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Home school testing at home

by Mary Ann on November 3, 2010

Oral Exams and Familiar Conversations

I talked about the standardized testing pros and cons in the last post. Now let me come to the home school testing method I suggest. Because we are, for the most part, concerned with the age group of 0 to about 12 we need to keep that in mind when talking about testing.

The purpose of exams is to test the student’s acquisition of knowledge and ability to communicate and apply it. The real question is: Have they learned to think? Multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and other such exams measure memory of facts only, which requires little thinking.

The two types of testing that Oliver DeMille recommends as most beneficial are essay and oral exams. Of course essay exams are fairly impractical for most of those in the age groups we deal with in this blog. However, for parents who want to test and feel that it would really help them feel more comfortable about educating their children, an oral exam is a definite possibility.

You can engage in that wonderful ‘familiar conversation’ that I talk about. After you have used a number of methods, including The Spark Station, to introduce and teach your child about a topic you can hold these oral exams with your children. You could ask your four year old as you weed the garden. “Mary, I love birds. Tell me everything you know about birds.”

You could have an oral exam with your 12 year old as you can the beans. “Daniele, what do you think about Mary Cassatt’s paintings?”

You can engage your 10 year old in a mini exam as you make a cake. “William, I have a hard time remembering all my six times tables. Can you recite them for me?” (If he can’t then you have a perfect opportunity to say “Lets help each other get those pesky six’s down, ok.)

“Bill, what do you know about Albert Einstein?” “Esther, do you ever think about telling a lie?” “Jack, if you could choose one kind of dog what would it be and how would you care for it.” As you can see, there is not much in the way of requirements or preparation needed for performing this test.

I found an exam pattern that one mom gave her eight year old at the end of their formal home school year. It contained questions about things they had learned during the year. Although it may have been a written exam it would make a great oral exam. Here are some questions from that test.

“Tell me about your favorite Mary Cassatt work. Use “their” in a sentence. Describe your favorite scene in Alice in Wonderland. What have you noticed about plants? Tell me how to do a division problem. Tell me all you know about Mary Cassatt. Use “accept” in a sentence. Tell me how to do a 2 digit multiplication problem. Tell me the story of Abraham. Tell me everything you know about Christina Rossetti. Describe your favorite scene in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Tell me all you know about Alexander Graham Bell. Tell me the story of Isaac & Jacob. Use “except” in a sentence. Use “they’re” in a sentence. Tell me how to identify 3 different birds. Tell me how to find out how many yards are in 9 feet. Recite Psalm 46. Write a paragraph about what you want to do this summer. Describe your favorite scene in My Side of the Mountain. Tell me all you know about John James Audubon. Recite you’re 6 Times Table.”

Although this mom asked questions in math, art, music, history, English and so forth each day for the final week of their formal school year it would be great to ask these kinds of questions as you go, all through the year. Engage in ‘familiar conversations’ and get a feel for what your children know and what they are itching to know.

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Standardized testing pros and cons

by Mary Ann on November 3, 2010

standardized testing

I was recently asked about the testing of children in home schools. I am certainly no expert but as a mom who home schooled and public schooled her children I do have some feelings and experience with the subject. So I will answer the question the best that I can.

When I decided to home school there were some things that I was really grateful to give up. Testing was one of them. I never felt that anyone got a clear picture of how my child was doing from the type of standardized tests that my children took. I had one daughter that began school at five. She was maturationally slower than some of the other students because of her birth month. She always did poorly on standardized tests because they were usually given before she had had time to grasp whatever concept or topic was being taught. As her teacher said, “Marie takes a bit longer to get something but when she gets it, it is locked in!”

Marie all grown up

That may have been true and the teacher knew that but this is what the record showed and this is what Marie began to believe – This child isn’t as smart as her peers.

My favorite subject is history. I love history. Guess what I always got the worst grades in. Yup, history. I had a hard time remembering dates. I could understand what people thought and felt and why they did what they did, but I couldn’t remember dates. History testing was a disaster for me.

I also loved to read. I really loved to read and I LOVED essay tests. I loved them because I was good with words. I could pass an essay test on a book that I had never read as long as I had a general idea of the story line. I’ll write later about why essay testing is valuable when done right.

Let me share some comments about the issue of testing from others.

“In institutionalized teaching, testing must be done in order for the staff to evaluate their effectiveness. But standardized testing is expensive, misleading, inaccurate, and often emotionally damaging to children. Parents should…allow children to evaluate their present status against their potential rather than each other.

Here I have paraphrased a home school parent’s view on testing – [Testing allows parents to see how their children are learning compared to children of the same age and grade level across the country. It helps parents see their children’s strengths and weaknesses. Testing helps parents determine what areas they need to spend more time on with their children. Achievement testing isn’t the main goal of homeschooling. It is simply used as one of many tools to guide parents in educating their children.]

And finally a quote from the book A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille.

“Testing has a bad name for many people due to the conveyor belt, but it is an important part of teaching if done correctly…two types of exams really help teachers teach and students self educate: essays and orals.

The purpose of exams is to test the student’s acquisition of knowledge and ability to apply it. The real question is, “Have they learned to think?” p. 87-88

When we talk about testing it is important for parents to determine why they are testing and what it is that they want the test to tell them. This will assist them to decide to test or not to test.

Testing, when used properly can help parents in educating their children. As in most things we shouldn’t wholeheartedly embrace or reject until we have studied the issue, prayed about it and determined what is best for our family.

In the next blog I want to write about conducting home school testing at home and share a great oral exam one mother gave to her 8 year old daughter.

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Utah home schooling laws

by Mary Ann on November 2, 2010

When we moved from Montana to Utah our daughter was 13. She attended one year of private school and then returned to home school. I remember wondering what the law was concerning home school in this new state that we lived in.

Kate playing Hero in Much Ado About Nothing - third from the right

This question has come up again from some parents. Here is some brief information about the law. This is not legal advice but will give new home school parents a starting place.

Utah law requires that children be enrolled in either a public, private, or home school.

In order to home school your child you need to submit an affidavit each year. This can be done anytime but is usually done to coincide with the end of the public school year or the beginning of the public school year. Most school districts’ certificates of exemption expire in June of each year.

Submitting this affidavit informs the school district that your child will attend school at home and that they will receive instruction as required by law. The affidavit has been required of home schools in Utah since May 2005.

The instruction that is required by law includes the same subjects that are required by the State Board of Education in public schools. The law also specifies that you need to have school for the same length of time as children in public schools. (180 days per year – 990 hours, 810 hours for first grade)

The annual exemption process is very simple:

Provide an affidavit.
Get your affidavit notarized.
Deliver your affidavit to your school district (by mail or by hand).
Wait to receive your certificate of exemption from the school district.

1. Provide an Affidavit

Utah law allows you to submit your own affidavit. You are not required to use an affidavit provided by your school district. Many school districts provide sample affidavits for you to use, but it can be advantageous to provide your own as some school forms ask questions that are not required by law. For example, they might ask the reason you are home schooling, the curriculum you are using, etc. You are not required to provide this information. If you disagree with any of the language on the district’s form, you can simply cross it out.

Creating your own affidavit is not difficult. You can simply write a letter indicating that your child will attend a home school and receive instruction as required by law. That’s all that you need to say.

If you do not want to have your child’s information made available in directory listings, you might consider adding a phrase indicating that you don’t want that.

You can find some sample affidavits on the Utah Home Education Association website.

2. Get Your Affidavit Notarized

In Utah, an affidavit is required to be notarized. After you have created your affidavit, take it to a notary. Be sure to not sign your affidavit until you are before the notary. For free notary services, try your credit union or bank. Many cities provide free notary services too.

When we moved here I didn’t get my letter notarized. It was not required in our previous state. So it does save time to know the law. It was annoying to get to the district office and have to go find a notary.

3. Deliver Your Affidavit to Your School District

Once your affidavit is notarized, either mail it to your school district or deliver it by hand. Be sure to make a copy of the notarized, signed affidavit for your records. When sending your affidavit by mail, you might consider sending it by certified mail to ensure that it gets there.

This is really important. The first year that we lived in Utah the school district lost our affidavit. I was glad that I had a copy of the signed and notarized letter.

4. Wait to Receive Your Certificate Of Exemption

Your school district is required by law to issue you a certificate within 30 days of receiving your signed affidavit, stating that your child is excused from attendance. Your school district cannot tell you no.

Here are a few other bits of information that will be helpful to know:

The parent of a minor who chooses to home school is solely responsible for the selection of instructional materials and text books. They are responsible for the time, place and method of instruction. The parent is responsible for the evaluation of the home school instruction that they are giving.

The local school board may not require the home school parent to maintain records of instruction or attendance. They cannot require credentials for individuals providing the instruction and they cannot inspect home school facilities. They also cannot require standardized or other testing of home school students

It is also interesting to note that in the law it states that the school district cannot prohibit or discourage voluntary cooperation, resource sharing, or testing opportunities between a school district and a parent or guardian who home schools a minor child.

That opens the door for those parents who want their children to take advantage of some classes such as typing, art, etc.

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A Spark Station Letter – Cherokee Indians – history for kids

by Mary Ann on October 30, 2010

When you write your Spark Station letters try to tie them into your family, a holiday, a family tradition, your work or neighborhood or an event that is current. This makes the information more pertinent and interesting to a child.

cherokee indians

Dear Aubrey,

I have been doing some genealogy lately. That is the study of our ancestors. There is an old story in our family history about someone, a great, great, great, grandfather that married an Indian princess. She was supposedly from the Cherokee Nation. There is no record of this event, just a family legend. I think that it would be wonderful if it were true because that would mean that we all have some Lamanite and Nephite blood in us. We would really be tied to the Book of Mormon then. How cool!

Sequoyah, Inventor of the Cherokee language

Well, I don’t know if that story is really true but I have always really liked studying Native Americans. I think that my favorite tribe is the Sioux but the Cherokee are really fascinating too. The Cherokees were farmers and hunters who lived in the mountains of the southeast United States (principally Georgia, the Carolinas and Eastern Tennessee). You can see that part of the country on a map. They spoke an Iroquoian language. The Iroquois were broken into a number of different groups, the Cherokee being one.

Cherokee Nation

These people were called one of the “Five Civilized Tribes”, because they had adopted so many of the white mans ways. They had developed a written language and also a government. They called themselves the “Principal People.” This is a picture of the man who made the alphabet for his people. It is very different from our alphabet.

This is what their alphabet looks like.

This is how a sentance looks in their language: Tsalagi: Nigada aniyvwi nigeguda’lvna ale unihloyi unadehna duyukdv gesv’i. Gejinela unadanvtehdi ale unohlisdi ale sagwu gesv junilvwisdanedi anahldinvdlv adanvdo gvhdi

This is what it says in English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Don’t you think that what they believed was the same as what Jesus taught!

It is very interesting that the Cherokee Indians had a “white” organization and a “red” organization. The white group was the priests who were in charge of the spiritual life of the tribe. The red group was in charge of war. They thought that war was a polluting activity and so when they went to war they got a blessing from the priest and when they came back from war they got another blessing.

One of the first white men to see the Cherokee was a Spaniard called Hernando de Soto. He was looking for gold but he never found any. He did spread diseases among the Indians and he also killed a great many of them.

These Indians had a newspaper, helped fight in the War of 1812 and had the Bible translated into their language. They were trying in many ways to fit into the new world that was created when the “white man” came to America. This didn’t matter because the government said that they had to give up all their land and move to Arkansas. Wow! That was a terrible thing for all the people and they didn’t want to go so far away to a place they had never seen. Some did go but many fought against the government.

“The Trail of Tears”

There was a gold rush in Georgia. I didn’t know that! It was the first gold rush in the United States. Well, of course all the white men wanted the gold and it was on lands that belonged to the Cherokee so they were determined to get rid of the people. Finally, President Martin Van Buren ordered the militia to drive the people out. That exodus of over 800 miles is called “The Trail of Tears” because it was so terrible. Over 4000 people died in the march. Doesn’t that make you think of the Mormon Pioneers who were expelled from Nauvoo and the state in the middle of the winter and made to march so far in the snow? They had to give up all their lands too!

Cherokee chief Tahchee

The two pictures are of chiefs. They don’t look like the Indians on TV and in the movies.

Cherokee chief Band

The Cherokee people lived like white people in many ways. They wanted to be accepted like anyone else. That did not happen and they had many hard things to bear.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the family legend were true and we carried some of the Cherokee Nations blood. How cool would that be!!

I hope that you guys all have a very wonderful Easter. We will miss not being with you. By the way, did you know that old grandma’s birthday is the 29^th of March? That is my mom. She will be 79 years old. Can you believe it !!!!!!! I LOVE you.

Love,

Grandma

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