 What
I Have Learned About Homeschooling A Teen
Are
Your School Records Private?
by Amy Cortez - Editor The Eclectic Telegraph
If you are a student at a private school or a public school you probably
ought to know that your records are not really yours. This holds true
for homeschooled students in most states in less you take care of this
little detail. A little item called the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA) allows a school to release personal informational
items such as: your name, address, telephone number, date and place of
birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance to pretty much anybody,
including the military...[read
on]
Public School Violence: Since When is Violence Entertainment?
by Amy Cortez - Editor Eclectic Telegraph
The interesting thing to me about all of the recent press about ending
school violence, is that there is no mention of the ease in which a teen
can get a gun, or other item of violence, nor did anyone utter anything
about the idea of how teens are inundated with violence in our society.
Since when is violence entertainment? [read
on]
Children
With a Wild Streak
by Amy Cortez, Editor - The Eclectic Telegraph
I read an article with the title: "Raise Children With a Wild Streak"
by Mark Pruett in the Charlotte Observer recently. The article was a plea
from a college admissions counselor wishing for an interesting applicant.
My reaction to the article was that clearly not enough homeschoolers had
applied to this college! [read
on]
Dumbing
Us Down: The Dead Students Society
by Amy Cortez - Editor, The Eclectic Telegraph
Well now that the election is over and a new batch of rascals are "in"
perhaps we can get back to status quo, where what we read and hear on
radio and see on TV doesn't offend or make us think. Our society is not
set up to encourage people to think. Resistance is futile, especially
as the dumbing down process started when we were in elementary school
and continues through to high school. If our college days don't snap us
out of it, we are are then right on schedule to be the citizen our politicians
want us to be. I wondered if anyone else feels the way I do. Here's what
I found [read
on]
Dumbing
Down American Students: Really Bad Textbooks
by Amy Cortez, Editor - The Eclectic Telegraph
In general, we do not use textbooks in our homeschool and recently I was
reminded why. My student is taking a US Government course through a correspondence
high school that uses a textbook I would have definately NOT chosen. [read
on]
High School Core Curriculum
- What You Might Need to Know. Or Not.
In
most states, there is a definition of what you are supposed to learn in
high school in order to graduate. Some homeschoolers fret about the idea
that their student doesn't have a "diploma". Who needs one?
These days some of the top Universities are recruiting homeschoolers simply
because they are some of the more interesting applicants.
A
diploma is simply a piece of paper that says you did what the public (or
private school) thought you needed to do to graduate. The beauty of homeschooling
is that your student can do what he thinks he needs to do to "graduate"
into adult life away from home. However, I would recommend that if your
student wants to attend a University, you start early in his "high
school"career determining the "subjects" he may need to
master in order to apply to the University of choice. [Read
on]
But
what about socialization?
Well the Holidays are over and that question that involves the "S"
word, has finally died down in the circles I travel in. But I thought
I'd post about a tidbit I found recently just so I'd have it the next
time the topic comes up....[read
on]
What's
up With YouTube?
by Amy Cortez, Editor - The Eclectic Telegraph
Feeling "out of it?" The world of technology is mind boggling
and there are so many more places for our kids to find the "boogey-man"
these days than when we were kids.
What's YouTube? Founded in February 2005, YouTube.com is a consumer media
company for people to watch and share original videos worldwide through
a Web experience. YouTube originally started as a personal video sharing
service, and has grown into an entertainment destination with people watching
more than 70 million videos on the site daily.[read
on]
Teens
& Technology is it KPC?
(translation: Teens & Technology is it Keeping Parents Clueless?)
by Amy Cortez, Editor The Eclectic Telegraph
Now that summer is here, many schooled kids are hanging out getting to
do what homeschooled teens get to do every day - experience life. Teens
these days are far more hi-tech than our generation ever was, heck we
only had 3 channels on television and transistor radios were about as
close to an iPod as we got. We did our best to explore the world in our
teen years, enough to scare the heck out of our parents, but today, technology
can bring new wonders, but also new dangers and places where kids can
get into really different kinds of situations than we did. Often teens
are spending their time more in the digital world than in the real world
and that sometimes makes me wonder just what "socialization"
has become.[read
on]
Give
Your Kid a Sport They Can Love Forever
by Amy Cortez, Editor The Eclectic Telegraph
One of the saddest things I have seen lately was on a soccer field. A
kid about 12, had a throw in that was OK by my standards, but not OK by
the coach's. He yelled from all the way across the field "What was
that? What's the matter with you? And you are my granddaughter!"
Needless to say, I was horrified. [read
on]
Trashing
Teens: Some Food for Thought
Amy
Cortez, Editor -- The Eclectic TelelgraphToo
much togetherness with your teen this summer? Consider these ideas from
an article I read recently in Psychology Today:[read
on]
What
I Have Learned About Homeschooling
A Gifted Teen
What Does One Teach a Smart Teenager These Days?
by Amy Cortez - Editor The Eclectic Telegraph
How
about to be aware of how desensitized we Americans have become to things
that are about common sense. [read
on]
Perfectionism:What A Man Can Do, What A Man Can't Do.
by Amy Cortez, Editor - The Eclectic Telegraph
If you are homeschooling a gifted student, you see it at least once a
week, and sometimes, daily. I know I do. Your student will be chugging
along, full speed ahead on a task and then stops cold. Or, perhaps they
just don't start the task at all and as the master procrastinator, gives
you many very intelligent reasons why they haven't started it yet, even
displaying those signs of ADD sometimes gifted students are misdiagnosed
with, flitting from one task to another, getting nowhere near the task
at hand. When I first started homeschooling, this phenomenon dumbfounded
me. How could a kid this smart just fall apart on a task like this one?
It wasn't until I started reading in detail about giftedness that I realized
this is what perfectionism looks like on the surface... [read
on]
The
Awesome, Ever Amazing, Disappearing Brianiac.
by Amy Cortez, Editor - The Eclectic Telegraph
Picture the Looney Tunes character Taz, the Tasmanian devil.
If you're parenting a gifted, highly gifted or even profoundly gifted
student I am sure you can make the connection. Go ahead and allow yourself
that small indulgence of a chuckle at your situation. Then give yourself
a high five because that job, parenting a gifted child, is a tiring job.
If you are parenting and homeschooling a gifted student, give yourself
a box of expensive chocolates and a huge high five because your job is
an exhausting one. Trust me. I know. [read
on]
The World is Your Oyster: Cow Prodding Teens to Success
by Amy Cortez, Editor -- The Eclectic Telelgraph
How many times have you had this discussion with your teen?
You: "You pay entirely too much attention to [your favorite worthless
pursuit goes here], it will never get you anywhere."
Your Teen "So, I am only [his age], this is what I want to do right
now. There is plenty of time to get serious." [or some version of
this response].
When we were in St Barths in February we saw the ugliest sailboat in the
world. It was ugly. So ugly I didn't photograph it or give it much thought
until recently when I saw an article in Newsweek about that very sailboat.
To use a quote from that article, "If Darth Vadar had an intergalactic
yacht, this is what it would look like." I bring this sailboat into
this discussion because as it turns out it belongs to Tom Perkins. You
may be wondering who Tom Perkins is. [read
on]
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