well, I WAS being a bit hyperbolic :D

I would also report radical unschoolers who had a non-reading but otherwise normal child over ten, regardless of their religious beliefs. :P

I like to hear what's going on in people's lives. The ones that annoy me are the "repost if you love Jesus. Let's see who loves Jesus and who is a godless secular humanist who should be burned at the stake. I bet 95% of you won't repost this!" ones.

Start with anything else by Carol Ryrie Brink, especially Caddie Woodlawn. Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. All of a Kind family series by Sydney Taylor. Shoes series from Noel Streatfeild. Anything by Lucy Maud Montgomery (I like the Emily series even better than the Anne series, and the Story Girl is also wonderful) A Little Princess and the Secret Garden by Burnett Little House series

Springboarding off my earlier post: Children who are raised without being spoken to will not acquire language. Furthermore, the language must be used to INTERACT with the child -- simply having the radio on constantly does not work. If the window of opportunity for learning a language passes, the child will probably never learn more than a few words. This is (obviously) not something formally studied but learned through feral children. Again, studies from feral children -- many have NOT learned to walk upright, but rather crawled or ran on all 4s. So although walking and talking are totally natural for us to learn, they still must be indirectly taught through adults or older children in the child's life. Furthermore, some children need explicit speech therapy, physical therapy, etc. Reading is a less fundamental skill than walking and talking; it is learned later and was not universally developed among all cultures. Why, then, would we expect a child who is NOT routinely interacted with through the written word to pick up reading naturally? However, a child who IS frequently and lovingly read to by an enthusiastic parent will (imo) have a very good chance of just picking it up.

Seeing comments like "All unschooled children learn to read" immediately rubs me the wrong way. I think that the chances are pretty high, barring unexpected learning difficulties, of a child in a fully literate household, where reading is done frequently and with joy by the parents, picking up reading independently. But I also think that "waiting for it to click" may cause a child with disabilities, who could have been remediated with an early start, some serious issues. Furthermore, if the parents don't read around the household, including reading TO the children, I would think the chances are much lower.

I don't really think the regulations do jack-all, especially not the ones like NY and PA. I don't have a problem with requiring an interview, portfolio, test, or something in alternate years though. I wouldn't fight for the legislation but I wouldn't look on it as unduly onerous if it were there.

But it's not being used (apparently) as a reading or writing text but solely a moral text. I would have no problem if they chose to teach reading only using the Bible as long as they're able to read. (Well, I would still consider it awfully limiting, but I wouldn't consider it something reportable.)

But you ARE teaching them phonics and handwriting. You're not just saying "Oh, I'm sure they'll pick it up when they're a teenager and ready." There are lightyears of difference.

The original question was -- "Would you report?" not "Would you attempt to influence them to educate their children?" I think there'd have been far more affirmative answers to the second question.

I haven't eaten them ... I just turnip my nose ...

There's a real difference between "indifferent" and "think it will be better for the children if reported." I would not expect the parents to cooperate with an order to put the children in school, in which case they might well be removed. The outcomes for foster children are poor enough that I would be very reluctant, unless there were some sort of worse abuse going on (for example, a relative recently had to report a child who was being sexually abused and unfed.) That being said, I'd probably have (reluctantly) reported it, and hoped they'd be willing to teach reading (how well do their teens read, btw?). But I could see how reasonable people could choose otherwise. It's not at all black and white.

knock-knock!

Ester Maria, *I* agree with you. It is the system who does not agree with you (witness the administrators in Florida who wished to ban middle school post-algebra classes, because of the racial divide within them -- or the administrators who chose to stop using Singapore Math and switch to Everyday Math, because although Singapore Math raised the scores of the dullest kids, it raised the scores of the brightest kids MORE -- whereas Everyday Math flattened the scores of the brightest kids and raised the scores of the dullest kids.)

If someone gave you a gigantic metal chicken when you didn't want one, you could bring that to your white elephant exchange ...

I'd wear the sweats.

I like this project a lot. We actually do some very similar projects in our "Math for Liberal Arts" class at the university, and honestly what we do doesn't require any more math than pre-algebra. If you're using an online calculator, you don't even need that. What you DO need to see is just how dang fast 15% interest stacks up.

Because then we would have to face up to the fact that not everyone can complete a college-prep diploma.

Yeah, me too :D

Your son's method always is the way that made more sense to me anyway, and is logically equivalent imo. As a matter of fact, if I'm doing division purely for myself, I write it out in fractions. So I get 205/9 = 180/9 + 25/9 = 20 + 18/9 + 7/9 = 22 + 7/9.

Are capris legal? They might end up being knee-length shorts on her. Alternatively, is it legal to buy pants, cut off the legs and hem them yourself, or bribe someone you know to do it?

Some of the local novelty shops will have a 'couples night' where they have a nice lady from the company out to explain certain products that are good for paired brewing rather than solo.

That, and it's not like the kids who come through foster care do so well on average.

If you find a significant amount of overlap, you have a few other options. You could test through modules she already knows, and: a) Finish faster, and begin an advanced biology course as well. b) Finish faster, and use the extra time to explore a different topic of interest (maybe a short elective in, say, botany, astronomy, something else.) c) Treat the course as a "light" course that allows more attention to be paid to the other subjects. d) Do additional reading around the subject, maybe history of biology or history of medicine... just throwing out ideas here.

Eliana, your post, as always, was both beautiful and well-said.