Growing Without Schooling 69

GROWING WITHOIJT SCHOOLING 69 x

WeVe devoted a lot of space ln recent issues of GWS to the question of communitlr - what ts tt, how can we lind or make it, what would we want it to a be like lf we could have it? For this issue, we decided to take the discussion d one step further and ask, 'How can we make our communitles - the ones we o have and live in right now - more welcoming of and accessible to children?

What sorts of changes might we actually consider making?"

In inviting several readers to think about these questions, I gave them explicit permisslon to be speculaUve, wishful - to write about what they would like to see happen even if they could not always see how to make it happen. This is unusual for GWS; we tend to be stron$y biased in favor of storles of what has happend., what people have tried or done or experienced.

But the departure from this blas was deliberate. GWS reader Peter Making our communtdes more welcomlng to children is the subject of thls l*sue's Focus, pages Bergson, who has for many years helped adults recover and children t9-22. maintain thelr creaflve problem-solvtng abtlities, says that the htstory of inventlveness, of creativitSr, shows that trt. ly new and workable ideas come INSIDE THIS ISSUE: to people only after they have allowed themselves this kind of wishing. To invent something new, we have to be able to think in farfetched, even crazy NEWS & REPORTS p. 2-a terms, to say, 'Wouldn't it be great if we could have something like this?" We Victory ln North Dakota, The Right wouldn't have airplanes if people hadn't been able to say, "Imagine someto Participate ln AcUviUes, Homething that would allow us to get from place to place bylyfngl" - which must schooling "Challenged" Children have seemed a pretty far out idea at the time.

Of course, really making change does very deflnitely lnvolve thinking CFIALLENGES & CONCERNS p. 5-7 about how to put ldeas tnto practice. We can't generate ltsts of wild ideas and then stop there. But we can't get anywhere untrl we generate those lists, Doesn't Mind Isolatlon, Inquiring so with this issue of GWS we're taking the first step toward thinldng about Adults, Wanting School, When how to make accessible, welcoming communities for children and, by Mother ls lll extension, families. And in fact, even within the context of these wish lists, WATCHING CHILDREN LEARN the writers in this issue have come up with many practical ldeas about what we can do to make those wishes real. Sometimes they offer o<amples of p. 8-l I what has already been done as well.

History, Museum Volunteers, AdvanA few words about why we spend so much time talking about commutages of Being an Older Reader, nity in a magazine that's ostensibly about education. John Holt wrote in Spelling, Becoming a Writer 1971: 'l do not think we can treat as separate the quality of education and the qualtty of life in general... I am saying that truly good education in a bad LEARNING FROM CHILDREN'S societ5r is a contradiction in terms. In short, ln a society that is absurd, unPLAY p.1l-12 workable, wasteful, destructtve, secretlve, coercive, monopolistic, and generally anti-human, we could never have good education, no matter what RETHINKING''SCHLEPPING kind of schools the powers that be permit, because it is not the educators or CHILDRENAROUND" p. 12 the schools but the whole societ5r and the quality of life in lt that really educate. This means that whatever we do to improve the quality of life, for anyone, and in whatever part of his life, to that degree improves education...

CHILDREN IN THE WORKPI.A,CE The best and perhaps only way to prepare the young to work for a better p.12 world is to invite them, right now, to join us in working for it. We cannot say, "\Me will concentrate our efforts on maldng nice schools for you, and after FOCUS: MAKING COMMUNITIES you get out goucan tackle the toughJob of remaking the world.' ...What WELCOMING TO CHILDREN p. relpeople] need above all else is a society in which they are to the greatest 22 possible degree free and encouraged to look, ask, think, choose and act; and... making this society ls both the chief soctal or polittcal artd educaLTVING WELL WITH CHILDREN : tional task of our time.'

INTERMEW WTIH MARC McGARRY If society as a whole is what educates, we cannot think about working p.22-23 for better education without thinking about working for better communities in which to live, work, play, teach, and leam. In a way, this makes the task OLDERHOMESCHOOLERS p. 2a seem blgger, more tmposlng. But defining it thts way also gives us a great range of possible courses of action, a great many things we can actually do.

HOTWADULTS LEARN p.25 Of the many possible ways to work "in the field of education,' I suspect that working for stronger communities will be not only the most effective but GEORGE DENNISON ON FREEDOM also the most satisSing.

Susannah Sheffer

p.25

-

2

OFFICE NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS [SS:l Merloyd l^awrence tells us that her collection of John Holt's writing about

young children learning, now dtled Learnbtg AU

Tle

?trne,

will be out this fall.

Addison Wesley's tentatlve publicadon date ls November 1989. Merlovd has done an impr€sslve Job of maklng d book out of these varlous pleces of writing (many of

which were llrst publtshed in GWS). Ohio State Universlty Press will then bring out the collectlon I've been editing, Life Worth Uuing: Sebcted Letters oJ Jotn HoLL In the spring of 1990.

Since our last lssue went to press, we've had some nice publtctty - a couple of good articles in local newspapers, which led to an invltadon to speak on a radio show and several lnquirles about homeschooling and our work. Pat Farenga spoke at the CONNECTICUT I{OMESCHOOLERS ASSOCIATION conference on April 29th, and I led workshops at the MARYI.^AND HOME EDUCATION ASSO. CIATION conference on Aprtl lSth, where I was able to see many GWS friends. The MHEA conference, organlzed by Manfred

Smith, successfully incorporates workshops for chtldren lnto lts program each

books, and we don't want to lose these people, so please conslder helptng us by asldng us for address labels and then putting them in your library's copies of

the books.

Massachusetts reader Daphne Slocombe writes: "l would like to stmngly recommend to anyone who ls dtthertng about whether to buy the back lssues of GWS to gettlern They are irrvaluable.

Most of the material ls not in the least out of date, and won't be ln the future -

get together the money for the back issues,

but l'm so glad we did." Excellent advice we couldn't harre said lt better ourselvesl

NEWS & REPORTS VICTORY IN NORTH DAKOTA On April 7th the govemor of North Dakota signed House Bill l42l tnto law, making lt possible for parents who are not certified teachers to homeschool there.

North Dakota had been one of the three

states that requtred homeschoolLng par-

ents to be certlfied teachers, but ln rec€nt months the requirement was suspended ln the other two states, Mtchigan and lowa (see GWS #67, #6ar, and with the passage of North Dakota's HB l42l there is now no state with this requirement. (But this could change - see Minnesota news, this issue).

yea4 others lnterested in organizing that llnd of event might want to use this

The new law, whlch will go into ellect on July l, says that a parent ts qualifled to supeMse a program of home-based

conference as one model.

We appreclate the inquiries about posslble spealdng engagements that weVe received as a result of our mentlon of this tn GWS #67. We hope that stlll others of you will take us up on this as well, We were lucky to have the very valuable help of Kim Kopel (MO) in the olllce for a week tn Aprtl. Klm had never

"the parent is certifled or certl8able to teach ln North Dakota: has a htgh school education or has received a general educational development certillcate [GED] and ls supervtsed by a certillcated teacher employed either by the public school dlstrlct in which the parent resides or, lf

worked ln any lidnd of ofllce before helping out in ours, and her week here made her think that she might ltke to do this sort of work ln the future - another reminder of how important it ts for young people to have a chance to see adult work from the lnside.

Several ofyou seem to be using GWS to make connectlons wlth others these days, which is always very graurying to see, We've been forwardtr:rg a lot of letters, passing on a lot ofresponses, helptng people get ln touch with one another. Beth Kaseman (WI) wrttes about the Focus on "What Teens Want From Adults" tn GWS #68: "We, as homeschooled teens, are a small number of people, but we seem to share a lot, and it's gr€at to read each othet's stories tn GWS.- Communlties aren't always made up of people who are all in one place.

A plea from the Directory department: If you're enterlng your name into the Directory, please take care to fill out the enthe form. We're getting entries that give the parents' llrst names but not last nEunes, or street addresses wlthout the city, state, and zip code. Sometlmes we're able to look thls information up, but it takes tlme. Other tlmes we have no way of looking it up at all.

We sttll have many labels with our new address available for sticking in copies of John Holt's books in local libraries. We get qulte a few inquiries from people who have read John's earlier

wonderful stuff about how people (of any age) leam, soclallzatlon, approaches to dlflerent specl{Ic subJects, use oftelevision vs. dolng wlthout, choosing work, and so on. Best of all are the lmages of the lives of homeschooling families. Often these famllles have evolved an unusual, lvely, healthy unity of learnlng, work, frlendshtps, and play. It was hard for us to

instrucdon if

requested by the parent, by a state-

approved private or parochial school; or has passed the national teacher exam glven in North Dakota, or in any other state lf North Dakota does not offer such a

test.'

The NORTH DAKoTA HOME SCHOOL ASSOCIATION comments that there ls no definition of "certlllable" in the law.

The law requlres homeschooling parents to teach the state's required subJects at least four hours a day, I 75 days a year, Parents must keep an annual record of the courses the child has taken, academlc progress made, and any standardized tests results. Parents lile an annual statement of lntent with their local superintendent at least thirty days before the beginntng of the semester during whtch the family plans to homeschool, The statement must include the names and addresses of the parents and chlldren, the chlldren's blrth dates and grade levels,

'the lntentlon of the parent to supeMse home-based instrucdon," the parent's

qualilications, a list of courses or extracurricular acdvitles in the public school district in whlch the child will pardclpate, and an oath or alfirmadon that the parent will comply with the provislons of the law.

Annual standardlzed testing ls also required. From the law: "A standardized achievement test

used by the school district tn which the child resides or, ifrequested by the parent, a standardized achievement test used by a state-approved private or parochial school must be g;iven annually to each chlld receivtng home-based lnstruction.

The test must be given ln the child's leamlng environment and must be adminlstered by a ccrttfled teacher employed by the public school dlstrict ln which the parent resides or, if requested by the parent, employed by a state-approved private or parochial school. The cost of such testlng must be bome by the local school district ln which the child resides if the test is administered by a c'ertified teacher employed by a publtc school distdct or by the parent of the chtld lf the test ls administered by a certllled teacher employed by a state-approved Prlvate or parochial school. Results of such testing must be provtded to the local public school

superlntendent.

'If a chtld's baslc composlte score on a standardized achlevement test falls below the thtrtteth percentile nationally, the child must be professionally evaluated for a potentlal learntng problem. If the multidisciplinary €rsisessment team erraluatlon determines that the child is not handicapped accordlng to the eligibility criteria of the department of public lnstruction and the child does not require speciallydestgned lnstruction according to the rules adopted by the department of public tnstruction, lthe Parent rnay contlnue to homeschooll, upon flltng with the superintendent of publlc lnstruction a statement, from an approprtately licensed professional, that the child is currently maldng reasonable academlc progress..."

Parents who don't llle that statement cases won't be homeschooling

in such

legally. If the 'multidisclplinary assess- ment team" does determlne that the child in quesdon is handlcapped, 'but not dwelopmentally disabled,' the parent may contlnue to homeschool if he or she flles an "indlvidualized education program plan, forumulated wlthln rules idopt6d by the department of public tnstrucdon, tndtcadng that the child's needs for speclal educatlon are being appropriately addressed by persons qudilted to provide special education or related seMces.'

F)nally, if a local superintendent determines that a child ls not'rrlaking reasonable academic Progress consistent

wtth the chlld's age or state o[ development," the parent must be notllled of this conclusion and the basis for tt, and the parent must "make a good liaith effort to

GROWING WITFIOUT SCHOOLING #69

3 remedy any deflclency.' Fatlure to make thls effort constltutes a violation of the

law.

The lawalso has a clause about state aid which may lnterest those ln other states: 'For purposes ofallocatlng foundation aid and other state asslstance to local school dlstrlcts, students recetvlng homebased instruction shall be deemcd enrolled tn the school dlstrlct ln which they restde lf the student ls supervlsed by a certillcated teacher employed by the pubItc school dtstrtct ln whtch the parent

resldes.'

Clinton Birst of the NDHSA tells us that sevenal factors contrtbuted to the passage of the btlt nadonal publicity gliven to homeschooling court cases in the state and attempts to deny homeschooled chlldren the rtght to partlclpate in the state spelllng bee; support from homeschoolers at a rally on February 28th; effectlve testlmony from Joyce Swann, a homeschoollng mother of ten wlth only a ltgh school educadon, and Carl Flnboe, former presldent of the Washlngton Educa6on Assoclatlon, whose testimony was about the academlc performance o[ homeschoolers; pressure from the Home School kgal Defense Associatloni legislators' concem about flnes that had been imposed on homeschooling famlltes; the fact that the Attomey General's o{Ilce drafted the origtnal version of HB l42l; and the lobbytng elTorts of homeschoolers.

Readers wantlng more detailed informadon should wrlte or call the NDHSA, PO Box 539,

T\rrtle l"ake ND 58575: 70 l -

448-9r93.

MANDATORY KINDERGAR. TEN IN ARKANSAS The February-March lssue of LJpdate, the newsletter of the ARKANSAS CHRISTTAN HOME EDUCATTON ASSOCIATION. reports that homeschoolers were unable io defeat two ldendcal bills making klndergarten rnandatory ln Arkansas, The bills

passd, and the new law lowers the compulsory school age lnArkansas lrom 7 to 5. Parents who choose not to send their

chtldren to klndergarten at age 5 must sign a walver wtth thetr local school dlstrtct, and chtldren who turn 6 on or belore October lst of a glven year will be waluated (by the school dtstrict) to see whether they should attend kindergarten or llrst grade.

Tom Hollman of the ACHEA writes that it is not yet clear what that last clause wlll mean for homeschoolers. Thev are particularly concemed about whe[her it will allect the part of the current homeschool law which says that homeschoolers do not have to be tested unfll age 7.

INDEPENDENT STUDY IN CA Ellzabeth Hamill wrote In the April/

May tssue of the NoRTIIERN CALIFORNIA HOMESCHOOL ASSOCIATION Neurs: 'Homeschool Independent Study Pro-

grams (lSPs) cpnducted by publtc school dtstrlcts tn Californla are ln lmmediate danger of betng ellmtnated by the governor's budget next year. In a reaction to perc€lvd mlsuse of state apportionment atd and htgh studentr/teacher ratlos, the Legfslatlve Analyst has recommended

that language be added to the I 989-9O State Budget Bills (SB 165 and AB 25O) to cut funding and eliminate ISPs for most

homeschoolers currently enrolled.'

Enrolling ln a publlc school Independent Study Program is now one of four available ways to homeschool in Californla. Elizabeth Hamill writes that she and Roy Hanson of the Chrlstian Home Educators Assocladon met wtth Dr. Lynn Hartzler of the Alternative &lucatlon Untt of the State Department of Education to ask how likely lt was that the leglslature would approve the Analyst's recorrunendatlons, Hartzler told them that the Department of Educadon clearly opposes these recommendations, and that he didn't think educational reforms should be made through the Budget Bill.

Senator Gary Hart, chair of the Senate Educadon Committee, has lntroduced Senate Bill 1563, whlch would also allect Independent Study Programs by tlghtentng some of their requlrements, Districts would have to set limits on student-teacher ra$os, for example, and would set up screening criterla to determine whether the ISP is the best placement for the pardcular child.

Ellzabeth Hamlll comments: 'While these more stringent guideltnes mlght make particlpation ln the ISPs less appealing to some homeschoolers who preGr more freedom and less structure, the passage of SB 1563 might make it less Itkely that the leg[slators would approve the Analyst's recommendatlon that many of the ISPs be eltminated altogether...

According to NCFIA's 1987 suwey of California homeschoolers, about I 196 are participattng in public school ISPs. There are several reasons why we all need toJoln ranks and support these programs whether we are participating ln them or not. If the state sees that ISPs can be easlly eliminated, then they might get the idea that other types of homeschooling wtll be even more vulnerable. We need to show them that we are unified and willing to support each other..."

GROUP FOR "CHALLENGED'' KIDS Martlyn Conotxr (HCR #1 fux 98, Stulftwater PA | 837O: 7 17-A39-9972)

rrrites:

My husband and I have four children, the youngest ofwhom has Down Syndrome. T\vo months ago ln the Pernsglvania. Homeschmlers newsletter, a mother wrote in wanting to contact parents of EMR (Educable Mentally Retarded) and TMR firainable Mentally Retarded) children who were homeschooled, We started corresponding, and found others who were doing the same, and others who were considering it, l"ast month ln Tte Teactnng Home magazlne, ther€ was a letter from a farnily of a young child with spinal bilida who wanted to homeschool, and several families around the country contacted them. Things took off from there very

rapidlyl

One woman from Detroit suggested a name for our loose-knlt but growing group - CHICKS (Chrtstian Homeschoolers Instructing Challenged Kids for His Service). Right now, we are Just a tele-

GRO\I'ING WITHOLTT SCHOOLINC #69

phone and letter support and informatlon group. We don't have any meetlngs, or print our own newsletter, but we can help others who arc gohg through what we did, and oller suggestlons relevant to our chlldren's speclal needs ttrat more general support €iroups may not be able to deal

wtth.

We re sure that among your readers are people who could benellt from lorowlng that others are dolng the same thing.

Parents ofchildren ofany age or disabilt$ are welcome.

[SS:l I asked Marilyn whether the group's name meant that tt was limited to Chrisdan homeschoolers. and she said that it did not the group is open to all.

OTHER LOCAL NEWS For addresses oJ state and.lrr'al orgonlzntions, see G![4S #ffi or orlu.

Homeschmlttg Resource Llst, auailahle

Jor $2.

Ecntucly: Homeschooler Libby Morley tells us that truant ollicers clalm that some truants are htdtng behind the cover ofhomeschooltng, so to speak - that some people are nelther sending children to school nor complSrtng wlth the home school Law. A group calllng ttself the Kentuc$ Homeschool Congress (c/o JeIf Sanford, Sutte 7OO, IOIOI Linn Station Rd, Louisvllle 40.223) met ln March and set up commlttees, wtth the goal of presenting a posltive tmage of homeschooling to the truant olficers and the leglslators who may be monltorlng this sltuadon.

Mainc: A note ln the March lssue of the Re.lt4AINELrg at Home newsletter says that two homeschooling btlls have been tntmduced this leglslatlve sesslon. LD lO8

would make it posslble for homeschoolers to submit their applicadons to elther the

state or the local superintendent, rather than to both as is currently required. The other bill would make into law the current guldelines for non-approved private schools (including home schools).

In the Aprll tssue of the newsletter, Steve Moltozo writes that LD lO8, the bill they are currently focuslng on, has been heard before the Educatton Committee. and that when he testilied at the hearing he focused on the discrepancies between school distrlcts' requinements. Steve

wrltes that he has recelved almost ninetv local school dlstrlct pollcles from homel schoolers around the state (he had requested copies so that he cluld prepare his testlmony) and dlscovered that most differ signtllcantly from the state's homeschoollng law (Ch. l3O). Many have no written pollcles at all, which is a vlolation of the law, and some make demands - such as the submission of weekly lesson plans that the law does not require them to GROWING WITHOUTSCHOOLING #69, Vol. l2 No.3. ISSN #0745-5305. hrbllshed bFmonthly

by Holt .{.ssoclates, 2269 Ma"sachus€tts Avenue, Cambrfdge MA02l4O.$2Olyr. Date of Issue: Jr:ne l, 1989. Sccond-class postage pald at Boston. MA. FOSTMASTER: Scnd addrcss changcs to GWS, 2269 Massachusctts Avenuc, Cambridgc MA O2l4O. ADVERTTSERS: Deadllnes arc thc

l5th

of odd-

numbcrcd months. Contact Patrlck Fareqga for rates.

4 rnake. Steve says that these discrepancies make the need for uniform. statewide standards all the more apparent.

Minnegota: HF 928, a bill that proposes to restore the teacher certification requirement to Minnesota's homeschool law, has been lntroduced into the legislature this session, according to the Spring issue of Tle Hone School Court Report, the newsletterof the HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSoclATIoN. The bill also requires the person providing instrucfion to submit iniormation to the superintendent by October I of each year, including evldence of state certificatlon, an annual lnstructional calendar, and a quarterly report card for each child.

HSLDA adds: 'According to the author of the bill, it was drafted in response to some homeschoolers who refuse to give noilce pursuant to the provisions of the extstlng law." If the bill Passes, it would make Minnesota the onlg state currently requiring homeschoolers to be crrtified teachers.

Y". finnpshlre: In GWS #67, we wrote that the Department of Education was reviewing the current homeschooling regulations, and that several grouPs were working on drafting new ones. The proposed new regulations, at that time, were

very restrictive, requiring that parents be certified and that children be tested, and allowing for home vlsits from school olllcials. Elaine Rapp of the NEW HAMP-

SHIRE HOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION now tells us that the drafting of new regulations has been postponed because of objections from homeschoolers, and that some new legislation is likely to be proposed next year. Meanwhile, the old

regulations are stlll in elfect.

New YorL: Katharine Houk wrote in the April issue of the Home Schoolers' Erchonge: "Home education representa-

tives have been meeting with Deputy Com-

missioner Lionel Meno and Assistant Commissloner Joan Bourgeois once a month at the State Education Dcpartment in Albany to revlew the current home lnstrucflon regplation... At the meeting on

April fO, much discussion was devoted to settlng up a fiamework for submitting informadon to the local district. Because

some superintendents either don't want to have to deal with homeschoolers or have trouble accepting home education as a legal and valid form of education, we also discussed ways to remove the responsibility from the shoulders of the local school district.'When this group comes up with a proposal, they wtll present lt to representatives of school boards and superintendents, who wtll be able to make revisions.

The final draft will be presented to the Board of Regents.

Ohlo: Pat Montgomery wrote in the April tssue of The Learning Mge, Clonlara's newsletter, that the Standards Committee, a group of school officials, state heads, and homeschoolers that had been appointed in 1987 to establish a home education sectlon in the Ohio Revlsed Code, met for a llnal dme on March 7. The commitee will present its 'Rules or Excuses from Compulsory Attendance for Home Educators" to the State Board of Education, and there will be a public hearing about lt tn May or June (check with the Department of Education, or Ohio home-

schooling groups, to see whether the hearing has already taken place by the time this issue of GWS).

-vou receive The cornmittee's rules allow Parents to oualifu as homeschoolers in several way's: Uy trotaing a hlgh school diploma or a CED, or by working with someone who holds a bachelor's degree. Parents can also choose among several methods ofevaluation: standard?ed tests, a written narra-

tlve (written by someone else) sa5dng that the student has made progress, or some other form of evaluation that both the

parent and superintendent agree upon.

Tenneeeec: The TENNESSEE HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION has introduced two bills into the House and Senate, according to lssue #16 of the HomeschmlingFa'r:rilies newsletter, HB I3OO/SB 34 would allow homeschoolers to take the GED or the state's high school proficiency test at any age, and upon passing it be exempt from further homeschooling

requirements. Currently, students in

Tennessee are only eliglble to take the

cED tf they have legally withdrawn from

school, are 18, 17 and Pregnant, inJail, or the job corps. Homeschoolers in other states have written about this problem of ineligibility for the GED, so we are interested to see what happens in Tennessee. If any other states are making Progress on this front, please let us know.

HB l30 I /SB 36 would allow churchrelated schools to act as umbrellas for home schools through l2th grade, instead of only through 8th grade as is currently the case. Church-related schools would then be allowed to grant high school diplomas to home school students who complete their requirements.

in

THE RIGHT TO PARTICI. PATE: IN A GEOGRAPHY

like Anne, have written letters questioning homeschoolers' eligibility for these sorts of activldes.

...AND IN SKIING MEETS We've recehrcd setteral atticles abut attemPt to fu allnued to porticipate equally {n an out' side actiuitg. hom tle 3/6/89 Burlington

atatler lomeschdef s [V!l

Free Press:

A l6-year-old homeschooler and his family have launched a camPaign to change a Vermont Headmasters' Association rule. Peter Johnson uses running and skiing as his physical educatlon program in his home school. This is the second year he has competed at local public high school meets after getting permission from coaches apparently unaware of a rule against his partlcipation. Home schools and reporting private schools are not allowed to compete on the grounds that the home schools might provide unfair competiflon tf they had intensive training Programs.

...Uohnson hasl found suPPort among high school coaches in his effort to change the rule. A cross country subcommittee of the association voted to ask another committee to look into changing the bylaw excluding home schools. And Essex coach Rob Powers invited Johnson to ski at the Vermont Classical State Championshlp Feb. 24 in Stowe. Powers said that although the event was sPonsor€d by the Headmasters, he and the other coach organizing the event decided to open a special Euest cateqory for Johnson. ' ,.. [Fo*.t"] sJa he could understand that thev want c.ompetltion to be fair' but h John5on's case tre felt the rule just didn't apply. He said homeschoolers should 6i illowed to petidon for membership, and then each case could be reviewed

individually for'lfairness.

BEE...

Awte Brosnrrn (NY wriles: I saw an article in the APril 1989 issue of National Geographic magazine about the National Geography Bee, a geography bee lor school kids to help them leam geography. I was really mad because I thought homeschoolers couldn't enter it,

and I wanted to because I like geography.

So I wrote them a letter saying I dtdn't think it was right (or flair) to try and teach all the kids in the United States geography through the schools, because every kld in America isn't in school. And I thought that there was no way a homeschooler could ever enter the bee, because, for one, the linal level of the bee was done in the schools. But they wrote me a letter back saying that the l99O bee would be open to 'siudents being taught at home' and that

they had put me on their mailing list.

I am sending you a copy of the letter I received because I thoughtyou might be

interested and because a lot of other homeschoolers might want to know about it and get on the mailing list.

ISS:I The National GeograPhY Bee is open to children ages 8- 15. For more information, write National Geography

Bee, National Geographic Societ5r, Washington DC 20036.

We'd like to hear from others who,

... The Johnsons argue that their arrangement does not provide unfair competltion, especially when weighed against some o[ the private schools that specialize in athletics' Approved private schools can join the Headmasters'Association and compete in its toumaments unless they comPete in other circuits. 'If we're legal academically in Vermont' wblch the state says we are, why should we be discriminated against athletically?" asked Nancy Johnson, Peter's mother'..

CALENDAR July 14. 15. 16. 1989: Naflonal

Organic Farmers Association Summer Conference in Williamstown, Mass. GWS reader Luz Shosie will be doing a home-

schooling workshop. For information: Julie Rawson. RFD #2, Barre MA O1OO5;

s8-355-2853.

September 23: I-a Leche kague of

Kentuclry area conferenc'e. May include a speaker from Holt Associates. For

lnformation: Jennifer Nunn, RR #2 Box

9l l, Hawesville

I(Y 42348' We are happY to run notices of major homeschooling and related events, but we need plent5r of notice. Deadline for GWS #7O (events in September or later) is July lO. Deadline for GWS #71 (events in November or later) is September lO'

GROWING WITHOI/T SCHOOLING #69

CHALLENGES & CONCERNS none ofyour businessl" I don't say that, of

DOESN'T MIND ISOLATION More Jrom Arvte Brosnan:

I am writing to you about isolaUon

since I know lt ls an issue you talk about in GWS sometimes. A lot of people would

think that when we lived in a cabin in the Minnesota woods with our neighbors a

mlle away we were more isolated than where we llve now, ln the suburbs. But it's

not true. Marla, my frlend tn Minnesota, two years older than me, is sUll my best friend, even though there are a dozen girls my age around here. I know the girls ln my neighborhood here, yet we hardly ever seâ&#x201A;Ź each other, Ofcourse we say hi to each other and wave, but, except for one glrl, we never call each other up to play or anything. We don't 'not like- each other; I guess it's Just because I'm different from them, but I don't really lorow. I don't mind being different and isolated (l know I am), in fact, I kind of like it. I have my friend Maria, my sister, and all my pen-pals.

I don't think it would make a difference lfl started going to school, either, because the klds and I are different in other ways, too. Instead of talking on the phone and talking to each other in person, I find it easier to write. I'm not saying I can't talk to people, tt's Just l'm better at wridng lt out. That may be one of the reasons I have better frlends ln pen-pals.

Another reason is Just difference in tastes, They'd rather listen to rock music while Id rather listen to classical, etc.

Theyd rather watch movies while I'd rather read. Even when they do read, their taste ln books is different.

Once when we went to the librarv we asked the llbrartan to help me tjnd a good book. So she started finding all the books someone my age ls supposed to llke, and I waited pattently for her to flnlsh because I knew these books weren't good books, they were the books everyone else was reading because they wanted to be llke everybody eIse.

I don't understand why they are afraid to be dlfferent. They'd probably like it if they decided to like what they, themselves, like, instead of what somebodv else does. I'd like to say to them, 'Hey, look at mel I'm differentt I like itl I have friendst It's OK to be differentl"

AN OPEN LETTER TO INQUIRING ADULTS

Aruteke Chcd.an (NY writes:

It seems ltke hardly a day goes by without someone asking me, "And where do YOU go to school, child?' At lirst, when asked, I'd say,'You tell them, Mom.'Now,

I Just answer with some variation of, "My parents teach me at home.'The reaction is almost always â&#x201A;Źyebrows shooting up and the quesdon, 'You mean you don't go to SCHOOL?I''No," I respond, "l don't.'

Then, almost invarlably, the interroga-

tion follows. 'Is that legal?' 'Are your

parents teachers?" "Do you have any friends?" and on and on. It's come to the point where I feel like saying, 'It's really

course.

How I would love to be able to wrlte a letter that would be seen by weryone ln this country, if not seen and understood by

the entire world, that would explain about homeschooling and put these silly questions to rest, It would be something llke: Dear Everyone, Being homeschooled for a fourth year,

I have heard every conrmon quesfion and comment about homeschoolers. Whtle I am sure you mean no harm, I am starting to feel like a broken record. Perhaps all your questions will be answered in thls letter. Maybe, as well, the comments about homeschooling and homeschoolers will stop because of this letter. I slncerely hope so.

Many families, such as our own, homeschool because they believe that stupidity is in either individual schools or the entire system. For example, while I was still in school. there was a teacher who sent home a noUce with mistakes in it that my mother would never have let me get away with even when I was in second grade, That teacher was the one that I would have had for third grade. Several other similar things had happened and my parentsJust dectded that they had had enough. After that school year, I was

taught at home.

Homeschooling parents are not shelterlng their children from the socalled 'real world." After all. what is the real world? Certainly not being cooped up in a room with twenty-five other kids your age for about six hours, having to wear the most up-to-date clothes, people not speaking to you because you don't have a Cabbage Patch doll, writing in math workbooks, or everyone uslng the same handwridng style. These are all part of school, and while there is nothing truly wrong with anything I have Just mentioned, they do little or nothing to prepare kids for the real world.

Another group ofpeople that I wouldn't mind seeing less of are those of you who say somethlng that boils down to, "Your parents will get in trouble for thisl" or'That's impossible, you FIAVE to go to school." These comments are foolish and I am tired of them. Nevertheless, I have to keep explaining that no, it is not against the law. In fact, it'is not only legal, but

surprisingly comnon. There are several local support groups of homeschoolers, each containing many members. In addition, there are some who, like my fanily, Just stick lt out without belng part ofany group at all.

On this subject, children do not need school to live or to be successful adults. An education, yes. School, certainly notl In fact, some of the school 'education' is totally worthless. Furthermore, I have seen that manv children "educated" bv schools are qu-arrelsome or snobbish.'

The last ofthe annoyances to homeschoolers, also the most common, is the well-meaning people who ask, "But, what about the socialization aspecf?" or 'Who will take her to dances and parties?"

This is irritating for four reasons. The Iirst is the fact that the law never said that

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #69

ctrlldren must be taught reading, wrlttng, and socializaflon. The second ts nobody wlll dte from not gotng to every local social event. The thtrd is that half of the soci,alization ln school ls either negafive or the foolish sort of thing that I mentioned earlier ln this letter. The last ls that there are rnany people in the schools who have less of a soctal ltfe than I do and are never quesdoned, Wh5f Because, of course, they're in school.

Yours Truly, Anneke Chodan

WHEN THEY SAY THEY WANT SCHOOL Susan Pitrnon (NB) urttes:

Hansi Whitelaw's 'What tf She Wants to Go to School?' (GWS #67) sparked a memory for me. My daughter Sarah has always been a very social person, and when she was 5 she said she wanted to go to school. I got her to talk about why she wantd to go. Her maln reason was that she wanted to have lots of friends to play with. I recogntzed her social needs but I

honestly dtdn't thlnk the playground at school would meet them ln a constmctive, posltlve, growth-enhancing way, So I told her, after listening to her pleas and demands to go, that she could not go now and that I did not want to dlscuss thls agatn unul she was lO. Sarah Is now 8, and I feel she has

grown in self-awareness and self-conlidence, Now I am ready to say yes to her if she wants to go to school. She could now handle a school situation and make the declslon for herself about whether to go or to remain at home. She has had more chances to discuss with other children what school is like. She has visited the school building after hours, but whlle there were still students having to llne up or stay

fur

rooms etc. One day we were

walking down the corrldor of an elementary school and a teacher was yelltng pretty nasdly at a boy. Sarah got quite upset and wanted to knowwhy she was talking like that to hlm. I said maybe the teacherwas tired, had had a hard day, etc.

Sarah turned to me and sald, 'Mom, I wouldn't want to be him. He must Gel awfull" I agreed with her. I wouldn't have wanted to be him either. But a little voice inside me rerninded me that I had been him once and that tt did feel awful. It made me feel that I have given my chlldren quite a gift even tf tt tsn't always perfecL Last year was the flrst year Sarah had to be registered wtth the Department of Education. When the representadve came to our house for the yearly visit, Sarah monopolized her tlme for well over half an hour discussing books, math, trips, stories, her personal file, etc. When she was asked about belng taught at home she very promptly and confidently spoke up and said that she always wanted to stay at home and have Mom teach her. This response was good for me to hear, but it also made me think about how I would have felt if she had said tJle opposlte.

Would I let her, or any of my children, go?

I found I had to sort out what was mine

6 and what was theirs, and it was a very beneflcial exercise for me to do.

And

that's where her frlends were. We started a homeschooling group that met once a week and Theresa dectded to stav home.

She may or may not stay home riext year. I certainly want her to stay home and will try to convince her that staylng home wtll be ln her best interests.

In December, Katrlna started attending public school part-time. Origtnally, she wanted to take clarinet lessons and pardcipate ln after-school activitres. The superintendent told us this was possible.

We discussed the subjects shewas interested in taking and talked to the public school teachers. Some of them were much more open to having her in their class than others. Some of their teaching methods were more to Katrina's liking than others. She ended up taking science (which she's always liked but hadn't pursued much on her own) and art, For the second semester she chose science and ltfe skills. She's also taldng clarinet lessons and hasJoined the eighth grade band. I think the fact that she freely chose to take these subjects is signillcant. The public school has become a communitv resource

$om Kath? Dolezal (MN):

This is ln response to Hansi Whltelaw wants to go to

(GWS #67) whose 5 year old

school, and Susan Wetntrob (GWS #62 who wants to hear about children participating ln school programs.

Our famtly started homeschooling when my children were lO (Katrina), 7 (Maryrose), and 4 Fheresa). Both Katrina and Maryrose ltked public school and were "very high achlwers.'But Bob and I had seen a surprising change in Maryrose in lirst grade. She had always been a soclable, carefree, happy, and creative child. As the year progressd, she became more and more nervous, always strlving for perfection. She did not want to homeschool. She uranted to be ln school with her frlends. Bob and I slmply told her that she had to tqr homeschooltng for one year, and after that we would review the situation. Our children, also, are used to maldng their own declslons, but In this case we felt strong$ that Maryrose could not see what was happenlng to herself.

After one weâ&#x201A;Źk at home, she told us that she wanted to homeschool through high school.

Katrlna made her own decision to homeschool that year. Each year since then Katrina and Maryrose have made the decislon to school at home, I agree that children often do know what's best for them. However, lt's virtually tmposstble for declsions to be made wlthout being tnfluenced to one degree or another by peers. Adults (sometimes) have a background ofexperience in dealing with peer pressure and a comprehensive view of society that chtldren Just don't have because they haven't been around as long. Children need to hear adults' oplnions and somedmes they need us, at least temporarlly, to make decisions for them.

Theresa had been wanting to go to school "ltke her blg slsters" from the time she could talk. We sent her to preschool two mornings a week hoping lt would satisS her desire to go to a real school. It didn't, She was adamant about wanting to go to publlc kindergarten. We compromised. She went to public school kindergarten, but stayed home for flrst grade. As second grade approached she "sort of wanted to go back to public school because Do

you

for her.

Since she started part-time school, Katrina's contact with school friends has increased. She now has more in common with them. This has met another need that surfaced this year - more contact with agemates.

In short, I believe every situation and

wery child is unique. If it's working, pursue it: if not, change lanes. We try always to leave opdons open. It helps to remember that no decision ls irrerrersible.

Maryrose is now I l. I asked what she thought about our decision to keep her home ln second grade wen though she wanted to go to public school. Here ls her reply: I'm glad my parents made that decision for me because I don't thtnk that at the time I was capable of maldng that choice. I was only looking at a few advantages and looking at one big disadvantage of homeschooling - not seeing my friends every day at school. Also, I thought people might think I was silly or stupid for dotng something different, like (as my friends called it at first) 'not going to school.'

Nextyear, or maybe the year after, I might go to school part time llke my 13year-old sister. This year I went to the public school for one day with a friend. I

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homeschooling.

As far as friends go, I have two best friends who are really nice. I have many other friends. too. Some of them even home school. None of my good friends minds that I home school. They'd like me

to come back to echool, but they'll be my friends and like me even if I don't, For some people, homeschooling might not be right, but for me it is. I'm glad my parents made that first decision because otherwise I mtght still be struggling in the public school system. I enJoy working at my ovrrr pace and making my own decisions about what I'll leam and how I'll spend my time.

WHAT TO DO WHEN HUSBAND DISAGREES Argela Decoteatt oJ Inutstana

u.rrites.'

I have seen many letters in GWS concerning children who wlsh to attend school. I wonder if this is truly a desire of these children or a concern that they will become misflts, dummies, or what have you tf they remain at home.

My own son Dean, who attended

kindergarten in public school, has now been homeschooled for two years, free to learn, dream, and play to his heart's content. Although I have trted to keep my c,omments about school posltive, he has repeatdly told me how much he hated tt.

When he announoed his deslre to attend school this coming year, I was surprised, to say the least, Further questloning soon revealed the truth behind hls declsion. It turns out that my husband had promised him a gun (something hs has been wanting) if he went to school, and told him that he would be a dummy if he stayed home.

Homeschooling has not been well recelved in my famtly, tncludlng my husband. I have offered them llterature, told them of Dean's progrless and his status on the last standardtzed test, but they all shrugged lt olTor made some excuse about why it wasn't as good as public school.

For instance, Dean took the CAT but the publtc school gave the SAT, destroying any chance Dean had to show them how well he was progresslng. He has also leamed many things not on these standardlzed tests, but this is considered nil since he hasn'tyet learned to read and wrlte proficiently, We have trled to have 'school' wtth workbooks ln math and Engltsh, but I have found that he does not (and who does) learn that rvay. He would also become very frustrated tf he dtdn't know the materlal belore worldng in the

grour to hate educatlon

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Specify level or levels and send check or money order to: N ational W riting I nstitutc, 794 6 W r ig ht Rd, N iles, M I 49 I 20

it

some stupid rules. Itwas OKbut I prefer

book.

I am concerned about Dean's psychologtcal well-betng and fear that he will

writlng pnogram designed especially for homeschoolers l,evels 2, 3,4: $lS.9S erch or all threefor t42.00 L,evels 5,

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lfhe

goes to school.

I feel my husband te fightlng with hts own feelings of having wasted his school years.

He was often told he was stupid for not dotng as well as he could have. He ls also

under great pressure from hls father for not forcing me to send Dean to school.

I would llke to hear fmm other homeschoolers who have had similar problems.

GROWING WITFIOUT SCHOOLING #69

7

BAD TEST QUESTION Charbtte Mon'tson wrote in the February-March f:ssue oJ tle Tennessee rvusletter, Homeschooling Families:

Chrlsdne Wilkie's letter about testing ['Strange Answers,' GWS #66] reminded me of a paper my son brought home from public school kindergarten. It was a picture ln whtch they had to mark all the round obJects. There was a round sun in the slcy, a van with round wheels, and

some other round obJects all dutifully marked, He had also 'lncorrectly" marked the van's steerlng wheel, which was shown as a half clrcle in the windshicld. Everv steering wheel in hls experlence was round, so his tmagtnation had lilled in the unseen portlon, To be fair, his teacher marked it right after lirst marking it wrong. But I started thtnklng. IJow many other teachgrs would mark it wrong simply because the "experts" said lt was?

And what about a chtld with even morâ&#x201A;Ź imaglnatlon than my son who might try to mark the van's two other lnvisible

wheels?

and dlsappointment on his face and he said to me, 'You're acting Just like a teacher and I'm supposed to be your student."

He was rlght. Although I hadn't consciously meant it to sound that way, the words had Just popped out. I was exctted to see that he had accomplished a goal of his own maklng. In reality, though, I had pr ing to pracnothing to do with him dectding rble to say it il tice that rhyme or his being able fast and correctly. correctlv. It was oof his own choo choosing and dotng and I had unlntentionally

DIFFICULT SCHOOL EXPERIENCES We don't usually devote much GWS space to school horror stories, altttough our mail is full of them, believing that it's better to use the magazine to talk about positive and constructive altematives. Sometimes, though, stories about difficult school experiences remind us of what it is that we're trying to live without. Also, the stories below are from people who have notlet the difficult experiences slop them from trusting their own judgment about what is right, and, ultimately, from hnding an alternative.

BULLYING ON THE SCHOOL BUS

HOMESCHOOLING WHILE MOTHER IS ILL Paula Hehtbach (PN wrtles: As a homeschooling mother of three children (2, 6, and I l) I was asked the questlon, 'What do you do if you get sick?'

How do I teach tf I'm ill, in other words. I never really thought about lt until I had my wlsdom teeth out recently. I think when the parent is temporarily unable to perform his or her dally tasks, having the chtldren home comes in handy. They have a sense of prtde ln being able to help.

When I came home from the oral surgeon's, my famlly was instructed not to leave me alone for the next several hours.

My husband had to go to the store, so he told our I I year old, Jeff, to sit by my bed.

Jeffwas reading for a while, then he oflered to play my Tchaikovsky tape for me. He knows I enjoy it and don't have much chance to llsten to music. Later, he practlced some math. I thought that if he was ln school, he would miss the chance to mlnister to members of his familv. FIe ls in the real world here at home. and leaming important lessons in liG. I think school tends to cut children off from family life. Everything revolves around 'what do I need for school'instead ofthe f;amIly's needs.

SPOILING THE MOMENT Wendg Wendt MN) writes: While riding ln the car yesterday, I llstened as my 9 year old son practiccrd a tongue tu/ister over and over again to himself: 'How much wood would a woodchuck chuck ifa woodchuck could chuck wood? Hewould chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck ifa woodchuck could chuck wood.'

After several trles, he said it perfectly and I immedlately said to him, -That was goodl" Fjght away I could see the surprise

spotled the moment for him. He had practiced that rhyme for himself, not for me, and I took the joy of it away by implylng that I had something to do with lt.

I apologized, but how I wish I could take the words back. I Msh I had not said anythlng and Just let him enjoy the moment for himself as John Holt talked about in GWS #4 ("Batttng PracHce'). Like John, I hope I, too, can remaln quiet the next time.

Monica Green (ON wrXes:

When I was 8, I went to public school.

Everything went fine except for the bus ride when some girls got on board and decided to pick on a little kid. The llttle kid was me. The girls were about as old as I .un now (12) and I was pretty little. On the way to school, thts big girl sat behind me and started bopping my head, and threatened to beat me up. I was really scared.

And a big boy in front (about 14 or l5) satd gross and disgusting things and asked me dirty questions. Just to be safe I had to answer them, or else he would also, I guess, beat me up.

I had to put up with this on the ride to school and back every day. It was getung so bad that I was also failing my school work, and my second grade teacher kept saylng, "Oh, she's doingJust flne," when I wasn't. I got really mad at the teacher and talked to my mom about it, I went through so much stress that I got earaches, headaches and stomachaches. I couldn't eat or sleep and wery mornlng I would wake up crytng and screafidng. I got so stck that I missed a

whole lot of school.

Mom found out about all of what I told you and my mom and dad pulled me out of school. That was when I started homeschooling. Then in thtrd and fourth grade I went to a Seventh Day Adventist school.

It wasn't so bad but in fourth grade the teachers got too strtct so I was pulled out of there and in fifth grade I did homeschooling again. It worked out great, but I dtdn't do so well on the test I had to take. Now I'm ln stxth grade and tt looks like I won't have to take the test, so I'm more relaxed.

I'm glad I can homeschool, and I have penpals who are glad to homeschool also.

MOTHER TAKES RESPONSIBILITY Tracy Creker o-f Calirfornia urltes:

I found that when I relinqulshed my daughter Michelle to public school

GROWING WTFIOLN SCHOOLING #69

education, I lost too much control of her upbringtng. Her formal educafion began at a very early age, with a combination kindergarten and daycare center. I remember hating to pick her up each day because I felt that the teachers were lying ln wait to tell me the horrtble thkrgs my child had done that day. Her most often repeated and worst o{Iense was t}rrowlng up her lunch. She didn't like the heary starch-based food this daycare center served. It took me some dme to determlne, though, that the vomldng occurred because the teacher forced Mtchelle's food down her throatbecause she refused to eat It. When I learned thLis, I told Mlchelle not to be disrespectful, butwhen she didn't want something on her lunch tray she should say, "No thank you.'

The next day the teacher confronted me, looking like Michelle had committed murder. 'Do you know what Michelle did today at lunch? She pushed her plate away and said, 'No, thank you.'' I was young, meek, and a total cowand. I stmply shook my head and said, 'You're ktddtng," effectively leavtng my daughter alone to flght her lunchtime battles.

One afternoon I was handed a permlssion sllp when I came to get Michelle.

Clearly, I was expected to sign without quesdons, but I asked some anyway and determined that it was for Michelle to go to speech therapy. When I asked why Mtchelle needed speech therapy I couldn't Iind anyone to give me an answer. I flnally tracked down the speech therapist herself and was told that Michelle had trouble saying her'S's.' F\rrther prodding produced the informatton that Mtchelle would most likely outgrow the problem. In a rare moment of parental asserdon, I refused to sign the permission slip for speech therapy.

A week later when I picked Michelle up she was alone in the huge playroom, and in tears. 'Mama, I have to stay in here while everyone else gets to go to speech therapy.' I tried to undo my mlstake, but no amount of pleading could get Michelle into speech therapy at that point.

Homeschooling for me, then, lb about parental empowennent and the taktng of

responsibility.

8

TRIED SCHOOL AND DIDN'T

LIKE IT Bart Brush

o.f New York

writes:

We have been teaching our boys (aged 9 and 12) at home for three years. The older one, Scott, went back to school this year for seventh grade - his choice. I'le

finds tt boring and "stupid," and can't wait to return to homeschooling next year. His

best subject, and the only one he says he likes, is ninth grade algebra, which we were able to place htm in because of his extra progress at home, because he was one ofeight kids hts age to get a perfect score on last year's standardized math tcsts, and because he got an 86 on lastyear's eighth grade math linal.

His worst and least tolerable subiect is English. The teacher's style is traditional, with lots of dittoed skill sheets library skills, vocabulary, etc, Not very much writing or reading. In twenty-flve weeks ofschool, the class has read one book, four short stories, and two books individually for book reports. The teacher's idea of writing is doing a "big' piece wery three-four weeks, with nothing in between. Scott hates English and doesn't find time to read anything other than his textbook assignments. This is a boy who, at home, read 3-4OOO pages ayear and wrote a page a day in his joumal. When I suggest to his teacher that more emphasis be placed on reading and writing and less

on vocabulary, grarnrnar, library skills,

etc., she says, 'That would be nice, but we have so much material we have to cover."

I've suggested to his teachers that instead of textbook assignments, it might be appropriate, once in a while, to assign a

well-written history book or historical

novel, a biography, or a real book about some aspect ofthe history ofscience or

math. The response, agaln: "There's so much material we have to cover.' Materialism has taken on a new meanlngl We took our sons out of school when our older son's three fourth grade teachers sent

home the following "material" for homework: one page of colonial costumes to color, one page of state symbols (state bird, tree, etc.) to color, one dinosaur to color. and a title page of a wridng assignment to color - all within two weeks. Thesc were not drawing assignments; they wcre mimeoed outlines to color in. Needlcss to say, we don't use this ldnd of materlal in

this homeschool program.

In GWS #68 we recommended that readers order the newsletter of the NEW ALCHEMY INSTITUTE, be we neglected to give NAI's address. It is 237 Hatchville Rd, E Falmouth

WATCHING CHILDREN LEARN HISTORY TURNS OUT TO BE FUN Flom Dirrnrr Basem.on (PN:

In our officlal curriculum for this year, I said that we were going to be studying American history, so I've been reading Olivia (ll) some biographies of Americans, like BenJamin Franklin and George Washington. I decided to do this - it wasn't Olivia's decision - but she has reallv enJoyed hearing about these people;s llves, and weve had some good discusslons.

Olivia Baseman odd.s: When I flrst heard that mv mother was going to read me that American history, I was excited, but then, a little later, when it was almost time to start, she told me about it again and I said, "Oh, I don't want to do that." I was really pessirnlstic about it. But then when we actually started reading, I really got into it, especially the historical novels.

Johrng Tremain is my lavorlte of what we've read so far. I ve often been pessimistic about something having to do with schoolwork, and then when we actuallv do It lt tums out to be fun.

VOLUNTEERING AT THE MUSEUM TOGETHER F-rom an article that homeschnler Itz Shosie (C-I) utrote Jor The Natural Farmer:

...Jonathan (9) and I have been working as volunteers at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Last year we were behind the scenes in the entomologr department. We counted, sorted, and helped prepare insects for the teaching collection. The entomolog[st we worked with truly appreciated Jonathan's help and was eager to answer his questions.

This year we are docents in the Great Hall of Dinosaurs. We sit with a cart with fossils that people can handle and ask questlons about. The Museum's Director o[ Public Education is experimenting with a new way of teaching - rather than the formal lectures they have been doing, she is encouraging staffand volunteers to use a more conversational way of conducting classes and tours. She is delighted to have a young person who can answer and engage children in discussion, and Jonathan is delighted to be dolng real work in the real world.

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USING ALTERNATIVE COOPERATIVE SCHOOL

Mika Pentte o;[ LVlsconsin writes:

I attend an alternative school called Penokee Mountain Cooperative School once a week. We take certain months off. though, so I'm still pretty much home-

schooled. Penokee has been around slnce 1980. It started out as a preschool and has evolved into a resource center for homeschoolers, with a microscope, gEunes,

books, tapes, and toys to check out. All the teachers are either parents of the kids enrolled or volunteers, and they offer dilferent classes. For example, this session we have wriUng, genealogl and skiing. Most all the kids (about twenty of them) have known each other slnce they were 5 or 6, and we're all prettSr good friends. We've put on about one major play a year, which is lots of fun. Our most recent play was about how the white people made treaties fcr the Indians to sign and tricked them into glving up their land in the process. My mom is teaching a class on writing, and I wrote a2l-page story about a boy who meets a prlsoner and llnds out he's not reallv mean. It's going to be typed and I'm niaking it into a

book.

I have been homeschooled all my life and I really like it. I take Suzuki violin lessons and I know how to read music (l rnight evenJoin a quartetl). I entered a iego building contest this month and built a baseball game. I didn't place, but it was lots of fun. I collect stamps and I'm also very interested ln genealogr - I've gone back eleven generations on my family tree.

RECOVERING FROM SCHOOL Scrdie Brilt (GN writes:

I took my daughter Katie, now 7, out of the lirst grade in February of 1988. It was wonderful to see how she blossomed at home. I know that I'm far from perfect too disorganized in some things and too anxious about others. But even so, I know that academlcally and spiritually Katie's done better at home than she would have at school. Her self-esteem was steamrollered ln school. Other children rpere better than she was at drarving pictures, so she stopped drawing. She burst lnto tears when she had to show me a report card full of C's (in the lirst gradel). She wrote slowly and with dilficulty, and often left whole words out of the exercises they copied olf the board. She'd learned how to muddle through and finish the job any old way.

And she'd been arbitrarily placed in the lowest reading group. Over the sufiuner she'd started stumbling through The Cat tn tle Hat, but somehow her teacher determined that she "didn't recognize that the printed word wasn't the spoken word" and that'there are things we must do before we can read." In Katie's case that meant circling the plcture that began with the letter'D," etc. At that time I was totally flabbergasted. I told the teacher that Katie could alreadv read a little and asked her to reevaluate her. But sheJust smiled professionally and gave me a pamphlet telling me what I could do to help at home.

I was pretty intimidated. We tried to work with this situation for six months.

All's well that ends well. Katie is now happily reading whenever she wants to. I

can't imagine anything more ludicrous than forcing my happy little reader to read a set passage in an idiotic "reader.' kaving her alone to ftnd her own way in math, though, felt like abandoning her in

GROWING WITHOTJT SCHOOLING #69

9 the rnlddle of the Amazon. Well, I'd never abandoned her about the reading. IVe always been a bookworm so reading together has always Just been something we always did. Some day I hope sharing math will become natural, but right now it's stlll something I make her do. I couldn't force It on her if she didn't enjoy it sometimes, but I know she resents the coercion.

We've decided to have third grade at home too. GWS has given me a lot of encouragement. I'm relaxed about things now. I doubt Katie wouldVe asked to stay home next year tf I'd been the doubt-

occurred to me that someone maktng guns mlght have an interesting story. And an interesting story lt isl If Justin read on his own a lot, I would be missing so much. It would probably take more effort on my part to remember to read aloud, too. As it is, I consider his abillty to ltsten phenomenal and worth taking note of,

rldden, anxious harrldan I was at flrst.

tures and flfth grade heroes (he reads faster than I dol), but his comfort level is probably at the Berenstaln Bears stage;

I'd always regarded homeschooling as a temporary measure. At flrst I'd planned to retum Katie to conventlonal school in second grade - then third grade - now maybe fourth. Katie's father has never lived with us, but he does try to stay involved and he has never approved of her being at home. He thinks I'm on the lunatlc fringe and that I'm going to make Katle weird. He honestly thought lGtie would have been better off muddling through and feeling stupid, because she'd "be leaming to function ln a group." This for a child who's been tn full-time daycare most of her liGl He thinks I'm deprivtng her socially. Poor Kate - for a gregarious child, tt was torture ln school to be in a room full of children she wasn't allowed to talk to.

I am a single parent. I wouldn't be able to homeschool if it weren't for the Bavlor Plan. I'm an RN. and worktng Bayloi means I can work two twelve-hour shifts on the weekends for full-dme pay and benelits. It's exhausdng but it's worth tt. I even get to be a human being. I'm playing the piano and readlng eighteenth-ccntury

literature.

ADVANTAGES OF BBING AN OLDER READER Jean Jakobskt pn writes: Justin

(9) fs a late bloomer

in readlng,

and I want to share some of the blesslngs in that. We were asked how Justin picks out books ln the library. When asked, Justin says, "l know what I want. I look at the pictures.' Gift number one: knowing what he wants, I don't remember havlng much ofa sense ofthat myselfat 9. An example: The Money Garne by David Erlcson. The cover shows dollar bills.

Justin ls drawn to thts book because of his general lnterest ln pollcework and, more spectlically, ln counterfeiUng. Io and behold, lt's the ftrst book he's becn able to read aloud himself, forty-four pages, mnrtmal pictures.

I am continually lmpressed wlth the books Justin finds for me to read aloud to

him. I wouldn't pick them out for my own readtng; I probably wouldn't pick them out for Jusdn elther. Gift number two: expansion of my own interests and knowledge.

An example ls a book we're reading now, Sam Colt and Hts Guru Tle Llrfe oJ the lrusertor of the Rerr,l:uer, by Gertrude Hecker Winders, This Juntor Biography ts wrltten ln a way that keeps my lnterest as well as Justln's. Even though Colt was born close by ln Hartford and we've drtven by the Colt Building many times, it never

LEARNING TO READ, PLAYING WORD GAMES Eilen Shtpleg (CN tudtes:

Billy now reads books with few ptc-

when he's had too much of the former, he retreats to the latter. He consults his Colden Bcr.k Encyclopedia almost daily, as topics catch his fancy. We ordered tt straight from Western Publishing for $85, and it ls the best investment we could have made In hls educatlon. It ls up-to-date, colorful, chock full of photographs and diagrams, with entrles one-page or

shorter.

Billy and his daddy play word puzzle games that lnvolve addidon and subtraction. ('If there are four riders on four horses, how many legs...?') Billy has lnvented his own symbol for'take away' that looks llke a wagon to pull the numbr away with (Bill, his father, dldn't want to

rush lnto formalized symbols, so he hadn't shown Btlly the subtraction slgn

yet). Billy does his own problems spontaneously, using his httle wagon. l,ately Bill has introduced the concept of multiplication, Just to test the waters, and Billy ts intrigued. They also write coded letters to each other using a simple numbers-for-

letters substltutlon code, which gives Billy endless practice wrlting.

Hangman has become his favorite game. We play it on the backs of placemats

ln restaurants whlle watting for our meal.

We've also developed a verbal version,

using hand signals for the unfortunate hanged man, which we can play on walks.

To steer away from the morbidity of the hanged man, I developed a variation I call VOLCANO, which bullds up to an eruption in seven stages, if the word is not guessed beforehand. Billy is pretty good at â&#x201A;ŹUesslng and maklng up the words.

HOW TO HELP WITH SPELLING Marg Adams oJ Colorado wrltes: I found a way to help my l2-year-old daughter, Rebecca, wlth spelllng and punctuation. Rather than memorizing rules, she is learning by repetition and logical application.

Rebecca had wrltten a story, She wanted me to type it and asked me to correct the punctuation and spelling, which I dld. I wanted also to improve her wrltlng, and when I tried to change lt, she went to her room. I was left at the ldtchen table knoMng that that hadn't worked. When she reappeared to llnlsh typtng, I did what she asked and no more, She asked me to read what she had written aloud so that she wouldn't have to look from the paper to the typewriter. At that point, I was

GROIWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #69

feellng uncomfortable. I asked myself, 'Am I dotng too much for her? WiIl she leam from this?' But as I read the words aloud I saw that hearing them thls way rnade her spell from memory, and lf she didn't know a word, she asked me to spell

it.

I had tried to teach Rebecca to read phonedcally but she became fmstrated.

She learned to read by reading. I've been concerned about how she would learn to spell if she dtdn't know phonics. But I'm corning to belleve that, as Herbert Kohl said in RedW, HowTo, you can leam to spell by spelling. So I don't lxslst that she look the word up ln the dlctionary or sound lt out.

I nodced prevlously that when Rebecca was typing or even rewrittng a story ln which I had corrected the punctuadon, she dldn't usually see the corrections. So this ttme when I was reading the words I said, 'Capttal T for The' at the beglnntng of a sentence, and 'period' at the end.'I would also add reasons for punctuadon: 'Ifyou use a capital letter, you know it's the beginning of a thought.' 'A comna goes where you hesitate.'

We typed her next paper the sarne way.

Thts ttme she knew how to capltallze, which conllrmed that she is learntng step by step through tlrts method.

BECOMING A WRITER Ilano Goldman (II) urites: Because he was born into a family of book lovers, books were always an lmportant part of Gldeon's world. During hts tnfancy, we spent countless hours rocking and reading ln our rocking chair. Even when we read to ourselves, he is regularly exposd to models of people who really

enJoy readlng.

When Gldeonwas almost 3, we created his llrst book. I made it from some pieces of paper stapled together, wlth a constructton paper cover. On each page he made a scribble, and then he decided what the scribble meant and I wrote it down in his own words. In a few lnstances I helped hrm a ltttle with a question or a suggestion, but it still stayed hts thing. Fhe book is called 'The Roly-Foly Box" and describes how he found a sleeping lonely box that became hts friend and was full of presents for

htm.)

When, soon afterwards, his friend had a birthday, we decided to make a book for her as her present. Ttrls flme Gideon's scrtbbles were lntended to be writfng.

After each sentenc.e he told me what he wrote, and I added a translatlon and an lllustratron. The book was titled 'What happened to Julia' and ended with Gideon and Julia being Snow White and a dwarf and singing'Hi Ho Hi Ho'...

By now Gtdeon was thinklng of himself as an author, and I became his illustrator. Our next project was inspired by a book that Gideon received from his father. The book was about nlghtmares hiding tn closets, and for a while Gideon became rather scared of closets. A frtend gave hlm a Magtc Wand to get rid of the nlghtmares, and Gldeon spent a whole day "poollng' out those nlghtmares and dolng other maglc rvlth hts wand.

When Gldeon plays he ltkes to give me

l0 a nanzrdve of his activities, and I soon realized that we had the makings of a new book. I found that by combining his boundless lrnaginatlon with my minimal writlng skills and my growing illustrating skills we can come up with really neat stuff.

People often ask me how am I going to teach Gideon readlng and writing. I am convinced that it ts much more important to help him love books, and have the confidence that he can create original work. Armed with such attitudes he will naturally be interested in acquiring the

tools he needs - reading and writing skills.

I love watching how Cideon teaches himself. When he was 2 he received a letter game from Grandma. For several days he would run to anybody in sight with a letter in his hand and ask what it was. After memorizing the names of all the letters he started recognizlng words on signs and store names. At 4 he has a list of words he can recognize, but he is the first to tell you that he cannot read yet. I llnd tt interesting that he can make that distinction between the ability to recognize some words and the ability to read.

Gideon has had many opportunities to use our computer. He is quite competent at getflng into a program such as MacDraw and using its various options. When typing, he randomly presses the buttons and then asks me to read what he has written (and has great fun hearing things

like

kvghlw).

T\uo weeks ago while playrng like that he announced that he was going to write his name, and proceeded to do so. Then he

MeG:W,ftE\fr,:,AC DEIW:, YESTERDAYS

TODAYS

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lnclude

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-TELEPHONE

COI'NSEIJNG-

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went on to write the names of the rest of us. He was having some trouble with the vowels, but got all the consonants right.

(We did not correct him but answered his questions when he asked.)

Today, as I was working on this article at the GWS office [SS: Ilana spent two weeks in February volunteering here with her childrenl, Gideon decided he was going to write an "1", and he did - trying several versions until he got it right. Then he proceeded to draw a person - head, body and legs, Up unttl today, he would only scribble (except one memorable day right after he learned the letters, when he made an "S" and then a "G", neatly, offhandedly, and has never repeated it since).

Gideon's progress is erratlc. I have no idea when he will be reading and writing -for real', and I don't really care. I love obseMng him work at his own pace, and I have such a good time in the process.

RETHINKING THE TEACHER'S RED INK Nancg Wallace (NY urites:

I look back on my school papers, all marked up with the teacher's red ink, wtth a kind of horror. And I look back on my schoolish stilted prose feeling resentment for all the harm that my teachers did to my writing. I took such care to get everything right that I lost all sense of the flow ofmy words, and all sense, ifl ever had any, of what I most wanted to say.

My children, Vita and Ishmael, were raised in a family of writers, but in obvlous reaction to my own schooltng, I left them to figure out the mechanics of wrlting on their own. I didn't wen teach Vita how to shape her letters, but perversely waited to see what she would do on her own. By the time she was 6, she had given me a clear understandlng ofhow she expected me to rcspond to her writing.

When she wrote for herself (in her Journal), our family, or other close friends and relatives, she wanted no help and no sly cornments about the fact that she pald no attention whatsoever to spelling and punctuation. She trusted us to decipher her messages, and when we didn't, she figured that it was simply our loss, When she wrote to people less lntimate, though, she exoccted me to correct even the smallebt error, and she laid the responsibility entirely in my lap. What she hated most was having some stranger call her invented spelling "cute," and she trusted me to protect her from that, Sitting back and hoping that she would eventually change her attitude made me nervous, since there was no way that I could be absolutely sure that she would. To trust her was an act of faith. But, ofcourse, the reason that I can write about this at all is that now that she is older, she has taught me that it u-ras worth the risk.

She flnally did take an lnterest in writtng correctly, the way she took an interest in joining the adult world in other ways. At first unconsciously, but later very consciously, she began trying to reconcile her own spelling and punctuation with the spelling and punctuation that she saw in real books, and she managed, simply because she felt it was her responsibility to do so as the be st wav to communicate

her ideas.

Often, now, she sits at the typewriter,

with a pen and correcting taPe at her left, and with a btg dictlonary at her right' Sometimes she calls me over to ask whether I think a corruna or a semi-colon would be more appropriate or to ask how I would break up a sentence to make it more readable. We are now becoming real

writing partners. I ask her to proof my stulf the way she asks me to proof hers, and although lt's always a sensltive Job to crttique another person's writing, I know that when she turns to me she is demanding honesty. I am frankly piclry, not just about correct gramnrurr, but about style.

Sometimes I worry that I am no different from my old teachers with their red ink' I wonder how I can applaud a teacherwho Just lets her students write'when there I am, saying to Vita, "I'd chop this sentence up here and perhaps take out a few ofthe redundant adjectives," or "Don't forget that necessa4r has two s's."

All this questioning of myself and all my discomfort about my seeming doublestandard came to a head lastweekwhen a slxth grader from one of the local pubhc schools sent me a report on homeschooling that he had written for his social studies class. Itwas typed, and came complete with attached charts, graphs, reference lists, and related xeroxed articles that he had dug up from homeschooling publications. Circled in red, on the title page, was a 98, with a word or two of praise written, also in red of c-ourse,

underneath.

Actually, the report was wonderful. It was full of useful lnformadon and lnteresting personal oPinions, the writing

was clear and concise, and even the graphs and charts were useful. There were many spelling errors, though, and some major grammatical errors, yet the teacher didn't mark one. In fact, except for the title page, there wasn't a red mark on the entire report. I found myself feeling angry almost as if the teacher had abused this child - and yet I was confused about why I felt this way. I mean, here I was feeling bothered because a teacher hadn'tdone the very thing that had supposedly helped to make mv own school life so miserable.

'How cair this be?' I kept asking myself.

Then, finally, I understood. When the teacher graded my ftend's report - in f;act,

when she assigned it in the lirst place - she was in effect saying, 'l will take responsibiltty for your writing. I will decide what and when you should write, and I will decide the ultimate worth of the writtng'' Although it was clear from his ebullient style that school hadn't manag€d to crush my friend's writing the way it had mine, he couldn't help, under the circumstances, but value the teacher s oPinion of his work more than his own. He couldn't help but (on some level anyway) tum over the responsibility for its grammatical correctness to her. Ifthe teacher didn't

mark any errors then presumably, he must have thought, there weren't any, especially when she awarded the writing a top grade. Unlike Vita, who both consclously and unconsciously took responsibility for her writing over the years, by matching what she wrote with the writing that she saw all around her, my friend, as

soon as he entered school, no longer had to

GROWING WITHOI.N SCHOOLING #69

ll look so carefully at "real' writing - his teachers let him know that they would tell him what was right and what w€ui wrong.

No wonder, then, that I was angry at this teacher, who had taken responsibility for a child's writing but then didn't have the honesty to admit it by pointing out the ways that it could have been improved, or the energl to sit down with him and go over the u/riting wtth the respect and seriousness that lt deserved. When a teacher gives assignments and grades her students'work, she needs to acknowledge that she has in an important way taken over the responsibility for that work, and deal with the consequences.

MORE ON FOREIGN.BORN. ADOPTED BOYS Jackie Adema oJ Hawail urites.'

In response to Rusty Taylor's letter in GWS #67 about homeschooling two

forelgn-born, adopted sons: AII four of our children are adopted. The older two are from Korea and have been with us since they were three months old. Seth is l3 now and we began homeschooling him ln second grade, Nicole ls now in fifth grade and she has never been ln a formal school.

Ouryounger two boys, Andrew and Joel, are the ones who fit Rusty's description. They are from the Phillppines and were 3 and 4 when they joined our family.

They did not speak any English at all. We never had any problem communicating with them, though. They may have understood more English than they spoke because some English is spoken in the Philippines, but we were told they did not

know English. They leamed very quickly from our other children and the nelghborhood children.

During the {irst two years that Andrew and Joel were with us I did verv little tn the way of formal schooling Gth them. We read to them and they played outdoors a lol We felt they needed to learn a lot of English words in their speaking vocabulaqr before we could teach them to read. They are acdve, outdoor boys anyway and it seemed a shame to coop them up with too much schoolwork too soon.

Lastyear I put them lnto the A Beka kindergarten curriculum. The summer before that I lntroduced them to lettcrs and reading ln a fun way by using the Sing, Spell, Read and Write program forJust a short time each day. They were able to finish the kindergarten material by noon each day so they still had a lot of time to play. This year they are just finishing the A Beka lirst grade material. They are reading the assigned readers easily now and are at that stage where they try to read all the street signs and telerrision credits

by themselves.

We think homeschooling is best for all four of our children but we are esDecially glad that we have had this opiion for Andrew and Joel. We feel strongly that ifthey had been required to enter a regular school at age 5 or 6 they would not have done well at all. They would not have known enough English to keep up with the class and might have been labcled slow leamers early on.

THINKING ABOUT GUESSING LEARNING FROM Stephanie JudV BC) rorltes:

I've been thinking lately about guesslng in response to questions or problems. Some guesses spring from an intuitive source, and can lead to discovery or innovation. But in many educational settings, we hear lots of wild guessing that grows from panic or fear or shame - the tendency to give some answer, any answer, no matter how ridiculous, rather than be forced to admit that he or she doesn't know or doesn't remember or doesn't understand the question.

In our family, we've coped with thts up to now by avoidtng situations that encourage wild guesstng. However, my daughterTess and I recently started using the Spalding Writiry Road a Reading program, with its constant review process.

To discourage wild guessing, weVe adapted an idea from l,ore Rasmussen's NotesJor TeacLers. One of her students thought this up, and we changed it a bit to sult our needs.

I took five manila mailing envelopes, and wrote the following captions on the outside: (l) I'm certain. I'm sure, I know that I know. (2) I'm fairly certaln. I'm pr€tty sure. I think I know. (3) I'm not sure, but I'll take a guess. (4) I'm not sure, and I'd rather not guess. (5) I'd like to think about It a bit more. In our daily use, these have been shortened to Know, Pretty, Guess, No Guess, and Think. We numbered the envelopes at lirst, but later took the numbers off so they wouldn't imply degrees of

'rightness.

"

When we review the WRR phonogram cards, Tess flrst sorts them into the envelopes, and then we go through each envelope, taking them in any order she wants to. When she writes phonograms from dictation, she writes the phonogram (without seeing the card) and then tells me which envelope to put the card ln.

We haven't been doing this for too long, but my impression so far is that wild guessing has been completely eliminated, I am surprised at how rarely she uses the "l know" and "l'd rather not guess" envelopes. It seems to me that she uses'l'm

pretty sure" for many cards that appear to

be 'l know' to me. The "l'll take a guess' envelope seems to catch the cards that used to be wild guesses, and she nearly

always gets them right, or if not rlght then at least very close. Ifshe guesses and doesn't get it right, it is usually clear to me where the confuslon is, This is a wonderful change from wild guessing, when guesses are sometimes so far oll that you have no ldea where the difliculty is. Our rerriews are also calm and companionable - I don't feel as if I'm testing her all the time.

Here's the best part: After we took the numbers off the envelopes, I wanted to mark them in some way so we could see at a glance which was which. I thought about it for several days, but couldn't come up with any appropriate symbols or drawings. I turned the problem over to Tess, and she immediately drew a closed circle on # l, an almost-closed circle on #2, and so on, up to a bowl shape on #5. How beautiful. When we know, our knowledge may be perfect, but it is also closed. When we don't know, we are still open.

GROWING WTHOUT SCHOOLINC #69

CHILDREN'S PLAY NOT UPSET ABOUT FAILURE Sue Rodosti (SDJ urites:

It's funny how we adults assume that we have so much to teach our children

about self-discipline, handling frustra-

don, being padent, etc. Watchlng my twoyear-old Adriannas current obsession with mantpulative toys fiegos, puzzles, blocks), I envy ter patlent ellorts at dilllcult te"ks. She is so much morle concemed about the experlence of doing than about the end product that she will try and try to do something tmpossible (e.g. putilng a puzzle piece ln the wrong place, turning lt every which way to try to make it Rt) and yet show no sign ofbelng upset over repeated failure. Sometimes I get frustrated watching her and have to resist saying, "No, no, nol You can put that block on top twenty more times and it will fall off twen$r more timesl Give upl" But she doesn't care. The task is still pleasurable, the exploration ts still very worthwhile to her, so lt's important that I don't lmpose goals on her play: 'kt's see how tall we can bulld this tower.' That wtll come soon enougfi, althougfr of c-ourse I hope that keeping her out of school will help her retain some of that openness in her explorations, She would also do well to ignore my own fuming, fretting, fussfurg examplel

COOPERATIVE PLAY MAKING NEW RULES Jattse Wrcten (AZ urites:

I've noticed a very lnteresttm$ phenomenon among homeschoolers in our group. Because they take care of many of

their own needs without adult lnterference, they don't tend to need referees in the games they play. Nor do they tend to play bv conventional rules. When thev are with eich other their main ficcus seenis to be to have fun rather than to win.

Aweekago IwatchedJoseph, ll, and Brian, nearly 9, play with some other homeschoolers in a basketball game. I almost crtnged when I saw the double dribbling and the traveling, until I realized what was happening. The younger and older children alike (from about 16 down to about 8) were plaSring together wlthout any pleading from the parents for the older ones to include the younger ones.

Everv now and then an older child would gently remind a younger traveler or double dribbler that in basketball one needs to keep bouncing the ball and not rrn with it.

But there was no penalgr; the gatne just kept right on going, very different from the wav it would have f there had been a

referiand the

game were a "real" basket-

ball game.

Joseph, as he read what I amwriting,

just said, 'Yeah, a lot ofbasketball players don't get to play because there are only the best ones and they all have to play a c€rtain way. When we were Playing our game at the park some teenagers lfrom

t2 outside our groupl came by and somebody asked them to play. Then they kept on doing slam dunks and only threw it to the best players. It was boring because I never got the ball. Even the younger kids got to have the ball before. After the teenagcrs carne my younger brother quit because he never could get the ball. When my mom came to tell us it was time to go, I didn't want to go because I wanted to beat them.

Before they came I did not want to beat anAote because I had fun anyway."

Perhaps the kids from outside our group just did not know how rewarding and fun it can be to include everyone of all ages - even people who run wlth the ball.

Nor, perhaps, did they realize the fun they were missing out on by focusing on competition. Could it have been that in school they had leamed always to go by the rules, no matter what the cost (l'm sure they had no conscious idea that there was even a cost involved)?

I'm certalnly not saying that the homeschoolers did not use any rules before the kids from outside our glroup Joined them. On the contrary, they used many of the rules of basketball. But the difference was that they felt free not to use rules they saw as irrelevant or had simply not yet leamed. They were also very tolerant of others (usually the younger ones) who did not know as many rules as they did.

RETHINKING''SCHLEPPING CHILDREN AROUND'' Flom Susan Shtlcor'k (PN: I've been thtnking recently about chauffeuring children. So often I hear people say, "Oh, I have to schlep my child all over,' complaining about being the suburban mother who taxis her children all over. And then people who enjoy living out in the country may complain that to do anything they have to get in the car and drive fort5r-flve minutes. All of those complaints are valid, and I'm certainly someone who, with four children, does a lot of drtvtng to activltles ln the course of a week. We're all really happy with those activitles that the children are involved in, but it certainly does involve a lot of car tlme. Lately, though, I've been thinking about that car time, and about the positive

themselves in relatlon to their Deers - are they quick to jump in with a Joie in conversatlon, are they the ones coming up with ideas, and so on. Our children are sometimes quite dillerent with other children, outside the family, from the way they are inside the family, so I've appreciated those glimpses into that - which I'm not as likely to get when they have friends over and are off playing in another room. I wouldn't want to sit nearbv and listen to thelr conversation in that-kind of situation, because I certainly value their privary, but I feel like in the car they know I'm there even if they're not paying much

attention to me.

Another advantage to betng the driver is that because I get to see the childrenJust as they come out of the acdvtty - ballet or violin lessons, for example - I get a good sense of how it went that day, just by seeing how they are when they're fresh from the activity. It can give me a more immediate sense of how they're responding to the lesson; what kind of mood it leaves them in, than I might get if I waited to ask about lt later. So for that reason, too, I really don't mlnd being the one to pick the children up at these outside acdvities, and IVe even oome to appreciate being able to do it.

CHILDREN IN THE WORKPLACE

side of lt.

l-a.st week I realized, all of a sudden, that our tlmes in the car are sometimes our very best times together. Often what happens ls that something inspires a conversation - maybe there's some construcUon ln t]..e road and somcbodv asks, 'Why are we stopping here?" - and that may lead to a whole discussion of the use of townshlp taxes to repave the highways, why things get held up in the government of the townshlp, why some people want something built and others don't, and all sorts of things that I wouldn't otherwlse have thought of bringing up. I llnd that the four children have their own questions, all at different levels, that they seem almost compelled to ask about this sort of thing. They ask, "Why would somebody not want to build a road once they started building it? Why would the township spend that much money and then stop?' and so on - the conversation can go on and on. I think the fact that we're all a captive audicnce in the car, all necessarily together for that finite period of time, contributes to thls. So I've found the time ln the car to be a wonderful time for famlly discusston, and I've come to value it.

I've also been thinking about carpooling. WeVe always tendcd to do a lot of the driving to activities; our children haven't been involved in many car pools, although there are a few families that we do trade driving with. But one of the advantages ofbeing the parent who drivcs, when you're driving your own children and their frlends, ls that you get to hear, and almost eavesdrop, in a positlve way, on the children naturally relating to each other as they're lnvolvcd in thelr own conversation in the back scat. You have a chance to see howyour chlldren see

workin! in the oIIIce, and they know that

IN THE FOOD CO.OP Marg Van Doren MA) runfes.'

Until last wcek, my husband Mark worked at the local food co-op. The girls and I fairly often went with him. It's a coop with working members so there are

often children there working with their parents for a few hours a month (including several homeschooling families), When we went in we would go for a whole day, and almost everyone who works there has made it a point to tell us how much thry enjoy having us there.

Helen (5) does a lot of work. Greta (3) does more playing, but did help Mark stock shelves the last time we were in. She was very carcful about doing it neatly.

Flelen does stock work (with other people, usually), labels coffee bags, bags produce, helps sweep, prices incoming items. Once

she helped mark some advertising flyers that were to be sent out (they had been datcd wrong). One day Helen went in with Mark for a half a day, wlthout me and Greta. She has worked with several adults there besides Mark and me, both store employees and worklng members.

If we get hungry, there's always food available, and if the children get restless we can go for a walk to the nearby buslness distrlct or to the local branch library, about h:rlf a mile from the store. There are also parks nearby, but the children like being in the store so much that we seldom leave for long and have never bothered with the parks. Playing outside is something they can do all the time at home.

The other handy thing is a kind of hammock chair in the co-op oflice. When the girls get tired they can sit there, alone or together. There ls always someone

they have to be quiet and out ofthe way when they are there.

Even though Mark doesn't work at the co-op anymore, I think we'll probably still stop by from tlme to time to work - we all enJoy lt so much.

I also have a littleJob cleaning a cottage here on the farm where we live. Our landlords rent lt to vacatloners on a weekend or weekly basls. The children come with me when I get it râ&#x201A;Źady for the next folks coming in. They often help wlth the work, and otherwlse keep themselves busy playing in the yard - there are wildflowers and a stream and rocks to

climb-aniceplace.

Pam Newman of CALIFORNIA NETWORK NEWS (2429 Slats St, Santa Rose CA 954M) writes tlat her group would like to exchange newsletters and share ideas by mail with other home-

schooling groups.

Wele running this notice because we like o see local groups share information and experience whenever possible, rather ftan stafling from scratch. Please let us know what you leam from each other.

WE'D LIIG TO HEAR stories about children learning from other children - siblings or friends learning from each other lnformally or in more formal tutorlng situations.

THANKS

t

GROWNG WITHOI-]T SCHOOLING #69

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GROlffING WITHOUT SHOOLING #69

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JOHN HOLT'S BOOK AI\[D MUSIC STORE A MATHEMATICAL

MYSTERY TOUR

by Mark Wahl #1162 $19.95

In our homeschooling adventureswe have been attempting to find a way to alleviate what we find to be everyday mathematical drudgery.

We cangrocery shop, use recipes,

and balance the checkbook only so many times before these activities become less than stimulating. We were at the'I don't want to do any more math - let's go outside and pick some flowers' stage when A Matlematical Mgstery Tour appeared. We have found it to be a fun-filled alternative to the mathematical tasks we were engaged in.

Author MarkWahl, as our tour guide, has planned many intrtguing adventures based on discoverles he has made about the relationship between mathematlcs and nature. Pinecones. sunflowers, and pineapples are some of the tools we used on our first adventures into the land of number relationships.

It hadn't occurred to me to look to the pinecone as a way of increasing my awareness of the relationships between numbers and nature until the author pointed out that the scales of the pinecone form families of curved patterns called helices. These same helices are present tn the pattern of seeds ln the center of a sunllower, in the arrangement of the hexagonal bumps of a pineapple, in the spiral created when one pulls the petals off a daisy, and in DNA. There are many heltx patterns within the pinecone ttself - some splralizing lazily to the point of the cone, otlers circumnavigating the cone several times before exhausting themselves. One shallow pattern of scales contained only three curves, another had five, and yet another had eight.

When I had completed this counting I arranged the numbers in order of value - 3, 5, 8, 13, 2I - and realized that the sum of any two consecutive numberswould be equal to the next number in the sequence: 3 + 5 = 8, 5 + 8 = 12, and so on.These sequences, Wahl tells us, are called Fibonacci numbers, and they exist almost ever5rwhere in nature. I thought to myself, "How wonderful! There actually

is order in this universe of ours!'

Other chapters touch upon the relationship of hecagons to the universe, the number secret of the bees. the Greeks and their Golden Ratio, mathematical art forms (star explosions, seashells, Jewels), the pyramid, and the moon. Reproducible worksheets are incorporated into the chapters at appropriate places, and the book includes a Teacher's Guide which, unlike many textbook teacher's editions that only give answers to the questions, lists secondary activities and gives related food for thought.

As is the case when going on â&#x201A;Źrny adventure lnto unfamiliar parts, when taking a mathematical mystery touryou'Il need to bring a compass: your curiosity and willingness to open your mind to a new way of thinking about number relationships.

Ann Ban This is a trip worth taking.

-

THE KNOW HOW BOOK OF BATTERIES AND MAGNETS

by Heather Amery #1142 $5.95

FUN WITH ELECTRONICS

by J. McPherson #l126 $3.95

I wish I had had The Knou How Book oJBatteries andMagnets when I was 6 or 7. It ts a great book for that age range, or for someone who lsJust starting to fool around with circuits and light bulbs and such stuff. It has a lot of neat projects as well as some basic explanations of what is gohg on. A younger child might enjoy magnetic fishing and racing cork boats, but there are also proJects an older child might like to do, for example a stop-and-go traffic light and a morse code transmltter. In fact, my 9year-old slster is excited about building the robot with flashing eyes. Each project has step-by-step instructions with each step consisttng of a colorful picture of whatyou're supposed to do and then a description underneath.

Most of the proJects are made from household goods. They increase in difficulty - the first describes some magnetic tricks, and the last is an electromagnetic tow truck. The book shows a picture - mostly photos but somettmes line drawings - of what the finished project looks like. You can learn a lot by doing the proJects ln thls book.

Fun With Electronics is for an older kid or a kid who is more experienced ln the field of building electronic gadgets, someone who already knows how a circuit works. It is a small book but is filled with many good projects that introduce you to soldering

John Holt'e Book and Mueic Store

2269 Massachusetts Ave.

and LEDs (light-emittir:g diodes), transisters, and a few other electronic components. The proJects include a burglar alarm and a miniature radio.

After the proJects, the book tells you how the components work. This book has more in-depth explanatlons than The Know-Hotu Book oJ Batter'tes andMagrets. For example, it orplains how a current flows, wlth the electrons traveling from atom to atom. The proJects are formatted in much the same way as Ttrc Knou-How Book. There are colorful plctures of what you are supposed to solder or whatever and underneath are directions in writing. One proJect that I really like and am planning on buildtng ts the potted plant tester. It is notJust a toy; it is actually useful.

I htghly reconunend this book for people who would like more challenge than The Know How Book provides. It is easy to read but gives good information (even a clear description of how to solder, if you haven't done that before). I learned some things about LEDs that I didn't know before. In fact I said that I wished I had thls book so often while I was looklng at lt for this review that my mom bought tt for me.

Christlan Murphy

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At press time, we have been awaiting shipment of Ftrn Wtth Electronics from England for several months. You may phone to check its availability. We will credit or refund your order if the book is still unavailable.

CLUTTER'S LAST STAND

\4

by Don Asleu #l I l0 $9.95

This book was given to me several years ago as a gift. I reread most or all of it at least once a year

for inspiration. It has helped improve our family life a great deal, and I can't recommend tt too

highly.

Don Aslett is a professional cleaner, and a lecturer and author of several books on cleaning. His contact with many people who have had housecleaning difficulties led him to the conclusion that clutter is the biggest problem ln maintaining a home. I agree. As he states, and as I found to be true when I took a good look at my home and my life, a great deal of time is spent onjunk - cleaning it, getting it out of the way, movlng tt from one place to another, shuffling through tt to find a needed item. It takes up space, tlme, and energt, which are too precious to be wasted.

Aslett has written a manual on why and how to get rid of clutter. Hts discussion ofjunk goes beyond

Cambridge, MA02l40

old newspapers and inconvenient knitted kleenex box covers - he talks aboutJunkvacations, cars, routlnes, books, clothes, food, and even people. He doesn't tell uswhich of ourthlngs areJunk (though he does have some opinions on it). He says,'Anything that crowds the life out of you isJunk. Anything that builds, edifles, enriches our spirtt - that makes us truly happy - regardless of how worthless It may be tn cash terms - isn'tJunk.So we have to make our own declsions. ButAslett certainly brxrgs up some important considerations, a number of which I had never thought of. One example is, *Too good to use isJunk.'How true that is. His discussion of this helped me let go of some things I had been clinging to wen though theywere never used - too nice, too fragile, too old to use. They still had to be kept clean, moved, worried about, etc.

In other words, they were more burdens than assets.

Another tricky area (especially for homeschoolers?) is all the stuff that "might come in handy- for some unknown project in the future.

In the flrst chapter of Clutter's I-ast Stand is the Junkee Entrance Exam, a self-test to seeJustwhere we standJunk-wise. The llrst time I went through tt sweral yeâ&#x201A;Źrrs ago I rated in the fourth range (out of five!). Almost hopeless. When I went through it after some serlous consideration and de-Junking, I rated one level higher. Now I'm yet another lwel higher.

With a little more work, I'll be de-Junked.

This self-test isn't important in itself, but I flnd that it really does reflect my progress. I really am dotng better. Moving twice since I first read the book helped a lot - it's easier to get rid of stuff than it is to haul it around. Even so, I find that I need to rotate toys and some clothes into storage periodically, and we do still have more things than we really need.

But, for the first tlme ever, we can keep our house fairly neat. Even when something comes up, and the house is neglected for a few days, it seldom takes more than a half hour to put everything away.

Don Aslett's style is relaxed and amusing, very easy and enjoyable to read, wen though some of the things he helps us see about ourselves can be a little painful. A lot of the sting is taken away by his personal examples. He's not just showing us our foibles; he freely admits his own, too. His main focus ls always on helping us free ourselves from useless things, to concentrate our energies on the parts of our lives which are most meaningful, especially the people who are important to us. I hope Cluttq's Iast Standcan help others as it has helped us.

-MarvVanDoren

RISING FROM THE PLAINS

by John McPhee #1184 $7.95

This book contains two stories intertwined - the story of a family and the story of the land where the

John Holt'c Book and Music Store

2269 Massachusetts Ave.

family ltved. It gave me such an interesting perspective on htstory. The story of geologist David l,ove's parents comes from I-ove's memory and from his mother's unpublished Journal. His mother, Ethel Waxtram, went from Boston to Wyoming in 1905 to be a teacher (and she ended up homeschooling David for much of hts chtldhood). There she met and married John Inve. This seems so long ago to most of us - not within our llfetlme. It's a period that fasclnates many of us. So many things have changed in the last century. It's a life that is long enough ago to be mostly lnaccessible to us now, bit still within the memorles of a few; our grandparents may have had similar experleneces.

The other focus of this book, the geological history of central Wyoming - the history of the earth - is clear to those who know how to read the signs. Now we're not talkXeg about decades but about hundreds of mtlltons of years. Such vast expanses of time seem mlnd-boggling to me and make our concentration on the happenings ofa hundred years ago seem trivial somehow. Recent history is closer to us and may be more comfortable in a way. The Juxtaposttion of the two kinds of history in this book makes both special.

Another aspect of this book that I found to be particularly tnteresting was the technical language and obscure vocabulary that McPhee uses. Personally, I think he could have simplified thlegs some or explained more wlthout losing any of the significance of the lnformatton: indeed, I feel that more understandable language would have enhanced the geological explanations. While reading, I didn't look up any words: I didn't strain to get the mearung of everythtng. It was lovely exercise for me - I skipped the words I didn't know and still felt that I got a

a

Cambrldge, MA02l4O

pretty fair understanding of the geologr of that area.

I couldn't describe much to anyone, or give many details, but I stlll learned a great deal and enJoyed it.

What especially struck me about this was that this must be what happens with many beginntng readers.

I thlnk of the account of Vita Wallace readfitg Little Womenmany times over a span of many yearsi. When she first read that book she may very well have stdpped over a lot ofthxegs that she understood later.

These reflections allowed me to read thls book more freely than I might have if I had let myself be constantly frustrated. As I reread much of thls book to write this revlew, I found that I understood rather more than I had before.

This book also showed me several ways tn which the study of geologr can orplain how the environment allects our lives, and how our ways of life affect the environment. Woody asters tmported to Wyomlng are drawing selenium, a toxic metal, from the rock, and making it available to other plants: animals and people are belng poisoned. Deposits of oll, uranium, and other substances are being found and orploited in some very harmful ways.

The earth is constantly changing. It only seems stable to us with our short-sighted vtew of time. We are so preoccupied with our own affatrs that we don't have much of a sense of the life of the planet.

As I thought more about Ristng Ft'omTtw Ploins, I came to the conclusion that tt is not two stories after all. It is David Love's story, with the focus on two maJor parts of hts life - his fatdly baclground, and his involvement with the geologr of the land he ls from. That part of Wyoming is his earth in a way in it almost no one else's. He has a fascfiration with tt, begun in his youth, and a strong understanding of it that reaches far into the past and touches the present.

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A wonderful story in many ways, with a frightening look at what exploitation of resources is doing to the earth.

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THE PIANO HANDBOOK

by Gregory Pond #1180 $6.00

The King of Instruments can be a GreatWhite Elephant for anyone who has purchased and moved a piano only to discover that it requires hundreds of dollars of work to play properly.

This SO-page handbook is a great aid for avoiding such disappointment, and it is also an invaluable reference book for anyone who owns a piano but doesn't understand how it works and how to care for it. The author is a professional piano technician, but he writes for the layperson, even a layperson who can't play a plano. The book starts out by defining terms: sptnet, console, studlo console, upright, baby grand, etc, and moves immediately into the business of 'how to." We learn flrst how to check the outer structure of a plano, then the inner structure, then the keyboard, action, and tone. Each "how to" is accompanied by clear photos with arrows or letters placed in them, detailed diagrams, and straightforward text.

While all this is geared to the non-professional who is tn the market to purchase a piano, either used or new, lt is very useful for anyone who owns a piano and wants to maintaln tt. For instance, you can evaluate what is causing the qrmptoms of your piano problem (misaligned hammers, too shallow or too deep a dip in your keys, new, oversized tuning pins in an old piano), refer to the chart of approximate repair/replacement costs (labor included) tn the back of the'book, and know pretty well if your piano tuner ls giving you a good deal.

But the strength of this book lies in its information for the piano purchaser. Price ranges for new and used pianos are given, as well as lists of questions you should ask plano dealers and private piano sellers. Armed with a flashlight, measuring tape, and this book, you will eliminate much of the guesswork tn purchasing a ptano, even if you have never played one. This handbook will help you get a good plano whateveryour prlce range, and a good plano will provide you with a lifetime of music. Not a bad investment for $6!- Pat Farenga

Cambridge, MA02l4O

GOOD WORKS: A GUIDE TO CAREERS IN SOCIAL CHANGE Joan Anzalone, ed. #l128 $16.50

Sometimes we get calls or letters from young (and not so young) people interested in fxxding what John Holt would have called "work worth doing," but unsure of how to begin or where to look.

There's a lot to say about this, some of which weVe said already - that you should go directly to the people doing what you want to do, for example, rather than thinking that you have to $et lots of schooling ftrst. For those who may not know where to find people who are dotng, in this case, social actlon work {ecologr, consumer protection, governmental reform, civil rlghts, and so on), Gmd Works is a good place to start. It's a thick directory of groups and organizations tn all parts of the country, and it gives useful information about each one: its stated purposes, its recent proJects, how it gets its fundlng, whether it takes part-time employees, volunteers, or interns, and how to apply.

Worth the price of the book alone is the section of profiles of people who have found work in social change. Often, it's difficult for young people to hear about any ways of finding adult work besides the traditional school-and-career-ladder path. These profiles are of people who have foundJobs that they believe in and care about - or perhaps it's more accurate to say that tn many cases theirJobs found them as they did what seemed to them to be important work.

If any GWS readers - especially older homeschoolers, who may be particularly interested in ftnding out about the options this book describes use it to find work, we'd be interested to hearwhat Susannah Sheffer happens.

-

NOTES FROM JOHN HOLT'S BOOK AND MUSIC STORE:

o

Since our spring catalog went to press, the publishers have increased the price of Mapmakers (reviewed inGWS #68)to $13.95. o

If a book is temporarily out of stock when you order

it (usually because it's unavailable from the publishers), we give you a "back order" notlce onyour involce, and try to fill that back order within two months. If you haven't heard from us in that time' you're welcome to send us a postcard, with all the relevant information from your packing list, reminding us that you're still watting for the back order to be filled.

l9

FOCUS: MAKING COMMUNITIES MORB WELCOMING OF AND ACCESSIBLE TO CHILDREN . A COLLECTION OF WISHBS NEIGHBORHOOD CONSCIOUSNESS Ftom Maggl F)Liott

NVV):

l.

I'd like to see a return to neighborhood consclousness. All these townhouses - such an empty feelingl All that real estate clears out every morning, to be reinhabited, cellularly, at night. The nuclear family is under enormous strain. Evcryone's so lonely trying to do it all, and by themselves. The family and neighbors that used to help out back when we had cornmuntty are gone.

I'd like to see townhouse communitles developed that feature built-ln corrununity. They could have a centrallzed kitchen where worklng parents could go to get fed with their kids, morning and ntght.

Hire a cook, or betteryet, rotate the cooking chores. Such a housing cluster could also have a day care facility for old parents and young children. Again, neighbors could take tums supervising, or all could pitch in to hire a professional.

2. Neighborhood consciousness can also mean prlde In the area and ownership of its problems. Ecological and landscaping ellorts are ones in which people can volunteer and work together, demonstrating to the kids the importance of caring for the land and teaching them how to cooperate, butld, and husband. Kids can watch and participate in tree-planting, tending cornrnunity gardens, erection of habitat for wildlife. Neighbors of all ages can really assume many of the activities now co-opted by the city, like puttlng up tralllc slgns and filllng potholcs, instead ofgriping that the city never gcts around

to it.

3. If we must have institutlons for very old and veryyoung people, I support putting them together. There is so very much that kids and elders can offer one another. It's insane to stuff them off ln environments where they see nothing but "their own kind.'Those clders who are able could tend the chlldren; those who are physically lirnited could tell them stories

or listen to thelr ldeas.

4. Every business or professional endeavor should have one day a week where kids can "walk ln' and participate and/or watch things being done. Someone should be asslgned theJob ofexplaining activities and answering quesdons. Or even better, the workers should know that they are freer that day to give their time to the youngsters in a generous way. That way the employees and bosses can lnvite the kids to Join in, try, help, etc. After a kid has visited a particular business several times, he or she could apprenticc for a whlle. This whole concept could be made an aspect of publlc schooling, so that school becomes more of a work/study

operation.

5. In a simjlar way, adults' hobby clubs like photography, bird watching, astronomy, should open thcmselves [requently to children, and kids with a real

interest should be made members. Adults need to see how good, how mature, how professional, and how creative kids can be in the world of adults. And how many fresh insights they can provide.

6. Stores, banks, etc. ought to have

step-up facilities (similar to ramps for the handicapped, but like solid wooden steps) that allow kids access to teller windows, cash registers, etc. I think kids are often ignored not just because they're kids (although this is widespread and pernicious), but because they aren't noticed and can't make eye contact with the adults irt charge.

7. In rural areas, farmers who are shoeing horses and mules, making molasses, shearing sheep, harvesting apples, pressing cider, butchering Pigs, etc. could call a centrallzed hot line inviting observers and helpers ofall ages. The

communlty could tap into thls line to flnd out what kinds ofthings are happening each week. The hot-line organization could employ facilitators who were familiar with the particular farming operation and also good at organizing people. This person would be on the scene to keep the whole happening under control and make sure it is a safe and productive occasion for the inviting farmer. Maybe it would be more attractive to the farmer if he or she could charge a one or two dollar admission. The focus would be on passing old skills on to kids and growing new farm-

ers/husbanders.

8. I spent a lot of time as a kid at the Detroit lnstitute of Arts and came to view

the museum as truly mine. I've taken my own kids to the wonderful art museums of Washington and they have been overwhelmed, overstimulated, and, frankly, bored. My concluslon: the occaslonal young visitor to an art gallery needs a different expericnce from the frequent visltor. Here's what I'd do: Build children's wlngs that aren't condescending, but are stmply scaled and paced for kids. Children don't need to be touchy-feely-squlrm-through ewrythirtg, and that's what I mean by condescending.

So many 'youth museums' are Just playgrounds in disguise. Kids need to learn to respect art as well as handle it. The masterpieces should be displayed at kidsLâ&#x201A;Źye level. and works should be chosen that engage children - speak to their fascinations. And by that I don't mean just dogs and cats and othcr children, but war and surreal nightmares and blood and guts. As a child, I spent a lot of time in front of a painting of a drowned nude woman being pulled out of the sea before the gaping jaws ofa shark. Brrrrl Stools should be sprinkled around generously so that kids can gaze closely at techntque or get a different perspective on the works. Galleries should be intimate, and statues should be reproductions so that kids can touch. And, maybe most important, there should be nice guards who like kids and love the artwork they're supervising, who know the right point at which to intcrvene without putting the

GROWING WITTIOUT SCHOOLING #69

kids off, who are cool and restrained enouglr to be guards, but who also can answer the hdds' questions with enthusiasm and intelligence and yet without that gushy determinadon to lmprove their mtnds with whlch so rnany art mavens are endowed.

PLANNING FOR CHILDREN F}:om Kathl.een McCwdg oJ FLEx

ovA): I would like to see activities such as concerts, classes, TV specials, poliflcal rallies, town hall meetlngs, and other

such things not only allowing children but planning for them. For lnstance, concerts are held late at nlght and people act upset when children are Present, even though they are well-behaved. And why can't children accompany their parents to a class on cake decorating or motorcycle tuneup at the community college? (l'm assuming the chtld is old enough to be genuinely interested.) Maybe more people would come out to city council meetings or public hearinas if thev didn't have to hire a babysitter f5r klds who would actually like to attend.

On the other side of the coin, so many activides that are planned for children exclude adults. City parks' programs for sutruner actlvltles usually encourage Darents to drop children off and leave. irdusic, art, swimmtng lessons often do not

allow parents even as spectators. Or ifthey dp, the adults are segrâ&#x201A;Źgated in another area and expected to entertain themselves rather than pay attendon to what is going

on with their children.

In our community we have tried to change some of this. I try to take my 1Oand l4-year-old boys with me to anY acfivity they are lnterested tn. People who obiect get an earfull Some ofus have ..iused- to attend events where children are soecificallv excluded without a reasonable cause. Oirr children stood in line with us for hours waiting to get uckets for an

upcoming prestdenilal visit and political rallv. The tlckets were scarce and some felt they should have been given to voting adults. But our chtldren are interested ln politics. They wanted to experience this part of the process.

We made arrangements at the YMCA for special swimmlng classes for families.

Parents could be in the water with their children, and the lnstructor helped the parents coach them. When mY boYs wanted to Join the music center's boys choir, I asked the director if she obJe<ted to parents belng present at rehearsals' She said tt would be OK. I was able to go over the music wtth the boYs at home and reinforce the thtngs they had learned.

Another item on mY wish list is work opportunldes for children. I would like to see speclal prograrns dweloped where

childien ages 12 to 16 could work to learn (apprenticeship), and employers would only have to pay half the hourly minimum wage. Parents would be responsible for ensuring that safety measures were

20 compatible wlth their chlld's maturity and experience, and perhaps pay fior required lnsurance. Along wlth this there should be a means whereby children could assume partlal responsibtltty for business transacdons they wished to enter into,

perhaps with parents as coslgners to any credit agreement, etc.

We know of at least two families in which the chtldren earn quite a bit through thelr paper routes and wlsh to pay lor thelr own dental work, for example.

Yet the dental olhce lnsists on billing only the parent, choosing to ignore that the

child wants to assume thts responsibility.

NEWS FOR CHILDREN F\om Chrlstopler McKee

NW):

One of the thtngs that I would like to see Is a normal-length newspaper that is gea.red toward ldds, written with a vocab-

ulary that klds can understand. Also, a good part of the staff on it should be children (supervlsed by an adult). Many of the newspaper being published today are too hard to understand and/or they are full of stories that are of little interest to kids.

Currently I am getting a small classroom newspaper called Scholastic Neurs. I like it but I wish lt was longer.

I would like to have the radio show "Kids Amerlca'back on the air ln mv area. lt ls a very nice show for childien with news, music, comedy, and quizzes.

The only reason it was taken off the air was that lt "interfered with the news."

Well, how many news shows are there for adults? Now, compare that figure to the number of news shows for kids. If adults lose one news show it is not the end of the world, But lf kids lose one lt ls a big lossl

''HUMAN.FRIENDLY'' COMMU. NITIES Ftom Dale Vosdtsanos (CI):

I. Tfansportatlon: lessening reliance on the auto would accompllsh many things, I-ess trallic would reduce risk of inJury to passengers and pedestrians alike. Environmental clean-up and main-

tenance would be promoted. 'Traffic nolse" as a background constant would be lessened or eliminated. Bicycle paths and walkways, even heavily used, promote interaction on a one-to-one scale, with no age limitatlons. A "lowering of horizons" to an area accessible by foot or blke would cause a retum of smaller nelghborhoods, with local shops accessible to anyone - no need of an adult to ddve. (Thls would not only benellt children, but the elderly and physically handtcapped as well.) Increased contact would develop a greater awarâ&#x201A;Źness of a community of ncighbors.

Once people agatn identified their neighborhood as home rather than as lust a base from which one travels to oiher places, an aggressive reclamation/

beautiflcatlon/safety effort would likely

follow.

Thls sort ofarrangement is now generally found only in large cities, although it's much more corunon ln Europe (where, even as I write, the increaslng influence of the car ts destroying lt). In European cities, safer than our own, very small

chlldren are often sent to fetch the bread, milk, etc, thus taktng on the family responslbilit5r that they know ls valued.

2. Identification of netghborhoods.

This gives the child a broad-based sense of home, rather than thinking of Just one building in an indifferent or dangerous setting. Block organizations, common ln the 'SOs here in Connecticut, having at least one or two planned activities per year Just for residents, call for extended periods ofcontact between neighbors, and close attention to welcoming newcomers and keeping awaxe of families with problems. An awareness of tndiyiduals leads to understanding and perhaps friendship. A

child is not likely to torment'mean old Mrs. Paine" if she has eaten the ladv's

cooldes at a picnic, helped her rake, knows that she is a person.

Most block organizations today are founded for anti-burglary reasons. This seems to me exactly the wrong approach -

an intensilication of suspicion and fear results, as the neighborhood is seen as an area vulnerable to attack. An organization with fellowship, beautification, and maintenance as its aim will bring neighbors in close contact in a positive way, and

crime prevention will follow naturally.

3. Ending discrimination. Barring

classes ofpeople from anywhere, because of age, height, race, or physical disabtlity,

except for reasons of safet5r, must be ended.

Beaches, condos, all areas for people to congregate and Interact should be open to

all.

This area most strongly lnvolves the crux of the problem of creating a workable community. The rules are there because there are too many who will not use good judgment, or who seek to disturb the pleasure of others. People can't rely on children following rules, respecting others'rights and property, or behaving responsibly, Not only do many parents

fail to tnstill positive social attitudes,

they often neglect to supervise or correct their offsprtng. Whereas ln my youth, and stlll in southern Europe today, any adult present would not hesitate to speak up to caution or rebuke a child who misbehaves,

most Americans fear contempt, ridicule, or even violence if they get lnvolved.

Children will not be accepted gladly into communities if they must be feared as

potential hooligans.

Along with this goes the litigious trend in contemporary societlr. If we wish our children to be permitted access, we must not only prepare them to act responslbly, but also accept that mlshap may result. So many restrictlons are in place because a parent's first question on hearlng that Johnny has becn inJured while swimming in a neighbor's pool is not, 'Why was he there?" but "Why wasn't your fence high enough to keep him out?"

Unless there is deliberate negligence, we must be willing to accept that people of all ages take chances, children often take risks an adult would not, and injury or death may occur. The current attitude of drying our tears on dollar bills makes every property owner susplcious of every

potential litigant.

4, Without a very basic restructuring of our thinking, our daily actions, and our way of life, we will never mold a healthy community that ls not just 'chtld-

frtendly"

but "human-friendly.'

Taking

charge of our own lives and actlons and attempting to create the best Me, with the least dtsruptlon to the earth and other llfe forms, ts obvtously tmportant to GWS readers. If the rest of soctety wlll but Join us, we have a chance.

THE NEEDS OF THE VERY YOUNGEST Flom Sue Radostt (SD):

It seems to me that an acceptance of chlldren in the community must begin with an acknowledgement of the needs of the very youngest, I would wlsh for a dlaper-changing table ln every publlc restrooml A small-scale toilet tn large restr@ms (such as at lnterstate rest areas) and a chair or bench for mothers wlth nursing bables would also convey a message of welcome to young children and their parents, Slmple outings such as a trip to the grocery store or to the mall are often more trouble than they're worth to me because I know there will be nowhere to tend to our toddler Adriannas needs.

I've been very pleased by the warm

welcome Adrlana has received at the public libraries here ln Sioux Falls. Her obvlous love ofbooks endears her to llbradans, ofcourse, but she ls not a particularly qutet child, and yet weve never been frowned at or discouraged from reading aloud. I sense that children are much more accepted tJran when I was

small and terrtlled of librariansl

APPRENTICESHIPS. TOY

LIBRARY F-rom Mary-George Sbnonttch (CA):

I find myself wishing for some sort of organized apprentlcâ&#x201A;Źship program for young people who have an interest ln a speclffc career, whether their deslre ls to be a car mechanlc or an orlnthologtst, a computer progranrmer or a physiclan.

Many people enter intensive career trainlng prograrns (college, technical school,

etc.) only to llnd that the realtty of the work doesn't match their expectadons. I think young people would benellt greatly if they had a way of gaining more realistic views of the working world. People tn various occupations could allow youngsters into their sanctums in exchange for age-appropriate work, maybe on a contract basls. I tmagtne that tn almost wery workplace there are tasks that could be done by lnexperlenced youngsters, and ln some cases the young could do them better, belng more enthusiastic by nature.

For a short dme, when I was a teenager, I worked ln my fathers ofllce, sorung and attemptlng to make sense of his handwrltten patient histories. I found I had no patience for that type of work. I couldn't read my father's writing and didn't know enough medical jargon to decipher it. I had seen what it would take to become a medical secrctary and decided it wasn't somethlng I would enJoy doing. I also worked as a student teacher ln a remedial math class, an experience that helped influence my declsion to educate my own chlldren at home. Later, I spent a

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #69

2L surruner ln unlform at Grand Canyon

National Park, dolng almost all the work of a seasonal 'interpretive" ranger (leadtung nature walks, givtng talks, dispensing informadon at the visltor center, picking up lltter, etc.). These work experiences were useful to my developing concept of self: how I llt lnto the world as I pcrceived

it.

Other e:<amples: one of my slsters, whose long-abidtng tnterest was and is animals, worked when a young tc.en in a veterlnary cllnlc washlng the floors and feeding the patlents. She also spent a term helptng a unlverslgr zoolog proGssor reorganize a collecdon of hundred-yearold stuffed blrd speclmens. At the time, she thought she wanted to be an ornitholo$st. She is now working on hcr masteCs in wildlife btologr, a science that studies

mostly ltvely, healthy anlmals

natural envlronments.

in their

These were small-scale experiences, gained from connectlons through parcnts, teachers, and in the case of my ranger duty, a more ambitious program run by a non-proflt group, the Student Conservation Associatlon. In fact, that organization is a good model for the type of thing I have envisioned. The SCA provides for the natlonal parks and forests a needed service (finding them intelllgent, enthusiastlc volunteers), and tt provldes for its young partlclpants the opportunities they need and desire. lt ts funded by contribu-

tions from members (parents, formcr

particlpants, and conservation-minded others). It ls free to partlclpants, both workers and employers. The young workers recelve, ln lleu of salary, transportation costs, room and board, and a sumrner's worth of on-the-Job tralntng and tndependence. It seems to me that many other occupadonal fields could set up programs such as thls. Or, more ambitious yet, a communi$r organlzation could coordinate a program to lnclude many varying occupatlons.

Another ldea for Introducing young people to the workplace is the open house, a concept that my community has used with unantlclpated success. Lastyear, our flr€ station, hospital, and post oflice opened thelr doors on speclfled days to allow the public to see what goes on behind the scenes. This sort ofthtng is valuable to everyone. Other places that could have open houses: llbrarles, grocery stores, gas stations - anywhere that somethtng happens out ofstght to everyone except those who make it happen.

One last idea - my daughter Erin (8) thlnks we should have a toy ltbrary in our communlty, run much llke our book library. To get a card, all one would havc

fines). When we flnd a book we particularly llke, we purchase a copy. A toy library could act in the same way, allow-

ing children to see how much they really like and use a toy before the parents buy it.

I have a good many toys to donate and would glve some to less fortunate chlldren who needed a donation to get their cards.

My children, of course, would not be losing the toys they had donated. They could check them out when needed (if someone hadn't beaten them to tt). 'Toy-boredom' would be considerably reduced. And those few favorites we owned would be all the more valued once clutter was removed.

Of course, we'd have to convince the lawmakers that play is valuable, as valuable as free access to books. And I'm not sure that is something we can accomplish in this century or even in my

lifettme (l anticipate strong lobbies from the toy industry). But maybe ln Erin's lifetime, adults will wise up. Maybe she will influence them positively to do so. It never hurts to dream - without dreams, nothing could ever change and no one would lcarn anything new.

ALLOW OTHER ADULTS TO INTERVENE Ftom

oJ Oregon:

lf I could change just one thing about our communities. I would end the taboo against interventlon. In fact, I would reverse the taboo: no one would dare walk past a crying baby or an unhappy child - it would be considered terribly rude, selfcentered, and unfair to ignor€ a child's needs, both for the parents and for all bystanders. Bob Franklin's anecdote, ln the children's rights Focus in GWS #66, about the children in the restaurant betng hit for wanting to share their artwork, is so depressingly typical. I (and my close friends) witness abusive situations like this often, yet feel unsure about how best to respond.

Why should it be easier to intervene in the mistreatment of a pet dog than in that of a child? Why are there so many more organizations like the SPCA than those supporung children's rights? Why is there only one country - Denmark - with a child ombudsman?

I would like to hear from GWS readers about successful interventions, in which someone has stood up for a child wtthout antagontzlng the parent.

WORKING TO STRENGTHEN CITY NEIGHBORHOOD From Eliz-abth Hamill (CN:

good

condldon. Of course, overdue fines would be charged and collected, donations would be encouraged, and taxes would be channeled (away from less worthy proJc-cts ltke mass educatlon or nuclear bombsl) to {lnance our toy llbrary.

The purpose, as almost every parent can glress, would be to reduce clutter, waste, and unneeded expense, and to give wery chtld access to a wide range of playthtngs. Belng a curious family of limited means, we use our public library frequently (and pay our sharc ofovcrdue

people who come together because of shared interests or values, such as the

homeschoollng community or the bluegrass music communlt5l. There ls a sense of fellowshtp and support when we come together. But we don't ltve near each other, and we don't work together on a regular basis. The chlldren especially seem to need to belong to a group that ls always rlght here, and tntegral part of our everydav llves. Determlned that the answer didn't have to be schools (or cults or gangs for that matter), we began to wonder lf the logical and lmmedlate extenslon of the home and the family could be the nelgh-

borhood.

Admittedly, a nelghborhood lsn't

always an obvious starting place for creadng a sense of community. We llve ln a dense urban metropolltan area. More often than not the people livtng around us don't share many of our values, and they appear to have ltttle tn comnon wlth us other than where we live. Most people weren't bom here, and don't have roots or family des here. Many conslder their current sltuadon temPorary, and look forward to moving on.

Stlll, we've come to have a vision that a neighborhood can - and should - be a communltSr that meets our need to llve, work, play and create together wlth other people who share a conunon goal. We saw it when the lidds first ventured outside to play and found themselves surrounded by indlfferent, or posstbly hostile, strangers.

We see lt whenever our family ls sltting alone ln our house sutrounded by thousands of other people sltUng alone ln their houses, all feeltng tsolated.

Just as we are always worldng to make our home an lnter€sting, vltal, and producUve placr to llve, work, and leam, we dectded we could work to extend thls rlchness and vttaltty to make our nelgfrborhood a mot€ friendly and lnteresdng placr. We imagtned plenty of opportunltles for worldng together wlth our netghbors where we could all contribute: a nelghborhood newsletter, a neighborhood clean-up day, a tree-plantlng proJect, a community garden, a volunteer service to help netghbors wtth special needs, a polidcal action group to work with Ctty Hall. We could

also envislon plenty of opportunlues for

playtng together wlth our neighbors: a netghborhood softbal team, for young and old, summer plcnlcs tn the local park,

wlnter potlucks In the church, block parHes where the street is closed and

to do would be to donate a playablc toy and

return all borrowed material in

Jan Hunt

We do belong to several communities ln the loose sensC ofthe word: groups of

Bclonging to a cornmuni$r seems to be a strong, fundamental human urge, part of our "continuum." Being somewhat introverted ourselves, my husband Michael and I did not really become aware of this need until we had children. Extroverts from the start, our children have always been happiest whenwer our whole family is participating as part ofa larger group, all working or playing together. We couldn't deny thts natural need to bond llrst with

the firmily and then with the community,

or 'tribe.'

CROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #69

nelghbors provide llve muslc.

When we Orst began to formulate a vislon of netghborhood as community, lt seemed almost lmposstbly utoPlan and unattalnable. We hardly knew anyone's name, and we weren't sure we would even like them, But we dlscovered the key almost by accldent when we planted a

vegetable garden in our very small front yard. Since we don't have a back yard, the boys would Joln me out front after supper on summer qrenlngs. Whtle I worked in the garden they would play their banJo on the front steps, or play catch with Michael on the sidewalk. Sometimes netghborhood klds would wander over and Join Ar Grownups out for a stroll would lean over the fence to talk about comPost or aphlds.

22 We learned people's names. Soon people began to call on us when their cars

wouldn't start in the morning or whcn they needed help moving in a nerv couch.

We started to feel

that we could call on

them as well.

Tentatively, we decided to have a block party. We set it up, and lots of peoplc came. We met others who were interested tn the nelghborhood. People talked about conunon problems like trallic and crime, We decided to have a neighborhood mectkrg. More people came. We all went to the cigr councll together, and they listened to us. Soon we had lots of new friends and acquaintanccs, lots of new proJects going.

Now there are a handful ofus here who share a vlsion of what the neighborhood could be. Sometimes we get together on each other's porches or in each other's kitchens and imagine where things might lead: Suppose the church down the street would let us use some of their rooms on week nights for a communi$ center. We could have meeflngs, classes, musical groups, maybe a play... What if we all chipped tn and bought that nuisance o[a liquor store on the corner? We could turn it into a cooperatlvely run health food store, a coffee house in the evenlng, maybe a little bookstore in back... Why not gct one of us to run for city council? ... and so on. The krds sit and listen, and then come up with thelr own ideas for a better neighborhood. Why not close the strect permanently, and have people park thelr cars at the cornef? Then we could have a big grassy soccer {leld where the street used to be, or maybe a farm.

We aren't the Iirst ones to think of building a community based on the neighborhood, and we aren't the lirst to try. (A very good book about this is Communttg Dreams: ldeas Jor Erwich@ Neighborhd arld, Commudty Llfe, by Bill Berkowitz.) But it's hard, and I think a lot of people gfve up. People are so busy with the rest of their lives, neighbors don't stay put, we really don't have much in common anyway, What keeps the vision alive for us is the wonderful impact it's having on our

kids.

They feel safe and secure now when they play outside.They feel like they really belong here, and that makes it easy for them to make new friends. They're learning to accept and value people with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, different income levels, dillerent religious and phtlosophlcal values, and different lifestyles. They are {lnding odd Jobs for pay, like babysitting and yard work, as neighbors come to know and trust them.

They're discovering people who work at home in the neighborhood, and visiting them in thelr workshops and studios.

They're beginning to think for themselves about what makes a good and interesting community, and they're developing leadership skills to help make these ideas happen.

We've come up with this slogan to use on the cover of the neighborhood ncwsletter, and I think it sums it all up: "Front porches lnstead of TVsl" Maybe we should olfer a prize every month for the best front yard garden. We want to see more people come outside and talk to each other, to make the streets in our neighborhood

come alive.

LIVING WELL WITH CHILDREN: INTERVIEW WITH MARC MCGARRY /SS;J Marc McGarry, a psychotfera' pist at tle Cambridge Psyclotherapg Institute, wrote to us sayrng that he had bng been an admirer oJ Jotn Holt's wrXtlg, and tt:o,t hb insfitute has olwags

adrsuated some oJ the basic ideas in Jolut's Escape From Childhood. We usere tttrigued by this, and h earlg Mag I met tuith Marc McGang to explore this

connection.

SS: I'm curious about what

it

means,

ln the context ofa psychotherapeutic

institute, to say that youVe been advocating John Ilolt's ideas for years.

MM:

Hou-r

Chidren Fail was given to

me in fifth grade by a teacher I had. I was having a horrlble time in school, so it was a very meaningful book for me. Then

recently I read Escqpe hom Childhd and was very excitcd to see that it seemed to be describing the Guest-Host way of

raising children that Peter Gill, director of CPI, developed

tht(y years

ago.

Too often parents say, ln effect, "You have to love me, that's your Job." Children are taught to feel guilty lf they're angry at their parents, and they grow up feeltng that some of thelr strongest emotlons are wrong... when you get away from that feellng of obligatlon, any love and affectlon that does grow between parents and chlldren ls real.

SS: What

we prll convey informatlon when we need to. Often we adults lind ourselves ln situations where we do have explain how thlngs are done, but we have so many choices about howwe can do that. I remember thinking about this when I had a guest from lreland. He necded to use a pay phone, and seemed to be completely

unfamiliar with our pay phones - he had no ldea how to begin to make the call. As I showed himwhat to do, I thought of how hard I was trying to be courteous, to explain something that was so obvious to me without condescending to him, and I thought that I should try to have thts attitude and manner when explatnlng

thlngs to children.

MM: Yes, it's all in how you do it. And in the Guest-Host model, there are gotng to be house rules, rules that everyone needs to abide by.

SSi: How do you feel about that, about parents having the right to say, "We're the hosts here, so we make the rrles'?

MM: I think it's realisUc, but again

It's more a rnatter of attltude. An adult host can lay down certain rules for an adult guest without being disrespectful.

And a host can let a guest know that what the guest is doing is disturbing to the household.

SS: What would be an example of

that?

MM: kt's say the kid keeps his room such a mess that lt poses a roach problem for the entire house. Then the parents can say, 'This is a problem, this isn't how we want to rrn our house, we need to do something about this."

SS: I can see that a tension could come up in all of this if the children, the

is the Guest-Host idea?

MM: Rather than having parents be rulers in the family, and kids pets or slaves, which wc think has a devastating effect on the mental health of kids, the Guest-Host idea is that you treat your child as a beloved, honored, long-term guest in your house. It's a model, there are no hard and fast rules to it, but the idea is that you think, 'How would I treat an adult guest in my house?'You wouldn't demand that the guest go to sleep at a certain hour. You wouldn't demand that the guest go to school.

SS: John talks about a family he knew who tried to treat their child as an honored guest from very far away - the point being that although children are at first almost completely ignorant of how we do things here, it doesn't mean that thev don't want to or can't learn our rules and customs, and it doesn't mean they don't deserve our courtesy. It's interesting - and this is in Escape Ftorn Childhcr'd to some degree - to think about what happens when we use this model to determine how

guests, feel that nothing is wholly theirs.

Sometimes children say, 'OK, the house is yours, but my room is my haven, ifs where I get to make decisions.'

MM: Ifs a question of livtng together peacefully. I would never tell a guest when to go to bed, but tf the guest was being loud while I was trying to go to bed, I would ask them to stop. We lind that ifyou take the rebelliousness out ofthese issues like bedtime, children figure out that it's not much fun to stay up till all hours because you're dragging around the next day, and they get used to going to bed at a reason-

able hour.

SS: Yes. kids I lorowwho have been

able to make those decisions will say thtngs like, "If I stay up too late I'm cranlry the next morning.'They know themselves well enough to go to sleep for those reasons, rather than because their parents are maldng them. John was very lnterested in the connection between how hung up we are about kids'bedtimes, and how as adults we're such a nation of

CROWNG WITHOI.TT SCHOOLING #69

23 insomniacs, MM: It's amazing how sensible kids can be about these things if they don't become lssues of rebellion.

SS: An accusation against Escape Ftom Ctdldhrrd" which perhaps has been directed at your Guest-Host model as well, is that all this begins to sound cold, distant. Is there a place for close, loving family relationshlps in this model?

MM: Too often parents say, in effect, "You have to love me, thafs your job.'

Children are taught to feel guilty if they are angry at their parents, and they grow up feeling that some of their strongest emotions are wrong. I think what's lovely about the Guest-Host idea and John Holt's ideas is that when you get away from that fecling of obligation, any love and allection that does grow betwecn parents and children is real.

SS: You could also argue that anything we can do to smooth out those interactions about bedtime and so on, which are often a source ofsuch irritation and resentment, wlll make our lives with children much pleasanter, much more conduclve to those good fcelings you talk about.

Back to the Guest-Host idea for a mlnute. It occur to me that a child could very well say that the cmcial place where the model breaks down is that adult guests know the situation is temporaqr. They may have to adJust to a hosfs rules for a while - say the hosts go to bed early while the guests are nlght owls - but they know that soon they will be going home, back to a sltuation in which they control things.

But a child ls a kind of permanent guest, which could be very hard. What if the child feels that the adults' rules and preferences

are basically incompatible with his or her own?

MM: I think lf there's a serious, longterm incompatibility, the parents should do whatever they can to find another living situation for thelr kids.

SS: What about something in between a perfect situation and that kind of serious incompatibility? I guess I'm interested In the consequences of the feeling, even in a fatrly good situatjon, that one is always a guest. When in that model does the child have a chance to say, 'This is mine, I'm in control here?'

MM: One important part of GuestHost has to do wlth money. We try to help kids become financlally responsible for themselves early on - the parents provide room and board and pay medical bills and so on, but the kids wtll buy their own clothes and that sort ofthing. Parents and

children wlll negoflate palrment for chores around the house. I know a famlly tn which the child, at about 2 l/2, was doing tiny clean-up jobs for small amounts of money, and started buying her own socks. So there's a real feelinA of autonomy there.

SS: The issue of household chores. and whether to pay for help with thern or

not, comes up a lot in GWS. I think that some GWS readers feel strongly that the familv is a team and that children should help tut ofa feeling ofbeing part ofthat team, or of naturally wanting to joln in what their parâ&#x201A;Źnts are doing, rather than only because of the financial incentive'

MM: I'm glad you brought that uP' because I don't want to make lt sound as

i[

it's Just a mercenary thing. Certainly if you- treat your child with real respect and _

affection, the chances are very good that the chtld is going to retum this and want to help and join in. I agree that that's an essential part of being a familY.

SS: You mentioned autonomY a moment ago. What does it mean to say that

a child has autonomy, within a family structure?

MM: I guess it means the freedom to make important decisions about your life, and the sense that you have some impact on things.

SS: What does all of this mean for vour actual work with families? What do you see as the therapist's role in this?

MM: The therapist can be used as an

arbitrator, an outside consultant, if there are things that the parents and children are really having trouble working out on their own. I found this very helpful when I

was havtng trouble in high school. My parents thought school was very important, and were very upset when I did poorly. They consulted with Peter Gill, and he convinced them to do a sort of modilied Guest-Flost with me. They agreed to let me alone about school. I didn't do any better in school, but so much of the pressure was off. It was no longer somethlng for us to fight about. I think my parents were relieved about that, too, even if they were still disappointed that I didn't go to college. So Guest-Host can really benelit both oarents and children In that sense of

eliminating the struggles.

SS: How is

it possible

to be a psYcho-

therapist without traditional school credentials?

MM: A lot of people feel strongly that all therapists should be licensed. We disagree, because we don't think therapy is a medical event, we think it's a philosophical or religious event, a matter of discussing hfe issues, and for the state to say, -fhis person can't discuss important life issues, but this person can, because he's taken ccrtain graduate school courses,' is terrible. I've seen plenty of people who have that traditional training but who treat patients terribly, disrespectfully.

SS: Is the idea that you don't need

since people are Pa)ring therapists a fee, thev should be able to lind out what they *oild b. getdna, and choose accordingly. I guess wha-t some people want to {ind out ls, precisely, how manY creden$als the therapiit has. But I remember when I had to choose a physician on my health plan.

There was a numberyou could call to get lnformation about the varlous physicians, but all they gave you was a list of each doctor s degrees. Thts told me next to nothtng, but tt was all that was available.

It would be nice to be able to flnd out a lot more about these sorts of professlonals before chooslng them'

MM: We feel very stronglY that consumers, potenflal palients, have the rtght to interview therapists wlthout charge

before entering lnto the therapy. Most therapists won't do this, but we'll give YP to three fulterviews. We encourage people to be very rigorous in their question-s - they should trv to find out what we belteve' what we ihink therapy ts.

SS: This ls very analogous to what we say about teaching - both that lt's not something that only people who have state

certilicates can do, and that the person hiring the teacher, so to speak, should make an actlve cholce - ask questlons, Ilnd out what the teacher beliwes'

MM: I think if you're going to enter into a therapeudc or teaching relationship you have to have the right to ask those quesdons.

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MM: There are some states in which I couldn't practice, but ln Massachusetts it's legal.

SS: It seems to me that it makes sense for it to be a mattcr of the marketplace -

GROWING WTHOLN SCHOOI.ING #69

LEONARDO PRESS Box 403, Yorkiown Hts., NY 10598

24

OLDER HOMESCHOOLERS GROWING INTO INDEPENDENCE Flom Anlta CiesA MA): My mom taught me, a long time ago, to listen to advice and then make mv own declsions. For example, I planncd a driving trip to Massachusetts by mysell flve days after I got my license. A lot of people thought I was craz5r; others thought I was brave. I hadn't decided which I was. I listened to all ofthem and decided to go, but I was still nervous until Danile, my older sister, pointed out that ifl got to Baltimore after a day of driving and didn't want to go on, I could come back. So between that and my desire to get to Massachusetts, I got up the nerve to leave.

Once I was on my way it was a lot of fun.

I was going to Massachusetts to visit a good friend whom I met through John Holt, She's like a much older sister. She tells me about her life and her experiences,

about past relationships and trips she's made. She's also teaching me about horses.

When I went on my trip my brother was amazed that our mom "let" mc go.

Now, the ldea of mom "letting' us do something is very funny. Mom has always believed that we are intelligent people who could make our own declsions. Mom does advise us and tells us what she thinks and why she thinks that. And I love her for it.

When Danile was 17 she moved into her own apartment. Mom and Dad were helptng her pay for it. Danile got a job as a waltress to add to the income she made from dancing and when she was l8 she came to Mom and Dad and said that she appreclated their help but she could handle it on her own. Mom and Dad said that they were happy for her but that if she ever needed their help to just ask. When you have that much support it is easier to go out on your own. Susan, my other big sister, has a friend who is 2l and still lives

at home and pays rent because his father belleves that when you reach l8 you should pay your own way, and ifyou rnove out of his house you don't move back in.

I'm not saying this friend is not doing anythtng with his life - he is. He's in the Naqp and wants to be a pilot. But if you know you can't go back ils harder to go forward.

GETTING INFORMATION We are

alwags interested to hear abut

lvmesch.nbrs slautlttg initirrttre trr seektg out help or inJormalion ulan

theg need lL Here's one such story Jrom CleLsea Chrrpman (AK): I write to a former U.S. Olympic Equestrian Team trainer who writes to help me with training and riding our horses, I started writing to her last fall when we were having trouble with the

tralning of our Norwegtan

g-ord colt. I got her address out ofa newsletter put out by the Norweglan FJord Horse Registry and sent her a letter asking how she dealt with her lJord horses, She mostly writes and tells me stuff about her horses and training methods and tack.

HOMESCHOOLING

WHILE ILL Dertse Dallg urote in the April i,ssue oJ the ReMAINEing

at Home neurslgtter.'

My senior year in high school started

with the promise of being no more than an extension of what my junior year had been. Pcer pressure, cruel comparisons and bad attitudes, plus wading through my required senior subjects, is what I had to look forward to (at least in my mind). High school had started out as a breath of fresh air, but three years later had become stifling to me. I wanted to get the senlor year behind me and gct on with my liG, but I didn't have any real plans, as nurny of the kids didn't. Now I realize that I was

suffering from "senioritis.'

Then something happened at the end of the {Irst semester to change everythlng.

I had experlenced some health problems during the lirst semester that caused me not to feel well much of the time. By the time the semester ended, we learned that I would need to undergo a series of treatments in the hospital. I had missed some school because of this, but now I wasn't going to be able to go for an undetermlned period o[ time. My mom talked to my dad and the school officials, and we all agreed that homeschooling for the second semester was the best solution.

Because several of my senior classes were lecture classes, we had to develop courses Just for me that would meet all of

my requirements for gSaduafion. My bmther, who's in ggaduate school, suggested that I get lots of composition to prepare me for college. My mother is a free-Lance writer, so we adapted a course to meet my needs. Because I attend a Private

school, I have a requtred senior Blble course, My mom has wrltten and taught Bible classes fior eighteenyears, so no problem for us on that one either, For my literature class I am reading four classics.

I also have an algebra class. That's the hardest because I have always had trouble with math, The very first week, as my mom and I were reviewing some things, she realized that my problem was not algebra but the fact that I did not know how to do long divlsion and did not really understand fracflons (this in spite of the fact that I am an honor student). We've had to spend a lot of time reviewing, which I couldn't have done ln a classroom. I'm beginning to feel like I can take algebra in college.

Oh yes, I am going to college nextyear.

My homeschooling has helped me focus on

my future. I am interested in nutrition and got to talk with a registered dietician while I was in the hospital. My mom has been encouraging me to think about home economics because I have a lot of lnterests tn that area. We talked to each other and to other people and I'm real excited about rnajoring in home econornics with a minor in nutrition. I think I'd like to teach. I wrcte to colleges, applied, and am

waiting to hear now.

Although many people would think thls couldn't possibly be a good thtng to happen ln your senioryear, it has turned out well for me. It has becn tough to be sick, but the homeschooling has given me the things I needed to make me better prepared for college than I was. It all has made me more aware of my need to prepare for the future. There is some anxiety lurking around in my head, but

I'm really looklng forward to the future.

ATTENTION MUSICIANS! Stephanie Judy writes:

I work

cLo'rLo.r2-cl Home Based Education Prograrn Create your ()rvn lrorrre st:lrool ('ut ricitlllnr witll tlre lrelp of Clonlara Sclrool I lorrre lJasetl ftll

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1289 Jcuell

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as a

freelance writer and my

current project is a book about amateur music-making. The book is tentatively titled Music for the Joy of It, and it is to be published by Jererny Tarcher, Inc. in the fall of 1990. As part of my research, I'd like to contact as many arnateur musicians and music-making families as possible to interview, either by mail or phone. I'm interested in finding musicians of all kinds (classical, folk, rock, jazz) and all levels (adult beginners to the near-professional).

I'm especially eager to frnd musical families. If you're able to help me with this

t{

Pri Monlgomrry.

Ph.D.

Dlrcclor

research, write to mq Stephanie Judy, Box 40, Slocan Park BC, CANADA VOC 2E0.

Many thanks.

GROWING WITHOI.N SCHOOLING #69

25

HOW ADULTS LEARN Pat Fotenga u.rrites'

In the Focus on making discoveries in John Holt, Petcr Bcrgson, and Pat Montgomery talked mainly about children, but they made me think of the trouble I have learning concepts as an adult. For instance, when I took over the bookkeeptng at Holt Associates severad years ago, I hadn't a clue how double-cntry bookkeeplng worked. My wife Day, Peg Durkee (from whom I tnherited the Job), and John Holt all took a lot of time to explain and re-explain the concept of credits and deblts and how they rcflect the GWS #67,

comings and goings of cash within a company. I nodded my head, asked ques-

tions, but still felt uncomfortable rvith any entries I posted to our books. When the

trial balances or checkbooks didn't

balance, I would spend hours doublechecking my entries. I didn't feel comfortable with double-entry bookkeeping those first fewyears, and yet when the accountants came tn at the end of the vear to audit and file our taxes, they told me that with a few minor exceptlons I was doing a fine Job of keeping our books clean and up to date.

I created and examined financial reports every month, and later evcry quarter. Yet I always had the uneasy feeling that slnce I wasn't trained to be an accountant I could never know exactly what I should be doing. Foryears I

musicians I've played with had little knowledge of uhg their music sounded good, but they knew hou to make lt sound good. I've been so intimidated by my inability to grasp certain musical concepts that it has taken me years ofasking the same questions over and over before I

could truthfully say, "l understand." How often I've said that untruthfully to my piano teachers, and other teachers, to avoid seeming dumb, is too embarrassing for me rcmember.

A big musical concept that I failed for rurnyyears to understand (though I pretendcd to) is the so-called Ctrcle of Ftfths.

By arranglng chords on a circle dlagram according to how many black keys they have and then memorizing this circle, you can not only tell how many sharps and flats are in any key, but also figure out how chords logically progress from one to another in any song. In the many music theory courses and lessons I've had, this concept is presented quite early on, if not first. and it is considered ouite selfexplanatory once the diagiam is drawn.

But nothing has confused me more ln music than this 'clear' diagram. Flrst of all, this concept is called the Circle of Fifths, but when I read it left to right, as I do music and everything else, I plainly see a progression offourths - C to F, F to B flat, etc. One of my favorite music teachers spcnt a great dcal of time trying to clear

couldn't Just look at a financtal statcment and make decisions from it. It's said that numbers don't lie, but Ive found that thev also don't necessarily make sense. I couldn'tJust trust the numbersi I had to keep checl<ing them against real things in order to have them make sense to me.

Concepts like depreclatlon and accruals further confusd me, and I handled them simply by taking the accountant's word that these numhrs should be entered in this fashlon to make things work. It was such a relief to me to read ln Paul Hawken's wonderful book Groulrg A Busirress that he himself didn't fully understand the overall conceDt ofbookkeeping undl he'd been running his successful businesses (Ercwhon's Food Stores and the Smith and l-Iawken Tool Catalog) for flfteen years.

It is only recently, aftcr etght years of bookkeeptng, that I feel comfortable enough to trust the numbers my accounting system generates, or to find errors in the reports and determine how to correct themwithout going back to square one.

More important, I am able to explain the accounting process to others. I've ficund that it works best to train people in a reerl nuts and bolts fashion: deposits are entered as debits in tlis area, bills are entered as credits in this arca. As questions arise I'll try to cxplain the ovcrall concepts that underlie what wc're doing, but I find that the person must actually do the task at hand and begin to feel competent at it before I can effectively convey those overall concepts.

I know from my musical

experiences,

too, that the concepts of musical theory do not need to be coniciouslv known in oider to make good music. Some of the best

GROWING WITFIOI.JT SCHOOI,ING #69

this up for me a year ago, explaining how the fifths are created by the downward motion of the progresslons, l.e. reading rlght to left, C to O, G to D, etc. I protested that if this is the case, why confuse the lssue by calling the concept somethlng that is counterintuitive to the diagram. He told me, "lt really can be called the Circle ofFourths, and you can think ofit that way, but then you mtght get more confusd because chords tend to progress fur fifths, not fourths.I rec.ently turned for clarilIcation to a wonderful book we sell here, HowTo PIag the Piarlo Despttc Years of Lessons. The authors lntroduce the Ctrcle of Flfths c$ncept at the end of thelr book, long after theyVe started you malidng music. And they never refer to the concept as the Circle of Fifths: they refer to lt as 'progressions on the circle.'Armed with their

explanation, I'm now finding my way out of my confuslon.

People speak languages wtthout being able to ardculate grammatical concepts, people run busfunesses, write books, make music, drive cars, use computers, and so on without a complete c.onceptual understandlng of how these things operate.

Perhaps some day I will truly understand the blg picture, the c.oncepts, behind these things, but why should I wait unttl the big plcture becomes apparent before I start doing them? Why should anyone?

GEORGE DENNISON ON FREEDOM Flom o transcript oJ George Dennison's conlurrents at an assemblg intnlved inJree schmls in the l96os:

oJ

people

Once you start looking for freedom, you're lost. Can you tmagtne findtng tt?

Hey, here's freedoml Over herel Lookl But all you can see, you know, ts people dotng things. What we mean is we're not golng to coerce anybdy, elther by forcc or cunning. Force is cops and corporal punishment. Cunning is what's taught tn the colleges of education - how to increase their 'attention span' - up to a mardmum, you know, of sixty minutes, and then you destroy tt by ringlng a bell - how to 'rnotivate" them, and so on. But tl"e absence of coercion lsn't visible either, Whafs

visible, when things are going really well, ts simply activities, acdvides of all kinds, especially, we hope, the kinds that harmonize enerâ&#x201A;ŹS/, innate powers, and swcet reason. The real touchstone of freedom, you know, is notJoyous people romping in the grass, but quality, first-rate work. It may be slow to emerge, especially in the sense that I mean here. But still, it is the touchstone. Verve, st5rle, grace, lots of content, lots of meaning. You don't reach thls by regimenting people, or by having a liJestgle of freedom - which tends to be all style and no life - but by doing things, especially the things you can do with a whole heart. ...You don't discover who you are... I don't know where this vocabulary came from. You see It all the time in proposals for free schools, "creating a clrrtate of freedom so you can discover who you ane." ... When someone says, "I want to know who I am," what he really means is that he hasn't found the activities, the friends, and the loyalties that he can give himself to. These are not krsrde the self. They're all outside. And you discover them by looking outside. And when you flnd them, you don't Gel that you've discovered yourself, you feel that you've discovered friends, activitics, and loyaltles. ...1 know of someone in Vermont who went around to hired businessmen, tradesman, and professionals, and asked them if theyd take in apprentlces, or at least have kids around and show them how things were done. He said the tnitial response of these people was sluggish, and then enthusiasdc. All these adults were terribly bored, and they welcomed the idea of havlng kids around. This seems like a promising direction. You need the excitement and blgness of real life to bring out real things in adolcscents...

I

26

I

OBS

ERVING VS. EVALUATING

Jan Hunt (who recenttg moved Jrom BC to Oregorl senl us a copg of a letter tha,t sl'e wrcte as aJollow-up to a rddio talk shour ruith tte BC Mlnister o;f Edrcation

Jan hod called itt to tle slatu and had gluen a brteJ answer to the murister's question "How can lomesclwoling parents determble tlleir chUren's academic prqgress, lf not tlwough JomuL evaluation?" She tlvn wrote the btter, Jromwhlchwe ercerptbelou.t, to gtve a more tlarough answer to the question

The assumption that homeschooling parents somehow lack awarcncss of their children's progress, and therefore require formal evaluatlon of that progress, is undoubtedly related to the fact that homeschoolers functlon beyond the arena ofthe schools, and our philosophles and methods are not well known or understood. lt is with the hope of clarifying our theories and procedures that I have

written this letter.

How do homeschooling parents know

their children are leamingp The answer to this questlon is, to put it most stmply, direct observation, My husband and I have only one child (Jason, who Just tumed 8).

If a teacher had only one chlld in her classroom, and was unable to describe the

reading skills of that child, everyone would be dismayed - how could a teacher have such close daily contact with one child and mlss somethlng so obvlous? Yet many people unfamiliar with homeschooling ima$ne that parents with just this sort of close datly contact with their child requtre outslde evaluation to determine their child's progress, Thls puzzles homeschoollng parents, who cannot

imagine misslng anything so interesting as the nature and dlrection of their child's learning. ...Any parent of a preschool child could tell you how many numbers hcr child can count to, and how many colors he knows - not through testtng, but stmply through many hours of listenlng to his ques$ons and statements and obseMng his beharrior. In homeschooling, this type of observation slmply continues on into hlgher ages and more complex lcarning.

There are many tlmes ln thc course of a day when a reasonably curious child will want to know the meaning of certain

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prtntcd words - in books and newspapers, on board game lnstruction cards, on package labels, in the TV daily weather message, on mail that has Just arrived, and so on. lf this child's self-esteem is intact. he will not hcsitate to ask his parents the meaning of these words.

Through the reduction of questions of thls type, the actual readlng aloud of certain words, and the evidence of appropriate behavior associated with printed words ("Look, Daddy, this package is for youl') it seems safe to assume that reading is progressing in the direction of literary.

This may seem to outslders to be overly gencral, but homeschooling parents learn through experience that more specific evaluation is intrusive, unnecessary, and self-defcating. ....lntcrestingly, a child's progress ls not always smooth; there may be sudden shifts from one stage to the next. Thus, formal evaluation given just prior to such a shift may give unlair and misleadlng information. At a time when I knew (through a reduction in the number of

RESOURCES

requests for me to read certaln signs, labels, and so on) that Jason's reading was improvlng, I told him one evening that I was unable to read a book to hlmbecause of a headache. He said,'Well, youJust rest and I'll read a book to you." He proceeded to read an endre book flawlessly, at a level of more difllcultv than I would have guessed he had 6een able to read.

Thus lt someumes haPPens in the

natural course of living with a child that we recelve more direct and speciffc informadon about his progress. But it should be stressed that thls ts part ofthe natural process of "aiding and abettlng" a child's learnlng, and that requblttg such direct proof ls almost always self-defeaung. Had I required hlm to read that book, he might well have refused, declaring that he couldn't read yet - because he would have felt the anxiet5r which anyone feels under scrutiny. But because he chose to read voluntarily, and his accuracy was not being questloned, anxiety was not a factor,..

& RECOMMENDATIONS

HELPFUL BOOKS Madalene Murphu wrote in the sprtng issue o;f the PENNSYLVANIA HOME' SCHOOI-ERS netusletter:

Although the learning in our house

has never been limited by the scope or timctables of textbooks, we have found several textbooks or books to be helpful starting-off points or guides in areas where we would easily bog down.

Chrlstian (now 12) a couple ofyears ago decided he wanted to leam latin, and we ultimately chose ?he Cambridge Lattt Series and made it through Books I, lA, and B before he dcclded he wanted to learn somcthing more modem, something people actually spoke. We really enJoyed this series. Each lesson begins with a set of line drawings with Latin captions underneath but no translatlons given, since it was easy to figure out what the Latin was saying. Christian began each lesson feeling conlident about his ability. The stories are entertaining but not cutesy and try to give a bit of the flavor of what life was like in the country and time that each book focuses on... Now Christian cannot rattle off conjugations t}re way I had to

when I startcd out in Latin in hlgh school, but that was not our goal. He did come away from these books with an ability to read some latln. an awareness of the Latin roots of English, and a much stronger gr:rsp o[grammar (subjects, verbs, and direct objects wcre no longerjust labels, but necessary kcys to unlock meaning) as well as a feeling o[what life was like in the Roman Emplre , l,ast year his older slster Emily decided to use the series and moved quickly through - another example of the younger influenclng the older.

These books are available through the Gesslcr catalog (Gesslcr Publishing Co, 55

W l3 St, I{Y NY IOOI l), a catalog filled

with all sorts of resources for a number of forelgn languages. I highly recommend taking a look at it. ... Last year I discovered a spelltng

book that Christtan didn't mind working in and that ltnally helped him do some basic organlzing of the mass of sounds and syllables we call the Engltsh language. It's called Spellbound, by Elste Rak (available from Educators Publishing Service, 75 Moulton St, Cambridge MA 02238-9lOI).

It presents the basic rules clearly without mucklng them up with dlrections about how to use a dicfionar5l, games to play or whatever, and Chrisdan's spelling, which had been lmproving slightly over the

years, took a great leap forward by the time he flntshed this book. Instead of spelling tests with lists of words, which never seemed to help - he would spell the word correctly one day only to have forgotten tt by the end of the weck - the tealher's manual to this book ls a series of sentence dictatlons wlth words that he did not study tndividually but that followed the rules presented in the unitJust tinished. Chrtstian ls now feeling much more conlident about hls own abilises in

this area.

One last book I must mentlon ls a wonderful one I discovered at a used bookstore although it ls relatlvely new (1986): The Maglc Anatomy Book by Carol

Doner (!V.H. Freeman and Co.)' Ifs the story of Max and Molly (hvtns), who are zapped. by lightning and become small enough to travel through blood vessels. In their adventures while trytng to get out of the human body they have fallen lnto, they investigate most of the organs and of tirat body. I boughtlhe book for "y"L* Clare (9). but Christian soon was deeply involved tn tt and Emily (15) erren picked tt up and ended up readlng the whole thtng, saytng, "Well, you know, I had to see tf they wer got out.'The tllustrations are a

GROWING WITHOLN SCHOOLING #69

27 wonderfully colorful mlx of reallt5r and fantasy and very complex lnformation is

cards, and another for making custom calendars and stationerv. The cost: $19 + $5

presented clearly because, I guess you c'ould say, you were looking at lt from the insidel Thts ls a book that can stand being read a number of times, and lt has bcen in

shipping.

our

family.

SMALL GLOBE Stepha.nle JudA {BC) u.rrtfes.'

I had long wanted a globe for our house, but was unable to figure out how to allord a good one, and where to put it tf I found one (we live ln a tiny house and wery surface area ls pretty well staked out). I talked to the head librarlan at a local library, and he was willlng to give me a uery old one of thelrs when they ordered new ones. I was a little unsure about this, because the old ones were no longer very accurate ln some respects. Not

long after, at a universl$r bookstore, I found a small, up-to-date, real globe - not a toy, but a real globe for the current year.

It's about the size of a softball, maybe five inches ln dlameter, and it costs about $lO. The print is extremely small, of course, but it comes wlth a round plastlc stand

that has a small built-in magniffing $ass. It's cer-tainly not as detailcd as a big globe, but lt answers basic questions, doesn't take up much space, and ls exactly the rtght slze for working out models of eclipses and such. It's called the Replogle Escort, and ls available from Replogle Globes, Inc, l9Ol N Narragansett Ave, Chicago IL 60639.

COMPUTER NETWORKS: UPDATE [PF:l Some updates on the information about computer networks that we gave you tn GWS #64: Kit Finn (VA) is now managing a forum for homeschoolers on Compuserve. log on to Compuscrve, enter the Educadon Forum, and go to section 16, Home and Altemative Schools. Read a message, leave a message, do anythlng, but use this opportunityl lf there lsn't enough trallic on thls natlonal computer network

(which most people can access for the cost of a local call plus Compuserve's charges) this sectlon will be taken off the service.

Jim Mayor, system operator for HUG (Home Educators' Computer Users' Group, 30l-937-2303, 24OOb 8/N/ l) tells us that tralllc has been ltght on his Bulletin Board Service, About thtrtSr-flve people have loggled on since January. Jim has compiled some very useful llsts of lnformaflon, not Just about homeschooling throughout the U.S. but also about home computer use. Hls lists cover all types of computers and software, and arc open to additions and suggestions lrom thc public.

Jim also provldes a bit of commentary with each llstlng.

Another note: a great deal on some very useful software for IBMs and compatible computers ls being offered in the Junc 1989 Damark International Catalog (l800-950-9090). It is a set of flvc printing programs: Art Ltbrary I & 2, two discs with over l5O graphlcs to use in your own publicaUons, and three layout programs: one dedicated to designing slgns and banners, another for making greeting

avallable free.

INTERESTING CATALOGS [SS:l While updating our kaming Materials List (available for $2.5O) we received all sorts of catalogs and materl-

als. TWo look parttcularly interestlng:

THE AMERICAN AUDIO PROSE LIBRARY (PO Box 842, Columbia MO 65205) sells cassettes of contemporary

authors reading and discussing their work. The collecdon is quite extensive, and I can lmagine families enjoying these tapes after, or while, reading these authors'works. Those of you who don't have easy access to places where authors give readings may be especially interested

in this

The list ts amaztngly extensive. SubJect bibliographtes (lists of all available documents on a particular subJect) are

catalog.

THE ANATOMICAL PRODUCTS CATALOG (available from Anatomical Chart Co, 822f N. Kimball, Skolde IL

60076) has a huge collection of anatomlcal sh4f - all sorts of very interesting and lnformaHve charts, posters, and models,

and a few wackier items like an anatomical body suit (a lcotard with bones, vltal organs, etc. silkscreened on; the ltst of those who have ordcred the suit includes, in addition to doctors and anatomy instructors, -The Brave,' 'The Socially Secure," and "The Untnhibited") and anatomical Jewelry (pins in the shape of a real heart, fior example).

Also, from the U.S. COVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE SUPEzuNTENDET{T OF DOCUMENTS [Washington f)C 2O4O2) you can order an incredible assortment of government publications on almost any subject you can think of, A few random examples: a chart of agricultural statistics for 1985, a booklet in which librarians respond to the'Nadon at Risk" report, a gulde to books on British countqr houses.

HISTORY JOURNAL FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS [SS:l We received several copies of a new publlcaEon called Tle Concord ReuLew. It's a quarterly review of essays by high school-aged history students, and the quality ls impressive. It looks like any

other scholarly publicadon, and tt appears to take lts writers serlously.

Writing for The ConcordReuiew might be a nlce opportuntty for older homeschoolers (the editor specillcally says that he welcomes contributions from homeschoolers) to experlment with this kind of formal writlng with the knowledge that the flnal draft rvill be read by lnterested people. I suspect that this publication would also be interesting to those who Just want to read it, without planntng to write for lt. because the contributors write about controversial topics, and hold clear opinlons, unllke the wrlters of many history textbooks. THE CONCORD REVIEW will Fitzhugh, Edltor, PO Box 661, Concord MAOI742.

BOOK ON SPELLING RULES? F}om Maggt EUIott NVV):

Has anyone seen a book on spelling

rules ln the last few years, or does anyone remember the name of an old one that I rnight get through an out-of-prlnt book dealer? I remember quite clearly, and so do others my age, that we were taught spelling rules ln elementary school: rules for doubling consonants, for sorting out ie/et, the functlon of sllent e, etc.

[S.S: Madalene Murphy offers one suggesdon on p. 26.1

Fun & Exciting Way to Learn Math

Cfeatg

a mathematics-rich learning environment

for your children

. Numbers . Measurement . Fractions r-r_-_r ^-.^ . Counting. . Problem Solving . Shapes & Colors EXplOfe.Arithmeiie oCalculus .togic . Algebra . Geometry . and more...

T eqrn mathematics while building self-confidence svsrr^

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #69

through success and completion

Fea,ures:'

g$i'#t1lffi, : $jmiT,,".

For more information about our complete systems or supplemental programs contact:

EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT SERVICES P.O. Box 4568, Crestline, Ca., 92325 (714) 3386068 FAX (714) 338-6108

2a

ADDITIONS TO DIRECTORY OF FAMILIES Hcrc are all the additions and changcs to the Directory that have come in sircc we publiished the complete 1989 Directory in GWS #66.

Our Dlrecto.ry ts not a list of all subscribcrs, but only of those uho aslc to be listed. so that other GWS readers, or other intcrestcd people, may get In touch wlth them. If you would likc to be included, please send the entry form or a 3x5 card (one family per card), Please take care to include all the information - last name. full address, and so on, Please rcmembcr t-hat wc cm't contrcl how the Dir€ctory ls used: lf you receive unwantcd mail as a result of bclnglisted, just toss it out.

We print bbtlryears of children, not ages. lf we made a mlstake when converting your chlld's age to birthyear, pleasc let us know.

Please tell us ifyou would rather have your phonc number and town listed instead ofyour malllng address, Wc don't havc space to list both.

If a Directory listing is followed by a (H), the family ls willing to host CWS travelers wlro make advance arrangemcnts In writing.

If a namc In a GWS story is followed by a state abbreviation tn parentheses, tlrat pcnon ls in the Directory (check here and In #66). We are happy to forward mail to those whose addrcsses are not In the Directory. Mark the outsi<ie of the envelope with name/description, issue, and page nunber. lf you don't mark the outside, we open thc envelope, see that you want something forwarded, and then have to readdress the letter and usc our own postage to mail lt.

When you send us an address change for a subscdptton. please remind us ifyou are In the Directory, so wc can change it here, too.

AL === Perry & Nancy GOODSON (Wendy/ Derek/83, Dylan/86, Daren/8g) Rt t Box 440, Rockford 35136 (change) --- Tim & F'rannie REED (Holly/81, Beth/83, Mcgan/84) 405 Grccrr Av. Cordova 35550 (Hl

WIIALI-EY (Annic /8 I, Christoph erl831 247 4 Oro Ilangor Hwy, Oroville 95966 === HOME LEAITNING EXCIIANGD, c/o Celia Durman,295 Karel Av. Ited Bluff96O8O === Pamela MINK & John BREHM lJoey/a4, Jordan/88) 23571 Llildcrbrand Dr. Middletown 95461 === Ron & Sue MORRISII (Jessica/83, Daniel/86) 6561 Misty Creek Dr, Citrus Hcights 95621 === Pam OLSON (Mam/8O, Alexis/82) 279O DunbarCt,

Arcata 95521 (H) === 11"u & Addison POLITCK lMorgm/7l,IIannah/8I) 234I Flarper St, Santa Cruz 95O62 (chmgc) (H) ===.1.6 5..julia WHITT lJercmy/77, Jemcr/88) lO3 CresccntAve #5, San Francisco 94110 === Christine WTLIARD {Sara/82) 14857 Sutton Dr, SanJose 95124 (change) === Julie WILL1AMS (Mandy/77, Breanne/{lo, Ricky/85, f immy/88) PO Box 3483.

Sonora 95370 === Dalc & Carol WU (Cristen/82, Tracy/84, Bcnjamin/S7) 285 Mountaire Pkwy, Clayton 94517 (change) === Linda ZIEDRICH & Robcrt WA'IDRI'IOUSD (Benjamin/84, Rebecca/ 88) 9145 Glen Arbor Rd, Ben lnmond 95OO5 (H)

CA SOUTH (zlps to 94OOO) === Robert & Cheryl BAKDR (Troy / 7 4, Elyse / 7 6, Corinne/8o) l9OlO Appaloosa Rd, Apple Vallcy 92308 === John & Victoria CIAUSE (Aaron/84, Anna/a8) 414 N Fulton St, Ojai 93033 === Raoul & Maureen GRADVOHL (Gisclle/8O, Marcel/83.

Av, Sylmar 91342 === Richard GIiIIDNBLA1T & Susan SELVIG (Rafe/ 80, Charlotte/83) 1935 3l St, San Diego 921O2 === Gabricllc & John I IAI?WOOD (Rupert/77, Scarlctte/84) 306 Canyon Acres, Lagr:na Beach 92651 tH) === [i1n & Carric Lynn HUEBNER

Aricl/85) I 2634 Amboy

(Antlony/S4, Ambcrlyn/87) 51201 Pine Cyn Rd Lot lO6, King City 93930 === Alan &Ann

HUSTER (Angcla/8s, Abigil/88) 249 Rio Vista Dr. King City 93930 (rl) === Jeln & G KIRKLAND (Tracy/85, Alcxa/87) 76-287 Sweet Pea, Palm Desert 9226O (change) === Bob & Mary Ann PAUL (David/79, Kristina/82) 4516 CatherAv. San Diego 52122 (lll === Jills & Larry SAMUELS (lvilliam/85, Michael,/88) 26965 Paseo Robles, Carmel 93923 === Candy & Cecil

8O,

SI{YDDR Uulian/82, Johnny/86) 2O556 Entradero Av,'forrance 90503 === Susan & Rick TRLjDDAU (Robert/83, Monique/86) 6O94 Via Naranjo, La Veme 9175O (LI)

AIl === Paul & Pat LUGIN (Matt/8l, Kate/ 84) PO Box 82774,F^irbanks 997O8

co === FoollllLLS FAMILY SCHOOLS, 5591 Mt Audubon Pl, l,ongmont 8O5Ol === Mark & Dorecn GLORIOSO (Christie/79, Thomas/83. Julie/85) Box 3291 Pinewood Spgs, Lyons 80540 =-= Kathlcen & Jose RAMOS (Gabriel/76, Andrcs/82) 2856O Pine Dr, Evergrecn 80439

AZ === ARIZONA HOME SCIIOOL NItwS, l89O Don Carlos #1, Tempe 85281 === Austen &

Julie BAIER (Jesse/79, Chelsea/87) 29 I 4 N SOth Ln, Phoenlx 85033 === Anne & Jim DORITD (Matthew/78. Andrew/81) 939 Buck lltll Itd, Prescott 86309 (H) --- Derald & Jody THOMPSON (Mtke / 7 4, John/76, Jcnny / 781 7521 E Lurlene Dr, TUcson === Qailskqp WILLIAMS (Spencer/8o) Box 4082, New lliver

45027

CA" NORTII (zlp3 94OOO & up) === SOUTH SfREET CDNIIiE, Box 261 , Bouldcr Creek 950O6 (H) === Gilbert & Mary COONLEY (Jim/70,Kat.}:y/731 1523 32nd Ave, San Francisco 94122 === Thomas & Tracy CROCKDR (Michelle/78. Samantha/84, Matthew/87) 956 Hacienda Cir, Rohncrt Pak 94928 (H) === Glenn & Wendy EARLEY (Andrew/82, Isaac/88) 4231 Norwalk Dr, Apt ED lO2 Oakwood Apts, San Jose 95129 === Carol & Rick EDSON (Shauna/83, Rosalic/86) 5195 Diane Ct, Llvermore 94550 G0 -= Al & Mary Jant: FACCIIINO (Janclle/81, Damon/85) 639O Via Amigos, SanJose 95120 === Tom & Susan FALBO (Gabriel / 77, Morgan / 8l ) 229O Fulton ltd, Santa Rosa 95403 === Wendie & IJill IIAINITS-

CT === Marshall & Rob KINNAIITD fEmily/ a4, lance / a7l 69 Peaceablc I lill Itd, Ridgefield OGa77 === Lisa & Nonnan I.eDOLIX (Jillian/82, Mcgan/86, tlcthany/88) 37 PoMn Av, Moosup 06354 === Janice & Itichard LOOMIS (Richud/ 7a, Ilrian/81)4lludson St, Enfteld 06082 GI) === f2sya PItllCl IARD (Danlel/77\ Station A, PO Box 2106, Mcridcn 06450 === Millard & Barbara SCOTT (Cana/82, Sarah/84) I 33 l{amden Av #lO-C, Waterbuy 06704 === I.isa SPIiCTOR (Dmica/84) 2157 Main St, Glastonbury 0603:l (change) {H) DE === Greg & Sally ANDERSON (Korin/ 79, Tonrika/8 I , Malia/85) 2 14 l{azcl Ridge Dr, Wilmington l98lO === Ken & Mary EICIIHOLZ (l lolly & l-Icalhcr / 7 7, J cnnie / 7 91 228 Waverly Rd, Wilmington 19803 === Pcg1ry & Bill SANTOW

(Nicholas/79) lO9 l.indcn Trce Ln, Newark

l97l

I

pQ === Qilgsp & Ilobcrt WDI.CH (Rim/76,

Corrie/78, Mara/8l, Traven/83) St NE. Washlngton 2OOO2 {Fl)

fL

=== Cynthia

(Cassidy/84,

I 624 Rosedale

& Buck BUCKLEY

Shmon) l5l2

HavanaAve, Ft

Ptercc 3495O (H) === Ben & Rebekah ISRAEL (Rachel/8o, Arie/881 3816 Cattail Marsh Ct, Apt 254, Palm Harbor 34684 (change) === Darr & Wendy MILLER (JusUn/8l, Stevie/84) I 12 Violet Dr. New Port Richcy 34652 ==-- Stc\tc & Sandy SMITH (Parker/8s) THE READING STAR PUBLISHING, PO Box 1193, Venice 34284-1193 === Steve & PamelaWHEELER (Scott/8il) 3684 Fred George Ct. Tallahassee 32303 Etl

GA === Bob & Chris BISHOP (Currie/79,

Bethany/8l) HALL COUNTY HOME EDUCATORS. 4439 Lake Forest Dr, Oakwood 30566 === Sadie BRITT (Katlc/8l) I 6l Kimberly Way, Marietta 30064 === Jill & Je ff HERBST (Johnny/ 7 a, J eflrey / a4, Jacqueline /88) 8 I 3 Wyntuck Dr, Kennesaw 3O144 (change) (H) === Jane & Stephen JONES ffodd/83) 5154 Joel Ct, Atlanta 30360 === Ttmothy & Cecelia RIFE (S€an/81) l9O Hltchlng Post Ct, Milietta 30067 === Greg

&Vicki SCOTT{Michael / 77,David/8o) HOME EDUCATORS OF N. ATLANIA, 12lO Irwe Ln, Roswell 30076 === Richard & Patdcia WARD (Heather/84, Caitlin/86) I73I Beauregard Dr, Lilburn 3O247

HI === Q66pgg & Malia BONE-YOKOYAMA (Bnrckncr/78, Jcns & Will/8O. Kalapana/84) l93l loth Av. Honolulu 96816 === Art & Lcslle HICKS (Noah/81, Joseph/82, Jeremy/84, Carly/ 86) 3674 Woodlawn Terr Pl, Honolulu 96a22 === Linda INOLJYE & Bradley tAU (Ka9/84, Emily/ a7l 94-416 Klilani St, Mililani 96789 (changc) GI) === John & c KIRKIAND ffracy/8S, Nexa/a7l PO Box 2O82, Kamuela 96743 (change)

ID === Cliff& Diana CASE @ngelal8l, Alex/ 83, Douglas/87) SUNRIDER WHOLE FOODS, 3OO Old Saybrook, Bolse 837O6

IL === Steve & Marti ADEI-SMAN (Aarcn/ 74,Ethan/77 , Paul/8Q) 59O4 W Race Av, Chlcago 60644 (H) === Greg & Linda BRUNET (Kimberly/8s, Alissa/87) l35l Lilac Ln, Carol Stream 60188 (charge) === John & Nancy CHIPCHASE (Bethany/83, Dana/85. Joshua/87) 4034 S Joliet Av #5, Lyons 60534 (I4 === Gall CLYDEN & Ctndf WIrcOX-CLYDEN (St acie / 72, Sara/78,

Joshua/8o, Whitney/84, Naomi/8fl PO Box 73.

Cabery 6O919 (change) === Mike & Ann DiCICCO (Philip/82, Andrea/86) 17O68 Orchard Ridgc, Hazel Crest 6O429 0t === Les & Mary PICKRELL (Andrca/8o, Valerie/8{t, Mtchacl/86) 65 Glenda Ln, Plano 60545 === Peter & Therese POL (Jessica/8l, Stetson/&3) 170 B Northwest Hwy, Des Plaines 6OO16 (change) === Ed & Lindsey SCHOTI (Eli/84, lsaac / aal 22o'3 Montague Rd, Rckford 6llO2 (H)

IN === Carcl)me ANDERSOHN & Kevin HORTON (Amclia/a3, BenJamin/88) 51412 Lllac Rd. South Bcnd 46628 === Paul & Claudy DWYER (Paul/79, Mike/82, Maggie/8s) RR 2 Box 638. Montlcello 4796O {change) ==- Duke & Sandra MERRION (Rob€rt/74, Rcbecca / 77, Ttftany/e2l223 S Rd 3OO E, Danville 46122 === John & Regfna REITER (David,/82, Adam/86) 1618 Southeast Blvd, Evansville 47714 gq === Kermit & Jamlc TI'IOMPSON (Sean/84, Ryan/85, Kyle/88) 3435 N Russell Rd, Bloomington 474O8

IA === Marwin & Darlene BERGMAN (Jessica/82. Ruth/8s, Lcah/a7) I 71 4 Wilson, Iowa City 52245 l}I,

GROWING WITHOI.JT SCHOOLING #69

29 KS === Davld &

kslie

LeROY

K^tle/B2,

Bonnie/88) Rt 4 Box 58, Grrat Bend 67530 (H) === Balbara MICHENER & Thomas PETERS (Adhur/84, Galen/77.Josephine/87) RR I Box 496, Perry 66073 (II)

Wler/a2, Ross/86) 7l Park St, Thmers Falls 01376 === Thomas & Joanne MILIER BUNTICH (Harnah/82) 88 Boardley Rd. Sandwich 02563 === NA]IONAL CENTDR FOR FAIR & oPEN TBS11NG (FaifTest), 342 Broadway. Cambridge

KY === I:slle McCLOGIN & Gcorge KENNEDY (Candra/a4,Calen/A7l RIt I Box 146, Cunningham 42035 (H) === Jemifcr & Greg

O2139 (change) === Js6gs & Laura RODLEY (Ltly / 82, Emilene /85, Joseph /87) Central Shatt Rd. RR 2, Florida 01247 === John & Pam ROSSETTI (Matt/8o, Dm & Jon/82, Dave/831 WORCDSTER AREA HOMESCHOOLING ORGANIZATION , 246 May St, Worcester Ol602 === Dave & Nmcy TOWLER (Mac Star/8l,

NUNN (Alexmder / 81, Lee / 84, Rachel/a7) RIt 2 Box 9l l, Hawesvllle 42348

L/\ === clayton & Angela DECOTEAU (Dean/81, klal85) 45158 Fontenot Rd. StAmant 70774 === Phyllis & Tommy TASTET (Matthew/ 78, Rachel,/82) 829 Mystlc Av, Gretna 70056 ME === Jlm BERGIN & Judy GARVEY (Matthew /77,Daniel/8o) RR I Box I O5, Blue I'lill 04614 === Deborah CRUMP (Ashley/83) 76 Western Av, Apt 2, South Pris O4281 === Leah & Jim DICKSON (Ellcn/84, Ashton/86) PO Box 127, Detroit 04929 (I0 === Danicl & Marion FOSS (Amy/8O. Eben/81) RFD I Box 67. Dccr Isle 09627 === MAITIE TIOMESCHOOL ASSoC, rrC Box 3283. Aubum O42lO === Janie MATIIISCIANO &Joe EDWAITDS (Jamie/85, Maddy/871 Rt I Box 483. Readlield O4355 === buAnna &

Royce PERKINS (Reuben/SO, Jonathm/82) Pierce Pond, Rt I Box 22-C. Penobscor044T6 perurifer/8l. Kelly/ === B6qlqr & Paul WLLIAMS 84, I-aura/88) RFD #3 Box 44O, Rttsfield O4967

fE) === Glerur & Ramona ANGUS (Sarah/ 79) 992 WateMew Dr, Crownsville 21032 === Betsy & Patrick CAI{DY (Erlc/76, Nlcia/82) 12l S Ralph St, Westminster 21127 (nl === Steve & Donatclla CLARK (Neil,/83, Kcith/86) I I Carvcr Rd, Cabin John 20818 === Gary & Suzanne CTCHANSKI (Anne/85, Bcnjamin /86, Kclley/ 88) f 6409 Rivcr Airport Rd, Brand)ru'ine 2O61 3 === Ellen & Daniel GLUCK

(Amrit/82,Talia/a4,

Luukia/86) 6O14 Cross Country Blvd, Baltimore 21215 === Terri & Ray HUIil (Sam/74,Ray/821 6516 Panorama Dr. Sykesville 217A4 === Theresa & Tony LUI (Jeesln/77, Michael/8o, Vlctoria/85) lO8O9 Beech Creek Dr, Columbia 21044 === Kerry & Dorothy McDONALD (Michael/76, Lisa/77,Byan/7g) I I I Murdock Rd, Rodgers Forge2l2l2 (H) === Jlm & PegS/ MEYER (Petcr/76, Rachel/77, Robyna/79,Mary / 81. Jim/83, Allce/861 PO Box 68, Lothian 2O7l I === Ame & John SPRING (Daniel/82, Donrinic/ 84, Patrick/86) 84OO Ft Foote Rd, Ft Washington

20744

lIIl

MA === John & Llnda ALICO (l.aney/79, Christine /81, Molly/83, Travis/87) 22 Old Cove Rd, Dr:xbury 02332 GI) === Jesse & Patty ALLEN (Jesse,/82, Loni/85) 734 Country Way, North Scltuate 02066 === James & Dorinda

BILLINGS (Bcnjamtn/74, Daniel/75, Theressa,/ 77, Rcbeckah / 78, Tlmna/79, Keilah /eO, Palestina/84) 2O4 Bedford St, Abtngton 02351 === Robln COLE & Brian GLOD (Bryanna/83) RD I Box I l9C, Apple Valley Rd, Ashfield Ol33O === Elfen EPSTEIN (lzzyl&2l22 Webb St, L€xington O2173 (change) === \fv3y11g & Dorothy GALLER (Cabria / 69, Joshua / 73, Mehcr/86) RFD *2 Box 4O7, Shelburne Falls Ol37O (change) === Mary & Jcff GRAY (Christopher/78, Joshua/8O) l5 Reynolds Ave. Natick Ol760 === HOMDSCHOOLERS OF MASS. DDUCATION CI,UB.

617-469-3647 (Boston) === Ca'l & Liane JABLONSKI (Erln,/83, Ixph/85, Carlton/87) 3l Higfilmd St. Concord O1742 === Steve & Jcan JOHNSON (Alden/8o, Ryan/82, Evan/85, Enrber/ 87) 72 Prospect St, Greenlleld Ol3Ol === Tom & Paige LUSSIER (Bethany/81 , Gabricl/83, Calcb/ 86) Popple Bottom Rd, Rte 149, W Barnstablc 02668 (change) === Doug & Dawn McNAMAItA

Nathan/82) Box I 7O, Mohawk Trail, Shelburnc

Keyport 07735 === Edward & Barbara FLYNN (Edward/S6) rO Irving Pl, Summlt O79Ol (I4 === Willtam & Barbara HAASE [Erika/a4,DanleUa7l a38 Maple Av, Teaneck O7666 === Rob & Lod RECHTEN. JERSEY SHORE CHRJSTIAN HOMESCHOOLERS ASSOC, 65 Middlesex Rd' Matawan O7747-3O3O === Malcolm & Diane ROBERTSON (Bryce/79, Mo4gan/83) ll Bates Rd, Jackson 08527 (change) === UNSCHOOLING FAMILIES SUPPORT GRP OF CTRL NJ. 4O Llnden Ln. Plainsboro Oa5A6 === Patrick & Betty Ann YATES (Michael/83' Elizbeth/8s, Timothy/87) 4-D Tcrracc Dr,

o1370

Chatharn'I\vp 07928 (I4

MJ === John & Mary Arm ANDERSON (Mark/78, Dric/8 l, Esther/84) l9l8 Rooscvelt Blvd, Ypsilanti 48197 (H) === Clr'{SSIC CURRTCULUM. Dept G, PO Box 656. Milford 4aO42 === Gary & Tharma ELFNER (Gaqt/7B' 'I\anna/A2l 7221 EHiqhland, Howell 48843 ===

NM === Bill & B€tsy BARTELS Ucssc/85, Ltam/8712463 Camlno CaPitan, Santa Fc 875O5 (charqge) (I{ === 1s".1 & Can COHEN (JelFey/

HOME SCHOOL SUPPLY HOUSE, 3254 E Mitchell, Petoskey 49770 === Carl & Nancy

JOIINSON (Jessica/76, Jeremiah/76) 59Ol County Llne, Buckley 49620 (H) === Linda LYNCH (Nicholas/8l, Angela/8s) 2195 E Grand River #50, Howell 48843 (H) === Lea & Dave MARKS NATIONAL WRITING INSTITUTE, 7946 Wright Rd, Niles 49120 ==- Jack & Mary SFLARRY (Jessica/75, Gabriel/8o) 453IO Byrne Dr, Northville 48167 (I{) === Carol & Stan TIEMAN [Matthcw/83, Alyssa/86) 4346 N 37th St, Galesburg 49053 (II) MN === David & Elizabeth ANDERSON

Ir;ah / 82, Hannah/85, Jesse/87) I 521 GettysburgAv No, Golden Valley 55427 === Chuck & Eloise DOBBS (Marcia/82. Nikolai/83) I lO8 Jesslc St, St Paul 551O1 === Daniel & Kathryn DUERS'I' (Bethany / 79,Siarah / 81, Anna/84, Rebecca /87) RIVERSIDE SCHOOLHOUSE

RESOURCE CENTDR, HCR Box l8lA, Bemidjl 56601 === Chris & Vivienne EDWARDS (Lconie/ 741 a72 Co Rd 92, Maple Plain 55359 === Kristina FELBECK & David HEITKE (Daniel/84' Michael/87) lO82 l2tl Av SE, Mirrreapolis

55414 === Vince & Pat ZIMBA (Christy/75, Emmy/791 18626 Cedar Dr, Cedar 55of l (II)

MO === Michael & Sue DUGGAN (Jesslca/ a7l 944 Fontaine Pl. St Louis 63139 69 Allen & Beth GARNER (Rachel/81, Kyle/a{l 7214 Dlmerine Ave, Jeffcreon City 6510l === David & Cmdy KDMI'F (Justin/79, Lindsay/81, Phillp/ A7l 1OO2 Laurel Dr, Jefferson City 65lOg (change) === Rose oLIVIA (Katherine/81, Eli/86) Dast Wind Community, RR #6, Tecumseh 6576O (H) === Paul & Sara SPINDDN (David/8o, Alison/ 821 l2}g Elmcrine Avc, Jefferson City 6510l === Donnie & Shawna TERRY (Brian/77,Whitneyl 80, Zacharyl86) 62 SLaRand, Holts Summit 65O43 (changc) === Alan & StePhanie WARD. 25OO D McCarty, Jeffcrson City 65l0f === Jim & Marsha WILSON (Christopher/78, Corey/81) 4O2 Meicr Dr, Jeffcrson City 65109 (change)

MT === Roseanne BLOOM (Erika/69, Joshua/78, Maria/8O) PO Box 3369, Kalispcll 59903 (change) === David & Beth BROWN (Jeremy/78, Dleanor/8o, Esther/84, Emily/88) I'O Box 1841, Kalispell 59903 (chmgc) (H) NH === Carla GIIEENWOOD (Tabitha/84) I>o Box 1665. l,aconia 03247 === Laurence & Nclda SI]VIGNY (Nicole/73, Dmicl/76, Erncst/ TT,Marshall/79, Rochelle/82) PO Box 649, Intervalc O3845 NJ === Stevc & Gloria CLARK (Gloria/8o, Silas/82, lsrael/83, Gabrielle/86) I I3 Mdn St'

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #69

75,'famara/77 4709 Wcstridge NE, Albuquerque

87lll :=

IIATIONAL HOMESCHOOL ASSOCIATION, PO Box 167, Rodeo 88O56 =-= Dan & Harrlet SHULTIS (Micaela/73' Slr l-ancelotl 74, Robert/75l PELONCILLC) PRIMARY. PO Box 91, Rodeo 88056 (II)

Nl'=-

Jody BROWN & Jim SUTUFF /7a, Cascy/80, Jennie/85' Colin/86) 7589 Iris Ln, Livcrpool l3OS8 (change) === Richard & Tera CANANT (Br:n/a2, Cartyl8s) 9 Jackson St' sloatsbr-rg 10974 (change) := Richard & sally DAY (Sara/83, Suannc/8s, Tlmothy/87) RD I Box 32OA, 7303 Collins St, Whttn€y Pt 13462 (El === Susan FETIERSTEIN & George ECHEVARRIA (Mlchael/82, Emlly/86) 33 Romcr (Cory

Av. Pleasantvtllc lO57O:= Sklp & Barbara GUERIN (Joshu a / 72, E,ltzabeth/8 l) 2 I Os Weststde Av, Schencctady 12306 === Danny & Glorla FIARRISON (Ettzabcth/74' Antonla/78' Anna & Sophia/8a) Box R, APO New York o9678 (change) (H) === Raeann & Max IIEINRICH (Cralg/68. Melisa/ 7 l, Kiersten/ 84) I 64 Argrle

Rd, Brooklyn rr2r8 04 -== Kathleen HULTZ (Ryan/79, Kyle/82) RD I Box 67O A' Caytga 13034 === Alyson & Emilio MELIONE (Andrea/ 8i|) 2 Shefffcld Dr, Endlcott 13760 === NEW YORK CITY HOME EDUCATORSALLIANCE' c/o ThercsaMorris,34l E sth St, NewYork IOOO3 (Daniel/84' Will/88) === Walme & Diana PERRY 6007 W Scott Rd. Homcr 13077 === Ridr & Tricia STOMTSCH (Jesslca/8o, Kermy / al'K;evh:./ A2.

Krlstofcr/84, Kyle/87) HSR 12861 Haguc Rd Box 94, Tlconderoga 128a3 (change) (rD === Sylvie WELTEKI & Roger SMOKE (Zoel8€t, Julcs/8s) Box 584' New York roo25 Ofl === Darlene TAKIJ-A (Nathan/77) 2l I Kossuth St APt 2.

Rome 1344O-4OO3 NC === Jane & Bill FLEMER (Emma/84, Nell/87) 58o old Hwy 64, warne 289O9 (changF) === Rardy & Allan GOODSTADT

86) PO Box 668, Leiccster 2a74a

{LI/82' Julie/ E\ === Jeff&

Ctndy HOLT {Aubrcy/8f } 15O6 Wcstbrook Av' Burlfngton 27275 =- Tom & Barbara HOWE (Brcvet/79, Klra/8€!, Dcvon/86) Rt 6 Box I 69' Oxford 27565 (I4 === Suzanne & Don MARKLE (Kathteen/82, David/86) 8O2 Burch Av, Dr:rharn 27701 (changel === NORTH CAROLIMANS FOR HOME EDUCATION. PO Box 30443' Raleigh POCK27622 (change) -= Nancy & Stephen LINGTON (Alethea/83, Hannah/86' nrwen/8a) PO Box 172, Otle.rrtal2857f (changel GO === Sam &Jane SPICER (Pcte/82, Matt/a4. Allen/ 87, Kirk/8g) 58Ol Oak BluffLn, Wilmlngton 28403 (I4 === Tom YARBOROUGH & Peggr DAVIS (Matthew/aO, Mary/86) 2217 Kenmore Av. Charlottc 282O4 OH === Martha & Ric AUGUSTIN (Katte/8o' Ellie/82. Dan/a6) 47568 Rt lOW. Oberlln 44O74 === Jan & Dan DAWSON {lml86) 3142 Walden

30 Ravlncs, Hilliard 43026 === Andrea EIIIS & Glen BOATMAN (I*na/a{, Stcvcn/88) 3343 lsland Ave, Toledo 43614 === Terrt & Dan ENDSLEY (Andrern/73,Ktra/741 13947 Five Pt Rd. Perrysburg 43551 {H) === cary & Pat l-ruSs (Megart 17+, Abby/78, whttney/83) 5852 Rothesay Ct, Dublln 43017 --= Arny & Erin SCHRAM {Sharayah/86, Fiona/87} 67 McMillen

Av, Columbus 43201 === Harry & llosanne THOMAS (Amanda/8 l, John/83. David/86) 829 I Asbury Hills Dr, CtncinDati 45255 === David & Susan VAN METIIE (Matt/8l, Chrtsropher/83, Michael/86) 6753 Galnesmill, Sylvania 43560 === Johnny & Kathy VAN STYN ([{enry/8l) 109 Mulberry St, Cinclnnatl 452tO-1124

OR === Sharron CLEVEIAND EDUCA-

TN === Bob yALI-ACE & Lin KEMPERWALLACE (Jeremy/8O) 214 Park Ln, Oliver Springs 37840 (change) (H)

TX === Clen DAIS & Debra CALDWELL DAIS (Jared/841 l4O2O Schroeder #134. Houston 77O7O (change) (H) === S'am & Terry DIERSCFIKE (Taylor/861 2137 Wnrock, Houston 77057 === Tom & Ilcather GOODMAN (Detrdre/ 85, Kirstcn/88) 4428 Caruth Blvd, Dallas 75225 === $[sysn GUTSTEIN & Rachelle SHEELY {Hannah/8l, Esther/83) l2lO3 Poulson Dr, Houston 77031 === Kren & David HENDLEY (Hans/81, Lenora/84l Rt4 Box l3l, Rusk75785 (change) =-= Barbara LUNDGREN & Steve EAKER (Quinn/83, Brema/85) 3Ol3 Hickory Hill. Colleyvtlle 76034 Gr) === McGUFFEY ACADEMY. 2213 Spu Tmil, Grapevine 76051

TION TECI{NOLOGY. 16185 Oak Rtdge Rd, Yamhlll 97148 =-- Chrtsty INGRAI'IAM & Parvtz MocItADDAS (Carltn/8s} 9216 N Leonard St, Portlarrd 97205 === David & Karlyne LANDRUM {Melyssa/7s. I-aryssa/8l) PO Box 863, Elgin s7427 === PoRTLAND AREA TRI-COUNTT HOMESCHOOLBRS, c/o Susan Jorg, 2890 I So Davts Rd, Estacada 97023=== Lehana & Rill SMYTTI lRoshan / 77, Roman / 8O, Hannah/8 1, Ikylan/8s) 399O Placer Rd, Sunny Vallcy 97497 (change)

VT === Mark & Janet CFIABOT (Eric/86) RFD I Box 83, E Thetford 05043 0{ === gtephgn & Roberta I{ISI,oP (Tlmothy/7g) PO Box 3O8.

Randolph 05060 === Erlk & Barbara NIELSEN lCora/79, Christina/84. lryrtd/8n RR 2 Box 4, E Randolph 0SO4l Gf) === Q6q1gs & Amalda SEIFFDRT(Leah /a2,Elena/aQ RR I Box 1620, Worcester 05682 === Candelin WAIIL & George TI'IABALILT (Drew/a6) l2 Nash Pl. Burlington

PA === James & Laurie ADAMS (Tom/77, Tlna/79, Blalr/8o) I 12 tynwood Dr #3, Edinboro 16412 === Harvey & Ellle DUNFIAM (7-,achary/aS, Calvln/86, Hannah/88) 5O6 Carlton Ln, West

VA === Charles & Jane CARDINE (Thad/ 75) Rte I Box 576, Chanttlly 22021 === Rachel& Nevin DIENER (Jonas/77, Sarah /7a,E,liza./a2, Alex/84) Rt I Box 2 13, Keczletown 22A32 ===

Chestcr 19382 === Denes & Robert FINNEGAN (Danlel/82) 470 T\:rkey Ridge Rd, Apollo 15613 === Ql6rgnsg & Charlotte FREED (Bart/78, Natall/7g) RD 2 Box lggA. Emmaus 18049 === Ira & Robyn JOSEPIIS (Ross/83, Ray/85, Faith/ 87) 215-565-4058, (Rosc valley) (F0 === Gina KELLOGG & Chlp HOLLISTER fDantel/at, Lucas/83, Llly/87l. RD 3 Box 8O, Colunrbta Crossrds I6914 (H) =-= Klm & Ed LU'|Z (Dana/ 8l , Brlttany/84, Ahren/88) 24O Muntctpal Rd # I , Plpersdllc 18947 [H) === Danlel & Linda NEYER (Danlel/84, Mary,/86, Paul/S8) 7O8 Delaware nv, Norwood 19074 === Marflyn PEREIRA (Josh/73, Jock/75, Molly-Arrr,/77) TI-IE BETTER BABY INSTITUTE, 88Ol Stenton Av, Phtladelphia 19118 === Carl & LuAnn RUMBALSKI (Carl/7a.

Kallna/80, Yuri/82) Box 18 Duck Run Rd, Mackeyvllle 17750 (H) === Mark & Kathcrine SEMISCH (Christopher/79. Margaret/82, Lucy/

84) 56 Warden Rd, Doylestown l890l === Merrlly WILLIAMS & Rtchard SUMMERS (Abraham,/82) CENTER CITY PHIIA. IJOMESCH. SUPPORT GROUP. 23O S 21 St, Phtladelohia

l9lO3

(change)

9C === Blll & Barbara ALLEN ttJvill/8O, Emma/83) Rt 2 Box 195, Hodges 29653 SD

--=

Bhuml BAUMBERGDR (Aryca/ZZ,

A.shana/80l HC 73 Box 1033. Deadwood 57732 === Jean BOGGS & Jay SCHIAGDL (Jacob/86) flO l2th Av NE. Abcrdeen 57401 (changc)

0540t

Kathryn DOYLE & Jcffrey LEFKOWTZ Qegsr-,l 82, Daniel/86) Rt 2 Box 329, Strasbuqg 22O57

(H) === Sonia FOX & Steven STRUMIAUF (Danicl/83. Raphacl/87) 258 E Rio Rd, Charlottesville 229O1 === Linda & Fred JONES (Altson/

83. Casey/85, Molly/86, Tess/88) 27Ol Meadowbrook Dr, Blacksburg 24060 === Andr€ & Karl KDLLBR (Petra/83, Thane/85, Rhys/87) Rt I Ilox 58, Markham 22643 === Beth LeGRAM) & Mlchael SCI'IERIIR (Elias/84, Zachary/8\l General Delivery, Criders 22820 === Arurettc MILLS & David ECKERT lMarra/a2l lO9 W Westmorelmd Rd, Falls Church 22046 (change) (H) === Mark

& Nadlne SFIULL {Allen/

77, Sarch/79, Sammy/85) Rt I Box 795, Partlow 22534 === Dcborah & Harold SMITH (Jessc/82, Laura/871Rt I Box 278, Linville 22834 === Mary Jane & Russell STONDKING (Kesi/8ll PO Box 322, Lacey Spgs 22833 -== David & Mary Ann TURNDR (Jamle/83, Nathan/86, Michael/87) Rt I Box 2OlA, tlenry 24102 === Amette WEAVER. 843O Frost Way, Annandale 22OO3 === Hans & Evelyn WEIDIG (tlans/83, Andrw/851 551-B Pope Rd, Ft Belvoir 22060 (H) === Sue & Paul ZICCARDY (Benjamin/80, t)aniel/85) 406 Broad St, Flarrisonbu rg 22aO I WA === Naomi & I{arvcy ALDORF (Jonathan/86) 357 S Forest. Bellingham 98225 (H) === 6" & Mrgaret DAVIS (Justin/72, Ethan/7s) Rt I Box 139, Warden 98857 === Paul MOLNAR

& Kathy S'BVENSON (Sarin,r78.

Nikolas/86) PO Box 583,'fonasket 98855 ===

75OX PROJECTING

MICROSCOPE 6x0lo.a th. .Indlvldu6l

.

of nat!ra

6ffi E ;-;-

Galaxy

ol

.

Or

OrouP Vlew

Projeot3 and Tracas I ncludlno: Slldes & StmDleg

Wonder Tova,

Inc.ltrrah,

Drive |ta!!

Yorktown Hts NY 1Q$B$ lartrtrr

2859 Heclwlg

Pamela NASII (Bryan/77,Mane/a2l 1632 Jone Dr SE, Renton 98055 === Patti PITCHER & Steve F{ALL (Bccca/81, Laura,/84) 5526 26th Ave NE, Seattlc 98105 (change) === Brian & Betsy RAY (l.Iallic/aO, Rachel /82, I Iannah /86, Daniel/88) 25 W Crcmona, Seattle 981 l9 (change) lIJl === 7211

& Cara SIiIDEL (Jercmy/84, Melissa/86) 838 W Axton Rd #55, Bellingham 9a226 =--= Zen & Carla SEIDEI- (Jeremy/84, Mclissa/86) 83€l W Axton Itd #55, Bellingham 98226

WI === Willlam & Cheryl DANZ (Inrelei/78, Valerlc/82) 1324 Concord Way, Oneida 54155 (change) === lq! & Pat KADUBECK (f,uke/87) lOO8 L"akellcld Rd f6, Grafton 53024 := Chrls & Paul KIELTYI(A (Joscph/77, Dominic/7g, Nfcholas/84) Rt 2 Box l3O. Ettrlck 54627 ='-

Tlmothy & Kathy KURTH l&my/78, Jenntfcr & Jcsslca/82) I 927 Volkman St, Schofleld 54476 -=- Rtchard & Nancy PEIDELSTEIN (Alicc/82, Aprll/871 614 Rldgc St, Baraboo 53913 CANADA:

AI,TA === Blll & Elaine PROUD Khristo-

pher/81, Ashley/$) sEA HoME EDUCATORS, PO Box 8, Medlclne

HatTlA 7ES

BC := Gary & Clndy BARKER (Shawna/ 82, Matthcw/8s) VICTORIA HOME LEARMNG NETWORK, lO6-29O Regna, Victorta V8Z 656 === Chdsdanc CHOUINARD & Tony DUGGLEBY (Aurianc/a2,Ellz*lA4l Box 2017, hncc Rupert VAJ 3W8 (I4 =- Janct & Jerry ETZKORN (Jakc/82, Justine/84) Carmanah Ltstn, 2l Huron St, Victoria V8V 4V9 === Carolyn & Stephcn FAWCETT (Maurice/83, Delrae/8fl Box I l8l, Goldcn VOA IHO (II) === Herb & Susan HAMMOND lJody/72, Shamon/ 76) RR f , WinlawVOG 2JO === Barbara McLEAN & Davld SHEBIB [,aura/76, Jamcel7S,E,ll?abeth/8o, Andrcw/84, Allson/8Z 666 Mountaln Dr, Ocearr Falls VOT IFO (I{ === Steve & Amy MIFIALJ (Ana/8:1, Matia/84, Max/86. Luca/88)

6961 Island Hwy. Lantzcvtllc VOR 2HO === Warren MOORE & Ellcn ANDERSON (Anven/82, Dylan/86) Palsley Rd RR #1. Pender lsland VON 2MO (H) === l(6lly ft Hcrb NYgUIST (Brock/8o, Grcg/ A2, Artcl/85) a66 Brock Av, Vtctorta V9B 306 (changel -== Cathertne WEIR & Ian CROCKER [Matthew/82, Peter/84, Ah4'n/881 Pachena Pt Llghthouse, c/o 2l Huron St. Victorla v8v 4v9 (rr)

M/Ut === Kristtn PETERSON (Dcvon/8:l)

2O2

Wal:ut St, Wlnnipcg RgG IPS (H)

NS === Hansl WHITEIAW (Erlel/8t}, Kallna/85) RR #1, Scotsburn BOK I RO

ONT === Calol Lynn & Ltno DIFELICE (Glna/86, Ale.x/88) 2O8 Wcstchester Ctes, St Catherlnes I,jtP 2Vl3 OD === Tlmothy HARRIS lTanela3,?acharyl8s) 465 Old Goulais Bay Rd, Sault Ste Marlc P6A 5K8 === Cynthla & Dcnnls HENDERSON (Carolyn/7g, James/85) 29 D llne, Rlchards Landlng POR IJO

CIIHER IPCATIONS === David & Esther

CULPIN (Reuben/7g, Simeon/8 I, BcnJamtn/86) 36 Queenswood Dr, Hampton Dcnc, Hercford HRI IAT Unltcd Klagdom (II) === Clndy & John DRING lMcgan/76, Simon/79, Ethan/8it, Gwen/86) The Farm, Moycullen, Count5r Gatway, Irehnd 04 === Peter & Carmel DUFFY (Stobhan/ 79. Dtanc/8o, Owen/8l,Mary / A2, Peter/85, Jude/87, Dclrdrc/89) 'New Hopc'.

Rathnally, Trim, Co. Meath, Irchnd (IIl === Candis LITSEY & Edward YOUNG.IO Fairfax Rd,

Chiswick, W4 IEW crc.t & Evc LUICK (Jack,/84) 40

Brltrln g4 --=.lohn lrtt St, Katoomba

2780, NSWAurtr.lh === cllb€rt & Deborah MacKALL (Lyndsay/86) Tonll Statlon 7a7, APO San Francisco 963:ll-1608 Oepen) (I4 === Lcnorc & ShunJl MORIMOTO (Yuya/a4, Mlya/871 Sunny Hghts lfkita, 188 Agura-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto JaPan 606 (I4 === Willlam & Marie STIGLIANI (Marisa/82, Cl,airc,/83. Emllie/85.

WV === Mary Dllen SUI.LIVAN & Donald FTSFIEL (Jacob/a l. Douglas/82, Maxwell/85) Rt 2 Box l13. Mannlngton 26582 (H)

Calarina / 871 Ottensteinstrassc

2344

Aurtrl.

I

23, Sudstadt A

(H)

GROWINC WITHOI.TT SCHOOLING #69

3t

ADDITIONS TO RESOURCES Certlfied Teachers Wtllins to Hclp tlomeschoolers: Elizabeth LOWBR, 5022 Wabash Dr, Fairffeld OH 45O14: 513-863-2891 (Montessori) ==- Natalte TATZ, 332O Batnbridge Ave, Brorx NY lo4671 212-654-7918 (elem) Helpful Lawven Mark Semisch, 56 Warden Rd, Doylestown PA

l89ol

Helpful Psychologlst: Steven Gutstein, PhD, 455O Post Oak Pl, Suite #342, Flouston fi 77O27;

7t3-62t-7496

PEN.PALS Chlldrcn wantlng pcn-palr should write to those llsted. To bc listcd, scnd name, age. address. and l-3 words on interests === Aubrcy HOLT (7) l5O6 Westbrook Av, Burllngton NC 27215; cats,legos. Barbies ==- Darla EVANOSKY (8) Ilox 1O5 Hlx Rd, Hinton WV 25951 i readlng.

Barbics, ponies =-= Jennlfer SEELBACII (81 Rt I Box 1318. Burnsville NC 28714: ballet, pimo, dolls --- Katle WILLIAMS (8) 3333 Gold Country Dr. Placervllle CA 95667; pets, dolls, nature === Ruth ZELANSKI (14) l7 Cowles Rd, Willington CTO6279; animals, danctng, art === CARDY, l2l S Ralph St, westnrinster MD 2l157: Eric (12) skateboards. rcading, destgningi Alicia (6) skatlng, drawing, plano === Andrew CO'I'|RELL (12) 795 W 27th, Eugene OR 974O5r muslc, pets, lcgos p6ry SORENSEN (ll) Rt I Box l2O, Mason === wI 548561 sports, detcctiv6 1vslk === WILLIAMS, PO Box 3483, Sonara CA 95370: Mandy (l l) stlckcrs, animals, readlngl Brearne (8) stlckcrs, biklng, skatlng Rlcky (3) Emic, blking, lcgos === TfEMAN.4346 N 37 St, GalesburgMl 49O53: Matthcw (6) legos, friends, models; Alyssa (3)

palnts, klttens, dresses === Jqnsthan SI-ruL2D (8) 16400 Lakc Ridge Dr N, Maple Grove MN 55369; airplanes, mysteries, soccer === Josh WESTON (9) N 12550 Three Forks Rd, I{auscr Lakc ID 83854; cats, sports, mystery === I'ndrc3 PICKRELL (9) 65 Glcnda Ln, Plano lL 60545: homes. swlmmlng, muslc === Eh SCI{O'IT (5) 22Og Montaguc Rd. Rockfonl IL 6l lO2; tractors, sclence, radio === NICOL, 566 Mountain Dr, Ocean Falls BC VOT IPO CANADA: Laura (13).

Jamcs (lO), Eltzabeth (8) === Adam OBERDOITFER (7) 122 tsYnceton St, Santa Cruz CA 95060; stamps, spacc, legos === Jslgrny SEIDEL (4) 838 WAxton Rd #55, Bellingham WA 98226i grmnastlcs. naturc. books === BLII.LOCK, 6758 Oak VallcyDr, LasVegas NV89lO3: Sara (lO) horses, cats. wYitlngr Josh {8) radlo control vchlcles === Krlsta HUMPHREY (13) l2O4 Iloliday Pl, Ilossier Clty lA 7l I 12: Barblcs, stickcrs. horses === O'REILLY, 34 Lake Ave. Mlddletown NY lo94O: Brianna (5) dolls, drawtng, prctend: Rebccca (7) drawing, swtmmlng, dolls === GRAfhM, I192 Webster Rd, Jefferson OH 44047: Ann ({t) skatlng, ballet. art: laura (6) skating, stickers, dolls === PERRINE, Rt I Box 73A. Mason Wl 54856: Mika (l ll writlng, violln. sports: 'I'cal (8) drums, legos, bascbalt Curi (4) plaflng, babies, violin === KURTZ, RD

#l

Box 61. Andover NY 14806:

Kirstcn (8) reading, cats, art; Jared (6) fanning, space, llshlng === \fevs MDLLOW (6) IIO Box 781, Ben lpmond CA 95OO5 -== Julian SIIYDER

92036: Elizabeth (13) writing, current events, movies: Annlc (f l) ltzards, cooking, humor === DURFIAM, 3946 Elmwood Rd, Cleveland Hts OH

44l2lz Kara (7) art, reading. music: Erika

(4)

books, art, lnuslg === Rachcl McCLELIAN (8) 1522 L St, Tekamah NE 68O61: cooklng, dancing, rcading === Flilary CFIEEK (lO) Rt 7 Box 276.

McKinney TX 75O69i Plano, actlng, cooking -= HAGGDRTY, Rt I Box 12l-G-1, MadlsonVA (6) (10) dancc, art, fashlons: Sean 22727:Enn nature, pets, mimals

WHEN YOU WRITE US Pleasc - (l) Put separate ltems ofbuslness on sepilate sheets of paper. (2) Put your name and address at the top of each letter. (3) Ifyou ask questions, enclose a self-addresscd stamped envelopc. (4) Tell us if it's OK to publish your letter, and whether to use your name wtth the story. We cdit lctters for space and claiity.

CATALOG INFORMATION OurSpring catalog, with current Information about prices and avallabillty, is now available.

On requcst, we will Photocopy and mall the CWS rcview of any ltem in our catalog. Send 5O cents plus a SASE for one: add 25 ccnts for cach additional.

DECLASSIFIED ADS Rates:7Oclword. $l /word boldfqcc. $5

minimum. Please tcll these folks vou saw the ad in GWS. INTRODUCE YOI'R CHILDREN TO A SECoND IANGUAGET Dclightful bllingual story tapes, storybooks, flashcards, workbooks and morel University recommended. Easy & fun.

Preschool through elementary, (Spanish or French.) SASE for free brochure. HearAn'Tell Advcntures, 320 Bunker IIill, I{ouston, TX77024.

WORD MAPr Vol I (Memory Aid Postcrel. 16 beautiful posters to color. Makes memorizlng scripture funt Scnd $7.95 + $1.5O P & H to Hcar

An'Tell.

Travel Dlrectory. Join the updated Homeschool Travel Directory. For an entry form contact tlte National Homeschool Assoctation, PO Box 167, Rodeo NM 88056: 505-557-2250.

U|IIAT'S NEW? Complete readlng programi

globcs: fantastic soctal studles uniti dinosur, lnsect, marinc, wtld animal modcls: music

tnstruments (dulclmers and Llmbcrjacks); new art lnstructlon/ suppllcs: sciencc resourcls; plus our Tcachtng Guldcs and other wonderful rqrnurces for famllles. Free catalog' LEARNING AT HOME. Box 27O-G69, Honaunau, HI 96726.

FREE Sclencc MaSladne loaded wlth exPcriments: TOPS ldeas, lff)7o SMulino Rd, Canby OR

97013.

COII)RtrI'L TIARDWOOD PINZT.W .

EDUCAIIONAL AND FIrNt Our 'Alphaworm' puzzlc featurcs both upper and lowcr casc lettersl 25 handcrafted deslgns to choose from. Color catalog. Every Buddles Gardcn, PO Box77A' Corvallis, OR 973:19-0784.

Cemp/ltevcl Gct Togethcr. Joln thc only Natlonal Homc Schoolcrs F):icnd Travel Club. Onc year's membcrship $5. We arc Solng Plac€sl HSFrc, Box 594. SmYrnaGA3OOSI. SCHOOL FREE - how-to. phllosophy. resouroes for dcschooling ln Canada. By Wendy Hesnltz'

founder of lo-year-old Canadtan Alliancc of

Home Schoolers. l5O pages. $15.95 postPatd. 195 Markville Road. Unlonvllle Ontarto l3R 4V8. Free

brochure, WANT TO SELL OR BUY USED TEACHING MATERIALS? Rainbow Re-Source Ccnter offcrs

dlscounted used matcrtals to homc schoolcrs nationwide. Wc rcturn 7O96 of sclllng prlcc to seller ln cash. Interested? Scrrd for lnformation on sellb:g materlals or send $l to reccive our monthly listtn€;, thc Ratnbow Re-portcr. PO Box 365, Taylorvtlle lL 62568.

Hmcr, 1989 Edltlon. ls a completc tntroductory guldc to homc schoollng from thc editon of Homc Education MogrnFc. 40 pages, tllustrated, o<tensive rcsourcc r€vlcws. $6.5O postpald. Home Educatlorr Press. Box 1O83. Tonaskct, WA 98855.

The Home School

COME TO RURALVERMONTI Vegetarian homeschoollng family has space and enelS/ to share wtth gcntle, small fiamily. Kniflln, Sprucc Knob Rd. Mlddletown, VT 05757.

Tecnagc homcschoolers or homcschooltng

famllies wantcd to PICK APPLDS. Crcw is formlng now for work ln S€Pt-Oct In Walpolc N.H. Coopcrative crcw wtll ltvc at orchard bunkhouse.

Earnlng;s varlablc. For morc tnfo wrtte Start McCumber, Quaker Ctty, HC 6O Bo< 5O' Charlcstown NH 03603.

i- ENTRY FORM FOR DIRECTORY If you would like to be in the Dlrectory and have not yet told us, send this form, or use a postcard or 3xS card (only one famlly per card).

Adults (flrst and last names): Organlzatlon (only lf address ls same as farnily):

Chtldren (Names/Blrthyears): F\rll Address (Street, Ctty, State, Ztp):

(6) 20556 Entradcro Ave, Torrance CA 9O503:

sclence, rabblts. art === Leah DEAN (6) 2133 Walnut, Aubum Hllls Ml 48057: art. reading, animals === David }IALLGREN (12) 12167 Carter Rd, Albton PA l64ol: dogs, baseball, dairy'ing === cAwEL, 16753 Fltllslde, Tinley Pk lL 6O477: Cathy (ll) skatlng, gmnastics, drawing: Christopher (9) tlshing, skateboarding, nintendo === RIEIV!{N, 35483 Gr. So. Overland, Julian CA

If thts ts an address change, what was Previous state?

Are you willing to host travellng GWS readers who make advance alTangements in No

wrttlng? Yes

GRO'WINC WITHOLN SCHOOLING #69

-

-

ln

HOW TO GET STARTED Hcre are some ways you cm find out Lhe legal situatlon in your state. l) Look up the law yourself, in a public libra4r or law libra4r (courthouse, law school, etc.) Laws are indcxed: try'school attcndancc" or 'education, compulsory." 19 states havc reMsed their homc educatlon laws since 1982 so chcck the recent statute changcs, We have printed or summarlzrd these new laws in our back issucs.

2) Ask the state dcpartmcnt of education for any laws or regulatlons pertaining to homcschooling and/or starting a private school. In some states (particularly CA, IL, IN, KY) there are few regulations concerniing private schools and so you can call your home a school.

If you are concemed about rcvealingyour

name and address to thc statc. do this through a friend.

3) Contact state or local honreschooling groups. This list was last prlntcd in GWS #66, and is updatcd and sold separately for $2 as part of our 'Homeschoollng Resource List." Some groups have prepared handbooks or guidelincs on legal matters. Often, these groups cm tcll you morc about the legal climate ln a state than anyonc else can - whethcr new legislation is pending, for example. and how the prescnt law is being enforced.

4) Contact other famllies listed in our 'livc Directory. This is particularly useful ifyou in a state that lcavcs homeschooling dccisions up to individual school districts, When you contact these families, help them by having done some research on your own first.

5) ln general, it is not wise to start by

askingyour local school dtstrict; they usually don't know the law cither. Bettcr to gather the facts first on your own.

RENEWALS u*

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renewing early.

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subsription

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PIAIWILLE

NY

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The number that is undcrlinetl in the example tells the numbcr of the final issue for the

subscription. 'lhe Smiths'sub expires with Issue #7O. the next issuc. llut ifwe wcre to rcceive tltcir rencwal bcfore we scnt ou final account changes to the mailing house (August l), they would qualify for the free borrus issue.

Rcnewal ratcs ae the samc as for new subscriptions: $20 for 6 issues, $36 lor l2 issues, $48 for l8 issues.

SUBSCRIFTTIONS Subscriptions start with the nst issue publishcd. Our current rates re $20 for 6lssues, $36 for l2 issucs. $48 for l8 issues. GWS is publishcd every other month. A singfe issue costs s3.50.

ForeigF paymcnts must bc either money orders in US funds or checks dmwn on US banks.

We can't aflord to accept personal checks on Canadian accounts, evcn if they have 'US funds" llritte n on thcm. Outside o[ North America, add $lO pcr ycar for airmail (otherwise. allow 2-3 mondrs for surface mail).

Back Issueg: We strongly urge you to gct the back issues of GWS. cspecially if you plan to take your childrcn out of school. Many of the articles are as useful and important as when they were printed, and wc do not plan to repeat the inlomation in thcm. All back issues are kept in

pnnt.

Our ratcs lor back issues: any combination ofback issues. mailed at one time to onc addrcss, cost $2 per issue, plus $2 pcr order. A complete set costs $l OO. Thesc rates arc for subscribers only: non-subscribem pay $3.50 per issue, Indexes to GwS (spccify itcm number): #380 lndcx to GWS # I -30, $2.50; #382 Indcx to #31-4O, $2; #384 lndex to #41-5O, $2; #3a5 lndex to f5l-60. $2: #381 Sct ofall indcxes, $5.

Blnders are available with rods that hold GWS without obscuring any text. Gold lctters on cwer. #330 Bimler with 24 rods (holds GWS #l24), $lO: #328 Ilinder Mth l8 rods (holds l8 later issues), $9.5O. #326 Set of4 Binders and 78

Group SubscrlPtlont: all copies are mailed to one address. Pleac pay with onc chect. Here are the current group rates {lX means you gct one copy ofeach issue, 2X means you get 2 copies ofeach lssue,3X means 3 copies, ctc.)

lX 2X 3X 4X $( o(

I year 2 yrs.

6iss. l2iss.

3 Yrs.

$20 $s6 $48 $60 $70 $78

$48 $90

$36 $64 $90 $l 12 $130 $r44

l8iss.

$126 $156 $180 $216

7X,8X. etc: $12 per person PerYear.

Please send in the names and addresses of members ofyotrr group sub, so that wc can kecp

in touch with them. Thanks. cWS esr loundcd ln ls77 by John Holt.

Editor - Susannah Sheffer Managing Editor - Patrlck Farenga Contributing Editor - Donna Richor:x Editorial Assistant - Mary Maher Editorial consultant - Nancy Wallace Book & Subscription Manager - Day Farenga Book Shtpper/Receivcr - Ann Barr Office Assistant - Mary Maher Holt Associates Board of Directors: Patrick Farenga (Corporate Presidcnt). Mary Maher. Tom Maher, f!,orura Richoux, Susannah Sheffer Advisors to the Board: Steve Rupprâ&#x201A;Źcht. Mary Van Doren, Nancy Wallace

Copyrlght @ 1989 Holt Associates, Inc. reserved.

All

rods (holds GWS f I -78), $35.

Add packing and dclivery charge forbinders (sce ccntcr pagcs).

Address Changes: lf you'rc moving. let us know your new adclrcss as soon as possible.

Plcase cnclose a rccent label (or copy of one). lssucs misscd bcc:ruse of a change in address may bc rcplaccd for $2 each. The post olficc destroys your missed issucs and charges us a notification fce, so wc carit afford to replace them

without chugc.

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Usc this fom to subscribe or rcns to GROWNG WIHOUT SCHOOLING. For renryals, place the labcl from a recent isue below, if possible. lf not, print thc info. Cltp md scnd with your check or moncy ordcr in 617-861-3100,.

USfunds.Or.youmaynowsubscribcorrcnwbyphoncwithMastercardorVisa:call

Thanks.

New subscription

Gift subscripuon to bc acnt to name shown.

Renewal

Account Numbcr (for rcnwals): Name:

Expiration Code (for renewals): Address (Changez yes/no)

city, srate. zip: 6 issues,

-

GroupSub: .-

$2O coPies

12 issucs,

of

$36

issues,

l8 issucs. $48

$

3FE

(sce chartl

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vHo 69

It is OK to *ll my name md address to other organizatlons

GROWING WITHOUT SCHOOLING #69

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