Swann Family = 10 Children with MA at age 16! Book Review & Discussion Thread

[Mandabplus3]

Here is another article on a family of kids with the smarts from self education. Great resourse to file for you to read when your kids are about age 8. Useful tips that we can use now but even more so later.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnnosta/2013/02/25/the-genius-of-raising-brilliant-kids/

[nee1]

Here is another article on a family of kids with the smarts from self education. Great resourse to file for you to read when your kids are about age 8. Useful tips that we can use now but even more so later.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnnosta/2013/02/25/the-genius-of-raising-brilliant-kids/

Thanks a lot for sharing, Mandab.


In the book ``The Self-Propelled Advantage'',  Joanne Calderwood (urthemom.com) made a statement that was intriguing. Here is how it goes:

Home Educated Students and the SATs
Remember Dr Fischgrund's statement about home education not being an advantage in SAT performance. Then there was the statistic that stated that less than 1 percent of perfect score students are home educated. Those were the only two sentences on home education in the entire book. Of course those sentences ate me. Well, I vowed not to sleep until I got an explanation from the author about his outrageous comment. Okay, maybe I didn't literally lose sleep over it, but I definitely couldn't accept his statement without an explanation, so I did a search on the internet for the author. I ended up contacting Dr Fischgrund by email and asking if he had time to go over some material from his book with me. I told him up front that I am a home-educating parent, formerly a professional educator. That didn't seem to scare him, so he gave me his phone number and set up a time to talk. Talk we did! It was an interesting hour-long exchanges of ideas and thoughts, and I was very grateful that he took the time to discuss not only his book, but also educational theory with me.

In our discussion, I found out why it is that Dr Fischgrund feels that home education is a stumbling block to raising high achievers who score brilliantly on the SAT - and I strongly concur with his explanation. Would you like to know the reason why home education may actually be a hindrance to raising perfect scorers? Hint: he used the words ``helicopter parents'' in his explanation. His experience with home-educating parents has indicated to him that home-educating moms, especially, tend to hover over their students, helping them way too much and not forcing them to work hard and get out of their comfort zones. Sound familiar? He and I talked about the micromanagement factor and how harmful it can be to the motivation of middle and high school kids. ……

.

That got me thinking.



 

[Mandabplus3]

I have met these parents! As a teacher I can spot the children of these parents even in kindergarten! Scary. It's probably true. There is a fine line between being involved in your child's education and controlling it. The more of this book I read the more I believe in stepping back. Don't get me wrong I will still go in to bat for my kids at school, but they won't get an excuse from me if they don't do their homework anymore!

[Mandy]

Okay, this conversation is like an ANSWER TO PRAYER! I am at the crossroads of what you are all discussing. I loved the books No Regrets. It reminded me of a more relaxed way of how I educated my children. My oldest is 7 saps up information like a sponge and he never knew he was being taught. Most of his schooling happened on the trampoline. And now went to school for the first time. Instead of being placed in 1st grade, he was placed in 4th. I wanted to homeschool him but for the "socialization" reason my husband would not have anything to do with it. I managed to find a hybrid school and he goes to school 3 days a week. It is a 100 kid private school in a well to do neighborhood so I thought my boy would be in a protected bubble. Entrance exams are written and kids are put into a grade depending on their skill set. Unfortunately, it works the other way around too. Now my son is in math class with 12 yr olds. It has brought the question to mind. What am I doing?? Stimulating him at his every whim has now created a kid that is academically advanced but I don't want him in University at age 12. UNLESS he is purely homeschooled. I feel like now I have created the dilemma of hurry up and wait. So here I sit, trying to navigate school systems to find a gifted program (which by the way doesn't exist in CA as we have no budget). Confused - YES. ANY ANY insight would be so appreciated!

[PokerDad]

I will likely start a new thread sometime soon about this, but I don't think you ought to view through a "hurry up and wait" lens.

If you step back a few paces and look at the bigger picture of what you're trying to achieve as a parent, and what you want for education, you might notice that school is a major hindrance to your goals and not necessarily a means to an end. I'm no longer of the opinion (at all) that socialization is a valid excuse for subjecting any child to the US school system as constructed - and this goes double for an EL kid or gifted kid. There is so much more we can achieve - so much greater depth and breadth of life that to put a child into a Procrustean environment just seems... well, silly. But, it does sound like the school your boy is going to is anything like the typical, so perhaps all is well - I'm just saying school itself may not be all you think it is.

[Mandabplus3]

Gosh I want my kids to go to that school! 3 days a week, ability based grade level academics and I still have 4 days a week with them to teach them everything I want them to learn! Sounds perfect to me. 
100 kids is a nice little bubble but of course it depends on those 100 kids. My kids have a nice little bubble with 600 kids ( grades P-12) they don't have much in the way of negative influences. All the kids are lovely! The only issue I have socially is that they are being raised at school in a much more Christian way than I would accept if they were home schooled. It's a very Christian school, no pretending.
A few months back I considered homeschooling for primary and sending them out to school for high school, now I am on the back flip. I would rather send them to school for the early years 1-3 and get them back in time to homeschool during high school! (7-12)!!!!

[Mandy]

I agree Mandabplus3 (last time we connected you only had 1). Highschool is where you want to do the homeschooling. Honestly Pokerdad, I believe in everything you say but it isn't worth me sacrificing my marriage. So I chose my battles. Still, I battle with the hurry up and wait syndrome. That is why, if there is anyone out there that has navigated the American school system with a kid functioning 3 yrs above his grade level, I would love to hear from you. In a perfect world, I would homeschool all the way and put him in college for highschool ap classs. Has anyone done that? Does it help to get into Ivy league universities? I know it sounds crazy to be asking questions like this with a 7 yr old. But just wondering.....

[nee1]

I got this video today in my email box from Collegeplus. It is titled ``15 year old aspiring doctor earned 21 college credit through dual credit program''.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/wXtqEJoBlfY&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/wXtqEJoBlfY&rel=1</a>

Here is the website where the video and additional info can be found - http://www.collegeplus.org/blog/how-a-15-year-old-is-studying-to-be-a-doctor.

The thing that caught my attention was when he starting talking about breaking the bigger goal of being a doctor into smaller steps. Those smaller steps were yet broken into other smaller steps. Monthly goals are set based on those steps, weekly goals follow and even daily goals are set, all to reach the bigger goal of becoming a doctor. It reminded me of what I read in Joanne Calderwood's (urthemom.com) book : ``The Self Propelled Advantage.''

By the way, Joanne recently announced on her yahoo group that her book ``The Self Propelled Advantage'' is on the Amazon sale promo for just $1.99 on kindle. Here is the link she posted for the promo: http://www.amazon.com/The-Self-Propelled-Advantage-Independent-ebook/dp/B009R8DLFW/ref=kinw_dp_ke.

And you don't have to have a kindle to download the book. Simply download the amazon kindle app here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_ac?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200388510. And presto, you'll be able to read kindle books on your computer. The Amazon promo on ``Self Propelled Advantage'' will end on the 27th of May. I'm not sure if the promo sale applies to those in the UK . I'm in UK, and could not find any $1.99 price tag on the book  . Maybe it applies to the US and other countries only.

[Mandabplus3]

Thats a great idea. I read a homeschooling book about the idea of deciding where you wanted to be at the end and working backwards from there. Basically it means taking what you want to learn and breaking it up into years, months, weeks and days worth of work. Simple and obvious but I think it would really give direction to the big goals like college or university.
I like the idea of having a mentor for your kids study. I imagine that would be very useful and supportive for them when mum is just being too pushy or is too busy to do it all. I might see if there is that option here for early entrants.
We don't have college prep. Bt any studies relevant to the course you enrol in are given credits ( advanced standing we call it) but only courses from TAFE or other university's. I still haven't figured out if skipping high school ( year 11-12 higher school certificate) is completely feasible here. It looks like it just won't matter about the high school qualifications at all if you become enrolled in university subjects with no prerequisites. The drama would be if your child flaked and ended up pulling out before graduation. As then they would technically have NO school education certificates at all. You would need to be sure of the path to walk it. 

[BTBVEN]

Does anyone know of such a hybrid school in the UK?

Homeschooling is not a well-known/popular option here...from what I have seen there is very little support for it as well.

[Mandy]

Wow!! Thank you! I had no idea. I need to do the research on it now. Not sure if all universities accept Collegeprep? But still I had no idea it even existed so this helped so much! Thank you!!

[nee1]

Homeschool.com is having a massive freebie deal throughout June and July. New items get added each day, so check daily as there are some that are listed for just one day only. Here is the link - http://www.homeschool.com/freebie/deals/

Under Free Homeschooling Podcasts, there are loads of free audios from well-known homeschooling parents. I found Joanne Calderwood's cds there free. They are different from the ones she offered in February, so check them out. You can download them onto your pc from the site. You will also find free audio files by Mona Lisa Harding (college by 12 lady), Stephen Covey, Susan Wise Bauer, Oliver Demille, Pat Farenga, Howard Berg, etc. Some audio titles include ``7 habits of highly effective families’’ by Stephen Covey; “Homeschoolers & Money’’ by Robert & Kim Kiyosaki, ``How to complete High School in Half the time’’ by Howard Berg, etc.

[Mandabplus3]

Thanks Nee! Heaps to listen to here!

[nee1]

On why we should read aloud to even children who can read, an interview with Andrew Pudewa. Link  - http://amongstlovelythings.com/1/.  Insightful interview overall.


I followed up by listening to the podcast - ``Nurturing Competent Communicators''  by Andrew Pudewa. This podcast is linked on that same page, under `Episode 1 Show Notes''.  I've learnt a lot from ``Nurturing Competent Communicators''.  The role of memorisation in the Susuki piano method was mentioned, and I immediately saw where I could apply that strategy to my children's learning. The relationship between hearing words read out loud and being a good writer was also explained. Overall, a very insightful podcast.


Sarah Mackenzie, the lady who interviewed Andrew Pudewa in the podcast linked above, has done other interviews on reading aloud, and here is the link to all of them - http://amongstlovelythings.com/read-aloud-revival-the-podcast/.  Remember to check out the references under each episode's ``Show Notes''. The ``Show Notes'' are linked on the same page as the episodes. They are as useful as the podcasts themselves.


Thoughts?

[Mandabplus3]

Some Great ideas in huge first talk, almost finished listening to it. Really this talk puts into words what I was thinking all along.
To get good sentances out you need to get good sentances in first. That takes a whole lot of reading if you want high quality writng!
 I read aloud to my kids, all of them, but I admit the amount has drastically dropped since I started working again. In saying that my kids read to me a lot and that will have the same over all effect. I can correct mispronunciations and incorrect pauses as they read. It's amazing just how often my older two come across an unfamiliar word as they read through high level books. It's usually pronunciation I am correcting. If they never read aloud to me who would fix these mistakes? I remember reading these words wrong for years and years before realising and I probably still read some wrong now.
I have seen first hand the benefit of audio books as a read aloud replacement. My kids listen to much higher level stories than they can actually read and comprehend with enjoyment on their own. Plus they actually use the vocabulary they hear and can extract these sentances in their writing. Since I don't always have  the time to read aloud to all three of them the daily commute with an audio books is a great supliment.

 I read every day to my youngest (6)  (or he reads to me, his choice). Up until last year I read to all three of them every night now we have the problem that they are too far apart in reading level/age/maturity to all be read the same book. I have another year or two to go before they all slot back into the same read aloud category. An advanced 10 year old doesn't always want the same story as a 6 year old. Finding time for each of them would be impossible without the audio books.

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