Growing Without Schooling 81 by Patrick Farenga

Growing Without Schooling 81

Justin Pfeifer is among those who wrlte for this lssue's Fmus,

Wthln the

Inside This fssue News &

Reports

p. z-s

Importance of Parental Warmth, Access to School Ltbrary, Homeschooling Cooperatlve

Homeschoolers and College p. +-s

In the World of Work p.5-7 Stories about Young People Doing Volunteer and Pald Jobs

Challenges & Concerns p.8-lo Blind Mother Homeschools. Son with Cerebral Palsy, Shyness, Homeschooling with Toddlers, No Support from Family

Watchlng Chlldren Learn p. I l-14, 28 l,ovlng the Mechanlcal World, Overcomtng Negative Attltude, trarning German, Math, Reading, ArL Music

BookRevlews p. 15-18 Flndtng Prlvacy Wlthln the Famlly p. t9-22

Flndlng the Rtght Teacher p.23-24 Flndlng One's Work p.24-25

Letter to a School Offlclal p.26-27 Addltlons to Dlrectory

p. 28-30

Occaslonally someone, asking us about homeschooling, wonders whether having their parents so involved tn their education gives such children less privary within the family than they would have if they went to school. After all, parents whose children go to school don't see everlrthtng that happens durlng the day or know how their chlld did on every asslgnment. In partlcular, the need to keep records about children's activities to saUsff homeschooling laws sometimes means that parents have to watch their children more closely than either would like. We knew this was an lssue for some familles because we had printed letters about the subJect tn the past. For this issue of GWS, we decided to raise the question agaln and ask several young readers whether they felt they had enough privary within their famtlles and how homeschooling allected this. We were lnterested in diflerent kids of privary: physical privacy, such as the ability to spend time alone or to know for sure that a private diary would not be read by others, and then something we might call emotlonal or intellectual privacy - the ability to read a book or do a project without your parents knowing all about it, and the opportunity to make friends that are not necessarily friends of the entire family. People's needs for privary, in all these forms, vary, of course, so some of the young people who responded to our questlon were more concerned about finding ways to satis$r the need tltan were others. But the general feeling seems to be that homeschoolers are not finding privacy to be a big problem. Most sald they had as much as they needed, and knew they could get it if they asked for tt. Several believed they had more privary at home than they would have ln school simply because thelr parents respected their need for it, and because school's physical set-up makes it harder to do things

privately. Several of the writers mentioned that they liked having their parents lnvolved in their activities, and liked talking about books they were reading and things they were doing. It seems to me that chtldren who know they can have privacy when they want lt are also more llkely to open thelr lives willlngly to the adults in thelr lives. We only have to guard our privary flercely if we are afraid lt wtll be violated. When the young people who wrote to us did complain that privacy was hard to come by, the lssue usually seemed to be less a homeschooling lssue than slmply a condition of living tn a family. The lidds talked about wanting to do things without their siblings, sometimes, or wanting to talk on the phone Mthout others listening. A couple of writers did talk about how the need to keep records allects privacy, though. Coltn Roch wrote that he doesn't like knowing that hls mother will want a written proJect out of everything he happens to "mess around with," even though he understands that this ts often necessary. It does seem as though familtes in states with fewer record-keeping requirements are freer of this problem. Shart Bromfield and Maggie Adams mentioned one solution, which is for the kids to keep their own records, and indeed we are hearing of more and more homeschoolers dolng thts. Even when physical limitations or record-keeping requirements infringe on homeschoolers'prlvacy, the bottom line seems to be that if families consider privacy a legitimate need, things can be worked out successfully. As Simon Gauthier put tt, 'We don't have a problem wlth privacy because we try hard to respect each other's privacy.' Susannah Sheffer

News

& Reports

Parental Warmth is lVhat's Important

obtaln use of the school ltbrary for thelr

children.

Whlle schds @ntturc to nrake the

urtdtunerted. cla,trl' tha;t tlvy o;ffer chldrcn btter scr;laltztttg eryterlences

Lauren Farenga arrang€s Tln-Tln books on our shelves.

Office News & Announcements ISS:I On May 4th we held a homeschooling informatlon fatr Just outside of Boston. at whlch we were able to meet many local readers and frlends. Pat Montgomery of the Clonlara Home Based Education Program gave an tnsplrtng talk, and then gave a workshop on challenges and problems in homeschooling, At the same dme, I gave a workshop on older homeschoolers, and enJoyed meetlng and talking with several of them ln person. The following day Pat Montgomery and I were on the Gene Burns show, a local radio program with a host who ls a strong supporter of home educatlon. On April 2Oth, Pat Farenga debated a school principal about homeschooling's elfecUveness ln an event organlzed by the New England Phtlosophy of Education Society. The following week he gave two workshops, one on 'What ts Unschoollngand the other on 'Homeschoolers and College," at the New Jersey Unschoolers'

Network conferencc. Watch for an arUcle about homeschooling ln a future lssue of Esserrce magazine. We spoke with a writer for that magazine, and are exclted about reachlng Its audience of minority women. And spealdng ofreaching new audiences, Day Farenga was lnteMewed by Boston magazine about bringlng her chlldren to the olfice with her. She ls quoted extenslvely tn the magazlne's May lssue as part ofa longer article on chtld care optlons. Jerry Mintz of the Alternative Education Resource Organization tells us that the curr€nt lssue of Creen Revolutioa the Journal of the School of Ltvtng, ts dedtcated to altematlve educatlon and homeschooling and features a relssue ofan article by School of Ltvlng founder Ralph Bersodi about how he homeschooled hts children in the l92os. The School of Living is offering GWS readers a free c.opy of thts tssue: Schoolofltvtng, RD I Box l85A

Cochranville PA 19330. Some reminders: please be sure to put your address on your letters when writing to us and to other GWS readers or pen-pals. It would be an extra help to us lfyou would lnclude your phone number, too, because we sometlmes need to check thtngs with

you by phone. Also, remember that tf the wrlter of a GWS story ls In our Dtrectory, we print the state abbrevlatlon in parentheses. and tf the wrlter ls not ln the Directory, we wrlte out the state name ln

full. Thts lnformatlon ls ln the lntroduction to the Dlrectory update In each issue,

but here's another remlnder,

tlrr.n honeschmlers can, arather plece oJ evidence shorus tlut sctol maturftg is nast dtrectlg Jostered by qffaflorute parents. FlomThe Boston Globe, 4/8/91: Parentlng for Success - Study llnds warmth at home enhances chlldren's prospects as adults. There ls no recipe for

That compromlse wErs reached after a lengthy School Commlttee meeflng Monday atwhtch Leach had proposed that the youngsters could use the ltbr:ary after school hours at a cost of$12,6O an hour but no books could be removed.

The School Commlttee has barred use

of the ltbrary to the chlldren, malntatnturg It ls for students enrolled tn school, .., Commlttee member Catherlne Salem asked tfthe parents had exhausted the town's publlc lfbrary. Commlttee member Lyrn Randolph satd the school's lfbrary was much superlor for the chlldren and there was no ltbrary fee charged to anyone

ratstng chtldren to be successful adults, but parental warmth and allectlon make more of a dlfference than any other factor, according to a study that tracked how chtldhood experlenc,q.s allected adult dwelopment 36 years later. Most of the factors that mlght conceivably alIect how children turn out do not make any difference at all, the researchers report. That lncludes whether parents are punitive or permlsslve, how well the parents get along (according to the mother), and whether the tndtvidual's chtldhood was difllcult. Chlldren who lost a parent or sibltng, moved many dmes, or whose parents divorced did no worse by c-onvendonal measures of social acoompllshment than those wtth less stressful

Mrs. Randolph said the real lssue ls who can use the lfbrary. "The library ls for the chtldren of the communlty - all the

chlldhoods. These findings are being reported In the Journal oJ PersonnlXy ad. Sor:lal Psgchology by three psychologists who used data at the Henry A. Murray Center of Radcltffe College to IInd out how lndivtduals who were flrst studied at age 5 were

Mrs. Rina Cavalltnl satd she polled school olllctals tn Southbrtdge, Irlcester, Quabbin Regtonal, Wachusett Reglonal, and Charlton and satd none had any obJecflons to openlng thelr school Itbrarles to homeschoolers. ...

dolng at the age of 4 I . The maln findtng, they wrote, was that "subJects who had warm mothers or warm fathers were more likely to be rated as hlgher ln soclal accompllshment 36

years later." The original study of 379 mothers of 5 year olds, begun ln 1951, focused on chtldrearlng pracdces and concluded that maternal warmth and alTection correlated more strongly with social maturl$r ln children than any other liactor studted.

else

ln town,

Ralph Nlchols asked how much of a burden would there be on the ltbrary stalf lf the shrdents used the ltbrary durlng school hours. Commlttee member John OToole satd thtngs could get out of hand. 'Last year we had one chtld betng homeschooled,' he said. "And thls year we have nine. Next year maybe we wlll have 18. Wlll we have to run a tr:atn through here? What if they rvanted to use the computers or

showers?'

children.'

We rccendy aslced Lee Totten tJ the

slhtafronhadcharyed" ad.le told tts publlc presswe corusi'rr'ed ttre School

tlvt

C.ammiftee to rergrse lts declsdon altlaugh tleg uill revleu the lssue agaln bt Attgrtst. Ftom the WorcesterTelegram and Gazette, 1 / 15/91:

The School Commlttee has rerrersed a prevlous declslon and wtll allow use of the elementary school ltbrary by puptls taught

at home.

Access l*e

to School Library

Totten o/Massachusetts wrcte

Januarg: Recently my wtfe and I read a dlsturbing newspaper article saytng that our town (North Broolcvllle) School Commlttee had denied homeschooled children access to the school ltbrary. We thought that was certatnly not in the proper spirit of educatlon, so we wrote a letter to the superlnten-

dent and attended the next School Committee meeting. Also enclosed are two newspaper articles concernlng that meetlng.

Flomthe 12/ 13/90 issueoJtheNew

kaden

Parents of children betng taught at home will meet wlth school Superintendent Wtlltam S. kach in their efforts to

... Last nlght, the board approved guidelines proposed by Leach. ... The gutdelines are: library ttme will be assl€ined; use of the ltbrary wtll be after school hours, one day a week wtth tt being the same for all pupils: ltbrary tlme will be allotted as the same tlme glven ln-school puptls at the same grade level; the dme and day wtll be

mutually agreed on; library use will be directed by the elementar5r princlpal or designee; the same numberof books canbe borrowed as allowed ln-school pupils; books can be borrowed for one week. ISS:I Lee wrltes that the proglrarn appears to be worklng smoothly. lt seems to me worth nodng that thls lsn't an lssue ln towns with good public ltbrartes. Maybe It's even more lmportant for North Brookville residents to lobby for a greater portlon of the town's resources gotng to the publtc ltbrary, whtch ts already open to everyone.

Growlng Wthout Schoollng #81

-l 3

Homeschooling Cooperative Gcril Siclcel 0V.D urrites: We have been fortunate enough to flnd like-minded friends over the years, starting with a l^a lrche League frtendshlp, and

have been members ofa cooperadve home-

schooltng group. The group started ollwtth three liamllies. We are now slx famtltes (one famtly sends thelr chlldren to school, but theyJoin after school). We meet once a week.

Origlnally each mother/asslstant couple would plan acdvlttes for the day, usually reflecdng the lnterests of that mother's chtld. We would rotate homes weekly. Now that the chlldren are older (the oldest ls 8, the youngest ls 5), urcVe asked them what they are lnterested fur and tried to work wlth thaL There ts a new genera$on of stbltngs cornlng up, so Happy Day School wlll take on a new form as they Joln tn the actlvlttes and the older ones become more lndependent,

It's fascinailng to watch the children divide up for games like house and then regroup when the energ/ lwel changes. The older children have started some other

activides together, like wrldng, but Corlanna (5) ts not yet ready for thal Yesterday the ktds watched ?he Miracle Worker. Corlanna has seen verv little TV tn her life and no movles of this $pe, and was qulte fllled wtth quesdons rangtng from why the women wore the t5rpes of clothes they dtd to the purpose of the violence she saw. Sincc I was with Amarynth 1l | /2) during the llrst half of the movie, I couldn't answer some of Corianna's questions because I didn't know the context. Today we borrowed the IIlm, watched it again, and have talked at length about many aspects of tt. The result is that she is more comfortable wlth what she's taken ln. If we weren't so close, her questions would have gone unanswered for years perhaps. Today ls one ofthe days I'm feeling so lucky that we spend so much

time together.

Local News For addresses oJ state and,Ieol organizatlorts, see GWS #78 or our Homeschrclhg Resource Ltst auallrlble Jor $2.5O. (Note: add.resses of tlese oryanizations change treqrrcnllg. fu sure to add the updates kr CWS #ffi ard tn thts issue @. 3O) to your llst bt CWS *78.)

Court Rulee Agalnrt thc Dcpartnent of Educatlon Mlchlgaa: For most of the lg8os, Michigan was one of the few states in

which homeschoollng parents were

required to be certified teachers. The requirement was suspended ln February 1989 when Clonlara School and two homeschooling families llled sutt ln Circult Court to restrain the state from enforcing this restriction. The Judge granted a permanent inJunction against the state. The Department of Educafion then appealed the decision before the Michigan Court of Appeals, and on April l, l99l the court again ruled against the Department, according to a malllng we recelved from Pat Montgomery of Clonlara. The ruling

Growtng Wthout Schoollng #81

declared that the Department had no rtght to require that crrtilled teachers be present ln the home for l8O days or that that lnstrucdon be glven for 9OO hours ln reading, Engltsh, mathemaHcs, soclal studles, sciencc, clvlcs, and htstory (these requlrements had been part of the ortginal procedures). Pat Montgomery wrltes, 'So, for the flrst dme in a dozen years, Mtchtgan homeschoolers are free to teach their

own children without lnterference from the state or other publlc school olllclals. There is one membershtp form which the Clrcutt Court dtd permtt the Department to clrculate to those home educators lt can locate. The form has four slmple questlons on lt - none as lntnrslve and vlolaUve of parents' rtgfrts as the ortgtnal procedures.'

Lcglrtetlve Actlvlty

Conncctlcut: Flepresentatlve Ann Dandrow lntroduced a restrlctlve homeschooling btll, #5898, earller ln thts legfslatlve sesslon, accordtng to the Maypune lssue of the Connectlcut Home Educators Assocladon newsletter. The Educadon Committee y61sd agalnst considering the bill, and Rep, Dandrow pedttoned for tts reylval, resulting ln a publlc hearing, at which many homeschoolers spoke, on March 25th. At the heartng Rep. Dandrow sald she would change the wording of the bill so that lt would establtsh a task force to study the new home educatlon guldellnes (see GWS #78) and publtsh a report after a year. Now CHEA reports that tt looks as though Dandrow plans not to lntroduce this bill after all, but they wlll contlnue to educate thetr legfslators about home education In case this changes. Malnc: The legfslature considered four bills allectlng homeschooling, acc.ording to the Aprll l99l issue of the Home School Assoclates of New En$and newsletter. The legislature's Joint Standing Corunitee on Educadon voted unanlmously to kill the one whlch would have requtred mandatory home vlslts to each homeschoollng farnily every month, after hundreds ofhomeschoolers opposed it. The three pro-homeschooling bills were comblned tnto one, whlch provtdes for access to 'all public school currlcular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities and resources.' Judy Stoodley of the Maine Homeschool Assoclaflon told us that this bill received a mixed report ln committee; the maJority of members were against giving subsidy to schools for homeschoolers who use their faciltttes, but some members supported the idea. Judy says that the bill now goes to House, which decides which report (pro or con) to go with: lt may then refer the bill back to committee for a formal vote. Orcgon: The newsletter of People Asslsdng the Challenge of Home-Study TPATCH) reports that the legfslature is considering three bills this sesslon. HB 2820 takes discretionary power away from the Department of Educition (the ruies currently deflned by the Department of Education would be deflned in the new law instead) and lets homeschoolers who do not show "sadsfactory progress" be supervised in the home by a certifled teacher, instead ofbeing sent to school. H82574 allows homeschoolers to participate in interscholasdc actlvities in high school. SB 89O lowers the c.ompulsory school age

from 7 to 5.

Challcngcr to Tcrtlng Requlrcment

Ncw YorL: In GWS #8O we wrote that some homeschoolers wer€ pr€parlng to

challenge the state's standardlzed testlng requlrement for homeschoolers, and that the State Educatlon Department was consldertng whether tt would be possible for homeschoolers to obtatn a varianc€ ftom these regulatory rcqulrements. The Marah l99l lssue of the Honc Schoolers'Exchange newsletter now neports that homeschoolers carr ask thelr superlntendents to apply to the Department for a varlance, but cannot apply themselves, as tndtvtduals. Seth Rockmuller of HSE says that thls probably means that homeschoolers who llve ln cooperatlve school dlstrlcts wtll have the best chance of applytng for the rrariance, but lt remalns to be seen how many people wtll actually apply and how elfectlve thts will be. Wert Vlrgtnlr: The West Vtrgfnta Home Educators AssoclaUon trted ttrts year to amend the homeschool law to provide an alternatlve to tesdng, but the bill was postponed tndeflnttely, wrote Nancy Imhoff ln the group's Aprtl l99l newsletter. The btll had gotten tu/o sponsors in the House. and was dlscussed at a public heartng ln an Educadon Subcommlttee mectlng on February l9th. The SubcommltGe members rervonded the btll so that the proposed portfolto optlon would be a supplement to annual tesdng, not an alternatlve to tt (chtldren would sttll be requtred to take annual tests, but pa.rents could subrnlt a portfolto as evldencr of educational progress tf the chtld sc-ored poorly on the test). After some back-andforth between the full cornrnlttee and the subcommlttee, the members declded not to consider the bill durtng the current session. Nancy Imholf writes that there are stlll some leglslators who are supportlve of the proposal, and WVFIEA plans to lntroduce new leglslatlon next year.

Calendar October 4-5. l99l: The Alliance for Parental Involvement ln Educadon Famllles and Learntng conGrence ln Albany, NY. Keynote speaker Pat Montgomery, workshop by Susannah Sheffer. Workshops on home educatlon, educational enrichment, alternatlve schools, more. Children's actlvitles. For ireformation: AllPlE, PO Box 59, E Chatham NY I 2O6O; 5 I 8-392-6900. We are happy to prlnt announcements of maJor homeschooling events, but we need plengr of notlce. Deadltne for GWS #82 (events tn September or later) ls 7 / lO. Deadltne for GWS #&l (errents ln November or later) ts 9/ lO. GROWINC wnHoUT SCHOOUNG #81. Vol. 14. No. 3. ISSN #0745-5305. Published bl-monthly by Holt Assoclates, 2269 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA02l4O. $25lyr. Datc of lssuc: Jrme l, 1991. Sccond-cla*s postage pa.ld at

Boston. MA. POSTMAS'TER: Send addregs charges to GWS.

2269 Massachus€tts Avc, Cambrldge MA O214O. ADVERTISERS: fleadllnes are the lSth ofodd-

numbercd months. Contact Patrtck Farcnga for ratel|.

Homeschoolers and College Applying to Military Academy Calt Colen oJ Neus Mexlrc ux-Ites:

I read with lnterest the letter from the Director of Undergraduate Admlsslons of Boston Unlverslt5r tn GWS #79, I 'rst year, when my homeschooled son was a ntnttr grader, we lnvestlgated the many ways that he mlght spend hls htgh school years. Hls

ambition is to attend the US AIr Force Academy. We intttally felt that he would have to return to some sort of formal school settlng ln order to have the appropriate paperwork (transcrtpts, dlploma) when lt came time to apply. Counterlng this was the fact that he and we knew that the eclectic approach to learnlng had worked very well. We wrote directly to the Air Force Academy and asked them about the following three courses of ac$on: (l) public high school; (2) correspondence hlgfi school, at home: (3) self-devtsed program, also at home. We were pleasantly surprtsed by their answer. They say they have admitted 2-4 homeschoolers annually for several years. Opuons 2 and 3 were both acc,eptable to them. Apparently homeschooling is not a bar to gaining admlttance to these htghly structured envlronments. Jeffrey has elected alternative #2 he's pursuing a htgh school dtploma through the Amerlcan School ln Chlcago. He's able to pursue several other actlvttles as well (amateur radlo, Ctvtl Atr Patrol) that should make hlm an attractlve candidate.

First Time in

Classroom I4me Tfuinderstorm (BC) sent us this arttcb Jrom the Grand,e Pratrle, Alfurta Herald Tribune abut ller d,znâ&#x201A;Źhter, Leqf: When leaf Thunderstorm llrst saw her classmates taking notes she figured it was

weird. But that's understandable, The entlre formal classroom settlng was something unusual for her. "lt wasJust the whole experlence that was so strange,' says Thunderstorm, a l9-year-old Grande Prairie Regional College student. "l've never been talked to from the front of the classroom - it was welrd, werybody scribbling notes like crazy.' Thunderstorm ls well-practiced in taking notes now - her courses this semester include calculus, zoologl, and entomolory, and her grades, she says, are good. She's even sold her notes to a needy classmate. But last September, the beginning of her college education, marked the flrst time she'd been lectured by an lnstructor in a classroom with other students. Thunderstorm was homeschooled on her parents' remote farm about 685 kilometres northwest of Prlnce George, BC. ...

Thunderstorm decided she would go

to college because she'd neverbeen to

school and wanted to try tt, 'Bastcally, IVe it,' she says. 'I have a genulne lnterest. and I want to do as well as I can," But the adJustmentwas tougfr, and her name has been causing lts moments slnce she ffrst moved to the ctty. A game of catch near the beginntng of the year found Thunderstorm ln a conversatlon about her name wlth a cliassmate who dldn't know who shewas. ''Have you heard of this gfrl named ka{,'' says Thunderstorrr\ quotfueg her catch partner wtth a grln growlng on her face. ''She's some klnd of weirdo from way out ln the boonles.' -Then a couple days later: You're enJoyed

kafl' That was really funny,'

And wallidng lnto a classroom was tough for a shyyoung woman who didn't erren relish golng lnto a store full of people. She still gets hvinges of that fear sometimes before her classes start. "lt was a maJor culture shock the first two weeks. I was kind of walktng around in adaze,' she says. 'lt was a combination of gotng to school and belng on my own and livtng tn the c{ty - I've never llved in a

ctty.'

Thunderstorm says she's adjusted nowand intends to continue college next year, perhaps in southern BC. She hasn't ruled out pursulng a university degree. ...

In College - And Out

Morc stortes abrlft lwmeschmlers In

college

jom tle

Mag

l99l

lssue o/Mentor,

the neusbtter oJ tlle Home &llrcation Icague oJ Perrysburg: HELP member Franclne Llovd ls now

a freshman at Shlmer College

I[inois.

She began homeschooling at age 16, at the end of the first semester of her Junior year in high school. She descrlbes her home-

schooling days as Vonderful days of freedom in which I matured a lot. I took a monthJong trip out west; then I took acHng lessons and appeared ln several plays. I pursued lnterests that I really didn't have time for ln school." Then, at the end ofherJunioryear, she decided to apply to colleges. She did not take the SAT, ACT, or any other standardized test. She found out that Shimer College has an early entrance progftrm that accepts students who haven't flnished high school. She had an intervlew ln December, at whlch dme she was invited to be$n ln February. Then she was asked to go through the formality of applying. She began attending Shimer this past Febnrary, a half-year earlier than her schooled peers. Mitchell Ross of Delta, Ohio began homeschoollng when he was I L He spent his last three years of homeschooling as a student ln Clonlara School's Home Based Education Program, devoting much time to flnding out what he was good at. This turned out to be computers. He also worked for his father, who owns a construction company, and built a room addition. With the money he earned, he bought a computer. He took a computer programming course at Owens Technical College when he

was I 3 and another one at age 16. He earned college credtt for both courses. The only unusual requests made by the college were that he submlt a letter of recommendation from his prtnctpal and a htgh school transcrtpt, and that hts father attend the llrst class with htm. At age 16 Mttchell graduated from Clonlara, havtng earned 22 credtts. He then spent a year worldng as a computer programmer for a Toledo computer company and earned all the money he needed for hls llrst year of college. He took the ACT, and did so well that, based only on hts ACT s@ne, one college oflered hlm a full scholarstrlp. He was accepted at several colleges, but dectded to go to Messiah College ln Pennsylvanla. Mltchell ls now ln his flrst year, malntalnlng a B average with a l7-hour course load. ... Now thatyou know college ls definitely posslble for self-educated chtldren, you may wish to explore the quesHon, "ls college the best cholce for me?" HELP member Andy Endsley thlnks not, at least not In hls lmmediate future. Andy left school at age 14 and regrets that he wasted so nrany preclous years ln school. Now that he's been educattng himself for three years, he doesn't want to give up hls freedom to erplore the world around htm and choose his acdvities. He has been pursulng hls lifelong love of rriltary htstory, whtle worhing tn the fanrily buslness, and learning the sldlls of silk-screenlng, marketlng, financial rnanagpment" horseback rlding, film producdon, and acting. His rntlttary reenactlng in some maJor fllms has opened hfs thought to a career ln the motlon plcture lndustry. He says, 'I could nerrer have predicted several years ago that today I would be constderlng a career ln the motion picture tndustry. Nelther I nor anyone else could have created a program

that would have brought me to where I arn now. The course ofevents I have encpuntered is quite unlque, even though the process ts probably slmllar to that of others who have followed thelr lnterests. I believe that if I can present myself as someone who is lnterested ln and dedtcated to accompllshtng the work at hand, I'll make

it into that industry.'

New Student-Aid Rules La.rry kwack, admissions olllccr for Burlington College in Vermont {95 North Ave., Burlington VT O54Ol) and interested in applications from homeschoolers, told us about new rules whlch he had thought might affect homeschooled college applicants who apply for federal financtal aid. It turns out that the rules do not appear to have much ellect on homeschoolers, but we want to tell you a bit about what we learned, ln case you have been hearlng about the rules as well. The mles, which became lawas pa.rt of the Omnibus Budget Reconclllation Act and took elfect at the start ofthls year, require students who are applylng for linancial ald to have htgh school dlplomas or GEDs, or to pass one of twenty U.S. Department of Educadon-approved ability

Growing Wtthout Schooling #81

tests. Larr5r sent us an artlcle fmm the l/ 16,/91 lssue ofThe Clvonlcb oJ Htgher MrrcalTonabout these rules whlch sald,

'Lawmakers sald the provlslon would

decrease loans to studentswho were

In the World of Work Storles about Young People at Volunteer and Pald Jobs

unprepared to leam and more ltkely to

default on loans.' We were concerned about thls provlsion because we have always enJoyed betng able to tell homeschoolers that htgh school diplomas are not requlred for college admisslon (and tndeed the homeschoolers we knowwho have been admttted to Haward, Rlcc, the Rhode Island Schml of Design, and Boston Unlverslty have not had hrgh school dtplomas). It seemed as though the rule mlght have an unlntended dtscrtmtnatory effect on homeschoolers, not to menUon the fallactousness of lts tmpllct assumptlon that havlng a hfgh school dlploma makes a student more 'prepared to learn' or more ltkely to pay back a student loan. Thtnldng that homeschoolers mtght want to wrlte to the leglslators who had been involved wtth thts Law, we called the Federal Informadon Center number listed in the phone book's blue pages to flnd out which legtslators that would be. Thls lnformadon number seems to be a very useful servlce, by the way. The man we spoke with satd he would call the Department of Educatlon and get back to us. Later that day he called wlth the name of someone tn the Department for us to call. The representattve from the Department of &lucatlon explalned that these rules will very llkely not change anything for homeschoolers. for thls reason: the twenty Departrnent-approved tests whlch students who do not have a dlploma or a GED score can take lnclude the SAT and the ACT, tests whlch many colleges requtre anyway. Students who are routtnely taldng the SAT because lt ls requlred by the colleges they are applytng to don't have to do anythtng else to become ellgtble for federal Ilnanclal ald. Of course, some colleges do not requlre the SAT or the ACT, but homeschoolers who do not take elther of these tests, don't have a htgh school dtploma, and don't want to take the GED either, can still take the very basic test that the government offers, whlch sounds as though tt ls even more baslc, and much easler to pass, than any of the tests weVe Just mentioned. So the polnt ls, most homeschoolers won't have to do anything special to quality for federal ald, other than what they would have to do anyway to apply to the colleges they want to go to. In the few cases tn whtch a college doesn't rcquAe any tests at all and a student doesn't have a dlploma ora GED, taktng the government's baslc sHlls test doesn't seem llke tt wtll be much of a burden. It appears that thts râ&#x201A;Źguladon was destgned for people who left school early (dropped out, by the cronvendonal way of thinlidng, lnstead of homeschooltng) and now want to apply to trade schools that don't have many admlsslon requlrements. You may sUll want to protest the assumpUon that these people are more ltkely to default on their loan payments later on, but lt seems clear that the new reguladons are not going to allect homeschoolers much at all, kt us know lf you hear otherwlse or have a dlflerent Interpreta-

tlon. Growing Without Schooltng #81

Building Houses, Making

Quilts, Helping at Archaeological Dig

Pofficta Roberts of Cdorado sent us an artlcle thrrtt'ar daughter, Isra Le, wrote Jor the January / February 1 99 1 Issue

oj the Mountatn Home Journal:

On T\resday mornlng, my mom and I woke up at6:OOAM becausewewere golng to be volunteers for Habltat for Humanlty

ln Denver. Habltat for Humantty ls a volunteer organlzadon that butlds homes for low-lncome people. We had to be there by 8:3O.

Whenwe

arrlved, Galen gave us the Job of caulking the baseboards and doorJams. At llrst we had a hard time getdng the caulktng to go where wewanted tt. But by the dmewe finished caulking the four-bedroom house we were very good at lt. After we flnlshed caulklng we used a nall set where one person would set a nail lnto the wood and the other person would put wood putty on it. Thls house ls golng to awoman who ls a slngle parent wlth etght chlldren. I know they will enJoy the house desplte tts small size.

Pafficia nentlo'lcd that bra mokes qutl* Jor a ubtim asslstance prqrotn antd. tnlwteers lor an archaedogrcol dlg, We askd btra to te|x ts abrrut tlese actlvllTes, andsllewrcte:

People Comforts ls a non-profit organlzation that my mom and I volunteer for. People donate scraps to People Comforts and then the volunteers sew them together and glve them to the Shertffs Department, which in turn hands them out as needed to people who are ln need, In each patrol car we have two children's c'omforters to one adult's comforter. The volunteers also make mufls and bags contalning a washcloth, soap, comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, and sometimes shampoo or body lotion, which are glven out to homeless people. People Comforts ls located about flfteen mlles from where my mom and I llve. We go there wery Wednesday and work for a while. Then we take some materlal home and sew lt together througlrout the week to make a quilt. Volunteers are what make

organizations like this work. I had always been lnterested In going

to an archaeologtcal dtg and worldng, but either they were too far away from home or they cost a lot. But last year when I was I I we found out about Swallow Slte, which ts a dig about ten miles from where we hve. You don't have to pay for tt or anything. They provtde the tools and dl we have to do is brtng plenty of water and lunch. When I go to the dig I usuallywork wlth Charlotte, the paleontologtst, and my mother works in another section. I think it is a lot of fun. The dig is open on weekends (unless there ls bad weather) during the summer but they close durlng the wlnter.

What we do is go and get a trowel and

brush, and then get a cardboard box for our speciflc secdon ofthe dig. In the box are three cpflee cans taped together, whtch work ltke contalners, There ls one for flakes ofbone, another for chlps ofbone, and the thtrd for charcoal carbonate, wtrtch put slmply ls burnt wood. Also there ls a record book where we document larger bones, pottery, and tools that the prehis-

torlc Indtans used. To do ourwork, we take a trowel and

start scraplng the earth ln our quarter of the sectlon. Then lf we hlt somethlng hard we scrape around lt and then take our brush and gently sweep the dtrt from

around the obJect. When we get a ptle of dirt we scoop tt up and dump lt tn our dirt bucket. When our dirt buckets get full we take them up and stft them ln case we missed any bones. Most rocks areJust rocks but we have found stone tools, llke

grinding stones for grinding kernels, and ln one case we found three layers of rock which created a fireplace where the prehlstorlc lndians cooked thetr food.

The charcoal carborrate !s used to determlne how old everythlng tn that layer of dtggtng ls. When we ffnd the charcoal, we can'tjust plck tt up with our flngers because we would get oil from our flngers on the charcoal and that ls what alfects the canbondatlng, So tnstead we ptck lt up with our trowel and put tt tn an alumlnum fotl contalner tnstde the colfee can. When we llnd a bone, plece of pottery, tooth, or arrowhead that ts recognlzable (that you could put a name on by how tt looks), we take out our recprd book and measure from the north and west sldes of the section to our obJect. Then we write lt down ln the book wlth the depth, description, what number ltem lt ls and what sectlon lt was found ln. Then on the back of the paperwe draw a picture of it. We wrap the ltem ln a paper towel and put it in somethlng like a fllm contalner so lt won't break or become scratched.

lVriting for Newspaper In GIV|S I 76 ue publtsH a letter tlnt Jesse Rlclrurlrrn (PA) had wrllten to hls InaI tleusspoper aslcttg IJ he a uM whnteer tlerc. We reentlg aslaed Jesse tle neu spaper had. re spdd" ard

uletler le

u)tote: When I ltrst asked our newspaper about volunteertng, what I wanted was to help around the ofllce and go out u/tth reporters. Our local paper ls an understalled rural datly and they dtdn't feel that they would have anyone in the olllcc to help me and show me around. So I was put tn charge of wrtttn! up the actlvltles of our support group for "The School Page,' whtch ls wrltten by students at the varlous schools. They send ln stortes to be published. 'The School Page' was a way I could get my wrltlng lnto the paper, but lt wasn't exactly what I had asked for, or what I

wanted.

6 That does not mean that lt was dl bad. In the course of wrlttng storles for *The School Page," I learned how to use a 35mm camera, and I learned how to work under time pressure, somethlng very lmportant to reporters. What I have done, because I still want to go out on a story wlth a reporter, has been to contact a reporter I know

directly. I got a really nlce letter from a homeschooling liather who ls a reporter after I wrote to him. He works for a blg ctty paper and ts going to set up somethlng for me so I can go out on a story wlth either him or some other reporter he knows. Not all reportlng ls done by newspaper reporters, and I thlnk I recently cpmpleted a paper which took plenty of good r€porting. I visited some nearby locatlons and inteMewed thelr owners, and wrote off to far ones for lnformadon. My paper was for

the American Express Geography Compedtion. I hope lt won, but even tf tt didn't I will still have the satlsfacdon of knowing that I did research llke a real reporter, and that I am one llttle step closer to my goal of becornlng a Journalist. I think that I have made great strtdes in my abillty as an Interviewer. Last year I felt I couldn't think up questlons on the spot, so I almost never did, Instead I would write down my guestions beforehand. I still do that before lntervlews, but I also augment those questlons wlth others that I think up on the spot. Somethtng that I think helped me a lot ln developtng my

lntervlewing skills was the weekly International Student Nights at a local branch college. Each week a student from a forelgn country comes, does a presentatlon about his or her country, and answers questions for more than an hour. I try to ask many questions there and I thlnk that has improved my inteMewing.

Filming Commercial Marg fuksteln (ME) wrttes: We're into our second month of homeschooling and I thought ld letyou know about an lnterestlng experience Mtke (7) had last month. I a"t year, through a children's actlng class he was taking, Mtke was selected to do a publlc service TV spot at a local statlon. He subsequently acquired an agent who lets us know ofany auditlons he mlght be lnterested ln. So, last month he trted out for a local drrg

frffi#ffi,ffi _&fG( L'qd W

This parade leads to a new music course.,. Calvert Schol's new music courge on video is ideal for khdergarten through third grade etudent8. With adult guidmce, Melody Lane teaches basic music theory and appreciation. The yideo course is lively, entertaining, and of excellent quality. Both the material presented on video and that found in the 110-page guidebook have been written and researched by education and music profeesionals. The stmdards ofthe Day Sch@l md the reputation ofnearly 85 years in home instruction re your guarantee of academic excellence. Write or call for free infomation. cahHrSchool, Dort. GWSMLTUS€ny

Rd.. Baltinore, MD21210

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store commercial. He was verv calm about the whole thtng, talked wtth [he dtrector for a few mlnutes, and shook hands at the end.

Well, they called us a few days later and offered htm theJob. But then we found out we had to be on locadon at 4 AMI That meant getting up at 2:3O ln the momlng, It was really neat, though. He was treated the same way as the other adults ttrere were treated - as a professional, We had qulte a wait for his scene (three and a half hourst), but he handled it well. He played cards with the little girl who was ln his scene and asked a lot ofquestrons. When they shot his scene they dtd about ten takes so as to have somethlng to choose from, and through it all he uas patlent and oooperative. There were techniclans all over the plac.e and carneras and wlres, but belieye me, it was anything but $amorousl We got out ofthere at about 8:3O, and I asked him tf tt had all been too tedlous for htm, but he satd he really enJoyed lt all and was looking forward to the next dme. The thtng that struck me about all this was that thls was real life and Mike was doing what education ls supposed to prepare us to do - functlon ln the real world. Homeschooling has not made my life arry smoother, but tt sure has made things more krterestlng. Mtke ls much happier now and asks a great deal more quesflons than when he was tn school. As the days go by he watches less and less TV (many days none at all) and seems to rely more on amusements that involve mental conc€ntration. Currently he wants to play card games with anyone who will slt silll long enough. His favorlte g€unes are poker and glin rummy. He wants to learn brtdge but I don't know how to play so we'll have to find someone who does. I strongly suspect he ts gifted in the areas of math and sclence and it'sjust as well he can pursue these at home slnce our state Just put oll for another flve years any mandate to provide enrlchment opportunldes for gtfted and talented students.

Eaming Money at

Marg Goncarcv (NY wrltes: Alexandra (5) has been earnlng and saving money since last summer when she was 4. She is saving ficr a beauUful but outrageously expenslve castle (dollhousesize) that costs about $2OO. She admittedly has a good set-up due to our home buslness, a whole foods bakery. Our products are mostly marketed wholesale and through catalog sales, but we also retall at local farmers' markets. Alexandra mlxes up a batch of some*dng to sell, usually every week. She can make mulnns by herself from start to flnish. My only involvement ts telltng her what ls needed, since shedoesn't read vet. I also watch the ovens. She can also hake giant chocolate chip pecan cooldes, She likes to make these better than the mulllns because we sell them for 750 each (mufflns 5O+) and it ls easier to handle the dough for several dozen cookies as opposed to the six dozen mulllns our recipe makes. She does her set-up at the market and I require her to be present, selltng, for about an hour hut I'm not watching any clockl).

Sometlmes she glves samples lf buslness ls slow, but generally she greets each customer wlth an 'I made these.' People have developed an lnterest In how she ts dotng with her savlngs. The markets are long - tvro go from 9;OO-2:OO and one goes from 9:OO- l2:OO, so she does spend a lot of ttme playlng and vistttng with other market folk. She does handle enoug! ofher own money, though, that she has learned what quarterc, dlmes, nlckles, and pennles are and the dillerent

dollar denomlnatlons. She dellnttely

needs help maldngchange, but so do Il

Leftover mulllns can be dellvered to

our accounts but leftover cooktes usually are bartered or glven away. She does some

tradtng of her own. [.ast Saturday, for example, she dectded to spend her endre eamlngs on a backpack she loved (and needed). On her own she brought her llttle bag of money down to the rvoman selllng the backpacks. The woman helped her count lt but she hadn't earned enough yet, That led to negodadons wlth me about advanclng her money, whtch I agreed to. She went olf wlth $lO but returned once more, upset, because the backpackwas $14, So I had to get lrrvolved, The woman satd she'd take elther installments or $12. Alexandra ended up negouating for $lO plus two sweets from our table, whlch she then had to do a ltttle babysitdng of her slster for. A btt compllcated, but e\reryone nras happy. Aletrandra ls really able to bargaln but lt ls deflnttely helped by the liact that people are taken aback by her frankness and self-assurance given her slze and age. We are golng to start marketlng

another product as well. Several weeks ago Alexandra made beaudful potholders out of some of my many callco scraps and some batdng. She used rlckrack or blas rape for loops so she dldn't have to do any compllcated close sfltchlng and turntng. For thls proJect I do have to be dtrectly lrrvolved. She can cut the materials because I've made templates. She ts gettlng more adept at pinntng but I sttll check her work. But the sewlng machlne ls an obstacle. I have her slt on my lap whlle I work the knee pedal, and she gutdes. So she ls leaming to s€w, but I don't feel safe having her use the machlne herself, not to mentlon that lt ls not qulte posslble wtth the knee pedal. We trade my Ume for her tlme, She helps wtth household chor€s for the same amount of tlme I put ln on the sewlng proJects. I-ast year I dldn't subtract rnonry for her supplies because lt seemed dllllcult for her to understand, but thls year she ls paytng one quarter of her eamlngs to us for the c:ost of lngredtents of her baked goods. Before the end of thls year I wtll show her how we flgure thts out. As for the potholders I have plenty of scraps. The only ttrtng she will have to purchase for qutte a while

are materlals for the loops. Old blankets can also be used for batting. She ts developlng an eye for scraps and recycltng sktrts, etc., lnto proJects, For us, Alexandras experiencr wlth earning mon€y has already been valuable because we are a family wlthout lots of disposable lncome and Alexandra ls already leamtng to work for what she deslres and the value ofwork and rron€y.

Growtng Wthout Schoollng #81

7 She also has a savings account to which we add small arnounts every week. That ls for college or to get her started ln her adult ltfe when that time comes.

Teens Run

Thrift

Shop

Sarah Srnith wrcte ln tle March 1991 issue oJThe Grapevine, tle newsletter oJ tte Mtntlesota Homeschrcbrs Alltance: I am l7 and a homeschooler of nlne

years. My sister, Katle, ls 15. We bought a buslness a little over a year ago. It ts called The MercanUle Thrlft Shop. We work there

about seven hours aweek. In the sprlngand fall, when we change seasons, we work more hours ln order to move out fall merchandlse for sprtng or vlce versa. We sell clothes (werythtng you would wear from head to toe). We also sell curtalns and coolide cutters, dolls and dlshes, books and bikes. When a new consigfrer comes lrt, we give them a number and a copy of our consi€lnment policy. We look through the Items they have brought and keep what we think will sell. We then tag the items with their number and a price before dlsplaylng them ln the store. The conslgner ts pald 65026 of the money that thelr merchandise brings in. With the 35% thatThe Mercantlle makes, we have to pay electrlc and fuel bills besides advertislng and lnsurance. Whlle running the thrtft shop, we have leamed how to keep buslness records, deal with customers, and an added advantage of leamlng how to buy secondhand clothes at a very rleasonable price. Selllng the ltems

ls my favorite part. Somedmes you can see the dollar signs ln my eyes. I also enJoy meeting the people. We are located ln the coun\r. (Our store ls actually ln a remodeled barn.) Our lnvolvement ln The Mercantile has glven us an educatlon you Just don't get ln a classroom.

I destgned a six-lnch look-altke, whtch f.rt.ttI, my fourth chtld, named a Granny

We have a speclal room of homeeducatlng materlals. One of the familtes tn our home school group has a family bustness of rubber stamps. We have a selectlon of their products for sale, too. Stop in if you Erre near Hartland, Mlnnesota. We'd enJoy meetlng you.

Involving Kids in

Doll Business

Kristin Willtr;.lns Ml) wrltes: I make dolls that I sell to serreral stor€s. In the past I also sold at craft falrs. When the oldest of my slx chlldren, Jtlo, was I I and the fifth, James, was under l, I used to pay Jllo 2O96 of whatever I cleared at the craft fair to babystt James while I was gone. There were times when she made $ l5 or $2O and tlmes when she made $1.5o. I took Ife, then 9, wlth me to the fairs, and somedmes Ayanna, then 6, so there was someone to watch the table for me when I needed to take a break. I paid them somethtng too - less than Jllo got because they were getdng out ofthe house and golng somewhere. Sometlmes lfe would make handkerchief or clothespin dolls that I sold at my table.

When the Cabbage Patch madness hit,

Gouglefump, and also a slxteen-lnch lookaltke. (In fact, lt was because T\rlanl wanted a small doll made from stretch materlal that I dectded to try sculPtlng the facr and came up wlth the doll that has sold the best for me errer slnce. She must have been 4 at the ttme.) We werc swamped

wlth orders that Chrtstmas and for

months afterurard. The livtng r@m was a doll factory. At that time we weren't yet

homeschoollng. When they were home, erreryone except James, who was 18 months old, helped shrffarms, legs' bodtes. They wrapped yarn around books to get tt ready to be sewed for halr. We hadJust moved from Mlsstsstppl to Mlssourl and needed a lot of wlnter things for the farntly' whtch that money bought. The ktds got patd tn stlckers, and seemed to love lt. On Chrtstmas e\te we wereJust Bnlshlng up thetr dolls, whiich seemed rather funny. Thts pa.st Chrtstmas season, Ayanna' now 14, futant, 12, andJames, 9, helPed stulf dolls and wrap hair. Cabral, 3, helped stuff too, although someone had to go behtnd htm and stulT tt fuller. Ayanna also sewed twenty doll dresses and I gave her $l each, and Tulant made twenty clothespln dolls for what I get for them, $1.75. I mlxed them ln wtth the ones I made and they sold same. -lust the I ltke havlng the kids lnvolved. In fact, sometlmes I wouldn't have a doll business without them. Some of the ktds are more lnvolved than others. Some, llke Ife and T\rlanl, enJoy maldng thtngs.

Others like making mon€y.

clortLc-R.cr scYllol Home Based Education Program Creals your own homo Echool currlculum wlth the holp of Glonlara Homa Base<l E<lucalfon Program, lhe wall-balanced home $chool program offerlng flexlble or slandard approach. Scho<.rl

"Cllonlara slresses nranipulative haning lools and real'llte experiences ln pllge oJ endless wor.lboolery....You creale ygur own individualieed program wilh lhe help of tho Clonlara curriculum,The Clonlara slatf ls avallable lo anewer quostlons ovor lhe Dhone or bv mall. Any concornr famlller have whlch rolals lo homs oducAtlng can be

addrsssdd.

Clonlara graduatas recolvo our prlvalo school dlploma and lull lranscrlplt. Clonlara graduatos have gone to collegee ahd unlversltler, to mllltary reMco, lo lhe mlnl3lry and lnlo lhe work force.

Clonlara atlends to all of lhe admlnlrtratlve dutles assoclatod wlth homo oducallno wlth and fol our onrolloos. We know the regulatlons In ovory stato and counlry, wo handlo conlacts befiareen schoot otllclall and our onrolloos. Thal leavas parenls froe lo ailond lo thelr home oducallng.

'Mary

Pride's

Ris Bnnt nf llnms

1289 Jewett

Ann Arbor, Mlchlgan 4810{

Growing Without Schooltng #81

l-earninc

Pat Montgomery, Ph.D. (313) 769-4515

Dlrector

Challenges

Concerns

Blind Mother Homeschools In a recert issue of tle Pennsylvanla Homeschoolers newsletter, un saw that Debbie l-euts (717-387-1362) ls listed as tlre contact person Jor blind lomesclwlers. We asked,Debble to tellus sonethtng abut Ivr eryerience and, the paficularlttes oJ honeschrcltg as ,a blttd. parent: We're homeschooling because we

thlnk it's the best thing for our kids rlght

now. I saw my oldest chlld, who is now I l, not doing well in school, falltng between the cracks. As long as he was a good boy they'd give him C's and send hlm on

through, even though he wasn't learnlng much. It trrltated me that he needed someone to spend tlme helptng htm learn, but no one had time. Hts fourth grade teacher told me that he would need someone to go over things with him agaln at home, and I thought why should we do lt agaln, why not Just do it the first dme. We took hlm out of school for lifth grade. Our mtddle chtld, Jay, ls 9 and has been in school thls year, but he'll start homeschooling next year. Sarah is 7 and has been at home. One of the most important things for me is making sure that I have as many materials as possible ln Braille. I'm a very Braille-oriented person, because I've been blind since birth. IfSarah ls readtng aloud to me, it's helpful for me to have a Brallle edition of the children's book so that I'm able to follow along. I tried to use materlals without a Braille book, but she had to spend so much time spelling things out to me that lt got frustrating for both o[us. We get books from the local Brallle lendtng library, and also from the American Brotherhood for the Blind tn California. They have a very good print-Braille library. The books have Braille on one page, and print on another page, so you can read along with your chtld. I've fiound that a magnetic board with plastic letters and numbers is very helpful. I can use the letters to lntroduce new words, and we've used the numbers for math. I can feel them as well as the ldds can see them. I have a machine called an Optacon - lt raises print letters so that blind people can feel them. I use that quite a btt to read directions at the top ofworksheets, and to read homeschooling publicatlons when I have time, although it's slow going, only about 4O-SOwords a minute. I used it to read through an issue ofthe Pennsylvania Homeschoolers newsletter, but that took one whole Saturday. It would be nice if there were volunteers who would read homeschooling publications onto tapes. Maybe older children would like to do this. Thcre's a law that gives free rnailing privileges to people who are mailing recorded material for the blind, so people would Just have to write "free rnatter for the blind; on the envelope. I do get support from homeschooling groups. I am geographically between two support groups, so I'm part ofboth ofthem. People are Mlling to stop by and take me to these meetings. My husband is partially

sighted, so nelther of us drlves. We get around on a two-seater btcycle, and now weVeJust gotten one with three seats. I think as the chlldren get older, homeschoohng wtll actually get easler, because they will be able to read more on thelr own, and to go placcs. They'll be able to rlde thelr btkes to the scout meetlng or to arrange their own rtdes. It won't lnvolve as much calling atound for rldes on our Parts. A great resource for music materials is the Library SeMces for the Bltnd, which is part of the Library of Congress, The numberis l-8oO-424-affi7. They have catalogs of music materials avatlable to the blind for free loan for three months. IVe borrowed their'Play the Reconder By Ear" ctlurse, and chtldren's music.

Son

with Cerebral

Palsy

Laueme Regnolds oJ Flortda

'.r.l.rltes:

Myyoungest son, Stephen, has Cerebral Palsy and is learning disabled also. I have only begun our home education program this semester, and began at my son's insistence. IVe had several friends ln the past who've been interested in home education and discussed thls wtth me so off and on through the years I consldered the possibilig of teachlng my children, but always ended up believtng I Just couldn't do it. Two things happened at about the same time to change my mind: (l) One day Stephen came in and asked, "Please teach me at home 'cause I don't ever want to go back to that school or on that bus.' (2) My dear friend, Ginny, answered my cornment that I couldn't teach Stephen by replying that I already had been foryears. I had been working with Stephen each evening for three to live hours in order to help him keep up with his class so that he wouldn't have to be put lnto a Special Ed. class. As she pointed out, after years of this,

homeschooling should come naturzrlly. Stephen was tormented unmercifully at school, and even more so on the bus. He has had his glasses broken, his coat torn off him, and his things stolen. We became regulars at the local emergency room. Meanwhile, our older son, Cory, was going

through similar problems, constantly

coming home with bruises. The situation with Cory worsened to the point that we also pulled him out of public school a few weeks after Stephen. Things are so much more peaceful and happy now that we homeschool. Stephen is leamlng better - he was a mostly "D' student before and now is a mostly "E|" student on the same type of curriculum. I don't go along with 'unschooling'as I have heard some describe it. I feel that all children need to be actively taught and especially so a chtld like Stephen fcr whom leaming takes so much more effort. We expended so much tlme and energ/ to teach him things like speech, crawllng, walking, and even eatlng that I cannot see how we could not devote as much if not more to helping him learn reading, writing, language, math, etc. We work at

Stephen's pacâ&#x201A;Ź and we work when and as he feels able. When he ts having'stlent seizure actlvlty' and ls "spacey,' we Just take a day or trvo off. On those days, I encourage htm to try to read, though. Stephen loves belng ln a home educadon program and gets frtghtened lf anythtng ts satd that he tnterprets as talking about gohg back to school. I think lt ls necessar5r to state that we are not from a bad school dlstrlct. It ls a poor dlstrlct, but my children have been blessed wtth really good teachers, understandlng counselors, and warm, lovlng admlnlstrators. Incidentally, I was worrled about the râ&#x201A;Źaction of the school board when I pulled my chlldren out, but they couldn't have been nicer or more helpful, The only negatlve comment that we have encountered so far has been the oonc:em that we might not be doing what the chlldren want. Oncr assured by them, the district has given us lOO96 support. Stephen is 12 but looks and acts like 8 to lO. The part of his brain that ts damaged is the rear sectlon, which means that he has deflnite problems with cogntdve skills and perceptlon. He has no sense ofcause and effect, and has delayed gross motor skills and badly damaged fine motor skills. However, we feel he is doing super since he was ortgfnally diagnosed as uneducable. He didn't do anything unttl he was 13 months old, when he could llnally sit up and roll over in his bed. I had a teacher who came lnto our home from the tlme Stephen was 7 months old to work wtth him and to teach us exerclses, etc. By 2 he was both walldng and talking, even though maybe not very well. Some thtngs came slowly, others still haven't come. We use the computer a lot ln Stephen's school work. I have quite a few publlc domain and shareware proglr:ams that teach him math, En$ish, geography, and hlstory. He does much better typtng than handwriting. He now writes to pen-pa.ls from GWS. He has heard from a pen-pal who was a premie and has had to have physical therapy, occupadonal therapy, and speech therapy. It helps him to know that there are others who are also struggling to learn.

More on Homeschooling

with Toddlers

Laurc Oclnrt of CaltJornIa urttes:

I'd ltke to add a few comments to the letters ln GWS #79 and #8O on homeschooltng wtth toddlers. I can sum tt up in two words: be flexlble. I have a 9 year old and a Tyear old, both boys, and a2 | /2year-old daughter and a 2-month-old son. I'll admit that, lately, IVe become very discouraged - ln fact, GWS #8O came atJust the rtght tlmel It ts hard to try and do anything, really, on a râ&#x201A;Źgplar basls with little ones ln the house. I've found t]lat some days Mandy, the toddler, wants to be wlth us, so on those days I gtve her a'workbook'or scissors and paper, or something else to keep her occupied whlle the boys are worklng wtth me on their academics. Other days, or wen parts of those same days, she wants to sit on my lap or be somewhere else in the house, doing goodness knows whatl What I have found to be the best solutlon for most days is to harre one of the boys play with her while I work with the other, then they swltch, usually several tlmes. Thls glves me tlme to work wlth them tndtvldually, whlch ls one reason that we're dotng thts whole thlng. It also g[ves the boys a break ln thelr studles, and teaches them about caring for llttle ones part of farnlly llfe, ln our house at least. I don't know how lt's all gotng to work when the baby is more actlve and I have two toddlers to work wlth plus two older ones. Mainly, weJust have to be fledble and kecp in mind that we are dolng the rtght thing, for our family, by homeschoollng. Now that I thtnk about lt, I thlnk I need to add somethlng to my'be flexible' approach - don't sweat the small stuff. It all gets done errentually. I belteve that my sons arâ&#x201A;Ź learning things, llke how to be part of a famlly and how to be good fathers, that are maybe more lmportant than how to diagram a sentence.

No Support from Family fubbte Hscoll oJ Washbtgton writes:

In response to 'Critical Relatlve' in GWS #79: No one ln my or my husband's

family supports our homeschooling

efforts. My mother said, "lt wouldn't be quite so bad tf you were uslng textbooks and a curriculum, butyou don't do anything.' (Our chtldren are tme self-dlrected leamers, ages 3, 3, and 5.) My mother{nlaw said, 'l hope you have enough sense when lt doesn't work to sdck them back ln

school.' From my grandmother: 'You can't

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my open-minded mother-ln-law sald, when I asked tf she wouldn't conslder read.ing some books by John Holt, 'l could read all those books and I sdll wouldn't change my mind.' I couldn't reslst asldng, "But what if homeschooling works?" She said, "l don't care if it works, tt's sttll a terrlble ldea." Actually, witl. those ktnds of minds, It's a relief not to discuss ltl

Itke them. I'm nicer now but you can't help being mean when you're tn schml and everyone is being mean to you." Havlng been there yourselfleaves no room for selfrigfrteousness. I'm not salng a chtld should be sent to school for ttrls perspectlve; obviously I'm not chooslng to expose my younger daughter to the experience. I am saying that no expertence, lncludlng we'rt especlally lf we're school, Is all negatlve, espectally tL willing to learn n from lL What about all of us homeschooling parents with twelve to slxteen or more years of schoollng under our belts, whose curiosity and lnterest ln learnlng has been totally revlved after homeschoohng our chtldren for a few years? I for one had a very dilllcult tlme ln school; I could easlly have been one of the children John Holt describes ln How ChMren Fail, Yet I have been amazed at what has been happentng to me in the last year or so. I have dlscovered meaning and excltement tn learning about hlstory, muslc, art, and erren mathemadcs that I had never before experlenced. The abtltty to heal ls part of our human nature. and the freedom and selfdetermining nature of homeschooling are extremely powerful ln malidng the space for that healing to happen.

From School

ber:

do that, you're not a teacher.- And from my

father-in-law: 'lt's a craz5r experiment, you don't know if it's going to work, and what gives you the right to try your radical ideas on our grandchildren? You are rulnlng their lives.' Another grandmother: "What if your kids hate you for lt when they grow up?" My father said, "How will the kids learn if they don't go to school?' My aunt said, consoling the mother-ln-law, 'It's one of those craz5r ideas. kt tt run tts course, let them get it out of their system.' (lncidentally, both the mother-in-law and aunt are teachers, and even the simplest notes from them are riddled with spelltng, grarnmar, and punctuatlon errors.) Of course all this was ayear ago, when the relatives were still speaking to us. Nowadays they are so ticked offat our determination to go through with homeschooling, they refuse even to discuss lt. As

to Homeschooling Judg Kondo (CA) wr-ttes:

I have two daughters: one attended school for two years, the other not at all. Sanayo, who attended school, had some very unhealthy experiences there, and I, like Riada Roch IGWS #781, spent most of my tlme wtth her helptng her rellve, expr€ss, and release the patn she brought home each day. Once we started homeschooling I felt I

could see the reversal ofthose negative experiences taking place from the very beginning. She absolutely reJoiced ln her freedom from day one, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a process she had to go through to heal herself. Like the Roch children, she seemed to need to go over and over the incidents of disrespect and humiliation she suffered. Even now, three years later, I recently observed her and a new homeschooling friend trading tales of mean teachers and punishments at school. I'm sure ifs a way to r€program those lncidents from ones ln whlch she was made to feel bad and alone into ones in which she knows she is good and has the support ofa new lifestyle and understandlng, respectful friends to back up her new belief of herself. Sanayo shows all the benelits of homeschooling but retains a priceless realism and understandtng that her perspective as a once-schooled child has given her. For one, she is intensely appreclaUve ofand grateful for her chance to be homeschooled. For another. her vlew of schooled children is much more tolerant than that of many homeschooled children I've met. At a re-cent homeschool park day the children ln our group were troubled by the hostility of some school children also at the park, and some of them, including my younger daughter, were talldng about 'those mean school lidds.' On the way home, Sanayo conlided to us, "I used to be

Hollg Sholtz MA) turcte last

Nouem-

I have been homeschoolteg my boys, 9 and I l, for seven months now. My older son, who is very sensltive, suffered greatly from six years of publlc school, His expertence taught him to believe himself lncapable of writtng, and he refuses to belleve that anythtng which can be labeled tn his mind as "learnlng'could be fun. Holly urote agaln In AprX Christopher is showing small but defisisns of improvement. Around Christnite signs mas he acquired a small notebook and began using it to wrlte blow-by-blow accounts of avery complex game he made up based on the Myth serles ofbooks by Robert Asprln. He made up halfa dozen teams, mmpllcated scorlng procedures, and game schedules that rtval the NFL tn complexit5r, much of which he put on paper. In addttion, he purchased a starter set ofDungeons and Dragons books, and began to write adventures for his characters in a small way. Thanks to these developments, I have a little more to wrlte ln my quarterly reports for the superintendent, especially if I can educate myself to see all the math in those rolls of the dtce in D&Dl Then, Just yesterday, there was another breakthrough. We have a set of Britannica encyclopedias which don't get used as often as I would like, consldering how much we paid for them, as lt ls somethtng of a paln to llnd Just what you're looktng for. Jon, my younger son, checks them reluctantly for subjects we don't have separate books on. Chrtstopher had never used them at all. Then, yesterday, as he worked on an imaglnary company (on paperl) that has an enviable proflt margin, he needed to know the names of big numbers that come after one trillion. I suggested he try the encyclopedia, and told him to start with the index - and he didl Not only that, but he stuck wtth it for a

good ten or llfteen mlnutes, wtth offand on

help from me and my husband. Ffnally, rrrv husband found the answer In a Tliesaurus after our blg dicUonary and the encyclopedlas drew a complete blank. I was so pleased that Chrtstopher was lnterested enough ln somethlng to pursue lt thatway and it happened to be one year to the day shrce hls last day of schooll My younger son suMved nearly four years of schooling wtth his natural deslr,e to learn only dented, because he ls allected very ltttle by what other people thtnk about hlm. Chrlstopher, on the other hand, ls extreme$ sensltlve to emoflonal atmosphere, and uras dtsturbed by klndeqgarten wtth a pretty good teacher and nearly destroyed by llrst grade wtth a very bad teacher. The next three and a halfyears, though he had better teachers than the dtsastrous llrst grade one,Just added to the cumulatlve negadve effects of school on hls emotlonal and lntellectual well-betng un$l, when I took htm out ofschool, he hated anythtng that looked llke school or learntng, and trts only refuge from all thls was hls "kgo World' and a very few books that he read over and over a€laln. In fact, he wls so depressed that we took hlm to a counselor, whom he sdll sees weekly. It ts not an exaggeraUon to say that he was close to being sulcldal. I don't know lf dme and release from schoollng of any sort wlll restore to my kids that total zest for learntng that belongs to ktds untouched by school and other negative lnfluences. But tn my experlence lt takes far less of my tlme and emotional energl to give my kids freedom at home to recuperate from school than tt took to support them emotlonally and tn-

tellectually through the severe trtals thry whtle attendlng school. Wthln two weeks of havlng them home full fime, there was such an lmprovement tn thetr outlook on life, thelr relatlonshtp wlth each other, their wtlltngness to talk things out tnstead of fight or withdraw, that tt brlngs tears,to my eyes now as I thtnk of tt - but tears of lov. not despair. I have been reltesed and fac.ed

"nurturea, not depleted and exhausted, by havtng my ktds home full-Ume.

Are We Abandoning Schools? Ftrom Kristfrra Felfuck o;f Mbnesota:

How do we homeschool and sdll fulllll our obllgation to the larger soclety, speclflcally to the public schools? lf the letters to GWS are any lndlcation, most homeschoolers are educated, caring, thoughtful people whom publtc school prlnctpals would give their right arms to have as parents. Even lf we have made prlvate declsions to educate our children at home, these prlvate declslons lmpa.ct the larger community. Whatare GWS readers doing vls a vis their local schools? If there ls Itttle gotng on ln terms of volunteerlng or trrvolvement on school cornrnlttees, should there be more? For me, these quesuons

continue to pose the btggest stumbling block to permanently removlng my chlld from publtc school. O:ur Jatnilg ls lnvolved in the school, and when we wlthdraw we are withdrawing not only a child but also two acdve parents who both volunteer ln the classroom on a weekly basls.

Growlng Wthout Schoollng #81

Watching Children Learn Loving Mechanical lVork More

tngton:

trcm Debbie Hscoll oJ Wash-

Our three boys (ages 3, 3, and 5) love taking apart old radlos, clocks, phones, exploring the gadgets and gears, worklng with tools. What proJects, ktts, or companies have familtes found that provtde hands-on, open-ended mechanlcal proJects? TheyVe outgrown Lego and Construx, and we'd love to llnd somethlng with gears, pulleys, motors, stmple electronlcs, thlngs to butld and take apart

and build dillerently.

I expect as they get older they wtll progress to model tnalns, radlo controlled models, electronics proJects, and woodworklng. But safety lssues and lack of llne

motor coordination make many proJects inappropriate now, for the 3 year olds especially. What mechanlcal proJects have other liamilies used wlth very young ktds? I'm also curious lftherâ&#x201A;Ź ls a sequence/ pr_ogression ln such leamlng. All our boys take things apart, but show no lnterest ln putting things back together. What can other famllles share about steps ln thls learning area? I'm fasclnated watchtng them, and would love to know what's tn store so we can have the rlghtJunk around for them to 'mess wtth," as John Holt calts

it.

The boys have no interest ln any arts and crafts projects whatsoever. Stmple wooden models and plastic car models don't appeal to them. They don't ltke cutting, gluing, colorlng, palnting, or anything else remotely artsy-craftsy. But they do love tools and the mechantcal wo!d. Tfrey know exactly what they prefer, and we don't try to change them or steer them in other directlons. (One nelghbor announced, 'lt's not normal for kids not to

like crafts proJects.J

They also show no lnterest in fantasv play or make-belteve, so building ltttle cities, creating scenarios for characters, etc. are also out. They don't like fantasy stories, either, like plrates or science flction or-anything like that. ffhe same netghbor told me, 'lt's not normal for klds nol to play dress-up and pretend.') But our boys are rooted in the real world, and are especially drawn to the mechanical world. Atageg Lane spent hours as we read every word from the David Macaulav llnder- ground., Cas tb, atd Cathedral-books, gazing especially fondly at the pages wlth

the tools and making us natne them over and over and over. At age 5, when we attempted readlng some popular fantasy stories, [.ane stopped us after a few pages and said, "This couldn't really happen, Mommy. kt's read somethlng else." We do shop at garage sales for old lunk to take apart, but don't always flnd things, and the boys go through it so [ast. And when the 3 year old rushes over to the workshop table first thtng in the morning, grabs his screwdriver, and cries, "l want something to take apart,- it would be nice to have somethlng to offer. It's especlally

Growing Without Schooling #81

hard to keep up now that all three boys, not Just the oldest, parttclpate. Money-wlse lt would be nlce to have somethlng that can be re-used over and over, offerlng many opportunldes for learnlng and dlscoverlng, llke Lego when they were younger, One mornlng we dlscor.rered lane (then 4) had gotten up early and taken the phone apart (fortunately tt was an extenslon that wasn't plugged tn). Lane's typtcal nesponse when someone glrrcs hlm a glft or toyls 'Can I take tt apart?'When we werc shopplng for a car, I-ane clknbed around ln the showroom models and began unscrewlng vartous caps, screurs, and covers. 'IfI had my scrennCrlver I could really take thls car apart,'he told one salesman. The salesman chuckled but nrc crlnged, envlslonln! the results. We are real strlct at home about tools sta)dng only on the proJect table. The boys are grâ&#x201A;Źat proof that John Holt's ldeas about people learnlng by messing arour.rd wtth equipment, gadgets, etc., wlthout spectflc dlrectlons or demonstratlons, really do work. Our homeschooling ls self-dlrected tn the most extreme sense. We supply the boys wtth tools, Junk, a work table, and safet5r rules, then Just turn them loose. We don't help unless spectllcally asked, and never show or answer more than the bare minlmum. If they need a screw loosened, they ask us, and remlnd us loudly, 'ButJust get tt started, I'll do it the rest of the way.' If they ask what the name of a tool ts, or what dois this dial do, or why the wlres are different colors, we tell them. In this way they have taught themselves a lot about tools, gears, pulleys, translstors, electrtctt5l, and mechanlcal things in general. We never say, *Ttme for sclence' or 'I-et's learn about electrlcttv' or -This ls occupadonal education." The leamlng happens as they particlpate ln the thlngs they love doing. It's such fun to watch them experlment. One of the 3 year olds carne across a wlre ln a clock radlo he wanted broken. F\rst he tried to hammer lt, then he trted to poke tt wlth the screwdriver, then he plnched with the wire cutters, but was too weak to squeeze ttght enough. Ftnally he bent it around with the pliers and hvtsted tt undl it broke. I could've sald, "Use the wlre cutters, thls way,'but he leamed awhole lot more by trial and error his own way. I jokingly tell people, when they ask, 'How is the homeschooling gotng?' (you can tell by their tone of volce that they expect horror stories), that the less I try to teach, the more the boys learn. Then they really do look horrified. But it really works. The more I back off, the bett6r thev do. The more I butt out of their lives, the more they discover on their own. [SS:l One good source of materials,

from our lrarning Materlals List, ls

Edmund Scientl{ic Co, lol E Gloucester Pike, Barrington NJ O8OO7. The catalog cost $l a while ago: you might add a litile more since costs have likely gone up. Also, what lf you let it be known around the neighborhood that your boys were lnterested ln people's old clocks, phones, and so on? Nowadays people don't tend to

do much more than throw away such thtngs, and they mlght be happy to gtve them to ktds who would appreclate thern-

For that matter, maybe there are mechanically lncltned people close by whom your klds could watch and help - lt doesn't have to be people who do thts for a ltvtng (although a blg shop wtth lots of tools and people at work mtght be very exctttn$, but could stmply be people who work wtth thts klnd of stufr and wouldn't rntnd havlng lidds around (all three litds wouldn't have to be there at the same tlme, necessartly).

Subconscious Learning DIatE lt'Icfllrrlrr &lngson wrltes:

Ohb

We are ofBctally homeschoolers now, after four years of thtnklng, readtng, and debadng. Our son, Shaun, wanted to go to ldndergarten very badly and he dId when he was 6, but about halfway through the year he satd he thought he mtght ltke to homeschool, but he wanted to finlsh out the year because there was a blg party at the end. I'm not sure the party was worth tt to hlm, but he has been home slncr Mav and has not mlssed school a btt. We've been dolng orlgaml offand on fior about a year now. Shaun became lnterested in lt after learntnS how to fold a varlety of paper airplanes. He saw a $2O ortgarnl kit at our favorlte bookstore, but I thought tt was too expensive, so we got a children's origaml book at the ltbra4r. We did some work with tt, but tt didn't hold our lnterest for long. A month or so later I Iooked tn the adult sectlon of the ltbrarv and found OrlganiOmnlbus.We urcre b6th deltghted wtth tt. There ls a whole sectlon of origamt dinosaurs that really look ltke dlnosaurs, other anlmals, sc.enes, and beauttful color photographs. There are also detailed explanatlons of the geometry of origaml. Thts ts not a simple book, and we were not experlenced paper folders, but lt didn't seem to matter to Shaun. We d start one of the dinosaurs and go as far as we could wtth the dtagrams, passlng the paper back and forth, helptng each otherwhen we were stumped, talktng about how the fold was ltke somethtng we had already done. Inevltably, we'd get stuck and no matter howwe studied the diagramwe couldn't flgure out what to do. Ftnally, we'd Just close the bmk and walk away. I know I didn't thlnk about origaml while I was gone, and I doubt Shaun did etther. Usually the next day we'd ptck lt up again, look at the diagram, and almost immediately know what to do. It was as if our subconsctous had worked out the problem or clari{led the questlon while we went on to other thtngs. It reminded me of struggling wlth essay tests ln college only to come up wtth the perGct answer a day later whlle I was drivlng around in my car. Trying to measure knowledge by a test done in a limited amount of time doesn't allow for the fact that our minds work at their ourn Pace.

One of the tdeal thtngs about homeschoollng for Shaun ls that he Is dellnitely

L2 a night person (he has been thatway since birth) and his year of ldndergarten wlth

early momings was torture for trlrn He likes to get up and move slowly until almost mid-morning and wants to do solltar5r acttvitles ltke drawtng, playlng wlth kgos, or watching publtc TV. I thtnk he found it quite Jarring to go out to the bus

stop at 8: l5 with neighborhood kids who

were quick to tease and crltlclze, then move through a busy mornlng at school. In the evenings now we do our proJects and often read until I l:3O. He ls In his prlme then, and his brother ts tn bed orJohn (Dad) ts home to help out, so lt ls ln many ways an ideal (if odd) tlme.

Shaun desperately wanted to read this fall and we made some stabs at lt. We ordered both sets of the l-adybtrd readers from John Holt's Book and Muslc Store and he read them pretty easily. After that I scoured the libraries for some more very easy readers (there aren't rnany). He read these willingly for a whlle, then dtdn't want to read them anymore, so I Just let tt go. He seemed confused by phonedcs and too impatient to take the time to sound the words out. Christmas preparations started and we forgot about readlng. In early Januar5r he again said he really wanted to read, so I suggested that for now he read one book aloud a day. I was surprised at how much more easily he could dec.ode a strange word now and how much more obvlous phoneUcs were to hirn I trted to get as relaxed and slow as I cpuld be whtle he read so that he didn't get any sllent messages from me about having to hurry through soundingwords out. We're reading the same Ladybird readers again, because he seems to need somethlng that is easy to build his conlidence again. He's still impatient to be able to read anything he

wantsl

Learning German Christopter McKee NV| rurites:

kaming a foreign language as a homeschooler is not as hard as some people might think. In 1989 I found out that the choir I am a member of was golng to Germany in 1990. My parents had been considering startlng me ln a forelgn language, and this was all the lncendve they needed to help me get started. Mom started looking lnto the Concordia I-anguage Villages. They are language irnrnersion carnps. The counselors do not speak to you in Engllsh. They only speak to you in the language taught at that village, This looked like somethlng that would be fun. That summer my family took a fourday vacation to get me to BemidJi, Minnesota, where my camp was located. When I arrived I could not speak a word of German, and when I left after the ten-day session I could understand a good bit and speak a few basic phrases. When I returned home from camp I wanted to contlnue wtth German. I had done very well with it and was very interested in the language. Mom talked to a friend whom we have known for years who has helped us out with problems ln the past. She told us o[a retired German teacher she knew who mtght be able to help. When Mom gave the teacher a call she

sald she would not be able to teach me, but she might know someone who could. A few days later she called us back wtth the narnes of a few tutors ln our area. The tutor we called, Sophie Zerhmulen, sald that she urould be able to take me on as a prlvate student. Thts whole arrangement worked out very well. I was able to go to her tn the momlng for half an hour hvlce aweek. Durlng thls tlme I began to thtnk about golng to German camp agaln. Mom and Dad sald that they could not allord to send me to both camp and Germany ln the cornlng year. I dectded to pay for camp myself, I was faced with the problem of comlng up with $5OO by the next summer. I tumed to dellvertng the mornlng paper. As luckwould have lt I found a perfect route

that got me to camp.

When lt came tlme to go to Gerrnany in June of l99O I had had about one and a half years ofGerman and was spealdng well enough to get by. On the cholr tour I stayed with a German famtly for two days. Getttng to hear the conversatton that took place among them helped me with my Gerrnan. I picked up a lot of past tense know-how. Right after I got back from Germany I went back to my second sesslon at German camp. It was nlce to have more of an idea of what was going on, and to be able to understand better what was being sald. One of the other nic.e things was that the counselors remembered me. When it came tlme to start up with Sophle again in the fall of 199O, Mom started looking at our budget for the year and saw that going to Sophie cost more than we thought. Mom asked Sophie tf I could join her class at the high school instead of being a private student. Sophie had been htred part-Ume and thought that she might be teaching my level of German. She said I could Join her class. All the arrangements went very smoothly. As it turned out Sophie was teachlng classes that were one year ahead of me. I was assig;ned to a different class. On the lirst day of school I showed up for my class, The {Irst thing I leamed was that I was way ahead of werybody tn the class except the teacher. A few weeks into the year we dectded that I was wastlng my tlme and I went back to taking prlvate lessons from Sophte. My parents were able to pay for private German lessons again because I had been taktng vlolln lessons, but they had been very trytng because of the tlme involved and we dectded to drop them. After I dropped vlolin lessons my parents could allord to have me go back to prlvate German lessons. I am still working with Sophie. Every T\resday and Thursday I go over to her house and spend about forly-flve minutes wlth her. This has been a convenient way to get the foreign language study that I need.

Guest on TV Math Show Flom Lbda Ozler (MN: Owen (12) has been partlclpating ln a contest sponsored by Cablevtston of Boston and the Boston Publtc Schools' OIIIce of Curriculum and Instructlon. On Monday and Wednesday aftemoons, from 3 to 6, ln a program called EXTRA HELP,

Channel 23 provldes homework help tn mathemattcs, from elementary or general math through Algebra Il. Students call tn wtth thelr math quesflons and vratch the soludons betng worked out on TV. The teachers come prepared wlth toplcs to cover ln case no one has any quesdons that day. In addttlon, the flnal half hour ls devoted to preparatlon for the math

portion of the SAT.

Thls ls where the contest comes ln' At the end of the SAT prep program, the teacher wrltes two questlons on the board that have appeared on prevlous SATs. Students are supposed to call tn their answers. The llrst student to call tn and answer both quesflons correctly wins a scientlflc calculator. Then. each tlme thereafter that that student calls tn wtth the correct answers (not necessarily llrst), he or she accumulates \ylns.'Once he or she has answered both quesflons correctly ten tlmes, the student ts lnducted tnto the EXTRA HELP Hall of Fame and ls invlted to appear on the program. Owen was the flrst student to be tnducted thts year. He was thrtlled when he won hls calculator in December and excited and nervous when he appeared on the show in Februar5r, though outwardly he seemed pretty relaxed. The teacher and the crew were all espectally lnterested in meeting him, because he is a homeschooler and younger than their target group (high school Juniors and senlors). No one called tn wlth quesdons the half hour that Owen was on, so after he answered a few questions about hlmself and about homeschoollng, he spent the rest of the dme on the air working algebra and geometry problems that the teacher gave him, explaining them as he worked. I was impressedl Owen had such a good time that he asked if he could be on the show again after his twentieth correct call. The producer had no problem with that, so tf all goes well he'll make a return vlslt. And to think I once worried about a shy little boy who never wanted to perform tn public. Since Owen showed an aptttude for math fairly early and hated drtll (and seemed to necd very llttle of tt), he did not

leam arlthmetic from any textbook serles.

His dad or I would make up a few problems for hlm regularly, and what drtll he drd was ln the form of Math Blasters, a comPuter game. I used the school system's curriculum gulde as a checklist for sktlls and topics that he needed to have or know. By the ttme he was tn sixth grade (last year), I felt he had done about all the arithmetic he could stand, so he started studlng algebra (Algebra One, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). The structure and the need to be systemadc ln solving problems

was dlfficult for hlm as a free-spirtted intuitive problem-solver, but he perswered because he wants very much to be part of the space program and that means studying lots of math and science. Though he didn't llntsh the book last year - our tmpendtng move from Vtrgtnla to Massachusetts brought schoolwork to a screechtng halt tn Aprll - he went on to geometry

tn the fall. Fortunately hls geometry textbook lHolt Oeonetryl lncludes little

algebra review problem sets every so often, so he has a chance to make up whatever he missed or forgot from last year. The

Growing Wtthout Schooling #81

l3 EXIRA HELP program has helped, too; tt has bcen an entertainlng r€view and enrlchment r€source. He even gets a sneak prevlew of Algebra ll/Trlgonometry. Owen has started helptng a frlend wtth her math homework (general math/prealgebra), and has dlscovered a few gaps tn his mathemattcal knowledge, attrtbutable to not worklng through any textbook serles, though not lrrevocable or terrtbly damagtng. He's fllltng the gaps as he discovers them and now he's eager and ready to leam those ttrtngs he reslsted so strenuously a fewyears ago.

Math from Music Susan Rees (MNJ uttites:

Aleta began piano lessons shortly before her fourth birthday, a year ago November. She now reads muslc qutte well and ls remarkably advanced (tnto lerrel 3 books). Her progress rellects her love of

muslc, her exccllent ear, lovtng and sldllful teachers, and her lnteracflon wtth her older stblings and thelr muslc. Were she to attend our local schools, she would be allowed to enter liindergarten next fall. There, I expect, shewould learn to count and learn basic terms such as'next to,' 'under," etc. From her muslc, Aleta understands the concepts of tlme slgnatures, number of beats per measure, note values, tntervals, and rhythms. Occaslonally, I see her calculate the number of notes between an interval. For example, she'll start with a flfth and observe that tt has three notes ln between it. She currently does thls up through octaves. No one has bothered to tell her she's dolng arlthmettc. Of course, readlng music also requires an understandtng ofbaslc conc€pts such as up, down, and next to. For the older chtldren, we use an excellent formal math text (we like Bob Jones's math through slxth gpade, and then we'll swltch to Saxon math). Besldes the math tratnlng they get from thelr muslc, theyVe learned about maktng change and money by selltng wreaths at Chrlstmas. Davld (l l) hung all our plctures recently and had the pleasure of practlcal measuring. They've leamed about fractions through cooklng and bakfng. Increaslng or decreaslng reclpes provldes excellent pracdce in converdng unlts of measure and fractions. Recently Davtd sketched parts ofan lnventlon, and hls drawtng to scale provided challengtng,

practical applications for hls work wlth fractions and ratios.

Teaching Himself to Read [SS:l IVe come acnoss yet another

simple remlnder that self-dlrected learning does not mean learnlng ln a vacuum or learnlng without the lnvolvement of anyone else. Not long ago I nottced Eoln, one of the 4 year olds ln our olnc€, looklng at the Dr. Seuss book Hop on Pop and asklng hls mother, Phoebe, to read thewords on each page. During a two <jr three day pertod he seemed to be looldng at that book and asldng Phoebe for that lnformatlon whenever I happened to walk by. Phoebe later told me that Eoln ls no longer interested tn being read to from

Growing Wthout Schooling #81

longer books, somethlng he used to enjoy.

even said "classlcal muslc'was met wlth

RJght now he is focuslng on shorter books

Ilfty mortifled glances. As far as I see, the average Amerlcan chtld has two thoughts about classlcal muslc: that lt ls only for wealthy snobs, and that lf they were to llsten to tt they would be reJected by their

Itke Hop onhp, and he wants Phoebe to tell htm what the words sery over and over egah, untll he has memorlzed them and no longer needs that help. Then - as he is doing now, as I wrlte thls - he goes offby hlmselfand turns the pages ofthe book, recttlng the words he has memorlzed and looktng at the prtnt at the same tlme. I've known serreral chlldren to do any and all ofthese thtngs - enJoy betng read to at one polnl askwhatwords say at another, rectte the text they have memorlzed whtle looktng at a book - and I'm sure many of you have, tm, slnce you wrlte us about thls sort of thtng so often. Seetng Eoin work on learnlng to read rlght tn front of me has made lt clear to me once agatn that he ls the one tn charge. Hls leamtng to read ls hls buslness, and he has declded (though probably not consclousf) how he wlll do lt. Who could have planned the serles of thtngs that Eoln has so far done? Or rather, what sense w<ruld there have been ln planntng thern, when lt ls so clear that Eoln ts golng about the task tn an ellective way wlthout such planning;? But the potnt I espectally wanted to make was that even though Phoebe didn't create thts readtng program for Eoln didn't say, 'F'trst we'll read aloud for several months, and then we'll switch to easy-reader books which you'll work on by yourself - she ls deflnttely a part of Eoln's work on reading, deflnitely helpful to htm. Respondtng to children ln the ways that thcy ask us to keeps us busy enough, and makes us effecdve helpers. We don't need to thtnk up programs, ln readtng or anythlng else, and then try to get children to follow

them.

Art, Music, Literature Dalila Drege oJ h dlona uritesi After seven years (K€) and two months of public school, I declded that I could get a better educatlon at home. The three years I have been homeschooled have helped me a great deal. I am more responslble, more cpnfldent, and have mor€ tlme to study the thtngs tn whtch I am most lnterested, namely llterature and the arts. I have taken many of my father's drawtng and painting classes at the local universlt5r. I have also parttctpated tn design and traditional Chlnese patnttng. I

am too young to enroll formally, but thanks to the obllglng professors I sdll have the opportuntty to take part tn the oourses, For me, studying art ts at the same tlme a very rewarding and frustrating experlenc.e. It ts dtlllcult to slmply draw what one sees. There ls a lot to go through before one can do that - preconceptlons, mlsc.onceptions, and rules, My father has sald, when spealdng to hls students, that drawtng ls a constant battle between the bratn and the eye. Many people thtnk that artlsts have an easyJob, but from the ltttle experlence I have had I know thls ts false.

It takes tremendous lnltladve, endurance, and mental and emotlonal strength to bec'ome and to be an artlst. When I was golng to school, classlcal muslc was almost nonexlstent for me. I didn't exactly like rock muslc, but there was a lot of pr€ssure to do so. Anyone who

WRITING STRANDS The hardestjob you have is teaching writing. Writing is seen as being so complicated that rhe critics of American schools maintain that teachers can't do it because they don't know how. WRITING STRANDS was wrirten to help homeschooling parents do what the public school cannot do.

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READING STRANDS The other half of your children's language arts program teaches you, in one book, to help your children understand ( on their levels) what the fiction they read can mean to them. Yotr children need more than just reading experiences, more than just comprehension. lnterpretative techniques are explained in a dialogue format so you can see a pa.renVteacher leading a snrdent to understanding. A most complicated process made easy and fun io use.

TAPES Dave Marla has uped inroducrions to the assignments in levels 3 and 4 as an effective and fun way tro start the exercises. A 45 minute workshop tape gives the research justifuing 0ris approach and discusses grammar and

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friends. Whcn I became homeschooled, was in my second or third year of piano lessons, and started studying voice, I finally began to appreciate classlcal music for what it is really worth. Maybe it was simply part of my development, or because I wasn't oppressed by the ktds at school, or perhaps the reason was my music lessons. Regardless, I am very happy that my tastes have changed.

The book that first lnterested me ln

literature was Arure otGreenGables. It led me to read all the other L. M. Montgomery books. When those ran out, I had to llnd somethlng else, so I turned to Gene Stratton Porter, L. M. Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charles Dickens, the Brontes, and others. Now I am discovering Tolstoy, Faulkner, Henry James, and Jane Austen. I am beginning to realize that I need not only to read but also to think seriously and write about the novels I read, One of the drawbacks in homeschoollng for me ls that I miss the classroom dlscusslons on books. Then again, I cannot recall any passionate lovers of llterature at school. I wtll be l5 ln June and my future plans Include studying the arts at a universi$r. In the meantlme I plan to continue my private piano and volce lessons, French lessons, drawlng and pain6ng ln my father's classes, studytng destgn and computer graphics, and reading great literature. My brother and I study other subjects such as science, math, geography, and history from 9-12 each morning. I'm very grateful to my parents for taking me out o[ school and gving me the opportuni$r to study art, music, and literature. There are so many thlngs I have yet to learn. I lind that creaflng my own curriculum and schedule ls the best way to educate myself. I am very thankful that I have the time and freedom to dlscover and develop my abilities.

Studies On Her Own Tabitha Mowr$oy oJ Missourt wrltes: I have been studying more on my own few years, and this year in particular. That does not mean that my mother never knows what I study: quite the contrary. She helps expose me to new material, but mostly I let her know when I am interested in something. Then she helps me lind tnfiormation on lt. For

in the past

REAL

example, I am really lnterested in psycholory. We have friends who are psychologtsts and my mother has gathered a lot of material from them. She ls also trytng to set up aweek this summerwhen I can go help them and observe what they do. However, I usually shrdg on my own. I love readlng, so I can worm my way through everything but math, even if the subJect ls not my favorlte. I'm reading War ard Perce by Tolstoy thls year, and last year I read Les Mtserables by Vlctor Hugo and fell tn love with tt. My mother ts helptng to get me lnto a communlty college thls fall and I am working wtth the high school counselor toward that goal. I took a Piat test (it's an oral, non-tlmed test) with the counselor râ&#x201A;Źcently, and even though she ls an extremely kind person and very helpful, I have never had a more nerve-wracklng experlence. I think I did pretty well, however, for my flrst test. Anyone can study by themselves, but it's not alu.rays fun to study alone. I also thtnk tt's great fun to study tn a group. The lmportant thing ts that you always have something you want to learn. Mv mother and a close adult friend are working toward degrees ln the medical Ileld, and they have to take a few sociologr and psychologf courses. As soon as they are flnished, I get my hands on the books and go through them at my own pace. The books are college materlal so I do not know all the words, but I ask about them or look them up because I want to know. I think I want to learn more partly because my parents are always leaming somethlng themselves and partly because they are always encouraging me to be lmaginaUve and to thtnk things out on my own; to learn from other people but not to assume they are righl My mother has also showed me that learning does not mean studying about things you already know - leaming means studying something you do not know, which includes asking questlons of someone who does. I think a lot of the time people like to act as if they know everythlng, especially around peers. It isJust not like that; we are all human and no one excels in all things. Studying by yourself takes a lot of disclpline and self-determinatlon. You have to find out things because you want to know about them foryourself, not because your momwanted you to orbecause the other ldds your age are, butJust because

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you ffnd a personal lnterest ln the subJect' Another thing that I llnd to be tmPortant (and I tmagtne to be true for others) ls that lf I am studying somethlng ln llterature, for example, lt is very tnnPortant to read another book Just for enJo5rment. Otherwise I mtght start to hate reading, and any subJect ls probably much too lnteresdng to allow that to happen. Tabtfll,o's nather, futd,ro" adds:

Tabitha ts 15 | / 2, and, except for passlng Communlty CPR last week to

quali$ for a local ltfeguard posttlon, had never taken any ktnd of test. Why dtd she declde to take the Plat non/? She wants to pursue her lnterest ln psychologr and plans to take a course at the communlty iollege, and the regulatlons are vague and don't address alternatlve sltuations ltke those of home-educated, self-educated students. lt's been a blt fun helplng to crack the system and lntroduce new perspectlves on problem-solvtng to an otherwlse rtgtd, lnstltudonalized mentallty. Of all the optlons open to Tabttha for college acceptance, I think worldng wtth approval by this htgh school counselor will be the easiest. I'll keep you lnformed. Last week I had a blrth (I'm a selfeducated mldwife) on a day when Tabltha and I were scheduled to take CPR I called and overrode some age dlscrlmlnatlon rules and secured Tabltha s slster Amory (12) a posttion to replace my own. They both dtd beauttfully and the lnstructor was so impressed by thelr acute observlng and attentlveness that he sugâ&#x201A;Źlested they become trainees and ollered to glve them references for any employment pursults.

Amory ls an artlst and has Jotned the local F'lne Arts Associadon. She ls the only non-adult parttctpant. She has spontaneously traveled ln her slstet's fmtsteps, and despite the onset ofa chronlc lllness she has taken greater and greater control of her studles. Self-dtrected, she arranges her day - her tlme as well as her cholce of resources (people, books, llbraries, etc'). She ls a keen observer ofnature, and

obseMng is somethlng she lnstinctlvely schedules in every day. I feel for young people of ltke nature who are trapped lrt instltutlons where simply Eazkug, pondertng, and daydreamtng are Labeled unProductlve.

Helpful Help More

from Sharl Hervg

(MN):

The focus on when help ts helpful ln GWS #8O prompted an enlightentng dlscusslon between me and TU (5). I can't belteve how dllferent the atmosphere ls during flute pracdce alrcadyl Here are hls responses, dtvided tnto the varlous subJects in which he had something to say: READING - "lf I ask what a word ls, someHmes I want you to tell me the word and sometlmes I wantyou to give me a good hlnt but not tell me the word. Somedmes it's too hard to sound them out.' WRITING - 'l llke to Just write letters down on paper and you tell me tf they're words or not. I also like lt, when I want to write a story, for you to call out the letters

(antlntdonpage

28)

Growlng Without Schooltng #81

JOHN HOLT'S BOOK AT{D MUSIC STORE I

Learn Better by Teaching Myself

by Agnes Leistico #1488 $9.75 This pleasant book surprised us by zooming near the top

our best-seller list when we added it to our catalog last fall. We figure it's the title. A lot of our customers must be hungry for even more reassurance and support than we've given already that yes, you can hold off, do less, interfere less, and the children will leam more. The book reads like a series of long letters to GWS. Anyone who's read the back issues of our magazine won't find any surprises here, but then, as the number of issues keeps mounting, fewer newcomers have fte money o acquire all of them, or the time to read through them. Agnes Leistico describes how she heard about homeschooling from friends and how resistant she was until she researched all she could and began doing it, one by one, with her sixth, fourth, and first grade children. Then her snuggle shifted to finding her best role - how much to initiate, to require, to provide. Many of the textbooks and workbooks she found for the children gathered dust, while the projecS, contests, and activities they chose for themselves always seemed to lead to something. Here, her oldest went to the library to apply for a job: They told him !o sort the books into categories. Jim's remark when he came home was, "That part was easy because it was just like sorting my baseball cards." He has thousands ofbaseball cards sorted into many boxes and knows exactly where each one is and its value. Until this happened my husband had been skeptical of any redeeming value to Jim's card collection.

Later in the book, Agnes Leistico describes various resources that have proved popular in her family, and by the end she has put in every bit of evidence and experience she could to reassure and encourage parents to have confidence in themselves and their children. Even we long-time Holt types need this kind of help more than you might think. Last night, to my amazement today, I found myself offering to teach my daughter Norna, who is turning 4, to read. She's been asking me to read to her a lot lately, and suddenly it seemed easier and more fun - for me - to teach her to read than to read aloud one more book. I began to think about the various methods of teaching reading I have heard abou[ whole words, syllables, letter sounds... She was willing, and we filled one page writing and saying words, when she turned to a fresh sheet and said. "Let's draw." So we went on to o0rer things.

But that "old devil teacher had me," as John Holt used to ruefully describe that srong urge in himself. For a while I kept thinking about how to teach Noma to read, until finally doubts crept in. I began to remember what John wrotâ&#x201A;Ź panicularly in Leaning All The Time, about teaching reading, and how many GWS contributors have said, "We just answered our children's questions, nothing more." I remembered all the stories that parents have written, including examples in I lzarn Better By Teaching Myself, of how futile teaching attempts turn out to be. The clincher was remembering that the attempts are often not only futile but actually damaging. Did I really want Norna to believe 0rat she is not capable of learning how to read on her own, but that she can only do it by listening !o me and answering my questions? She's good-natured and would quite likely believe me. Do I truly believe she could learn by herselP Am I willing to wait? With ttre whole world screeching'"Teach, teach, school, school, more, more," we have no rational basis for turning our backs on the conventional wisdom except for what we learn from each other, from the experiences of those who are trying something different and who report back !o the rest of us, as Agnes l*istico has done here and as so many of you have been Donna Richoux doing during the lifetime of GWS.

Free

Last

by Daniel Greenberg #1482 $5.95 Free at

Iast

At the front of Daniel Greenberg's book about the alter+d1*4d&;{d* native school he and several others founded in 1968, there is a quotation from Tolstoy that reflects a view often expressed in GWS that children ought to be allowed the freedom ro learn in their own a way and in their own time. Tolstoy's question, whether "schools based on students' freedom of choice will be established even a hundred years from now," is still, sadly, in doubt. Many of us homeschool to allow our children that freedom of choice, and the Sudbury Valley School is founded on the same idea. Even though Free At Last isn't about homeschooling, there is enough in it of value to homeschoolers to make me want to recommend it. I remember reading Summerhill in college, and how it started me on the road to homeschooling; tttis is a book that could be influential in the same way. I think a lot of us fint investigated the alternative school movement before coming to k$drr

brdi&!@,

h::

l)d0n&.

homeschooling. It is worthwhile for us to look at tle successes and get a glimpse into the lives of some of the kids at Sudbury Valley, just as we enjoy reading about other homeschoolers. In some ways these students are even freer than homeschoolers to

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leam as they please, since they are not subjected to review by outsiders as most of us are. Their no-curriculum policy is not subverted even by curriculum-on-paper-only, or by testing. A lot of the ideas discussedin Free At Lcsl - responsibility, authority, children's rights, age mixing, credentials, apprenticeships - are common themes in GWS. The chapter on math was particularly enlightening to me. Every once in a while Daniel Greenberg would break down under pressure from the kids to teach them math. The first time it happened they found a math primer from 1898 and were able to cover six years of math in nventy hours. "It's never taken much more than that ever since," Greenbe.rg writes. He has more to say on why this is so. I also enjoyed reading about the kids who, over lhe years, came to make fishing in the school's pond their main educational focus - day after day, rain or shine. As you can guess, these children are not fishing there still, but have gone on to successful adult lives. But, to me the fishing stories just make me ache for my own lost youth - can you imagine anything freer? Claudia Brosnan

Careers Without College by Jo Ann Russo #1466 $7.95

We added three books to the "Alternatives !o College" section of our catalog last fall; each one comes at the subject from a different angle. The Question is College, by Herbert Kohl, helps young people and their parents think seriously about whether going to college is ttre best way to spend those years of one's life, and then gives many suggestions about how to find apprenticeship, work, and travel opportunities.The Day Became an Autodidau, by Kendall Hailey, tells the story of ttre author's decision to educate herself - by reading literature and hisnry, primarily - instead of going to college. It shows that college is not necessarily the best, or at any rate the only, option even for people who love learning from books. We interviewed Herbert Kohl in GWS #77 and Kendall Hailey in GWS #80, and both authors described their work so well that we are letting the interviews substitute for reviews of those books. We often say that college isn't necessary for many unusual or nontraditional kinds of work, and both Herbert Kohl's and Kendall Hailey's books support this claim. It's refreshing to see Jo Ann Russo demonstrate, in Careers Witllout College,that college is not always necessary for traditional or mainstream careers either. Careers Witlwut College looks at how young people can prepare for and begin careers in advertising, banking, commercial art, finance, publishing, and so on without first going to college. Russo is not unilaterally against college; she simply says, like Kohl, that you shouldn't, utssume you have to go if you want to amount to anything as an adult. Think carefully, she says, and find out as much as you can abut tlre true natwe of the work you might want to do, and its requirements, before you make any decisions about college. "I have absolutely no feelings one way or the other about what yoa should do," she writes, "and this book is meant to reflect this objectivity. Read it. Sit down and think about what yovwant to do. Then do it." Decisions about college, by the way, are no more irrevo-

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cable than decisions about homeschooling. Russo says in her

introduction: The decision not to attend college, should that be your choice at this time, is not like Faust's. You can always change your mind. It is an ever-growing phenomenon in America today that young adults and older people are dropping out of the work force to ase,lrd college and graduate schools. They hing with them so much more that they cannot help having richer and fuller experiences. They have not only a clearer focus on what they expect but a deeper appreciation for what they achieve. It is possible thar you will awake one moming and deeply regret not having gone to college "when you had the chance." But you can make another choice - go, and you'll be glad you waited. In the meantime, there are a great many exciting and financially rewarding careers for which you can be ready

rightnow.... When we sent this book to Kim Kopel, who at 16 is surely in Russo's intended audience, she wrote, "This is a really good book that I'd like to have. The author makes many good points about education in the intnrduction and the in last chapter, and gives many practical, Iogical reasons for going right ahead and getting a real job without first going to college and getting a degree. She also gives good advice about interviewing, writing up resumes, deciding where to send your resurne, etc. "Ten different careers are discussed in depth, each in a chapter of is own. At the beginning of each chapter is an overview of the particular career, then descriptions ofjobs on the enry level, different career paths you can follow, how and what you can specialize in, and at the end, sensible suggestions on how to prepare forjobs in that profession. "Careers Witlnut College is well-written and informative; I can't think of anything more I could ask from il. I especially liked the fact that the author didn't give a lot of 'How-To's.'If you're going to pursue a career outside of college, you'd betrer have some sense of your own and not have to have someone else telling you what you need to do." Susannah Sheffer

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard #1462$9.95 When we look for additions to the "Remembering Childhood" section of our catalog, we try to find books in which the author's out-of-school life predominates, in which it is possible to see a child learning things for herself, and making use of the resources of her family and community. Naturally, we also look for books in which the adult writer has been able to recall vividly her childhood voice, perceptions, and feelings. An American Childhood fits this description perfectly. Annie Dillard remembers her childhood so well ttrat she can recreate for her readers the look and feel of adult bodies, as experienced from a child's pâ&#x201A;Źrspective; the 5 year old's terror of a luminous shape that enters her room every night and travels across the ceiling (and her amazement when she figures out that the frightening creature is in fact the reflection of a car windshield going by outside). Annie Dillard remembers what she

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thought, what she felt, how things looked, how people sounded. What makes this book a wonderful addition to our catalog, in particular, is that it is full of detailed descriptions of what Annie taught herself outside of school. During one summer, she c:rme upon a book of drawing lessons, and was captivated by the idea of trying o learn from ir "I was anazed that there were books about things one achrally did. ... The idea of drawing from life had astounded me two years previously, but I had gradually let it slip, and my drawing, such as it was, had sunk back into facile sloth. Now this book would ignite my fervor for conscious drawing, and bind my attention to bo0r the vigor and the detail of the actual world." So she set about turning an attic bedroom into a studio, and taping the day's drawing schedule to the wall. After a while she comments: One 0ring struck me as odd and interesting. A gesrure drawing took forty-five seconds; a Sustained Study took all moming. From any still-life .urangement or model's pose, the artist could produce either a short study or a long one. Evidently, a given object took no particular amount of time to draw; instead the artist took the time, or didn't take it, at pleasure. And" similarly, things themselves possessed no fixed and intrinsic amount of interesg instead things were interesting as long as you had anention t6 give them. How long does ir take to draw a baseball min? As much time as you care to give it. Not an infinite amount of time, but more time than you first imagined. For many days, so long as you want to keep drawing that mitt, and srudying rhat mitt, there will always be a new and finer layer of distincrions to draw out and lay in.

I love the picture of the child up in the attic, so attentive to the task she has set for herself, coming up with these observations and conclusions. Throughout the book this child is just as fascinated by the study of rocks, the books in the library, the streets of her neighborhood, the creatures she sees under her

Our fa0rer kept in his b,reast pocket a little black notebook. There he noted jokes he wanted to remember. ... "No one tells jokes like your father," Mother said. Telling a good

joke well - successfully, perfectly - was the highest art.

It was an art because it was up !o you: if you did not get the laug[ you had told it wrong. Work on it, and do better next time. It would have been reprehensible to blame the joke, or, worse. the audience. As we children got older, our parents discussed with us every technical, theoretical, and moral aspect of the art. ...

The chapter is enormously entertaining as it describes the specific jokes the parents told, and the hilarious sight gags they performed for friends. The parents in this book come across :ts vividly as the child does, and I could quote many more passages if space permitted. I hope the glimpse I've given you of this child's

world will tempt you into reading rhe whole book.

The King Brothers: No Covers By Kids For Kids #1s70 $7.00

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Our parents would sooner have left us out of Christmas than leave us out of a joke. They explained a joke to us while they were still laughing at it; they tore a still-kicking joke aparl so we could see how it worked ...

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microscope. She is thrilled to see an amoeba, from a puddle in her own local park, under the microscope after having read about amoebas for so long. "He was as blobby and grainy as his picture," she observes. "I would have known him anywhere." After inheriting someone else's rock collection, she spends hours learning o name and classify the rocks, and leaming about the people who do this sort of work. The book isn't only about Annie alone, though. One of my favorite chapters is about herjoke-telling parents. It begins:

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They are not imitations of other teeny-bopper music or acoustically poor, recorded-in-the-basement tapes. Instead, the King Brothers have avoided these traps of young people's music to create these highly original, musically varied, studioquality tapes. These are rock and roll, without the monotony common in pop music or the abrasive edge of hard rock. They are fun and appealing to young kids, teenagers, and aduls alike. All eight songs on No Covers were cbmposed, performed, recorded, and produced by Billy and Kenny King. Our favorite cut is "l'm Not Waiting." It's an upbeat anti-apathy song about kids' (or anyone's) power to make change now. As the chorus says, "I'm not waiting/For something big to happen/Some other day./Step by stepfMe've got to get things going/And right away." Most of the other songs on No Covers are about love, the hottest topic in all styles of music. From the thrill of that first falling in love in'"That's What lt's Like" to the heartbreak of "Dreams Won't Bring Her Back," the emotions here are genuine and not copied from the myriad love songs around. If you're expecting the usual sappy cliches, you'll be surprised by the powerful lyrics of "I Even Forgot How To Dream" (Kenny's acoustic guitar solo is very srong too). "I Don't Want to Know More" is a catchy tune with good variety and a nice keyboard solo. The rest of ttre tape is a mix of slow and faster songs that demonstrate the King Brothers' range and ability in voice, guitar, and keyboards. My only wish is that tlte drumming were real rather than electronic programming, but they do use it well to give the songs a solid beat without ever overriding the melodies.

Most of the songs on 8y Ki ds for Kids are traditional favor(including ites a couple with an extra-special King Brothers touch), and two are originals.'"The Counting Song" has one of the most interesting bass lines we've heard. "Skipping Stones" is a very nice acoustic instrumental, accompanied by the local frog population. Billy's voice on "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" is beautiful. The King Brothers' renditions of "Old Dan Tucker," "The Rooster Song," and "Marching Across the Green Grass" are fresh, rousing, and prove that children's songs do not need to be childish. I am tempted to tell why I love their version of "This Old Man," which segues into "Oh Susanna," but I'd hate to spoil such a great surprise. Incidentally, this is the tape their mother Cathy, in GWS #78, said took an impressive ten days to make. Amazingly, it is impossible to tell from the tape's high quality that it was made so quickly. In fact, both cassettes are technically excellent. Each track is clear, and the mix is well balanced. The flaws frequently found in homemade tapes are simply not present in these two cassettes. My review of the King Brothers' tapes would not be complete without my son Eoin's opinion. Eoin is easily the most musical one in the family, although his serious study consists of what, we call "Suzuki Sreet Performing" with his favorite bands in Harvard Square each weekend, followed by continuous at-home practice. Of all of us, he especially has listened to each King Brothers tape for hours, memorizing lyrics and listening for parts he hadn't noticed before. I was srirprised then by Eoin's answer when I asked him what he likes best about the tapes. Rather than'describe the songs, Eoin told me that he likes Kenny and Billy because they are young boys who homeschool and make rock and roll tapes all by themselves. Having

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established that as the most important reason for liking the tapes, he did say he likes the beat best on No Covers and the silly songs on By Kidsfor Kids. He also said that they're just good songs that he likes o play along with and that he wants to play music wi0r Kenny and Billy someday. These tapes truly speak o Eoin because they show him it's notjust grown-ups who are "leal" musicians; it's also regular kids who love music and who have Phoebe Wells the freedom to excel.

Homestyle Harmony #1484 $9.m Many books are written about music theory, vocal technique, and ensemble playing, but, to paraphrase an old saying, "One song is worth a thousand words." On Honestyle Harmony are thirteen songs that show how families can enjoy singing together without formal lessons. The goal of this rape is not to be a substitute for formal lessons, but, like/nstant Piano (#1258, $10.95) andCountry and Blues Harmonicafor the Musically (#llI2,$12.95), it enables you to enjoy making music; if you enjoy it enough, you might then go on and study it more formally. Steve and Darlene Lester sing with their children Damian, 12, Gabriel, g, and Benjamin 3; together they provide us with a model of well-recorded, nice sounding voices that get listeners excited abour 24 part harmony singing and show that it is within the grasp of any group of people. The tape is cleverly arranged so you first hear the individual pars of the song, with each l*ster singing his or her part alone. You determine which part is within your range, and then, using imitation and memorization (all the lyrics are provided with the tape), you sing along with that part. Then the Lesters sing together. They really enjoy their group sound and their enjoyment is infectious; it is hard to be still when the Lesters sing "Swinging Along!" When an individual's part rests for a minute

Hopeless

the Lesters have recorded the other parts softly in the background to help you know where you are and when your part comes back in. This is quite an effective way to learn a song, and it eliminates the need to use written music, which can sometimes become a barrier or a crutch for beginners. This reminds me of a story about the great iazz composer

Charles Mingus. He felt that his music became too stiff and lifeless when musicians read the parts he wrote for them, so he sometimes refused to hand out their music and made them learn their parts by listening to him singing them and playing them on his bass. Included with the lyrics are some helpful tips about singing in harmony. The l*sters note that this tape is the next step after their tape Traditional Rounds, Canons, and Harmonies (#805, $7.50) because now "each person has to sing completely different notes from the other singers and make those notes blend harmoniously. It requires concentration, listening, and asking yourself continuously, 'How does my voice sound in relation o the other voices?' Contributing harmoniously to the whole while maintaining a unique individual part is actually the great lesson in relationships and is wonderfully satisfying." I would add that it is also a great lesson in education, and one that you and your Pat Farenga family can learn by using this tape.

FOCUS:

Finding Privacy Within the Family Does honeschoollng make lt harder for young people to have prlvacy wlthtn thelr famllles? We asked several young people to tell us what klnd of prlvacy was lmportant to them, and how betng wlth thetr famllles so rnuch of the tlme, and ln some cases havlng to let thelr parents record what they dld to satlsff the homeschool [aw, alfected thelr abltlty to have prlvacy when they wanted lt.

Parents Don't Watch Everything Ftom Justirr PIetJer (MD):

Has Privacy Because She Teaches Herself Flom Shart Bronfield. (PN: In my erperlence, homeschoollng allows more privacy than public school. Now that I homeschool, my family and I understand, respect, and get alongwtth one another a great deal more than we did when I attended school, where lt ls popular not to get along wtth your famtly. But slnce my family and I have mutual trust, my parents naturally gfve me more space and don't expect me to inform them of every aspect of my llfe. When I began homeschooltng, my family sat at the table and my parents taught my slster and me. Laterwe subscribed to a correspondence oourse and I would do the problems in the workbooks on my own, but sttll Mom was the teacher; she taught me, she corrected my answenr, and we dtscussed nearly everything I'd leamed. But even though thts didn't glve me a lot of privacy, it gave me more than I had tn school. Here I would at least do my work in any room I chose, wherea.s in school we were constantly supervised. I also felt free to discuss with Mom my feelings about somethlng I d read as I dtdn't have to worry about schoolmates laughing at my thoughts. As we all got accustomed to the new learning techniques that homeschooling permits, and we no longer followed a curriculum provided by a correspondence course, I did more and more on my own, wlth Mom only supeMslng. I dectded quite a bit of what I wanted to do; I taught myself a lot of my lessons wtth help only when I requested lt. Momwould usually just ask what I was doing wery now and then so she could occasionally suggest a subject I hadn't given much attenflon to lately. We still discussed many things, but this dtdn't bother me because I enJoyed discussing what I'd read, especially tn history. Now my education ls almost entlrely in my own hands. I can corr€ct my own mistakes and we usu lly feel it ls only holding me back to discuss everythtng I read. I decide what I will do each day, and for that reason I keep trackofday to day records needed for the portfollo requlred by law ln Pennsylvania. I've actually gotten to the polnt where I am so accustomed to teaching myself that it goes against my graln to be taught anything I think I can ffgure out

myself.

I'm l3 and attended public school from kturdergarten though the llrst semester of seventh grade. I have been in home school for one and a half years. The homeschoolers' organizadon we're ln doesn't push or force us to keep a very complex file on errerythtng we do. We're enrolled ln The karnlng Communlty Network, wtrtch ls one way to homeschool under the Maryland law. That makes lt a little easier because our parents don't have to watch werythlng we do. We set our goals and agendas and show lt to our parents, and they help us accompllsh them. Our famlly situadon may also be unusual in that our Parents are also foster parents. We have had up to three other children at our house at one tlme, along wlth our family which includes llve children, our parents, and our aunt who has recently moved lnto our house. At this flme we have only one foster chlld. Our home was origtnally tntended to be a three-bedroom house, but we have altered lt to accomodate nine people. As you can see, no matterwhat happens, prlvary ts a hard thtng to acquire. I have recently received my own room. If I want or need to, I can go to my room and lock the door. I can tell my parents that I want to be alone and they wlll r€spect that. I really don't have any deslre to wrtte or read things that my parents would be ashamed of or upsetwith me for. Whtle I was ln public school it was hander to llnd privacy both in school and at home. If I found tlme to myself at home I had to use lt to do homework or something else connected wlth school. Now that I am out of school, some people would think that llnding frlends would be hard. This is sometlmes true, but not for me. I am a compedtion S/rnnast and I have a couple of really gr€at frlends on my team. I see them at least five days a week at practlc.e, three to four hours each dme. and even more on weeks that we have meets. Also, because my mom doesn't have to work outside of our home, my friends get to come to my house a lot when they have off school and during vacations. I see hardly any problems wlth homeschooling. I know that it ls not for every family, but I am really glad that my parents can do

it.

Pen-Pals are Private Friends Ftom Arnie Stuptto

My polnt is I have a lot of prlvacy simply because of the teachyourself technlque I use ln homeschoollng, and because my parents trust mel On the other hand, wtth the fi:iendshlp that I have with my family, the desire to share my thoughts and what I have done during the day outweighs any deslre for prlvacy. I don't care if my family knows what I'm readlng and what IVe been doing all day. I wouldn't have much to say to them if I kept secret all my activities and thoughts, would I? Ktds in public school often feeljust the

Growing Wthout Schooling #8

opposlte: that tf thetr parents show any tnterest ln what they are dolng or come lnto thelr bedroom to talk that the pa.rents are belng nosy, dlstrust them, or want to boss them around. Unless I'm ln the middle of a thought and want to wrlte tt down or thlnk lt thrcugh before I forget lt, I never mlnd lf someone comes ln to talk, Ntne tlmes out of ten, tf I close my bedroom door lt ls because I want a llttle more qulet so I can study, not because I don't want people to know what I'm doing. Perhaps lt's because I know that tf I need or want privacy I wtll get tt that tt Just lsn't so tmportant to

(C-11:

I don't have trouble llnd,ing privacy for my activities. I spend a lot of tlme wery day wridng to my pen-pals. My mom and dad don't read the letters I rec.eive or the ones I write unless I ask them to. This is the way I have frlends my parents don't know. I like my mom to read all the books I read so that we can talk about them. Maybe someday I might want to read books and not mention them, but I can't imaglne whyl For more than a year I had a diary that I didn't want anyone

20 to see, and thatwas flne. Later I showed it to my pa.rents but not

my slsters. Althoug;h we have to keep track of what I do for a report, we don't have to lnclude everythtng lf we don't want to.

IVhen Friends are Visiting Ftom Laurel Skousen oJ Mlctigarl

everybody rtght from the start that I want tt, and then whenever they do somethlng llke listen when I don't want them to, I'll make sure my parents know about lt.

Privacy from Siblings Flom Katle MocharalJ OiN) :

I don't have a really hard tirne wtth prtvacy. If I want to do somethlng prtvately I Just say so, and normally I'mJust left alone. In Michigan there are no liaws requirlng us to record eveqrttrtng we do all day long. That mahes lt a llttle easier to have my own

There are dmes when my brother (8) and rny slster (6) won't glve me any prtwacy. I'm the oldest (12) and they ltke to do what I'm dolng a lot of the time, Somedmes I can't get them to leave me alone. Usually we can work lt out. I may do somethtng wtth them for a whlle, then they will gtve me Prfiracy. Some of the ttme I end

privacy. I don't have any frlends that my parents don't know. I used to have a problem wlth prtvacy when my friends oarne over. My ltttle sisters and brother would always want to be around my frtend.

need a lot of prtvac5r.

One day, the day before a frlend was comlng orrer, I asked my mom lf we could do somethlng about lt. My mom made a nrle that when one of us had a frlend orrer the others could not be wlth us wlthout our permlsslon. That took care of that problem, so now whenever I have a friend over I can be alone with her lf I choose to.

Talking on the Phone Without Others Listening Ftom Jartbe Skousen oJ Mlchtgan:

I do have a llttle phystcal prlvacy. I can close my bedroom door and usually have nobody barge In. But I don't really have that much privacy. I probably wouldn't be able to read a book that my parents didn't know about, but I have never tried. It ls very lmportant to me to be able to talk on the phone without everybody llstenlng and write without everybody reading It. I hate to have my brothers and slsters readtng my dtar5r and letters. It happens very rarely, though. I keep all my stuff in my room and don't tell anybody where it is. But sometimes when I talk on the phone I don't even know who's listening. If I lind out later that somebody was llstenlng, I get mad at them. My parents understand why l'm mad, and usually my brothers and sisters do get in trouble lior llstentng. I don't have very many frlends, periodl When I do have friends over I like to have privacy with them. I hate it when my little brothers and sisters come up and insist on being with me. Most of the time we work lt out and I get to be alone with my friend. It's hard for me to meet somebody that's Just my frlend and not everybody else's. The opportunlty has never arisen. I thtnk as I get older I wlll want to have more privacy. As I get older I'll know more people and go more places, so lt'll be more tmportant to me to be able to talk to those people wlthout everybody knowing. I'm going to make sure that I get privacy by telling

up yelltng at them. There really hasn't been a flme when I nranted prlwacy and I couldn't get tt, or work on gettlng lt. I'm a \tery open person' I don't Slnce I don't drtve, it's awfully hard to be lnvolved ln acdvldes my parâ&#x201A;Źnts don't know much abouL Where I lfire, I couldn't walk or rlde my bike to most actlvttles, We don't have publtc transportation either. The area we llve ln ls rural, although we have houses around us. Besides, I ltke my parents to be lnvolved wtth the actlvltles I'm involved tn, ltke ballet for lnstance. I'm very serious about ballet and it takes a lot of my tlme. When I was in a performance last fall, my mother was there for all the dress rehearsals and performances. I was lucky to have her lnvolved, because she helped me wtth costume changes and make-up' I don't sneak around and read anythtng olf-color, so I guess I don't have a problem wtth books. All the books I read are history, falry tales, mysterles - all books my parents would approne of. I enJoy discussing the books I read with my parents. I am able to make friends that my parents aren't friends with, but there aren't any kids my agle ln our neighborhood. Actually lt's easler to get together with friends whose parents are frlends wlth my parents. Right now I have all the privacy I need.

Parents Don't Bother Her About Studying Flom Sarah Smfth

(MO):

The lssue of privacy is not one I am greatly concerned with. Though Missouri is a very conseryative state about some thlngs, lt is very liberal about homeschooling. I can read what I want to when I want to, and my mom doesn't have to keep any ktnd of record. My parents don't follow any ktnd of currlculum. So long as I get my algebra, plano pracdcing, and English done, I am free to do as I please. Some of my homeschoollng friends, however, seem to be taught too much, maliiing publtc school almost seem better than homeschooling. They seem to have no privacy at all. So generally, besides loss of privacy from livlng wtth a btg farnlly In a llttle house, sharlng a room, etc., I am never bothered about learnlng and studSdng. No one ln my famtly wlll ever lnternrpt what I'm dolng to throw math books tn my face.

An Understanding About Private Things F-tom

Cora Ntelsen NT):

Prtvacy, ln my home, ls somethtng my family respects, I

think. We have a sllent understanding that anything that ts known to be private shouldn't be touched, or read, or whatever. My dtary, which doesn't have a lock, has never been read by anyone butme. My mother works at the local library and I often go wlth her to work. There I usually check out at least one book pervlslt. I can check books out for myself so she doesn't know wery single book I

Growing Without Schooltng #81

2T read, because I don't have to report to her. I don't have my own room, so I can't go there to be by myself. I share a room wlth my slster. To be alone I usually etther lock the door to the room my slster and I sha.ne and be ln there, or go to a room no one ls frequenflng at the moment. I ltke to make frtends, and when I come home from somewhere and say, 'I made a new frlend today,'my parents usually

say, 'Oh rcallf? That's good," or'Great, what's hts/her name?' lnstead of, 'Mmm Hmm, do I know thls person?I ltke my famlly to be lnterested ln what I'm dotng, but I also like a falr amount of prlrracy, and ln my home thls works out pretty well. All tn all, I thlnk homeschoolers may 6/en have rnore privacy than ldds who go to school, but I thtnk lt mostly depends on the person In quesflon and hls or her famtly.

Finding Privacy \ilithin a Group Ilom Sara Matlls@ NI: In my house lt ls wry hard someflmes to ffnd prtvacy, especlally slnce I share a room wlth my slster. But tf I do need privacy I can go tnto our stamp room and shut the door. When I need to do somethtng prtvate! I can tell my brothers and slster,

There are not any books that I want to read that my mother doesn't want me to, so I have no trouble wtth that. When I feel llke I need a lot of prtvacy I tell my mom and I go ln my room and do stuffalone. I thtnk that lf I went to school I rpould have much less prtvacy than I do at home. I don't thtnk the people at the schools would respect my need for prlvacy, and my

famtly does.

fime To Be By Herself Ftom 8rcruu. Yovawtf @O):

I ftnd that, tn terms of phystcal prtvacy, I have qulte enough. I am able to do thlngs llke close my door to keep other people out or take a uralk by myself. WIth schmlwork lfs a llttle dtfferent. but I don't mtnd that my mom has to know some of the thlngs that I read and do. As I get older, however, I'm leamlng morâ&#x201A;Ź thlngs on my own and from people other than my parents. I'm savlng for a trtp to Florlda tn the fall. I'll stay wlth my aunt who ls a scuba dlver, and take a scuba dlvtng course and, hopefully, spend tlme wlth a frtend who ls a nature wrlter. I am also allowed to have soclal prlwacy. For lnstanc.e, I can

and they (wlth gnrmblfn$ [sten.

I rstweek I went to a horneschoolers'camp, and my mom sald she really felt nervous slnce I d never been there before and she couldn't talk to me every day, llke she could when I stayed at my

From what fve heard and read about school, I ttrlnk I harrc more privaqr than I urould have tf I attended school. I have more tlme to be by myself and read or thlnk.

grandparents' house for a week At the camp, lt was very structured and almost all the dme we were dolng somethlng wtth our core group (leader) or someone. It wasn't as hard as I expected, though, because we had one and a half to two hours of free tlme each day. But durlng the free flme, you had to have an adult wtth you at all ttmes. I Just stayed ln the maln bulldtng when I wanted prtuacy, because most of the other ktds were outstde, so there nrasn't anyone lnslde.

Respecting Each 0ther Flom Slrnon Aoud,hler (On0: I do thlngs wtth my famfly, but I do thlngs on my own, too. I only get tested three tlmes ayear and my mom doesn't have to keep track of what I do all the flme. It rvould be a problem if the school board had to know whateyer I dtd. I don't have a problem wtth prt\Ecy because when I want to I can go up to my room and do what I want, because nobody is allowed ln my room wtthout aslitng. I don't have to tell my mom everythlng I do. She doesn't read what I wrlte unless I ask her to. I am allowed to take my our.n books out of the library. I make my own frlends by playtng basketball on a team, playlng softball, taking swtmmlng lessons, and Scouts. I am not allowed to watch restrlcted or really vlolent morrles, and my mom doesn't let me watch a lot of TV. We don't have a problem wtth prtvacy because we try hard to respect each other's prlvacy.

ollwtth my friends by

myself.

Likes To Make His Own Program Flom Nicholos Ror,h {PE0: I don't thtnk I have a hard ttme llnding prlvacy wtthln my farttly. If I want to read or wrlte by myself I can move lnto another room, lfs as slmple as that. But I llnd lt frustratlng when my mother takes everythlng I do, what IVe read or written, to make reports for the Depa.rtment of Educatlon, although I urould rather have my mother gtve tn a compllmentaqr report card than have a stranger rate my work and make personal comments about me and how I behave ln class. If I dtdn't give my mother pleccs of my work, when lt came to gtvtng ln my report card the Department of Educatlon would see that I dtd not do anythlng and would be compelled to send me to school. I have enough prtvary to wrtte my own secret dlary but I ltke to share what I do. I have nerrer really thought about my prtvacy and I don't thtnk I'm golng to worry about lt. But when I compare school to homeschoollng, I thtnk I have more prfiracy at horne because I can move lnto another room when I want to be alone to do my work. In school you can't do that. If there are thlrty other chtldren ln the class you'ne never alone and sromeone ts bound to be dtstracdng you. You are continuously told by the teachers what

Lets Others Know lYhen She WanLs Privacy Ftom Amg

Md.

(IN):

The famtly c[mputer ts ln my room so the family comes lnto my room to use lt. If I really want to be alone and my little brother kvl (8) ls uslng the computer, then I ask tf I can go lnto his room whtle he ls using the computer or I go lnto the woods behind my house.

If I'm tnvolved ln an actlvt$r and I would rather my mom not

be there, then I ask her lf she u/ould mlnd dolng somethlng else and not staylng, and she doesn'L My blg stster Erln (16) can drlve. Once she drove me to the mall and we shopped together.

Growtng Wthout Schoollng #8

//?

22 to do, how to do it, and when to do it. I like to use my creativity in making my own program.

Discouragrng to Know Mother Has to Keep Records Ftom Colin Ror'h (PEl): In school, children have structured school flme and what they do during this perlod ts generally secluded from thetr parents. Now, in my home, not much that I do is unknown to my parents, and our home school has a less rigtd dme schedule. We compromised by conflnlng structure to the mornings, but in some ways

the afternoons don't offer much ln the way of privacy either. When I'm motivated to meddle around with electronic apparatus in my free moments, lt discourages me when I know my mother will want a proJect out of lt, wlth urrltten work, etc. It discourages me when I know she wtll record my conduct and that it will be tncluded ln re<ords along wtth the math work and science chapters I've done. It dlscourages me because lt seems anything I do that is related to a subJect ls exploited and valued as a requlrement for a report and not for ltself. I cannot blame my mother for this false lnterpretation, as I know there are requlrements to be met for the continuation of my education at home. Thls fact I feel ts unfortunate because it does not allow children enough freedom to fully get in tune with their natural, sup€rior, leamlng capabilities. Education at home can be more successful than at school, tf children are glven more freedom. Privary is in many ways connected wtth freedom; freedom is the condition ofbeing free from restraints and privacy means being secluded from restraints such as the sight, presence, and intrusion of others. We are constantly trying to find ways of allowing more freedom into my education. When a child ls ready to learn he will leam best. Worldng wtth thts fact, ln the situation ln which I was presented with the grade etght history texts, for example, I had the choice of using the texts or abandoning them for some other history I was particularly keen on. If later my interest ls aroused in the standard texts I will indeed use them. This way I will eventually cover all of the history and probably more than is required of a grade eight student ln thls provlnce. I hope ln the future that I, other homeschoolers, and chlldren who are withln the school system wlll eventually eam the freedom we deserve.

patlence and understandlng. Desplte my lack of phystcal prlvacy, I have a comparatlvely huge amount of freedom. I read absolutely whatever I want to and I'm only asked what I'm readlng out of curloslgr. Stnce there are no laws r€qulrtng lt ln Alaska, nelther my par€nts nor I need to keep track of what I do ln the way of schoolwork to wrtte r€ports or anything. I am not lnvolved in any acdvldes that take plac.e ln large groups of people so I don't get a chancc to make frlends that my parents don't know aboul However, tf I wanted to get tnvolved ln actlvlties or meet people that my paxents dldn't know a lot about or totally approve of, I would retaln the prtvacSr to do those thtregs. I also malntaln a degree of prtvacy ln what I wrtte. I keep a dlary and tt ls absolutely Jorbidden for anyone to read tt (not that anyone can read my handwrtdng anyway). I have my own dlsks for our computer and nobody else acrcesses them. I harrc a lot of pen-pals and nobody reads my letters, tncornlng or outgofurg. 'Nobody,' of course, means nobody wlthout perrnlsslon. In all, perhaps I do have far less prtvacy than ldds who go to school or than some homeschooled ldds, but I really don't feel llke I need tt at thls point. And I think though I may lack prtvacy, I have the Jredorn to have tt, if I urant to.

Important to Get Along With Parents Ftom turah-Kate Giddtngs (MA):

I think that somedmes homeschoolers do have a problem

with prtvacy with thetr parents. Some homeschoolers llke prlvacy and they can't get as much as they'd like because they're around thelr parents most of the dme and their parents llke to know what they're doing and record lt. Somedmes I feel that way, but most of the time I think I have enough prtvacy. My parents are lnvolved in a lot of the things I do and most of the tlme that's all rtght with me. I usually like spendtng dme wtth my famlly on the occaslons vre are all able to do somethlng together (thls ls about every onc€ in a whlle because I have three brothers and slsters), It seems like kids who go to school never get to see thelr parents very much since they are so urrapped up ln thelr own school life. Sometimes that can be OK, but I thtnk some school ktds ferl pretty detached. I like to talk to my mom a lot and shar€ things with her. I arn able to do thlngs privately tf I want to, like take a walk or read a book without my mom tahdng note about it, but I usually like to tell her anyway. I think that tt is lmportant to have a good relatlonship wlth your parents.

Learning How to Live With Others Ftom Chelsea. Chopman (AI9: Ltving in a famtly of slx people, often all stuck ln the house together, certalnly lessens one's chances of doing anythtng in private. I have very, very ltttle physical privacy, but I do not feel that I need lt. I have thought about prtvacy a lot recently, and I feel strongly that havlng one's own space or a lot of prlvate time alone is more an American cultural ldea than a universally human need. I think that often too much emphasis is put on privacy and personal space in our socletSr and that much more can be learned about human nature and understanding how to deal with others in daily life if there is less prlvacy for individuals. In fact, there is a quote that sums this up much better than I can; it comes from a biography of Mahatma Gandhi, regarding his growing up in a small house with llve other famllies: 'When so rnany people wtth dlverse tastes, hablts, and temperaments are cooped up in a narrow space from week to week, month to month, and year to year, it requires no little dlplomattc skill, deltcacy, tact, especially on the part of the head of the famtly, to malntain a healthy and sweet atmosphere. The members on thelr part-have to develop an attitude of mutual help and regard, the capacity for give and take, and adJustment to one another's idlosyncracles." Of course, there are tlmes when I really long for some prlvacy and a chance to work undlstracted. But I tfrink IVe leamed more from living this way and that the whole family has gained

Keeps Her Own Records I}om Maggte Adans (CN: I spend a lot of my ttme by myself readtng, thtnktng, dotng schoolwork, worldng on crafts, violin, art, etc. Where I llve my mom does not have to keep constant track ofwhat I do, plus I keep my own records of books I read, and all my academtc work. Of course my mom spends dme with me readlng and helplngwtth my studies. I really don't mtnd my mom asldng me questlons about things other people may thtnk should be prlvate, llke books you read, places you go, thtngs you do, whtch she does not ask that much an5rway. To me it is fun to share thtngs wtth my famlly and friends, tell them about books IVe read, thtngs IVe done, tasks I've accomplished, and so on. I feel I haveJust as much prlvacy as my friends, if not more. For lnstance, I can go offwhenever I want and be alone, and they cannot. I feel luclry to have two younger homeschoollng brothers to do things with, but sometlmes I want prlvacy from them and don't want them to bother me. I feel I can most of the tlme get prlvacy from my family when I need lt. I also feel I can say, 'I want to do thls prlvately,'wlth no hesitadon. For inctance, this arttcle: I had my mom llsten to how It sounded, but somedmes I like to write things and send them ln wlthout her seeing them. I feel I have plenty of privacy. Growing Without Schooltng #81

Finding the Right Teacher Awe

Brosnan (NY wrltes:

I have wrltten to GWS before about my "warped' self-taught pfano playtng lcWS

#731. We bought our plano tn 1986, when I was 9, and ln about ayear I had taught myself to read notes. Pleces I knew the tune

of I played with a controlled rhythm and timing. Pieces I dldn't know I used whatever rhythm I wanted. I began to llsten to more and more muslc, and when I heard a song that I had the sheet muslc for, I went back to the piano and played the muslc as I remembered hearlng lt. Tlyo or three years Iater I liked music and playhC the plano even more, and I played Mozart and Haydn and Tellemann. By 1989 I played Beethoven's Plano Sonatas tn the ortglnal. Whether they were concert standard I don't care to dispute, but the potnt ts I could read

almost anything.

Then I decided I wanted somethtng more. I said to myself, 'What is your goal? To play every plece of muslc ln the world? Don't you want to do somethtng neu/? Why are you afraid to teach yourselfrhythm and ftngertng?' Mom had laughed at me some[mes. She'd come over and show me how a piecc of music was supposed to sound when I had been pla5dng tt 'my way.' She made an uproar out of my rendltton of the William Tell Overture. She called tt the

William Tell Boogie.

I knew the basics of rhythm - half

notes, quarternotes, whole notes, etc. - but

I didn't put them lnto practlce. There were too rnany new opera and symphony themes I wanted to play, or a new batch of folk songs, to have to stop and flgure out the rhythm. All I had to do to play what I wanted to play was listen to the music somewhere and then play tt from memory, using the sheet muslc to ffnd the notes. But I knew something was mlssing. For two years I stayed prctt5l much on the same level. The only thtng I cnuld do was become faster and faster at note readlng and llsten to more and more recorded muslc. I don't know how or whv I knew that I needed lessons to learn whdt I sull didn't know about playtng ptano (I thought there wâ&#x201A;Źrs very little I didn't know; now I know better). I sdll wonder why, if I knew there were things I needed to know, I didn't pin them down and figure them out by myself. After an entire life of autodidacticlsm and using my own brains to learn anything I wanted, tt was llke belng defeated to ffnd a spot where I felt I couldn't go on anymore without help from outside. It was a defeat for Mom too. She thought I could teach myself what I needed to know by golng back to the old lesson books I had abandoned after I had barely used them years before. She didn't thlnk I d ltke taktng lessirns and having to practlce one single piece of music until I got it perfect. I was more willing to llnd a teacher anyway since I had never had any experlence with a bad piano teacher. But we dldn't know exactly what kdnd of teacher I wanted. Since I didn't know then what was misslng in my piano playtng and didn't

think I needed much formal instmction. I asked if there was any way I could play Growing Wtthout Schooltng #81

urith somebody - ltke aJam session. Mom had heard ofhtgh school students who teach muslc fcr a summerJob at our town's Department of Recreadonal and Cultural AIIairs, Shortly afterwarrds we saw the advertlsement for summer muslc lessons and stgned up for etglrt weeks of ptano. My teacherwas Dave, who hadJust g5aduated from htgh school. He thought that my homeschoollng and my self-taught ptano playlng were amaztng (he called me a child prodigr three times). lhough fun some ways I was better than he was at plano, he taught me some of what had been rnlsslng tn my

playtng. We ended

up practlclng baslcally one

wouldn't have had more

than one lesson wltb Mr. .Ioe lf I dldn't sec rlght away that he was the klnd

of plano teacher I

wanted.

piece of music the whole ttme, Rlmslry-

Korsakov's 'Song of Indta.' I llked tt, but not as much as Dave did. and I almost threw lt at the wall and screamed from over-practicing at the end of six weeks. Dave tried to teach me what he called dynamics, and I still don't know what that is. He did correct my rhythm and timlng and flngering, and showed me a little of what I had anUclpated - flnger and arm structure, pedaltng, thlngs I hadn't seen ln any lesson book. Mostly we went over the 'Song of India" and medltated about the TaJ Mahal, herbal tea, and men ln long orange robes. Before I began lessons that summer, I

had ftnally discovered the type of music I thought was my destlny - ragtlme, or classic early Amerlcan plano Jazz. Unfortunately, Dave had hardly any lnterest in this, except to talk about a rag piece written by Debussy, a composer I have never liked. On my own, I had never played with rhythm except on ragtime and Jazz. $smsthtng clicked when I flrst heard syncopation, which is varying the stress on certain notes - stresslng a weak beat, etc, It's hard to explain, but the effect ls to avoid regular rhythm. 'Llrc Jazz muslcians put syncopation to its best use, but classical composers also used tt. I realized that all those years ofplaytng plano pleces "my way' I had been syncopating, and I had the best time of my life playing boogfes

and rags, even if Dave didn't appreciate them. Just this month I found out that a

J..z mustcian from the Btg Band era

named Tommy Dorsey played a Jaz. version of "Song of Indla.' No more herbal tea for me. I took boggles and made them even moreJazz5r, or syncopated. I suppose tf I had stopped taklng lessons and gone on by myself at home, I would have spent all my tlme syncopatlng werything, and playing more and more early Jazz. I sttll have very llttle sheet muslc for tt; tt's hard

to flnd.

When the summer lessons were over, Dave begged me to take lessons from trls

old ptano teacher. Mom was stlll susplclous of the tdea, and lt took her qutte a few months to call hdm and ask tf he mfght have an opentng for me. Flttally Dad, who through all this tlme was roottng for me to have lessons from anybody, called up Mr. Grazlose, allas Mr, Joe, and he said yes, he had a space for me. At our flrst lesson he called me 'fasclnating,' satd I had a'feel for muslc' whlch he was glad to see, but I needed more technique. He went further wlth ffnger structure and introduced me to all kfurds of thtngs I had nerrer dreamed of. Durlng our Ilrst few lessons he showed me my baslc problem: I played wtth my arms and Ilngers stilL Dave had long ago told me my Ilngers were "dead,'but didn't spend much Ume t5dng to correct that. Now I can't lmagfne how I used to play, It feels wonderful to move my arms all orrer the plano and have my flngers do llips and swings and scales without rnisstng a note. I used to attribute notes that I couldn't get to ln tlme or that my flngers iJust couldn't play' to my note readtng, orJust say, -That's life.' Mr. Joe would watch me do thtngs and stare at my llngers wlth his eyes wide open and say, 'What was that? How did you do that... tarantula walk?' I'd tell him I invented lt, or that I dtdn't know what I was dolng when I did somethtng. He asked me what my ideas of llngerlngwene, and I told him that I kept my eyes on the music and let my fingers do whatwer they wanted, let them see which finger could get to the correct note ln dme. Of course, we had to go and start from the begtnntng wtth fingering. This annoyed me at flrst, havlng to start anew, but I had known lt was coming. It's an adventure for Mr. Joe to teach someone like me. Never having had any kind ofteacher before, I am rather headstrong. I'm not used to acrcepting the fact that I have to leam something wtthout finding out why. At the same dme, I doubt I have ever shirked a task I was supposed to do, whether I wanted to do lt or not. I thlnk somedmes Mr. Joe doesn't expect me to listen to his assignment and come back the next week having done werything he told me to do.

I still have a problem with flngerlng. I nwer thought of my ffngers as "1,2,3,4, and

5" before, but I'm getttng faster at figurlng it out in the middle of a piec.e of music. I only have a problem wlth llnger four, my "rlng" flnger. You would assume that my ltttle flnger would be the weakest, but I can

always use it fast enough when the ffngering in the music calls for it. But four seems to malfunction all the dme. My brain ls slow to get it moving. I've already been in one concert, and in June I will play at Mr. Joe's end-ofseason concert. I'm having a lot of fun playing; luckily I haven't lost any of my enthuslasm. Mr. Joe is incredibly moody. One day everything is perfect; the next day werything I do ls an atroclt5l. I don't care much, and luckily Mr. Joe also has a gmd sense of humor. At my first lessons, after

24 he heard me play, he supposed that I knew a lot of thtngs I didn't - a conslderable amount of the Italian Language, for instance. It took me a long Hme to convince him that I dtdn't look at anythlng on a page ofmuslc except the notes. I had no idea what "forte,' 'crescendo,' "dolcr,' or "legato'meant. He supposed I dtd because I put them lnto the muslc. For e:rample, "forte' means loud, and I could tell from the way the muslc was golng that lt was supposed to get loud. Ofc.ourse, I dtd nottc.e that it said 'F- or "forte'whenever the music got loud, but I dtdn't pay much attention. Slnce I felt free that vray, I made it get loud or soft whenever or wherever I wanted. Mr. Joe can't understand why I don't look at somethtng and play lt exact$ the way ifs written, why I lengthen notes or speed them up. I say, 'I ltke tt that way," but he doesn't take that for an ansrver. He caught on that I ltke syncopated muslc, and he now calls certaln pieces of muslc 'Anne Brosnan pleces,' tf they sound exotlc or lazzy or full of wet'd rhythms. He's also

found the word 'Annelsm' to explatn llttle variatlons or added emotions and rhythms in a plece of muslc. He'll say, "Yes, your technique is perfect in that part. As long as you keep tt thatway, you can add some

Anneisms.' I wouldn't have had more than one lesson with Mr. Joe if I hadn't seen right

away that he was the ktnd of piano Gacher I wanted. I knew that I needed somethlng taught to me, and he doesn't beat around the bush. He tells mewhat it ls so that I know what he's trying to teach me. And he gets right to it. We have never started offa lesson doing scales or flnger exercises (though I wonder why, because those are the things I need to work on). WeJust go right to the muslc, and we compromlse on the choosing ofeach piece. IfI want to play something ifs all right with him as long as he can teach it to me, and lf he wants me to play something we don't have to tf I end up hating the music. A lot of dmes he glves me choices ofwhat I want to play. I can tell he realizes that through all of the stuff he's teaching me, I'm only going to let slnk in what I want to sink in, and he lets me choose whether I want to learn somethlng or not. I'm mainly there to learn from h{m, not for him to teach me. In the next tssue of GWS, Anne Brosnan writes about her experlences on the local school's track and basketball teams.

Pinewood School Brinos Home Educotion lo Yo-u (303) 838_rt4t8

Olivio C,

Lorio

Director

Finding Onefs Work Pervry Barker oJ Ottlo wrltes: The other day a friend I hadn't seen for about ffve years asked about all the chtldren, and was especlally lnterested ln 'what the'ltttle shepherdess' ls dolng now." I smtled thtnktng how my youngest, Jonah, ls now the shepherd and Maggte gets mall addressed to 'Musher Magde Barker.' (Mushtng ts rtdtng on the runners of a dogsled behlnd a team ofAlaskan huslry sled dogs.) Afterwards I reflected on Maggte's progresslon from shepherdess to musher and how she seems to have arrlved at work that exactly matches her tempera-

Llke so many homeschooler8, Magglc flnds age no barrler to thelr frlendshlp and conslders Joe at 63 and Terrl at 32 her very best frlends.

ment, body type, and splrit of adventure. Maggie had cared for the sheep on our farmstead from the [me she was 3. She Gd them, watered them, dewormed them with her father, Richard, and watched closely at lambtng dme and sheartng dme. By the tlme she was 7 she was handllng lamblng on her own and at I I was shearing the sheep, washing, carding, and sptnnlng the wool. Readin g The Stepherd's Guldefuk ',vas, in fact, how Meggte taught herself to read at age I l. Wetghing up wool, s€lllng tt by poundage, and llgurtng out postal costs for sending it to people ln varlous parts of the countqr had a lot to do wlth her math skills and her communication sktlls. At age 12 Maggte dectded she really did necd some help roundtng up her growtng flock of colored-wml sheep and so she became lnterestd ln a worklng dog from Scotland and Wales, the border collle. She and Rtchard answered an ad ln our local paper for border collie pups and met Pat Welch, the 65-year-old man who was to become Maggfe's mentor ln thls work for the next three years. She began working wlth Pat several days a month gleaning from his wisdom and years of experience wlth working dogs, In between these sesslons, whenever Maggte had a question, she would write to Pat and he would respond with a thorough answer and lots of encouragement. From thls gentle mentor she learned the art of trainlng a really effectlve worldng border collle, She was able to have the asslstanc€ she needed wtth her own flock thts way, and she dso spent several years ralslng and tralnlng

112 Rood D Pine

Colorodo 80470

Serving Home Educotors Since

'1981

excellent working dogs for other people. Maggie's skills as a communlcator were further sharpened through this work as were her abiliffes to work wtth anlmals. During thts time Maggie did a lot of other things too. She studied plano and vlolin and spent part of her day playing

muslc wlth her slbltngs or on her own. She sketched, htked tn the woods, helped wlth the work on the farm, and enJoyed her Me. Though we nerrer u.prr{ed about Maggte's future, knowing that tlme would rerreal her adult work, Richard and I would somedmes fantaslze about the dillerent futurcs we cpuld see for each of our llve chtldren. For Mag;g[e, we could tmagtne her growtng skills tn splnning and knitting taklng her lnto that dlrection - she dtd toy wlth the tdea of havlng weekends on the farm for people tnterested in the entire proctss of wool, from sheep's back to the sptnnlng wheel and knttung needles. We could also tmagfure Maggte as the vlolln member of a trlo, wtth her celllst brother and pianist slster, slnc€ her love for the vtoltn had begun to orrcrshadow her work on the plano. We muld see Maggle tratntng border collles for search and rescue work since the Alaskan Search and Research AssoclaHon had written her asking if they could use the matertal she'd written for The Mother furth Neus about training border collies as handouts for their members. Though Maggle did search and rescue tralntngwtth one of her dogs one surruner, tt didn't inspire her that much. But the autumn she was 14, she was using one of her border collies to pull a load ofstraw down to the sheepbarn when one ofher friends, who raised border collies and competed tn sheepdog trials wlth them, stopped by. He sawwhat Maggte was doing and told her that there was a better pulling dog, one that could pull hundreds of pounds. Shortly after this Maggie acqufued a huslry-type dog from one of our local farmers, and began training tt to pull. She then dtd some research and dtscovercd there was a sled-dog club ln Ohio devoted to lnterest ln dogs who were bred for thetr

pulling and running insflncts. She began to get some free dogs from people lnvovled ln thls club - dogs that were not tops on thelr teams but were good for Maggfe starflng out. Within a few short months she had been able to pull a team of four dogs together to pull her up the road on what ls called a "no-snow rtg.'With thts wheeled piec'e of equtpment, Magg;le would fly up the gravel road with her brothers ridtng ahead on ponies to warn any vehicles or Amlsh buggies that a dog team was comlng up the road. This kept Maggte from being hit and added a lot ofexcltement to our Amish neighborhood. That winter Meggle acquired a sled and was able to hitch up the four huslides she had and two ofherbordercollies, resulttng in a six-dog team that could actually pull Maggie on the sled wlth her brother Dan in the baskel One tlme when our snow level reached six inches Maggie took me on the sled, and lt was absolutely exhilarating tr:avellng along at 12 mph wlth no sound but the runners of the sled on the snow and those lovely Alaskan huskies runnlng before us, There was a problem, however. The snowfalls tn Ohio have bec,ome fewer and lighter tn re€€nt years and Maggie and her

Growing Without Schooling #8

25 dogs need snow. So in the fall of 1989, when Maggie was 16, our famlly made the decision to butld a cabln ln the northwoods near the Canadian border ln the upper peninsula of Mtchlgan, It was a tremendous famlly effort but we dtd tt, and Meggle's career ln dog mushlng has

blossomed wlth that declslon. Thls blossomlng ls nurtured by her dogsleddtng mentors, world champlon sprlng rac€r Terri Killam and her musher husband, Joe Dickenson. These two wonderful people from Massachusetts happen to be oui near€st nelghbors tn the Northrvoods

during the wlnter months, and Maggle spends three or four days each week

worklng with them and beneflttlng from their twenty-flve years ofdogsled ractng experience. Like so many homeschoolers, Maggie flnds age no barrler to thelr friendshtp and consldere Joe at 53 and Terri at 32 her very best frtends. Having a 3O-dog kennel ls expenslve, and Maggle has been able to cover all of her expenses for feeding, houslng, and vet bills (about $6O0O lyr)by taktng groups of children lor weekend stavovers and introducing them to the ihrtlls and adventure of dogsledding in the deep (four to six feet) snows of our northwoods winter home. She does this on four weekends ln the wlnter and the other weekends arc spent with her real passlon, whlch ts racing her team ofslx to ten dogs. She ls little and agtle and not afrald of any tratl, no matter how curly, htlly, remote, or preclpltous. Her dartng atutude along with

GRAP1|IC

the hours and hours she spends outside in

sub-zero temperatures worklng with her dogs has earned her the tltle, "Susan Butcher of the Upper Penlnsula.' (Susan Butcher ls a four-tlme wlnner of the famous 1,149 mile Alaska ldttarod sled dog race.) She was told by an old-dmer at the

last race that she had revoluttonized mtddlstance raclng tn the state of Mtctrigan and was recogntzed as mld-dlstance musher of the year ln 1991. Thafs because Maggie is able to brtng her etght dogs over a flfty to a hundred mtle trall as much as an hour ahead ofdrlvers ofyears and years of experiencc ln splte of thetr teams of fourteen to seventeen dogs. It ls satd that she has proven that speed and starnlna ln sled dogs can be reallzed through diligent

condldonlng and tratnlng.

M.ggie does feel she ts reallztng her ln the world of sled dogs and she also fecls that she has broken down some social barriers in raclngl ln Michtgan. These soclal barriers lnclude tssues ofage, sex, and stature. Maggte ts a small, young female who has gained much respect in the world ofsled dog racing because ofthe quality of her work. In her first year of racing Maggie felt she had been discriminated against by most of the other mushers, who were adult males, always larger than her. Thts dtscrtminatlon took the form primartly of Maggte betng ignored and excluded from conversaflons about the dogs, the trail, etc. And on one oc.casion a big male musher would not 5deld the trail gloals

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Growing Wthout Schoollng #81

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to her when she was ready to pass (a musher is to pull his team to the side of the road when a musher from behlnd comes upon him and shouts "traill") causlng M'ggle to lose the race. Maggte dtdn't complaln to anyone, Just contlnued to work harder wlth her dogs until they were fast enough to stay well ahead on the tratl. Her hard work shows and ls respected by the male mushers now. As Maggte reallzes her work, I am made to take note of the fact that she ls lnvolved ln an endeavor that never occurned to me when she was ayoung chlld. It remlnds me of my oldest, Brltt, who became passlonate about llylng and bush ptlot work after a chtldhood spent wrlting, playtng the ptano, and dolng naturaltst fleldwork. Unlike Maggte, however, who shed her former lnterest in the sheep, Britt contlnues to play the plano pa.sslonately, to wrlte, and to do nafuralist work when she ls on the ground. I want to keep thts tn mind as my youngest children gro\rr lnto adulthood. They are dolngwhat seems necessary for them to do now but I don't want to attach myself to any ldea I have for their future, because ltwould put pressure on them and could very likely lead to dlsappolntment for me were my ldeas for thelr futures to become firmlv set deslres. I

thtnk I'm seelng another of ihe maln

beautles of a homeschooltng llfe through the freedom children have to think and explore on thelr own - to really come to knowwho thcy are and what their deepest P€rsslons are,

Letter to a School Official Maggie SadouaA @tN sent us a apg oJ the letter she sent to the guldance a unselor of her local schrcL Lerwx Mtddle School. Others

wla need to erylobt

la mesclooling u.tXlaut school olfrcids rnag

helpJul:

currlculum to

find Maggle's letter

Now that our son Solon has moved

into the middle-school years, we ar€ looking forward to as satlsfidng a reladonship with you as we had for slx years (grades K-5) wtth Principal Bob Vaughan. To further that goal, I would like to take this opportuntty to descrtbe at some length both our history and phtlosophy of education and schoollng. ,{.s you know, every family's homeschoollng program ts different, ranging from school at home (specific hours for'school' work, following a pre-set curriculum, ustng schoolbooks and testing) to allowtng and encouraging young people to grow, develop, and learn in a cornmuntty-based ltfe without any ofthe trappings ofschool. The goal for all parents and teachers ls the same: providing the resourc€s for lives to be lived well. Getting to that goal ts sometimes like dectdtng whether to go to Europe by boat or plane: the vast maJority choose to fly, but those who go by ship get there just as well, wlth an endrely different experienc€ on the way. Because our educatlonal program for Solon is one of the many which includes no schooling, it ls important to us that you have as accurate a picture as posslble of how it operates and why our methods of evaluation are necessarily dillerent than for a child raised with schooling. (Chtldren who go to Europe by ship don't need to fasten their seat belts as they near thelr

destination.) Our phllosophy of leamlng, well substantiated by our own and other parents' experience, ls that learnlng always occurs spontaneously if there are enough interesting resources; that such leaming has no need to follow anyone else's timetable of what should be learned when. The end result is awell-educated person, often wlth a different but valuable perspective on knowledge and learntng. After years of closely observing Solon (now I I l/2),we are still amazed but no longer surprised by the vast number of facts and skills he constantly accumulates as he goes about his daily activitles, nearly all of which are hard to disdngulsh from play. Hts ls truly a "real-world," selfdirected, self-motivated educatlon. Before he was ofschool age, he effortlessly learned numbers, letters, colors, shapes, grammar, vocabulary and so on through his everyday lnteractlons and activities, Throughout hts gradeschool years, his academic development roughly paralleled that of hls age-mates ln

school: simply because the knowledge was

interesting and/or useful, he learned approximately the same thtngs they did, but without formal instruction, lessons, or

drills.

We are convinced that what has worked so well untll now will condnue to be equally successful durtng the mlddle-

school years. Bound ln no way by an assumption that learntng should be conflned to a specifled form, place, or time, Solon fllls hts days experlmentlng, reflectlng, absorblng, questlonlng, pondering, probing: constantly deepenlng

and wldentng hls experlence of the world, still wtthout schoolbooks or tests, Some recent ercamples of how learnlng has taken plac.e ln thls way durtng the llrst half of Solon's slxth grade year: " While waittng for me to flnd mY car keys and get my coat on, Solon studles a map of the United States hangtng in our

Solon werc followlng a standardlzed currlculum. a standardlzed test mlght glve some useful lnformatlon. Slnce he ls not. such a test would be lrrelevant and almost certalnly mlsleadlng. hallway and notices with excitement that there ls a huge lake tn Utah. 'I thtnk tt's bigger than all of Rhode Island and thafs the smallest state," he calls out. I agree enthusiastlcally that tt ts amaztng, tell him the name of the lake at hls request, and we go on ourway, chattlng about other thtngs. Just by hanging there, the map begs to be explored and it often ls. " When the November Skg andTele' scope arrlves in our mail, Solon glances at some of its photographs and makes a com-

ment that unexpectedly plunges all three of us lnto a half hour discusslon of planets, meteors, comets, and hls own calculatlons of the path a rocket might take to reach

Mars, illustrating some of hts thinking with the help of a colorful diagram which hangs on another of our walls. o Listening to a new TV commercial, Solon exclaims, 'Oh no, not another waltzl'Of his own accord, he then hums onewlth exaggerated exuberance and goes on to tell us how waltzes have been used in movies he's seen, whether they secmed appropriate to the plot, how they made htm react, and so on, We make two mental notes: neither we nor anyone else taught him thls, at least not ln any deliberate or organlzed manner; and we had no ldea he knew so much aboutwaltzes. He hasJust passed another ofour unplanned, unadministered tests which take place regularly about half a dozen times a day. o Knowing that we all ltke wall charts, I bring home a large, three-c.olored one of the multiplication tables. My assumption, of course, ls that lt might help Solon soltdi$ his skill at multlplication, and perhaps it is dolng that. As so often happens, however, the way he uses it takes us by surprise: he lmmediately starts looking for all ktnds of patterns and soon notices that all the whtte squar€s have odd numbers whereas blue and vellow are

always even; that some numbrn aPPear several dmes and others only once; that you can group smaller squares lnto larger ones ln a nearly lnflnlte number of ways; that lnterestlng patterns emerge lf you look at the numbers on a dlagonal, and so on, Before he ls done, we know several tllngs about the muldpltcaflon tables that had never occurred to etther ofus before, not erren to Jack wtth hts maJor tn math. o On a very cold nfght, each time I try to clean the wtndshteld wlth another squtrt of washer fluld, lt freezrs tnstantly tn a flligreed fllm. 'Lookl' exclalms Solon. 'Ils Jack Frost ln fast forwardll Now I understand how frost gets on our wlndows: no matter how c,old lt ls, there's always some molsture whlch condenses onto the $ass and freezes. But it takes all nfght and usually tt's too slow to see how lt happens'' o Walttng lmpatlently for me to flntsh the dlshes so I can look up some numbers for hlm ln the phone book, Solon suddenly decides he can do lt himself, tf I help him Just a ltttle. 'I'm looldng for Babbages ln the B's: what do I do nex9' I give hLim a br{ef explanadon while contlnuing to scrub a pot, and he catches on tnstantly.'I seet Go io the second letter, then the thlrdl' Wtthtn a few mlnutes he has conlldently located Toy Works and Kay-Bee Toys as

well. It's true that wlth some r€guliar lnstrucdon and drtll, Solon might have leamed to alphabetize a year or two earter. The polnt here, howe',rer, ls that our longstanding phtlosophy of usually watttng for Solon's self-modvation to determlne both the tlmtng and the method of lnstnrctlon has once again worked elegantly, flawlessly. Once the deslre or need to know something ls Present and exactly the right amount of new lnformation is available ln a way that can be uttllzed, learning takes plac.e not onl5r effortlessly but probably permanently as well. Four years ago, during Solon s second grade year at home, my report to the school stated: 'We realtze that our system means Solon may often be out of step academlcally with other chlldren hls age: at any gfven time he may know more... or less... fhan they do labout various subJectsl.' Aside from the obvlous fact that thb ts equally true of children who have always attended school, we reallze that thts statement sttll appltes to Solon. The most obvlous example of belng "out of step' is that until he was nearly lO, Solon could hardly read at all. Knowing that many homeschooled children only leam to read at about the age of lO or 12, and nodclng all kinds of signs that he was flguring out phonics on his own, we ur'er€ content to let thtngs be. In March or April ofthat year, Solon got his ffrst two lssues of Nintertdo Power maglazine. Suddenly, all that prlnt made sense to him. By May he was reading on at least a flfth grade level, dwouring the fine print of one TIn Tin book after another, absorbing large chunks of The Gutness Boolc oJWotld Records, and so on. Now, half way through hts sixth grade year, Solon is acquiring spelling skills in a way that apparently parallels how he

Growlng Wthout Schooltng #81

27 taught htmself to read two years ago. Clearly he has g;rasped much of the bastc

information but hasn't qutte llgured out how to put tt all together. Nearly datly he says things ltke, 'Be a conl Beacont Lrok, 'beacon' tells you to be a conl'or'Wouldn't you think there'd be a'k'lnstead of a'que' at the end of 'antlque'?'or'Have you noflced you can't hear the't'tn'Chevrolet'?' (lnctdentally, all three remarks were made ln the car - threeyears ago, Solon used much of our car tlme noflclng signs as he was putttng together the lnformaUon he needed for readtng.) As products of long years of schooltng ourselves and certalnly not completely immune to outslde pressures, we llnd that from time to dme doubts do creep tn, What if his spelling never improves? Shouldn't we insist onJust llve mlnutes a day of "proper" drill? What lf he nerrer wants to

leam about En$and's hlstory or the

anatomy of a frogp What tf he alrvays wants to do arlthmetrc tn hts head and never IInd out how other people do tt on pape/? (See my artlcle tn Growlng Wtthout Schooling #63, July 1988, for a descripilon of Solon's earlier years of teachtng himself arithmetic.) During these vulnerable moments, we remember that to be elther a parent or an educator ls to have doubts, to wonder if it will "all come out rtght in the . end" (whenever that tst), to constantly look for ways to improve what we are dolng. At those moments we also reach for our nowthick lile of stories about other homescho-oled young people who also "stepped to a different drummer' ln one academli area or another and then eastly sltpped back into line, and, ln nrany cases, chose to enter high school or crllege, where they did well. Finally, our breathing slows, we put the spelling book we bought one day afthe grogery store back on the dusgr top shelf, and once more feel conlldence ln ourselves and in Solon. We are notdotng school at home: ours is a totally dilferent educational program and lt is working beaud-

fully.

- As the years go by, we actually pay less and less attentlon to 'educauon' and see lt simply as a by-product of the larger goal of living every moment well at wery stage and age of one's ltfe, In our role as conlultants to Solon, we are now able to say wtth complete a.sisurance that our primary task is to provide as lnter€stlng an envlronment and life for Solon as we have resources for. A well-rounded educadon will then contlnue to unfold, as tt has for nearly twelve years, as a natural and inevitable result of what every chtld ts born with: insatiable curlosity, an lnbom passion for learnlng, and the lnnate

ability to do it well.

A major part of our long-range goal ts to ensure that Solon stays fully confldent that he can learn anythtirg he irants or needs to know by means of any methods that work for him. At some point his

methods may include tmprovtng his spelling by using a good c.omputer game, enlarging his knowledge of algebra by

methodically worklng through a maih

book, or even deciding to enter school or see how he would do on a standardized test. For now he contlnues to educate hlmself bv an eleglnt mlxture of the following methods (since his leamlng is nevEr separate from his lMng, I would certainly

Growing Wthout Schooltng #81

be surprlsed tfhe thought ofthem as 'methods- - they are Just some of the many lnterestlng thtngs he does all the time):

ln a notebook to be handed over to strangers, that our tnterest fn hfs learnfng ts matnly to complle a more lrnpresslve

reading, betng read to, asktng questions,

report: at best, we are less and less fre-

talking to people who know about somethtng he wants to explore, taktng part tn the acdvlty when appllcable (computers, karate), watchlng TV, vtdeos, and movies, Ustentng to tapes and the radlo, traveltng,

quently present durtng much of hls leamlng and stmply cannot record lL He spends large chunks of tlme at other people's computers, tn other people's workplacrs and homes, ln conversadon wlth people vrc may not er/en know he has met, going places wlthout us, and so on.

uslng the resources of musems, theaters, and spectal exhlblts, worldng together with friends on thelr projects, watchlng or helptng adults at work, and so on. In addition, we help look up informatlon, leave challenglng mathemattcal pr:zzles tytng amund, polnt out ltems of Interest in magazlnes and newspapers, llsten enthuslasttcally to what he ls lnterested in, stay lnformed about local

events, provide transportadon, talk openly about what ts tmportant to us ln our llves, and so on. Between ourselves, Jack and I also frequently cpmpare notes on our furdtvldual observatlons of Solon's strengths and weaknesses and also dlscuss how best to encourage hlm to pursue some of his lnterests ln gpeater depth, sharpen his sktlls in certain areas, or tqr completely new actlvlties. Giving him acc.ess to a wlde variet5r of people of all ages and

backgrounds ls another lmportant contribution on our part and ls one reason we decided to host a Ftliptno exchange

student ttris year and orie from Colombia next year. Because of the completely tntegrated

natur€ of Solon's life and educaUon, even reports on his progress are harder and harder to write ln any meanlngful way. I am reminded of parents of an infant who decide to prove that their baby is developtng normally by weighlng her after every feeding, taktng her temperature daily, keeping track of her hours of sleep, video taping her ways ofusing each toy, tape recording every new sound she makes, and so on. Soon the baby's dwelopment is warped, if not endangered, by all the testing and record-keeping. I feel we have reached that point ln trytng to keep detailed records of Solon's academic work; at the least, he ls becoming

Justillably irrttated by the notion that wery thought or actlon of his rnight end up

If Solon were follo$rlng a standardized

currlculum. a standardlzed test rntght gtve some useful lnformatlon. Stnce he ls noL such a test would be lrrelevant and almost certalnly mtsleadtng. If hts tnterest lay in workbooks and other wrltlng, v,le could put together a portfollo based on samplee of that work - but that ls not how he leams and such work does not exlst. Knowlng that he has made an excellent lmpresslon on nEny bnox nelg;hbors and merchants (tnvartably they talk about how pollte, brtgbt, and rnature he ls), I @uld perhaps sollcit their wrltten oonrments to submit. Somehow that also s€ems lnapproprlate and only part of the evaluatlon we might be looklng for. As I step back and remember the larger vlew of why our courts lnslst that the State has a c.ompelling lnterest ln the education of its citlzens. I remember that the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts say that schoollng ls 'for the purpose of... fltting the pupils, morally and lntellectually, for the dudes of citizen-

ship" (General Laws c 72 #2). Althoug;h our methods of instructlon and evaluadon are vastly different from those of a school educatlon, we are convinced that we are easily reaching these same goals (and many others, ofcourse) through our program for Solon's educailon, The best evaluation of the results ls our contlnued detailed yet informal datly observations, It ls not necessary to uproot the roses dally to see that they are llourlshlng. If you would like, we would welcome further discussion or a meettng wlth you at your convenlence. Ifnot, you rnay expect another report from us ln a few months. We thank you for your continued lnterest and c.ooperadon.

Watching Children Learn, Help, cont. to me. I don't ltke lt when you wrlte tt down and then I have to copy lt.' MATH - 'l ltke tt when you staY ln the room while I do my math stuff, but let me do it by myselfl I like tt best when we bulld towers with Culsenalre rods and sometimes I like lt when you glve me challenges with them. I like to stng to my Skip Count Tape (Mortensen Math) by myself to see tf I can do it.' H ISTORY/SOCI,AL STUDIES/ GEOGRAPHY - 'l like lt when we read books about the old days and when people tell me stories. I like to show you the plac.es I know on the globe and ask you to tell me more, And I like to draw maps that I make up, but not maps of my bedrmm or house

or anything.' MUSIC -

'lt

helps me a lot when You

wait undl after I flnlsh playlng a song (on the flute) to tell me what I messed up. I HATE IT when you tell me when I mess up during the song because I want to flgur€ lt out by myself." ART - "lt's fun when Dad and me or you and me do crafts, but I'm starting to like to get the craft basket and make up things by myself. I llke to make things sometimes that aren't really anything special.'

Overcoming Negative

Attitudes Janet Barry o.f Neu Hantpshtre urites,' Thc other day I was readtng Ability Devebpmenttrom Age krcby Dr, Shinichi Suzulid, and was particularly impressed by a sectlon concernlng the Joy of devcloping talent (defined as one's capacity to thlnk, act, or feel ln any given situation). Dr. Suzuki used several examplcs to point out the posidve results of developing ability from what the child can already do, thus promottng the happiness of doing thlngs better and better. This is the opposite of presenting a child with a task that he perhaps dtsltkes and cannot do, and then scolding htm for his lack of interest and success. A story was told of a 6-year-old boy who could not count to lO, and had particular trouble with the numbers 4 and. 7. FIis mother repeatedly scolded him for this, and he just never seemed to remember. Dr. Suzukl lovtngly took the child to him, constructed a set of dtce with only fours and sevens on it, and began to play a simplc game. When the dlce were rolled, whoever said the correct number flrst was the winner. Before long, the boy was happily identifying fours and sevens. He had the pleasure ofsuccess, rather than the shamc of fallure. What made the difference? A game rather than a chore. A proc.ess of discovery, rather than of merely being told facts. An attitude of love and encouragement, with a certainty implted that oJcourse the chtld would succeed. So, as I said, this concept very much

continued from page

lmpressed me, slnc.e I had already felt tt to be truebut had never read about lt so clearly before. I have trted to apply tt tn all my activlties. A,s a Sr:zulii plano teacher, I try very hard to treat my students thls way. As an apprentice plano technlcian, I try to remtnd myself to learn thls way, focusing on developed abtltty (thtngs I already know and can do fairly well), and motlvadng myself wtth the pleasure I found tn achtevtng thes€ successes to attemPt to leam more dilficult thtngs, or to lmprove on those things I already know. As a homeschoollng parent, I attempt to keep thls ldea in mind when dealing wtth my

chtldren.

Let me offer some examples. About a year ago I discovered, ln a most embarrasstng and palnful way, that I could not tune pianos very well at all. I was humlltated. I took down all my buslness cards, stopped advertlsing, and refused to tune anythtng for the next six months. My daughter had a similar response to math. She felt she couldn't do lt; therefore, stmply openlng the math book brought tears of frustration. I attempted to push her anyway, and she responded with an ever lncreasing sense of anger and failure. Obviously, in both her and my cases, learning had stopped, if not begun heading backwardsl How was this negative cycle broken? In my case, through a lot of willpower (to overcome my fears of repeated failure) and through the encouragement of those around me. I ffnally did begin tunlng again, and after some time I have now gotten to the point where my teacher has said that I can tune well enough for most people's saUsfaction. And there was a moment of successl I felt so good about lt. Now I can say to myself that I want to be able to tune better, and that I will keep

working hard to learn that ability, but that

I can do it with the Joy of havlng achieved some success, rather than wtth the fear of shame and failure. Solving the math problem w€rs very similar, except that Tanya mostly worked It out on her own. I allowed her to shelve the math book, proclatming that it would not come off the shelf again unless she wanted it to. Months went by. She forgot about lt. She also apparently forgot that she couldn't do math, and went about her daily life doing math unawares. She had no problems at all telling dme, counting her allowance, playing games lnvolving numbers or money, followlng a recipe, or measuring things. I think these were her successes, the things that convinc-ed her that she could do math and could even enjoy it. So math is not a problem to her anymore. She discovered her book again one day, completed the undone section of tt in Just a few days, and proudly displayed it to me. Having overoome her sense of failure, she discovered her ability to think mathematically, experlenced sucoesses, developed that

abili$ tn her own time and way, and

experlenced even further succels. Thejoy of achievement accompanied this, and

leaming progressed.

Additions to Directory Hore ate a//additions and dlang€s b h€ Dir€ctory that have come in sincp our complote 1991 Diroctory was published in GWS #78. Our Direaory is rpl a list of all subscribers' but onfy ol frose who ask b be listed, so drat ofiet GWS readerc, or other interested p€opl€, may gsl in touctl with hem. lf you would like to be includ€d, pl€as€ send he entry form or a 3xS catd (one family por

card). Please take care to include all the information last nam€, full address, and so on. Tell us if you would rather have your phone number and t(wn listed instead of your mailing address (we dont havo sPace to list both). lf a Directory listing is followed by a (H), the family is willing to hosl GWS travelers who make advance arrangements in writing. lf a name in a GWS story i3 followed by a stat€ abbreviation in parentheses, that porson is in the Dir€ctory (check here and in GWS #78). Wo are happy to fonvard mail to hose whos€ addresses ars not in tho Directory. lf you want us lo fonYard he lener without reading il, mark the oultde of the env€lop€ with he writer's name/descriPtion and the issue number. lf you want us to read he letter and then foruard it, please enclose anothor stamped onvelopo. When you send us an address dlango for a subscription, please remind us if you are in the Directory, so we can change it here, tm. Please remember that we can\ control how the Directory is used: if you receive unwanted mail as a result of being listed, iusl toss it oul. (Ashleigh/86) 4313 AK - Valerie ATKINSON Vance Dr #307, Anchorage 99508 (change) (Toby/78' AR - Steve & Jackie JOHNSON Levi/84) 33233 N 224 Av, Wittmann 85361 -'Tom & Julie O'DAY (ltileg hanrv7g, Katherine/81, BridgevS4, Timothy/87, Conor/8g) Rt 6 Bor 165, Clinton 72031 (change) (H) CA, Nonh (zlps 94000 & up) - Erin COOMBSFRIEDMAN & Craig FRIEDMAN (Annie/89) A276 Samson Way, San Jose 9512a '' Donna & Tom CROSS (JoannaI/8, Gregory/87) 258 Pamela Dr #53, iiountain View 94040 -. Judy FffANIDES (Andrsa/ 79, Mary/83, Theo/85) 19)O8 Tyler Fmte Rd, Nevada City 95959 -. George & Susan GOEPEL (Leia/84, Gemma/9o) 10880 Wunderlich Dr, Cupertino 95014 -. Charles & Susan KIRKMAN (Ran4in2, Vishnut4' Rajani/8l, Radhiki/82, Kala/84, Shuggis/87) 306 S 18th St, San Jose 95116 -. Julie E Larry KROGER (Travis/83, Marta Ros€/87) 555 John Muir Dr #615, San Francisco 94132 -. Linda lvlAHER (Danielleng' Caleb/83. Sarahr/86, Hannahr/89) 3761 Roeding Rd, ceres 95307 -. Bob & Janer MENSCHEL (Chamb€r/ 80) PO Box 2369, Citrus Heights 95611 -'Gina & Brian PAISLEY (Eliov83, Emily/86) 18813 Park Tree Ln, Sonoma 95476 -. Mary & Todd PHOENIX (Sarah/ 85) 224 Hudson St, Redwood City 94062 -'Dave & Kim RYAN ( lvlelissa/8tll, DylarvST) 7 07 -822- 1 Ug (Arcatal -. Roy E Susan TANIGUCHI (Sally/83) 9391 Florin Rd, Sacramsnto 95829 -. Karen TURNER (RammaM76, Drisann8) PO Box 622, Redway 95560 (H) & &ne CA, South (zlF to 94000) - Nathaniel ADAM (tvka/80, tilytS2l 19€72 Salt Water Cir, Huntington Beach 9m48 -. Damell & Deborah BU RfL EY (Cleo/80, Yvene/83, Omar/84, Heather/86' lsaac/8g, Baby/gl) 1309 La Mancha Way, Ontario 91764 -. Colin E Cheryl CHRISTIAN (BriarV87, ManhedgO) 1 0 Hancock, lwine 92720 -' Sunny DAUN & Philip SHOFNER (Brian/8S, Jordail8g) 12034 Marshall St, Culver City 9023O'- Carol OOOSE (Briarv88) 2098 Airedale Av, Ventura 93003 -. Nancy & Alan EDMUNDSON (Christyrv84, Alisha/ 86, Bradley/8g) 1228 Calla del Sol, Santa Earbara 93101 (H) -' Nanct FRIEDLAND & Alan lrilOSES

crowing Without Schooling #81

29 (Marina/84, EtharVST) 259 Saratoga Ct, Gol€ta qll17 -. Michael & Caroline GORDON (Konny/87) 6153 Coral Pink Cir, Woodland Hills 91367 (change) Janning & Scon KENNEDY (Iyler/85, CaitlirvST) 17918 Pesanle Rd, Salinas Sl9O7 (H) -. Charlie MILES & Richard PRYSTOWSIff (Samara/84, Cobby/88) 731 Mt Whitney Cirde, Corona 91719 -. Paula & Jetf REMMEL Osni€/82, Christoph€r/87, Saramaria/go) 4872 Royal Greens Pl, San Diego 92117 -. Halstein & lda STMLBERG, '1401 Hill St.

Santa Monica 90405 CO Mikelyn E Greg WARD (i/hgant8, Korry/80, NialUS2) 13400 Rd 32, Planovillo 80651 (H) Kurt & Tighe YOVANOFF (Brennar79, L/hddy/81) NORTHERN CO HOME SCH@L ASSoc, 4633 Skyline Dr, Fort Collins 80526 CT John & Wendy CORMIER (Nicole/75, JasontS, Tyler/88) 662 Highland St, Welhorsfield 06109 -. YiEchak & Tzipka cowEN (Pnina/84, Yehuda,r86, Eli/88, Lipa/gO) 1406 Troubrook Dr, W Hardord 06117 (H) -. PeS FEUREY & Jim KIILE (lanr8s, ByrorVS9) 87 Knotlwood Ln, New Canaan )6840 -. Lisa & Norman LoDOUX (Jilliail82, irogarv 86, Bethany/88) 37 Potvin Av, Moosup 06354 (H) Louise SIENER (Bovera/i3) Wykeham Rd Box 1032,

Washington 067S| OE Gary & Sally ANOERSON (Koriry7g, Tomika/8l, Malia/8s, Ely88, lsak/go) 214 Hazel Ridge Dr, Witmington 19810 DC Rob€rt & Ginger WELCH (Rianz6, corrietTS, Mara/81 , Traven/8il) 3507 20lh Sr NE, Washington 20018 (change) (H) FL Karen & Ralph BOVE (Christopher/8l, Benjamin/87) 243 Plumosa Rd, DeBary 32713 Ralph & Virginia L9BRUN (AaroM/s, Johnpaul/8 t , Jambl86, RurMn) Rt 2 Box 785, Crescent City 32t t2 -. Lyn MILUM & John fvlcGRATH (Arwen lr/hirV80, MichaeUES) 1219 Timberland Trail, Altamonte Springs 32714 -. Martha & Larry SHEA (Eleanor/88, Rurh/8g) 10337 Vand€rbilt Dr, Naples 3it963 (H) -. Kahy & Tony SUERGIU (Elizabeh/82, Juli€ns/&s) 1510 NW 17 St, Homestead 33030 -. Chet & Terry THOMPSON (Dred86, Wade/88, Cory/go) 116 E Julia St, Perry 32347 GA Bob E Chris BISHOP (Cuniel7g, B€thany/81 ) 4439 Lak€ Forest Dr, Oakwood 30566 -. Greg & Vicki SCOTT (Michaelm,Davl,dt|Eol 125 Copeland Rd, Apr 342, Adanra 30342 (change) lL Cheri BJORK (CaidirVSS) 766 South Sr, Elgin 60123-6222 -. Keih & Elizabefr CAMERON (Cheryl/80, PauUSa) 80a Clowr Ln, Mahomer 61853 (H) ... Jetf & June FLEMING (JustinzS, JasorvSo) 6 Larch Dr, Olney 62450 .- lEhak & Girir SH E PEZLING (Avi/84, Ahazom/86, Shlomo/88) 7gO Essington Ln, Butfalo Gro\€ 60089 (H) lN Barbara & Craig BENSON (David/96, Alexander & Andrew/8g) 9577 E Strate Rd 45, Unionville 47468 (H) -. Tom & lvlarian BEVER (Ma/V 78, David/81) 7869 N 100O East, Wlkinson 46186 (H) -. Catherine HESS (Astara/86) 230S N Headley #4, Bloomington 47408 -. Richard & Sandra MERRION (Bob/7a, Ae*cca/Tl,TitlanytS2l223 S 300 E Rd, Danville 46122 -. Jamie & Kermir THOMPSON (Searv84, Ryan/8s, Kyle/88, Kory/go) 5864 Otd ilorgantown Rd, Martinsville 46151-9061 (changel -. Heather & Bill YOUNG (Stuarv88) RR 1 Box 77,

Bowling Green 47833 (H) lA David & Tery OWEN (MichelletS, Vanessa/7g, Jenetre/8l, Amanda/86) 730 W llth St, Waterloo 50702 KS Tom PETERS & Barbara MICHENER (Arthur/84, Josephine/87) RR 1 Box 496, Peny 66079 (H)... Elaine & Mike WILLIAMSON (Karie/8i, Berony/ 83, Willod86, Jonarhan & PippirySg) Rr 1 Box 100, Lyons 675s4 (H) KY Leslie MCCOLGIN & George KENNEDY (Candra/84, CalerVST) RR 1 8ox 167, Cunningham 4203s (H) ME Pam E Bryan DYER STEWART (Jesse/ 81, Gene/83, Hala/85, Sam/90) RFD 1 Box S|,

Growing Without Schooling #81

-. Thomas & l{ary ECKSTEIN (MichaeU83, lvlarie/86, P€t€r/88) RR 2 Box 5a, Sebago Lake ()l$75 -. Elizabeth GMVALOS & Arthur HARVEY (Emilyr/6, lvhv80) Canton (H; Ken & ConstanceJONES (Andrarl84, Alan/8s) 127 Leland St, Portland 041tr1 Barbara Rick PROSE (Sophia/88) 14 Gage Sr #4, Bridgton 04009 (H) li4arybeh & David STETSON (1t/hgharv79, Emily/87, Rachaeu9o) Rt 2 Box 78, Gardinor 04345 (H) MD Kenny & Eorry LINDSAY (Ginnyn6, Eddietl8) 16,420 Tanyard Rd, Upper |hrlboro 20772 -. T€ny & Jim lttAYOR (Jennifert78, KewvS4l 2l:824 Howard Chapel Dr, Damascus 20872-1247 (Hl Jane & Christopher SHIPLEY (RosalindzS, Pster/8l, Trewr/8s) 1 17 E 25h St, Baltimore 21218 lHl James & Judith Kaplan WARNER (Susannah/85) 11865 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring 20904 (H) llA Carolyn & Rodney ADAMS (Elizabeth/89) 4 White St, Arlingrun 02174 (H) -. Annie E Paul BONAPARTE-KROGH (Mary/8il, Kado/8s, Pho€b€/ 90) Grenough Hill, Deerfield O13a2 Susan & Gene BURKART (Oavid/8s, Daniet/85) 6 Hemlock Ten, Walham 02154 (H) -. Terry Kathy COLBERT (Sarah/82, Samantha/86) 74 Old Stago Rd, Harringbn 04643 (H)

Chelmsfcrd 01824-4636 -. Ellen EPSTEIN (lz4t82) 22 Webb St, Lexington 02173 (chango) -. Georgre & llonique FOURNIER (Sarahn7, i/blly/81 , Aim€e/84) RFD 2 Box 101, Brimfield 01010 -. Betsy GOLD BERG t Allan BRISON (Rebecca/88, Diana/g0) 617566-0912 (Brookline) (H) -. Don & Sus GMNT (ApriU 81) 24 Trumbull Rd, Northampton 0106O -. Cyndi & Len JARVI (Jonatharv84, Jak€/88) 251 Boutelle St, Fitchburg 01420 -. Lucia E Thomas JENKINS (Taylor/80, Kyle/82, Alexis/84, Zachary/88, Camororv 91) 16 Hawrhorne Sr, Wak€fi€ld 01880 Ml Kathy E John DOIIAHUE (Eric/82, Katie/ et) LEARNING TREE RESOURCE CENTER, Box 80B S Superior Rd RR 1, Atlantic Mino 49905 -. Sarah HURLEY & George LORD (Zadraryl8a, AustirvS6, i,leg/8g) 3730 Easton Rd, Orosso 48867 (H) Francina & Walter KNALL (Shannorv8s, Geotfrey/87) '15380 Evergreen Rd, Dotroit 48223 (H) -. Ka$a a Roy SZARAFINSKI (Hans84, larV86, Liese/89) 5O5 lritaumee, Jonesvills 49250 (H) -. James E Kristin Wf LLfAMS Qinon O, ltens, Ayannar/6, Tulanif/8, James,/82, Cabral/87) 5621 S Lake Shore Dr, ldlewild 496/.2 llN Deborah Ai/|AZl E Paul STOLEN (Evan/ 86, MartirVSS) RR 3 Box 116, Fosston 56542 (H) -. Jane & Slan BURGESS (Abbie/86) 6445 Elmwood Dr. Loreno 55857 -. Shari HENRY E Tim JONES OJ/85, Rebel€h/8g) 4872 l/bnmouth Rd, ltound 55364 (H)

Dave & B€th KROLAK (BrianlStl, JohrVSS) 817

28th St NW, Rochester 55901 (H) -. Barb & Arr iiIADSEN (Krisv8s, Daniel/86) 302 E Harvey, Ely s5731 (H) llS Adrinne & Scon OUIGLEY (Jonathoni84, Ericy86, LogarySS) RR 1 Box |15, Coffeeville 38922 (H) t{O James & Myrna CLIFFORD (Ambefn4, Ausfnr/T) Rt 1 Box 87, Knob Noster6533O 1H; -. Michael & Susan CLOITITS (BridgeU88, Stephanie/89) 103 E Vins, Sullivan 63080 -. Joel & Karen HERMAN (Peri/8s, Dylan/go) 634 W Looan, llloberly 65270 (H) -. Nancy KIEVIT fiansy/8l, Hilary/88, ForesVSS) Rt 1 Box 7, Jamesrorvn 65046 (H) -. Elle & Scon PEARLSTONE (Eva/88, Noah/g0) 601 Wickford Way, Manchester 63021 llT David & Eoth EROWN (JsramynS, Eleanor/80, Esther/84, Emily/88) PO Box 1841, Kalisp€ll 59903 (H) -. Bryan Elaine GREEN (AndrcwnB, DanieliSo, Stuary82, Karherin€/86) 224 N Riding Rd, Kalisp€ll 59901 -. Susan & Bob RATNER (Joshuaz6, Shana/79, Micah/8 1, Dena/83, Rebeccah/ 86) 4520 Toyon Dr, Billings 59106 .- Kathleen SINNOTT (Jo€y/80) PO Box I 1 12, Big Timber 5901 1 1112 (change) NE Nlary & Sam WELSCH (Daniel/82, Ember/85, Peter/go) Rt 2 Box 25A, Harringron 68739

(H)

NH Babara & Stephen DAVIS (Claytorv84, Elizal89) PO Box 95 Cold Pond Rd, Aovorth 03601 (H) -. Laura & Stefan FOLEY-SHARFF (Aaron/84, WilliafiVSS) RR 3 Box 90, Cornish 03745 -'Mileva & Eugene LOO (David/81, llima/84, lreiling/86, Christophor/8g) 13 Hunter Dr, Bow 0tl304 -. Jennifer WRIGHT & Stan ITCCUMBER (Vanessa/69, David/85, Willis/8s) HC 6O, Box 5O, Quaker City, Charlestown 03603 (H) NJ Ann BINGHAM & Joe TANZINI (Lawan9, Domoniqu€/82, Sylvia/8s, Charlis/87) 49 lvlaida Ten, Red Bank 07701 -. David & LindaCOOPER (PauY 68, Erolfls, LaurelrTg) 65 Tensaw Dr, Browns Mills 08015 (H) -. Carol & Peter lvliARWNlUK (Manhar/ 81, Christie/84, Michael/86) 4 Washington St, Vsmon 07462 -. Russ & Suzanne RAPPEL (Chelsea/8s, CaidirvSS, ONivia/9O) 1 Richter Rd, Jackson O8527 Robort & lvbrgaret REITH (Erolyrv8l, Andre#82) 40 N 17th St, Prospect Pafk 079),8 -. Bob & Suzanne SE RO (Jennilerz8, ElizabehlS0, SharorvS6) 1 03 Haiglor Ct, Lakehurst 0873:l -. Gail & Art SICKEL (Corianna/85, Amarynh/8g) 1 1 22 g Bto€d St, Hillsid€ 072O5 -. Christine THOMPSON E Chados BARRANCO (Chrisbphor/83, Emily/86) 6 Wiscasset Av, Ewing 08618 Nt Dan & Haniet SHULTIS (MicaelafB, Sir Lanc6lon4, Roben?s) PELONCILLO PRlttlARY, PO Box 91, Rodeo 88056 (l{) NY Stu & Rose EERNSTEIN (Searv88, LaShanna & Ashley/go) 62 East St, Binghamton 13904 -. Sue & Tom CARBONE (Tyleil8/' Chelsea/ 88) 8it N Airmont Rd, Suffern 10901 (H) -. Nancy & Luis CHAVEZ (Elizabofv87, Hannahl90) 14928 46h Av, Flushing 11355 (H) -. Salli Luis CRUMEZ (Enriqus/87, AlojardrdS9) 3045 Brunsr Av, Bronx 10a69 -. Linda GOODIiIAN, 33 W Summit Av, Lakewood 14750 -.Joan HARRISS & Jim MURPHY (Kevin/84, Sarah/86, ilblly/9o) 14i10 Ridge Rd, Horseheads 14845 -. Lanny & Virginia KENDRICKBOWSER (E'/ee/8:t) O49 Nash Rd, Elbridge 13060 (H) -. Chris & Gina KROL (Emily/88) 26(X Robins St, End^rell 13750 -. John & Donna KURTZ (Kirslsrv8o, Juedt&z, Gunher/84, AbranvST) RD 1 Box 61 , Andover 14806 (H) -. lvlark & Gail LEE (Jenny/8s, Susannah/ 87, Cathorine/8g) 4 Winston Dr, Rhineb€ck 12572 (Hl -. Claudia Cain E Bill l.r,ALOf'lEY (Geneva/ 86, JacksorVSS) 205A W Maple Av, Monsey 10952 -. Connie NERNES (Emilyng, David/8l, StephervST) 360 Turin St, Rome NC David GRANT & Barbara STUEHLI|IG (Amara/8s, Dana Rose/8g) 816 Grindstaff Rd, Bumsville 28714 (cftange) (H) -. TC & Nimene SOLI (Krista/8l) Rt 1 Box 320, Stokes 278Il,4 Hl -. Sam & Jane SPICER (Peto/82, Maty&4, Allon/87, KirldSg) 5801 Oak Blutf Ln, Wilmington 28409 -. Gary E Laura WILKINS ( Ricfiard/8o, Janette/82, DanieUS6) 21 Satara Dr, Wilmington 28a12 -. Jan ZAWACKI E Edward IvIALACHOWSKI (Leda/8s, Jay/88) 109 W Alden Dr, Wildwmd Springs,, Carrboro 27510 (H) ND Phil & Janet GERLA (Timofiy/8l, Andy/ 84, Paull87, Rebecca/9O) 711 25 Av Souh, Grand

Forks 58201 (H)

OH John E Diane BENGSON (Shaun/83, JoeY88) 4386 Knob Hill Dr, Bellbrook a$O5 (H) Paul & Maureen KUEBLER (Midraeu8s, Elizabeth/87) '143 Com€ll Avo, Elyria 44035 -. Paula & Jeff LONG ( Katie/82, Oliwr/84, Qui ncy/86, AislinrvSg) 31 3 Tappan St, Columbus 4i1201 (H) -. Did< & Debbie WE STHE IME R (GabrieU80, NatharvSil, Hannah/86, Eva/91) 1395 Lake Allyn, Batavia 45103 (H) Michael & Lesley WESTRUM (Madoline/80, James/ 81, Rebekah/83, RacheUSS) Rt 4 Box 482A,

Portsmoufr 45662 OK Richard & Suzann€ HILL (Andreaz6, Claire/8o) 3013 Old lvhllard, Enid 7370tt OR Stefana BERCEANU & Alexandru MITARU (Paveu64, iihtei/83, llio/84) 425 SW 150fi, Beawrton 97006 -. Kim E Kent CUMBO (Jaredfla, BrenderyS2, Sienna/84, DylarvEg) 11055 SE Madison Dr, Pordand 9721 6 (H) -. John & Anne HILL

30 (Christine/82, Charlis/87, KarerVS4) 2t505 S Cloud View Dr, Oregon City 97045 -. Tom HINKLE & Sue SCOTT (Jessel7s, Luk€t8,Jilf81, Anna/86) 1980 N sth St, Springtield 97477 -. Christy INGRAHAM & Parviz MOGHADDAS (Carlin/8s) 9216 N Leonard St, Port{and 97203 Rick & Ann LAHRSON (Alice/78,

ErirVSl ) 5360 SW

1 92nd, Aloha 97007 Pani & Patrick WINTERS (GarretUST) 729 Gales Crk Rd, Forest Grove 971 16 PA Christina E Joe BABRY (Kate/8s, Michael/87) 105 Marie Dr, Pinsburgh 15237 Fullis & Bob CONROY (Meredith/80, Fiona/8t|, Silas/8s) 1724 Smoky Corners Rd, Williamsport 1 770'l (change) (H) -. Jon & llary coRMDO (CamlyrvSs) 3ii25 Arlington St, Reading 196O5 Doug & Trisha

CROCKETT (Pauy8{t, Peler/8s, Rebecca/88, Baby/ 90) 507 N Chester Rd, Swanhmore 19081 -. Fern & Tom HARRIS (Casey/82, Chrissy/8s, Elizab€th/88) 1905 Bradley Dr, Harrisburg 17110 -. Randy & Kathy HOLLEGER (Mary/8s, Dianne/87, PauUgO) 3106 Swede Rd, Norristown 19403 (H) -. Gary & Shari MILLSPAW (Kedron/83, Tegan/86, Sarn/8g) PO Box 443, Waterford 16441 (change) -. Timothy & Janet NORMILE (BelM/1, tvlaggins) RD f5 Box 646, Caraopolis 15108 -. Joseph & Helen OMLOB (J.R/ 79) 177 Douts Hill Rd, Holtwood 17532.- John & Laura POLO (Fabrizio/81, Ang€lo/8€i, Flavia/8s) PO Box 300, Edinboro 16412 -. Mark & Josene WABFEL (Jacob/78, Laura/83) RD 1 Box 395, Henryville'18332 -. Clifford WRIGHT-SUNFLOWER E Lois BIAMONSUNFLOWER (Beornz8, Phoeb€ng, Borleigh/81, Noah/84) 2371 W Best Rd, Balh 1801 4 (H) TN David & Connie ALLISoN (Patriclv87, David/88, GwyndolynS9) 1516 Birchwood Ck, Franklin

37064 TX

- Margaret & Charles BLOUNT (4arcil72, Kathrynl74, Stephento) Rt IBox 212-R, Dale 78616

-. Bill & Sharon CRANE (Elise/83, Sierra/8g) 1455 Lakeside Est. Dr #1 106, Houston 77Oa2 Danny & Brenda HARDESTY (Doug/8s) 7805 Ray & Vickie HUCKABAY Doncaster, Austin 78745 (Ceanl7g, Heath/84) 5307 Srveetwind, Spring 77373 (H) ... David SCHWENDNER & Brook RANDAL (Al€v 86) 510 Park Blvd, Austin 78751 -. Gayle & Mark TANENBAUM (Yoniu86, Metav/go) 7843 Candle Ln, Houston 77071-21 13 (change) Jane DWINELL & Sky YARDLEY (Dana/ W (H)

87, Sayer/gO) RD 1 Box 37, kasburg 05845 (H) Man & Scout PROFT (Silas/86, UrielU88, Eben/88) RR 1 Box 707, E Dorset 05253 (H) VA Barbara & Horard BOSINSON (Alanng) Russ & Mary Jane Rt 1 Box 696, Floyd 240€1 STONEKING (Kesi/81) PO Box 322, Lacey Spring

22833 WA Tom & Donnell ALLAN (Emilyt77, Naomi/ 78, Joseph/8o, Jesso/8:}, Scow86, Katherine/8g) Z30l 13th Av. Milton 9835a -. Keith & Barbara HARRIS (Abby/79, Rachel/83) 32623 108rh Pl SE, Auburn 98002 ... John oren & Joyce LACKEY (Jason/82, June/7g, Orion/go) '121 Alder Dr, Sedro Woolley

98284 WV

lllaggi ELLIOTT & Wlson BASLER (Johrv81, Ena/84) 106C lndian Mills Rd, Indian Mills

24949 (H)

Wl Bryce BLACK e Kathleen PLUNKETTBLACK (Lorirv7g, Christoph6r/82, Geotfrey/87) Rt 2 Box 205, Arkansaw 54721 lBl -. Geoff & Almuth KOBY (Sarah/84, PetoriSS) 401 D Eagle Heights, Madison 53705 -. Alison & David lvlcKEE (Christe phertS, GeorginalEzl 5745 Bitter$reet Pl, ltiladison 53705 (H) -. Tom & Gretchen SPICER (Jacobno, Sethr/3, Jessicat4, lsaacnS, Esau/81, iroriah/87) Rt 1 Box 15, Avoca 53506 (H) -. Phillip & Janice ZINDEL (Saralv87) 85 S Sumac Dr, Janesville 53545 Canada: Alta: Janet & Ray KEIP (Jaime/85) Box 5027, Peace River T8S 1 R7 (H) BC Barry & Terry BEER (Jodym, Robirv86, Kyle) General Delivery, Lund VON 2G0 (H1 -. 11;so;. HAMAN & Robin DASS (Sacha/81, Mischa/8s) 19677

2l Av,

Langley (H)

Catherine LEBREDT E Mike 48i1, Tofino VoR 220 -. Lynn & David MIDDLETON (Andrewz1, Jonathann4, BenjaminnS, Katie/81) 2095 Flynn Pl, North Vancouver V7P 3Hg (H) -. Siv PALIIGREN & Rudy FRIESEN. 31810 Charlons Av. Clearbrmk V2T 4Jl (H) -. Grant & Carole THACKER (Rebeccat4, Tylor/ 771 4642 lkmin Sl, Burnaby V3J lxg (H) -. Le€ WEHRWEIN & John GILBERT (Saeward/81, Sascha/ 83, Obarv86, Thea/8g) C-6 RR #-3 Dover Placa, Ganges VoS 1E0 (H) MAN Brenda & Donald DUNN (Leanns/8s, Raylat87, bx 1O22, Russell ROJ 1W0 (H) -. affy g Sandy HOLT (Joshua/8o, Tasha/8 1, Benjamirvg!, SunshinerS6) 199 Kitson St, Wnnipog R2H 024 -. Ron & Lillian MEISTEBS OristarvSl, Persi985) Box 4348. The Pas R9A 1 R2 Midrael & B€madotte MARTIN (Gilliart/ l{S 84, Alexander/87, Annie Rose/8g) RR 1 Tatamagoudr€, BoK 1V0 (H) ONT Barbara GAUTHIER (Brett/71 , Simon/ 79, Lewis/8l) Bp.x627, Van Kleek Hill KOB 1R0 -. Tim HARRfS (Za et83,Zar,taryi8/'l238 E Balfour, sault sre Mari€ P6c 1X9 (H) -. 11sta KARSTAD & Federick SCHUELER (Jennio/86) Bishops Mills, RR 2 Oxford Stalion, KOG 1T0 (H) -. Jan & Len ROACH (Nathanielr/g, Bronwen/82, Kendra/85) 75 Stuart Av, Willowdale M2N 182 .- Leslie TITCOMBE & Bill PRATT (Adrienne/83, Jesse/86, Brennan/89) 6328 rue de la Riviere, Val [,lorin JOT 2R0 (H) Other Locations Liz & Pieler GROENVELD (Lizz,/g7) Raadhuislaan 31, 21 31 BG Hoofddorp, The Netherlands (H) -. Dave & Leora GROVES (Iimon/ 75, Austin/8O) PO Box 2632, APO Nerv York09224 (Turkey) (chang€) Heather & James HACKETT (Mani/84, Noa/g1) Nakayagiri 308-1, lrrlatsudo, Chiba Japan 271 -. Jean LOVIUS (Arne/69, tlaxJ72,.bns, Anna/z9) 21 Devonshire Rd, Liverpool L83TX England (H) -. Clare & Michel MANGION (lvlanhieu/ 86, Geoffrey/87, Clothild€/8g) Allee de la Matre,01 480 Villeneuve, France (H) -. Roger & Mari€ MANKTELOW (Manheu,/8o, Ruari/8ltl, NialUST) 29 Moneywick Rd, Randalstown, Co. Antrim, N. lreland BT41 3HW(H) -. Barry & Dawn NEWELL(Benn7, Tim/80) Mt Stromlo Obs€rvatory, PB Weston Creek PO ACT 2611 Australla -. James PETRAIT, St. Joseph High Schml, Plot 3, Rl 2, Frederiksted, St. Croix, Vlrgln lslands 0O8rO -. Jennifer & Loren SCHMIDT (Jonathani8s, Alexander/88) 42 Dasco Ct, Yigo, Guam 96929 -. Channa & Barry VALLEN (Shm uol/87, E my- Briah/89) 1 29 1 2 D€rech Betlohem, Jerusalem, lsrael -. Peter & Jill WHITiTORE (Toril 75, Benl77, Anna/88) 3 Thompson Rd, Panmure, Aud{and 5 New Zealand (H)

WooDS (Apriu83) Box

Group€ to add to thc Dlrectory ol Organlzatlons that was published in GWS *78: CA: Children and Community Network, cr'o Lynne Knowles, 14556 Llnle Greenhorn Rd, Grass Valley 95945 DE: Tri State Homeschoolers Assoc, PO 8or 7193, Newark 19714-719(| GA: North Side Atlanta Homeschoolers. do Jane Kelly, 4141 Wieuca, Adanta 30342 llS: Home Educators of Central Mississippi, cr'o McDonald, 109 W Willow Ct, Ridgeland 39157; 601366-92 1 8 MO: Ozark LORE Soo€ty, c/o Eisenmann, HC 73 Box 160, Drury 65638 417-6793{191 (Ozark area group) l{Y: Rochester Area Homeschoolers Assoc, 275 Yarmouth Rd. Rodrester 1/1610 716-271-0845 Oll: Home School Network, 5166 Romohr Rd, Cincinnati 45244 (substitute for Creative Thoughts from Ohio Home Schools) Address Changes: lL: HOUSE, c/o Mary Friedl, 1331 Clewland, Evanston 60202 MT: Homeschoolers of ltlonlana, PO Box 654, Helena 59624-0654

OK: Oklahoma Christian Home Educators Assoc, PO Box 471032, Tulsa74147-1032 PA: Endless lrountains Homeschoolers, RD 6 Box 198, Wellsboro 16901 (correction) Rl: Parent Educators of Rhode lsland. PO Box 782, Glendal€ 02826 SC: Carolina Family School Assoc,320O Fernandina Rd #103F, Columbia 2921G5245 N.tlonal: Jewish Home Educators Nflsbner, c/o Ernstotf, 2 webb Rd, sharon MA 02067 Delot. trom llst In GWS #78: K3: Kansans for Alternative Education KY: Kentucky Homeschmlers The following addresses are no longer current, and rvs ha\€ been unable to reach lho groups b find out if th€y are still in operation: Christian Fbme Schmls of Western ilhryland; HOME Network Nws (Wl); Indiana Association of Home Educators; Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators; Ilontery County Home Leamers (CA)

Additions to Resources Certified Teacher Willino io Helo Homescfioolers: George Fournier, RFD 2 Box 101, Brimfield MA 01010 (French) under NY, in rhe listing in GWS #79, change ths phone number of Dustin Ordway to 61&

tlellpullau,gl: 241-61

Heloful Professor: Ricfrard Prystowsky, Protessor ol English and Humanities, lrvine Valley College,55d) kvine Ctr Dr. lrvine CA 92720 tlelCIuLCalJlSeIetS: Religious Family Education Counsellors, Open-Denomenational, Holy Family Institute, 1320 Slandiford Av #197, irodesto CA 95359; 509-36$3393 Besource Peoole: Phvsical Handicaos. Learnino Disahilitieg: Laverne Reynolds, Rt 1 Box 766C, Pomona Park FL 32181-9715

Pen-Pals Chlldren wantlng pen-pal8 lhould wrll. to tho6e llsled. To bo listed, send name, ag6, address, and 1-3 words on interests. [lARwNluK,4 Washington St, Vernon NJ 07462: ttlath€ry (9) atl, science; Christie (6) dolls, cooking, swimming REYNOLDS, Rt 1 Box 766C, Pomona Park FL 321819715: Cory (14) computers, dress, lishing; Stephen (12) computers, dogs, games -. Ginny LINDSAY (14) 16420 Tanyard Rd, Upper Marlboro MD20772; history, music -. Esau SPICER (9) Rt 1 Box 15, Avoca Wl 53506; skating, badminon, fishing -' 56n" iIARTIN (12lBox2a2, Cornwall PEl, COA 1H0, Canada; swimming, drawing, music -. Nahanni FREY (12) RR 3, Bonshaw, PEICOA 1C0, Canada; writing, dancing, mafl .- Kim lfAzuR (17) 1227 Bueget St, Egg Harbor l,lJ 08215; photography, po€try, \,eganism -. Hannah BURKE (4) 5522 S Kimbark Av #2, Chicago lL 60637; makebelieve, horses, dolls STONEHOCKER, 1 1976 Redbank St, Sun Valley CA 91352: Justin (8) gymnastics, sports, gardening; Alana (5) dolls, ballet, drarying -. Elise CMNE (8) 1455 Lakeside Est. Dr. fl106, Houston TX TlM2; drating, reading, computers -. Ariel HANSEN (7) 109 S Pemberton Rd, Pemberon hLj 08068; baking, art, €ndy -. LeBRUN, Rt 2 Box 785, Crescsnt City FL 32112: Aarcn (15) electronics, art, bicydes; Johnpaul (9) reading, cooking, puzzl€s -. Colin KING (12) RR 2 Ir^aple Hill, Long Prairie MN 56347; environmsntalism, stamps, coins -. Casey RENZ (1 1) 43 Dayton Rd, Jamesburg l,lJ 088tlt; dance, horses, swimming Shirin LOW|V|AN (11) 1845 El Camino Real, Palo Alo CA 94306; sottball, animals, music

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Growing Wtthout Schooltng #81

3l Our current rates are $25 for 6 isgugs, $45 for 1 2 issues, $60 for 18 issues. GWS is published every other month. A single issue costs $4.5O.

Group Subscriptlons: We otfer group subscriptions, in which s€veral copies of eacfi issue are mailed to one addr€ss. The price is $tE per p€rson, and groups of 5 or more recsive the leader's subscription free (in other words, a group of 5 pays 4 x $18 and receives 5 copies of each issue). Plea.ge pay for group subscriptions with one check. Please send in the names and addr€ss€s of m€mbers of our group sub, so that we can keep in touch with them. Forelgn paymentt must bo eiher money orders in US funds or cheds drawn on US banks. We can't afford to acoopt parsonal dre*s on Canadian accounts, even il they have'US funds" written on them. We suggest that foreign subscribers use Mastercard or Visa if possible. Nrw nter lor

Canadian subscrlbers (effcctlvr Z/i/91): $28/yr Indlvidual; $21 per person fror group rubc. Outside of North America, subs cost g40/yr ajrmail; g2&yr for individual subs going surlace mail; 921 per person tor group subs going surface mail (allow 2-3 months). Ask us about air mail rates for group subs. Address Changec: lf you're moving, let us know your new address as soon as possible. please €nclose a recent label (or copy of one). lssues missed because of a change in addr€ss (that we weren't notitied about) may be replaced for g2 oach. Th€ Dost office destroys your missed issues and charges us a notification lse, so we can\ aftord to reolace them without charge. Rsnewals: At the bonom of the next page is a form you can us€ to renew your subscription. please help us by renewing early. How can you tell when your subscription expires? Look at this samole label:

123456

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SMt01111 JIM AND MARY SMITH

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The number that is underlined in the examole tells the number of the final issue for the subscription. The Smiths' sub €xpires with lssue f8z, he n€xt issue. But il we were to receive their renwal before we sent our linal account changes to th€ mailing house (July 31), they would quality for the free bonus issue.

Declassified Ads Rates: 700./word, $lAivord boldfac€. please tell these folks you saw the ad in GWS.

HEARTLEAF: HOMEMAOE [tUStC, ART, & MOVEMENT... because hom€ is where the art is. Free catalog of books, tapes, and music. Heartleaf, Box 4O-A, Slocan Park, BC CANADA VOG 2E0. HOMESCHOOLING FARM COilMUNITY NORTHERN CAUFORNIA. Three families with young children seek other families with interest or skills in part time organic market gardening on 1OO acres ot beautiful land east of the coastal torvn of l,rendocino. We have established a rural community with individual, member built homes, a variety of home based professional businesses and shared facilities. Waldorf/Oak Meadow parenting and a view of land stewardship guides our overall vision. Info. with photos avail. Jane or Russ 7O7-937-21IS,CCF. Box

181(b. 21$820-5575.

Bloomfield. NY 14443. 71&657-6150.

Stay home, make money. O\€r 200 companies n€€d homeworkers immediatelyl Complete recorded information. 818-957-8243 exl. 3.

T..ch.r and Guldr of establbhed (4 yrs) homescfiool minded goup. 4 andlot 7 yr olds (&10 lamilies). To sparkle, captivate, lead. Live and work in mountain highlands of western Nonh Carolina. Write Joan H. Humphreys, 466 Wndsor Rd, Asheville, NC 2889. Call 7G-252€1 8{1.

FLORIDA DISNEY CONDO - 2 bdrm,2 bath, tully equipped, sleeps six, amenities, near attractions. SpringlFall Special $385 weekly. 31 4-rl87-01 84.

Familles learning Together- new statewide homescfiool goup. Contact Doug Woodward, 68 Lakey Creek, Franklin, NC 28734. 704-369€491. Homeschool ballet classes taught by hom€school Socioty of Teachers of Dancing. 71.&2|ci!-4042.

llcm in Spring, Texas. iiember lmperial

Want€d:

Start your child on successful exporienco.based learning. Send $3.00 lor guide on onhancing presdloolefii' natural leaming to: The Sharing N6twork, bx742, Point Rob€rts, WA 98281 .

SAVE $$$ ON }ilORTENSEN MATH. 2$C6GF REGULAR PRICE. NOW AVAILABLE GRADE LEVEL i.,,ANUALS K.6 ONLY $12.95 TOLL FREE CALL vlsA/llc. FREE CATALOG CALL 1-80G338-9sr9.

LEARN & GROW with Real Tools for Children.

Tmling Around carries a complete lino of quality products sized and weighted lor young children. For gadenlng, carpentry, and hclplng eround thc hou3., th€so functional lools are thoughtfully select€d for safety and ease of handling. FREE CATALOG. Toollng Around, 3854 Delmas Ave, San Jose, CA 951 26: 408-28S9770. OPPORTUNITY FOR OLDER HOITIESCHOOLER thinking about leaving home: learn organic gardening, vegetarian cooking, oafts, enjoy country living in exchange for occasional babysining. Room, board, small allowance provided. Debbie Knitfin, RR 1 Box 8680, Middletown, VT 65757. 8'2-23l5-?f,20. TRAVEL, LIVE WITH HOME SCHOOUNG FAMILY. Three young boys, home business. Conlac1 Barbara 81 2-386-8028.

WANIEd: SEATTTE HOMESCHOOLING MOM tO watch two year old, pan tim€, while single mom finishes master's. 783-5340.

'*ll*""-o'***,;;;;;;-fl upon

adufts. Shipped anywhere on U.S. mainland approval of cr€dit. $50 down, $38 a month. Write Mary, 114 Mccornick, santa cruz, cA

95062. I{ANDSON LEARNING. The very b€st for homeschoofers in math, sciencs, art, g€ography, writing, reading, and more. Complete cuniculum. Free catalog. LEARNING AT llOME, Box 270-gws 81, Honaunau, Hl 95726.808-328-9669. LITE RATURE.WRITING INTEGRATION, THE TEACHER READS ALOUD. Book Guides: numerous passages that show author's characters, slory grammar, word use, etc. Grades We'll send IND|VIDUALIZED RESPONSE. EDUCATIONAL SERVICES, Box 177-cA,

Locate cratt: 4-8. lrtASON Easr

t--I Erll'rntDlt D hrb6^6^hrt ENTRY FatDlt FORIII FFOR DIRECTORY

ilETRODETROIT/.oulheast.m tlchlgen - Looking

homescfrooler3 appioximately 12-15 years old (any philosophical orientation) to share fri€ndshiilamily oulings: Linn family 31},3i11 -8406.

hom*grOWN: The Newslener Wrinen By Homescftoolers. Their original articles, artwork; a Parents' Page, monhly calendas and ewnts. "l hink one of the disadvantages of homeschooling is fre lack of outside appreciation for he studenB'work. What a find your nerlslener is for me," one homeschooling parent wrcte us. Sampl€ $2; Subscription $10. Payable to Learning Togeth€r, Box 586, Dept G2, Plainfield NJ 07061 -0586. EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE designed b teach and hold lhe student interest. Covers most subjocts taught from Preschool through High Sctrool. For a 200 page catalog that contains owr 700 educafional programs send $2 to DAVI/iAR 1 7939 Chatswonh #41 8F GH

cA 91344.

'llffir'm"JJlli,l.ffiii'ffi lli,ll,"lili"' Watch, Shannon Farm, Afton, VA2?f/2O.

uNtoN AcREs INTENTIoNAL couMuNlry

Krishnamurti Enthusiasrcl New southeast Ofrio community. privato homesteads. commons. Near univorsity. pAlDElA, Box 122-8, Ahens, OH 4570.1.

HoMEscHoo{-tNG FREEDoMS AT RISK: Individual responsibility versus rexpens'and institutions. A special reprint trom the editors of Home Education Magazine. 750 ppd from Home Education Press, Box 1083, Tonasket, WA 98955.

Use this form to send us a new entry or a substantial address change to be run tn the next avallable lssue of GWS.

Adults (ftrst and last names): Organization (only tf address is same as family):

Children (names/btrthyears): Full address (Street, City, State, Zip):

'167, Comptche, CA 95427.

ALGEBRA FOR 3RD GRAOERS & UP! 4x+2=2x+10 is now child's play with this patent€d, visual/ kinesthetic system. Used in more than 1,OOO homes nationwide. HANDSON EOUATIONS is avaitable for $34.95 plus $4.50 S&H trom Borenson ano Associates, PO Box 3328, D€pt. GWS, Allentown, pA

Crowing Without Schooling #81

Beautiful mountain homosites for sals near Smoky llcuntain National Park. Rt 1 Box 6tJ, Whinier, Nb 2g7gg.7O4-497-4(n4.

Are you willing to host traveling GWS readers who make advance arrangements ln writing? Yes _ No _

l99l Dlrectory (cWS #78) Yes Or in the additions ln this issue? Yes No Are you in the

New from Holt Associates! G'WSI

Earnlng Our Own Money

ser foundcd la lS77 by John Eolt.

Editor - Susannah Sheffer Publisher - Patrick Farenga Contributlng Edltor - Donna Fllchoux Editortal Asslstant - Mary Maher Edttortal Consultant - Nancy Wallace

Homeschoolers 13 and Under Tell Thetr Stories #L578, $4.50 + shipping

illustrated

OIIIce & Subscrlption Manager - Day Farenga

Twenty-four homeschoolers, rangtng ln age from 7-13, wrtte about how they have eamed money and why beireg able to earn money ts lmportant to them. This ts our companlon Io The.Teenage Entepreneut's Guide, and is addressed dlrectly to young readers. (This booklet ls so new you won't flnd it ln our sprlng catalog.)

Book Shtpper/Recelver - Katherine Doolittle OIIice Asslstants - l,enard Dtglgfns, Mandy Maher' Mar5r Maher, Phoebe Wells Shipping Assistants - Glnger Fltzsimmons, Kathy Munro, Janls Van Heukelom

Holt Assoclates Board of Dlrectors: Patrick Farenga (Corporate President), Mary Maher, Tom Maher, Donna FUchoux, Susannah

Sheffer

Homeschoollng

ln the

Advisors to the Board: Ann Barr (Clerk), Mary Van Doren, Nancy Wallace

News

#1562, $6.95 + shipping

All rights

Our Homesctaoling in the 1985 Neus collection was so successful that we have prepared this new edition of some of the best articles on homeschooling that have appeared in the popular press since then. These articles are overwhelmingly favorable to homeschooling, and the collectlon can be a wonderful way to introduce friends, relatives, school officials, or legislators to the tdea.

reseryed.

:3 See page LZ

fot shlpptng

f,J ''Jl 3 :or-n-*?*)T

f-rfif; j;F=F:

See our new ratcg for subscriptlone going to Canada and golng surface mail outside of North Amerlca, p. 3f. Effective Jufr r, rg9l.

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Growing Without Schooling #81