (summarized in parts)

Hi this is Ahermitt. This is the first video I am making on my iPad and there are some things I am going to have to get used to like the weird placement of the camera.

(yada-yada- new ipad, blah, blah, blah)

What I want to address, is comments from people who have homeschooled unsuccessfully. For example, I just watched a video called "Homeschooling is a MISTAKE". He really should have entitled it
"Homeschooling was a mistake for me".

It's a young man who talks about having had anxiety issues in school - bad anxiety issues, and ended up homeschooling. Now I guess the anxiety is worse. So he doesn't feel like going back to school or transitioning to college is an option for him. He feels 'desocialized' because due to his anxiety attacks and being allowed to homeschool, .. and on his own schedule, that he feels like he has withdrawn to a point where he cannot transition back into school or college. He thinks he's "screwed".

There are some things he could have done differently in his case. His parents could have been more involved, and/or perhaps put him into a program where he could homeschool part time, where he could go in once or twice a week to get assignments that he could finish at home. That would have also kept him on track because he is a semester behind in addition to all that.

From time to time, I've seen a lot of articles, comments, videos, from people who have homeschooled without success. (Actually, probably just 3 or 4 a year.) It really bothers me, not because the person is speaking their mind and from their truth but because they are speaking from their truth and tramsferring their issues onto all homeschoolers. In most of these cases where people went on to give reasons why homeschooling didn't work for them, it was for reasons like overbearing parents who didn't let the kids out of the house or some degree of laziness. This is soooo not typical of most homeschoolers. I know a lot of homeschoolers, and I've seen a lazy factor in maybe 2% and most of the homeschoolers I know are extremely active. My personal big confession is that we are a few weeks behind (we were close to 2 months behind, but are catching up over the holidays)... the reason is because we are soooo active in the commity that the book-work got a little neglected last semester.

So when you see something like the video like the one I've mentioned here, Please understand that they are talking about their personal experience and that is all they know. They haven't seen homeschooling from a healthy perspective. Listen to what they have to say, but take it in the proper context, and don't let the scare you from homeschooling.

Good or bad... don't just take anyone's work for it. Look around, ask questions, and get lots of opinions.

That's all I have for now. Good bye.

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Teens who want to homeschool should take charge

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:06:00 +0000

This is in response to questions on "how do I get my parents to let me homeschool"... it is basically advice to teens.

Transcript:

Hello, this is A. Hermitt, and today I want to address teenagers deciding they want to start homeschooling, and I am going to go ahead and read from an article that I wrote some time ago on this subject.

Excerpt: I like to peruse questions and answer boards on homeschooling. I also get lots of emails from
prospective homeschoolers. Between these two sources, one question comes up alot. The questions comes from teenagers looking to be homeschooled either with, or without the parents support.

full article here: http://voices.yahoo.com/teenager-homeschool-thyself-getting-5846362.html?cat=4

Most of these teenagers have been in highschool one or two years and at some point they decide they've had enough and they just want other options, they want to try homeschooling. The questions are usually about how to get their parents on board with homeschooling or they are looking for information that they can give to their parents so that the parents can see that it can be done even if the parents don't have a lot of time and/or money to put into it.

The first thing you need to do of course, is to get your parents on board. This is because without your parents permission and support, you are not a homeschooler; you are truant. That will get your parents into a lot of trouble, and not to mention- yourself. Plus in many states you cannot get a drivers license if you cannot show that you are in school.

The most important thing you can do to get your parents support if you want to homeschool is to show your parents that you are dedicated to your education. You can't expect to have failed 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th grades and expect your parents to say "sure, let's homeschool for 11th grade while I work full time and you are on your own. Here are your books". It's not going to happen, at least not from a reasonable parent.

But even if you have a sordid past where your education is concerned, getting on the ball now, and being 100% dedicated to your education is the only way you are going to get your parents to change their minds and let you homeschool. Start getting A's. Start doing all your homework. Start reading for pleasure. Start asking for other educational opportunities. These things are going to show your parents that you are dedicated to taking charge of your education. That might make them consider allowing you to homeschool.

Once you do that, you are going to need to learn the laws of your state regarding homeschooling becuase your parents are going to need that information. You are going to need to do research regarding different methods of homeschooling, look at different online homeschool schools- if that makes any sense.

The one thing that I really must say is that if you really want to homeschool and you are 13,14, 15, 16 years old, and your parents are hesitant, but may be receptive, that it is up to you to be educated not your parents. (meaning your parents can't learn from your or force you to gain knowledge) Your parents are already educated. Your parents are already working. You need to show that you are invested in your future. And the only way your parents are going to let you take charge of your education is if you are 'on the ball' and you are already a good student. There is no sense in allowing a bad student to homeschool.

Homeschooling is not a vacation from education. It is actually a lot more intensive in many ways. But, the rewards are also exponentially better. So, I am going to link the article I was reading from or scanning from http://voices.yahoo.com/teenager-homeschool-thyself-getting-5846362.html?cat=4 so you have more information. It also links to more articles I have previously written that will help you get started on homeschooling if you are a teenager.

So that is all I have for now. Have a good day.

Winners of Time Engineers Software game

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 02:51:00 +0000

I would like to thank all who participated in the time engineers video game giveaway. I am awarding 3 units to the people who followed the directions of the giveaway.

The winners are
1. The homeschool handbook magazine
2. Serial Mommy
3. Virginia

I will be contacting you for mailing information. I would love to get these mailed by Monday, the 19th.

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I love reading my daughters facebook

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:33:00 +0000

What?

She's only 15. We're friended. And it warms my heart.

Right now, there are a good 60 photos she has been tagged in from various friends of her in White Christmas. Her friends have taken the time to share their photos with each other and they have gotten some great shots that I would never have been able to capture nor would I have been privy to.

My favorite photo was likely taken in between shows on Friday... I recognize the outfit. She is using her friend
as a pillow and they are resting in between shows. They are clearly decompressing, and it is just a beautiful moment.

I also see tons of congratulations on her page, and little glimpses of her personality. Some of the things she gets excited about are baffling, but simple. I find it wonderful.

Do you snoop... I mean read your kids Facebook page, and does it make you love them more, or just wish you hadn't.

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White Christmas is Over ...Boo!

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:43:00 +0000

So the musical that my daughter's homeschool group did, White Christmas, is over. She did a run of 5 shows last weekend, plus spent over week before that in non-stop dress rehearsals, not to mention that 8 or so hours a week in rehearsals since August. I get tired just thinking about it.

In all, the whole process was AWESOME. I was far more involved that I probably should have been with both costuming and concessions... next time I will stick to just costumes. It was all quite a challenge, but
since I had to drive across the county to take her to rehearsals it made sense to keep myself busy.

I really, really wish I had a recording to share with you all, but alas, I do not. As it is a Rogers and Hammersteim production, the school program is sworn to a strict no-recordings contract. But I will add some photos to this post.

Meanwhile, I heard comments like "I didn't know she could sing like that", and "Your daughter is amazing". Man, it makes all of the hard work and driving well worth it.

Next up, Much Ado About Nothing, Sixties style.

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New "Time Engineers" Educational Game (Giving away 2 copies)

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:17:00 +0000

Last week, Happy Elf Mom wrote about Christmas Shopping and was having a hard time justifying purchasing gifts that would soon end up in the toy bin or some other miscellaneous corner.

Coincidentally, I received a sample of an educational video game, that I know would be perfect for her kids.
Time Engineers is video game/learning tools. If you remember Math Blasters, Where in the World is Carmen Santiago, and Learning Adventures, you will be glad to know that this game has made learning while
playing even easier, than those games that, by the way, are difficult to find for modern operating systems.

In just one hour sitting of playing this video game, I learned to write numbers in Binary code. I also determined how many men it would take to move a large block up a ramp and how steep that ramp would need to be, for optimum cost effectiveness. I.E. I figured out how to build a pyramid.

The game is built on time travel, where kids can visit different time periods to such as Egypt 2560 BC, London England 1940 BC, and France 1238 BC. Students can learn through trial and error (ideal for upper elementary and middle school) as I did in with the Pyramid exercise, or they can learn to use equations (ideal for 9th and 10th graders) as I did when writing binary code. This is just a sampling of what can be explored through this game.

If I had to give the game any criticism it would be that it is obviously a learning tool. While it is in game form, there is no mistaking the glaring educational value. I would love to see such a program that is a little more slick about presenting the educational side. I think that would get it more hours of playtime without them feeling like they are doing "schoolwork". Still, I know parents will love it, and homeschoolers especially will want to get their hands on a copy of this game for Christmas. It's hard to not justify buying something educational.

I am going to send Happy Elf Mom a copy of this game, just as a thank you for being so awesome. I have a couple more copies to give away, but to get it you need to help me get some attention to this blog post. Here's what you have to do:

1. Tweet this blog or blog about it post mentioning "Time Engineers Giveaway" or "Time Engineers Homeschool Special"
2. Use the following link in your post https://www.facebook.com/pages/Software-Kids/288483626760
3. Leave a comment here (to point me back to your post or tweet)

Learn more about Time Engineers:

Notes from the developer: "I wanted to make learning fun and productive for children instead of the usual violent type of video games that are out there on the market today. Below is a link to highlight my FREE catapult exercise (1 of 8) in Time Engineers along with a short description on content."

"It is designed to enable a wider age group to experience the game and educational content. Because it is designed as a "trial & error" approach to science, technology, engineering, and math, younger kids (11 & 12 year olds) can do the simulations just by selecting different inputs to see how they relate to each other. Teens can dive deeper into the "info" sections on each simulation to see the data used and principles for each simulation. Older teens can do the math problems found in the info sections and work out their answer all on paper, then "plug-in" their answer in the simulations to see if their calculations are correct.

Sample game: Catapult Module Web Link: http://www.software-kids.com/te_catapult.html

Subject Matter: Algebra (linear expressions), Physical Science and Technology (forces and motion, pulleys, gears) and History (Middle Ages)

1.Flight or trajectory of an object

2.Velocity and kinetic energy of an object

3.Conservation of Energy principle

4.Newton's second law of motion

Special for Homeschoolers: If you want to go ahead and get a copy, here is a “home school” link with a $5 savings to all home school parents. http://www.software-kids.com/html/home_school-edition.html

Deadline: I need to close this out by the 16th so I can get the winners copies in the mail before Christmas.

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If I disappear for a week or so

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:36:00 +0000

If I disappear for a week or so, It's because I am having a White Christmas. First Thanksgiving, then Tech week.

Homeschool update Nov, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:22:00 +0000

Video Transcript

I have so many things to talk about that I am going to go ahead and make an update compilation video. So here goes:

It is November 21st. So, my son graduates in April so we've done 4 months of the homeschool year with five months to go. We are almost to the halfway point and I find myself correcting some miss-steps that we took this year.

Major Miss-step: Using online schooling through the public school system for the first time in my son's senior
year. It is interesting because I always advised against using it but I figured, It's his senior year, we're going to make it easy. He only has a couple of things he has to do and even those are optional, and it will give him a taste of what it is like to work with teachers.

So.... yeah-NO. It's not turned out well. We are using Georgia Virtual School and as far as I can tell, there are two issues. The first issue is that it is online and there isn't much of any teacher contact. There is a once a week chat session and it just happens to be at a time when my kids are not available, for any of their classes. So if they have classes or anything, they can call the teachers on the phone between 9 and 5. But my kids are so busy and they are most likely to need help in the evenings, so that just hasn't helped. So they haven't been able to get as much guidance as they needed. Second, there are some software issues and they have been updating the system, I think, once a month since they started. There was a major update a few weeks ago and it so happened that it coincided with the week my kids were out of town to participate in the Bob Jones University High School Festival, which is the Arts, and Theater, and all that competition. So before they left they did all their work and uploaded (or downloaded) all their work into their drop box. They are away doing their thing, and my son decided to check on his grades and finds that his dropbox is empty. So I contact the teachers and said the drop boxes are empty.... My son's teachers agreed to let the him turn in this assignments late and my daugthters teacher agreed to think about it. (Still they ended up with zeros for several assignments) And what it resulted in was them going from like B students to D students. It is unacceptable because had they had more teacher interaction they would have been A students and if there had not been a software problem, even without teacher interaction, they would have been B (or even C) students. So I have a serious problem with that.

So what are we going to do? We are kinda going to start over. Yeah, with 5 months to do. So I looked at the other curriculum and I've compared what they have gone over unit-wise with the other curriculums that I normally use, which are Hippocampus.com (my son was taking physics) and for my daughter, Rosetta Stone (she was taking Spanish 2). So I am going to have them review and take the tests for those and then carry on as if they had always been using these curriculums that I normally use anyway.

So, do I say don't use the Georgia Virtual School? I wouldn't say that. And actually my son is going to stay in the Financial Math Class and if we are not happy with that grade, I am going to have them do Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace for extra credit, and just add that to his grade. So I wouldn't say don't use Georgia Virtual school. I would say use Georgia Virtual School if there is a chance that the child will be going back to school, because they will accept those grades more readily. I'll also say only use Georgia Virtual School if your your child follows traditional school hours. If you have been homeschooling for as long as I have and homeschooling has become and integrated part of your lifestyle and you have your own special cycle and rhythm, chances are, that your child does not keep normal school hours. So if your child does not keep normal school hours, and they don't NEED a public school grading system that's going to be accepted by the public school, I would strongly recommend that you find something else.

OK? On to happy news.

My son has been accepted by all three colleges he applied to, all with scholarships to all three of those colleges, some better than others. The one he most wanted didn't give as much money as he needed, for us to be able to afford it without hocking the house and closing a retirement account to be able to pay for it. But we said nothing. We just laid out the numbers in front of him and said, here's how much cash we have for you every year. The rest will have to be taken out in loans (we also talked about competing for additional scholarships) of some sort, and even if we take out those loans in our name, you are going to have to help pay them back. He opted for the college with the largest scholarship and the one that most closely meet our finances. ... And it's a good college, and it's a Christian college, and they actually have a better reputation in what he wants to take than the college he really wanted, so It's a happy thing and it's all good. So that's wonderful. I am very excited about the college search being done. (For the first kid anyway).

So, we are about to go into tech week (which I've written about before.) Tech week is when Drama club takes over our lives. Our houses fall apart from an inability to shop, clean, or do anything else other than drive back and forth to the theater, and watch shows (and work on shows). It is also a time of great illness, as everyone tend to get sick from the kids all breathing so close to each other and passing that on to their families. But it is an amazing time to watch these kids get better and better in their acting and theater. And most of the kids are looking forward to a future in theater including and especially my daughter who plans to go into theater and costuming.

So that's where we are at. If you have any questions about homeschooling; anything in particular you want to know, go ahead and drop a question. It helps me have a reason to make a video log because otherwise I just can't think of anything. I mean, I know what I know, but I don't know what you want to know,

So until next time... thanks.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:08:00 +0000

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, which can be difficult to do in Atlanta.

However, my daughter's homeschool drama club at Artios Academies is doing Irving Berlin's White Christmas, the musical. I am telling everyone that will listen "you will be upset if you miss this." You will.

Here's a teaser from the actual Broadway Show:
She is playing the older lady you see at 0:12 in the video. The role is Martha, a wise cracking former Broadway star. She has an amazing solo and a couple other fun songs. Her role is mostly comical. Of course, she's not the only kid in the play. There are others.

To find out more about the show, check out the facebook page and the White Christmas blog.

Listen to me. These kids are really talented. This is not your school-type play. They are pre-professional and serious actors competing regularly (and winning) in programs like Christians in the Theater Arts (CITA), Bob Jones High School festival and the GA Shakespeare festival. THEY CAN ACT.

So come on out and see the show. You won't regret it.
Thursday, Dec 8, 7pm Friday, Dec 9, 2pm and 7pm Saturday, Dec 10, 2pm and 7pm

Thursday, Dec 8, 7pm Friday, Dec 9, 2pm and 7pm Saturday, Dec 10, 2pm and 7pm at Red Clay Theater Duluth GA
Tickets are available online at www.artiosacademies.com/gwinnett Adults: $10 Children: $8
For groups of ten or more, tickets are available at the reduced rate of $8 per ticket.
Please email lstill@artiosacademies.com to order group tickets and inquire about other group incentives! Everyone is invited!

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Black students not expected to excel... not in my school district.

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:33:00 +0000

I will give the link here for you to read the article yourself in case I am mis-interpreting it.

As I see it, Gwinnett County wants freedom from state education mandates. Such a mandate dictates things like required instructional time and class size. To avoid these mandates they must create and sign an agreement with the state called IE2 contracts.

So far, it sounds fair enough. Meet reasonable benchmarks, set your own rules. Cool.

The details of the agreement are the problem. Simply put, They set acheivement standards of African American Students lower than that of White and Asian students. Also, standards for hispanic students are set just above that of students with disabilites, and ESOL students are even lower than that.

This is very telling. Approximately 40% of white and Asian students are expected to meet benchmarks. Meanwhile just 25% of blacks are expected to meet the same standards. It just spirals down for Hispanic students.

There is a mindset here that is troubling at best. This tells me that my African American child is not given the benefit of doubt that he or she can meet the same standards of their white neighbor. Meanwhile, they live next door to each other. We may even go to the same church, and be on the same sports teams. Heck, they may even be best friends. But because my child is perceived to be less academically strong, for no other reason than the color of their skin, they will surely not be given the same kind of attention in the classroom.... because... why bother? We don't expect much of the anyway.

And people wonder why we homeschool.

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My first homeschool purchase

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:16:00 +0000

Happy Elf Mom asks what was your first homeschool purchase. Turns out I still have it, use it, and recommend it. It is the Kingfisher History EncylopediaI also checked out a ton of homeschool instructional and motivational books from the library, purchased a giant children's bible that my daughter takes with her when she babysits, and a childrens dictionarythat I gave away to another homeschooling family when my kids graduated to a big kids dictionary.

These are the exact books I purchased at my first homeschool fair.
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I have little faith in the school's ability to protect our children

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:30:00 +0000

I don't feel our local schools (this school is in my general area) are so bad that this could happen to anyone at any moment, but the schools have a reputation of being unable to respond quickly to emergency situations. Just recently, my nephew was there when his friend died in a local school. He may have lived if the people in charge had reacted more quickly and gotten him to a hospital in time. FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
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Kids are what you feed them.

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:44:00 +0000

I'm not talking about food.

Transcript:

So, crime is running rampant in Atlanta Schools lately, but it's not the kids. A former bookkeeper, at Jefferson High School, Stone Mountain, agreed to a 10 year sentence after being convicted of using a school card to buy more than $10,000 in products for her personal use. ...And this money was meant for school activities. And before that Chyrokessia Rucks was sentenced to 15 years probation after
stealing $2300 ($23,000) from Stone Mountain High School.

I mean, first of all, that tells me that there is too much cash and checks going through the school. They need to use maybe an online acconting method where parents make payments online for any school business so that money is not handled because apparently no one can be trusted with it. And all school purchases need to be triple signed, apparently. But if you cant trust the people that are running our schools, who can you trust? How can you expect kids to come out with great values when the people policing them don't have good values. It's quite disturbing.

As a homeschooler, I am not saying that that makes us better than them (public school families) because it does not. Interesting thing is, I find that all of my worst qualities are all of those same qualities I see in my kids that I am not crazy about. I can be a little agressive. I can be a little loud. And so, my daughter is a little loud and a little agressive. So basically, they are what they eat. They are what we show them. So in raising our kids, and teaching our kids, and caring for our kids, we need to put our best examples forward. And maybe over time, that will change us to be better persons, and there's no reason we should not expect the same from the schools.

So yeah, these people are being prosecuted and going to jail, and I don't feel bad for them because if the kids don't see from example that when you steal, you go to jail, then they are going to wonder why they are sitting in jail for stealing.

And that's all I have for today. Bye.

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Homeschool rant, testing, online class drama

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:46:00 +0000

Transcript with corrections:

Ok, so this is my 2nd homeschool video in as many days. I'd like to promise that I'll do this daily because I really want to, but I'm not going to do that.

If you see me looking off a lot, it is because my screen on my laptop is busted, and I use a monitor, and I like to look at myself.

So what I want to talk about today...

So, here is Atlanta, there's been this huge testing scandal, and a bunch of public elementary schools (and I'm not really in Atlanta, I am north east, so it's not exactly my school, but it's close enough for it
to matter)... in a bunch of the schools, the teachers and the administrators doctored the standardized testing of ~~homeschooled~~ (meant to say public school) students. And today it was announced that while they won't lose accreditation, they will lose control, or lose local control of schools, and the state is going to take control of the schools for some amount of time. The good news is that the cheating happened to years ago, and last year while they were under scrutiny, the testing actually came out well.

... And it's just sad. It makes me sad because it seems that all school is about is numbers. Can we get these kids to answer questions to get a certain percentage of overall answers right to make it look like we are teaching our kids properly? It just frustrates me because when we are dealing with test scores, in order for kids to do well, someone has got to do badly. I mean, what good is everyone getting 100%? It doesn't show anything. It just makes it like like the test is easy; and that's what's happening anyway.

(Husband singing)

So it just seems like in order to have success, you also have to have failure, and that just leads to another source of frustration I am having today.

My kids are out of town. They're not here. Every year they go to Bob Jones University (which is another story altogether) to compete in an arts festival they have chorus, and drama, and all that other yummy stuff. ... And it's good to have that classical training. It's good to go to a place that while your ideals may not all match up, you're exposed. You know, that whole exposure, socialization thing, right?

But before they left, they did all of their online work. I have them doing Georgia Virtual ~~Academy~~ (School) this year, just for two classes for my son, and one class for my daughter. I just wanted them to try something different. Have them work with some teachers before they go off to college, so they can see that different teachers are going to expect different things. Well, that's what happened.

So, they did all of their work on Friday before they left. As a matter of fact, they got it done pretty much Thursday, early Friday, and the due dates are every other week, so they are not worried about it this week, they can catch up, you would think. So they did all of their work, and before they left they got an email that said servers are going to be down Friday night until Monday morning, and you'll have an extension to make sure all of your work is done, and where like whatever, the work is already done, so it's no big deal.

So my son get's a bad feeling and he checks his iPhone to find out that the work he has done is missing. So, he's out of town, and he can't get an internet connection, (Bob Jones University locks down the Internet) it's going to be a struggle to get it, and so he's getting zeros. Yeah. And for my daughter, I figured that if something is wrong with my son's stuff that I should go check my daughters and I emailed the teacher and the last things that she did, that she uploaded Friday, the last day, are missing.

And you think... OK, upgrade to website, some things got muddled or whatever, so my son's teacher are cool. They're like, well, he's a very good student, he's not in the habit of forgetting things, we really think something happened data-wise. My daughter's teacher is like yeah, whatever. We'll see when she submits the stuff, if it's time stamped. I don't know if the stuff is time stamped! I mean, I guess we'll see. And what it tells me is that I chose to deal with the public school system with these classes just for a different experience, and I got what I asked for (because it's free).

It's more important to follow these rules and get the data in so that scores can be made. That's more important than them actually "getting" material. So in a couple of chapters, my son is struggling. He can't linger on those chapters, at all to learn it. He has to say, OK, I don't know that material, but I've got to move on to the next chapter. And in my daughter case, she feels like she's learned more about Spanish than she's ever learned, the curriculum is AWESOME, but she keeps running into these technical issues (she's not a big computer person) that are knocking her grade down. So, I guess it is something that we have to suck up because my son is in college next year, and my daughter is in college the next year and there's going to be a whole lot of sucking up to do. They are going to have to learn how to talk to the professors when things are going wrong, let them know in advance... find out how they can raise grades and the whole deal.

But on the homeschool realm, while there may be some value with dealing (with this) in the later grades, which my kids are doing, as a younger child, WHY? Why would you do it that way when the child should be actually learning, and not learning how to pass tests, and not learning how to make grades?

So. That's my rant for the day. Until next time, bye.

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A bit of encouragement for homeschoolers

noreply@blogger.com (ahermitt) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:03:00 +0000

Be encouraged and don't second guess yourself. If you allow your homeschooled kid to be themselves, you will be very happy with the end results. Just hang in there, and teach them well, and provide opportunities for exploration. There will be rewards in the end.

Transcript:

HI, it's A. Hermitt and I wanted to give a little encouragement for homeschoolers. I know, from day one, when I began homeschooling, I was always worried. Just worried that I might not be doing the right thing. Worried that I might not be giving my kids all that they need. Worried that someone was going to prove me wrong and show that I wasn't homeschooling (correctly). Worried that the out come of our homeschooling was going to be less than what others around us were doing.

This weekend really helped me to overcome that. Basically, just from the experience. I'm not saying that I won't continue to worry. My son son is 17, he'll be starting college next fall, my daughter 15,
and she'll be a senior next year. And I am going to keep worrying probably until they are married with children, and working, and, you know, living their lives.

But this saturday, we took my son up to a college (that had already accepted him). But it is his second choice college, he still is waiting to hear what his first choice college has to day. It is so refreshing to see how accepted homeschoolers are by college recruiters. A friend of his also goes to this college and he was homeschooled and the recruiter just knew him and this kid was so popular. We couldn't walk anywhere without someone stopping and talking. And I guess it's that kids nature, but it just goes to show that homeschoolers are not unsocialized by nature. Homeschoolers each have their own individual personalities. For example, my son IS quiet. So people might look at me and say, see, this child hasn't been socialized properly. But my son's been quiet always. When he was in preschool (private traditional school) the teacher was actually under the impression for like 5 MONTHS that he couldn't speak at all! So, ummmm, he's speaking now (chuckle). So that's a thought.

So the interesting thing is that when we sat down to talk with the recruiter, after we'd said "hi" and had all of the pleasantries, and he'd spoken to my son a little bit, just introductions, and then he said, you're going to have to excuse me but, I need to know more about homeschooling because I have an 8 month old and I've taught in public schools and I think I want to homeschool my kid (big grin).

I mean, that was fabulous, and it just went on from there. And it's a good chance that my son's second choice college may just be my his (Freudian slip) first choice college, because the attitude of the recruiter at his college... we'll see what his first-choice college has to say. But he was offered scholarships that will probably cut the tuition in half, so that won't hurt either.

... And he's just and average student. He's specktacular in that he's himself. He's specktacular in that he's his own person. I didn't create a mastermind super-brain. I just let my kid be my kid. I let my kid go where he wanted to go and let my kid do what he wanted to do. (In saying go where he wanted to go and do what he wanted to do, that doesn't mean running the streets with a bad crowd, and getting into whatever they want, if just means exploring and seeing what fits them and what doesn't. And it worked out, and it's working out, and it's going to continue to work out. ... And I am encouraged, and I want you to be enouraged, so , thank you. FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
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