How to solve the education crisis

Here is a short reply I made on my favorite 9-12 message board regarding the many problems with our education system.


Most Americans have been taught that you are a good parent if you send your kid to school. Not only are you a good parent living up to your societal expectations, but you get free babysitting and the kids out of your hair. If you pay property taxes, then you surely want to take advantage of that and actually get something for your money. Americans have been brainwashed that education is a right, and they expect the government to provide a free education. Who can blame them? After all, they were taught by government schools not to think for themselves, but to believe what their government tells them.

I attended government schools and graduated from one. I was always the kind of kid who asked a lot of questions of my school and church teachers, and even got into debates with them at times. I have always been an avid reader, who loves to learn. The best thing I ever learned in school was how to read in the first grade! I am free to learn whatever I wish as a result.

What is the solution for the public school fiasco? I think abolishing the Department of Education and return all authority to the states is the first step. Get the federal government and it's insane propaganda out of education! But, I don't think that's going to happen.

Therefore, it's up to parents to educate themselves as to what is best for their kids, and then do it, making whatever sacrifices are necessary.

How do I homeschool with little kids?

The lady who posted on a local homeschool forum asking how to teach kids to read then asked what to do about her little ones who make it hard for her to have uninterrupted one on one teaching time with her oldest. I am by no means an expert, but I did attempt to give her a few ideas.

Little kids makes for an extra challenge indeed! One thing I've read about others doing is to keep some toys, or whatever the little kids like, just for when you need to work with the older ones. The special toys only come out when you teach the older. That way the little ones are excited to get to play with toys they usually don't see, and you have a better chance of them leaving you alone. :)

Our boys are almost 8, 4, and 18 months. As long as I give them all something to do, they are usually content. That means giving them all paper to write on, or everyone has books to read, or everyone gets blocks to play with, etc.

For your situation, maybe you could make up a little set of flashcards, etc., for each child, and keep them in a ziploc bag with their name on it.

Some people put in a video for the little ones, but in my case, then my older one wants to watch, so I don't do that.

When trying to teach a young child to read, it's usually best to keep lessons short, maybe 30 minutes a day, and maybe broken up into two 15 minute lessons. I get better results out of setting a timer for 15 minutes and having my almost 8 year old work on math, and then take a break, and then set the timer again.

Boys seem to do better working in short spurts, and then get up and run around, and so on. It's so hard for them to sit still for hours on end, so it's no wonder so many are on medication in school.

Anyway, if you plan to sit with your oldest for 15-30 minutes at a time, you could try to sit the timer for your little ones, give them their special toys and activities, and tell them they can play quietly until the timer goes off while you sit with big brother and teach him. One thing they may really like is if you take a turn with each of them using the timer, even if it's just 5 minutes reading a book. I heard one lady say she spends individual time with the younger ones first and that seems to keep them from clamoring for her attention while she teaches the older ones.

It can be extra challenging, but certainly not impossible to teach several ages of kids successfully. There are lots of great internet sources of teaching tips and encouragement from other moms. If you don't know any, maybe we could all share some favorites. Local co-ops are so nice, too. We just had these people in town to speak and they have lots of great advice: http://www.raisingrealmen.com/

How to teach your child to read

I recently answered a question on one of the local homeschool co-op's online forums I belong to regarding how to teach a child to read. Since this is such an incredibly important skill to teach our children, I thought I'd share it here.

In my opinion, reading is by far the most crucial academic thing for me to teach our kids, since once they can read well, they have the rest of their lives to teach themselves whatever they want to learn.

Here's my response:
I have so far successfully taught my oldest to read, so I thought I should chime
in. We started in kindergarten when he was almost 5 1/2. I used all sorts of
reading programs, including Hooked on Phonics, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, AlphaPhonics, flash cards, and numerous different early readers. By spring, he was beyond frustrated and I gave up. He just wasn't ready, and I was pushing him too hard.

Next fall and first grade, I again worked with him on reading, this time using
Adventures in Phonics. We skipped the first half of the first book since he was
already familiar with simple three letter words from our kindergarten efforts.
After we went through that book, we worked through the second book, and never needed the third and final book in the series. The difference was that he was ready to sit down and learn to read. By spring, he had really taken off and was reading great!

It's now a year later and he loves to read and reads daily for pleasure and
learning. Just the other day, my father in law was showing me a book he got
from the library thinking I might like to read it. My son picked it up and
started reading it and became engrossed. We even took the book so he can finish reading it. This is a thick book written for adults!

This past fall, I did have him read through the AlphaPhonics book just to make
sure he knew all the different word families, including the irregular words. He
breezed through it. It is amazing what a difference a year can make!

My next son is four and is very interested in spelling his name and letters and
numbers. So, I just very recently started showing him how to spell and write
his name and just a few words like at, cat, and bat using some magnetic letters.
We have a magnetic chalkboard, and I have been writing letters and words and
having him match the magnetic letters like a puzzle. We only do it for as long
as he wants. It's so important not to burn them out and make them hate reading like I was doing to my oldest.

By the way, my oldest just came up and asked me what I'm doing. When I told him someone was asking for how to teach kids to read, he said, "That's easy, just read to them and it will encourage them to read." :) Out of the mouths of
babes! That was actually what I was going to mention next, the importance of
reading to your kids. We have read many books to our kids, and it definitely
helps to instill a love of reading.

It can be intimidating trying to teach a child to read, but you can do it! I
personally like teaching word families. Teach the sounds that letters make and
then how they blend together. Mat, cat, sat, rat, etc., and bed, red, Ted, etc.,
are examples. There are many irregular words, but they are in the minority.
Start out with the simple words and build upon those. There are lots of great
books and reading programs, but you can teach reading with just a pencil and
paper, or just chalk and chalkboard, or just flashcards, and so on.

Show your kids that reading is fun and a desirable skill by reading to them
daily, be patient, and teach them as they are ready.