Home schooling improves academic performance and reduces impact of socio-economic factors

From Mama Squirrel's blog. This is quoted from an article at The Fraser Institute, which writes about "competitive market solutions for public policy problems."

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<>Home schooling appears to improve the academic performance of children from families with low levels of education, according to a report on home schooling released today by independent research organization The Fraser Institute...

“Poorly educated parents who choose to teach their children at home produce better academic results for their children than public schools do. One study we reviewed found that students taught at home by mothers who never finished high school scored a full 55 percentage points higher than public school students from families with comparable education levels.”...

The study also reports that students educated at home outperform their peers on most academic tests and are involved in a broad mix of social activities outside the home.

Research shows that almost 25 per cent of home schooled students in the United States perform one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. Grades 1 to 4 home school students perform one grade level higher than their public- and private-school peers. By Grade 8, the average home schooled student performs four grade levels above the national average.

...a growing body of new research also calls into question the belief that home schooled children are not adequately socialized...

Our Furniture Store Discovery

During our few days in Orlando, we passed by this little building a few times; you can see it right off the freeway:

Of course, the boys were curious to see what such a place might be like on the inside, so on our way out of Orlando, we stopped and went in. It turned out to be a highlight of our trip. The place is like a museum. They sell furniture and art for homes looking for that unique touch. I think it's all reproductions; everything is massive. The paintings are handpainted and signed copies of famous art. I'm just going to post a sample of what we saw. They have a website if you'd like a complete list of prices and what's in stock.

A fireplace:

Four-poster bed:

A chair for that awkward corner that every home has:

Goethe: Italian Journey quotes

This is a book where Goethe details his trip to Italy in the 1700's. Here are a couple of quotes.

"Looking at the noble buildings created by Palladio in this city, and noting how badly they have been defaced already by the filthy habits of men, how most of his projects were far beyond the means of his patrons, how little these precious monuments, designed by a superior mind, are in accord with the life of the average man, one realizes that it is just the same with everything else. One gets small thanks from people when one tries to improve their moral values, to give them a higher conception of themselves and a sense of the truly noble. But if one flatters the 'Birds' with lies, tells them fairy tales, caters daily to their weaknesses, then one is their man. That is why there is so much bad taste in our age. I do not say this to disparage my friends; I only say - that is what they are like, and one must not be surprised if things are as they are."

"To wander about among a vegetation which is new to one is pleasant and instructive. It is the same with familiar plants as with other familiar objects: in the end we cease to think about them at all. But what is seeing without thinking? Here, when I am confronted with a great variety of plants, my hypothesis that it might be possible to derive all plant forms from one original plant becomes clearer to me and more exciting. Only when we have accepted this idea will it be possible to determine genera and species exactly. So far this has, I believe, been done in a very arbitrary way. At this stage in my botanical philosophy, I have reached an impasse, and I do not yet see how to get out of it. The whole subject seems to me to be profound and of far-reaching consequence."

I've heard of a unifying theory that all matter is derived from a single element, but I didn't know this theory existed for plants. And I've heard of Goethe's theory about color, but I didn't know he dabbled in botanical philosophy. The more I learn about him, the more amazed I am with his mind.

More Orlando

We spent a couple of days with family; they live on a small farm with chickens, pigs, goats, cats - and Miss M rode a cow.

Her cousin dolled her up with play make-up and fingernail polish. I think that was the highlight of the trip for her!



Mr. B. and the boys went to Tampa to see a Red Sox "away" game. The Red Sox lost that game, but they still won their division title for the season.

More Medieval Times

I'm posting some of the artifacts from the Medieval Times village in a separate post. Some of these were authentic, some were reproductions. There are craftsmen who work there; we watched one guy working with bronze sheet metal. There was an 800-year-old weaving loom there.









When you sit down, there's a pewter plate and plastic mug at each place - no silverware, because people in medieval times ate with their fingers. I'd been carrying around a stainless fork of Miss M's in my bag all trip, so I was pleased to eat in a more modern fashion.



We didn't take many pictures of the actual jousting; we didn't want to use a flash.





There was a gift shop that sold souvenier clothing (although most of the women's apparel said "wench" on it), swords, DVD's of the jousting, and little gift items.

Medieval Times

The one touristy place we scheduled was Medieval Times, a jousting dinner theater in Kissimee, Florida. We found out after we got there that the site includes a replica of a medieval village with actual period antiques on display. There are a few Medieval Times around the country, but this was the first, and it's the only one with a full village.







Some of the architecture and buildings made some interesting images.

Orlando

Phyllis guessed correctly - we went to Florida! We visited my mother in Orlando (the kids call her "Tutu," which is the Hawaiian name for grandmother) and my sister in Orange City. Then we visted Miss Roxie in Hobe Sound. Along the way, we did some tourist things, too. But we didn't do Disney World or Sea World or Universal Studios. Standing in 45-minute lines in Florida's heat isn't our idea of fun.

Miss M was excited and the first one ready to leave. She packed her own suitcase all by herself the night before we left (Mommy had to re-pack it after she went to bed to make sure she brought enough clothes and not just toys!)

Miss M was our first travel casualty. She tripped on the sidewalk at a rest stop in South Carolina and skinned one leg and foot.



The very next photo on the roll, coincidentally, was this. Tim was snapping photos of the roadside scenery, and this street sign he photographed by accident nicely sums up Miss M's injury.



We stopped for just a few minutes at the beach near Hilton Head; it was too cool and windy to stay longer than that. There was a storm on the way. We didn't know it, but that storm meant that it rained every single day of our vacation until the day we planned to leave!




We spent an afternoon browsing the Florida Mall in Orlando. Who ever guessed that such a place as M&M's World existed??

Yes, M&M's World! M&M's in every color of the rainbow, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, peanut, almond, mint, vanilla, peanut butter - a chocolate lover's paradise!
No coconut flavored M&M's, though. Then it would truly have been paradise. :)

L. finally replaced his baseball cap, which had been falling apart. He needed to have his wardrobe in tip-top shape for the Red Sox game in Tampa during our week there.

And we checked into our hotel. Our non-smoking room smelled like cigarette smoke and had roaches, but we stayed because our room had a loft, which was fun for the boys, with its own half-bath. Two bathrooms and room to sleep six (one on the floor of the loft) for the price of one room was too hard to pass up, even with the defects. And we loved the courtyard with this very nice fountain.

I'll post the rest in another post or two.

Self Made Scholar

This was posted on a message board and I'm saving it for a closer look later.

Self Made Scholar

Guess Where We Went

A Playmobil Mystery Solved

My sons are really into Playmobil. OK, so that's no mystery. If I was a kid, I would be, too. But one particular piece mystified us - it came with a Victorian child's bedroom set, and in an individual set that had a child with a backpack and a big, cone-shaped thing.

We finished the book we were reading - Children of the Old House by Ruth Borchard, set in Germant. One chapter is about six-year-old Inga's first day of school. She has her lunch, her sachel of books and a big cone-shaped thing. All the first-grade children have one. Apparently, the children carry them to their first day of class, and just after the parents leave, the teacher has them open them, and they're filled with candy and toys. It's a way to make the kids feel better about school, and to take their minds off the fact that their parents just left. Neat idea, huh? I even found a page about it with a picture here. It's called a Schultüte [school cone] and Wikipedia has an entry about it.

I'm not sure whether the parents buy these (are they required to, is it on their list of supplies needed, and their targets and Walmarts are filled with these cones in a display bin??) or do the schools issue them?

Anyway, Playmobil is a German company, so it all makes sense now.