As a veteran homeschooler, I am well aware of what a marathon this lifestyle can be. There’s no break when you live and work in the same place.
It’s time to take a deep breath and assess the situation. Burnout is a normal part of homeschooling. Everyone experiences it at one time or another, and it’s often associated with feelings of being distracted, overworked, and overwhelmed. Continue reading
Get your children OUT of the System – NOW
Currently, more people seem to be waking up to the state of educational institutions. Complaints of indoctrination in schools by both parents and teachers have increased in public debate in recent years, with various discussions relating to topics such as critical race theory and gender ideology.
In addition to political indoctrination, issues such as the drop in reading and math proficiency and policies of prolonged school closures during covid lockdowns have also contributed to this dissatisfaction. As alternatives, more states have passed policies that allow school choice in 2023, and the numbers of children educated through homeschooling grew by more than 60 percent between 2020 and 2022… Continue reading
~ Introduction ~
What is most interesting about the following column is – that this is NOT about the U.S.A. So isn’t it interesting that there are those in the U.K. that also get it. Enjoy the lesson my friends. ~ Jeffrey Bennett, Editor
Many parents like Susanne Willdig have chosen to home school their children
The number of parents choosing to home educate their children is increasing in the West, figures show. Continue reading
The scene in classrooms around the country is similar: Kids are on their phones, even when school rules forbid it
The School Boards and the individual schools continue to allow this. Too many parents “demand” that their children be allowed to keep the phones or else, “I can’t get hold of my child if I need them!” All the more reason to take charge and get your children OUT of the SYSTEM. ~ Editor
In California , a high school teacher complains that students watch Netflix on their phones during class. In Maryland, a chemistry teacher says students use gambling apps to place bets during the school day.
Around the country, educators say students routinely send Snapchat messages in class, listen to music and shop online, among countless other examples of how smartphones distract from teaching and learning. Continue reading
Republican lawmakers in Indiana are taking steps to ensure that kids who can’t read well don’t advance prematurely to the next grade.
The state’s literacy rates have been on the decline since the 2014-15 school year, with a six-point fall between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 school years. Micah Clark, director of the American Family Association in Indiana, says the COVID crisis “really highlighted how kids have fallen behind.” Continue reading
In a trend that began with the pandemic, data shows ongoing school enrollment issues, and thousands of public schools nationwide are at risk of closing. According to the Department of Education , in 2023, 1.8 million fewer students enrolled in public schools nationwide compared to 2019.
Less students means less funding for schools, and with federal relief funding dwindling, schools are closing.
Jackson, Mississippi, has seen 11 schools close their doors, some of which have experienced a 30% drop in enrollment since 2018. That trend is not exclusive to Mississippi. Continue reading
The great classical scholar Edith Hamilton noted that the ancient Greeks frowned upon their Roman counterparts in regards to education. The former adopted public (government) schooling while the Romans left education to the family in the home. The snooty Greeks thought Romans were backward and unsophisticated. The Romans, of course, conquered the Greeks.
For most of the five centuries of the Republic, Romans were schooled at home where virtues of honor, character, and citizenship were emphasized. Not until the Republic’s last century or so did anything resembling government schooling emerge. Moreover, it was never so centralized, universal, and mandatory as it is in our society today. The English academic and cleric Teresa Morgan, in a 2020 paper titled “Assessment in Roman Education,” writes, “In no stage of its history did Rome ever legally require its people to be educated on any level.” Continue reading
Photo by Jessica Lewison – Unsplash
In recent years, homeschooling has witnessed a remarkable surge in popularity worldwide. In fact, it’s now the fasted growing form of education according to The Washington Post. During covid restrictions, there was a sharp increase in homeschooling, with some states jumping over 108% homeschool enrollment since 2017-2018. There are an estimated 1.9 million to 2.7 million homeschooled students in America today. Continue reading
Oliver began home learning in September with his mother Sharon
The number of children being home educated has increased dramatically in the last five years.
In the area covered by Devon County Council, a record number of 2,951 children were being home educated in the 2022/23 academic year – an extra 449 on the previous academic year.
One parent told the BBC the Covid-19 pandemic, mental health and school behavioural policies all played a part in choosing home education.
Devon County Council said historically parents had cited lifestyle choices as the main reason for choosing home education but now the main reason given was mental health issues. Continue reading
A mom who refuses to put her kids in school has revealed that she lets her baby play in and eat mud to help build a healthy immune system.
Taylor Moran and her three children, Hudson, five, Thompson, three, and Gus, one, previously hit the headlines after revealing their controversial lifestyle.
The Arkansas-based mom, 32, who doesn’t believe in the traditional schooling system, thinks that classes and homework ‘kills kids’ spirits’ and instead teaches them through exploring.
While she’s received some backlash for ‘unschooling’ her children, the former teacher believes it’s important to let kids be kids, no matter how dangerous that can be.
‘It’s important for them to take on risks like climbing trees, running barefoot or playing in mud,’ said Taylor, who has 73,000 followers on TikTok . Continue reading
The American Federation of Teachers union boss shared an article on ‘What’s behind the increase in homeschooling’
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten got more than she asked for after she posted an article about the rise in homeschooling in America on social media Sunday.
“What’s behind the increase in homeschooling,” Weingarten posted on X along with an article with the same title from Axios, which included experts attributing the rise to kids needing specialized services and the pandemic.
Some X users, however, blamed Weingarten and the agenda the AFT has pushed for in education. Continue reading
The Washington Post this week reported on eye-opening school data from 32 states and Washington, D.C. Its findings show home school students have increased by 51% since the 2017-2018 school year, defying predictions that most families would return to public schools after COVID-19 restrictions went away.
The increases are especially high in states with large urban centers but not limited to those states.
California’s five-year increase in home schooling is 78%, New York’s is 103%, and Washington, D.C.’s figure is 108%, according to the Post.
Citing the National Center for Education Statistics, the Post said the number of home schooling children has jumped from 1.5 million before the COVID pandemic to as many as 2.7 million during the current school year. Continue reading
It seems like the public schools in Hillsborough County, Florida have been having problems similar to those experienced in Kanawha County, West Virginia public schools 49 years ago now. Considering the true agenda of the public education system in this country – indoctrination rather than education – should anyone really be surprised?
And it looks as if this has been going on for while. In an article published back in March of this year in the Tampa Bay Times it was noted that “This Book Is Gay” a non-fiction book that offers guidance to LGBTQ youth will no longer be available at any Hillsborough County middle school. Continue reading
A Founding Father’s vision for American education included a strong foundation of religious and moral instruction.
As a grade school student, one of my favorite field trips was spending a day attending the one-room school at a local historical site. My friends and I would pack our noontime meal in lunch buckets, dress in aprons and bonnets, and participate in a spelling bee at the close of the day.
But our lessons in the classroom covered more than just the three Rs. Continue reading
Many parents choose homeschooling specifically because of the harms they believe are caused by public schooling.
Those of us who have homeschooled for years are accustomed to periodic calls for greater regulation of homeschooling. Whether it’s a Harvard professor or NPR, the hackneyed hollers to regulate homeschoolers remain unconvincing.
Joining the tired chorus is comedian John Oliver, who earlier this week hosted an episode of his “Last Week Tonight” HBO show calling for more homeschool regulation… Continue reading
In the vibrant tapestry of human expression, art stands out as a medium that transcends words, allowing souls to communicate in colors, shapes, and movements. For children with learning disabilities, delving into the arts unlocks a universe of possibilities, providing them with a medium to express themselves and a bridge to connect, grow, and redefine their potential. Continue reading
Now that parents with school age children are homeschooling – whether they want to or not – I would like to offer some ideas towards teaching important educational skills at home. There is so much that parents can accomplish while families are in these unique “lock down” situations.
You all are very lucky. I hope that you understand that. You may never again have such an opportunity to teach your own children; to influence your children. You may never again have these chances to correct mistakes the schools have made; to fill any gaps that schools have left. Continue reading
We moved to a good school district. The area was growing. Built for families like ours, all of the public schools in the area received “A” or “8/10” ratings. There were two very expensive and very fancy private schools in the area. It was an idyllic place to raise children.
In retrospect, we had a few frustrations with the public schools. Some of the curriculum seemed ridiculous, the math in particular. The apps used to communicate with the teachers were barely functional. It was somewhat difficult to track what the kids were learning, but the teachers had no complaints, so we didn’t make any either.
In March 2020, the world changed. The entire school experience became a series of apps on a screen. Classes met daily in the morning on Zoom. All of the curriculum was hastily added to Schoology during the initial two-week lockdown. I still want to call it School–ology. We became intimate partners with the printer and scanner. They were necessary to scan and upload completed assignments. Continue reading
Almost half a century ago now, when the textbook protest in Kanawha County was going on, at one of the school board meetings there, one of the school board members was caught in a blatant lie in some of his remarks and someone attending the meeting called him on it. The school board member, caught in the act, just laughed and continued on with his remarks.
He was not there to shine the light of truth on anything. He was there to lie to the parents about what the public schools in Kanawha County were doing to their kids. At that point, the Kanawha County School Board had one honest member on it – Alice Moore – who tried to do what was right for both parents and children. The rest of the school board wasn’t, to put it bluntly, worth spit! Continue reading