the.greenleaf.school
Why Home School?
At The Greenleaf School, a father and a mother provide the lessons of discipline and culture, and we develop character and morality by respecting nature and its laws. We believe that it takes the family to raise a child… or two or three or twelve. We disapprove of parents’ abdicating their responsibility for their children. We disapprove of schools’ lockdowns. In generations past, the most common reasons for home schooling were religious. Today, home schooling parents worry about issues such as safety in the schools (guns, bullies, drugs), the negative socialization of peer pressure, or the quality of education.
Our Name
The name Greenleaf is the English translation of Legolas, a character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium and featured in The Lord of the Rings. He is an Elf from Mirkwood and one of nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. When the Fellowship is snowed down while crossing the mountain peak Caradhras, Greenleaf scouts ahead to find the Sun, while two men, Aragorn and Boromir, drive a path through the snow. Unlike them, he is little affected by the blowing winds and snow. He wears no boots, only light shoes, and he barely leaves footprints in the snow.
Benefits of Home School
Home schooling promotes a close family life. Children can continue the learning that they began as babies in a secure environment. It allows for personal learning style, and children can progress at their own learning rate. More time can be devoted to the child’s interests. Families can provide a more challenging curriculum than public school, more up to date books, and better computers. Staunch supporters of the public schools admit that there are tremendous benefits to being able to provide direct one-on-one attention to students, and this is much easier to do at home.
Teacher Requirements
In Florida, Home Teachers (parents) do not require state-certification. More important than formal training is the commitment, concern, and enthusiasm that is brought to children’s education. A parent does not have to teach all subjects. There are many outside sources that share information and skills with the children, including tutors, mentors, and librarians. Additionally, children can volunteer at many places in the community where learning takes place (science centers, animal shelters, and wildlife centers). Special courses are being designed or have already been offered by many community resources. The most important thing is to find out what children and help them locate the materials to learn.
Legality
Home schooling is legal in all 50 states and has been since the late 1980s. Each state has its own requirements. For more information about the homeschooling laws in your state, click here (Home School Legal Defense Association).
Social Home Schoolers
Home schoolers have ample opportunity for social experiences. Besides 4-H, scouts, drama classes, organized sports, ballet, and gymnastics, there are many home schooling support groups that form special-interest clubs, activities and field trips. At The Greenleaf School, children have realistic socialization: They interact with people of a variety of ages on a regular basis.
Curriculum
There are a variety of commercial curricula and textbooks available for home schoolers, but we choose to create our own for now. At The Greenleaf School, we do not follow a curriculum as we adhere to the state standards. Once we found those standards, we discovered that a great source of learning material was already in the house. The rest could be found in the public library. Check your state’s Department of Education website for the standards for each grade and subject. Home schooling support groups often have a group library from which materials maybe borrowed or bought.
Home Schooling High Schoolers
Typically, people think that parents can home school younger children, but at some point they need to be sent to school for advanced subjects. Tutors are available as are home schooling cooperatives.
Finding Other Home Schoolers
There are many websites and discussion boards available that can address specific needs. Community newspapers and parenting magazines often notify about home school meetings. Libraries are gathering places for home school groups. Take a look outside your window on a school day and spot the neighborhood home schoolers riding their bicycles during recess.
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Unschooling
It is a term to describe the methods of education that do not resemble instructional schools, primarily indicating that they do not use textbooks and/or do not spend much time at desks. The parents definitely are in charge of the children’s education, and they may use a variety of resources. It indicates that the parents do not direct much of the children’s education, but that the children are free to explore and grow and learn as they wish. In this method, students are not directly instructed but encouraged to learn through exploring their interests. Also known as interest-led or child-led learning, unschooling attempts to provide opportunities with games and real life problems where a child will learn without coercion. An unschooled child may choose to use texts or classroom instruction, but it is never considered central to education.
Children learn best by learning from doing. For example, a child may learn reading and math skills from playing card games, better spelling and other writing skills because he’s inspired to write a science fiction story for publication, or local history by following a zoning or historical-status dispute.
The term “unschooling” is distinct from “deschooling,” which may be used to indicate an anti-”institutional school” philosophy, or a period or form of deprogramming for children or parents who have previously been schooled.
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For more information:
Google
Homeschooling Support Groups Nationwide
Home Schooling Legal Defense Association
Florida Parent-Educators Association
