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Victory for Homeschoolers
Topics: education, family, homeschooling, learning
Posted by Mentormom Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:14:48 PDT
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Victory for Homeschoolers

Yesterday we learned that the CA Court of Appeals, in a rare, unanimious decision, agreed that homeschooling IS legal in California.  Homeschoolers all over the state and country are doing the happy dance today.  No one can object to homeschooling on legal grounds in California anymore!

  If you have ever thought about homeschooling your children, but were afraid to because of the legaliites involved, you may now confidently pursue the possibilities. 

 All About Homeschooling

 Did you know that homeschooling is legal in all fifty states, and is now the fastest growing educational movement in the world?  It’s true.  Families are choosing to teach their children at home in the UK, Australia, Japan, Korea, France, Mexico, and many other countries around the world.  Here in the US, it is estimated that 2.2 million children or more being educated at home by their parents.  Why?  Because homeschooling works.

              Homeschooling is a family lifestyle that allows parents to teach their children according to their own religious and moral beliefs. Homeschooling promotes family unity, sibling bonding, and positive socialization while providing children with individualized education and personalized curriculum.   Homeschooling gives children a high quality education that is proven and unsurpassed.  In fact, in a long-term study recently completed, children who were home educated were studied for more than twenty years. (www.nheri.org) The results showed that, compared to the general population (public and privately schooled children), homeschool graduates were:

 -More likely to attend college

-More likely to vote

-More likely to be civically involved and do volunteer work, and more likely to believe that their involvement could make a difference in the world.

-More likely than the general population to say that they are “very happy”.

-Less likely to go on welfare

-More likely to keep their faith:  94% of homeschool graduates keep their faith, and 93% of them continue to attend church after high school graduation.  But a shocking 75-85% of children from Christian homes who graduate from public schools “drop out” of church, and do not hold a Christian worldview after graduation. 

             Additionally, consider these statistics: 

-Homeschoolers score on average 15-30 points higher than public school students do on standardized tests, without spending the year studying the test.  This is true no matter the income level or educational level of their parents.

-Homeschoolers score higher on the SAT/ACT than public school children do

-Homeschoolers are now actively recruited by most colleges, and routinely accepted into UC’s, private colleges, and even Ivy-League schools. 

-A large majority of homeschool graduates say that homeschooling was a positive experience for them, and plan to homeschool their own children (84% or more). 

             Homeschooling used to be unusual or trendy. But nowadays, almost everyone knows someone who is homeschooling, and society has become homeschool friendly. Homeschooling has truly come of age, and Bakersfield is no exception to that.  Here in Bakersfield, there are several homeschool support groups, the largest two being CHECK (Christian Home Educators in the County of Kern, www.checkca.org), and HERC (Home Educator’s Resource Center, www.hercbakersfield.org ).  Together they serve more than 300 families, and offer mentoring, support, curriculum counseling, meetings for moms, meetings for dads, park days, field trips, co-ops/classes for children, many different clubs for the children (chess club, 4-H, Beta and Veritas Honor Societies, among others), sports/PE, a homeschool fair (like a science fair but for all subjects), testing, used curriculum sales, a promotion ceremony, a formal high school Baccalaureate/graduation, an online chat group and more.

          If you would like to learn more about homeschooling and how it works, you are invited to attend our “Thinking About Homeschooling” meetings, which are held the second Tuesday of every month.  Our next meeting’s topic is “Teaching Preschool and Kindergarten at Home”, and it taught by a former preschool teacher who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Child Development.  This is an experienced homeschooling mom who has already graduated one child from homeschooling, and still has three more to go, including little ones (ME!)  For more information please call me at 661-827-0540, or email me at mentormom@bak.rr.com.  

             

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