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March/April '98
Private schoolin abox. You teach it your way to your children. We offer complete elementary curriculum (and we mean everything, right down to the Crayolas and the compass) for pre-kinclergartc'u through oighth grade. Calvert School, a nonsectarian private day school in Baltimore, celebrates its Centennial this year and has been offering home instruction courses worldwide for more than ninety years. We make home teachers out of stay-at-home moms (and dads-and grandparents). We even offer our Advisory Teaching Service to assist you and encourage your child. Each Calvert course emphasizes strong reading and writing skills through studies of the classics. We'll keep you connected through our quarterly newsletter (The Cabert Connection) and in control with our detailed lesson manuals. Enroll in a complete grade level or test home schooling with one of the enrichment courses described beloW a wonderftrl introduction to the quality of Calvert courses. You may want to start with our first interactive CD-ROM , King was a1996Parents' Choice Honors recipient.
Artlnr Tlmngh
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Language courses enrich the academic experience. Beginning Sprrrrish Leuel I and Laur:l II have recently been added, joining Calvert's successfirl Beginning French Lcuel I and Lcttal IL Ow language courses are written for students in fourth through eighth grade who have a grasp of the language arts skills necessary for the written portion of the course. All language courses include professionally produced audio tapes and original lesson manuals, workbooks, and tape scripts. The French courses, the model for our Spanish, were written and tested by the day school French teachers. As with all Calvert cowses, eaerything you need to complete the lessons and activities is included with enrollment. C' est bon ! i Que bueno !
Calvert recently introduced
a
reading series, Cr-lssrcs ron CnrronEN. There are two courses
written to date. The most recent, Be atrix Pottar: Her Lifc and Hu Little Books, studies the woman and her work. Few know that this popular author was foremost an artist and that the first books came from letters she had wriften and illustrated. You will delight in getting to know her and her little books all over again with your favorite 5- to 9-year-olds. For older children, the other course in the series focuses on the American classic tales of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her pioneer experience. The author of Calver(s reading guides for TIrc Little Houscs Brroks coursâ‚Ź researched the books, the sites, and the family for years before writing this comprehensive course which explores American history the pioneer spirit, the value of education, the family unit, and nature. Rediscover these nine books with your favorite 8- to 11-year-olds. More exciting g"idud readings are coming in this series. Calvert School offers four video courses. Discot,cing Arf is an art appreciation course for students in fourth through eighth grades. Your child will be introduced to the elements of art with plenty of hands-on applications, though the emphasis is on appreciating different styles, not on ensuring that the sfudent becomes an artist. Likewise, Melodrl Ldne, our music appreciation course for kindergarten through third grade students, is intended to introduce your child to basic music theory and history, and several instruments, composers, and musicians. Rhyth^, melody, and movement are taught, along with many original songs. Mclodq Lcne was conceived after we received a positive response to the six music lessons included in our first video venture, Video Lessotrs for the First Grade. Urlke the other independent enrichment courses, this video works in coniunction with and requires enrollment in our First Grade course. It covers six subject areas: art, language arts (including Calvert script), music, mathematics, science, and physical education. The latest project, Come Read With Me, is an imaginative, self-paced, interactive reading course for emerging readers, pre-kindergarten through first grade. The lessons and video qualify are of the highest caliber. See for yourself why Calvert has been a leader in home instruction for more than 90 vears.
For more information, write or call for our free catalog: Dept. GWS38 Calvert School o 105 Tuscany Rd . Baltimore MD c 2'1,21,0 (41,0) 243-6039 o t'ax 410-366-0674 . http:/ /www.calvertschool.org
a7 ,h ,7m Al _ ,f t h-- II
â‚Źontztttz News & Reports p.
45
Access to School Sports
. 3' VJtAte
in CT,
Homeschooling in Advice Columns
Try-tog School p. 9-13
A 14year-old decides whether playrng on the school's basketball team is worth enrolling in school full time, and a l3-year-old goes to school for a day
lltl7
Worries about Writing, Handling Relative's Criticism, Learning to Live Together, Choosing Early Mother-
hood FOCUS: Homeschooling Children with Special Needs
p. 18-22 One child has post-polio syndrome, the other has autism or pervasive developmental disorder. In both cases, the children are thriving as homeschoolers. Making Home a flaven: Interview with Victoria Moran p.23-25 Watching Children Learn p. 26-3f Bugs Not Books, Mom Learns from Daughter's Poetry Newspaper Curriculum, Hiking with Older Friends Resources & Recornmendations p. 32
Complete rists of Resource People p. 33-38
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Issur #121
Man./Apn.'98
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Tov Maunn, MarvVen DoruN, NeN<xWeu.orct Cown pgoro Is or Dnnnrcr eNo FasIxa SIvpsoN. Snn Focus, p. 18. Aownrrsrltrr.,rrs Do Nor NEcEssARILy RErLncr GWS's ENDoRsEMENT AND WE CANNOT VOUCH FOR ANY CL"{IMS MADE BY ADVERTISERS.
Growing Without Schooling #121, VoI. 20, No. 6. ISSN #0475-5305. Published by Holt Associates, 2269 MN. Ave., Cambridge IdA. 02140. $25lp. Date of issue: Mar,u Apn 1998, Second-class posage paid at Boston, MA and at additional mailing omces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to GWS,2269 MN Ave, Cambridge, MA02140 ADVERTISERS: Space resemtion deadlines are the 1st ofodd-numbered months. Copy deadlines are the l5th. For mtes and other info, mite Barb Lundgren, 3013 Hickory Hill, Colleyville TX 76034; call 817-54G6423.
Gnowrxc Wrrnour ScHooI-tNc #121
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Most homeschoolers have received skeptical glances at one time or another for suggesting that they can teach their own kids; parents of kids with special needs often receive outright shock and condemnation for suggesting the same
V
Homeschoolers' Science Fairs p. 6-7
Challenges & Concerns p.
Homeschooling children with special needs is like homeschooling any children, only more so. That's the feeling I get from the rwo
Men./Apn. '98
thing. Many parents turn to homeschooling only after trying for a considerable time to get what they want from school; parents of children with special needs tell of some of the most difficult and protracted struggles of this kind. Most beginning homeschoolers wonder if they'll be able to help their children learn but then remind themselves how much learning their children have already done at home; parents of kids with special needs have had to work with their child directly and intensively for so long that the realization that they've already been homeschooling hits them even more forcefully. Rare is the homeschooling parent who hasn't wondered, on a bad day, if all the socialization arguments have some merit; parents of kids with special needs can feel that it's difficult for their kids to find friends under any circumstances. As Wendy Renish points out in this issue, "We don't have the kind of child that makes neighbors want to come over and help out. So sending a child to school can feel like a respite." Not sending kids to school is in some sense a challenge to the entire community, and kids with special needs make this challenge even more vivid: if we're not going to use schools as the respite, the support, the place parents can turn when they feel they can't do it all, will other people step in to fill that gap? Can parents of children with special needs rely notjust on institutional support but on the support of friends or neighbors or others in the community? This question of how the community is challenged when some choose not to rely on school comes up in another feature in this issue: the stories about homeschoolers trying school. These stories continue the discussion raised in our last issue about how long-time homeschoolers come to choose homeschooling for themselves. They also reveal exactly how absurd, disconnected, and antithetical to tnre learning or seriousness of purpose school's demands can be. Whenever I hear stories like this, I always want to say, "School reform movement, listen up!" But, as I said, such stories are not only addressed to schools. Alec Young (in this issue) decided that, ultimately, full-time enrollment wasn't worth it to him even though he had dreamed of playng on the school's basketball team. In walking back out the door and joining a non-school team, he was saying, in effect, that he was going to trust that the community outside school's walls could give him the support and opportunities he desired. People often grow, often become their best selves, when others challenge them to respond in new ways. Perhaps the same is true of communities. Susannah Sheffer
-
Homeschoolers'
Science Fairs
Bears, Burglar Alarms,
Optical lllusions, and More! David Mantell (NY) writes:
The plans for a Rochester Area Homeschoolers Association Science Fair were made at the GWS conference this past summer when, inspired by the science fair there, a few of us from Rochester made plans to hold our own fair in the fall. My initial idea for a fair had come from a presentation on Math Fairs I'd seen at a regional meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics here in Rochester. Ever since. I've wanted to do a math fair with our group, but I figured that a Science Fair would help set the stage. At RAFIA's September picnic potluck meeting, we passed out flyers announcing the fair for the October meeting. Basically a reminder for the refrigerator door, the flyer included topic ideas - some serious (moon, mars, meteors, and mushrooms) and some whimsical (how a cow's stomach works) -just to get folks thinking. Of course, no one used my suggestions they picked things like Black Holes, volcanoes, and ferrets - so I still don't know how a cow's stomach works. The flyer also included some open-ended instructions and a request to call with exhibit titles a week ahead so that I
could make up an official-looking program listing the exhibitors' names and topics. I thought it would be fun for the participants to see their names in print, and the Science Fair program could also serve as a record of the event for parents to put in portfolios or to use when preparing quarterly reports (required in NewYork State). 6
I wasn't sure how many projects
we'd get, and most of the calls came within a day or two of the deadline. I was thrilled by the response: fourteen projects, including Photoluminescence, Insects, Adirondaks Ecosystem (a terrarium), Trees in OurYard, Yeast, Molds and Other Fung. In our house, we spent the week before the
fair working intensely on Sarah's Optical Illusions and Eli's Magnetism projects. One father told me that their whole month's activities (notjust science) had been inspired by their projects: Inside Paper and Sound and
Vibration. One the day of the meeting, even more kids showed up with six additional projects, including Bears, Burglar Alarms, Fair Water, Soap (homemade), and Freezing Point Depression (demonstrated while making sorbet for all to sample - I went back for thirds just to be sure I understood all the principles involved). We held the fair in the meeting room that a local church lets our group use for meetings, and we did have to scramble to find space for everybody, but we all joked that because it was a homeschooling science fair, breaking the rules, such as bringing a project at the last moment, was perfectly acceptable. There really wasn't any particular
for presentations; after all, participants ranged in age from 5 to 15. There was no judging or awarding of prizes. Many of the projects included hands-on demos, such as a Corn Starch experiment in which you put your fingers in wet corn starch and a "gun" made from a straw that used compressed air to fire little potato bullets. Some of the kids stood by explaining their work, while others let their posters do most of the
the younger ones answer questions, and one resourceful presenter put questions and answers on a cassette tape so she could go around the room looking at other projects. I had expected to supervise the event more actively, but that didn't seem necessary when the time came. The room was instantly full of adults and kids milling around, trying out experiments, reading posters, and talking about science. It turned out to be as good a mixer as it was a Science Fair! The event was deemed a huge success, and there was a lot of enthusiasm for more fairs at future meetings. My daughter volunteered to organize a History Fair next, so my Math Fair will have to wait until spring.
There are, I suppose, a lot of formal reasons why such an event is good for the children's education: working to complete a project and meet a deadline, demonstrating their work, seeing other examples of similar work, discussing science with new people, and perhaps stimulating new ideas for future projects. But what made the Science Fair especially
gratifying for all of us was the authenticity of the participants' enthusiasm about their topics and the opportunity to share what they had learned prompted by their own desire to be part of a community event, free of competition and external rewards. So often we struggle to explain what we love about unschooling and how our children have a way of exceeding any expectations that might have been imposed on them in a more structured setting. It's a tricky thing to get across to someone unaccustomed to trusting children. The Science Fair demonstrated some of that magic better than our words ever could.
set of expectations
explaining. Parents helped some of
Mixing Ag"r and Interests at the Library Phoebe Wells
(MA) urites:
One day last November I stood in the lecture hall of my local library with the most amazing things going on around me. Small plastic animals were being catapulted in the front of the room, paper airplanes whizzed along the back, rocks containing zinc glowed
GnowrNc Wrrnour Scsoor-rNc #127 c Men./Arn. '98
under a black light along one side and on the other a homemade machine measured friction next to a large display of leaf rubbings. And that was not all. Elsewhere there were microscopes, mystery foods to taste, and a
boy discussing extra-terrestrial life while his sister presented intraterrestrial life, otherwise known as worm composting. What was going on in this usually quiet place? A homeschoolers' science fair, of coursel This was our group's fourth science fair in ayear, and possibly the most amazing part to me is how such a successful event could be created with so little prep work. Another mother originally had the idea, and together we began to envision the tlpe of science fair we'd like: open to all ages, projects of all levels of complexity
(including "unfinished" or ongoing ones), and absolutely no competition
or even awards for participation. We wanted this to be a fun, informal, and no-pressure way to share whatever science-y thing kids and their families had been working on or evenjust messing around with. Choosing a site was easy because the Cambridge Public Library had already told me they would be interested in practically any program we wanted to put on as long as it would be open to the public. They had a few obvious stipulations (no fire, loud noise, mess, etc.), but otherwise were very happy to sponsor a homeschoolers' science fair. We announced our science fair ideas in our local homeschooling group's newsletter, and about l0 families responded. I kept track of the number of projects to make sure we had enough table space (a few people brought folding tables because the library didn't have enough). I made a list of topics too so that the librarians could make a display of books relating to our projects. We publicized our fair in our newsletter and in the library's calendar of events. In addition, the librarians and I agreed to schedule the fair to overlap with one of their afterschool storytimes, which helped to ensure an audience. That first science fair was a great success. Kids aged 4to12 presented 12 very different projects to a total audience ofabout 60 people, and GnowrNc WtrHour Scuoot-tNc #127
Adrian Rigopulos (right) maraek at Fred Sayigh's SETI
(Search
for Extra-Tnre.strial
Inelligence) project
every library book on display was
borrowed that day. Some projects were very simple, like fossil collection and magnet games, some were very complex, like a Rube Goldberg-style machine and a depiction of the geology and zoology of the Earth in 200 million years, and most were in betwen: electricity, crystals, a model solar system, bones, pulleys, a robot, healthy food, and dancing raisins (Alka Seltzer is the secret ingredient). The young scientists were all very excited and enthusiastic, and one mother told me afterward that the atmosphere was a lot more like a party than a conventional science fair. The feedback I received was that everybody wanted more science fairs, so I planned two more the following March andJune, with some changes in format. I decided to make the fairs shorter so the young ones wouldn't get so tired out and the older ones could make it to other scheduled activities
and mouse" vehicles equipped with different power sources and plenty of pins to pop balloons as they traveled a designated course. In addition, we had kids aged 4 to 14, the young ones presenting mobius strips, gravity, a crystal radio, simple chemical reactions, a model laser, and biodegradable packaging, while the older kids displayed skeletons, rock candy, a solar-powered waterfall, trajectories, and evidence that dinosaurs were
warm-blooded.
TheJune fair was quite small, with only five families presenting and even fewer visiting as audience. Our young scientists were disappointed at first until we decided that we would all go as a group to each person's exhibit. As fellow presenters, we fully appreciated each other's projects, from the younger kids' displays of the four seasons, clouds, and birds, to the older kids' projects on genetics, falcons, and a special Ask-the-Animal-Expert
more easily. Since we would no longer overlap with the library's storytime, I publicized the fair to nearby homeschooling groups to generate more audience. I scheduled the March fair a week after the Odyssey of the Mind regional competition so that the second-place winning homeschooling team could do a special presentation of their "cat
'lttqn./Arn' '98
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