The Monthly Chat


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Printable bits of wisdom, ideas, and reflections for your friends and
homeschool group, from the members of HomeschoolClassifieds.com
Opinions expressed are those of the individual authors.
©1997-2009 HomeschoolClassifieds.com, Knoxville, TN

 
Other
Results of 25 Years of Home Educating

Having finished the education journey with my last child, I can now
look at the results and see the fruit. We educated 3 children entirely
through high school. We had a picture in mind of what success would
look like. Here's our score card.
One has a great job with a major computer/printer brand which he
landed after his first year of college. He is a valued employee, trusted
with leadership. He is continuing his education through certifications
and college courses while he works.

Two has a chronic illness which keeps him from doing the work he
loves, but he has developed his web and social networking skills and
has increased his knowledge and confidence even as he works at
recovery.

Three attends university where he maintains a 3.8+ GPA as a double
major while working 2 part-time jobs.

Each of these are success stories; rich results of home education.
I am thankful we did not limit our children to our expectations.
dasnyder78
 
Testing
SAT Prep--Begin early

Begin preparing your student for testing early. Standardized testing
experience can begin in early elementary. Even if it is not required,
do it. Overcome whatever aversion YOU have to testing. Your
student needs the exposure.
SAT test prep can begin in 7th grade. Have your child take the PSAT
as early as possible. Readers with wide vocabularies and great
thinking skills do best on the SAT test. But your student can learn
how to take the test so that even if he is not an avid reader, he can
do well. Standardized tests are about test-taking skills. Our favorite
skill building preparation tool was College Prep Genius. With this tool,
students learn what kind of questions to expect, how to think about
the questions and the answers, and more. But it is about the test,
not the academics. The skills for test-taking transfer as thinking
skills. This training helps students learn to think outside their current
experience.
Academics dominate our education-related thinking. Consider moving
test-taking skills up into position under academics.
dasnyder78
 
Homeschool helps
Encouragement--Child Training

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

A very familiar verse. We took this as a promise when we were parenting young children. We did what it took to be sure we trained our children in God's ways. But then as we matured, we began to see results in families we admired that caused us to wonder about the promise. Do you know what I mean? Have you seen children from godly homes depart from the faith? We have. And the easy answer -- ''Must have been something missing in that home. Parents must have failed to train them properly.''--just didn't satisfy. We were missing something!

What is the benefit of training up a child in the way he should go? Proverbs is about God's wisdom. Contrary to the idea that we train a child according to his bent, we must train according to God's wisdom -- train the child's palate for the ''taste'' of God. It is God-centered training, rather than child-centered training. Then when God is the center, we can expect that God will keep the
training going even into adulthood. So it is not about the child leaving the training or our success or failure as parents. It is about God continuing the training as He keeps His own.
dasnyder78