Homeschool vs School at Home? Does it matter?

Tenn over at School @ Home put out a request for submissions on the topic “What Makes a Homeschooler a Homeschooler” and I truly wanted to send her a submission. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time or the energy. I still don’t have the time or the energy but I am vowing to make time for this sort of thing, so here goes.



First, some history. Michelle was enrolled in public school until April of 2004, she was in the 8th grade when we removed her from the school system. We didn’t plan it in advance, we simply did it because it was the best option for her. We spent the rest of “8th grade” continuing with the subjects and topics she had been working on and then we spent the summer figuring out what she knew and what she didn’t know and just getting an idea about how we might schedule our lives and her education once the “real school year” began in the fall.



None of the school in a box options felt right for us. We are not a “religious” family and curriculumn with religious education built in was not for us. I did buy two literature workbooks, Frankenstein and To Kill a Mockingbird, that included discussion questions that coincide with Biblical study. When it came time to study Frankenstein, we simply skipped the Biblical questions. (Though I think Michelle would find it interesting at some point to go back and ponder them a bit on her own.)



It’s tough to find curriculumn for a just starting in homeschool at the high school level child, religious or otherwise, and I was pretty worried that this was not going to work. But, we made a plan and we got busy with it in late August. It worked well except we quickly realized that I simply could not give her the assistance she needed in Algebra. Higher level math is not my thing, it never has been. She moved quickly through the Algebra workbook that we’d chosen for her but by mid October she was beginning to struggle all by herself and I was in search of a tutor or a curriculumn or an online class – something had to be done.



Lo and behold, Florida Virtual School! My older son’s teacher had mentioned it in passing when I expressed concern about his placement in a high school math class when we first moved to this fair city but I never really needed to research it. I should have, it would have done him a world of good.



Michelle and I registered her with the system, and we registered her as a homeschooler. We requested Algebra 1 and while we were at it we went ahead and requested Biology 1 and Spanish 1. We faxed in a copy of her official “We are homeschooling” paperwork from the school district and we waited for placement. A couple of weeks later, Michelle was officially enrolled in the Algebra class. A couple of weeks later, she was assigned a Biology teacher and then the Spanish teacher shortly after that.



These three classes are considered “full credit” classes and should be completed in 36 weeks. 18 if you are on an advanced pace. You can also choose honors if you like. Public school children must have taken the prerequisite courses to be eligible for honors but if you are homeschooled, the parent simply needs to request the honors track. Students can work at their own pace in terms of moving quickly through the course, but they cannot move “too slowly”. In our experience you’d have to be doing almost no work to not be able to keep the “pace”. For a homeschool child, the pace is slow, slow, slow. For a public ed student who goes to school a full day and is working on FLVS courses at night and on the weekend, the pace is probably tough at certain points.



To recap – “9th grade” consisted of Michelle doing “school at home” through FLVS for 4 classes (we added a Webmasters class that we heard was awsome, and it was in February of that year) and she “homeschooled” the rest.



This summer, Michelle took Economics and American Government (honors) just because we thought it would be interesting to see what other Florida high school students were required to take. She loved AG and hated Economics, as I expected she would. This year, she’s taking Chemistry 1, Geometry 1 and Spanish 2 through FLVS and the rest of her education is created and directed by us.



Yes, FLVS receives state funding. Yes, someone other than me grades her work. Yes, she receives grades just like a public schooler in Florida does. She can even print a transcript of her grades if she wants to. BUT, ultimately it is me who is responsible for her educational progress. On the rare occasion that I’ve had issues with the curriculumn, grading or expectations of Michelle’s FLVS teachers, I’ve addressed those issues with them and they’ve been very accomodating and helpful. To me, those FLVS teachers have been exactly what a tutor would have been, if I’d been able to find one.



I understand that many homeschoolers are concerned that they will lose the right to create their entire curriculumn and somehow be required to choose an option like FLVS. But to me it feels a wee bit silly to insist that those of us who choose to use “school at home” option not call ourselves homeschoolers. Isn’t there enough division amongst us without creating this us/them feeling between us? How is this division between us going to help the cause of homeschooling?



I’m in support of every single person who chooses homeschool, regardless of the curriculumn choices (or lack thereof) that they make. I don’t care if you call yourself homeschoolers, unschoolers or school at homers – it’s all about making the best choices for our children. What’s worked well for Michelle may not work well for your children and what works well for yours, may not work well for Michelle – isn’t that really what homeschooling is about? Isn’t that what makes a homeschooler? Finding the educational path on our own and following it?


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Jewish History Part 3

1. The Crusades, intended to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule, begin; they result in the deaths of many Jews.
2. Much of Europe blames the Black Plague on Jews; hundreds of Jew communities destroyed.
3. One hundred thousand Jews are massacred in Poland.
4. Jews of Vienna are forced to move into a ghetto called Leopoldstadt.
5. French Jews are granted full citizenship for the first time since the Roman Empire.
6. Russia requires thirty-one years of military service for Jews, begining at age 12.
7. A series of massacres of Jews, called pogroms, begins in Russia.
8. Jews from Eastern Europe begin to emigrate to Israel, then called Palestine.

The Price of Technology

If I had to give up one technological advancement it would have to be television. I watch wayyyy too much television and I’ve stopped reading and doing things that I need to do. I used to go outside and read and now I just stay inside and watch television. Television is evil. I know if I was to give it up I would do more things.

Jewish History: Part 2

1. The Romans reconquer Jerusalem and destroy the temple.
2. Jews rebel against Roman rule and seize Jerusalem.
3. The Romans crush the rebellion and prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem.
4. After the Jewish expulsion from Jerusalem by the Romans, Jewish oral law is written down in a book called the Mishnah.
5. Christianity becomes the primary religion of the Roman Empire.
6. Jews in the Roman Empire are repressed.
7. The Muslim Empire expands to cover southwestern Asia, northern Africa, and Spain.
8. The Jews begin to scatter around the world.

New Beginings

"History, despite it’s wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, Need not be lived again. Lift up your eyes upon The day breaking for you. Give birth again To the dream. Women, children, men…. Lift up your hearts. Each new hour holds new chances." — Maya Angelou

I think that this exerpt means that things have happend in the past but we shouldn’t dwell on them. We should learn from them and always remember them. And it also means that because these things have happend we have the power not to let them occur again. This poem was meant to touch the hearts of people, especially Americans I suppose. The writer is trying to send a positive message to those who doubt that things aren’t going to get better.

Hamlet Starring Mel Gibson

After seeing this movie, I really like the idea of Hamlet as a movie. Ethan Hawke as Hamlet might as well find every copy and burn it because no one can beat Mel. He seemed to find the balance between showing Hamlet’s insanity and pain. Ethan could not find that balance. I found his performance filled more with blankness. He portrayed Hamlet as shy to let the world know how he feels. But that’s not Hamlet’s character. Hamlet has no shame because he’s trying to revenge his father’s death. He’s trying to show everyone the wrongs that are happening right beneath their noses. Hamlet’s character doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him. It seems to me as if he wants them to see him as insane. Mel Gibson nailed Hamlet.The rest of the cast was awsome. I loved the castle that the story took place in. The whole movie was done really well.

Jewish History Part 1

1. Abraham to whom the jews trace their ancestry, is told to leave Mesopotamia and settle in Canaan, which is now Israel.
2. Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and receives the laws of God.
3. The kingdom of Israel is founded.
4. The kingdom of Israel splits in two. The norther kingdom continues to be called Israel. The southern kingdom is called Judah.
5. The Assyrians conquer the northern kingdom of Israel.
6. The Babylonians conquer the southern kingdom of Judah.
7. Persia conquers Babylonia.
8. Cyrus, king of Persia, allows the Jews to return to Judah.
9. Judah comes under the control of Alexander the Great.
10. When King Antiochus tries to force Jews to worship idols, a group of rebels overthrows the king.

Nature vs. Nurture

The "nature versus nurture" debate refers to the question of what influences us the most. Some scientist believe that nature shapes us as people and others believe that nurture shapes us. I think that it has to do with a little bit of both. For the first many years of your life the genetic characteristics you were born with shape you. And those characteristics always stick. After a while you start to grow up and become socially involved with many things. Some of your genetic characteristics might change and you will develope new ones. It really just depends on each person.

Pick the Parent

I like to think that I’m not like my father, but I am. I do have many aspects of my mother too. I think I picked up my father’s bad aspects and my mother’s good ones.

Monotheism and Polytheism

I think that the Jewish monotheistic outlook was different from the outlook of oher people’s in the region. That made it difficult for them to be assimilated by other nations, even when their land was conquered.