Thursday, December 3, 2009

How to Find Homeschoolers

Finding local homeschoolers to connect with has been a constant battle for us since day one. The problem is that most homeschooling families prefer to remain anonymous and not publicize that they homeschool. This makes your job of finding friends for your kids even harder.

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We live in a very small town in rural Quebec, with a permanent population of about 1,500. As such, we are the only homeschooling family in the entire township. When we first started homeschooling, the nearest homeschoolers were people we already knew who lived 45 minutes away and across the US border… and they’ve since moved to Nova Scotia.

So how did we find other homeschoolers? The first thing I did was look online. I found as many homeschooling forums as I possibly could and posted messages stating where we live, what “geographical radius” we’re looking for, how many kids we have and their ages.

I found 0 homeschoolers.

I waited a few months and tried again.

Nothing.

Eventually, someone 20 minutes away posted at a forum saying they were looking for homeschoolers in our region. That has worked out extremely well – we meet with them every week and have developed a priceless friendship over the last three years. However, their kids are more our daughter’s age and younger, so our son was still feeling a bit lonely. Homeschooled boys over the age of six are a rarity around here.

Since our children have been in public school, we have no reason to remain “under the radar”. So I decided to try putting up posters. I kept the text brief so as not to turn anyone off who might choose a different homeschooling style, or who might be looking for kids of a different age, etc. For now, I just wanted to see who was out there, get to know each other and build a community. The only thing I wrote on the poster was:

Homeschoolers!
Seeking families interested in group activities.
Contact Kim at (555) 555-5555.

I created an area at the bottom where people could tear off a tab with my name and phone number on it. (Of course, here in Quebec the poster has to be bilingual, so it wasn’t as bare as it might seem!)

I put the poster up in the following locations:
• Every library within the region that I was willing to drive to for events/outings
• Health Food stores
• Pharmacies
• Grocery stores
• Banks

The library is the most important location for the simple fact that no matter what method of homeschooling families choose and no matter what their reasons for homeschooling, most homeschoolers use the library unfailingly! I chose to put posters up at Health Food stores because people who homeschool tend to make alternative choices. The other locations were chosen purely because everyone uses them and I hoped to hit the largest audience that way.

I received two calls from those posters. One was from a family with children exactly our kids’ ages. That worked out well for a while, but they too have since moved away. The other family has younger children, but they’re great people and we have been so happy to connect with them.

It’s taken some time, but by finding those first few families, through them, we’ve now connected with two groups. One is a group of 15 relatively new homeschooling families (mostly with young children) 20 minutes from us. The other is an established group with 45 families about an hour from here. While we won’t drive an hour every week to meet with them, we’ve joined their Yahoo group so that we can learn about activities and join those that are close or are particularly interesting. We also make sure to post activities we’re planning, in the event that any of them feel like driving out our way.

We are also not shy to go outside the homeschooling community. Homeschoolers are always our first choice because not only do they tend to be like-minded people, but their schedules are more flexible for activities and outings. Our children have both participated in after school programs run by the local youth centre, which has helped keep them from feeling so isolated.

Our son is now back in public school, in part due to the lack of homeschooled boys in the area, but I’m confident that with these new connections we’ve made recently, that our daughter will continue to thrive and enjoy learning in the home environment.

I wish you the best of luck in your homeschooling journey!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Locking Google SafeSearch

Most homeschoolers rely on the Internet as an integral resource, but online safety is always a concern. Parents now have an additional tool at their disposal to help prevent their children from seeing inappropriate material on the Web. Google has implemented “SafeSearch” which gives parents the ability to password protect the filter settings of the popular search engine.

You’ll find instructions (complete with a demo video) here on how to set up this free service:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/locking-safesearch.html

Happy *Safe* Surfing!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Video: Birth of Live Elephant!

This incredible video shows the birth of a live elephant!
http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/656611/d1dfcfee/live_olifant_geboorte_tv.html

It is a bit graphic, so you may want to preview it before showing your children.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Learning Through Video

Here are some links to free online educational videos. As always, please preview all websites before allowing your children to visit them. I have not thoroughly verified every one of these links, and cannot be held responsible for inappropriate content.

If you would like to report a broken link or suggest a link to add to this list, please send me a comment and I will review your request when I moderate the comment. Thanks!

Learning Through Video: General
http://studio4learning.tv/
http://www.homeschoolviewtube.com/index.php
http://www.ted.com/
http://www.bodocus.com/ (Full length documentaries)
http://www.teachertube.com/
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/


Learning Through Video: Economics
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279 (Money as Debt)


Learning Through Video: Health
http://www.brainpop.com/health/seeall/


Learning Through Video: Language Arts
http://pbskids.org/lions/songs/ (Reading)
http://www.brainpop.com/english/seeall/


Learning Through Video: Math
http://www.brainpop.com/math/seeall/
http://www.learner.org/resources/series32.html?pop=yes&vodid=741044&pid=871#
http://countdown.luc.edu/


Learning Through Video: Science
http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/656611/d1dfcfee/live_olifant_geboorte_tv.html Birth of Elephant
http://www.brainpop.com/science/seeall/
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/


Learning Through Video: Social Studies
http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/seeall/


Learning Through Video: Misc.
http://mathusee.com/blog/?s=greek (Greek Alphabet)
http://www.brainpop.com/earthday/ (Earth Day)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/programs/ (NOVA videos from PBS)
http://www.storyofstuff.com/ (The Story of Stuff - economics, environment)

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

We're Back!

We’re excited to be starting another year of homeschooling. This year is busier than ever, so my plan is to update this blog every couple weeks. I look forward to sharing ideas and resources with you.

To be sure not to miss any posts, click on "Follow Blog" at the top of the screen.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Planet Earth Interactive DVD Game

My nine-year old daughter received the Planet Earth: The Interactive DVD game for Christmas. It's a lot like the Scene It DVD games, but it's based on the highly acclaimed Planet Earth BBC documentary series narrated by David Attenborough.

Our whole family really loves this game! It’s simple and fun, and the questions are informative and interesting. It’s not really competitive; you get a few puzzle pieces for each correct answer, and then put the puzzle together as a group. The last person to place a puzzle piece is the winner, so it's kind of random and not really based on who had the most correct answers. The puzzle is, appropriately, a picture of the earth. The footage is from the documentary series, and is absolutely spectacular.

If you haven't seen the documentaries, I highly recommend them as well. There are 5 DVDs, each with three 45 minute "episodes" on them, based on a specific theme (like caves, polar regions, etc). You can buy them as a complete set or individual discs, and they’re quite affordable.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Homeschool Social Register

http://www.homeschoolmedia.net/register/

I think this website is a brilliant idea, because it allows homeschoolers anywhere in the world to connect with other homeschoolers in their area, without giving any personal information. You can browse by country, province/state, or city. It is immediately evident if a location has no listings, so you don’t have to randomly click each town to see if anyone has registered. Those with more listings are more prominently displayed.

In time, as it becomes more popular, it would allow us to see how many homeschoolers there are, and where they are most concentrated. It’s not an official tally, by any means, but it is interesting to have one central place where we can go to find others in a specific area. Not that it really matters, but I don’t think anyone has an accurate idea of how many homeschoolers there really are, especially considering how much the laws on registering as homeschoolers vary from one province/state/country to the next.

Another bonus is that if you’re thinking of moving or travelling, you could use the site to connect with homeschoolers at your destination.

There are also puplisher listings, articles, and tons of other information that I have yet to explore. The site is a “labour of love, not a business”, as owner, Dave Hirschman puts it, so register today, and help spread the word!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

What if Dad’s Not Convinced?

So, you’ve started to research homeschooling and have decided you want to give it a go, but your spouse is not convinced?


That’s the situation I was in, and while my husband has always been a huge supporter of everything I do, he was leery of going against the grain on this one. This is, after all, our children we’re talking about. He has every right to be concerned for their well-being.


If your spouse is not convinced, keep in mind that s/he wants the best for your children, just as you do. We parents may not always have the answers, but the decisions we make are usually based on what we feel is the right thing to do at the time. Hind sight is 20/20 vision, but that doesn’t help now, does it?


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If you’re the one doing all the research, you may find yourself getting more and more comfortable with the idea of homeschooling with every article you read and every forum you join. If your spouse is not reading what you are, it’s unlikely his/her comfort level is changing. In fact, s/he may even be hearing horror stories from family, friends or co-workers about that one homeschooling family that lived in a mud-hut at the top of a mountain, ate nothing but raw meat and goat’s milk, and danced naked around a fire making sacrifices to the Gods, whose teenagers can’t do algebra because the parents don’t believe in it and they cower at the thought of talking to anyone who wears anything but homespun wool.

You can see how your spouse would be concerned, can’t you?

While you’re building your confidence that this could be right thing for your family, your spouse is confronting the naysayers without having the answers to their objections. S/he may feel ill-equipped to handle all of the seemingly-logical concerns expressed by the people closest to him/her.

When discussing the possibility of homeschooling, don’t just try to convince your spouse, encourage him or her to read up on the topic as well. Since your spouse respects your opinion, you should be able to ask that he or she at least give you the benefit of the doubt and read some of the same materials that you have. After s/he has read some of the same books, websites and articles, you can then sit down together and have an informed discussion about the topic.

I think the most important thing you can do is to articulate to your spouse that homeschooling doesn’t have to be a permanent decision. You can decide each year if you want to register your child in school or not. The public school system can’t refuse to accept your child’s registration, so there’s nothing to lose by trying. Honestly, even if you did nothing, your children would still learn. You couldn’t stop them if you tried!

I’ve heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. If you don’t try something new, you’ll never know if it will work or not. Just don’t burn any bridges at the school, so in the event that your child does return, you will still have a good relationship with the teachers, staff and other parents.

If you’re open-minded and willing to change course if things aren’t going well, you won’t have any problems. It’s not about being right or wrong, it’s about what’s right for your children right now. That could be very different from one year to the next. If you try homeschooling and it doesn’t work out, at least you’ll know and can then focus on helping your child have the best public school experience possible, instead of yearning for him/her to be home with you.

In our case, after great discussion, my husband said, “If you feel that strongly about it, I’ll support you.” And does he ever! He’s now such a huge fan of homeschooling, because he can see the results for himself. We’ve never once regretted out decision, but we still re-evaluate every year. This year, we’re homeschooling. Next year, who knows? I don’t see us stopping any time soon, but you never know what life will throw at you.

It’s so tricky when parents disagree on what’s best for their children. No matter how compatible you may be, there will always be times of disagreement. You can’t force your spouse to accept homeschooling as a viable option, but you can do your best to convey that it’s not permanent, and it won’t do permanent damage to just try it. Maybe it won’t work out, but what if it does? What if it’s better than you imagined? Wouldn’t you be glad you tried it? If it’s not something that works well for your family, all you have to do is stop by the school to fill out a few forms.

If you don’t try it, you’ll always wonder if you should have. If you do try it and it doesn’t work out, you probably won’t regret trying it, but then at least you can stop wondering.

Our only regret is not homeschooling sooner.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Virtual Field Trips

Virtual Field Trips: Animals & Nature
http://www.virtualfishtank.com/main.html (Virtual Fish Tank)
http://toadhaven.com/Virtual%20Surgery%20and%20Dissection.html (Surgery & Dissection)
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/00/earthpulse/reef/reef1_flash.html (Great Barrier Reef)
http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/ (Birth of a Hummingbird – photos)
https://www.brookfieldzoo.org/shell/?nSection=9&PageID=248&nLinkID=22 (Brookfield Zoo)
http://www.homefires.com/click?polarbearsinfobook (Polar Bears)
http://www.tortoise-tracks.org/dtna/tour.html (Desert Tortoise)
http://www.kidsfarm.com/ (Farm)
http://sfbayvirtualvoyage.com/virtualbay/ (San Francisco Bay – animated)


Virtual Field Trips: Industry
http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/about_alcoa/dirt.asp (Aluminum)
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/swstmpl.asp?url=/Content/dep/solidwaste/facilities/tours/mrf_tour1.asp (Recycling Factory)
http://www.primoviolins.com/ViolinTour.htm (Violins)
http://www.tshore.com/Default.aspx?tabid=63 (Book Factory)
http://www.kog.com/Tour/Tour1.html (Glass Factory)
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_tours/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=vtShell (US Mint)
http://www.exploratorium.edu/chocolate/?CFID=6336981&CFTOKEN=58148546 (Chocolate)
http://online.recordnet.com/projects/churro/project.html (Churro)


Virtual Field Trips: Museums
http://americanart.si.edu/interact/index.cfm (Smithsonian American Art Museum)
http://wahooart.com/ (Art Museum)
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/ (Museum of Canada)
http://virtualmathmuseum.org/3dxmTovmmTransition.html (Virtual Math Museum)


Virtual Field Trips: Places
http://www.thebeijingguide.com/great_wall_of_china/index.html (Great Wall of China)
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/discovery-atlas-china-revealed-the-great-wall.html (Great Wall of China)
http://www.capecodchips.com/visitors/factorytour.aspx (Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory)
http://www.eduweb.com/amazon.html (Amazon)
http://www.teachersfirst.com/getsource.cfm?id=4963 (Amazon)
http://www.lauriefowler.com/moon.htm (Moon)
http://www.egyptvoyager.com/virtualtours.htm (Egypt)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/explore/sphinx.html (Great Sphnix, Egypt)
http://www.peru-machu-picchu.com/index.php (Machu Picchu, Peru)
http://www.belizeexplorer.com/cgi-local/explorer.cgi?db=explorer&uid=default&view_records=1&ID=*&nh=1&mh=1 (Belize)
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18236 (Point Hope, Alaska)
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow7/mar99/tour/index.shtml (Ireland)
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/persona/k/index.html (Panama Canal)
http://www.kerman94.com/tunnelharry.html (Tunnel Harry - Nazi POW escape Tunnel)


Virtual Field Trips: Science
http://www.medtropolis.com/vbody.asp (Human Body - in English & Spanish)
http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/skywatchers/ontario/wx_office_tour/outside_e.html (Virtual Weather Office - cartoon)
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/ISSRG/index.htm (International Space Station)
http://www.thethinkingbusiness.co.uk/braintour.htm (Brain)
http://periodictable.com/ (Periodic Table of Elements)
http://www.tvakids.com/videos/solar.htm (Solar Power)
http://www.tvakids.com/videos/wind_turbines.htm (Wind Turbines)
http://www.tvakids.com/videos/fossil.htm (Fossil Power)


Virtual Field Trips: Various Field Trips (more than one topic per site)
http://www.edheads.org/
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000995.shtml
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/vft.htm
http://www.efieldtrips.org/

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Online Art Games

Here are some links to free online art games. As always, please preview all websites before allowing your children to visit them. I have not thoroughly verified every one of these links, and cannot be held responsible for inappropriate content.

If you would like to report a broken link or suggest a link to add to this list, please send me a comment and I will review your request when I moderate the comment. Thanks!

Art
http://artyfactory.com/
http://www.freerice.com/index.php?&t=18232799554&s=Famous%20Paintings **
http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/explore.cfm
http://www.alifetimeofcolor.com/
http://www.howtodrawit.com/ (How to Draw)
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/smartkids/home.html (Interactive smARTkids)
http://www.tuxpaint.org/ (DL )


** For every correct answer, 20 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program

DL = Download (must be saved in your computer to run)