50 Nifty United States

I love this song! I learned it in 3rd grade and it still helps me remember the states in alphabetical order, so we're going over it again with our homeschool this semester.

2009 Study on Homeschoolers

Here are the results of a recent nationwide study of homeschoolers. Testing over 11,000 homeschool students from all 50 states, The Progress Report 2009: Homeschool Academic Achievement and Demographics found the following:

National Average Percentile Scores
Subtest Homeschool Public School
Reading 89 50
Language 84 50
Math 84 50
Science 86 50
Social Studies 84 50

There was little difference between the results of homeschooled boys and girls on core scores.
Boys—87th percentile
Girls—88th percentile

Household income had little impact on the results of homeschooled students.
$34,999 or less—85th percentile
$35,000–$49,999—86th percentile
$50,000–$69,999—86th percentile
$70,000 or more—89th percentile

The education level of the parents made a noticeable difference, but the homeschooled children of non-college educated parents still scored in the 83rd percentile, which is well above the national average.

Neither parent has a college degree—83rd percentile
One parent has a college degree—86th percentile
Both parents have a college degree—90th percentile

Whether either parent was a certified teacher did not matter.
Certified (i.e., either parent ever certified)—87th percentile
Not certified (i.e., neither parent ever certified)—88th percentile

Parental spending on home education made little difference.
Spent $600 or more on the student—89th percentile
Spent under $600 on the student—86th percentile

The extent of government regulation on homeschoolers did not affect the results.
Low state regulation—87th percentile
Medium state regulation—88th percentile
High state regulation—87th percentile

Basically, whether homeschooling parents have a college degree, live in a low, medium, or highly-regulated state, spent little or lots of money on books, and is a certified teacher or not, homeschoolers across the board are at least 35% ahead of their public school counterparts. I'm posting this study for those of you considering homeschooling and thinking you maybe can't do it based on financial, educational, or other reasons. If it's on your heart, you'll do a great job teaching your children!

(The full article and results of the study can be found on HSLDA's website at http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200908100.asp. )

Making Homemade Butter

As part of our current unit study: The Prairie Primer, we're reading the Little House in the Big Woods. Chapter 2 talks about how the Ingalls make homemade buttter, so our project today was to make it ourselves. This video is very good to watch before doing your own at home. It's so fun; smaller kids can help make (and eat) it and older kids can learn the science behind it from this video. Enjoy!

Making Homemade Cheese

Here's another fun one:

Video on Earth's Seasons

This video is very interesting and informative, explaining the reason for our seasons and length of daylight. I used it briefly to also show the younger ones how it isn't the sun that "comes up" as we often say but that the earth is rotating around the sun, making day and night. I learned some things from this video myself!

Kare 11 News Briefly Discusses Homeschooling

A recent article from Kare 11 News dicusses homeschooling after Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educator (MACHE) holds their annual homeschool conference. Here's the link:

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=583279&catid=2&provider=email

I wish I could have been in Minnesota for the conference!

Memorizing Books of the Bible