Homeschooling Opinion

[emmiedahl]

Well, I just got an email congratulating my school district for being in the top 5% of Washington districts, so I don't think it is out of the ordinary.

[emmiedahl]

Hi Island Mom and welcome! It sounds like you have a very interesting life.

Also wanted to chime in and say I graduated from a large suburban school district in Texas that offered 4 years of Latin, college calculus, biochemistry, physics, that type of thing. We also had a foreign language club that traveled to the countries of the language you were studying over spring break. Pretty cool, I thought. For Latin, you went to Italy.

Where I live now does not offer Latin. I'm been thinking about on-line Latin or something for the little Starfish. But French for the school stuff. Unlike me, the little Starfish can mimic the sounds and accents so I think they can master it. Any ideas, FJ friends, for an on-line Latin course or other suggestions for learning the dead language?

Does Rosetta Stone offer Latin? We really loved it for Spanish. My son did it when we homeschooled, and still has not encountered a lot of new material; he's in the second year of high school Spanish.

[stacyf]

Oh wow,what was that like? I'm very curious as to what it must be like to grow up in the bush.

It was fun and isolated all at the same time. I lived in a "white" village created to support the surrounding economy. We did have Alaska Native residents but our majority was non native Alaskan so in some ways we lacked the traditions that many youth get from a village experience (both good and bad). I also had cousins and extended family living all over the lower 48 so had many chance to visit outside. Many young people living in Alaska Villages spend very little time outside of their villages and some of their first experiences are either shopping trips or college. I must say that I wouldn't give back my experience for anything. School was a mixture because of the lack of college level courses and I think it worked out for me. Some villages have very dedicated teachers but in the smaller schools it is just impossible to cover everything. I cannot tell you the harm that NCLB has caused in these small schools. Funding for the smallest of schools has become a major issue and some towns/villages have advertised to find students/families to move to town to boost their attendance to a level that is acceptable for state funding.

[YPestis]

Well, I just got an email congratulating my school district for being in the top 5% of Washington districts, so I don't think it is out of the ordinary.

Your school district is probably average, just like most everyone else's around here. I never buy into that "we are the top %" tag that schools like to tout. Every year, our city publishes the SAT scores of graduating classes. All those self-proclaimed "we are the top %" schools ran about above average of the national standard. Hardly top tiered. My school did the same, even bragged about it's "blue ribbon" status (whatever that means). My school was ok, but hardly anything special. It's latin and biochem offerings are fairly common in schools.

I think parents have to seek hard facts when researching schools. They should ask # AP classes, qualifications of teachers (is their expertise in the subject they teach?), SAT/ACT scores, college matriculation, types of colleges etc. Those numbers will tell you if the school is top or not. Just saying "we scored tops in X exam" doesn't help with sending kids to college because the average American child will never complete college. Hence, any metric based off of high school students is artifically inflated.

That said, not everyone child desires to attend college. That's why it's important for parents to research their targeted school districts. It's also one reason I would not consider homeschooling my (future) high school children. There's so much that "above average" public schools can offer which I would be ill equipped to handle. I could hire individual tutors and design my curriculum. However, I know nothing about curriculum design and there may be gapping holes in my design that I'm unaware of. And any hiring of teachers for my child is just extra work a good school district would have done already (with broader resources). Homeschooling young children is doable for most able parents. But if one is comparing homeschooling high schoolers to what a decent public school offers, I feel, academically, it's rare for parents to provide the same quality and variety of offerings.

[snarkykitty]

I'm reminded of my friend's homeschooled daughter who is 19 and makes $200 an hour as a professional harp player. Meanwhile almost everyone I graduated with is working at Starbucks or the movie theatre for minimum wage. ;)

How many hours does she work per week? Is there a lot of demand for a harp player? How long is a typical gig? I bet it causes carpal tunnel syndrome, too. But good for her! I have an appreciation for music even though I can't play any instruments.

[AmyP]

Does Rosetta Stone offer Latin? We really loved it for Spanish. My son did it when we homeschooled, and still has not encountered a lot of new material; he's in the second year of high school Spanish.

We use Classical Academic Press for latin. Latin for Children is great for elementary age and they have a middle/high school program as well. Comes with a video for each latin lesson, a cd, workbook, and some supplementary material.

[clibbyjo]

We use Classical Academic Press for latin. Latin for Children is great for elementary age and they have a middle/high school program as well. Comes with a video for each latin lesson, a cd, workbook, and some supplementary material.

Rosetta Stone does have Latin but its probably $300-$400 as most RS tends to be..We used Rosetta Stone (Spanish)for free from the library for a year and then they got rid of it and went with Mango which I really don't like. I bought another Spanish I like better, but of course everone is starting French .:/ Check your local library, most have free language lessons by just logging in.

[starfish]

Hey thanks for all the suggestions for help with Latin.

I went to school a while back, so it's great to see all the programs for

foreign language that are now available.