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How do the principles of the manifesto apply to this website?
"Education is about accumulating knowledge. It's not about doing time."
Children naturally want to learn, and are pleased to do so. For many children, the deadlines imposed during a formal education result in an association between learning and pressure, which is to that child's long-term disadvantage.
Ideally, the natural desire that children have for learning, and for showing off what they have learned, is to be cultivated, not discouraged.
There is no natural limit in a homeschool environment that says a child needs to be finished learning a given subject by a certain date.
The child can learn what that child is able to comfortably process, and is not faced with the prospect of failure if the child is not at a certain point by a specific date, unless for some reason you choose to add one.
This website is designed for the progress of the student. Specific assignments have deadlines, but courses or curricula do not.
*****
"Children are individuals. One child might learn faster or slower than another child, and that's okay."
In a formalized school system, children are usually grouped by age. Each age group has to finish learning their assigned subjects by the end of the final semester so that the group can advance together to the next year.
In a homeschooling environment, even if you have two kids starting the same subject at the same time, there is no need for them to finish that subject at the same time.
One of the children might find a given subject fascinating and want to learn as much as possible in a short period of time.
The other student might find the subject tedious, or might have learning difficulties. There is no need for them to be at the same point at the same time.
If you create a class, and assign a course or a curriculum to the students of that class, a student who wants to proceed more quickly does not have to wait for the others.
*****
"A child might learn some subjects faster or slower than that same child learns other subjects, and that's okay too."
If a child is on two different learning paths, such as language arts and math, there is no inherent pressure for the child to go at the same speed through each path. The concept of grade levels is purely arbitrary.
In some jurisdictions there may be laws requiring such simultaneous progress, but those laws, although they should be followed, are not a natural part of a homeschool education.
*****
"Children are more likely to be enthusiastic about their own education if they have some input into what they will study, and as to how they will study it."
Maria Montessori pointed out the importance of a child's involvement in the child's own education. Kids sitting in a classroom waiting for the teacher to give them knowledge, day after day, will not be as energized about learning as children who have the freedom to direct some of their own efforts.
*****
"There is no failing to learn a subject; there is only continued study and practice until that subject is learned."
The unnatural division of students into grades, and the arbitrary imposition of a certain number of days per grade, creates the necessity of saying that a child has passed or a child has failed. Without those limits, a child can just keep going until the subject is learned.
The amount of academic information that a child needs in order to be a functional member of society is not that great. There is plenty of time. By their eighteenth birthday, most students have already forgotten at least 50% of the answers they've given on tests (a subjective estimate), and probably much more (still estimating).
If one approach isn't getting through to a child, try another approach until you find one that works well for that child. Failure is not an option if the information is important. If the information is not important, why bother teaching it?
"Homeschooling does not have to be very time-consuming, nor does it have to be difficult to manage."
Using the program at friendoflearning.com made it easier for me to work full-time and still homeschool my kids, taking about 20-45 minutes of my time per school day per child (2 children).
While I was at work, each of my daughters would log in to her account, view her assignment list, then do her homework assignments (as opposed to classwork assignments, which they would do under my supervision).
I would get an email when each of my daughters logged in, and also when a worksheet was finished. The program now has the option to send you an email for every assignment completed.
When one of my daughters clicked on a worksheet link, the worksheet was generated by the computer hosting the website. When she finished the worksheet, she clicked on the "Score Worksheet" button, the computer graded the worksheet, stored it in a database, and sent me an email with my daughter's name, the name of the worksheet and the score.
An autoscheduler is part of the program. By using it I was able to save a lot of time adding assignments for future days.
For instance, if one of my daughters was reading a particular history book, I could create the assignment "Read next chapter in history book.", and set the autoscheduler for that assignment to repeat every day (or once a week, or twice a week, or any one of twenty options).
When one of them had finished her reading, she would click on the Change Status button on her assignments page, and the computer managing the website would automatically add "Read next chapter in history book." to her assignment list for the next school day.
After I got home from work, each child in her turn would tell me about the chapter in her own words, which usually only took a few minutes per book.
Other assignments were also easy to autoschedule, such as: "Load the dishwasher", "Do 100 calories on the exercise bike", "Read the next chapter in [name of novel]", "Practice typing for 20 minutes", etc.
"If you are not required by law to mimic the limitations of your local school system, then why should you?"
Following the laws of your jurisdiction regarding home education is advisable.
However, if not forced by law to add arbitrary deadlines, are such deadlines in the interests of your student(s)?
Additionally, you can choose which days will be school days and which days will be off. There is no need to take off an entire summer if you don't want to.
I felt that it was advantageous for my daughters to have four two-week vacations per year, rather than a long one in the summer and another two weeks in the winter. We took off two weeks around each change of season, but which days you choose will be entirely up to you.
The number of days per week you use for homeschooling, and which days those are, will be up to you. I worked Monday through Friday, so we took off one or two days during the week, but Saturday and Sunday were part of our homeschool days.
"Education is about accumulating knowledge. It's not about doing time."
Children naturally want to learn, and are pleased to do so. For many children, the deadlines imposed during a formal education result in an association between learning and pressure, which is to that child's long-term disadvantage.
Ideally, the natural desire that children have for learning, and for showing off what they have learned, is to be cultivated, not discouraged.
There is no natural limit in a homeschool environment that says a child needs to be finished learning a given subject by a certain date.
The child can learn what that child is able to comfortably process, and is not faced with the prospect of failure if the child is not at a certain point by a specific date, unless for some reason you choose to add one.
This website is designed for the progress of the student. Specific assignments have deadlines, but courses or curricula do not.
*****
"Children are individuals. One child might learn faster or slower than another child, and that's okay."
In a formalized school system, children are usually grouped by age. Each age group has to finish learning their assigned subjects by the end of the final semester so that the group can advance together to the next year.
In a homeschooling environment, even if you have two kids starting the same subject at the same time, there is no need for them to finish that subject at the same time.
One of the children might find a given subject fascinating and want to learn as much as possible in a short period of time.
The other student might find the subject tedious, or might have learning difficulties. There is no need for them to be at the same point at the same time.
If you create a class, and assign a course or a curriculum to the students of that class, a student who wants to proceed more quickly does not have to wait for the others.
*****
"A child might learn some subjects faster or slower than that same child learns other subjects, and that's okay too."
If a child is on two different learning paths, such as language arts and math, there is no inherent pressure for the child to go at the same speed through each path. The concept of grade levels is purely arbitrary.
In some jurisdictions there may be laws requiring such simultaneous progress, but those laws, although they should be followed, are not a natural part of a homeschool education.
*****
"Children are more likely to be enthusiastic about their own education if they have some input into what they will study, and as to how they will study it."
Maria Montessori pointed out the importance of a child's involvement in the child's own education. Kids sitting in a classroom waiting for the teacher to give them knowledge, day after day, will not be as energized about learning as children who have the freedom to direct some of their own efforts.
*****
"There is no failing to learn a subject; there is only continued study and practice until that subject is learned."
The unnatural division of students into grades, and the arbitrary imposition of a certain number of days per grade, creates the necessity of saying that a child has passed or a child has failed. Without those limits, a child can just keep going until the subject is learned.
The amount of academic information that a child needs in order to be a functional member of society is not that great. There is plenty of time. By their eighteenth birthday, most students have already forgotten at least 50% of the answers they've given on tests (a subjective estimate), and probably much more (still estimating).
If one approach isn't getting through to a child, try another approach until you find one that works well for that child. Failure is not an option if the information is important. If the information is not important, why bother teaching it?
"Homeschooling does not have to be very time-consuming, nor does it have to be difficult to manage."
Using the program at friendoflearning.com made it easier for me to work full-time and still homeschool my kids, taking about 20-45 minutes of my time per school day per child (2 children).
While I was at work, each of my daughters would log in to her account, view her assignment list, then do her homework assignments (as opposed to classwork assignments, which they would do under my supervision).
I would get an email when each of my daughters logged in, and also when a worksheet was finished. The program now has the option to send you an email for every assignment completed.
When one of my daughters clicked on a worksheet link, the worksheet was generated by the computer hosting the website. When she finished the worksheet, she clicked on the "Score Worksheet" button, the computer graded the worksheet, stored it in a database, and sent me an email with my daughter's name, the name of the worksheet and the score.
An autoscheduler is part of the program. By using it I was able to save a lot of time adding assignments for future days.
For instance, if one of my daughters was reading a particular history book, I could create the assignment "Read next chapter in history book.", and set the autoscheduler for that assignment to repeat every day (or once a week, or twice a week, or any one of twenty options).
When one of them had finished her reading, she would click on the Change Status button on her assignments page, and the computer managing the website would automatically add "Read next chapter in history book." to her assignment list for the next school day.
After I got home from work, each child in her turn would tell me about the chapter in her own words, which usually only took a few minutes per book.
Other assignments were also easy to autoschedule, such as: "Load the dishwasher", "Do 100 calories on the exercise bike", "Read the next chapter in [name of novel]", "Practice typing for 20 minutes", etc.
"If you are not required by law to mimic the limitations of your local school system, then why should you?"
Following the laws of your jurisdiction regarding home education is advisable.
However, if not forced by law to add arbitrary deadlines, are such deadlines in the interests of your student(s)?
Additionally, you can choose which days will be school days and which days will be off. There is no need to take off an entire summer if you don't want to.
I felt that it was advantageous for my daughters to have four two-week vacations per year, rather than a long one in the summer and another two weeks in the winter. We took off two weeks around each change of season, but which days you choose will be entirely up to you.
The number of days per week you use for homeschooling, and which days those are, will be up to you. I worked Monday through Friday, so we took off one or two days during the week, but Saturday and Sunday were part of our homeschool days.
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