Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Wee Dragon on 7th mo. 12, 2009 at 8:24pm

Hello Tom, I am new to Quaker Quaker, but am happy to find this post. We homeschool (also with Enki) our three children ages 5, 3 and 2. (Hi Jennifer!) I am very interested in this, and would love to be involved and help in any way that I can.

Also related and helpful I think would be Charlotte Mason resources and also Goldy Play. I have the Quaker Testimonies Godly Play curriculum, and love it.

I used to be the head teacher of a school for children with severe behaviour problems, and had to write all of my own curriculum for my muilt-age and level classroom. I would love to help in any way that I can.

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Marchman on 7th mo. 12, 2009 at 10:19pm

HEY!! It's great to see you on here, Reba!

Permalink Reply by Gwen Giffen on 7th mo. 21, 2009 at 11:08pm

I joined QuakerQuaker a couple of days ago, at the Facebook invitation of Raye Hodgson for writing memorial posts for Ed Kirk. While surfing the site, I was excited and happy to find this thread. It was a pleasure meeting you and your wife over lunch at the Walton a few months ago, Tom. It didn't settle in how serious you were about the virtual school idea. We would most definitely be interested.

My 17 y/o just finished her first year of homeschooling - her junior year in high school. We've used an eclectic/traditional approach, and will continue to do so for her senior year. We also have a 3 y/o we intend to homeschool. We are already using a combination of Kumon, Hooked on Phonics and Rod & Staff for pre-K preparation. I'm very impressed with Rod & Staff - the thoroughness, the simplicity and the affordability. I wish there were something like it that was a little less fundamentalist.

I've used PYM's resource lists numerous times. Even something as simple as that with homeschoolers in mind would be wonderful. Putting together an actual virtual school seems a huge undertaking.

Permalink Reply by Kristen McLewin on 7th mo. 30, 2009 at 12:51am

Very nicely put, Hystery. Balancing materials of different foundations provides a true challenge, but it will be a gift to your children. I love surfing/morphing/creating curriculum, and hope that discussion here will help all those able to homeschool. I don't know if I will get to school any of my kids at home. They are all high needs kiddos in various ways, and I am a single mom who must work full-time. I am hoping to eventually incorporate our own religious education here at home.

Permalink Reply by MJ on 3rd mo. 3, 2010 at 6:20pm

Update......

We pulled our first grader out of public school and enrolled him in a cyber school. It's still public school with the curriculum and supplies provided to us free of charge, but we have more influence and flexibility with what he is learning and have been able to eliminate much negativity that was occuring at his local school.

Our kindergartener wanted to finish out the school year in our local school and wants to begin cyber school in the Fall.

So far, so good. We are pleased and my son is happy, happy, happy! We are still getting adjusted, but it's a quick process and we are hoping next year to incorporate a bit of Quakerism as well. It comes up often at home during our lessons naturally, but i'm hoping to add a bit more structured learning of Friends and our Faith, although I'm not sure what I want that to be just yet....baby steps.

Many Blessings,
MJ

Permalink Reply by Tom Smith on 3rd mo. 4, 2010 at 12:06pm

MJ,

This actually is the way I envisioned "Virtual Friends School" could be used. There are fairly reasonable "public" cyber schools and in most "real" Friends Schools the "academic" curriculum is usually independent of the Friends approach, except for a generally "open" classroom atmosphere.

For reasons yet to be explained by us, we have not done much, if anything, on VFS. We were told a year ago that things would soon be resolved. Here it is a year later and still no resolution in sight.

We trust that we, including all those interested, can have at least a skeleton for this coming fall.

Permalink Reply by Kristin S. Kight on 7th mo. 20, 2011 at 12:41pm

Hello,
Some homeschooling Friends here in Maryland are pulling together a group to qualify as a supervisory entity (aka an umbrella group) for homeschoolers in MD, which will function as a MM here and virtually. Eventually we want to be accredited and pull together folks who attend "real" schools, as well as a broad spectrum of learners. The central idea is to reimagine the structure of education in Quaker terms using current methods of coming together in the light. We need a name for it. Any ideas?
In peace,
Kristin

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