h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A598070

There is the debate of What is better Home-Schooling *vs* State-run or Private Schools.

There is no end to internet sites that were set up for home-schooling parents.

Don't forget about the State Regulations on Who can teach @ home; what Qualifications one must have. How much of what you must teach everyday/week/180 day term. Who is allowed to do the testing of progress of home-schooled children.

Now I have a search engine on my home computer called webferret that does all the searching for me. But just the regular one in the address bar will do quite well for anyone. just remember to put in the "+" sign or you will get things pertaining to just "home" and just "schooling". How I do the search is "home+schooling" (skip the " " marks).

I figured out that if you go to the "teacher" sites. You get everything (usually for free) from curriculum to worksheets and on line games that help with math, science, art and reading probably a lot more sub-subjects also. Everything to incorperate religious ideas to the strict state requirements are listed. I just sign up as a teacher or if they have it a home-schooler.

I have scads of sites saved on my home & work computers dedicated to home-schooling. If you would like a list of some of them just let me know.

Also "ABOUT.COM " I have found is a great source for getting all kinds of age/grade appropriate lessons on many different subjects.

You can find state requirements on your states education site.
usually marked as k.12.state name or abreviation.edu
Or by going to your state homepage, usually state name.gov

As for any other countries (besides USA-) I have no knowledge of home-schooling programs or regulations in your area of the world! I suggest you search for the rules/regulations for your area.

Questions/comments can be put on "my space" or you can e-mail me @ [email protected] (an account I set up for homeschooling stuff.)

Interesting and informative article for the person in the United States who is looking for internet resources to assist in home schooling a child.

Since you start the article with a mention of the fact that there is some debate over the desirability of home schooling as opposed to State-run schooling or private schooling, you might want to include just a bit about what the proponents of each position have to say.

This is interesting, but it needs a lot of tidying up before it is ready to make a proper entry. Entries are supposed to be ready to be published before they are submit for Peer Review. I suggest you take it to the Writing Workshop. There are plenty of people there who will make suggestions for improving it.

In the meantime, you should start it with an introduction like this:

In the USA, parents are given the choice of sending their children to State-run schools or providing tuition at home. This entry outlines ...

I was sort of home schooled for a while.
Or rather, home relaxed-and-do-nothing-much.
I know it's different for everyone, but a couple of my friends have been home schooled too.
I'll go and read this now and then comment.

you might also want to make a reference to education otherwise who act as a clearing house for the same sort of thing in the uk.

Yes, I seem to have dropped the towel there. Thank you for your
input. I will have to revise this shortly.
And hey! this peer review thing works out great. I like it!

Sorry it took so long in getting back to you. I have no excuse.
just poor manors I guess.

Anyway, you sounded like you didn't like being home-schooled.

Please explain about that. Maybe I can use some of your experiences
to help others make up their mind on what is best for them and their children.
both postitve and negative views are needed to get a well rounded view of home-schooling.
I am just curious, what state/country were you in when you were home-schooled?

I did a bunch of revising today on it. About 2 hours worth to just end up hitting the "refresh" button on the browser.
I lost about 2 hours of work and re-work on my entry.
The sad thing about it was that as soon as i let the mouse button go. I knew it was wrong.
And I should have known better BEFORE I hit that button.
So I effectively yelled at myself. it's under Is it Thursday? in my journal. Hopefully I wont ever have to
re-read it- AFTER I hit the refresh button. And yes it is Thursday. lol

Here's hoping that you have a better thursday that I had.
Jolietristan

I've noticed that "bright" people tend to be home-schooled, people who don't fit in to the normal education system.

Hi there.

I'll start by offering my simpathy about the browser button incident. Had many hours of my life taken away from me by similiar accidents

Anyway, a good advise will be to edit your stuff on a text editor (such as Notepad or UltraEdit, I use UltraEdit), and then paste it to update the entry. This will lessen the chance of this sort of accidents.

Now to suggestions (my favorite part, this is where I get to point where other people go it wrong

1. In the "State run schools" "cons"
what/need - I guess you mean want/need

2. You really should rewrite all the parts that are written in First person. It is against guidelines (except in really special cases)

3. There are also social Pros and Cons:
In home schooling the child is less exposed to other children and is getting a lot less "school of life". on the other hand, in a public/private school there are bad influances and violance.

Also, public/private schooles offer a lot of activities other then the pure diductional part. There are sport activities and social/academic clubs and a library etc...

Yours,

Dancer

Thank you All for your in-put. It has given me a lot to chew on.
I have dropped my towel again. My computer died at home so have not been able to update this, infact, today has been the first day I have been able to even look at "my space."

Dancer, I have to thank you, especially, you have given me a lot of helpful information. I do need to make this a third person project. As I am trying to have other people send in info on their expierences, and state/country rules and sites.
And hey if no one points out what is wrong... How will I ever get it right? I never even thought of doing it in a text editor. duh! i can be so flaky sometimes.

So thanks again for all your input. I will be updating this soon! (cross fingers that the computer don't break again )

Hey,

Youre welcome .
First person entries are allowed to the edited guide only in cases of Special diseases (like Cancer experiances and so).

It is allowed to write stuff like "One researcher thinks this is a really neat site" or "Several researchers think the cause is early childhood trauma" but this should be avoided and used only if necessery, or if you really want to .

Hey,

Youre welcome .
First person entries are allowed to the edited guide only in cases of Special diseases (like Cancer experiances and so).

It is allowed to write stuff like "One researcher thinks this is a really neat site" or "Several researchers think the cause is early childhood trauma" but this should be avoided and used only if necessery, or if you really want to .


Dancer

Ooops, the sentace didn't come out right. I really should preview/review my messages before posting more often.

only in cases of Special diseases (like Cancer experiances and so).

should have been

only in Special cases (like Cancer experiances and so).


Dancer

hmm, shouldn't be too difficult to give this one a polishing . Are you still suffering from a 'no computer' disease ?

I don't know that it needs to have a pro/con debate about the issues. What interests me is how do you start, and where do you get information.

I think its great when parents care enough to home school thier kids. On the other hand, I have noticed more an d more kids who are being homeschooled because they've been thrown out of alternative schools.

You may want to check out [url removed by moderator]- a UK based organisation set up to help home schoolers. Most of the people I know who home school their children do so on very limited incomes and more from the point of view that the state does not provide sufficient child centred education, taking into account the different stages of development children can be at at similar ages.

Home schooling can provide a very rich environment, but it does need very dedicated parents and a good support network.

You may also wish to look at the way your article is organised and presented. It would be improved by being divided by headers and/or subheaders to help the reader.

I hope this is helpful.

Also a mention taht school is not just about education might be good, it is also about learning to stand up to bad influences and deal with peer pressure. All very well to go on outings with other home schooled kids, but it's not the same as having to see the same horrid bunch of ankle biters day after day. I am not advocating children should be bullied. Bullying should not ahppen at all. But the world is not always a nice place and school is a place where children can learn to deal with this before getting to university and work and discover taht they know nothing about the world. Yes, some kids are evil and school can be dangerous, but not always. Yes some homeschooled kids can adjust and can be taught very well by their parents. But it is hard to give a child the experiance of standing on their own two feet day after day which is often what gets you through tough things later in life. I hated school, I would have loved to be home schooled or have gone to a private school with small classes where academics were important to the teachers and students (idealised I know). Academically this would have been great. But I dont think I would have coped now I am in the real world.

OK, this has turned in to a rant and I did actually like your article. But some of these things do need to be included in the article. There is little doubt that one on one tuition is benefical to many people academically, but childhood and school are not just about academics. Shame. I would have liked my child hood much more if it were.

FABT

It's looking really good. Main point I have: Put it in GuideML. Headings, bulleted lists, etc. will make this look nice. Take a look at the GuideML tutorial at [Do not block please!] http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A187229. And GuideML doesn't work here. Oh well.

I know you've heard alot, so I'll give you even more to think about.

You might want to address your article to potential homeschoolers as well as potential homeschooler parents. Adults aren't the only people on the web. (sorry if that came out mean-sounding)

also, the question that I was most frequently asked as a homeschooler is, don't you miss your friends, don't you miss getting to see people? You might want to mention the strong sense of community that, at least in my experience, exists between homeschoolers.

Strider

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'The Flea Market'.

The author seems to have 'left the building'...