My First Homeschool Conference!

Last weekend I was blessed to be able to attend the Midwest Parent Educators homeschool conference in Kansas City with one of my dearest friends. It was the first time for both of us and we had so much fun. My only regret is not being able to spend more time (or get a picture of us)!

We only had time to make it to one workshop, and it was a good one. It was called Homeschooling Without Fear. Fear hasn't been much of an issue for me but I do find little doubts creeping in every now and then, so I was very blessed by what was said. My friend was able to get a ton of questions answered and concerns eased which was great.

One thing that really stuck out to me was the topic of high school. I have always been really great about breaking down barriers and trying not to be pressured by grade level and public school standards in the younger grades, but I realized on Saturday that I haven't done the same thing with high school. I imagine my children getting to the age and feel panicky because they have to learn all this hard stuff and we have to get done when they are 18! But the speaker at the workshop was like..."Says who!?". Why is 18 some magic number that kids have to suddenly be done learning and an adult? Why can't high school kids be late bloomers? What is so wrong with a student taking an extra year to finish? Nothing, of course! I just love that and even though we are years away from it, I already feel some fear and burden being lifted off my shoulders. There is something so freeing about shaking off those public school standards. Learning should be organic and life-long, not something you do between the ages of 5 and 18, 5 days a week, during such and such time. I don't want their to be a separation between life and learning for my children. I don't want "school" to be something they dread, but something they do continually without even realizing it.

 

 

 

The workshop speaker also spoke on this for the younger years and allowing children the time to bloom at their own pace. Even if they struggle with something now, it doesn't mean it will always be that way. Patience and diligence may pay off some day and your child may thrive in the areas they struggled with most. It was a breath of fresh air for before we get started to remember to go at their pace, not mine, and certainly not public school's! Of course their will be times where our children need a little push, but it is good to be reminded to be their mama first and foremost.

 

I wish I had been able to go to more workshops, but I'm so thankful for what I got out of the one I went to. Next year I plan to have a lot more time. Especially in the vendor hall! It was so much fun seeing everything I look at online in person. I could have spent hours and hours at the booths! I think my favorite ones were Rainbow Resource and My Father's World. Both had really great set ups and tons of material to look at. I can't wait for the next one!



Thoughts on Common Core (from a regular homeschool mom's limited perspective)

So if you have spent any time on homeschooling chat boards or facebook pages lately, you will have seen a lot of discussion regarding the Common Core. I had seen enough criticism of it from Christian organizations that I respect to go ahead and assume it wasn't a good thing, but I still wanted to know more about it. I started researching recently and then yesterday, the HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) released Building the Machine, a documentary that does a great job breaking down the issues with common core. I already highly respected HSLDA for their work on the front lines of protecting parents' educational rights, but I gained a whole new respect for them from their work in this movie. Not only did they share great information, but they did it without slandering and bashing those that created and support Common Core, which, to me, speaks volumes about their integrity as an organization that we trust to protect our rights.

So for those that don't know what Common Core is, it's basically a set of educational standards that the government wants to see implemented in every school in the country. Sounds good, right? I mean what could be bad about equal standards and an organized system for all students? And what does that have to do with homeschoolers?

Here are the major issues I have with it.

1. From what I can tell, Common Core was created by government representatives and people with PhD's that work at big name universities. American parents and K-12 teachers were NOT invited to be a part of it. That is really concerning to me. Who knows what kids need, the government? Or parents and teachers? To me this is a perfect example of the government thinking they know what is best for everyone. This is not democracy. If parents and teachers don't get a say in what kids are learning in school, we are heading down a very scary road as a nation.

2. The main goal of Common Core is to have kids "career and college ready". Sounds like a good thing but unfortunately the approach to this will most likely snuff out creativity and individuality. Kids are not cattle. We are not machines. We can't all be programmed the same way to do what the government thinks we should do. Not everyone wants to go to college or have a career. Some kids need more time. Some kids can and want to go sooner. "Career and college ready" creates a system with very little wiggle room for unique paths to education and jobs. One size fits all simply does not work for education and is NOT the answer to education issues in this country. Heck, I knew that in elementary school!

3. Beyond all of that, I have heard of SAT's being dumbed down, anti-Christianity agendas, teaching methods that have never been proven to work, shady dealings with the implementation of it and getting states to accept it, discouragement of parental involvement, and more. None of that sits well with me.

4.You may still be wondering how this affects homeschooling. For one thing, I think we should all be wary and alert when the government tries to step into education this way. If they are trying to manipulate the public school system to this magnitude, what is to stop them from encroaching on homeschool rights? There are also many homeschool curricula that are switching over to Common Core standards, so you can't just ignore it. On top of that, changes to the SAT's and ACT's may be promoting certain ways of thinking (alternative lifestyles, welfare mindsets, evolution, etc.) that are pushed in the Common Core. You see...this isn't just innocent basic math and grammar standards. There are other agendas being pushed here!

I think my biggest issue overall is that it appears to me that the government is truly trying to "build a machine", as the title of HSLDA's documentary so well puts it. It honestly makes my stomach hurt! I am absolutely not OK with sending my children into this kind of environment. As someone on the IndoctriNation movie said so well "You are sending your children into a pagan environment to have their minds molded by strangers". That was said BEFORE Common Core. Now it is even worse.

I thought about trying to write more of an unbiased post on this, but the more I learn about it, the more disturbed I am. Even if most of these issues don't bother someone, I still don't see how someone can agree that this is the answer. To me, the answer is MORE parental involvement. Individualized learning. Less time doing busy work and more time exploring. We can't send our kids away from us 40+ hours a week and dump 30+ kids on one teacher and assume they are going to thrive.

So what do we do? I know that I will not support it in any way, so will definitely be doing my homework on all curriculum I consider. I would encourage those who are involved in schools do all they can to try and stop it. But most of all, I would pray. So many people get into an "end-times" mindset and seem to just settle for America going down the crapper. Even if Jesus is coming back in a week, God CAN and WANTS to turn this nation around! We have to stop bashing our politicians and start speaking life and love over them. Pray for the teachers and students. If all Christians would come together and pray for this country, I believe we would see immediate changes.

As a closing, I would like to say that I have no judgment for those who send their children to public school. I can't put God in a box and assume that what is best for my family is best for yours. But so many people just don't know or understand the implications of something like this. I just know that when the government starts stepping into things they have no business in, I start to get concerned. Love to all.

Have other thoughts on Common Core? Please feel free to comment and share what you think!

For more information on the Common Core:
http://www.hslda.org/commoncore/default.aspx