Tuesday, March 21, 2006
HS: Kidling moves from pre-K to K
So, we recently concluded what amounts to "testing" our 5 yr old. Here's a portion of what's going on:
She was measured against 85 specific items in the following categories:
Social-Emotional Development
Reading Readiness
Listening and Sequencing
Colors and Shapes
Position and Direction
Numbers
Size
Time
For example, one Reading Readiness item is "Answers questions about a short story". I make up a story about a red-haired girl who puts on her green hat, and climbs into the car seat so her mama can take her to the zoo. I then ask her questions like "what color was her hat?", "where were they going?", and "who took her to the zoo?" Complete and correrct answers to all that mean she has passed that item.
Out of 85 items, Kid #1 has "passed" 92% of them. This "graduation" test is a measure of what one would expect a kid moving into Kindergarten to have down. We figure she's ahead of where she needs to be, as she wouldn't be moving to Kindergarten until September 06. We're now starting the Kindergarten stuff, while continuing to focus on the remaining 8% from Pre-K.
We occasionally run into someone of the opinion that Homeschooling might be one of the following:
* Intended to shelter kids from reality.
* A desperate way for parents to correctly indoctrinate children through total control over exposure only to "approved" things.
* A way to create very bright but socially useless people, who will lack the skills necessary to navigate the real world without getting bullied, mugged, or pregnant.
We have found that Kid #1 gets along with these folks at least equally as well as someone who doesn't hold these opinions. She might wonder why they're looking at her strangely, but she doesn't seem to hold it against them.
In an attempt to speak words of comfort to anyone visiting this site who may be of the same opinion, here's some recurring items on the social calendar for our 5 yr old:
- Weekly Dance classes
- Weekly Horseback riding lessons or exercise classes
- Primary (and other church stuff)
- Talking to uniformed soldiers wherever they are found
- Outings with other families and their kids
- Various friends from various places seen and played with at various times
- Countless random events involving kids and adults from all ages, and many demographic groups. For example, she went with mama to a highschool a couple of times and helped mama teach some kids to knit.
And here's a partial list of passed items under "Social-Emotional Development"
* Can be away from parents or primary care givers for 2-3 hours without being upset
* Feels good about self
* Is not afraid to go to class
* Knows full name
* Knows parents' names
* Crosses residential street safely
* Enters into casual conversation
* Maintains self-control
* Gets along well with other children
* Plays with other children
* Recognizes authority
* Shares with others
* Talks easily
* Likes teachers
* Meets visitors without shyness
* Able to work independently
* Helps family with chores
The whole experience has been a blast so far. She even manages to get along with her little sister occasionally.
She was measured against 85 specific items in the following categories:
Social-Emotional Development
Reading Readiness
Listening and Sequencing
Colors and Shapes
Position and Direction
Numbers
Size
Time
For example, one Reading Readiness item is "Answers questions about a short story". I make up a story about a red-haired girl who puts on her green hat, and climbs into the car seat so her mama can take her to the zoo. I then ask her questions like "what color was her hat?", "where were they going?", and "who took her to the zoo?" Complete and correrct answers to all that mean she has passed that item.
Out of 85 items, Kid #1 has "passed" 92% of them. This "graduation" test is a measure of what one would expect a kid moving into Kindergarten to have down. We figure she's ahead of where she needs to be, as she wouldn't be moving to Kindergarten until September 06. We're now starting the Kindergarten stuff, while continuing to focus on the remaining 8% from Pre-K.
We occasionally run into someone of the opinion that Homeschooling might be one of the following:
* Intended to shelter kids from reality.
* A desperate way for parents to correctly indoctrinate children through total control over exposure only to "approved" things.
* A way to create very bright but socially useless people, who will lack the skills necessary to navigate the real world without getting bullied, mugged, or pregnant.
We have found that Kid #1 gets along with these folks at least equally as well as someone who doesn't hold these opinions. She might wonder why they're looking at her strangely, but she doesn't seem to hold it against them.
In an attempt to speak words of comfort to anyone visiting this site who may be of the same opinion, here's some recurring items on the social calendar for our 5 yr old:
- Weekly Dance classes
- Weekly Horseback riding lessons or exercise classes
- Primary (and other church stuff)
- Talking to uniformed soldiers wherever they are found
- Outings with other families and their kids
- Various friends from various places seen and played with at various times
- Countless random events involving kids and adults from all ages, and many demographic groups. For example, she went with mama to a highschool a couple of times and helped mama teach some kids to knit.
And here's a partial list of passed items under "Social-Emotional Development"
* Can be away from parents or primary care givers for 2-3 hours without being upset
* Feels good about self
* Is not afraid to go to class
* Knows full name
* Knows parents' names
* Crosses residential street safely
* Enters into casual conversation
* Maintains self-control
* Gets along well with other children
* Plays with other children
* Recognizes authority
* Shares with others
* Talks easily
* Likes teachers
* Meets visitors without shyness
* Able to work independently
* Helps family with chores
The whole experience has been a blast so far. She even manages to get along with her little sister occasionally.
# posted by TheObiBlog : 9:37 AM
Comments:
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So the "testing" to ensure homeschoolers are not being left behind is conducted entirely by the parents? No independent confirmation?
# posted by 
: March 27, 2006 1:27 PM
: March 27, 2006 1:27 PM
Well, the "testing" we're doing is just to track developmental milestones and identify any issues.
A thing to keep in mind - the compulsory age of attendance for Colorado is 7. Even if we were going to send our kids to public school, we wouldn't have to educate or test for anything for another 2 yrs and 9 months. (Of course, that would be very silly, but at least in CO, the law allows parents to be silly, homeschooled or not.)
But you are essentially correct. Parents of HEK's agree to 172 days of schooling per year, averaging 4 hrs per day, in specific subjects, but we don't have to prove we're doing it unless specific criteria are met.
Colorado state law only has mandatory standardized tests for homeschooled kids at grades 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.
It's quite nice.
A thing to keep in mind - the compulsory age of attendance for Colorado is 7. Even if we were going to send our kids to public school, we wouldn't have to educate or test for anything for another 2 yrs and 9 months. (Of course, that would be very silly, but at least in CO, the law allows parents to be silly, homeschooled or not.)
But you are essentially correct. Parents of HEK's agree to 172 days of schooling per year, averaging 4 hrs per day, in specific subjects, but we don't have to prove we're doing it unless specific criteria are met.
Colorado state law only has mandatory standardized tests for homeschooled kids at grades 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.
It's quite nice.
I happened to meet a school superintendent from Texas yesterday and asked him about his experience with homeschooled children. He said that they were invariably behind their peers academically and cost the district a lot of time and energy to help them catch up. Perhaps a bit stricter regulation would be a good thing.
I'm sure you're doing a good job so far and probably giving your child a tremendous "head start". The problem you'll probably run into is that your child will be far above the level of other kids in his grade and will be bored by the classroom material. It's too bad we don't start educating children earlier - they're ready but many parents aren't.
Also, mandatory standardized tests are pretty questionable IMHO since they are often biased and usually reflect rote memorization skills. Once you have test prep materials widely available, they measure little beyond the ability to memorize the test prep books.
I'm sure you're doing a good job so far and probably giving your child a tremendous "head start". The problem you'll probably run into is that your child will be far above the level of other kids in his grade and will be bored by the classroom material. It's too bad we don't start educating children earlier - they're ready but many parents aren't.
Also, mandatory standardized tests are pretty questionable IMHO since they are often biased and usually reflect rote memorization skills. Once you have test prep materials widely available, they measure little beyond the ability to memorize the test prep books.
I suppose I would expect that reaction from a superintendant. Texas laws are some of the looser in the nation reportingwise. He would have no experience with homeschooled kids who were off being homeschooled, nor would he have any real experience with public schooled kids who were being taken out of the school. The only group he would be aware of were previously homeschooled kids who got put into the system at some point.
Two reasons for his reaction comes to mind:
1) The parents couldn't hack homeschooling, and put their kid back after messing up for years.
2) A smart kid who had been properly educated, but to different levels, would also give schools fits as they tried to force him to fit somewhere. It would be really, really easy to assign the label "behind" to a kid that didn't fit into your program. They might have all been reading and writing 5 grade levels above their age group because they were taught phonics, but would be completely clueless and out of place when exposed to modern whole language teaching.
"The problem you'll probably run into is that your child will be far above the level of other kids in his grade and will be bored by the classroom material."
We probably will run into that problem, if we ever put our kids into public schooling. These problems drop off when the kids go to college - as most institutes of higher education allow you to test out of required classes you've already mastered.
"Also, mandatory standardized tests are pretty questionable IMHO since they are often biased and usually reflect rote memorization skills."
I agree with you. Measuring the difference between homeschooled and public schooled kids can be quite difficult. How do you measure smart, moral, or "well-socialized"? The links I provided you are a good summary of how they have been compared. Standardized scores are used because they are available, as are other demographic identifiers such as college enrollment, and income earned as adults.
I personally will be comparing my kids to what I think they can be. Any other standard leaves much to be desired, doesn't it?
Good talking with you.
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Two reasons for his reaction comes to mind:
1) The parents couldn't hack homeschooling, and put their kid back after messing up for years.
2) A smart kid who had been properly educated, but to different levels, would also give schools fits as they tried to force him to fit somewhere. It would be really, really easy to assign the label "behind" to a kid that didn't fit into your program. They might have all been reading and writing 5 grade levels above their age group because they were taught phonics, but would be completely clueless and out of place when exposed to modern whole language teaching.
"The problem you'll probably run into is that your child will be far above the level of other kids in his grade and will be bored by the classroom material."
We probably will run into that problem, if we ever put our kids into public schooling. These problems drop off when the kids go to college - as most institutes of higher education allow you to test out of required classes you've already mastered.
"Also, mandatory standardized tests are pretty questionable IMHO since they are often biased and usually reflect rote memorization skills."
I agree with you. Measuring the difference between homeschooled and public schooled kids can be quite difficult. How do you measure smart, moral, or "well-socialized"? The links I provided you are a good summary of how they have been compared. Standardized scores are used because they are available, as are other demographic identifiers such as college enrollment, and income earned as adults.
I personally will be comparing my kids to what I think they can be. Any other standard leaves much to be desired, doesn't it?
Good talking with you.
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