I. What is homeschooling?

a. Definition

b. Who homeschools?

c. Why do families homeschool?

d. How many people homeschool?

II. Legal Options

a. Is it legal?

b. What is the law where I live?

c. Do I have to have a degree or special training?

d. What’s the best source of legal information?

III. Actually Homeschooling

a. What approach should I take?

b. What approaches are there?

c. What do we need to buy?

d. Where can I get ideas?

e. I couldn’t possibly do this!

I. What is homeschooling?

a. Definition

Homeschooling is a viable education alternative to institutional schooling.  In compliance with state laws regarding this type of education, children learn under the general supervision of their parents. Parents and children, conferring with each other, assume control of the content of their learning. It is a complete substitute for institutional schooling.

There are other forms of alternative education that, though they may be called “homeschooling,” fall directly under the supervision of school personnel. Examples are independent study programs (ISPs) or some kinds of “visiting teacher” programs for the infirm  In contrast, while these plans may be called “homeschooling” or “home education” and involve the student learning at home, neither the students nor the parents have much control over the content. “Home Study” is often confused with homeschooling. Such programs are offered by school districts so that children confined to home or hospital because of illness or injury may keep up with their classmates in school.

b. Who homeschools?

People from all walks of life homeschool: homeschoolers live in large cities, small towns, on farms and ranches, in mountains and deserts; homeschoolers live in families where mom stays home and dad works or vice versa; homeschoolers are blended families, two-parent families, single parent families, gay and lesbian families, families that work from their homes or where both parents work and a grandparent takes an active role in the education process; families that are religious and those that aren’t; families who have been in their country for generations and those that have recently immigrated; people who enjoy good health and those who live with disabilities. We are homeschoolers. We are your neighbors.

c. Why do families homeschool?

Ask ten homeschooling families why they homeschool and you might get a variety of reasons. Usually it is the positive ways homeschooling benefits their families that keep them going, however.  Here are just a few of those benefits:

• Continuing the parent-child relationship that has developed since birth.  There is no reason to end this just because the child has reached compulsory school age.
• Better supervision over the content of their children’s education. School curricula can be questionable.
• Better ability to meet the special needs or learning style of their children.
• Concerns about the safety of local schools or the long bus rides to the schools.
• The wonderful flexibility!  Homeschooling allows for more frequent travel  and for long periods of time.

d. How many people homeschool?

Because not all homeschoolers are required to register, it is nearly impossible to get an accurate count. In the 1990s 350,000 children were being homeschooled. As of the 2021-2022 academic year, approximately 3.1 million students in the United States from grades K-12 were homeschooled, representing approximately 6% of school-age children. A dramatic increase in applications from homeschoolers are being reported by colleges and universities as well. There is no question; homeschooling is growing.

II. Legal Options

a. Is it legal?

Homeschooling is legal in all fifty US states.  The laws vary from state to state.  It is also legal or becoming more acceptible in all provinces in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, in the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Japan, South Africa and other countries as well. In some countries it is practiced illegally as homeschoolers work to change the laws.

b. What is the law where I live?

In some places there are requirements that you inform the government of your intent to homeschool in order to avoid truancy questions. In some areas you may declare your home a private school and thereby be exempt from government interference. In other areas, you must be supervised by a cover school.

You only need to concern yourself with the law if your child falls within the age range for compulsory education in your state. You may certainly live the homeschooling lifestyle if your child is younger or older, you just can ignore any registration or reporting requirements.

c. Do I have to have a degree or special training?

Not usually, but credentialed teachers have it easy in some places: they may tutor their own children without any supervision in areas that require such oversight of non-credentialed homeschool parents. Most states don’t even require a parent to have a high school diploma. One state requires a “How to Homeschool” course.  Requirements vary from state to state.

d. What’s the best source of legal information?

The people in your area. Local homeschooling groups have experienced homeschoolers who will prove to be the best sources of information  on how to meet the legal requirements in your school district. Be sure you have an experienced, reliable source for information. And remember: these people are not lawyers!  It is up to you to read the law for yourself. After all, you are the one ultimately responsible for compliance.

III. Actually Homeschooling

a. What approach should I take?

Nobody can make this decision for you.  It is up to your family how to best approach the education of your children.  That’s the good news.  More good news: whatever approach you do choose to take, you will succeed. Your children will learn far faster and  more thoroughly because of the personal attention and personalized education than they would have in school. While schools have to wait for new standards to be developed over several years, you have the luxury and the privilege of altering you approach as soon as you see it isn’t working as you would like. Instead, focus on helping your children grow and flourish according to your own family’s loving values of what makes a successful human being.

b. What approaches are there?

• Structured – Sometimes called school at home, it can also include those who just like to have a very organized, goal-oriented day: A Day-Timer® School!
• Interest-initiated – Some call this approach “unschooling.” These families learn from real life experiences. Kids pursue their interests with encouragement and resources provided by their parents. These families might have a monthly calendar with a few key events noted on it.
• Learning-style – Learning materials and activities are chosen based on how their children learn best.
• Philosophical – These homeschools are structured around educational philosophies studied by the parents.
• Accelerated – Resentful of being called “pushy,” these parents feel their gifted children have special talents that deserve intense, daily focus. The children may also have determined goals to reach.
• Accommodating – Some families need to structure their homeschooling around the special needs of one or more people in their family.
• Unit-based – AKA the unit study approach, all learning is focused on a particular topic for for a period of time, each child learning at their own level of understanding.
• Community – Community activities:  religious involvement, youth organizations, volunteer work: group situations that they or others like them have organized. Families spend a significant portion of their time learning from involvement outside the home.
• Eclectic – Any combination of the above! Families pick and choose from all the wonderful options available to them and alter their course as needed.

c. What do we need to buy?

Nothing really.  Maybe a little time.  Go through what you already have. Chances are these materials can be used to help with your homeschooling. Even the pet dog can be a lesson in the life cycle of fleas! Good books can be reread. Toys can be used to explain physics. Games provide delightful practice in a variety of areas. Ask relatives and friends for attic treasures such as microscopes and telescopes or costumes for make-believe. Learning materials will trickle in. It’s amazing how you will begin to look at even the simplest household item in a new light when you ask yourself, “What can my child learn from this?”

Borrow. Your local library is your best source and it’s FREE!  Fellow homeschoolers who have outgrown materialsare another great resource. You might find some real treasures in Goodwill or thrift stores and garage sales. There’s a great geometry lesson in building some nice, solidly square, bookcases to hold all this stuff.

If someone says they need to “approve your curriculum,” find out what that really means.  It might not mean which text books are you using. It might mean what skills or concepts do you hope your children will learn this year and how do you plan to meet those objectives. Often you can just hand them your state’s “scope and sequence” for the ages of your children, telling them you plan to use materials from everyday life to get these concepts across based on the XYZ philosophy of education.

d. Where can I get ideas?

• Organizations – many national, state and local homeschooling organizations have publications and conferences full of great ideas. Enrichment programs such as Scouts, Campfire and 4-H have books and materials you can purchase even if you aren’t members. Local museums and industries have learning opportunities for children.
• Publications – while homeschooling publications will help you with specific homeschooling concerns, don’t forget to check those general parenting and hobbiest publications for great project and learning ideas.
• Web Sites – just type any topic in the search field here, and voila! You have loads of suggestions on things to do! It almost seems as though there is no end to the educational resources available online.  You want a reasonable amount? Try our search engine. Select this site or the whole web.
• Books – Read about successful homeschooling families and their approaches to learning. True, the authors only write about their best days and most creative ideas. After all, what family is perfect? But even if you only manage maybe one really great project a week from these books, you’re doing great!
• The Library – The children’s librarian is your friend. Cultivate and nurture that relationship. She’ll be your best resource for years to come. Ask her to watch for new books and publications with ideas of things you can do with your kids.

e. I couldn’t possibly do this!

The challenges some homeschooling families face are incredible, yet still their children learn and thrive. Within these family exists the “Love Factor” that serves to make these families more cohesive, more capable than they were before they decided to homeschool. A hyperactive, climbing-the-walls boy kept at home will lose his “bad boy” image and calm down. That rebellious, bored teenager, now able to get some respect at home finds the path to becoming a productive and creative adult person right before your eyes. Single moms with livelihood issues, create family businesses, with the help of the kids, that keep them solvent and content. Disabled parents wind up raising compassionate youngsters who might wind up in medical or social services occupations. Critical relatives become more accepting as they participate in activities with your children and see the results of your efforts.

Kids don’t need geniuses or a team with teaching certificates.  They need resourceful parents who will help them find the answers to their questions, who are willing to spend the bulk of each and every day with them, who will drive them to enrichment activities or over to their friends’ houses, who don’t obsess about test scores.  They need parents who believe in them, who are confident enough to let them find their own destiny and help them be all they can be.

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• Scratch would let you make it as easy as possible. Colorful drag and drop tiles to build functions, would introduce the really basic concepts of control flow and all
• You could play with Visual Studio a bit. Dragging and dropping buttons and showing how to do something simple like make a popup window with text or add two numbers
• Python is pretty easy to start with too for obvious reasons, maybe that would make sense to start with for some basics.

AP Computer Science A
In AP Computer Science A, you’ll learn how to use Java to build games or creatively address real-world issues. Through hands-on experiences in analyzing, writing, and testing code, you’ll learn how to transform an idea into a functioning program.

AgentCubes Tutorial Book
You are a traveler on a journey to find a treasure. You must avoid walls, and chasers who try to catch you. If you find all the treasure, you win.

Alice
Learn to program interactive 3D graphics. The focus of the Alice project is now to provide the best possible first exposure to programming for students ranging from middle schoolers to college students. Appeals to girls.

CyberToy
Windows download for teens who want to try their hand at creating fly-though scenery such as found in games. Experimental.

Fundamentals of Visual Basic
Students who have little programming experience can expect to spend between 1 and 2 hours on each lesson, including the time for doing the hands-on examples and exercises. Typical completion time for the course is about 1 quarter, or 12 weeks.

Game Maker
Have you ever wanted to be able to design computer games, but didn’t want to spend countless hours learning how to become a programmer? Then you’ve come to the right place. Game Maker is a program that allows you to make exciting computer games, without the need to write a single line of code.

GameProgrammer.Com
BBS, Mailing List, Articles, Source Code, Demos, Tutorials. Most of this community are in their teens and twenties. Everything you need to help you start programming games.

GitHub Copilot woven into Visual Studio
Your AI coding partner for faster and smarter development. Elevate your efficiency. Let Copilot and Visual Studio 2022 help you generate and refactor code, identify bugs and resolutions, optimize performance, and get context specific help throughout your coding workflow.

Introduction to Programming Using Java Version 4.1, June 2004
This on-line book contains Java applets, many of which require Java 1.3 or higher. To see these applets, you will need a Web browser that uses a recent version of Java.

Java Tutorial from SUN
A practical guide for programmers with hundreds of complete, working examples and dozens of trails–groups of lessons on a particular subject.

Learn HTML – CodeAcademy
Start at the beginning by learning HTML basics — an important foundation for building and editing web pages.

Linux Survival – Where learning Linux is easy
If you would like to learn the basics of Linux quickly, try this entertaining online Linux tutorial. You don’t need to install it on your computer, and best of all, it’s free!

Khan Academy Computing Courses
Intro to computer science – Python. Computer programming – JavaScript and the web. AP®︎/College Computer Science Principles. Computers and the Internet. Computer science theory. Pixar in a Box. Code.org. Hour of Code.

Phrogram
You can make your own games, explore how math and science concepts work and have fun. Get Learn to Program with Phrogram!: A Guide to Learning Through Game Programming Using the Latest Version of Kids Programming Language now with the O’Reilly learning platform. Free trial.

Python for Beginners
Before getting started, you may want to find out which IDEs and text editors are tailored to make Python editing easy, browse the list of introductory books, or look at code samples that you might find helpful.

Scratch
Mac OS and Windows. A free programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.

Snake Wrangling for Kids
A printable electronic book, for children 8 years and older, who would like to learn computer programming. It covers the very basics of programming, and uses the Python programming language to teach the concepts. Editions for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Visual BASIC for Kids
This tutorial is written for and directed to kids. Kids learn about project design, the Visual Basic toolbox, and many elements of the BASIC language. Numerous examples are used to demonstrate every step in the building process.

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• American History
• Ancient History
• Civics
• Geography
• People
• World Culture & History

American History

American History
Participate actively in the history of the United States of America.

Indian Peoples of the Americas
Native culture, past and current. An introduction for children.

Pilgrims
How Squanto helped the Pilgrims. The first Thanksgiving at Plimoth Plantation.

Colonial Times
Life in early America was both tough and fun, and these sites show you why.

Pirates of Colonial Times
If you want to hear stories of pirates, galleons, lost treasures, horrendous deeds, and gallant heros, this is a place to find them.

Salem Witch Trials
One theory that has come out recently is that the girls had been traumatized by earlier events: Indian massacres of families familiar to them.

American Revolution
Causes, events and people of the Revolution presented in formats intriguing to children.

Lewis and Clark
200 years ago these brave men led an expedition up the Missouri River, across wild mountain ranges, befriending Native Americans through the help of the Indian woman, Sacagawea.

Pioneer Times
In the early 1800s people headed across the western plains and mountains to settle in Oregon and California.

Civil War
Coloring pages, recipes, craft projects, reenactments and songs make the Civil War come alive for kids.

Modern Times – 20th Century
This page takes you from rural America at the turn of the century, through the mid-century battles, and to the advent of the technological society.

Ancient History

Prehistoric Man
Find out the truth about cave men, women and kids, as well as the lovely art they created.

Ancient History
Kids have fun exploring ancient cultures within these links.

Ancient Egypt
Wander through the mazes of ancient tombs to discover the secrets of ancient Eqypt.

Ancient Greece
Travel back in a time machine. Contribute stories. Find out about original Olympic games.

Ancient Rome (Italy)
Play the games that ancient Roman children played. Find out about daily life.

Civics

Activism 4 Kids
Participate actively in solving the world’s problems.

Civics
Governments of the United States, Australia, Canada, and the UK explained to children.

Economics for Kids
Learn about economics through these fun interactive sites just for kids.

Iraq Conflict For Kids
Read current events about Iraq Conflict. Lesson plans, ideas. How to help the children. Support Peace. Support the Troops.

News 4 Kids
Keep on top of current events. Write your own news stories.

Geography

Habitats
Visit the earth’s Biomes which are areas with very different geology and plant and animal life: deserts, rainforests, tundra, taigas, temperate and grasslands.

Maps
Really good maps and atlases online to help with geography and history studies. Treasure maps, too!

United States Geography
Each and every state of the union has interesting and unique features for kids to explore through these interactive links.

World Geography
Participate actively in geographical quests and meet kids all over the world.

People

Biographies of Famous People
Read the stories of famous people and villains who have gone this way before.

Genealogy – Family History
Find out about your family members and create a family museum of scrapbook.

Women In History
Famous and outstanding women throughout the world and throughout time.

World Culture & History

World Culture & History
Fun sites with ideas for social studies in general. Learn about people all over the world.

Age of Exploration – 1400 – 1600
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries two nations, Portugal and Spain, pioneered the European discovery of sea routes that were the first channels of interaction between all of the world’s continents.

Canadian History
From the Children of Eagle and Raven to modern times. Resources for Canadian children and others to study Canada.

Flight History
Since early times, people have been fascinated with the idea of flight. Learn how these dreams of flight came true.

Inca Culture
The Inca society was very organized. Everyone understood his or her position in the social pyramid.

India
Come explore India, its mysterious past, games, culture and language.

Mayan Culture
Mayan stories, activities and virtual tours help you learn more about this ancient culture.

Medieval Times
Find out about Castles, Happenings, Heraldry, Kings & Queens, Knights & Ladies, Organizations, and Plays.

Renaissance for Kids
Are we still in the Renaissance Period today? Come decide for yourself.

Vikings
What is myth? What is fact? Learn about Scandinavian history, play games, and explore with the Vikings.

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India for kids – an amazing and quick guide to India

Geography

Indus River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Indusis the principal river of Pakistan. It originates in Tibet, flowing from the Himalayas in a north-westerly direction through Kashmir, and then turning south for nearly the entire length of Pakistan. The Indus Valley Civilization had some of the earliest urban settlements in the world.

Maps of India
18 maps of India showing states and major cities. From the Global Security website.

History

The Ancient Indus Valley Slideshows
South Asia’s first cities were established around 2600 B.C. in what is now Pakistan and western India. The peoples who built and ruled these cities belong to what archaeologists refer to as the Harappan Culture or Indus Civilization. This civilization developed at approximately the same time as the early city states of Egypt and Mesopotamia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8iGSeTjjY4
Armoured Elephants
Ancient Indians used elephants as “tanks” armed with heavy canons. They were used this way since 1100 B.C.

Daily Life in Ancient India
What did the ancient Indians wear? What did they eat? Did kids play with toys? Did they go to school? This site shares daily life in three major time periods of ancient India history; the mysterious and so cool Indus Valley Civilization, the Vedic & Epics Periods, and the Age of Empires.

Harappa: The Indus Valley and the Raj in India and Pakistan
Glimpses of India and Pakistan before 1947 and the story of the ancient Indus Valley. Old photographs, rare film footage and long unseen media from before independence in India and Pakistan.

Was Indus Valley script like emojis?
Despite a mountain of research, the Indus script remains shrouded in mystery. Recent research by an independent Kolkata researcher looks at the structure of texts, and finds the symbols may have more in common with your favourite emoji than you might think.

Itihaas: The History of India
50 years of Independence. 5,000 years of history. This is India’s story.

Women In India
Commercial Unit Study. The unit ensures that the perspectives of women are included in the study of India’s religious, aesthetic, intellectual, political and social traditions. Outline to help you create your own unit study.

India For Kids

India Facts and Pictures
National Geographic Kids site. India’s earliest known civilization arose about 5,000 years ago on the Indus River in what is now Pakistan. Archaeologists uncovered the remains of two huge cities with brick houses, piped water, and sewer systems. Nobody knows why, but these cities, called Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, were abandoned in 1700 B.C.

India For Kids
This section is for children aged 7-9, to give them an insight into the diverse culture and landscape of India.  For each part  there is a ‘slide show’ … a bedtime story … somewhere to keep ‘notes’ and suggestions for other web sites to explore.

Pitara Kids Network
A huge kids network with news, activities, stories and things to discover.

Mocomag
Packed with great visual experience, games, educational content, interactive stories and activities, Mocomi provides a safe and complete online experience for kids and families.

Travel For Kids: India
Fun places to go and things to see and do in India.

Language

The Indus Script
There is no such thing as an accepted Indus dictionary; if at all possible, one is probably decades away. Nonetheless, below are summarized some of Parpola1 and Mahadevan’s2 speculations on various signs.

Sanskrit Documents
You will find here various tools for learning Sanskrit such as the Online Sanskrit Dictionary, Sanskrit Tutorials, Sanskrit Pronunciation guides, and software for learning Sanskrit and producing documents in Devanagari & Roman formats, and much more.

Literature and Arts

India: The Living Arts
Our people have inherited great talents. Our way of life is imbued with the sense of beauty. Our women paint on the walls naturally. Our craftsmen know how to make . . . with their hands everything that we have in India. If we have faith in them, they can perform miracles. – Ghandi

Chapter Books by South Asian Authors for Children
All titles on this list are written by authors within the South Asian community! Reading books about and by people from other cultures and communities is one of many ways to encourage empathy and understanding within children.

Religion

Buddha Net’s Kids Page
(563?-483? BC) Buddha was an Indian philosopher and the founder of Buddhism, who was born in Kapilavastu, India, just inside present-day Nepal. He was the son of the head of the Sakya warrior caste, with the private name of Siddhartha; in later life he was known also as Sakyamuni (Sage of the Sakyas).

Religions in India
In India, religion is a way of life. It is an integral part of the entire Indian tradition. Secular India is home to Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and other innumerable religious traditions, Hinduism is the dominant faith, practiced by over 80% of the population.

Sports

How football is changing lives of Indian slum girls
An American, Franz Gastler, is teaching young Indian slum girls how to improve their lives through the game of football. Monica Sarkar reports from Mumbai.

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• Accountability Debate
• Accrediting Agencies
• FAQs

Accountability Debate

Just Who Is Accountable for My Child’s Education?
Or Accreditation Rears Its Ugly Head Again! We ask, then, what’s the point? To say that a school is “accredited” sounds impressive, doesn’t it? But what does it really mean? From HEIR in GA.

Laws designed to prevent certain families from homeschooling
Be it resolved by members of the Wisconsin Parents Association (WPA) that WPA will work through its members to oppose laws that would prevent some people from homeschooling and will work through its members to inform parents, the general public, and legislators of the unacceptability and risk of such laws and practices.

Accrediting Agencies

However, some homeschoolers wish to avail themselves of accredited programs to complete their high school diploma work. They may wish to go with an accredited institution rather than do independent homeschooling.

Unaccredited Agencies
If the program you are considering says they are accredited by one of these agencies, be wary. These may be phonies!

CHEA- and USDE-Recognized Accrediting Organizations
Part I of this chart lists regional, national faith-related, national career-related and programmatic accreditors that are or have been recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) or both. Organizations identified by (•) are recognized; (–) indicates those not recognized.

International Registry of Accredited Schools
How does your school demonstrate commitment to high quality international education to parents, students and staff members? How do you ensure your school is continually improving and keeping up with leading international education standards?

FAQs

Homeschools are not accredited, while some distance learning programs are. You must negotiate with a high school counselor in advance if you wish such course work to count toward graduation should you wish to reenter that public school.

Does ACS WASC accredit home schools?
ACS WASC allows for the accreditation of independent study programs and/or homeschool programs that meet the following ACS WASC requirements… Individual homeschools where students are taught by parents at home are not eligible for ACS WASC accreditation.

WASC’s Frequently Asked Questions
Addresses such concerns as the transfer of credits between a non-accredited and an accredited educational institution.

What Is Accreditation? Should My Homeschool Be Accredited?
With the rise of online, distance learning programs for all grade levels comes a relatively new cottage industry of unofficial accrediting agencies. Shockingly, there are over 50 accrediting agencies of dubious nature in the US alone, designed primarily to support so-called “diploma mills.”

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Optics: Light at Work – Part I.
Light in Action: Lasers, Cameras & Other Cool Stuff; Optics: Light at Work; and Careers in Optics.

Art & Optics: Science and Art Closer Than You Think
Optical technology and the study of light go far back in human culture. Contemporary artists are often quick to adopt new technology, or to absorb its implications. Was it any different then? Why should the use of a tool diminish the value of the art?

Concepts of Light and Color
A set of interactive Java applet tutorials to help you understand how color and light work. Beautifully done. Lots of levers to slide to make changes. From Molecular Expressions.

Cool Cosmos
Here you’ll find pictures, videos, games, educational materials, and more. A fun way to learn all about the “cool” part of the electromagnetic spectrum: infrared light.

Discovering Light
This site is dedicated to light in all its manifestations: in physics, in technology, in nature and in culture. To help you learn about light, we’ve included a message board for posting questions. A Thinkquest site.

Fermilab’s System of Web Pages About Light
Light is great, light is mysterious, light is useful. After all, they say everything started with light. When any revolution has happened in the history of science, light was always there. So it deserves a little attention.

The Light Stuff
Here on Earth the speed of light can change. How? Go to Joe’s Room and see if you can figure it out.

MicroWorlds
An interactive tour of current research in the materials sciences at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source. For high school students, this site explains how intense light is used for physics research.

Optics For Kids: Science and Engineering
Some fun and interesting things about OPTICS: the science of LIGHT, and one of the most important fields of PHYSICS. by Bruce Irving, Optical Research Associates.

Chemiluminescence

Chemiluminescence – Light without Heat
To do this experiment, you’ll need some light sticks from a sporting goods store or a necklace from a fair. You’ll watch what happens when you put it in hot water and in your refridgerator.. From Home Experiments by Professor Shakhashiri.

Firefly Files
How fireflies produce light via a chemical reaction and how you can attract fireflies to your yard, if you have them in the area in the first place.

A Modest Chemiluminescence Movie
Glow-in-the-dark chemical reactions you can watch online.

Chromatography

Chemistry of Autumn Colors
Formerly green leaves turn to brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red. These color changes are the result of transformations in leaf pigments.

Paper Towel Chromatography
Colors makes color! Separate different colors from a marker.

Separate Colors in a Green Leaf using Chromatography
To help you understand just how leaves change colors in the fall and why some trees change to red while others change to orange or yellow, try this experiment on leaves from the same tree both before and after color changes.

Why Do Leaves Change Color in the Fall?
Separate colors in a green leaf using chromatography. Observe how light affects color development. Word Scramble puzzles as well.

Forums

Optical Society of America Student Center
This is your opportunity to network electronically with OSA members who have expertise in various technical groups and application areas.

Heat & Light

The Infrared Zoo
What do animals look like in the infrared? Actually “see” the differences between warm and cold-blooded animals, and learn how animals use fur, blubber and feathers to insulate themselves.

Build a Pizza Box Solar Oven
The sun is hot enough to bake food. Here’s how to make a simple solar oven that gets hot enough to warm up cookies and other treats, like s’mores. It won’t get really hot, though, so you can’t bake things in it and you won’t burn yourself when playing with it. Be sure to have an adult help you with this!

Language of Color

Feng Shui and Color
Response to color symbolism is a response to color preconception, and it is a predetermined response based on literary and psychological ideas about color itself.

Make a Splash with Color
We see red apples, green grass, and blue sky. Did you ever wonder why this is? Maybe it has something to do with the apples, the grass, and the sky? Or maybe something to do with your eyes? Or maybe even something to do with your mind?

Lasers & Holograms

Holography Lasers and Holograms
Learn all about these 3-D photographs. Make them for yourself.

Lenses

How Glasses Are Made

Up Periscope!
Be able to look over high fences and around corners with this handy device made with a tube and mirrors.

Optical Illusions

Counter-Rotating Spirals Illusion
Stare at the spirals for 20 seconds and then at the pattern on the right. What causes this affect? An optical illusion!

A didactic downloadable moiré demonstration kit
A printable moiré demonstration kit, where each layer is given by a separate PostScript file that can be downloaded and printed on a transparency.

Gallery of Visual Illusions
View and test various illusions by dragging seemingly different objects together or apart.

Illusions
20 visual illusions, hidden faces, moving yet still graphics.

Op Art
Illusion design works that look like op art. Please note that this page could make you feel sick.

Polorization

Polarized Light in Nature and Technology
Polarization is present in the rainbow, in the hidden color of minerals, in the dance of honeybees, in the flow of molten metal, in the color of beetles, and the gloss of tree leaves at dawn.

Shadows

Bob Miller’s Light Walk
Artist Bob Miller’s “Light Walk” at the Exploratorium is always an eye-opening expereience for students and teachers alike. His unique discoveries will change the way you look at light, shadow, and images.

Shadow Dance
The purpose of this activity is to experiment with shadows and light sources and to understand the relationship between the angle of illumination and the shadow’s length.

Sky Lights

Aurora

Aurora Borealis
What creates these shimmering celestial lights? Information, resources and experiments you can carry out to learn more about the Northern Lights. From Newton’s Apple.

Lightning

Lightning in a Pan
Try this easy experiment to make your own miniature version of a lightning bolt.

Rainbows

Building a Rainbow
Young students will enjoy just creating online rainbows. More advanced students can take the whole lab course to understand how rainbows obey the rules of calculus.

The Physics of a Rainbow
A most charming example of chromatic dispersion is a rainbow. When white sunlight is intercepted by a drop of water in the atmosphere, some of the light refracts into the drop, reflects from the drop’s inner surface, and then refracts out of the drop.

Sunsets & Blue Skies

Blue Sky – Red Sunset
Why is the sky blue? What makes colorful sunsets? This simple demonstration will show you how these sky colors happen.

Sky Window
What color is the sky? Well, it’s just not any old blue! Make a blue-gray-white color wheel to make surveys of sky colors over several weeks.

Why is the sky blue? Why are sunsets red?
Take a look at light through a prism and notice all the different colors that you can see. Light that looks white to our eyes actually is made up of many different colors. From Optics For Kids.

Spectrums

Color Theory
Artists were fascinated by Newton’s clear demonstration that light alone was responsible for color. An online course on color, vision and art.

Seeing Color
You may ask yourself why is it that we only see the “visible” portion of light?

Web Safe Color Chart – Paired Color Values
Click on a color to lock it as the background. Click on any color to unlock. Place your mouse over a color to see the CSS shorthand value tooltip.

Triboluminescence

Triboluminescence in Quartz Crystal

Electric Candy- Or Triboluminescence
The wintergreen candy contains wintergreen oil. When the candy is chewed the wintergreen oil rubs against the course sugar and an electrical charge is produced.

Wintergreen Candy and other Triboluminescent Materials
Go into a closet or other dark room. Take along a mirror and some WintOGreen Lifesavers. Wait for your eyes to adjust and then bite down on the candy real hard while watching in the mirror. If the candy hasn’t gotten soggy, your mouth will glow, and here’s why.

The post Color and Light – Optics for Kids appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

I have heard John Taylor Gatto speak three times now, and each time I get something a little different out of what he has to say. He came out with a book about the history of American education that is shaking up a lot of people who think that Carnegie, Ford and other industialists who have donated so generously to education were doing so out of the kindness of their hearts.

In the essays below, Gatto speaks about what he knows best and what he’s found out about education. He was New York City and State Teacher of the Year at various times in his career. He taught at a school were teens everyone else had given up on were sent, and he did a good job with them ­ but in a creative and unorthodox way. He let them out of school, to be around town, working on various projects, learning first hand how to work the system.

Here is a John Taylor Gatto website primarily focused on his book: Underground History of American Education. The site has some videos and sound clips of John speaking.

You will not enjoy the essays in the links below. They will make you feel sad and angry. They will make you think.

Bootie Zimmer’s Choice
Our children have been held captive by a method of literacy transmission that ignores reality — and makes a very large fortune each year doing so. By John Taylor Gatto.

The Curriculum of Necessity
Or “What must and educated person know?” By John Taylor Gatto. Includes Harvard’s list of what a well-educated person should be able to do.

I may be a teacher, but I’m not an educator
John Taylor Gatto’s resignation letter in the Wall Street Journal. “I’ve come slowly to understand what it is I really teach: A curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency. I teach how to fit into a world I don’t want to live in. I just can’t do it anymore.”

I Quit, I Think
I was New York State Teacher of the Year when it happened. An accumulation of disgust and frustration which grew too heavy to be borne finally did me in.

John Taylor Gatto
The site to find out more about John and to purchase a pre-publication of his book, Underground History of American Education. You can also view a pictorial essay about the history of education.

Nine Assumptions of Modern Schooling
John Taylor Gatto warned that although there were many caring teachers who worked hard in the system, the institution itself was “psychopathic and without conscience,” and would always overwhelm their individual contributions.

Personal Solutions, Family Solutions
“If you have no time for your family you want to ask yourself, ‘Why must I always be do-ing something?’ God made us human be-ings, not do-ings!” By John Taylor Gatto.

Public School Nightmare
Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought? By John Taylor Gatto

Six-Lesson Schoolteacher
By John Taylor Gatto, New York State Teacher of the Year, 1991. If you pay for these lessons, you should at least know what they are.

Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher
A longer version: “The first lesson I teach is confusion. Everything I teach is out of context… I teach the unrelating of everything. I teach disconnections. I teach too much.” By John Taylor Gatto, New Society Publishers, 1992

The Underground History of American Education
A Schoolteachers Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling by John Taylor Gatto. A review on Family Unschoolers Network.

Why Schools Don’t Educate
We live in a time of great school crisis. Our children rank at the bottom of nineteen industrial nations in reading, writing and arithmetic. At the very bottom.

My husband, Fred Zeise, and son, Scott, help Gatto and Diane Keith, editor of Homefires, the Journal of Homeschooling, get the video system set up.

Gatto revealing what Carnegie’s motivation was to “help” educate America’s school children, to make them complacent workers.

Photos taken and copyrighted by Ann Zeise and used with permission of John Taylor Gatto.

The post John Taylor Gatto appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

In fact our decision to switch from using curriculum to unschooling started one summer. We were camping in the back yard, watching a meteorite shower. To describe where we were seeing the meteorites we all had to learn or relearn the names of the major constellations. Of course, the strange names led to reading about the Greek myths and Indian legends behind the names. This led to the study of Greek history and Scott read the D’Aulaire’s Greek Myths about the Odyssey. Greeks led to Roman city planning and construction, and how they invented the conveniences of modern life, such as running water and roads that drained. We also bought a big history book call “Ancient Inventions” at this time, and it is still often referred to. Somehow the computer game, SimCity, entered the picture, and hours were spent creating new cities. So, one day when out and about, Scott asked where our town’s commercial, industrial and residential areas were. So I drove us to City Hall to look at the city plan. The clerk couldn’t answer our questions, so dove into the back and brought out the city planner. I introduced my son to him by saying he’d been playing SimCity, and the planner questioned, “Have you solved the transportation problems yet?” I didn’t get a word in edgewise after that! We watched a “tilt-up” shopping center going up, and talked about the physics of the machinery necessary to lift the walls and then hold them in place. Later on, we visited the architect’s office. They were thrilled to have a young visitor, as a builder isn’t often the subject of school field trips.

All this learning going on and it wasn’t even September yet!

Each summer our plans include a trip to our cabin in Maine on the Kennebec, right across from Swan Island, where Benedict Arnold rested his troops on his way to (or was it from?) Lake Champlain. We’ll explore the natural and historical features of the area. We’ve befriended the family of a boat [baht] builder in Booth Bay. Chet Rittall will show Scott how to carve wood and might loan us his wooden sailboat to take out for a spell. Later we’ll get a taste of Maine lobster [lobstah] steamed on seaweed in the traditional manner. “Supah” will be followed by Gramps telling the tallest of Maine Tall Tales. His daughter and her sons homeschool, and will be groaning when they hear these stories being told again.

Reading never stops around our house. It is something fun we just do at quiet times mornings or nights.

We are fortunate to have a backyard swimming pool we call our “chemistry experiment.” Scott has learned to do the water analysis and add the proper chemicals to “balance” the pH of the water so that algae will not grow. The reward is having friends over a lot for lazy afternoons swimming. The boys “pay me” by helping out with the garden surrounding the pool. Tired of the water? Clip away at the hedge for awhile! Always something needs upkeep outside in the summer, or other garden fun.

Summer also includes Boy Scout camp, where Scott will select and earn a few more badges, but also have just a lot of boyish fun, singing and putting on skits around the campfire, and eating his own campfire-cooked meals.

Math takes the form of games and tricks or more serious life skills such as shopping or building projects. Scott was still about nine when he was able to do travel calculations. “If the sign says 60 miles to our destination and I can go 40 miles per hour on the average here, how long will it take us?” I thought this would be hard for a kid who hadn’t yet mastered fractions. Took a lot of thinking, but he did figure that we wouldn’t get there in an hour, since we’d only get 40 miles, and we still had half of 40 miles (20 miles) to go; therefore it would take an hour and a half.

One unusual thing my guys do is help out at the “Hot Chips” conference at Stanford. Scott and husband Fred help with registration, with Scott running “go-fer” for the adults. They, in turn, get to listen to all these scientists and engineers tell about the newest computer chips. Scott gets a taste of the working world of Silicon Valley this way and gets to meet some of the Valley’s more interesting scientists.

Scott has also announced that he is going to learn to fish this summer. Success will be measured more in lack of equipment lost and time spent with friends, than in actual fish caught in city lakes.

Toward the end of summer, the whole family will attend the Home=Education conference in Sacramento. There will be a teen session running parallel to the adult session, which Scott, finally a teen, qualifies for! He’ll get to do a variety of fun things with the other homeschooling teens and find out how they do indeed unschool high school. If I’m likely to find you there, email me! I’d love to meet you.

More Summer Learning Links

Dear Uncle CHiN,
I feel like we didn’t get enough done during the “school year.” Should we homeschool through the summer?
Angst

Other ways to ruin your child’s summer
If your children could tell you what they really want to do for vacation, you might find out that your meticulous plans to keep them occupied this summer is all for naught. Mothers Who Think.

Tips for Stress-Free Summer Adventures With Kids
Summer for kids is all about relaxation, with no school schedules to worry about. They can stay up late, enjoy family trips, and engage in creative activities.

The post Unschooling All Summer appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

Oh, how I despised homeschoolrecord keeping and monthly reports! Even more, I loathed to give up original material my son had created to some bureaucrat who would not treasure these creations of my child.

My Lazy Idea for Planning and Recording

Our first two years, we homeschooled through a program at our local school district. The first of each month I had to turn in academic plans for the following month and a record of what Scott had done the previous month, along with some material proof of what he had done.

As part of Scott’s portfolio, I would take photographs of his activities and works of art, get them developed at “double print specials,” and these were often acceptable. Check with your advisor first. I liked being able to keep the art and a copy of the photos.

Next, I found that a self-created spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel (Mac X or Windows) could be used to both plan our homeschool days and be edited as we went along to reflect what we really did do. If we needed to, we could bump a plan to the next day by using the “insert” function and pushing the cell one more day to the right. I’ve included a copy of the file here for you to download. It should work with most Mac and Windows systems that have a copy of the application “Excel” (included as part of Microsoft Office – Mac or Windows). You may need to adjust the margins to print correctly on your printer. It is suppose to print side headers and Mon-Sun activities per page printout.

My Free Homeschool Planner / Tracker

Excel Planner
UPDATED FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2024-2025
Download the template mentioned in this feature. It is a 209K file named hsplanner.xls that will run on Mac, Unix, Linux, and Windows with any xls-compatible spreadsheet application already installed.

Where to Buy an Application to Open the Excel File

Microsoft now offers a free version of Excel.

The spreadsheet also works with Open Office from SUN that you can use if you are on Linux, Sun Solaris, or Windows. Available in Asian languages. Homeschoolers and educators can get Oracle Open Office for free.

It may also work with the following products, but we haven’t tested it on them:

• Apple Numbers on mobile devises.
• Google Sheets

How the Excel Planner Works

For those of you without an xls spreadsheet, such as Excel, I shall explain how this spreadsheet looks and works in the little table below:

“Whole Family” rows automatically duplicated from #1 to subsequent sheets for other children. Spreadsheet is set up with 3 worksheets for 3 children. May I suggest that if you have more than 3 children, that you make another copy of this file and have one, say, for the teenagers and one for the elementary aged kids.

My advisor really liked this format. I found it easy to work with because of Excel’s various functions. Date columns widths can be reduced to 0 when no longer needed to be viewed or printed. The printed version will always have the first 2 columns and top 2 rows on it. I’ve given you a couple of days’ samples of activities an unschooler might include. Play around with the time fields for a bit until you understand how they work.

As we unschool, weekends are included and so are holidays. Kids get “credit” for learning all the time! You’ll be pleasantly surprised how the hours add up. Your children may even finish a whole school year of required “work” in far less time than their schooling counterparts.

Updates to the Home School Planner

In 2006, I’ve fix it so the start date for Child #1 sets the dates for the other children, too. So if you want to start on a different date than what I have, Just type in your starting date once, and the whole family is set to go.

In 2005, I’ve added a worksheet for tips on using the spreadsheet, and another for handy links while planning. Subjects are now linked right into directories of A to Z Home’s Cool to make it easier to find what you need while you are planning.

In 2008, homeschool parent Felicia B. Gershberg, MAT, PhD, sent me her version of the Planner set up so that only weekdays appear across the top, as that is what her charter required for reporting. She also preferred that the times be recorded and add up in decimals. You may download Felicia Gershberg’s Excel spreadsheet planning template with only weekdays for the homeschool year 2024 – 2025. Time expressed in decimal fractions.

Reproducing the Home School Planner

If you pass this spreadsheet along, please just tell the person you got it from this website or link to this page. Modify it to suit your needs, but do NOT remove the footer. If you have a good improvement, email me a copy! Suggestions welcome. You may not, however, post the whole spreadsheet on your website or redistribute in any way for personal gain. Webmasters, link to this page and NOT to the downloadable file, as I change the file name from time to time.

Resources to Help with Homeschool Recordkeeping

Educationese for Homeschool Reports
Educationese — or Teacherese — is the name sometimes given to the jargon too frequently employed by some of those who train our schoolteachers.

Schools Are from Mars, Homeschoolers Are from Earth
I’m all for schools and homeschoolers figuring out how to peacefully co-exist – indeed, even cooperate! – but sometimes I wonder if we’re even talking about the same thing when we discuss children and learning. Judging by the language we use, I wonder if we’re even on the same planet. By Patrick Farenga.

Unschooling Record Keeping
Many people wonder how you can unschool and still keep records.  Many people view unschooling and record keeping as being at odds with one another. By Karen Gibson.

The post Excel Planner for Record Keeping and Homeschool Reports appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

Spanish for Young Children

Little Explorers English – Spanish Dictionary
Use this dictionary to surf the web.

Zoom School Mexico
Simple lessons about Mexico for young children.

Spanish for Beginners

BBC Languages – Spanish
Includes assessment tool to get you started at the right level, extracts from tv series. Designed with the European learner or visitor to Spain in mind.

Grammar/ Gramática
From initial pronunciation to sentence constrution, this Business Spanish site is also good for high school students as it has mp3 files to help you learn correct pronunciation. You could download these to your mp3 player.

Learn Spanish
Same name, different site. Lots of specialized vocabulary, such as soccer and guitar word lists. Offers Spanish chat room.

Spanish Course for Beginners
The Embassy of Spain is pleased in introducing a Course of Spanish for beginners which has been programmed and supervised by the Department of Spanish at the University of Calgary. A downloadable course in Windows format.

Advanced Spanish

Language Express Spanish Game
Flash Spanish game for those who have a pretty good Spanish vocabulary, and can translate English into Spanish. Nice special effects.

Quia page for Spanish 2
Includes all of the Java Games for your vocabulary in Paso a Paso 2. Milpitas Spanish teacher, Srta. Feige, has also started entering other games/activities you can do with the vocabulary.

Quia page for Spanish 3
Includes all of the Java Games for your vocabulary in Paso a Paso 3. Milpitas Spanish teacher, Srta. Feige, has also started entering other games/activities you can do with the vocabulary.

Comprehensive Spanish Sites

eLearn Spanish Language
A free resource for Spanish students and teachers. Laura K. Lawless adds new lessons and links weekly.

Online

Spanish Forum
This is the place to learn about Spanish, have your questions about Spanish answered, or simply meet other people who enjoy one of the world’s most-used languages. The languages of this bulletin board are Spanish and English.

Stories & Songs

Los tebeos de siempre
Comic strips in Spanish.

Songs of the Kids of Mexico
Un Elefante Se Balanceaba ~ Una Rata Vieja
Itzi, Bitzi Araña ~ Brinca La Tablita
Tortillitas ~ Senora Santana
Arroz con Leche ~ Estrellita

Spanish For Kids
I teach a Spanish computer lab and have written several simple songs for my young students.

Type Spanish

Type Spanish with Accents Online
This page allows you to easily type Spanish accents and other Spanish characters without a Spanish keyboard. You can edit your text in the box and then copy it to your e-mail application, word processor, etc.

The post Spanish Lessons appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.