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Kidlit

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Posts posted by Kidlit

  1. 12 minutes ago, SKL said:

    I guess part of the issue may be that the US doesn't really consider homeschooling in its approach to social problems.  The school is a convenient vehicle for delivering many things, since the vast majority of kids are in B&M school.  Folks who opt out of that need to be more resourceful about accessing resources.

    I don't know that it's realistic to expect much change in this regard.  So low-income homeschool families may be entitled to services such as free clinics, but they may be much more difficult to access.

    Maybe the local homeschool organizations offer practical assistance in this regard.  Or, if they don't, maybe it's something they should consider offering.

    I wonder, too, how much libraries could help as disseminators of this information. 

  2. 3 hours ago, Frances said:

    This isn’t really true in my state. While some of the funding comes from property taxes, a big chunk of it comes from the general fund. And schools with higher needs (poverty, ESL, more busing needed, rural, etc) actually receive more funding. Not that it really makes much of a difference. Our graduation and literacy rates are not good overall.
     

    The real inequity occurs outside of school here with parents who can afford to pay for all sorts of private services when needed.

    Yes!  This is exactly what I've seen.

    • Like 1
  3. 27 minutes ago, Ellie said:

    It's tricky, because seasonal color analysis is no longer trendy, so there are fewer people who can do it.

    I can give you a tip on first figuring out if you're warm (Autumn/Fall, Spring) or cool (Winter, Summer):  If you can go somewhere that you can try on actual make-up: use warm colors on one side of your face (e.g., peachy-apricot-y blush, ditto lipstick) and cool on the other (true rose/red blush & lipstick). If you're a Warm season, the cool make-up will look funky on you, you can't blend the blush enough, your lipstick makes your lips look weird; if you're a Cool season, then the warm make-up will look funky. Figuring individual colors in your pallet might not be so tricky, once you know you're warm or cool. Generally speaking, cool colors will exclude orange, Century 21 gold, bronze, most shades of brown, many shades of green (such as avocado). Warm colors will exclude black, true red or true pink, true pastels.

    The company I trained with is no longer in business, so I cannot acquire any more color pallets (I have one of each, just for comparison). My consultant put together her own pallets; she literally draped each of her client with dozens of colors to find the ones which looked best, then made a pallet for each.

    For my color analysis with Created Colorful, I draped myself about forty times total and took a selfie in each color to email to the consultant. 

    • Like 1
  4. 4 minutes ago, Heartstrings said:

    My state is moving towards money following the child.  It’s not going to be a check to parents.  It’s going to be sort of like an HSA but for academic stuff.  I don’t know yet what will be covered but we’ll have to submit paperwork or something to get things paid for, or possibly be reimbursed.  We’ll also have to do yearly tests of some sort.  The law just passed so details are still coming.  But it will NOT be cash handed to parents.  

    That's good to know! I think their very real fear is that it will be an organization that actually appears legitimate but in reality does nothing.  (Their fears aren't entirely unfounded because such "homeschool resource centers" have existed in our area.)

    ETA:  also, this is a high poverty district, so the need for money is great and would be a temptation for many.  Additionally, these are mostly students who REALLY don't have much in the way of intellectual enrichment going on anywhere besides school. 

  5. @Melissa Louise I hope my response didn't seem an oversimplification.  


    I'm going to make a comparison in situations--but I am NOT equating one scenario with the other--but just for the sake of comparison--

    It is sort of like parenting a child with special needs (be they physical or intellectual) or even some sort of mental illness.  Often the situations are complex and fraught, and people who THINK they understand chiming in with advice does not help.  (Ask me how I know. 🙄)

    However.

    A kind listening ear, and even better, someone with experience in the situation you're in, DOES help.  
     

    I love the ideas you shared, @Melissa Louise, and I think they're useful across the board, not just in a situation involving poverty. 

    • Like 7
  6. 1 minute ago, Melissa Louise said:

     

    Generally, it just seems as if kids from families who are invested do OK academically and sometimes socially, and kids from families who aren't invested (for whatever reason) don't do OK academically and often socially, and isn't it all just representative of larger things?

     

     

    Money quote! 

  7. 26 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

     

    In fact, I have heard of multiple cases where parents were being repeatedly cited for truancy because their kids were missing too much public school, so they filed as homeschoolers just to get the school off their backs, even though they never had any intention of actually educating their kids at home. 

    This is actually the fear of homeschooling among public school teachers and admins.  Talk of money following the student makes them REALLY fear suddenly-"homeschooling" parents who register with some organization that crops up to take their money so they'll look legit, all the while simply splitting the money and the kid working a job or doing literally nothing.  My husband works in PS administration and they discuss this a lot and can totally see it happening. 

    • Like 2
  8. 1 minute ago, SKL said:

    Yeah my giving priorities generally don't include such things.

    I do spend money to send my kids on trips and such.  Double standard, maybe, but I don't ask others to help pay for our trips.  If I was in need of financial help, I hope the purpose would be feeding my kids or paying the utilities.

    That's exactly how I feel 

  9. Just now, Kidlit said:

    I'd say that's possibly not unusual, and that for sure a parent should also do due diligence. (All the teachers I know for sure would love to see the parents as partners in education!)  I'm not sure how to solve the unwilling father scenario. 😕

    Also--quoting myself to add--parents with struggling kids in my area almost to a one (among the ones I know) end up taking their children to the Big City for neuropsych testing.  The ones who come to mind immediately who have done that include homeschooling families on a single, law-enforcement income, as well as wealthier, double income public schoolers.  

  10. 3 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

    Public school and the school did evaluate at the mom’s request and says the child does not qualify for services for dyslexia. 

    I'd say that's possibly not unusual, and that for sure a parent should also do due diligence. (All the teachers I know for sure would love to see the parents as partners in education!)  I'm not sure how to solve the unwilling father scenario. 😕

  11. 3 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

    Yes. I don’t want my family guilted into finding my kids sports. Just be upfront about what it costs to run the club, roll it into the fees then I will figure out from the fees if we can afford it or not. No more chocolates, socks, entertainment books, pies, anything. 

    And while we're on the subject--

    it's not uncommon in my neck or the woods to be met by 8 or 10 or 12 or 14 year old youngsters asking for donations so their travel ball team can realize their dreams by going to "World Series" of their particular sport.  This shows how cantankerous I really am, but I would be over-the-top embarrassed to ask perfect strangers to help me foot the bill so we can spend the week or weekend in south Florida (or somewhere) playing ball.  I cannot imagine a circumstance that would induce me to do that. 
     

    okay, rant over (again)

    • Like 8
  12. 5 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

     

    My neighbor’s husband is not will to pay for their daughter’s dyslexia evaluation. So having the spare cash (upper middle class household) in my region often does not translate to being willing to pay. 

    Out of curiosity, is this a child in institutional school or homeschooled? In my state, a slight push toward more teacher training for dyslexia has been on in the past 15 years or so.  However, all of my homeschool friends who have children with dyslexia (quite a few considering the size of the pool) have started out by going through the free screening provided by Scottish Rite.  I don't know anything about it, other than there is always a waiting list.  

  13. 5 minutes ago, Shoeless said:

    But at the wealthy schools, parents can (generally) access services independently and don't need the school services. 

    Maybe district services are better than nothing? I don't know. When we looked into speech therapy, the district offered group therapy once a week. It would have amounted to 10 minutes of 1-on-1 therapy every week. How much was that really going to help? We had the ability to go elsewhere and pay, so we did because 10 minutes once a week was not going to get us very far.

     

     

     

     

    Agreed--but still, I have to HOPE what is accessed at school IS better than nothing.  
     

    ETA:  it all comes back to individual wealth in the end

  14. 2 minutes ago, dirty ethel rackham said:

     

    I've been looking for a book club, but it is really hard to break into one, especially when everyone else knows each other fairly well.  

    This probably goes without saying, but have you checked your local public library?  The (hopefully!) inclusive nature of libraries should serve as a deterrent for cliquish-ness.  The library where I work has an adult bookclub that meets in the evenings. 
     

    I am sorry you're struggling.  ((HUGS))

    • Like 4
  15. Just now, Shoeless said:

    In the US? I doubt it exists. Public school funding is linked to property values; the specifics of how money is doled out varies from state to state. If you live in a wealthy area, you will have good services available via the school. If you live in a poor area, well, good luck.

    Obligatory disclaimer: I have never been a teacher. I know that teachers work very hard. I have no idea how to fix any of this or even if it's fixable within the current system. 

     

    Except--impoverished schools have historically gotten more federal funds, to the tune of funding classroom units (teachers), etc.  And the impoverished school I worked in definitely had access to more social services than I ever saw in the wealthier schools.  Now, how much this helps, I cannot say, but it can't hurt. 

    • Like 6
  16. 1 hour ago, SKL said:

    I've never asked my kids to sell, and I've normally only seen parents doing the selling.  I don't sell to family/friends because I don't want to guilt them into using their scarce resources on my foo foo fundraiser.  Sometimes I'll buy the stuff and give it as gifts.

    I much prefer a buy-out.  Just tell me how much money you want.

    I've bought stuff from other people's kids' fundraisers sometimes, but there are just too many.  They pop up on facebook etc.  I don't blame the parents; I know they're being guilted into it.

    Speaking of guilt, then there are the fundraisers for certain personal life events.  I'm emotionally supportive, but I feel icky about the cash ask.  I'm probably a horrible person for this.

    I never imagined that I'd be the sort of uninvolved parent that I am when my kids went to school (and I, a teacher myself, no less), but I all but refuse to participate in any fundraiser.  My public school kids go to a fairly wealthy school district, and I'm not all that interested in guilting people  into buying something just so the PTO can lavish the teachers with fantastic lunches and cool water bottles or "tea bombs" or what-have-you.  Neither am I going to sell so some athletic team can have X, Y, or Z.   I know how much is spent on education and it's not insignificant.  
     

    okay, whine-rant over 

    • Like 5
  17. 3 minutes ago, SKL said:

    Yeah, it's fun to whine about school, but I can't say I've known more than one or two teachers who just didn't care.  Most of them are working damn hard.  They have challenges like we all do; some of those challenges are frustrating; but then, some of our kids are frustrating too.  😛  Can't expect miracles.

    Hear, hear!

  18. 1 minute ago, SKL said:

     

    In the US, public school is a safety net in some ways.  Not a perfect education, but a baseline where theoretically, kids in need get a couple of meals, supervision, a basic level of stimulation, certain occasional health screenings, evaluation and supports, and so on.  Theoretically, homeschoolers provide all of these and more, but if they can't, well, it seems wrong to deprive the kids of what is available to them for free.

    The last public school I taught in had 98% poverty rate, and this absolutely was the case.  And the school looks medium-bad for our area, but I'd say AT LEAST 75% of the teachers at that school worked as hard as or harder than any teachers I'd worked with in my previous three systems. 
     

    the "undereducated" student whom I wrote about above in my previous post was helped because I and a colleague put our heads together about the student AND (most important) my colleague had an interventionist in her classroom (thanks to Covid funding) who had taught first grade for years, so remediating a big kid who couldn't read was easily in her wheelhouse.

     

    I think public (& private!) schools are a mixed bag but have historically been mostly okay.  Society has changed and schools are reaping that whirlwind. 
     

    (I say this as a teacher who finally opted out, mostly because of the unmanageable workload.)

    • Like 6
  19. As a mom who has homeschooled, taught in public school (highschool and lower and upper elementary/middle) and private school (elementary and high), I feel like I have seen it all. I've seen kids come back to public school after years of being "homeschooled" and not being able to read above a first/second grade level in sixth grade, despite nothing organic standing in the way.   "Undereducated" is the best way I know I describe one particular student who made quick gains with some one-on-one help in school. The flip side to that is subset of homeschoolers I know (knew) who. . . Just have their own educational priorities.  I'd say the prevailing philosophy  among this subset is "anything is better than public school."  

    • Like 1
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