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	<title>WIRL Project &#187; student</title>
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	<description>What It&#039;s Really Like.</description>
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		<title>I Couldn&#8217;t Do That to My Kids</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/i-couldnt-do-that-to-my-kids/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/i-couldnt-do-that-to-my-kids/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2015 09:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kassidy Everard]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Child]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Classes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[High School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hold Back]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Math]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[passion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pressure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sophomore]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[student]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Success]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teacher]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=6482</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Lately I have been extremely stressed out with school. Believe it or not, being a Sophomore is the hardest year in High-school. There are huge obstacles to overcome, an abundant amount of new material to learn and there is a whole new perspective on school. I have never been an A+ student. School has always come very hard for me. Not school all around, but specifically math and science related courses. I have had more tears than moments of happiness this school year. Math, no matter how hard, has the power to make every bone in my body tremble. The blood in my body boils when I realize I have to do math. I have had more tears than moments of happiness this school year. As finals quickly approach, I started to think about what it is that I have learned that I will genuinely need in life. I am not one of those students that considers everything busy-work or that considers everything insignificant. BUT when there are equations I will actually never need in life, other than to become a math teacher, I start to question why we even learn it to begin with. I look back on my year and see nothing but trial and error. None of my efforts in math have paid off. Then again, what did I expect? They never have. I am constantly faced with the decision of either trying my absolute hardest just to pass one class and walk away with absolutely nothing learned, or giving it a fair amount of effort and expecting amazing results. I am continually stressed out over my head with math. I am easily angered when I cannot figure a math problem out. All in all, math is what is holding me back in life. I considered being a Child Psychologist, but math made me hate school. So, seven years doesn&#8217;t appeal to me. I considered being a Teacher, but math made me hate learning. So, four years didn&#8217;t appeal to me. When did I consider just being human? Have any of us ever considered just being human? I have my strong points in school. Writing being one of them. I would love to be a writer. But what I will accomplish or will not accomplish shouldn&#8217;t have any effect on how I decide to live my life. Is math really the only thing holding me back? Sadly, it is. As I think about everything I just typed, I think about my future. I think about my children. I would never want my child to tell me that they couldn&#8217;t be anything that they wanted to be in life because of one class. I would never want my child to tell me that what he/she is learning in school is &#8220;too hard,&#8221; or &#8220;cannot be understood&#8221;. I wouldn&#8217;t want my child to cry over a simple math problem because deep down it isn&#8217;t the math making him upset. Deep down it&#8217;s the thought of not accomplishing extraordinary things that destroys his/her mind. I wouldn&#8217;t want my child to cry over a simple math problem because deep down it isn&#8217;t the math making him upset. Deep down it&#8217;s the thought of not accomplishing extraordinary things that destroys his/her mind. I see how corrupt our schools are. How much empty knowledge children are forced to learn. How many things that are taught, but never really used. Are we filling gaps? Or is it that we just don&#8217;t know what else to teach? I have yet to see math needed beyond what a calculator can do.  And it will only get harder. My parents stopped helping me with homework in the fifth grade. By the sixth, they were both able to tell me that the math I was learning was taught to them as sophomores or juniors in High school. Isn&#8217;t it funny how my parents don&#8217;t know the math I was taught in sixth grade? They&#8217;ve never used it. When will I? When I have kids, I think I will have to home-school them. Or maybe move to a commune. How could I put that much stress on my child? How could I tell my child that I cannot help them because I have never learned what they are learning? How would I be able to watch my child cry over a simple math problem? When will society realize that dreams are killed through putting pressure on a child to be something more than they possibly can be? I wouldn&#8217;t be able to hear my child tell me that they aren&#8217;t capable enough. I wouldn&#8217;t be able to expose my child to a corrupt educating system. I wouldn&#8217;t be able to tell my child that they needed to try a little harder than their best because their best just wasn&#8217;t enough. I wouldn&#8217;t want to be that parent that was responsible for telling my child that they needed to dream a new dream. No matter what job, passion is what makes success. An unsuccessful education is no education at all. If you are passionate enough about what you do, then you will succeed in your career. One does not need knowledge to know what brings happiness to life. One does not need a math problem to tell them that they cannot accomplish anything. I won&#8217;t be a teacher. Teachers aren&#8217;t even teachers anymore. They hate what they are forced to teach just as much as children hate learning it. And they have the pain of knowing that there are some kids that they just can&#8217;t help. But they must move on. Because just like one child cannot hold the entire class back from learning, one math problem should not hold one child back from succeeding. I couldn&#8217;t let that happen. I couldn&#8217;t do that to my kids.]]></description>
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		<title>An Open Letter From A Homeschooling Mother</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/an-open-letter-from-a-homeschooling-mother/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/an-open-letter-from-a-homeschooling-mother/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2015 09:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Misty Hovis]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Class]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Homeschooling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[proud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[student]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Teach]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teacher]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5994</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I don’t have a degree in teaching, but I’m a teacher. If you would have asked me back in high school what I would be doing in 10 years I would have said being the CEO of my own business and enjoying my life to the fullest. I NEVER would have said homeschooling my 5 children, let alone saying I would have 5 children in the first place. Honestly the thought of homeschooling seemed weird and just silly back then. My whole misconception of homeschooling was children that are unsocial, uneducated, mistreated, and sheltered from the world around them… to name a few. I believe a lot of people who are against homeschooling have these SAME misconceptions. It wasn’t until our first child was about 2 years old that the thought of homeschooling came up. I didn’t want to do it, and was completely looking forward to “my free time” when he and any other children we had would be sent off to public school. Little did I know that homeschooling was the plan that God had in mind for us. Everywhere we turned homeschooling was brought up, I couldn’t get away from the idea and for some reason it seemed so interesting to me. My husband and I decided to pray about it and we did for 2 whole years! I did a ton of research and even went over the pros and cons many times. Finally the decision had been made, we were going to homeschool. Telling our family and friends wasn’t as easy as you would think, some were very supportive and others thought we were NUTS! One of my favorite comments from a family member who we were showing our classroom to was, “Oh, this will make a nice playroom at least.” At first I took that very personal and was pretty upset about it. Then I thought about it for awhile and realized… YES, it will make a nice playroom. Learning will be fun, enjoyable, and creative! A lot of people don’t realize that a child at a young age learns the MOST through play. Here are some interesting facts to keep in mind as well: When a child reads information they will only retain about 10% of it, 90% of it is lost. If they are presented the information orally they will retain 20% of it, 80% of it is lost. If a child sees what they are learning about they will retain 30% of it, 70% of it is lost. When a child sees and hears he/she will remember 50% of the material. When a child is asked to talk about a subject or read out loud they will retain 70% of the lesson. If a child is on the other hand actively involved in a project and doing hands on activities, they will retain 90% of it. Just my personal opinion, but it seems to me that it is much easier for a mother of 5 children to do more hands on activities and educate her children in a more effective way than a teacher in a classroom of 20-30+ children. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate public school teachers very much and think they have a super hard and important job. However, the way the system is set up does not allow a teacher to educate public schooled children very effectively. The system is more worried about crossing their T&#8217;s and dotting their I&#8217;s than allowing a teacher to use her God given talents to teach the children in her class. Test scores have proven this time and time again. Once we had made our decision, we had to deal with many questions including those worried about our children’s social skills and sheltering them from the outside world. We in no way intended to shelter our children and anyone that has ever spoken to one of our children can attest to the fact that they are far from being unsocial! (LOL) We are involved in many activities outside the home, take part in different groups, have participated in Co-Ops and sporting teams. Another question that has been brought up is “Why not leave it up to the professionals, you don’t even have a teaching degree?” Who is to say I’m NOT a professional… just because I didn’t spend thousands of dollars in college fees, years of my life in a classroom to get a piece of paper that says I have a certain degree shouldn’t deem me unworthy of teaching my children. I am a strong believer that actions speak louder than words. My children and their academic scores have proven that I must be doing something right. For example, when I first thought of homeschooling, I was beyond worried about teaching my children to read. It has never been a strong area for me. However, I learned right alongside my oldest, poured knowledge into him and I was so excited last year when he got his standardized test scores back for 2nd grade. He tested higher in reading than 98% of his peers and was reading at an 8th grade reading level! There are so many benefits to homeschooling. I get the chance to see my children learning new things first hand, I don’t have to just hear about it. We can learn together… take field trips and do hands on activities that are fun and exciting. I have the opportunity to see what areas my children are struggling in and what areas they are excelling in as well. This gives us a chance to help them one-on-one to improve on certain skills and give them room to grow and advance in areas of interest. For example, my oldest son, Logan, LOVES birds! He honestly could tell you the name and important facts about pretty much any bird you show him. He amazes me with the knowledge and interest he has in this area. I am able to provide resources and encourage his love for birds and this gets him excited about reading and learning even more. There also are so many wonderful materials, curriculums and resources offered to homeschooling families. Trust me I have done plenty of research to find what works well for us. I remember our first year homeschooling, I had someone ask me “Did you ever take calculus in school, if you didn’t how are you going to teach your child something you never learned?” My response was this… First off my son is in Pre-K and just learning his numbers, I think we will be ok. When he is older and will be taking more advanced classes, if I can’t help him we have some amazing friends that would be willing to help in this journey with us. Plus there are so many programs out there that we would be able to learn together. As far as teaching different grades at the same time, there is this awesome thing called unit studies! A great example I always like to share is this: let’s say we are learning about the eye. We would learn together all of the material about the eye up to a 3rd grade level (my oldest), maybe even higher if he is interested in knowing more now. Then our work would be as followed, 3rd grader might write a report about the eye, 1st grader might write a paragraph about the eye, Kindergartener might label the parts of an eye with a word bank and a Pre-K might color a picture of an eye. There also are many curriculums that allow for some independent learning for older grades which allows more time to focus on the basic skills needed in the younger grades, such as Phonics. I will be the first to say homeschooling is NOT for everyone though. There is a lot of work, planning, time, and energy involved in it. As well as, a true commitment you have to make to be a homeschooling family. It’s not always easy, but for us, it is worth it. There is no right or wrong… each person / family is entitled to their own thoughts, feelings, and opinions about public school vs. homeschooling. However these feelings should never judge the choice of another family if they feel called to do something different than yours. Again, 10 years ago I would have said I would be a CEO of my own business and living my life to the fullest. I am thankful to say, I am a CEO of my own business, by being an Independent Director with Thirty-One Gifts, and completely love every aspect of my life… funny enough, I even love being a homeschooling mother of 5! Sincerely, Proud Homeschooling Mother, Misty Hovis &#160; &#160;]]></description>
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