Why I homeschool (despite being a bad speller) and statistic resources :0) lol

This is a response to yet another persons opinion about the thought that I should send my kids to school or get them socialized, etc. This one was based on the fact that I'm not the best speller. And I have not had a chance to read this all over and perfect it yet, but I'm putting it out there for anyone else who wants to question our homeschooling (or homeschoolers in general!) and as I state later in the letter. I do not judge people who put there kids in school and know many family's that are called to have there kids in school for there circumstances. And I believe God blesses and protects those kids and there family's in doing what God leads them to do do (homeschooling or not!)


Ok here it Goes:

Thanks for your opinion, but not going to happen! as far as socialization, my whole church almost homeschools and I run an Edmonton homeschooling group with almost 300 members in it and can have as much socialization as I need for field trips, gym days, events, play dates, etc, etc...
As far as academics, My Catiana is already 1 year ahead of her age and a serious leader, and our supervising school board is extremely impressed! My spelling has nothing to do with it, and anything I don't know I have full access and help from teachers that do! I can send you study after study showing how far ahead homeschoolers succeed and it makes NO DIFFERENCE the parents education! My husband does more then half the teaching too and I've never met a person yet who can't believe how amazing my kids are. We are a close family and yes were out of the norm, but for very good reasons that God has placed on our hearts and he has been more then faithful to us for our obedience. Our homeschooling is God lead, and as far as we're concerned there can be no better guide or teacher in the world :0)
I love you guys and pray you'll come to peace with all this. Just please note that facebook is a place for my venting and sharing news with my family, homeschool, and church family too and that it hardly reflects the main big picture of my life. I love our family life together and all the things we get to grow through together. It's the little (non facebook things) that make up each day. Like the joys of reading and studying classic book every night together. Going to trails and national parks and learning/ doing fun science. Learning fractions/ science/ health in the kitchen well cooking and cleaning together. Watching and learning from daddy running his own businesses and learning politeness and good socialization. It's different having kids that know how to live and function in there home too. They have so many skills that are lost today and they love it! My kids are a huge blessing in this home and in this family and never a burden. I never need a brake from my kids, they bless me even when I'm sick or overwhelmed from circumstances. They know they belong and are needed to complete our family home and have real life skills. The only times I search for breaks is for alone time with my love Morris to reconnect, or if I'm sick, or overwhelmed from circumstances for so long that I know the kids would enjoy some time outside of the situation from boredom, etc...Other wise they are my blessing and my helpers in my home, but never my burden. There are many collages/ university's (including Stanford, etc) that prefer and favor excepting homeschool students simply because they are more likely to succeed all the way through. The study shows that it is overwhelmingly because they know how to function in the real world and have learned to be 'self learners' and 'self disciplined, organized, and reliant'. They know the simple things like laundry, good cooking, shopping, budgeting, cleaning for themselves, and having jobs already, and the importance of planning and routines, instead of having it all thrown on them at once when they move to start college or university. There not as overwhelmed by a job and school and living on there own and they know how to be self disciplined in there work and don't live off macaroni. lol I love all the studies coming out and how much homeschooling is increasing every year. It's nice to see family's be bonded together again like it was in the old days. Family's were made for family's. Not separated, disconnected and trained for the government. Family is becoming a thing of the past now a days and we plan on keeping ours and being thankful for every second of it. I will see if I can find a link with all the studies. We had them sent in a book. I know that the newest study done on thousands of homeschoolers shows things like homeschoolers have better social skills and are way higher in being entrepreneurs. that's something Moe (my socialholic entrepreneur) and I love for sure! lol Find something you love, love learning it, and make it your reality! This is truly Moes heart and he is learning how to do this. Can you imagine just how much farther our kids could go building on top of there daddy's learning and lessons as they go. They even come with us to learn about taxes and meet our tax guy (which may not benefit them much now, but could you imagine the benefits of mastering government business taxes as they get older????). We don't want to raise them up like us. We want to raise them far above us, learning from us and being far better from all the experiences and lessons they get to build above and beyond on when they want to start there hearts desires. They will be so far ahead and above us. That is an amazing thing God blessed us with the ability to do. And when the driving force for everything is LOVE (including wanting to learn and help) then I don't see how it's possible not to have things stick in your heart and not just your head. Which is the best lessons kept of all :0) One of the bonuses for us parents too is that we get to learn with them (and from them. lol) as we go too ;) I see no bigger blessing in the world then having the ability to homeschool your kids and have trust in God (not just ourselves). But to make you feel better, the support systems we have are amazing, and this is hardly dependant upon us (or my spelling/ education)! Homeschooling is not just letting kids fly by the seat of there pants with the possibility of being ruined, or locking them away to protect them from the world! These views are so jumped on it makes homeschoolers crazy! We love our kids, we are supervised by teachers and homeschool boards, we test our kids, we have access to help and learning specialists galor, are kids have so many social opportunity's most homeschool parents have trouble narrowing down what to involve them in to make sure they spend enough time at home, and study after study shows it's benefits, but the only things most of the world knows about is a very few of the storeys they've been able to pull out for the public, of parents who shouldn't have been homeschooling. Why would the government want the public to know? Why would the government want more kids taken out of THERE system? It's exciting all on it's own to be out of the system :0) The most richest and brilliant people in the world were people outside the system. That's exciting! An out of the box, free thinker, probably makes the government nervous. lol "Oh know"! lol
Please know that I know that everyones callings are different. And God blesses and protects many family's that fallow Gods will if it be to have there kids in school too. This is just were we are and were we plan to stay right now until we hear different in our hearts :0) We spend much time praying, evaluating and talking to make sure we feel were on the right track, and the overwhelming love and bond in this family is overwhelmingly wonderful and reassuring to our hearts :0)
It kind of hurts to think that you would think I would risk my children's education in any way. Once anyone really knows me, they know that Don't even touch anything until I've researched it like a maniac. lol I have been researching homeschooling since before Catiana was born and even bought our first curriculum, encyclopedias, library etc, before Catiana was born! No Joke! I have been researching and studying homeschooling systems and techniques for my kids for over 6 years now. lol and I'm very excited! But letting go and letting God be our ultimate guide has been quite the learning adventure for this perfectionist too. But he's always proven to have better ideas and do way better then me in planning how our kids our taught every time! No matter how much I know and research God has it figured out WAY better every time! He knows my kids better then me :0) Thank God!
Oh, homschoolers have been the top winners in national spelling bees for years now and I know there parents weren't perfect spellers guarantied (although I'm sure there much much better spellers now ;) what a blessing :0)

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After this was all written I had another question?
Here it is;

I just wonder what you think of putting the burden on teachers to supervise parents like yourselves that are 'learning along with their children'.

Here is my answer:

Actually homeschool boards are for homeschoolers only and classroom teachers don't have to double task back and forth. Most of them have chosen to homeschool there children too despite there qualifications. Actually I was surprised to learn how many public schools are pulling for homeschoolers to join them too when we started. It's an extra student they get paid for without all the extra work. There are thousands of homeschoolers in Alberta alone actually and they are well set up with resources that don't have to strain any class room teachers :0)
My mom (the walking dictionary) is so excited to be involved in teaching our kids in that area too. hehe We are not at a point for it yet though, but will be well prepared ahead of time when it comes. I don't tax anyone with my learning deficiency's. I don't just run to teachers for all my answers either. I learn it myself before I teach it. With the tons of teaching resources and guides out there it's not hard. Then I run over my teaching curriculum and plan with the supervisor to make sure I have it layed out well for everything to be covered and taught that needs to be. What would be the benefit of me not knowing anything and just running to teachers for everything? Teaching my children does not mean just learning with them. It means learning ahead of them in the areas needed so that I will be well prepared for my children and we all benefit from our hard work. Not just relying on everyone else. I get the support needed from tons of homeschool groups for specific areas too, run by specialists that love supporting homeschooling. I took and payed for the teachers course that shows teachers how to implement one of the top proven English and reading programs in Alberta. The schools were paying for those teachers to take this course so they all new how to teach the new program and I went out of my way to pay and learn how to implement it in my home too in that same room with all the teachers. (Turns out the people teaching the course actually did another class too just for homeschool parents that was cheaper. lol oh well). The people who created the program were actually now homeschoolers too and loved to support the homschool community. I see them at all the homeschool conventions and everything now too. lol Even though it felt weird to be in that class at first, I was so glad to see those teachers had all the same questions I did and they all had lots of questions for me too, and were really glad I came with all my ideas and insites as well. It turned out to be really fun and it was good to see we were all just as human despite our backgrounds. We were all learning so much for different reasons, but all good ones.


Here are some things I pulled off the net quickly as far as research and statistics go:

I pulled this little bit of information just from the wikidedia on line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling#Test_results



Figure 2. Homeschool Students Compared to the National Norm Group in Grade Equivalent Units, Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Homeschool Students in 1998, Lawrence M. Rudner, University of Maryland, College Park. From Education Policy Analysis Archives


Figure 1. Academic Achievement of Homeschool, Catholic/Private and the Nation's Students, Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Homeschool Students in 1998, Lawrence M. Rudner, University of Maryland, College Park. From Education Policy Analysis Archives
Numerous studies have found that homeschooled students on average outperform their peers on standardized tests.[92] Homeschooling Achievement, a study conducted by National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), supported the academic integrity of homeschooling. Among the homeschooled students who took the tests, the average homeschooled student outperformed his public school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects. The study also indicates that public school performance gaps between minorities and genders were virtually non-existent among the homeschooled students who took the tests.[93]
New evidence has been found that homeschooled children are getting higher scores on the ACT and SAT tests. A study at Wheaton College in Illinois showed that the freshmen that were homeschooled for high school scored fifty-eight points higher on their SAT scores than those students who attended public or private schools. Most colleges look at the ACT and SAT scores of homeschooled children when considering them for acceptance to a college. On average, homeschooled children score eighty-one points higher than the national average on the SAT scores. [citation needed]
[edit] Social research
In the 1970s Raymond S. and Dorothy N. Moore conducted four federally funded analyses of more than 8,000 early childhood studies, from which they published their original findings in Better Late Than Early, 1975. This was followed by School Can Wait, a repackaging of these same findings designed specifically for educational professionals.[94] Their analysis concluded that, "where possible, children should be withheld from formal schooling until at least ages eight to ten."
Their reason was that children, "are not mature enough for formal school programs until their senses, coordination, neurological development and cognition are ready." They concluded that the outcome of forcing children into formal schooling is a sequence of "1) uncertainty as the child leaves the family nest early for a less secure environment, 2) puzzlement at the new pressures and restrictions of the classroom, 3) frustration because unready learning tools – senses, cognition, brain hemispheres, coordination – cannot handle the regimentation of formal lessons and the pressures they bring, 4) hyperactivity growing out of nerves and jitter, from frustration, 5) failure which quite naturally flows from the four experiences above, and 6) delinquency which is failure's twin and apparently for the same reason."[95] According to the Moores, "early formal schooling is burning out our children. Teachers who attempt to cope with these youngsters also are burning out."[95] Aside from academic performance, they think early formal schooling also destroys "positive sociability", encourages peer dependence, and discourages self worth, optimism, respect for parents, and trust in peers. They believe this situation is particularly acute for boys because of their delay in maturity. The Moore's cited a Smithsonian Report on the development of genius, indicating a requirement for "1) much time spent with warm, responsive parents and other adults, 2) very little time spent with peers, and 3) a great deal of free exploration under parental guidance."[95] Their analysis suggested that children need "more of home and less of formal school" "more free exploration with... parents, and fewer limits of classroom and books," and "more old fashioned chores – children working with parents – and less attention to rivalry sports and amusements."[95]
John Taylor later found, using the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, "while half of the conventionally schooled children scored at or below the 50th percentile (in self-concept), only 10.3% of the home-schooling children did so."[96] He further stated that "the self-concept of home-schooling children is significantly higher (and very much so statistically) than that of children attending the conventional school. This has implications in the areas of academic achievement and socialization, to mention only two. These areas have been found to parallel self-concept. Regarding socialization, Taylor's results would mean that very few home-schooling children are socially deprived. He states that critics who speak out against homeschooling on the basis of social deprivation are actually addressing an area which favors homeschoolers.[96]
In 2003, the National Home Education Research Institute conducted a survey of 7,300 U.S. adults who had been homeschooled (5,000 for more than seven years). Their findings included:
Homeschool graduates are active and involved in their communities. 71% participate in an ongoing community service activity, like coaching a sports team, volunteering at a school, or working with a church or neighborhood association, compared with 37% of U.S. adults of similar ages from a traditional education background.
Homeschool graduates are more involved in civic affairs and vote in much higher percentages than their peers. 76% of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and 24 voted within the last five years, compared with only 29% of the corresponding U.S. populace. The numbers are even greater in older age groups, with voting levels not falling below 95%, compared with a high of 53% for the corresponding U.S. populace.
58.9% report that they are "very happy" with life, compared with 27.6% for the general U.S. population. 73.2% find life "exciting", compared with 47.3%.[97]

Here's another one: http://www.ontariohomeschool.org/studyHSadults.html

New Study of Homeschool Adults
By Keith Middleton
published in the February 2004 issue of Home Rules, the newsletter of the Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents
A new study of adults who were homeschooled contradicts assertions that they lack socialization and shows them to be far more likely than the average American to be civically minded and engaged in their local communities. The author of the study, entitled "Home Educated and Now Adults: Their Community and Civic Involvement, Views About Homeschooling, and Other Traits", was Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) of Salem, Oregon. The intent of the survey was to answer the question in last year's Time magazine feature on homeschooling: "Homeschooling may turn out better students, but does it create better citizens?"
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Ray determined that homeschooling turns out more active citizens, and Americans who tend in overwhelming numbers to hold conservative values. The survey of 7,300 homeschooled adults was conducted on behalf of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). Over 5,000 of the participants had been home educated for at least 7 years.
Ray said a "very large proportion follow a traditional Judeo-Christian worldview and believe in the (American) founding concepts of liberty and limited government along with active participation of citizens." He said those ideas are not cherished by many in positions in academia where he notes much of the criticism of homeschooling originates.
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It is estimated that there are as many as 2.5 million homeschoolers in the U.S. Ray has been studying homeschooling for 19 years now. Some of the survey findings:
4 percent of homeschool graduates consider politics and government to be too complicated to understand, compared to 35 percent of U.S. adults
homeschool graduates work for candidates, contribute to campaigns, and vote in much higher percentages than the general population (e.g. 76 percent of homeschool graduates aged 18 to 24 voted in the last 5 years, compared to only 29 percent of the U.S population in that bracket)
in older age brackets the percentage of voters is 95 percent or higher for the homeschoolers, compared to 53 percent for the relevant U.S. populace
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Ray notes that people who doubt homeschoolers are becoming socialized have two presuppositions: one is that to engage socially one must have to have been in an institutional school for 13 years because for 100 years that has been the norm; the second is that schools run by state-certified teachers know the best ways for a child to acquire knowledge and worldviews.
Ray says that the first presupposition has been found to be unwarranted by a number of studies, and this latest one reaffirms that. The second one is more philosophical. Ray says studies show worldview largely depends on associations as people get older rather than the influence of the school system, but that homeschoolers are much more likely than others to align with the beliefs of their families.
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Ray notes that the homeschoolers who would not align themselves with conservative values and politics have in common with their conservative cohort a strong belief in the jurisdiction of parents over their lives rather than the state. He notes "Homeschooling will tend to develop students with strong independent thinking and critical-mindedness." Other findings include:
71 percent of the homeschool graduates participate in ongoing community service activities compared to 37 percent of U.S. adults
88 percent of the homeschoolers were members of community groups, churches or synagogues, unions, or professional organizations compared to 50 percent of U.S. adults
74 percent of home-educated adults aged 18 to 24 have taken college-level courses compared to 46 percent of the general U.S. population
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HSLDA synopsized the study by noting that it presented good news for homeschooling parents wondering if they made the right choice for their children since 95 percent of homeschool graduates were glad they were taught at home. The vast majority said they have not been hindered in their careers or education. HSLDA further noted that since homeshooling is found in many settings which reflect the uniqueness of each family, that it was not surprising to find homeschoolers engaged in a wide variety of occupations (although many in the study reported that they were still full-time university or college students).
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Eighty-two percent said they would homeschool their own children, and of the 812 participants with children 5 years of age or older, 74 percent are already doing it. Fifty-nine percent reported that they were "very happy" with life, and another 39 percent declared they were "pretty happy".
Although Ray noted that it is possible some respondents were motivated by a desire to make themselves and homeschooling look better, he did implement all the usual scientific safeguards used in social studies of this kind. He made sure that he included homeschoolers who had had a bad experience, and tested the data with quantitative and qualitative studies.
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In a follow-up article entitled "Homeschooling Grows Up" HSLDA reiterates that the study backs up what homeschooling parents have known intrinsically for years: that their children are better socialized and that they may be better citizens overall. HSLDA believes that Dr. Ray's research should defuse long-held false criticisms of homeschooling and seems to indicate that homeschooling produces successful adults who are actively involved in their communities and who continue to value education for themselves and their children.
For more information regarding this study go to the NHERI website.

And the most recent and my favorite :0) is if you can look up the studies by HSLDA. They have alot about the college student and stuff too and I believe there last report is the most recent ones done. this is the one I got the books on from them :0)
I hope this helps you support us in our decision :)

Angeleen :0)


Extras from the responces on FaceBook:

Thanks everyone :0) I have one thing on my side too, and that is that my mom can spell better then anyone I've ever known! She prides her self on being a walking dictionary. lol So I definitely plan on recruiting her to help out in that area and she is very excited too :0) Just to bad I didn't pick that up from her when I was little. lol


Sorry just wanted to add that last link :0) They did the biggest and most recent study ever done just recently. Very exciting :0) and yes I know some personal homeschool storeys too that are sad. But that certainly isn't the majority, and it's definitely not us :0) I was terrified of nothing more then messing up when I started. But the amazing amount that God has been teaching and reassuring me in every area has been indescribable, and I love it :0) http://www.hslda.org/research/default.asp


Most of the people who suggest me sending my kids to school don't know much about me or what our actual family life involves. there just mostly family and friends that knew more about me as a child then they know of me now, and are assuming things. The main thing I get is people telling me to go to work believe it or not! lol This is the first time I heard anything about my spelling though surprisingly enough. lol


That's were my mom is excited to help out :0) and one thing people are noticing is that my on line spelling is more automatic learned bad habit then bad spelling. I look at alot of the things I type and can spell them the right way perfectly in my head. lol When people ask me how to spell something out loud I get it right every time. It's really weird. lol My mom always says "now why don't you spell that way when you write it"?!?! lol Auto bad habit is the only thing I can think of? Even though I know how to spell something right now, I've spelt it the wrong way for so long that I always put it down the same way instead of thinking about it.


Here is the link to all the facebook responces:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/notes/angeleen-chirka/why-i-homeschool-despite-being-a-bad-speller-and-statistic-resources-0-lol/419555409338

The responces were so encuradging :0)