I am finally doing this in the coming month. If you are local and willing to pickup Chez Moi (except for someone who can not drive right now for health reasons) then you can be included in the co-op. Please let me know. We only need 250.00 for free shipping and between even three of us, we’re golden. I won’t be taking any action on it this week as we are settling into our new YMCA-bloated schedule.
Feast your eyes: https://wholesale.frontiercoop.com/whslpubl/FrontierWholesaleCatalog.pdf
The Fraser Institute: Home Schooling Improves Academic Performance and Reduces Impact of Socio-Economic Factors
TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Oct. 4, 2007) – Home schooling appears to improve the academic performance of children from families with low levels of education, according to a report on home schooling released today by independent research organization The Fraser Institute.
“The evidence is particularly interesting for students who traditionally fall through the cracks in the public system,” said Claudia Hepburn, co-author of Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream, 2nd edition and Director of Education Policy with The Fraser Institute.
“Poorly educated parents who choose to teach their children at home produce better academic results for their children than public schools do. One study we reviewed found that students taught at home by mothers who never finished high school scored a full 55 percentage points higher than public school students from families with comparable education levels.”
The peer-reviewed report, co-written with Patrick Basham and John Merrifield, builds on a 2001 study with new research and data. It examines the educational phenomenon of home schooling in Canada and the United States, its regulation, history, growth, and the characteristics of practitioners, before reviewing the findings on the academic and social effects of home schooling. The full report is available at www.fraserinstitute.org.
Hepburn said evidence clearly demonstrates that home education may help reduce the negative effects of some background factors that many educators believe affects a child’s ability to learn, such as low family income, low parental educational attainment, parents not having formal training as teachers, race or ethnicity of the student, gender of the student, not having a computer in the home, and infrequent usage of public libraries.
“The research shows that the level of education of a child’s parents, gender of the child, and income of family has less to do with a child’s academic achievement than it does in public schools.”
The study also reports that students educated at home outperform their peers on most academic tests and are involved in a broad mix of social activities outside the home.
Research shows that almost 25 per cent of home schooled students in the United States perform one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. Grades 1 to 4 home school students perform one grade level higher than their public- and private-school peers. By Grade 8, the average home schooled student performs four grade levels above the national average.
Hepburn said a growing body of new research also calls into question the belief that home schooled children are not adequately socialized.
“The average Canadian home schooled student is regularly involved in eight social activities outside the home. Canadian home schooled children watch less television than other children, and they show significantly fewer problems than public school children when observed in free play,” she said.
The report concludes that home schooling is not only a viable educational choice for parents, but can also be provided at a much lower cost than public schooling. The report notes that in the U.S., home schooling families spend less than $4,000 per year on home schooling while public schooling in the U.S. costs about $9,600 per child.
“Canadian and American policymakers should recognize the ability of parents to meet the educational needs of their children at home, without government involvement,” Hepburn said.
“While home schooling may be impractical for many families, it has proven to be a successful and relatively inexpensive educational alternative. It merits the respect of policy makers, the attention of researchers, and the consideration of parents.”
The complete report, Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream 2nd edition is available in PDF format at www.fraserinstitute.org.
The Fraser Institute is an independent research and educational organization based in Canada. Its mission is to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets and government intervention on the welfare of individuals. To protect the Institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org.
We are praying for this boy: my dh and I, my fellow Tenters, and the many people whose lives Nathan has touched personally. Unlike many of our Junebugs, who we’ve visited or have visited us, Nathan probably has no idea who I am. He’s been sick most of his life with neuroblastoma. The doctors caught it late as far as the disease goes, when he was a toddler, and the resulting prognosis was 7 years. I remember vividly digging through the internet like a madwoman, trying to find anything to the contrary. I remember passionate conversations with Angie, Leti, Dawn and Kim about how certainly by the time 6 years was up, the researchers would have found something. He’d make it! Surely that was such a long time that the medicine would catch up!
As parents, we now know how fast that time goes past.
Most of us under the tent have children born within days and weeks of Nathan. He turned 7 years old in June. Every birthday he had, we’d celebrate silently as if it was our own child given that extra year. In a way, I suppose, it was. Every lost tooth of Nathan’s held a different meaning than our children’s. He didn’t find it exciting when chemo ruined his smile. Every picture, with new hearing aids, or fresh surgical tape pointed out to us how different his life path would become. It somehow started to seem unfair that we had healthy children. We celebrated life itself when Nathan achieved NED status, and cried in devastation when his disease returned after almost 2 years. Most of us refused to turn away, despite the pain. We kept following their lives, their story, feeling as if we could provide some invisible army, some huge community that would make Nathan’s life even bigger than it ever would be on its own.
None of us who know Susan take our children’s lives for granted. I have never written about him before because I have always felt it was not my place, not my story. But now, his family has been given the news that “Nathan has days to weeks left, rather than weeks.” They have called in hospice and the boy takes more morphine than an adult could normally handle. So I am posting because I believe in the power of positive intention, prayer, pulsing, whatever you personally call the communication your soul has with other energies. I don’t ask for him to be saved, because it is too late for that. But I am praying for his parents and their ravaged hearts. I am praying for his two little sisters, who will know a loss they can’t understand. I am praying for little Nathan, who is soon to leave the only life he has ever known. Nathan, who lies about needing pain meds so he can be awake longer with his family. Nathan, who said just yesterday that he’d rather do yard work his mom than sleep on the couch– and did it.
I am praying for Grace, for everyone involved. I hope you will send some of your energy as well.
DIY Household Cleaners
by P.W. McRandle
Filed under: Cleaning supplies, Cleaning products, Indoor air quality, Green living
With spring upon us, those extra hours of daylight have a way of revealing every bit of schmutz and stubborn stain that hid from sight throughout the winter. But as you open your windows to let in fresh air, don’t pollute it with lung irritants like ammonia and chlorine bleach or hormone-disrupting phthalates used in fragrances. Instead, make your own cleaners from healthier, least-toxic ingredients.
EIGHT ESSENTIALS
Circumvent the armada of commercial cleaners by keeping an ample supply of these eight items, which make up the basic ingredients for nearly every do-it-yourself cleaning recipe.
Baking soda: provides grit for scrubbing and reacts with water, vinegar or lemon by fizzing, which speeds up cleaning times
Borax: disinfects, bleaches and deodorizes; very handy in laundry mixes
Distilled white vinegar: disinfects and breaks up dirt; choose white vinegar over apple cider or red vinegars, as these might stain surfaces
Hydrogen Peroxide: disinfects and bleaches
Lemons: cut grease; bottled lemon juice also works well, although you might need to use bit more to get the same results
Olive oil: picks up dirt and polishes wood; cheaper grades work well
Vegetable based (liquid castile) soap: non-petroleum all-purpose cleaners
Washing soda: stain remover, general cleaner, helps unblock pipes; should be handled with gloves due to its caustic nature. Washing soda is usually found in the laundry aisle of grocery and drug stores.
Don’t forget to pick up an empty spray bottle at the hardware store, and keep those old rags and used toothbrushes for wiping up and scrubbing.
WHOLE HOUSE
All-Purpose Cleaner
1/2 cup borax
1 gallon hot water
Mix in pail (or use smaller amounts in a spray bottle: 1/8 cup borax to 1 quart of hot water) dissolving the borax completely; wipe clean with rag.
Floors
Wood
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 gallon warm water
Linoleum
1 cup white vinegar
2 gallons warm water
Mix in mop bucket, rinse afterwards.
Furniture Polish
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
Mix and apply with a clean rag to dust and polish. Reduce the olive oil if wood looks too oily.
Metal Polish
Copper and Brass
2 Tbsps salt
White vinegar
Add vinegar to salt until you’ve created a paste. Adding flour will reduce abrasiveness. Apply with a rag and rub clean.
Stainless Steel
Baking soda
White vinegar
Apply baking soda with a damp cloth, using the vinegar to eliminate spots.
BATHROOM
Toilet Bowl
Baking soda
White vinegar
To clean and deodorize, sprinkle toilet bowl with baking soda, add white vinegar and scrub with a toilet brush.
Tub and Tile
1/2 lemon
Borax
Dip the face of the lemon half in borax to create a hand-held scrubber for dirty areas. Rinse and dry the surface afterwards.
KITCHEN
Countertops
Marble: Mix one Tbsp castile soap with a quart of warm water, rinse well, then dry with a warm cloth.
Other surfaces: halved lemon dipped in baking soda to scrub off residues. Follow up, by spraying with glass cleaner mix (below).
Dishwashing
castile soap
White vinegar
Wash your dishes in one dishpan filled with a mix of water and castile soap, then rinse in a separate pan containing a mix of water and vinegar (a 3-to-1 water-to-vinegar ratio works well).
Drains
1 cup baking soda
1 cup vinegar
Add baking soda and vinegar to a pot of boiled water and pour down the drain, then flush with tap water.
For more stubborn clogs, use a “snake” plumbing tool to manually remove blockage, or try suction removal with a plunger.
To prevent clogs, install inexpensive mesh screen, available at home improvement and hardware stores.
Glass
1/4 cup vinegar or 1 Tbsp lemon juice
2+ cups water
Fill a clean spray bottle with water and either white vinegar or lemon juice; wipe with a rag or old newspaper.
Oven
Baking soda
Water
Sprinkle baking soda on surfaces, spray water, then let soak several hours or overnight. Rinse with water.
Stovetop and Oven Grease Remover
1/2 tsp washing soda
1/4 tsp liquid soap
2 cups hot water
Add washing soda and soap to hot water in spray bottle. Since washing soda is caustic, wear gloves.
LAUNDRY ROOM
Laundry Detergent
1 oz. liquid castile soap
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax
1/4 cup baking soda or 1/4 cup white vinegar
Using the liquid castile soap as a base, combine with washing soda, borax (for stains and bleaching), and either baking soda (reduces static and softens fabrics) or white vinegar (softens fabrics, reduces static and bleaches clothes). If you feel like your clothes aren’t clean enough, play around with the amount of liquid castile soap, using from 1 oz. to 1 cup.
Bleach alternative
1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide
RESOURCES
Household Cleaning Supplies Report
Green Clean, by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin (Melcher Media, 2005, $16.95)
The Little Book of Quick Fixes for Eco Conscious Cleaning, by Bridget Bodoano (Quadrille Publishing, 2006, $12.95)
This is a transcript from an email exchange I had recently with a dear friend of mine from Charleston. I was happily surprised by how it came out, as it provided a nice cap to the “academic” year. I was very flattered– overwhelmed, really– by how she finally responded.
A business owner whose sons work with her, with grandchildren of her own, she asked me the following in response to my recent post on thank-you notes:
Good job. Now, isnt an unschooler different from a home schooled? Isn’t that people that don’t hold any classes at all, even at home?
You are correct about unschooling. We don’t teach AT our kids, and I certainly have never held classes at home. Montessori at home (which centers around a prepared environment and children doing the activities they will) merged very well into the older aged unschooling which is also about a prepared environment and children learning whatever is on topic. The kids continue to take classes outside the home, depending on their interests, and I do work with them at home when they’re learning new things.
All it means is flying without a curriculum. I am happy with that, because I still keep my anal little notebooks which house three different sets of scope and sequences for her age group. As long as she (now, they) meets and exceeds, I am fine! (We are not radical unschoolers, who object even to that much parental interference.)
“learning whatever is on topic” Whose topic and where do they come from. Are you doing trips to museums and places of interest, or are you leaving letters around and just hoping they learn to read and write? ( that was sarcastic as I know you are far more into them learning those things than that implies) but it is confusing. Cause most kids, left to their own devices, will run and jump and play and don’t really know wht they don’t know so have no idea what to hone in on. ???? help me understand.
I think that the running and playing serves a purpose– think about your granddaughter, before she went to preschool. Remember how sponge like she was? Always interested, always keen to learn something? It’s no different when they get older. There are reasons school-age children appear to not be interested in learning when you see them. They’ve been schooled to only “learn” when they are at as school. Home educated children do not approach life that way.
They think they *are* playing. Their love of learning is never stamped out by the rank and file of raising their hands or waiting in line to go to the lunchroom or having to ask to go relieve themselves. Further, they’re not held back while waiting for the rest of the grade to catch up to them. Remember what happened with your own son?* And then again with your granddaughter, as she entered [extremely expensive private school]? It was the same with me in elementary school, and I would love to see what my kids can accomplish left to their own pace.
We do a lot of unit studies to cover multi-disciplinary areas including art, science, culture, math and literature.
This past year they’ve studied (this is so very abbreviated):
The Pacific Northwest Native Americans, which included books, crafts and field trips to Chief Seattle’s grave and the Old Man House, and to the current Snohomish tribal center and its museum.
Frontier History. This in part stemmed from our power outage in December. Amazed that without electricity we could continue to do much of what we normally did, ~G~ launched into a huge excavation of what it was like to live in “olden times.” We rented and studied the Frontier house series by PBS, spent much time at history museums and read books geared towards her age group. Those books included crafts and things.
Those two unit studies led into a unit study on Lewis and Clark (see how this works?) and she studied how the Frontier pioneers collided with Native Americans, etc etc etc. She studied the Louisiana purchase, and how the land looked before Western civilization, and which animals became known to the white man. We have not completed this one, as we plan a trip down to the mouth of the Columbia River to cap it.
We regularly attend the PDZA zoo, the Washington State History Museum, the Glass Museum of Tacoma and we try to get up to the Seattle museums at least once a quarter. ~G~ has taken music and PE classes outside the home, and they both took art for a while. Next session, he wants to take Soccer and she wants to take martial arts.
As it pertains to the nuts and bolts of math and reading, we still use the Montessori approach to that. We’ve also read big books this year (me to them) like Harry Potter and Gulliver’s Travels. Everything else we do also plays into reading and math so neither is held out as a “thing to do.” Art and music are an intrinsic part of daily life.
For Science, they both maintain a year-round garden and they do models of earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. They study physics (without calling it that) through games and specially purchased toys. They build forts in the woods and help with things around the house. We visit farms on a regular basis so they learn about animals and their life cycles that way. The beehive, for instance, sparks a week long frenzy into every aspect of the bee’s life and home, and how it helps our food chain. The same with the butterfly. I will shortly send you some entires on neat little units we have done.
Socially they’re amazing. They can talk respectfully to anyone, young or old, and they are inquisitive in a (largely) non-annoying way. They have a large circle of also-homeschooled friends who are being brought up in much the same way, so it’s been very pleasant with regards to peer pressure.
For my part, I continue to read on educational theory and stay abreast of current trends in education, some of which are awesome and some of which are disturbing. I admit to comparing my kids to grade level, but I have no reason to be concerned to date. I network with other homeschooling mothers who also keep their kids home for non-religious reasons, and I make sure I always have a hobby or three of my own.
This has been pretty cool, answering your question. I don’t know if you read it all, but it was fun to write. I haven’t yet written an end-of year wrap up so this was nice for me to see as well. I KNOW I have left off unit studies, so I am going to go look them up now.
Thanks for being interested!
I wish I were a child again and could go through your non school. It sounds wonderful and you are right. Both my son and my granddaughter were far more challenged before they got to school. You are right on girl…and I support what you are doing. Your children will not get jaded about what they “should ‘ know and do…. You go girl.
*Her son and granddaughter both entered school ahead of the other children academically. While they matriculated in different states and at different ages, both mothers were told that their child would not be taught anything new, but would have a great time helping to teach the other children.
One way or another. This inanity has to end.
http://www.king5.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=152238&shu=1
My friend writes:
My son speaks (on the radio)
Listen to it please.
Ok, so the day that I interviewed with the news channel, we also interviewed with an alternative radio station in Portland Oregon. They gave my children the opportunity to speak.The spot is about 4 minutes, myself and my son are in the second two minutes.
My son is about 2 weeks short of 7 years old here.
If you support undocumented immigrants being deported without question. If you can still support such violation of families after hearing ~D~, I worry for your sense of justice.
http://www.kboo.fm/node/3319
Tonight Mackattack babysat for us while we had dinner at Elliot’s in Seattle. It was very nice of her, and very overdue for us.
P-Daddy’s former college friend and current President of his alma mater (one in the same) was in town to schmooze a Microsoft donor to the annual fund and show his teen aged son some colleges in the area. He gathered some of P-daddy’s alums for dinner. The meal was fabulous, as to be expected, and the conversation was easy. Aside from the President’s son, we were the youngest at the table. No one had lived here longer than 7 years.
I was kind of teasing P-daddy when I asked him to inquire about Alma Mater’s stance on homeschooling and admissions. Most large universities, including some Ivy League schools, have reserved spots for homeschoolers now, but I wasn’t expecting much from an 1100-student private college in Michigan.
His friend couldn’t hear him very well over the other diners and replied “Homeschooling?” and jabbed a thumb at his teenaged son. “He’s homeschooled. Well he was, until boarding school.” Turns out the guy (and his sister) go to Interlochen, a fabulous arts school in MI. Normally I am not a fan of boarding school, but Interlochen is wonderful. I had been accepted into Interlochen and had a scholarship, but my Mom hadn’t let me go. At this point I was freaking out with the coincidence and affirmation of it all.
As we were leaving the restaurant, the boy took me aside and said “I think it’s cool you’re homeschooling. I really, really loved it. It’s great.”
I had to give that boy a hug.
From MamaMidwifeMadness’ blog:
I’m so impressed with mamas who homebirth their first babies. they make me wish that I had enough knowledge and sense to find a midwife and do the same almost 5 years ago instead of stepping into the shitstorm which was my first pregnancy and birth with OB’s and hospitals.
Best question today was from a primip (expecting her first baby) who is figuring out how to have a waterbirth when she has no mains water supply and depends on small rain water tanks…
“Is it safe to wash babies in rain water?”
If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, nothing will.
What a beautiful life you have to be living to even ask that question. Marvelous!
And I agree so much with the sentiment of first-time homebirths. I truly wonder sometimes how much different our lives would be had we just had the babies at home, especially with Nick, when we did know better. I am so proud of Danny. So proud.
