>  Excuse me for butting in.  My kids hated the black
 > board stuff too, but  now that I am homeschooling, they ask to do stuff on
 > our Erasure board.  They even ask to read their reports to the rest of
 > us.  Another words  homeschooling gives confidence.
It's peer pressure at school, which they don't have to the degree in the 
homeschool situation. At school, they're afraid to go to the board to do a 
problem because they are afraid they'll "mess up" in front of their 
classmates, and if they do, their classmates will laugh. This isn't so much 
of a problem in the really younger ages, but gets to be a bigger problem as 
the kids get bigger. Just try to get anyone to the board in 6th grade, except 
maybe those that the kids consider to be "the brainy ones". It's like pulling 
teeth! They know the teacher will be kind (probably) and support them, but 
they aren't so sure about the other kids! At home, you don't have that 
problem. The only ones that see the board are you and maybe a sibling - and 
they will see the paper too. They know the family will be supportive, and 
that if one sibling isn't, they will endure Mom's and Dad's reactions to 
at!
 >  gone when the other kids are out of school.  Plus
 > they do understand that
 >  after school I get an hour of no interruptions.  I
Now that makes sense. I had the same question going thru my mind. I get at 
least one hour every day completely to myself as things stand here, but I was 
wondering what would happen to that hour if I started to homeschool after 
Christmas.
 >  Also, just watching the news and discussing it is
 > learning.  So it can
In school they call it "current events". At home you have more ability to 
change the plan of action to *include* those current events as they happen. 
If a hurricane rips thru the town 50 miles from you, you can drop what you're 
doing a lot easier than the classroom teacher can, and start finding out 
about "how hurricanes happen".
 >  be counted.  Going to the grocery store and having
 > them use a budget to  plan a meal is Math.  All kinds of things and it can
There is even a book - Theresa Merkling first mentioned it, then I saw it at 
the HomeSchool Convention I went to - called Grocery Store Math. So going to 
the grocery store when the stores aren't crowded, during the school day, can 
be a "field trip" - you can shop and the kids can do their assignment, or you 
can make up your own.
                                 -donna
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