An Apple a Day - Using homeschool with public school

               There comes a point in your child’s life where a “best practice” may be to take advantage of what the public domain has to offer education. My niece, Olivia, was homeschooled her whole life, but as a teenager, she decided to attend Davis Technical College as part of her homeschool “high school” experience. She thoroughly enjoyed taking classes and learned how to navigate multiple classes, her peers, and is prepared for college now.

               Some homeschoolers I know let their children take a few classes a day at the public high school. For others, they try a charter school approach or a work-study approach. As children grow up, sometimes they desire to stretch their wings and be more independent. Mixing outside classes in with homeschool can facilitate this need.

               Do not feel guilty to use public school as needed. I have gone through times in my life when, as a single parent, I was the bread-winner and couldn’t continue to homeschool. However, I kept supplementing my children’s education at home in the evenings. I also returned to homeschooling when my situation improved. Most of my children have done both homeschool and public school, depending on our situation.

               We do the best we can with what we have. Supplementing your child’s learning at home – whether public, private, or home school – is one of the very best practices needed to help your child succeed. It can make the difference to overcoming the obstacles in education that hold so many children back.

                However, I caution you. Common Core is a horrid curriculum, and I completely disagree with open bathrooms. Our children are no longer safe in the federal public school system, so proceed with caution and keep both eyes wide open! Plus, if Christianity and Judaism have no place in our public schools, than neither should Islamic studies. You have the right to refuse any course of study that goes against your conscience.

http://thegodfreymethod.com

How to help your children reach their highest potential

       What parent wouldn't want to help her children become their best? To give your child a well-trained mind, it is necessary to understand that true self-esteem comes from achievement, and that usually requires effort and practice. Almost any child can become more gifted or academically talented with the right guidance and training.

        Are people born with talent? Most people think the only way to be great at something, from music to sports to math to chess, is to be born with a rare ability. Greatness isn't just born, it’s grown, which is important information about the learning process that every parent, teacher, and coach should know. 

        Recent research shows that even the most talented people have to devote a huge amount- a minimum of 10,000 hours- of dedicated, focused practice before they can achieve the level of world-class performance. Besides talent and practice, there is a third element necessary for success: inner determination (the child's own attitude and self-motivation).

        Giving your child a well-trained mind requires a classical education. The classical curriculum is very demanding, as it should be. For example, 9th grade students are expected to read 25 books, among them Homer's Iliad, Plato's Republic, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. There is a blueprint for parents to use at home. Children’s minds need to be challenged and stretched. It is tragic when the public school standards are lowered for the convenience of the parents and teachers. A well-trained mind requires as much time and practice as any other talent.

        Is teaching traditional grammar a waste of time? No! A professor of classics disagrees with the establishment’s war against grammar. He shows that a solid grounding in the grammatical analysis of sentences is necessary for good writing and speaking skills. It not only helps with one's native tongue, but also in learning foreign languages. He attributes a student's inability to write in complete sentences, as well as logical paragraphs, to a lack of foundation in basic grammar.

        The education people try to blame it on phone texting, but it really started with the whole language fiasco. In trying to make things easier for the few stragglers, we lost the rest of the students with our easing of criteria and requirements. When we make no demands, excellence does not happen. “No children left behind” has become all children left behind. And now Common Core is making it even worse!

        Well-meaning parents and educators believe that praise, encouragement, and advantages ("self-esteem-first" method) translate directly into happiness in childhood and success in adulthood. But did you know that the reverse is true? Misplaced indulgence only produces young adults who are stymied by the ordinary challenges of life, lack basic skills of empathy, and fear humiliation above all else. Yes, be positive, but lovingly require achievement and higher standards.

        Children need to learn to cope and can’t do so when adults remove all obstacles. So, in summary, to give your children a well-trained mind, give them a classical education with emphasis on traditional grammar, lovingly expect them to study and accomplish milestones, require them to practice or put in time and effort, and don’t do everything for them. More and more of our college students are finding it hard to cope on their own without mom and dad. Cases of anxiety are on the increase because of the misguided self-esteem push, which method was one of the many Project Follow Through failures. More to come from Common Core.

As Linda Kreger Silverman said, “A bright child who is capable of scoring in the high ninety percentiles on group achievement testing may not be gifted.” Regardless, being academically talented is a worthy pursuit. The technology jobs of the future need intelligent, successful students.

        Resources: http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/resources/category/C10/  

Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell.
The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle.
The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.
The War against Grammar, by David Mulroy.
The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance, by Polly Young-Eisendrath.

http://thegodfreymethod.com/content/StarLightStarBrightHowtohelpyourchildrenreachtheirhighestpotential

Dress your child's mind for success

Being a Wise Owl - Dress your child's mind for success!

Dress your child's mind for success! Direct Instruction with parent involvement is the key:

                We’ve all heard of “dress for success.” My motto is, “Dress your child’s mind for success.” How can I explain the emotions of watching my children learn and succeed? For me, many of the benefits of early reading the right way are heart-felt. My concern and love for my children are the reasons that I created The Godfrey Method and wrote A Funny Boy Was Prince River.

                Think of your closets and cupboards. Are things easier to find with or without shelves in there? Are things on the shelves easier to find in orderly stacks or jumbled on top of each other? It’s the same for children’s minds. Children need structure and schedules of some sort. Now, all you free spirits out there are disagreeing with me. But as a foster mom for many years, I can tell you what happens to children when their parents have no set schedule for regular meals, regular nap times, regular hugs, regular bedtimes, etc. The children suffer.

                Besides the neglect, they feel fear and uncertainty about their needs being met. They don’t learn self-control. (Some ADHD comes as a child’s coping mechanism in an unstable environment.) They don’t cope well with change. The rage can build up. The tantrums are worse. These are just the facts.

                It’s the same with educating their minds. Children actually learn better and grow mentally faster with some sort of structure. They can retrieve information better if it is presented in an orderly fashion. Child-led discovery is a farce and a disservice to our children. I’m not saying that they have to sit at a desk for hours. There are many ways to achieve direct instruction in a way that is enjoyable and interesting.

                But there are also times that we all have to knuckle down and accomplish things that we don’t want to do. If children are to cope in society and function well, they need to learn this (in age-appropriate ways). I’m not just saying this to home-schoolers. Home should be a learning environment regardless of public, private, or home school.

                In the article, Parents Make THE Difference, by Joan Ruddiman, she reports intriguing results that, “validate what we’ve always known – in the contest of life and learning, parents are the major influence in getting their kids to the head of the class.” And they should start early the right way.

                As mentioned in Vol. 5 of It's Not Rocket Surgery!, I struggled with the idea of Direct Instruction just because I used to be a home-schooler years ago, and again more recently. Some in the home-schooling movement believe in freer philosophies. Many of us are concerned about what is being taught and/or how it is taught. The best thing about home-schooling is the ability to work at the child’s pace and interest. As a scientist, I have to accept the data over the dogma. The proof for Direct Instruction in every area of academics is overwhelming. Keep it simple for success (KISS your child) with TGM.

                Currently my youngest son is home-schooled, while my two youngest daughters chose to attend public school. (My other 13 children are grown and gone.) However, my youngest daughter - age 12 - was assigned regular math instead of algebra this year. The school district has a ridiculous policy - no doubt the new effects of horrid Common Core - that wouldn't allow her to take pre-algebra in spite of her excellent grades in math last year. Why? Because she didn't "test well" on the state-mandated MAP tests at the end of the year.

                 So I bought an online algebra curriculum from Switched-On Schoolhouse by Alpha Omega Publications. My daughter is learning algebra at home. I will not allow her to be held back because of some ill-formed philosophy about where a child should be pigeon-holed. SOS provides the structure she needs, yet she can work at her own pace. We parents are the key.

http://thegodfreymethod.com/content/BeingaWiseOwlDressyourchildsmindforsuccess

12 Reasons why your child needs early reading the right way

12 Reasons why your child needs early reading the right way

Why use The Godfrey Method to overcome the Top Ten Myths of Reading?

• You learn how to redefine your definition of the word ‘reading’. You learn that reading is not the same for all children.
• You discover how to move through the roadblocks and challenges your child faces on his road to learning how to read.
• You become aware of a new way of bonding with your child which is fun, productive, and most of all, the most valuable gift that you can share with her.
• And most importantly, a simple shift in your current thinking about learning to read can change his or her entire world.

Your value, your reward for following The Godfrey Method’s easy-to-understand path to the foundation of your child’s future learning, is:

• You experience the eye-opening tips, the innovative strategies, and the techniques that have brought so many children to the doorway of success.
• You experience a combination of compelling and insightful stories of children and parents moving through the challenges and roadblocks that once held them back on their road to learning.
• You experience the practical step-up formula that will help you discover your child’s own innate ability to become a participant in the world of reading.
• You experience a true sense of the word bonding as you both move through The Godfrey Method of reading, targeting your ability to overcome the once impossible task of helping your child read.

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is you and your child get to walk away with the tools and knowledge to step up to a brighter and more fulfilling world of learning.

Take-aways:

• Learn the links which create understanding between the eyes & mind.
• Use sound to speed the learning process.
• “Reading is hearing with your eyes.”
• Quick and inexpensive way to do it at home.

 

Do you know the answers to these myths? Do you know the truth?

                         Find the truth in "A Funny Boy Was Prince River"

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/12-reasons-why-your-child-needs-early-reading-right-way