INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[SallyinIndiana]

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I'm teaching my children at home. Granted they are not fully school age yet. Still I have heard talk of schools not only starting earlier in the year but for earlier ages too. I heard there is going to be a test or trial of public school for pre k in Marion county sometime soon. I don't think that is the answer either. Somewhere along the way a love of learning instead of computer time or video game time or movie time or even *gasp* chicken (animal) time needs to be transferred to the student. That is not always easy. If the student hates going to school or doing school work, teaching is nearly impossible and the fault lies with the student at some point. College level students should be able to take responsibility for failing a test and not blame the teacher. I hear college students complain quite a bit about the teacher when the student's only study time was cramming while at a pizza party the night before the test.

 

[chickiebaby1]

Does anyone know if there is anyone in the southern part of the state ( I live near Bloomington) that can do npip testing to make sure a few of my birds are not carrying any diseases? I keep these 2 away from the rest of the flock, but would like to know how to get them tested? All their offspring have been dieing and I am trying to figure out why.

Also I was wondering if any of my BYC friends are going to be at the State Fair next week

. I am going on Thursday and I would love to meet some of you and maybe get some hatching eggs. My birthday is Friday 8/1 and I want to get some new chickens( or hatching eggs) for my birthday from some people I can trust!!!!!

I really want some Cochin and frizzles, or a cochin/frizzle. Any body know of anyone I can get some from?????

 

[hoosiercheetah]

I'll throw my 2 bits in to the education discussion.

I'm an instructor at a college-level trade school. We get all ages of adult students from high school grads to retired military.

The public school system isn't just failing, it has failed. We're getting more and more students who have high school diplomas and can't do basic math or read English (and these are not ESL students) and most of them have no critical thinking ability at all.

My wife and I are home-schooling our children. My daughter just finished K, and she's really excited about 1st.

We're using an online public charter school called Indiana Connections Academy, or INCA. It is fantastic, and we're in love. Feel free to pm me questions about it, and there's a ton of info on their site, too. I strongly recommend it to anyone with school age kids and the time to do the work. I know not everyone has the time to home school, but if you do, take a look. You'll be glad you did.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Yep...and you can be tracked everywhere you go, everyone you talk to, everything you look at online, the things you buy......

Not me! I block the government's brain control rays with my tin foil hat! :-D

 

[browncow15]

Yes (now you guys probably think I'm super weird ). Even my friend who is home schooled started back yesterday but most of my friends that go to public school start today. 

I always wanted to be home schooled. Mom would never go for it though!

I'm teaching my children at home.  Granted they are not fully school age yet.  Still I have heard talk of schools not only starting earlier in the year but for earlier ages too.  I heard there is going to be a test or trial of public school for pre k in Marion county sometime soon.  I don't think that is the answer either.  Somewhere along the way a love of learning instead of computer time or video game time or movie time or even *gasp* chicken (animal) time needs to be transferred to the student.  That is not always easy.  If the student hates going to school or doing school work, teaching is nearly impossible and the fault lies with the student at some point.  College level students should be able to take responsibility for failing a test and not blame the teacher.  I hear college students complain quite a bit about the teacher when the student's only study time was cramming while at a pizza party the night before the test.

I think to many parents want a free babysitter instead of an education for their young kids. Apparently pre-k has been offered as part of our local school system for a while. My husbands aunt was really upset when she found out our DS was not going to be attending "snoopy school." I guess her kids, who are now in their 20s attended. DS just turned 4 and we want to wait until he's 6 to send him to kindergarten. I don't really want to send him full day though and our local schools don't offer half day anymore.

 

[browncow15]

Not me!  I block the government's brain control rays with my tin foil hat!  :-D

Speaking of tin foil hats has anyone heard from Too Fast or OldSalt lately?

 

[Leahs Mom]

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[EurekaChic]

I'll throw my 2 bits in to the education discussion.

I'm an instructor at a college-level trade school.  We get all ages of adult students from high school grads to retired military.

The public school system isn't just failing, it has failed.  We're getting more and more students who have high school diplomas and can't do basic math or read English (and these are not ESL students) and most of them have no critical thinking ability at all.

My wife and I are home-schooling our children.  My daughter just finished K, and she's really excited about 1st.

We're using an online public charter school called Indiana Connections Academy, or INCA.  It is fantastic, and we're in love.  Feel free to pm me questions about it, and there's a ton of info on their site, too.  I strongly recommend it to anyone with school age kids and the time to do the work.  I know not everyone has the time to home school, but if you do, take a look.  You'll be glad you did.

My main concern with home schooling is the socializing aspect of school that gets missed - learning to interact with other children and adults, share, collaborate, etc. But I know some home-schoolers participate in school sports or 4H or boy scouts/girl scouts, etc, which can help. And my other concern is that although most of us can help with k-5 level work, once you get into specialized topics I worry that we get the blind teaching the blind (in other words, no parent can be an expert in all subjects, so if their child is struggling it can be tough to help). I mean, when I was in high school I took calculus and chemistry and physics and biology and creative writing and theatre arts and Spanish and Latin and Japanese and Shakespeare and science fiction and Latin American History and creative writing and illustration, etc., and I got so much more out of those courses (most of them, at least) because the teachers were experts in the subjects and were available to provide in depth answers to my questions and so on. Admittedly, I went to a great high school. All this said, I would consider home-schooling my kids, at least for the early years.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

My main concern with home schooling is the socializing aspect of school that gets missed - learning to interact with other children and adults, share, collaborate, etc. But I know some home-schoolers participate in school sports or 4H or boy scouts/girl scouts, etc, which can help. And my other concern is that although most of us can help with k-5 level work, once you get into specialized topics I worry that we get the blind teaching the blind (in other words, no parent can be an expert in all subjects, so if their child is struggling it can be tough to help). I mean, when I was in high school I took calculus and chemistry and physics and biology and creative writing and theatre arts and Spanish and Latin and Japanese and Shakespeare and science fiction and Latin American History and creative writing and illustration, etc., and I got so much more out of those courses (most of them, at least) because the teachers were experts in the subjects and were available to provide in depth answers to my questions and so on. Admittedly, I went to a great high school. All this said, I would consider home-schooling my kids, at least for the early years.

These were exactly the concerns that I had. Connections Academy answered almost all of them. Yes, I'm pimping INCA out really hard. I believe in it a lot.

In INCA the parent isn't responsible for teaching the student. The student has a class and a teacher who sets the curriculum and course work. At the kindergarten level, there was more for my wife to do, because a 5-yr-old needs more direct guidance, but as the student gets older, they take more and more responsibility for doing the work. The classes are a relationship between the teacher and the student, just like in any school, and the parent's role is mostly supervisory. And, you have the benefit of smaller class sizes, so the teachers have the time to work more directly with each student.

There is less interaction with other children, no way around it. But, as you said, we have got our daughter in Daisy Scouts, swim lessons in the summer, and we spend as much time as possible with our family so she's around her cousins quite a bit. We also have memberships at the Indy Zoo and Children's Museum, and because the school schedule is totally flexible, we can go quite often - and that time counts as class time, too.

We may send the girl to a high school when we get there - it will depend on a lot of things. What I am certain of is that right now, she's getting the best possible education that we have access to.

I dug up the curriculum page that shows courses available at all levels:

http://www.connectionsacademy.com/indiana-online-school/curriculum/home.aspx

 

[Leahs Mom]

One thing that is nice for older home school kids is that many of them take those more advanced courses for college credit and are way ahead if they want to continue their education into college. Lots of home school folks w/high school aged kids create co-ops in which those with expertise will teach some of those classes. Not to mention the institutions that HoosierCheetah mentioned that provide expert instructors for those tricky subjects.

I did not have my kids home in high school for various reasons. But I know lots of folks that did whose kids grew up to Veterinarians, Nurses, Doctors, Nurse Midwives, Lawyers, stay-at-home moms, farmers, and the list goes on.