Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with homeschooling

Teaching English, reading and writing to a 15 yr old street kid who's never been to school.

ferdinandcc — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:42:57 -0800

Do you have any advice for teaching English comprehension, as well as reading and writing, to a fifteen year old Filipino street kid who's never been to school a day in his life? I run a nonprofit in the Philippines, and a 15 year old street kid has sort of adopted me. His mom is incarcerated for life, and his stepdad abandoned him, so he'd been sleeping alone on the streets outside a fast food restaurant. He's never been to school, and doesn't know how to read or write (although he knew how to spell his first name and I've taught him how to spell his last name). I've been pretty impressed, however, with how quickly he learns things (and it's astonishing to see how well he's basically parented himself).

The problem with most ESL learning tools I've found is that they either assume you know your alphabet and can sound out words, or they assume you're a baby.

Right now, I can't afford Rosetta Stone, but I've used Rosetta Stone in the past to help myself learn Tagalog, so I sort of just started recreating the basic flashcard style concept so I can work with him online, over the cam while I'm in the states, and my assistant helps him in the Philippines.

I've also been reading books to him like The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish… etc., but he'd much rather watch older kids' cartoons like Dragonball Z than childish books like these. I also have many age levels of the Kumon books on ESL, but again, the ones at his education level are mostly for kindergartners.

Can you recommend any good activities, books, DVDs, web sites, online videos, games, anything that teaches reading and writing in a way that doesn't patronize an older child?

I think I'm doing pretty good at teaching him (and he's doing amazingly well at learning), but I know there's room for improvement and I've always gotten amazing results from asking questions here. Toss me some of your most creative ideas. Or some of your most obvious ideas. Sometimes it's the obvious ones that most elude me.

Part-time homeschooling?

toastchee — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:53:49 -0800

Part-time homeschooling? My dream is to soon be able to teach my kids myself one day a week. Currently they attend a public elementary school in Charleston, SC, that's actually very good. I am a computer professional that could make this work from a flextime perspective.

However, I hope to provide an out-of-the-box educational experience and alleviate some of the tedium that a modern school week can be.

Has anyone done this? How would I begin to set this plan in motion?

It's Tricky is the title, here we go...

streetdreams — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:53:11 -0800

Help me think of tricky spelling words to challenge my daughter! My 7-year-old daughter and I are working on spelling lessons. Mostly we've been working on word families and more basic stuff, but she's getting pretty good at those, so I'd also like to think of some harder words to give her.

What are some words that would be challenging for a second grader to spell? She tends to write things down the way they sound, so words like "people" that sound different than they're spelled would be especially good.

Non-religious home school curricula?

Zinger — Sun, 21 May 2006 12:41:18 -0800

Home schooling filter: Where else can I find non-religious, relatively complete curricula for home schooling purposes? My husband and I are investigating home schooling options for our children. I recently discovered the Calvert school which looks interesting, but I'd like to know if there are similar alternatives/competitors - particularly Canadian or UK based - so I can compare. I could put together my own curriculum, and I'm likely to supplement, change-up what I do use anyway, but I like the idea of having a solid base already prepared so I can spend less time searching and shopping and more time actually teaching.

public school or home school?

tom_g — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:29:14 -0800

Pros and cons of homeschooling. While I never thought I would even consider this, my wife and I are facing the possibility that we may homeschool our daughter. I'm interested in the following:
- Studies that measure intelligence or knowledge in a comparative way (public school vs. home school)
- Studies that look at social development aspects of home schooling
- Studies that look at levels of success and careers of people who have been homeschooled up until college
- Possible admission to college problems related to homeschooling.
- Issues related to early homeschooled children entering the public school later on (like in middleschool, for example)

Also, if anyone has been homeschooled, I would love to hear your opinion on the matter. Did you feel that you were missing out? Why did your parents homeschool, etc.

Here's the situation: We may not fit the normal profile of people who homeschool. My wife and I are politically-progressive, non-religious (atheist), college-educated people who had planned on enrolling my daughter in a private school such as Montessori or Waldorf. However, we cannot afford it. Not even close. The thought of public school, however, keeps me up at night. I remember my public education: it seemed to an institution that was designed to produce obedient children - and if they learned something in the process, great. If they slipped through the cracks - oh well.
Anyway, I understand that this is not representative of everyone's experience. However, we have friends who are public school teachers and they have done nothing to ease our concerns. The overcrowded classes are forcing them to focus on class discipline.
So, the thought of sending my daughter to a public school is not one I like. However, homeschooling is something I have always had problems with. First of all, I always associated it with religious people who want to keep their children from being exposed to the evil secular brainwashing of public schools. I also couldn't imagine a child being kept from other children.
Well, I now know that homeschooled children usually belong to groups that get together frequently. Their parents are often very active in the community and do not have to be isolated. I've also met a few homeschooled children who were homeschooled for reasons other than religion.

Now that I have an exceptionally-bright daughter who is about to enter school, I am seeing that there may be something to homeschooling, but I'm still very skeptical. I can very easily get in the mindset that my brilliant, creative, self-motivated daughter will be held back, and possibly lose her desire to learn and create.

Anyway, any links to studies, or stories from homeschool survivors would be great.
Thanks.