JC> SB> Agreed.  Although text book sellers are beginning to come around,
  > SB> simply because many home schoolers buy textbooks for their kids.
JC> I'll have to take your word for it because I don't shop for textbooks. I
  > have to rely on what I read (not only here in this echo but books like
  > "Lies My Teacher Told Me", NHS, etc.) that History textbooks are poor and
  > that the majority of the market is school districts.
Remember that survey on home schoolers I've been quoting.  Well, it
looks like most home schoolers do what I did, create their own programs
rather than relying on set text books.  Parent designed curriculums were
used in 71.1% of the families who home schooled. But 29% of the
homeschoolers buying textbooks is still a lot of books being sold.
JC> Most of the better History profs I had did not use what I would call
  > "textbooks".
I found that biographies and stories and field trips and stuff like
that worked ever so much better than text books at the elementary
school level.  I don't know about high school yet.  I still haven't done
that. Rob enters nineth grade in September.
JC> SB> On the question, "how many hours per day does this child watch
  > SB> television?," six percent of homeschooled kids watched three or more
  > SB> hours a day compared to sixty-two percent of public schooled kids.
JC> Doesn't "shock" me. I am a firm believer in "Kill Your Television" 
except
  > for about five worthwhile channels )
And even those channels need to be supervised so the kid isn't watching
them all day.  Kids need time to do other things, like explore and read
and daydream.
But even television might be preferable to public schools.  Purely
anectdotal of course, since it's a study of one; but I know of at least
one child who was pulled out of school by his parents (I think he was in
sixth grade when they pulled him out); and they let him watch television
for a year before beginning a structured learning program; partially
because they weren't clear on how to motivate him.  He was an angry,
scared kid, who was two years behind his class in most subjects (more in
math), and he didn't want to do school at all.  They felt some time for
healing was in order.  In any case, during the year he watched
television, he caught up with his classmates in all areas, and has done
wonderful in home schooling every since (minus the unlimited television
viewing).
I think the most interesting case, however, involved a family who pulled
their child out of school in second grade after she scored below the
fifth percentile bracket on some standarized test.  The school took the
parents to court, saying they were unqualified to teach a severely
handicapped child.  The Home School Legal Defense Association took the
case on, and won.  Four years later, the child scored at the 99th
percentile bracket.  The school took the parents to court again, this
time because they were not qualified to teach a gifted child.
                             Sondra
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ Test question: Describe the universe.  Give two examples.
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