MNHK: What This Curriculum Is
We all write what we know. I am a lower-middle-class American citizen, a lifelong resident of an isolated small town in the extreme north of the Pacific Northwest who married the boy next door, and a cradle Christian raised in one centuries-old mainstream denomination and currently teaching Sunday school in another. I live in a multicultural community, but I am (and my husband is) so white even a nasty old Victorian bigot wouldn't find anything in my family tree to sniff at. My people have been in the country long enough to have no old-country connections, but not long enough to claim membership in the DAR or what have you. I am on the autism spectrum, but received neither diagnosis nor treatment in my 13 years of public school. Academically I was far ahead of the curve by the time I graduated, but I began keeping a notebook of questions nobody seemed interested in answering in early primary school: questions about why bullying was so prevalent and about how we were being taught. All of these factors have formed my perspective on homeschooling.
I have homeschooled all of my children from the beginning, due in no small part to my own public school experience. Local conditions will require me to enroll them in public high school, but if our finances permit I will homeschool all of them through eighth grade. I am lucky to live in one of the most homeschool-friendly states in the Union. By this I mean that not only is it easy to homeschool one's children here, but the children also receive the oversight they need in order to confirm their progress. Every year, starting in third grade, they take the same standardized tests as their peers in public school; I receive a detailed breakdown of the results. I write report cards four times a year and submit a list of topics to be covered and a booklist at the beginning of the year. In return, I receive a voucher equal to the amount spent on public school students, access to all public school services and facilities, and invitations to extra learning opportunities and get-togethers for local homeschool kids. The school voucher doesn't cover religious materials in order to maintain separation of church and state, but the homeschool office has a free library of donated books, including many from Christian publishers. I even get a monthly stipend to offset the cost of my online access--and a pretty nice laptop to use for school.
But what if I didn't?
Before the school began loaning out its laptops, I was stuck using an old, slow machine that couldn't even run an OS that still got updates. We still have a low monthly download limit and our bandwidth is not the best. Going places to have experiences is not in a lower-middle-class budget when you're hundreds of miles from anywhere else, voucher or no voucher. If I didn't have a pipeline of books, music, classes, and teleconferences on tap, what could I do? Actually I had no idea that vouchers even existed when I made the decision to homeschool. Finding out about them turned me away from the resources available online, but I was recently prompted to take another look. There are some excellent free and cheap curricula and virtual schools out there, but they are all built on the assumption that you have the latest greatest shiniest speediest online-access device and a data plan to match, not to mention money for reams of paper and scads of printer cartridges, plus scientific equipment. I know that there are people out there in the bind I was almost in: you have to homeschool, but you have to make every penny and byte count. Hence, Mother Necessity's Homeschooling Kit.
Here's what you need in order to use this curriculum:
A computer (phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, whatever) that can download, store, and display PDFs, including some really big files. It doesn't have to be online all the time, but it's going to be on a lot.
Time to prepare lessons for the day or week. If you're a fast reader, you may be able to teach some things "cold," but pre-reading is always prudent!
Money for some basic school supplies, such as pencils and paper.
Additional funds for things you will have to put together yourself, mainly homemade scientific equipment, plus time and skill to do the work--or a helper who can do it.
A spot in your house where you and your student(s) can sit comfortably while any preschool children are occupied with other things. Each of you will need enough clean, cleared table space for desk work; you should have decent light and ventilation, and everyone should be able to see the screen when reading an ebook.
A printer, but only for a few items; I have found no-printing-required alternatives for almost everything.
Patience, good humor, and the willingness to adjust your approach to the needs of individual students. A tense teacher makes a miserable classroom.
I am writing this series bit by bit as I have a few spare minutes here and there. I will revise each article as needed. More later.
I have homeschooled all of my children from the beginning, due in no small part to my own public school experience. Local conditions will require me to enroll them in public high school, but if our finances permit I will homeschool all of them through eighth grade. I am lucky to live in one of the most homeschool-friendly states in the Union. By this I mean that not only is it easy to homeschool one's children here, but the children also receive the oversight they need in order to confirm their progress. Every year, starting in third grade, they take the same standardized tests as their peers in public school; I receive a detailed breakdown of the results. I write report cards four times a year and submit a list of topics to be covered and a booklist at the beginning of the year. In return, I receive a voucher equal to the amount spent on public school students, access to all public school services and facilities, and invitations to extra learning opportunities and get-togethers for local homeschool kids. The school voucher doesn't cover religious materials in order to maintain separation of church and state, but the homeschool office has a free library of donated books, including many from Christian publishers. I even get a monthly stipend to offset the cost of my online access--and a pretty nice laptop to use for school.
But what if I didn't?
Before the school began loaning out its laptops, I was stuck using an old, slow machine that couldn't even run an OS that still got updates. We still have a low monthly download limit and our bandwidth is not the best. Going places to have experiences is not in a lower-middle-class budget when you're hundreds of miles from anywhere else, voucher or no voucher. If I didn't have a pipeline of books, music, classes, and teleconferences on tap, what could I do? Actually I had no idea that vouchers even existed when I made the decision to homeschool. Finding out about them turned me away from the resources available online, but I was recently prompted to take another look. There are some excellent free and cheap curricula and virtual schools out there, but they are all built on the assumption that you have the latest greatest shiniest speediest online-access device and a data plan to match, not to mention money for reams of paper and scads of printer cartridges, plus scientific equipment. I know that there are people out there in the bind I was almost in: you have to homeschool, but you have to make every penny and byte count. Hence, Mother Necessity's Homeschooling Kit.
Here's what you need in order to use this curriculum:
A computer (phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, whatever) that can download, store, and display PDFs, including some really big files. It doesn't have to be online all the time, but it's going to be on a lot.
Time to prepare lessons for the day or week. If you're a fast reader, you may be able to teach some things "cold," but pre-reading is always prudent!
Money for some basic school supplies, such as pencils and paper.
Additional funds for things you will have to put together yourself, mainly homemade scientific equipment, plus time and skill to do the work--or a helper who can do it.
A spot in your house where you and your student(s) can sit comfortably while any preschool children are occupied with other things. Each of you will need enough clean, cleared table space for desk work; you should have decent light and ventilation, and everyone should be able to see the screen when reading an ebook.
A printer, but only for a few items; I have found no-printing-required alternatives for almost everything.
Patience, good humor, and the willingness to adjust your approach to the needs of individual students. A tense teacher makes a miserable classroom.
I am writing this series bit by bit as I have a few spare minutes here and there. I will revise each article as needed. More later.