The Link v8i6.indd - The Link Homeschool Magazine

The Link - a homeschool newspaper
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Champs-Elysées
continued from page 17
of the title comes with a transcription of the spoken words
featured on the CD, with the
advanced phrases highlighted
and defined on the right hand
side of the book. The regular
program features the language
being spoken at a normal pace,
just as it is spoken in the country in question.
Depending upon how familiar you are with the language,
it will probably be best to begin
with the study supplement,
which offers a more in-depth
look at the features on the
main magazine. It includes a
number of excerpts from the
regular program, slowed down
so that the student can understand them better, as well as
vocabulary lists, cloze learning exercises, word searches
and crossword puzzles. All of
which is to enable the student
to grasp more fully the features
available on the main part of
the program.
The features run the gamut
from politics, art, food, popu-
lar culture, and other aspects
of interest about the native
countries where these languages are spoken. So you’re
really getting a two-fold education -- the language and the
culture that has given it all
its vitality. If you’ve taken a
French course in the States, or
one of the other three languages mentioned above, sooner or
later you will reach an end to
the curriculum, at which point
you are pretty much on your
own. The question is then, how
do you retain the knowledge
you have gained, or how do
you obtain complete mastery
of the language? That’s what
these magazines by ChampsElysées are designed to do:
to help take your language
skills to the next level. With
Champs-Elysées, you too can
speak and understand French
just like a native speaker.
You can order Champs-Elysées products from their web
site, www.champs-elysees.com,
or call them toll free at 1-800824-0829.
—K.Z. (Please see the ad below.) L
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Sharing your valuable fluency skills and
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Monthly or bimonthly deliveries of
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accompanying your CD or cassette is more
than just a verbatim transcription—about
600 words and phrases are translated and
annotated in each issue. And a wealth of
background notes flesh out the full cultural
context. What’s more, you can take advantage
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Page 72
The Link - a homeschool newspaper
www.homeschoolnewslink.com
Alison McKee’s Unschooling Ourselves
continued from page 55
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they could never make it in
the world unless they learned
this or that specific thing, I’d
resort to traditional schooling methods in order to assuage my fear. Often they’d
call me on it immediately,
“Mom this is really stupid,
why do I have to do it,” or
their piercing whine would
tell me I’d over-stepped my
bounds. Like the child who
cries from the car seat to
be free to move about, my
children’s curiosity hated
bei ng sequestered by my
persona l notions of what
was important for them to
learn. As soon as I’d loosen
the grip on my expectations
regarding what was necessary/safe to learn, I’d see the
foolishness of my ways. In
my wildest dreams, could
I have ever conceived of a
child wanting to be a radio
eng i ne er? No, b e c au s e I
never really knew that such
a job existed. Could I have
imagined that a child who
struggled to learn to read,
would learn to read well and
Jump Start Your Child’s Reading Level
Get Started With These Great Programs!
Reading
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This all-inclusive series consists
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6. These programs are designed
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Click on challenging story words and questions to hear them needed to become independent
readers and logical thinkers. •
Develops a wide range of reasoning and critical thinking skills • Includes word
review activities for every two stories • Developed by teachers and reading
specialists • Reinforces each story with comprehension, vocabulary and
cloze activities • Reading level gradually increases in difficulty • Presents
challenging words orally when clicked • Reinforces new vocabulary with cloze
activities that follow each story • Records students’ results automatically as
they work
Spelling
Essential Skills has been helping to
develop academic self-confidence
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Our programs are developed by
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Eight comprehensive programs teach
the spelling of more than 3000 grade
appropriate words. Every spelling
program includes the Spelling List Editor
that allows teachers and parents to enter
their own custom word lists. The level
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1 through 8. • Developed by teachers
and reading specialists • Activities
designed for auditory, visual and tactile Match the words to uncover the hidden picture
learners • Enter your own word lists in
two simple steps • Automatically creates 12 activities for each custom spelling
list • Offers the presentation and practice of grade appropriate spelling rules
and generalizations • Motivates students to learn the rules and use the
tools to become better spellers • Incorporates interesting, fun and easy to
use activities • Returns students to the skill they last worked on • Records
students’ results automatically as they work.
come to love Shakespeare at
age twelve? The answer again
is “No,” because the unspoken lesson of my schooling
taught me that children who
have trouble learning to read
never enjoy reading, a nd
since I really disliked Shakespeare, trouble with reading
and disliking Shakespeare
seemed to be a foregone conclusion. My daughter, thank
heaven, broke free of the “car
seated” education I was trying to provide for her. She fell
in love with spoken expression and eventually acting,
and then Shakespeare, on
her way to becoming a good
reader. Nothing in all my educational experience allowed
me to imagine that this is the
way learning to read could
unfold. I’d been educated to
believe that mastery of reading came before enjoying
Shakespeare and that one
encountered Sha kespeare
through high school English
classes, not acting classes.
My limits had been set by my
traditional knowledge of how
continued on page 74
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The Link - a homeschool newspaper
www.homeschoolnewslink.com
Chemistry At Home
continued from page 46
chemistry at home. MicroChem Kit is a chemistry lab
kit that eliminates much of
the danger while keeping the
price very affordable. Progress
Academy students and families appreciate that we can
offer hands-on experiment
capabilities with our curriculum. This gives students real
conclusions that help to bring
to life what might otherwise
be inconclusive or difficult to
understand.
The MicroChem kit, desig ned especia l ly for t he
Progress Academy Chemistry
course contains sufficient
materials to perform every
experiment five times. For
our students this fits in well
with the flexibility of being
able to revisit assignments
and experiments.
MicroChem Kits has also
created charts showing which
of their experiments correlate
with which lessons in the
Progress Academy Chemistry
course. The kit comes with a
107-page instruction manual.
For each ex per i ment t he
manual explains the goals,
materials/equipment needed,
background informat ion,
Dr. Art
continued from page 47
grounded in scientific theory.
All I knew was that I hated
science. If Dr. Art had been
around with his Guide to Science, I might actually have
enjoyed the subject.
Dr. Art’s Guide to Science
explores the field of science
by answering such questions
as “Why is matter hard?”,
“What are proteins and why
do we need to eat them?”, and
“What killed the dinosaurs?”
Using eye-catching graphics
and humorous references to
pop culture, Dr. Art explains
what he calls “big science
ideas” (photosynthesis, electricity, magnetism, the solar
system, etc.) in ways that make
them relevant to daily living.
The first two chapters offer
background information on
early scientists and why the
field of science is an important
subject. Dr. Art also explains
and step-by-step procedure.
It also includes charts and
questions for recording and
analyzing results. The student
should be drawing primary
instruction from the Progress
Academy online course rather
than from the lab manual, so
explanations are not lengthy.
Experiments a lso assume
the student’s knowledge of
algebra which is required for
equations and graphing. Correct results and answers to
questions are provided at the
back of the book; these pages
can easily be removed by the
facilitator
Progress Academy is excited to offer this high quality, corresponding Chemistry
Kit by MicroChem Kits to
enhance our fun, interactive, new online Chemistry
course. It helps to bring the
course to life and provide our
students a unique and preparatory experience. We recommend the MicroChem Kit to
all of our Progress Academy
Chemistry Students. (Please
feel free to e-mail Niqui at
[email protected]
and please see the Quality
Science Labs/MicroChem Kit
ad on p. 15) L
his systems approach to the
study of science and discusses
the importance of both small
and big scientific discoveries,
noting that most big discoveries are the result of scientists learning or discovering
smaller ideas. In subsequent
chapters, Dr. Art provides his
unique, and what some might
consider “wacky” approach to
continued on page 75
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Page 73
Page 74
The Link - a homeschool newspaper
www.homeschoolnewslink.com
Alison McKee’s Unschooling Ourselves
continued from page 72
Over 7000
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learning takes place, while
Georgina’s opportunity to
explore and encounter the
world as it presented itself to
her, in response to her unique
interactions with it, set her in
better stead to pursue her
life as an actress than I could
have ever imagined.
Today when I see children
being carried about in car
seats I wonder how the restraint of that seat will limit
their physical interactions
with the world about them
and how that may affect their
Space...
continued from page 32
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folks. A lot of the experimentation is also meant to prototype
technologies that could pave
the way to space tourism so
participating in the debut blast
will indirectly launch you into
aerospace history. Very exciting
stuff indeed! Incredibly, the XA
1.0 is designed to make several
trajectories per day, and blastoffs will be scheduled around an
ingenious schedule that empha-
unique development. My feelings about standardized curriculum are the same. How
does it affect a child’s unique
intellectual, emotional and
moral development? When
I see small children being
carried in the arms of their
parents, I wonder how their
unique positioning is affecting their development and
I think about unschooling.
Unschooling sets children
free, free of the car seat of
standardized curriculum, to
explore the world in ways unimaginable. — A. McK L
sizes a “build a little, test a little,
fly a little” mentality. The idea is
to keep costs down and progress
fast. Believe it or not, the actual
take off and landing time will
be anywhere from 30-45 minutes so those wanting instant
gratification will be completely
satisfied. Masten Space Systems
is also competing for the NASA
sponsored Lunar Landing Challenge, which will grant the winner the rights to participate in
the next moon landing. (See ad
on pg. 48) — J.O. L
The Link - a homeschool newspaper
Page 75
www.homeschoolnewslink.com
Click N’ Read Phonics
continued from page 47
story reading.
Online delivery of the program reduces installation
problems often associated
with CD Rom programs and
allows for quick, easy setup
and access to daily instructions. Parent/teacher assistance is required for the
initial setup, but the initial
setup screens are bypassed
on subsequent logins, so little
intervention from the parent/teacher is required. The
student is taken directly from
the logon screen to the appropriate daily lesson.
Onscreen instructions for
program use are clearly written and provide suggestions
for determining the skill level
and appropriate lesson rate for
each student. Speed settings
for word and letter skills are
adjustable, as is the playback
speed, providing flexibility in
meeting individual student
needs. It is suggested that
students with no computer
skills begin with lesson #1,
which includes basic mouse
pointer instructions. Students
with some computer skills are
advised to begin with Lesson
# 3. Special suggestions are
provided for assessing the
skill level and appropriate
beginning Lesson Plan for
students with some reading
skills. I would personally suggest that all students with no
prior reading skills begin at
Lesson #1 and complete one
lesson per day, as suggested
in the program. Lessons 1 &
2 are short but contain letter
recognitions that are needed
in later lessons. The importance of learning these first
let ters overshadows what
might sound like an unnecessary lesson in mouse pointer
use.
Each lesson in the
ClickN’Read Phonics program builds on the prior lesson. ClickN’Kid, an appealing
tour guide, provides lesson instructions and leads students
through a variety of virtual
rooms including the Listening
Cube, the Reading Room and
the Speed Chamber, provid-
ing encouragement along the
way. Students use “point and
click” with the mouse to identify each lesson’s letters, words
and sentences. If mistakes are
made, ClickN’Kid encourages
the student to “Try again”. As
each concept is successfully
completed, the student is led
to a different “room” where an
additional concept is added.
As a somewhat added bonus,
students use keyboard strokes
in later lessons to interactively
participate in word identification and spelling and,
therefore, gain a basic concept
of typing skills. After each lesson, students are encouraged
to participate in practice sessions to reinforce the learned
skills.
Overall, ClickN’Read Phonics is a comprehensive interactive program, providing a
solid fundamental approach
to learning phonics and basic
language arts skills. There is
enough variety in the graphics and animations to keep the
student interested and there is
adequate flexibility in the lesson pace for use by students
of all learning ability levels.
(Seee ad on pg. 10) —L.F. L
® Dr. Art
continued from page 73
such subjects as energy, gravity, DNA and even evolution.
Dr. Art acknowledges that we
don’t need to understand science in order to use modern
technologies, however, he tells
us that we should learn science
because “Knowing science
will help you make the best
decisions for your community,
your country and the planet.”
In his Guide to Science, Dr.
Art does not focus on scientific
experiments (He provides a
website reference for those who
wish to delve into the realm of
experiments). Instead, he offers fundamental scientific
principles and explains how
they fit together to make up
“the big picture”. At various
intervals throughout the book,
Dr. Art offers stand alone “Big
Ideas” (i.e., “All the different
ecosystems have a similar
pattern or organization.” and
“The atmosphere is the most
sensitive and changeable of
Earth’s spheres.”) and occasional “Awesome Ideas (i.e.,
“Systems are made of parts that
are themselves systems made
of parts.” And “Everything is
connected to and affects everything else.”).
The colors and graphics in
Dr. Art’s Guide to Science are
bright and visually stimulating and are combined with an
appropriate amount of text to
inspire the reader to continue
turning the pages. Dr. Art asks
questions that are relevant to
today’s world and then provides
easily understood answers to
these questions. And, probably
most importantly, he uses “Stop
and Think” sections designed
to encourage critical thinking.
Dr. Art’s Guide to Science takes
the boredom out of learning
and helps the reader not only
understand, but also care about
the subject of science. (See ad
on pg. 14) —L.F. L
Please
patronize our
advertisers -they keep
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Page 76
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LINK
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Advertisers Index Vol. 8, Issue 6
1 To 1 Tutoring ......................... 54
ABCStuff.com ............................. 9
Ablaze Academy ....................... 33
Academic Apparel..30, 58, 71, 73
Alexandria Academy ............... 24
Amazing Magnets .................... 27
American School ...................... 53
Atelier Arts................................ 34
Audiofy ...................................... 16
Auralog ...................................... 74
Ball-Stick-Bird .......................... 33
Barnes & Noble........................... 5
Begin To Read ........................... 36
Bio Corporation ....................... 14
Blister Microscope ................... 19
Book Peddler............................... 6
Boston Test Prep....................... 11
Bowling Proprietors Assoc ..... 43
Brain Train ................................ 72
Bright Minds ............................. 25
Brock Magiscope ...................... 14
Calvert School ............................ 3
Caravan Tours ............................ 8
Cascade Pass Publishing ......... 34
Castlemoyle Books ................... 42
CDE Mock Trial ....................... 36
Celedy Soft ware ........................ 37
Center on Congress ................. 39
Century University ............ 21, 59
Champs Elysee Audio Mag..... 71
Christian Technologies, Inc. .. 50
ClickNKIDS.com ..................... 10
Colorado State Univ .................. 7
Cuprident .................................... 9
Curriculum Associates............ 67
Dakota State Univ .................... 50
Design-A-Study .................. 19, 57
Digital Frog ............................... 60
Dr. Art’s Science ....................... 14
DrawYourWorld.com .............. 35
Educational Innovations..16, 32, 72
Educational Learning Games ... 29
Elemento.................................... 73
Ellison ........................................ 79
Essential Skills .......................... 72
Excel High School .................... 32
Excellence In Education.. 21, 48, 62
Family Tools.............................. 70
Ferg N Us ................................... 57
Frequensea ................................ 44
Future Problem Solving Int’l.. 45
Gee Guides Art Program ........ 70
Growing With Grammar ........ 56
Harcourt Achieve ..................... 80
Hexco Academic ........................ 8
Homeschooling Books.com...... 3
Homeworkhelp.com ................ 44
Incline Soft ware (Ancestral) .. 29
Internet Academy .................... 66
Internethomeschool.com ........ 27
Johns Hopkins Center ............. 10
Journey Ed................................... 2
K12 Independence ................... 40
KET Distance Learning .......... 55
Keystone High School ............. 42
Language Quest........................ 16
Laser Typing ............................. 45
Laurlewoodbooks.com ............ 19
Learning Through History ..... 13
Lego Education ......................... 26
Lindamood Bell ........................ 69
Literacy Unlimited................... 38
Livelylessons.com..................... 44
Living Books Curriculum....... 68
Log Cabin Publishing .............. 58
Masten Space Systems ............. 48
Maui arThoughts ...................... 56
MicroChem Kits....................... 15
Micrograms Spelling ............... 53
Museum Inst Teaching Science .. 66
My e-Coach ............................... 45
N. Dakota ISP ............................. 7
Neufeld Learning Systems ...... 49
Nothing But Soft ware .............. 27
NW Regional Ed Laboratory . 25
Oak Meadow School .................. 9
Otter Creek Press ..................... 30
Passport Learning .................... 32
Pecci Educational Pub ............. 31
Perfect Pitch .............................. 41
Peterson Direct Handwriting. 53
Phonics Pathways ..................... 65
Piano Made Easy ...................... 37
Portland State Univ ................. 37
Powell’s Books .......................... 58
Power Score ............................... 30
Progress Academy.................... 73
Quail Springs ............................ 25
Queen Homeschool .................. 8
Rand McNally........................... 12
Robinson’s Curriculum ............. 2
Rod & Staff Publishers............. 52
Schoolmasters Science............. 15
Simply Audiobooks.................. 31
Soft ware For Kids..................... 11
St. Mary of the Woods College .. 30
Stanford Univ ............................. 4
Studica Skills............................. 51
Sun N Fun ................................. 78
Swansbury Handwriting ......... 67
Tapestry of Grace ..................... 61
Teach Me Tapes ........................ 66
Teach Your Children Well ...... 48
Teaching Tape Technology ..... 21
TOPS Learning Systems.......... 20
Traveling Without Schooling . 60
Univ of Colo Boulder............... 65
Univ of Kentucky ..................... 64
Univ of Miami (FL).................. 34
Univ of Mississippi .................. 26
Univ of Missouri Columbia.... 50
Univ of Nebraska ..................... 75
Univ of Tenn ............................. 55
Virtual Homeschool Int’l. ...... 18
Weber State Univ........................ 6
Whispers From Childrens Hearts . 36
William H. Sadlier ................... 53
Willow Bend Books ................. 28
Wolverine Sports ...................... 74
Wonder Brains.......................... 47
Yabla Interactive....................... 44
Your Story Hour ......................... 6
The Link’s Writers Guidelines
The Link accepts submissions of all kinds relative to homeschooling, particularly from
homeschooling parents. Topics we are currently interested in are: A Day in the Life, What
Brought You To Homeschooling, Vaccinations, being a factual article against them or your
experience with them. Field Trips That I Have Enjoyed, (include one or two color photos,
if available); Removing Your Child From School or Returning Your Child to School and
the experience thereof; Special Projects Your Children Have Loved; Dad’s Experiences
Homeschooling; How Homeschooling Has Changed Your Life or Your Homeschooling
Experience in General. If printed, articles of 1,200 to 2,000 words (maximum) are paid
$45. Notification will be made within 60 days of receipt; payment within 90 days of publication. We purchase first & second International rights and the option to use the article
electronically. A byline will be given. We accept articles under 1,000 words, and may print
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Page 78
The Link - a homeschool newspaper
www.homeschoolnewslink.com
Online Education Resources, Part 3 of 3
continued from page 18
will be attracted to the NDIS
program and structure. It provides the perfect transition for
families in this category. They
will easily be able to have an
educator or clergyman serve as
supervisor and will retain the
feeling of school at home.
Keystone National High
School • www.keystonehighschool.com; [email protected] • 420 West 5th St.,
Bloomsburg, PA 17815-1564;
1-800-255-4937; 570-784-5220
Keystone has been in the
distance education business
for over 30 years, beginning as
a correspondence school and
then adding the Internet-based
program. Their current enrollment is over 20,000, making
them one of the largest online
providers in distance learning.
They offer both a college prep
track and a high-school diploma
track so no matter what the
student’s end goal is, Keystone
is the right place to be. Keystone
has worked with homeschoolers since its inception and it
the Northwest Association of
Accredited Schools (NAAS)
and the Distance Education &
Training Council (DETC). Its
accreditation by both was renewed in January, 2005. It also
has core course approval by the
NCAA and is licensed by the
State of Pennsylvania.
understands the needs of homeschooled high school students.
Among their services are a free
transcript evaluation and/or
homeschool portfolio review for
transitioning into Keystone; an
atmosphere of student autonomy, so that students can set their
schedules around work and
family activities; diploma award
upon completion of 21 credits,
not all of which have to come
from Keystone; a transcript that
is accepted by such institutions
of higher education as Indiana
Univ., Univ of Illinois, Cal Arts,
Notre Dame, NYU, Univ of
Washington, Yale, Duke and
Univ of Miami (FL). Keystone
also provides updated reference
material and information to
aid the college-bound student
in the application process and
the faculty will provide letters
of recommendation. Keystone
also provides extra-curricular
activities for students, such as a
Photography Club and student
Newsletter that help the student
develop more than purely academic skills.
Keystone is accredited by
Passport Learning, LLC
• 1700 Wade Hampton Blvd,
Greenville, SC 29614; 866-7277576 www.passportlearning.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Passport Learning offers the
personally-designed Home Version of its popular and powerful
supplement, Reading Academy.
The program, which functions
as an intervention, rather than
a main reading program, aids
anyone over 8 years old, including adults, who may not even
realize they have a reading
weakness. Assessment testing is
the beginning of the program,
allowing the staff to target the
individual’s weaknesses and
then develop the appropriate
course of study to address those
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Science Museum
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weaknesses. Passport divides
the possible weaknesses into
three categories: Scanning, Auditory/Visual and Oral Expression. Passport is not a remedial
program, which by Passport’s
definition works slowly through
the entire reading process to relearn from the ground up. Rather Passport’s Reading Academy
focuses on only the specific areas
of weakness, allowing the student to concentrate on a smaller,
pertinent, portion of the entire
spectrum of reading skills. The
final goal of Passport’s program
is to increase what is called
“automaticity” which helps the
student develop comprehension
and phase out having to concentrate on reading mechanics.
Please visit Passport’s website
for further information, pricing
and ordering.
Weber State University,
Ogden - http://wsuonline.weber.edu/default.asp • Distance
Learning Office, 4010 University
Circle, Ogden, UT 84408-4010;
801-626-6600
WSU Online provides over
300 courses online, set in a rigid
semester-based structure, just
as if you were on campus. The
prospective online student has
to check the class schedule to see
if the desired course is available;
then s/he has to be admitted to
the university (if not already);
then an account has to be set up
by logging into a student portal.
Then the student orders books
and if living more than 50 miles
from the Odgen campus, a test
proctor has to be arranged for.
This proctor can be in a local
(for the student) testing center or
an educator, librarian, etc. A significant tuition break is granted
to those who are enrolled in the
Online Campus only and will
be taking only Online or ISP
courses. Please see the website
for the tuition chart. WSU offers
an attractive alternative to students living in Utah who wish
to complete coursework online
or by correspondence. For a
homeschooled graduate, seeking college courses, WSU might
provide particular online classes
that that student wished to take.
Please check the online catalog
for your particular needs.
Internet Academy - http://
www.iacademy.org/ - E-mail:
[email protected] • 32020
1st Avenue S. #109, Federal Way,
WA 98003-5743; 253 945-2230
In the form of the Internet
Academy, Washington State
boasts the granddaddy of online
programs, developed on the
watch of Tom Vanderark, who
was the superintendent of the
local school district in 1996,
when the Internet Academy
was created – one year after the
Internet became available to
private citizens! (Mr. Vanderark is now the director of the
Gates Foundation.) He began a
laptop experimental classroom
program in the district and then
started IA online with 20+ elementary math students. Within
two years, IA expanded to include K-12. IA, a school-district
based program, offers all core
academic classes, which means
that drama and music are not
available, and P.E. will be offered
in Fall, 2006. Currently, homeschooling families keep a log for
90 hours of P.E. and then submit
a report to receive credit for
completion. All IA curriculum
is developed in-house, except for
interactive math programs from
Plato and APEX being utilized.
Part-time students maintain
their status as homeschoolers in
the eyes of the State authorities;
however full-time students at
IA are viewed as public school
students. This is one aspect that
homeschool families need to
be aware of. However, students
can pay for 1 course out of 5,
having the other 4 paid through
the public school dollars, so they
remain technically part-time.
IA works particularly well for
families wherein the parents feel
comfortable teaching English
or history, but are not comfortable with high school math. The
Academy can provide a certified math teacher to assist the
family. Attendance issues are a
little different through IA, too:
Homeschoolers are allowed to
have more than a semester to
complete a class but they can’t
go 20 days without submitting
work. IA sounds like an excellent program for homeschooling
families who need a little bit of
support. M.L. L
The Link - a homeschool newspaper
©2006 Ellison All rights reserved. LINKAUG06
www.homeschoolnewslink.com
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Page 79
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The Link - a homeschool newspaper
www.homeschoolnewslink.com
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