Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing / Homeschooling

[Sanda Everette (severett]

While on my way to Dragon Belly Farm to check the remains after our
fire, I had the good fortune of being snowed in at Rob's house at
Sharingwood
in December.  One of the things I saw happening there that would
contribute to his daughter's reading level and and would make a
difference with the reading ability of all children, whether home
schooled or state schooled, is that he and/or his wife, read to the
children EVERY day.  And even more than the value in increasing reading
ability, they have increased their children's love of books...but then
how could any child of Rob's not love the written word.

Sanda Everette

Rob Sandelin wrote:
> 
> My family homeschools, along with one other at Sharingwood. There are families
> who do not. It makes an interesting control study of  education in that the
> neighborhood interactions are the same for both home schooled and state
> schooled kids. Since we are homeschooling I tend to look for differences in my
> daughters and their state schooled peers.
> 
>  The basic skill level seems to be about the same, given individual variation.
> My daughter in kindergarten is reading a little ahead of the state schooled
> peer in the same level. But that's within variation.
> 
> What is very different I notice is values. Since my kids are home, they get
> much less exposure to "TV values", and thus don't seem to be influenced by
> them. There is a consumerist competitive culture that permeates the state
> sponsered schools. It's not delibrate, its not a plot, it just happens,
> because that is the dominate value set of the rest of the kids, who are raised
> on TV without questioning.
> 
> Its hard for me to explain this clearly so I'll leave it for another day.
> 
> Rob Sandelin