Need Some High School Ideas?

Sometimes parents are intimidated with homeschooling high school.  A parent might not feel confident about a certain subject area... perhaps a higher math, or theater arts, or a writing class.  There may be areas where you child need some special help.  It can boost your confidence and your student's confidence as well, to remember that there's beauty in the flexible schedule allowed in homeschooling, especially in the high school years and that there's a lot of options for meeting the various "requirements" when one is homeschooling high school.

Here is a 2013 High School Course Catalog from the Spokane Schools that you can look at.  It's not current, but it will give you an idea  of what credits the local public schools require of their students in each year and what the courses and course content was in the classes they offered.  Seeing the schedule and classes offered might boost your confidence in covering all the required subject areas in your home-based, parent directed and selected, course of study from home.   As you will see, the public school day is not as flexible for public school students as it can be for homeschooling kids.    The catalog says it is used for Ferris, Lewis and Clark, NEWTECH Skills Center, North Central, Shadle, Rodgers, and two more.

If you are not high schooling...  or if you do not have kids in a public high school, please simply remember that here in America, the local public school is accountable to the people who not only use them, but also pay taxes to support them.... and it is important to know and care about what your local public school is teaching, regardless of if you have kids in the public school or not.

The PDF provided at the above link, (if it continues to work, )will supply you with a lot of helpful information.  It also contains a list of tests that public high schoolers are given and a schedule as to when they are usually administered.  There are tips for college admission and even student planning sheets that will give you an overview of a typical public school students day and their course of study when planning to head to college.  Of course, this can all change, as curriculum and educational goals change, but it will give you some direction as you plan ahead. Remember, there are a lot of options that keep parents in the driver's seat regarding their kids educational decisions until they are grown and "driving" on their own.

Also, it can help to know that as a Home Based Student, as a tax paying person, there are ancillary classes for various subjects that may be available.

Regarding ancillary classes, the Washington Homeschool Organization,  reports that:

"Homeschoolers may take "courses" at the public school on a part-time basis. A "course" is defined as any instructional curricular service or activity. They may also avail themselves of ancillary services. These are defined as co-curricular services or activities. Some examples are counseling, testing, hearing tests and speech therapy, etc. While participating at the public school for part-time courses or for ancillary services, homeschoolers remain under the home-based instruction statutes"

HSLDA  The national organization offering homeschoolers legal defense, offers some high school consultants to help you plan too.


There are a lot of  "ancillary classes" available to homeschoolers through tutors and other sources... and yes, some are even offered at the local public school but don't forget.... be aware.... your local public school now-a-days would "rather" you enroll full-time in their " parent partnership program" than homeschool your children on your own.  This is because a school district gets a little bit of funding for your child taking an ancillary class, but they get a lot of money for full time enrolled students.... and a lot of money per student, is better than a little when the dollar is the bottom line.

You must remember that, as professionals who need employment, and as people whose employment depends upon your kids being under their care and supervision for which they are paid, they often dislike homeschooling as an option for education.... unless they have explicit jurisdiction over your time teaching your own kids.  Remember, Home Based Education Laws were never intended to give the teachers employed at the local school jurisdiction over your homeschooling.  In fact, it was the other way around.   The state does not provide funding for people to home educate or  "pay" people to school their kids at home, so make no mistake, schools prefer that you be a full time enrolled public school student than a student schooled at home, because when you are enrolled in their program, schools get more money and they get control.

The parent, in a partnership program is not the "teacher" and the teaching must conform learning to the objectives of school.  Instead, the parent asan  educational "coach,"  does the work of an educational mentor (not "teacher" though that is what a "teacher" is...) under the direct supervision of one "highly qualified teacher,"  Be reminded, that college-graduated and "qualified" parent, even one who has taken a "qualifying course" in order to homeschool legally in our state can legally home school without such oversight.  Parents can be community based instructors, (CBI)  in Parent Partnership programs, and they can be paid, (your tax dollars hard at work) to teach classes at the campus location by the school district, but are never really thought of as being on par with the "highly qualified" teachers.

Anyhow, you may, as a homeschooler, take ancillary classes at the local public school and you may also be able to participate in school sports,and do this without full-time enrollment. 

For more information on how to access sports and classes in regular school (not taught by community based instructors,) view the Homeschool Legal defense Association' PDF on the topic of equal access, here.  Participation in homeschool co-ops, like this one, private tutoring and other private self-pay options for learning is more often recommended by homeschooling support groups and organizations than is taking ancillary classes at school but as a Homeschooling High School Student seeking educational resources, you need to know that there are many options.... including using the local schools.  You can even utilize your child's smarts at the local colleges through the program known as  Running Start.  

The running Start Program allows high school students to take college classes free of charge and earn college credit while in their high school years.  This is done on the college campus or sometimes through teleconferencing classes.  Juniors and seniors must have a GPA of at at least 3.0 to qualify and pass required entrance exams.  Spokane Falls and Spokane Community, as well as Eastern Washington University all offer Running Start.   Unfortunately, Running Start programs  which used to be handled directly at the community college campuses are now accessed through the local high schools, but again, you register there, but do not necessarily have to attend in order to participate.

There's beauty in the flexible schedule allowed in homeschooling , especially in the high school years and there's a lot of options that you can make work for you too.  


Contact  your State support Groups like the Washington Homeschool Organization  and the Home School Legal Defense Association to  has the resource of  you can confer with to help you in your decision to homeschool high school with your teens. 



The link address for the Public School high School Cataloguecatalogue is: (as of July 28, 2015,)
http://www.spokaneschools.org/cms/lib/WA01000970/Centricity/Domain/1434/SPS%20Course%20Catalog%202012-13-proof.pdf

John Taylor Gatto The Public School Model from Prussia, and How it Works for You

Here is John Taylor Gatto.  He's a pertty old guy who says that schools are in the buisness of molding and shaping schildren, not teaching them.

In csse you do not know who John Taylor Gatto is....
Wikipedia describes him as :

".... an American author and former school teacher with nearly 30 years of experience in the classroom. He devoted much of his energy to his teaching career, then, following his resignation, authored several books on modern education, criticizing its ideology, history, and consequences. He is best known for the underground classic "Dumbing Us Down: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling", and his magnum opus "The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling."  John Taylor Gatto was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, before his retiring and additionally, he was named New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991

You can read his biography here.
You can read, The Six Lesson School Teacher, here.

The Extending of Childhood, video bvelow, by John Taylor Gatto. ( read it: here)
(Lengthening of the Period of Dependence.)

Mission Statments for Your Homeschool

“Why did you decide to homeschool?” Someone is bound to ask you that. Why did you?  What is your reason?  Do you have more than one?

People homeschool for many different reasons, and while some others who do not homeschool may not share your exact sentiments, your decision is life changing for you and for your family.  When it comes to actually putting that decision you into practice it will mean a lot to you if later you sit down now with your spouse and maybe your kids and write down some of the reasons  you are choosing to home educate and then list the things you would like to do as a family in your homeschool.  After this, prepare to write a mission statement for your home school.

It's easy.  Begin by thinking about:

• Your reasons for homeschooling.  What are your main goals and objectives in choosing to home school? 
• How you plan to do it?  List some key ideas that you have and possible ways to accomplish your goals.  (Activities, co operatives, classes, sports, )
• Why you are homeschooling and whom you do it for.
• What your family values most.

Writing a mission statement will help remind you in the future of what and why you are doing what you do and keep you on track should things ever get rough or discourging.  Keep in  miind that you can always rewrite your mission statment should things change dramatically, but having even a simple mission statement  for your homeschooling will help you in choosing how you want to begin homeschooling, in making corriculum choices, selecting activities for your family to participate in and besically help define a framework for your to work within.

Be inspired!  A couple of good websites you might want to look at on this topic to inspire you to write you own can be found at Managing Your Blessings and at The Unlikely Homeschool and also The Hmmmmschooling mom.   Knowledge House offers some more advice in this area from Terri Ann Berg Olsen, and she give sample mission statements too.

Public schools write mission statements too.  Here are some from Spokane area regular public schools. (The names of the schools have been omitted.)  Write your mission statment  for your homeschool with confidence knowing that your personal statement for your family will no doubt be as good or better than any of these.  Best of all, it is your own.

"Our vision for School name is to be outstanding and academic, to ready every learner for high school and beyond, and to promote citizenship in a democratic society."

*****

"Staff, students, parents and community will strive to provide a safe and challenging environment which creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and a strong foundation for life-long learning. Through excellence in academics and the use of technology, students will become responsible citizens and complex thinkers."

*****

" School name  is founded on the belief that the education of children is the shared responsibility of families, schools and communities.  We strive to provide a high quality, student-centered education program designed around compelling topics emphasizing the integration of the arts, science and technology.  Our learning environment will provide for multi-age grouping in a collaborative community that celebrates children’s natural curiosity in their quest for knowledge, wellness and service opportunities on their journey to the summit."

*****

"School name will inspire all students to achieve academic success and become responsible citizens."

What Your Child Needs To Know... When

What Must Your Child Learn?

Washington Schools posts a helpful page for parents about understanding of what your child should be learning each year of schooling from Kindergarten until Grade Ten.   For some reason grades 11 and 12 do not exist.

 Read it here in lots of different languages too.

I have slightly modified their text in order to write about it, but for example, in Kindergarten... which is listed here even though children are not required to enroll in school until age eight, (about third grade,) your child will learn:

WRITING
• Knows that an audience exists outside of self and understands writing has different purposes
• be able to analyze ideas, select topics and add details to stories and narrations
• Know and apply spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and paragraphing appropriate to the
grade level as all kindergartners should.

MATH
• Begin to develop basic notions of numbers and be able to use numbers to think about objects and the world around them  (also known as "learning to count")
• Learns what it means to add and subtract by joining and separating sets of objects
• Learns to describe attributes of geometric shapes, such as triangles, rectangles and circles

READING
• Recognizes, understands and applies concepts of print and sounds (Alphabet?)
• Expands oral language skills and gains meaningful vocabulary for reading (letter sounds)
• Demonstrates comprehension by responding in different ways when listening to or viewing text of all kinds (follows directions and can understand the sequence of things...(the beginning middle end of a story)
• Shows interest in a variety of books

SCIENCE
• Learns that scientific investigations involve  trying to answer questions by making observations or
trying things out
• Learns to use simple tools (e.g., pencils, scissors) and materials (e.g., paper, tape, glue and cardboard) to solve problems in creative ways
• Learns about the properties of liquids and solids, objects seen in the sky and the needs of plants and animals

For Kindergarten, that's what the schools have listed as the learning standard.... and Kindergarten is not even "required" by law.... neither is first and second grade.

By the Tenth Grade it gets a little tougher:

WRITING
• Writes for a variety of audiences and purposes, including persuading and explaining
• Analyzes ideas, selects a manageable topic and elaborates using specific, relevant details and/or examples
• Knows and applies spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and paragraphing appropriate to the grade level

MATH (GEOMETRY)
• Formalizes geometrical experiences from earlier grades and uses more precise definitions in developing proofs
• Develops the concepts of congruence and similarity and applies right triangle trigonometry
• Connects algebraic formulas to geometric concepts in order to analyze, model and solve real-world problems

READING
• Shows awareness of vocabulary and comprehension strategies used, especially when encountering
difficult text and/or reading for a specific purpose
• Shows greater ability to make connections and adjust understandings as knowledge is gained
• Continues to increase academic vocabulary

SCIENCE
• Learns to construct sophisticated system models, including the concepts of subsystems, boundaries, flows and feedbacks
• Extends and refines understanding of the nature of inquiry and ability to formulate questions, propose
hypotheses and design, conduct and report on investigations
• Learns that cells have complex molecules and structure that enable them to carry out life functions such as photosynthesis

So... after reading this about your state's learning standards, do you as a parent have any apprehension about you being your own child's primary teacher and being able to provide a great education if you decide you want to homeschool?

A superior help for understanding what to teach when is this.

For Kindergarten

For Tenth Grade

For Twelfth

Military Enlistment and Home Education

"Is your son or daughter interested in a career in the U.S. Armed Forces? HSLDA is pleased to announce that finally, homeschool graduates are free to enlist in the military on the same terms as any other high school graduate."

"The military is significantly downsizing, and it is becoming much more difficult to enlist in all branches. There are many people seeking enlistment and few positions open. The bottom line is the military understands that homeschoolers are legally guaranteed an equal opportunity to enlist, just like graduates of other schools."

Read the HSLDA notice, Armed Forces Finally Accept Homeschool Enlistees on Equal Terms posted March 2014 here.

Stop Common Core!

"Like locally grown apples, the core should be local and exceptional, not common."
Quoted from 
 http://stopcommoncorewa.wordpress.com/

What is Common Core?

http://commoncorefacts.blogspot.com/

An Arkansas Woman Testifies of Problems With "Common Core"
Math via "Common Core" is quite unusual :

 http://stopcommoncorewa.wordpress.com/

Research Common Core!  
This Teacher Did Her Homework, will you?

English in the Common Core Curriculum

Begin your research by exploring what it is like in a Common Core Classroon"

Common Core Middle School Language Arts Class:
(about 6 minutes)

Common Core Reading with Tim Bedley

A "read aloud" with his 4th and 5th Grade Common Core Elementary Classroom   

The book is Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco

(about 23 min)

One Problem Math Class with Tim Bedley
Grade 4/5
(Short 23  min. version)

Here's the "problem" the children are to solve in this video:

Write several different types of equations for 2.4. 

Draw some different types of pictures to represent 2.4. 

Is 2.4 the same thing as the quotient 2 remainder 4? Why or why not?

High School Common Core 
(1 minute Common Core Promotional Video)

Detailed and related video also from The Teaching Channel :   (about 7 minutes)
 "Reading Like a Historian: Philosophical Chairs"
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/reading-like-a-historian-taking-positions

Homeschool Legal Defense Association and Common Core Issues
Lots of Videos @  https://www.hslda.org/commoncore/Video.aspx
HSLDA is in the fight against Common Core because they believe it will harm homeschoolers.

Is Common Core developmentally appropriate for children?
(25 minutes, Sept. 18, 2013)
Dr. Megan Koschnick, child clinical psychologist says, (Emphatically) "No."  She also expresses her concern over the lack of research regarding Common Core.

  

Road to Ruin

"Nationwide, about two-thirds of fourth-grade students read below levels that are considered proficient, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress."

"Only 57 percent of the district’s fourth-graders are passing the statewide writing test... "                                                                                    

Spokesman Review October 2013

Our American educational system is under assault. Nothing new... right?

Listen to the people in this video clip and you will better understand why and what has been done to our educational system and remember, as an independent homeschooler you can actually teach your child to read and write!  They can learn and play which will in turn will prepare them for college and their future work.  It also will not cost the taxpayer a cent!  In public school or in private, remember, YOU are the parent and thereby you are the primary educator of your own children and you must always have a voice in  and over their education!

Watch the 30 minute,trailer video Road to Ruin on You Tube 

Here are some QUOTES from the video:

"You should know that the planned deliberate dumbing-down of America was started in 1898....by Socialist John Dewey....with his attack on the primary school's emphasis on teaching children to read. This emphasis sustained the "capitalist individualistic system" and it produced high literacy whereby the average American could read anything and think for himself."

Samuel Blumenfeld

"What Dewey deliberately ignored was the tremendous language learning faculty that every child is born with, and that teaching a child to read at that early age expands the child's mastery of language which is the key to academic success... Dewey and his Socialist colleagues were determined to change individualist America into a collectivist society."

Samuel Blumenfeld

Regarding School to Work: 

"Education is for the intrinsic enhancement of the individual, because the individual can then continue the culture.... instead of having limited learning for lifelong labor, which is where we are going to, and that is what "School to Work" is. That is what "School Choice" is, that is what linking schools 

and businesses... industry is."

Cynthia Weatherly

"Once you take a government dollar, you have to meet "government" standards."

Cynthia Weatherly

(Speaking to issue of "voucher' legislation.)

Quoting C.S. Lewis, 

regarding the trend of training people 

rather than educating them

 to read and think....

"When training beats education, civilization dies..."                                                                                                                                                          Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt

Learn more about Charlotte Iserbyt here.  (<--- a="" color="#cc0000" font="">must see!")

Free download of her book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

 is available at her website:  http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/

"Schools have been there educating the kids adequately until they were told what the "standards were going to be."

A. Patrick Huff

Commenting on her personal experiences with 

"social promotion," new grouping methods,

 the "whole word" teaching instruction, marking on a curve, 

 intrusive surveys, modern math, faulty textbooks:

"I never dreamed that it was part of a plan to remove God from our lives, to weaken families or to dumb down and stupefy American citizens and foreign students in our colleges and universities..."

Bettina Dobbs

"I was asked to sign a statement..... that promised I would teach the mission of world government."

Jane Aitken

"One day via the intercom, (the principal directed meeting saying, ) "come down to the music room just for 5 minutes after the kids leave, and he put a chair in the middle of the room and said, "We have to start thinking about not celebrating Christmas in school, it's okay if you celebrate the winter solstice, but not Christmas."

Jane Aitken

"Years after I graduated from the international school, I.B.  appeared as an option and I wondered "why?"..... It was obvious that IB intends to create a particular KIND 

of global citizen.  The IB brand is troubling...."

Debra Niwa

on the International Baccalaureate Program

"I still thought it was isolated situation, but it soon became apparent that it was something much bigger... we peeled away and discovered PPBS (planning-programming-budgeting system,) a management form of governance had been superimposed over our Constitutional representative republic, without a shot being fired."

Mary Thompson

"...This insidious plan already has widespread

 support in many quarters, left unchecked, the consequences will be an unimaginable amount 

of power and control over society in the hands of a few." 

Mary Thompson quoting Robert H. Burke

See also Burkes report:

: Education from the Acquisition of Knowledge to Programmed Conditioned Response.  ..

"A false friend is more dangerous than an open enemy"

Kelleigh Nelson

See the brochure for this conference in full   Read about the DVD offered at Amazon here  (Read the reviews) It's titled: Exposing the Global Road to Ruin Through Education (August 2013)

____________________________________________________

Does this stuff affect us here Spokane?  Today?  Yes!   Read these related informational links:

January 2014, Spokesman Review articles on "charter schools" in Spokane

Proposed Spokane Charter Schools Raise Red Flags

School Board Approves Charter Application

Oct 24, 2013 - Spokesman Review article, "Spokane School Principal Offering a Global Perspective"

"At a time when Spokane Public Schools is revamping its curriculum,...."

 Continue reading article here: http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2013/oct/24/spokane-school-principal-offering-a-global/

How we got here:

September 1997 Spokesman Review article, Three Seeking Spokane School Board 

"School-to-work programs? They steal precious time from academics, says McCann. “They’re going to be out in apprenticeships instead of classrooms. Are they missing English? Chemistry?”Parents are losing more and more power over their children’s education, McCann says. “They used to be the primary educators, and now they’re called partners. I really believe they’ve been demoted.”

Spokane Schools "School to Work" 1997 

"Children will begin focusing on specific careers as early as middle school and select classes based on those choices by the time they’re juniors."

Associated Press Article, 1996, Spokesman Review article noting that the superintendent didn't read the application before signing....

"Fox said Idaho may not have had to go through a year of debate if she had taken the time to read the application before she signed. But Karen Fraley, executive director of Idaho’s School-to-Work program, said there likely would have been changes regardless of what the superintendent did.

Idaho "School to Work," 1997

"Some people have criticized School-to-Work for forcing students into a particular career path, or away from college. That’s not the case, according to Henninger. “Mainly you’re trying to help kids understand their strengths, their weaknesses and that motivation plays a part in this (career choice),” he said. “It’s entirely voluntary.”"

Do you live in Nine Mile Falls? Concerned about Education Isues?   Old news for some of us....but you might be int4rested to know...."The Nine Mile Falls School District began education reform (systems education, aka outcome-based, aka performance-based, aka competency-based education) in the 1992/93 school year. "

From WA Labor and Industries (1998)

"Employers involved in School to Work programs are not required to have a Minor Work Permit Endorsement: School-to-Work students learn work skills by doing real jobs in real work settings as a part of their high school program. But they are not really employees and are protected by school district agreements with the employers rather than L&I enforcement of the minor work rules."

Students Learn About Healthy Choices.... a 2003 "School to Work" project:

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=112003&ID=s1442441

Voddie

Voddie Bacham, homeschooling advocate and Christian pastor speaks... on the importance of a Bible Based Education.  This lecture is highly reccomended by many sources including Old Homeschool Magazine.

Need some encouragement?  Listen to this you tube video.

Title: Whoever Controls the Schools, Controls the World...

The Intent to Homeschool

Autumn is in the air.  If your senses are acute, then you can actually feel the seasons changing around you.  When you start feeling like this, you know that soon and very soon, the summer will be but a memory of the past and schooling, of all kinds, will be in full swing.

It's an exciting thing... a new school year.  there is a lot of "newness" to the season.  With new colors on what used to be green trees, we get a new box of crayons with which to color pictures in art class.  There will be new smells in the air, new books on our bookshelves  new challenges to face, new friends in our lives, even a new scope and sequence to ponder over,  If you are bargain shopping in the stores... there will be new clothes, in new sizes and maybe even new shoes on feet to boot!  The newness that this change in season brings about is exciting, but the thing that keeps us anchored to the tasks we do, especially as homeschooling families, is in being convinced of what it is we are doing... and why.  

Homeschooling as a movement has some very deep, robust roots.  It actually began somewhere at the beginning of time, when father and mother looked at their little one and loved them.  Then they helped the little one learn and grow and, the rest is history.   Babies grow up, seasons change and the earth keeps spinning round and round.... but the roots of love.... love of family, love of life and learning, do run deep, and it is these roots that brought the homeschoolinmg movement we see today to the surface of educational choices in our state.  Homeschooling is not without challenges so, a person needs to have a strong conviction and know in their heart that homeschooling, not public or private school is what they want to be doing.... even if only for a season.   Homeschooling success comes from having these deep roots.

With a new year, it's time to begin the school year afresh and thinking new.  It's time to plan curriculum for winter, have an idea of what your kids will be learning what activities you will aspire to be doing in the months ahead.  It's also time to file your intent to homeschool form with the local superintendent's office, because your intent is to provide home based education.  So, as the seasons change and as you file your intent to provide home based education forms with the superintendent's office,  remember, success in homeschooling comes when our intentions are firmly planted in good and fertile soil.  Our roots go deep.... and sometimes the strength to do what we do as homeschoolers comes from sources that are not found anywhere on the surface of things.    

If you are feeling like you need encouragement...find water for your roots!

This means take some time and refresh yourself, read some books, magazines, web-based articles from homeschooling organizations about the beauty and sucessfulness of homeschooling.  You might want to start by clicking on the links above or the links listed on the right....  and remember, your little buds and blossoms couldn't be in better hands than yours.

You might not be an expert on everything, but you love your kids and want the best for them.  You know in your heart, homeschooling or not, it's a parent's place to lead and guide their children to help them grow into the adult people that they will one day be.  Homeschooling is great way to do just that.

Whatever the season, whatever the changes, truth is, a tree with deep, well-watered roots will not topple over in a storm.... and certainly not in a breeze.  In due season it will be fruitful.  It will produce flowers, be food for foraging bees, and even provide shade in summer as well as color the landscape of autumn.  It will fertilize the ground beneath it with it's falling leaves.  And we Christians have heard it before, we know it is true... a tree planted by streams of living water.... will flourish.

A deep rooted belief or conviction that homeschooling, (and particularly with  a Christian Education,) is a great way to educate your children, will help you be strong.  Good sources for learning will help you be the best that you can be.... and it will serve to give your children not only a good well rounded education, but two essential ingredients as they go forth in life.... roots and wings.

Indoctrination Movie

 The movie, Indoctrination, had a special viewing a couple of months ago.  I thought I had already posted this, but I see now that I forgot to post it.  It is never really too late for good information, so I will post it even though it's been a while since the event.  It is a worthwhile film.

Go to the Indoctination website to order your copy of this film.

This event took place at the Moran Prairie Library and room was packed with people of all ages.  The film is a documentary about the Public School System.  In the film, a homeschooling family, the Gunns, take a field trip in a big yellow school bus to learn about the history of the Public School system we have come to know in America.


This independantly produced film is chock full of information about the origin of public education and the men who established it as well as why it was established.  In this film are interviews with men like, Samuel Blumenfeld, John Taylor Gatto, Col John Eidsmoe, Irwin Lutzer, Ken Ham, Bruce Short, Doug Phillips... (just to name a few.)

The producer, Colin Gunn, was there in person to promote the film, answer questions that people in the audience had after the viewing of the movie.  Through the film, as well as in-person he encourages Christian parents to step out in faith to be salt and light in their communities and to their own kids by parenting and educating them rather than subjecting their children's precious young minds to the vain philosophies that drive our public schools... taking note that these philosophies are not only real, but when ignored, work to undermine the honoring of God and his ways, and work to destroy both individual freedoms and innocent lives.


Indoctrination is a film for adults.  I recommend parents previewing this film before watching it with their kids.  It's a film that challenges Christians to examine what is taking place because of these philosophies of public education highlighted in this film and to examine what God's word says about the training and education of the next generations.  I am convinced it is worth watching because it empowers people by giving them hard truth to think about and being a documentary it is also filled with factual, historical information.

Book Sale in Spokane

CHEE New & Used Homeschool Curriculum Fair…  is just around the corner!  We have over 30 vendors, and there will be a large variety of curriculum and resources available.  In addition to used items, we have several new vendors… Sonlight, Usborne, Longbarn Learning, Homeschool Bookshop and Focus on Character.  There will also be a Kids Corner, with a few activities set up, to make it easier for mom to shop.   

CHEE CURRICULUM FAIR

FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 2010

MT. SPOKANE CHURCH
6311 E. MT. Spokane Park Drive

Directions to church: From Hwy 2... go east on Mt. Spokane Park Dr. ( near Yokes Market Shopping Center). Church is about 2 miles down on the left, next to Mt. Spokane High School. From the valley... I -90 to Argonne (north), (Argonne will change names to Bruce Rd.) Follow north past Bigelow Gulch to Mt. Spokane Park Drive. At the roundabout, go left. Church is about a mile down on the right, next to Mt. Spokane High School. 　

10:00am - 2:00pm

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More on ALP's and ALE's and PPP's

" Parent Partnership Programs are not partnerships, rather they are dictatorships. They offer you help in the form of classes and money for curriculum, but in exchange you lose that precious time with your children, and you have to account for everything you do, or don’t do, with them."

                                                                   Dawn Perkins

How about the experiences of others who have been in these public school alternative education programs?  I read this today and assess it is a very accurate portrayal of the differences between homeschooling and parent partnership programs/alt ed .  It is sad, but true, I have heard the story more than once by many people.  Dawn, who writes of her experience, makes honest statements of what her involvement in the program was like.  She calls it, A Fox in the Henhouse.




Posted By Lisa

The Alphabet Soup of ALPs, ,ALEs, and PPPs,...and how they relate to RRR and ABC

Can we talk?
I mean really talk?

This is about Alternative Learning Programs in public schools....ALP"S

ALP, ALE, PPP, whatever they are called, are all basically the same thing... public school,  just with different names.     After I recently found myself looking into what the local ALP ,(called MEPP, Mead Educational Parent Partnership, a subsidiary of Mead Schools here in Spokane,) has to say about itself... I need to talk about it to others who want to know what I have learned.

Read, please, if you will, what they advertise on their web page about themselves... being a public school, tax funded and all, and then, let's talk; or rather, I will write and you can think, about it.  Respond if you like.

They say:

"Throughout Washington State, educators, parents and community members persistently strive to create strong educational models to best meet the needs of students. Several years ago, the Mead Education Partnership Program (MEPP) was developed in response to the desire of community members for a program that could support, enrich and provide resources to the home school community. "

Note: These public school programs, (Alternative Learning Programs or ALPs,) are not newly created programs that sprung up into existence  just for "the homeschool community." They were already in place for students who were labeled by the schools as being "at risk." 

Is your child at risk of not getting a proper education if they are homeschooled by you without their help?  The public school and the NEA behind them, thinks so, so they have kindly opened their ALP doors to the homeschooling community, because they want "every child" to succeed,  in the meeting of public school philosophies and objectives.  On the flipside, homeschooling families have repeated demonstrated that homeschooling works quite well... this is why we have a Washington State Homeschool Law.

Remember that if you choose to homeschool here in WA state, you are at liberty to do so legally under the Home Based Education Law which do not make provision for state funding for your personal project of teaching your kids on your own or sending them to private school.  It also does not have the direct oversight of your local public school.  

Support, enrich  and provide resources?" 

Wait another minute.  Why don;t they do this in the regular classroom at school?  

 Aren't the schools we have supposed to be supporting and enriching everyones' children's education?  Instead, we have issues that make parents want to remove children from the schools.  Instead we see funding being applied to an elite few who have some personal preferences about their own child's personal education.  In Alt Ed programs funding is being doled out by the thousands to provide a special education to just a few simply because they have an interest in homeschooling, which, by law is not to be funded by the state?    

It should be noted that getting students into these programs is financially beneficial for the school district who gets the same money for a student who is doing the Alt Ed program at the school without having to be on campus full time.  This means that they get the money, but do not actually have to teach them or feed them or grade them or monitor their behavior all day long.  It also creates jobs for those same parents who teach classes on school campuses, often to their own students.  

Perhaps what these "community members..." : 

a.) ...want to recapture loss government funds due to lower enrollment nubers as more people choose to homeschool.  This means of course finding more money to give in an already hurting economy.

b.) .....want to make schools accessible to "homeschoolers."  Note though, that homeschoolers can and always has been able to access schools for classes without being enrolled as full time students. in the district.  

c.) ....want funding from the government to purchase their own choice of books materials and classes.  They want the money.

c.) ....to create themselves a job.  Teachers and parents get paid to teach classes.

d.) want to create a charter school where no law in our state for the creation of a charter school has been created.

e.) ... have reasons that are really unknown.

The school district already provides an educational resource that all parents, even parents who homeschool can access that if they need the resources of public education; it's called the local public school.  There are PTOs and PTAs.... there are places for parent volunteers in the classrooms, on the playground and helping to cross the busy streets.  The public education system is a tool that should be used to enrich students on an equal basis... not simply enrich a special group of people who think they deserve enrichment more than others at taxpayer's expense.

As benevolent as it sounds to be responsive to "the community," one would expect public servants to focus on improving the public schools we already have, ones that truly are open to all the public.  Instead, these community members are busy creating private schools for themselves with funds for students who really are in trouble and "at -risk."   

 Once enrolled in an ALE or PPP, a once legal "homeschooler" is no longer "homeschooling," (no longer under the RWC) even though the parent feels like they are and is directly involved in teaching and curriculum choices for their children.  I have been told that the school would hand out and "intent to provide home based education" form and have the parent file it, then have the same parent enroll the potential student in the ALE.  

"At MEPP, the students' education takes place in a variety of locations which may include home, other sites (colleges) as well as the Five Mile Prairie School. Five Mile Prairie School accommodates teaching/learning schedules at home by offering flexible class times.  District approved curriculum is chosen by parent instructors in collaboration with certified teachers."

Students are generally enrolled full time in the public school in order to participate, there is, as there has always been, a possibility of accessing using the ALP program ancillary as a homeschooler   As such, full time students are not homeschooling, though they very well may be doing school at home.  Even if parents are doing some teaching in the home... the parents and the students that they "teach" are not homeschoolers.  They have no longer any jurisdiction in using the Home Based Instruction Law for what they do.  They are in public funded school.

A few questions:
Do these parents now "work" for the state?  
Are they now controlled by the state? 

They now certainly must answer to the state for what is being taught by them to their own children in their home.  They must meet and report to teachers on staff at the school instead of staff reporting to the parents and they must use state approved materials for teaching too.
 
 Our WA law declares that once an intent to homeschool has been filed with the district,  all decisions relating to philosophy or doctrine; selection of books, teaching materials and curriculum; and methods, timing, and place in the provision or evaluation of home-based instruction shall be the responsibility of the parent.  Home School does not mean doing public school at home.  Also, homeschooling is not, nor has ever been a financial burden to tax payers, and homeschool parents have never been the paid employees or financial benefactors of public schools

"Students participate in classes one or more days a week at the Five Mile Prairie School.  Students can meet for Physical Science in their own science room, explore robotics in the media room, enjoy dance in the family room, or choose from a plethora of other classes, all of which infuse current technology."

Family room?   Does your local school welcome family... with such hospitality as this?  

Do all public schools offer  a plethora of other classes... like dance classes and robotics to all their wonderful students?  How about computers;  are they free for all public school kids?
And, do all public schools offer individual reimbursements to student's  parents for extracurricular learning experiences and classes parents hand select for their students?  No.  In fact is many schools lack of funding cuts important programs like art and they beg yearly for donations of tissue, crayons and pencils for use in the public school classroom... instead of buying it in bulk at cheaper prices than parents will pay individually for their own kids.  

In addition to the family room feature, children enrolled in these special programs have had piano, dance and sports like fencing... paid for.  Your hard earned money... taxes, are hard at work in the ALE PPP programs at the local school, providing a "free " and "public education."

"While the technological tools we use to teach at Five Mile Prairie School may have changed over time, the mission has remained the same:  to create the best education possible for students by listening to and collaborating with parents."

Really?  Does your local school work hard to collaborate with parents?  They should, but there are many educators at schools who think they know so much better than the parent...which is why so many parents leave the public school situations and opt for homeschool or private school instead.

 ((((Can we talk?))) 

 If you are enrolled full time in an ALE,ALP or PPP, you might need to reassessing what you are doing and why you are doing it.  ALEs ALPs and PPPs are public school, not homeschooling.  Homeschoolers they take no money for education from the government.  There are no contractual partnerships between public school personnel and parents in our Homeschool Law.  In fact, homeschoolers are educating their own children at home (and out about in the world,) and they do this without creating additional financial burdens for Washington State.

Posted by Lisa

Three Quality Ways to Give Your Children a Basic Education.

by Lisa

There are three ways to educate children in Washington State, Public School, Private school and Home School.  When most people think of school, they only think of public school.  Why is that?  (You have to wonder.)  Usually it's because they think of public education as something free, provided by the government.  But education is not free... you pay for it through paying taxes.  You might say, it is provided for by "WE," we the People.  Public schools therefore, belong to everyone who pays into the system, they belong to US... anyone who is a taxpaying citizen can use them for (what would appear to be..."FREE," but public school is not the only option for an education.

Private school is paid for by the people who attend it, AND these same people pay their taxes just like you and I.  Private "school" and tutoring is very much how education began...that,  and homeschooling.  Yes, homeschooling, it too has been done throughout all human history is a viable option for learning to be human, reading and writings too.  So what is a parent to do, just simply send your kids to "free" school?  Or should they hireg a private tutor or pay taxes AND fund their favorite local private or religious school?    Not everyone can afford to both pay taxes AND tuition for a private school.

So, while education in the public school is not the only means of fulfilling compulsory education laws, sometimes deciding the best educational route for your kids is difficult, and this for many reasons.    IT is true that some people do quite well in the public school system, but even in a good public school distrit, people should have choices in education.   Citizens of our country pay the taxes to make education possible, they elect governement officials and citizens who are parents of the children in our nation, not government officials, have say over where their kids will attend school, unless of course they are of no particular opinion on the matter.  This is where homeschooling comes into the educational equation.  Some parents choose to homeschool their children in leiu of sending them to either public or private school, and because so many parents were doing it, based on their conviction of heart that it was their right, or their duty, or perhaps a better option for their family than the local public school...homeschooling became a "legal" option for education..  In Washinton it took place in 1985.

Homeschooling in every state is now "legal," and just so we have no confusion on the matter...  "home schooling" is what parents and guardians may legally do what they do, (educate their kids) without being directly connected to or overseen by the local public school.  In fact, homeschooling is much like private school.  It is done without using any state money and without interference from well-meaning government paid educational professionals, people who work for the state.  There is an important distinction between "homeschooling" and "public-schooling at home," just as there is distinction between private and public school.  This articles is an attempt to set things straight between these three viable and quality ways to give your kids what they need to succeed in their lives.. a basic education..

Sometimes, thinking that children, all children, should be the property of the state, or believing that parents somehow begin sharing the responsibility of parenting with public schools when their children reach the ripe old age of four or five,  well-meaning individuals and teams of individuals, step way beyond the call-of-duty in being a paid public servant within the community and insist that public school is the only way to learn.  They are wrong.   Yes, all children should be learning, gaining a basic knowledge of the world, exploring ideas and interacting with others, discovering who they are, but they there are many ways to do just that, and for some people, it isn't in a classroom.

Compulsory Education Laws

We say education is compulsory, because we deem it so important, knowing full well that to be ignorant is not ever truly bliss. Reading and writing are important skills...the impetus of such a law.   But public tax supported school as an institute of the government is not the only choice in education.  There are several viable choices, including different kinds of private school and home school, all that thrive because they meet or exceed the basic education obligation as prescribed by our state law.   In fact, the concept of private schools and homeschooling predate the state run public school.

While this is true, homeschooling is often frowned upon by many who make their living from the public school system.  They see homeschooling as a threat to their opinion too. Theire are people who work very hard to make homeschooling and parent's rights of no effect or illegal, and for this reason homeschooling and homeschooling laws must be taken seriously and protected.  Private schools too, especially private schools that teach religious doctrines are often in the crosshairs of threat.  One reason is that more kids in public schools means more money for the individual school, and more jobs in education too. 


Where The Money Flows

Public school is funded by governmental taxation and state lotteries. Private school is privately funded by individuals, families or sometimes charitable organizations, maybe a church. Homeschooling, like private school,  is privately funded by the family of the child...but never is home schooling directly funded by or dependent upon  the money reserved strictly for the public schools run by the state. 

In Washington, there are three basic ways to educate your children,  all of which can give students a basic education a required by law. Public school, private school or homeschooling, are distinct and separate option, and all viable choices for education, but the decision about which kind of schooling and the control of direction is always first and foremost a parent's choice to make,but education does cost money, more than that, if you have kids... in a school or in the home, education will cost you time.

In the end, no matter what form of education you pick for your kids, or end up working with, one thing is certain... your children need your loving support and encouragement .  It is a parent's right and perogative, a aparents duty to oversee their children's education, safty and welfare.  ANd, if you think public school is the only way to educate a child, think again.  We do have options.