Homeschooling: Calvert

[Dhillen]

We are about to head to the South Pacific with our two daughters who are 6 & 8 years old. After much discussion regarding homeschooling we have decided to go with what Calvert offers - a simple out of the box solution. But it ain't cheap so I kept hemming and hawing over it.

We just ordered our two year-long courses this morning and were told that they have a 30% discount available until the end of this month (January). If you are sitting on the fence and haven't made a decision on this perhaps the discount will motivate you as it did me.

I have no other connection to the company.

Good luck.

Dhillen

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Dhillen

We are about to head to the South Pacific with our two daughters who are 6 & 8 years old. After much discussion regarding homeschooling we have decided to go with what Calvert offers - a simple out of the box solution. But it ain't cheap so I kept hemming and hawing over it.

We just ordered our two year-long courses this morning and were told that they have a 30% discount available until the end of this month (January). If you are sitting on the fence and haven't made a decision on this perhaps the discount will motivate you as it did me.

I have no other connection to the company.

Good luck.

Dhillen

"But it ain't cheap so I kept hemming and hawing over it."

What's the old bumper sticker "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance"

Calvert is one of many good systems. One of the first things I learned when we first started homeschooling many years ago is that there is more than one way to educate a successful child. In fact, once one realizes that the standard education designed for the masses is just that, you'll find that there are literally hundreds of ways to educate your child. Finding the one that fits your child best is the challenge. A challenge well worth the effort. Every child learns differently given their abilities and capabilities. The trick is to teach them to teach themselves for the rest of their lives and not beat the joy of learning out of them at an early age. Once they accomplish that then the world is truly open to them.

[ontherocks83]

Thanks for the info. Please keep us posted on not only your cruise but also how your children do with homeschooling while under way. I am still trying to convince my wife to home school while sailing/traveling. Would love to hear your report on how they change and adapt once starting to learn independence and self sufficiency. Have fun out there!

[Dhillen]

Originally Posted by Tellie

"But it ain't cheap so I kept hemming and hawing over it."

What's the old bumper sticker "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance"

Calvert is one of many good systems. One of the first things I learned when we first started homeschooling many years ago is that there is more than one way to educate a successful child. In fact, once one realizes that the standard education designed for the masses is just that, you'll find that there are literally hundreds of ways to educate your child. Finding the one that fits your child best is the challenge. A challenge well worth the effort. Every child learns differently given their abilities and capabilities. The trick is to teach them to teach themselves for the rest of their lives and not beat the joy of learning out of them at an early age. Once they accomplish that then the world is truly open to them.

Tellie,

We are of the same mind. I completely agree with what you say and am an equally firm believer that teaching the children to love learning is my number one educational goal (other than enlightening them to the importance of supporting their Dad financially in his old age....!). This is why we are now "throwing away" everything most people find important: ie, stuff and security to take them slowly across the Pacific on a boat and open their eyes and minds to other ways of living.

I don't know about you but it took me years to unlearn everything I was "taught" in school. As Mark Twain said, "I never let schooling interfere with my education!"

Cheers.

Dhillen

[Dhillen]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

Thanks for the info. Please keep us posted on not only your cruise but also how your children do with homeschooling while under way. I am still trying to convince my wife to home school while sailing/traveling. Would love to hear your report on how they change and adapt once starting to learn independence and self sufficiency. Have fun out there!

What really sold my wife on homeschooling was during our first time cruising together (before we had children) was meeting cruising kids. They were all being homeschooled and all of them were really benefiting from the experience. Unlike their land-based, TV-watching, pizza-munching, couch potato peers, these kids could hold a conversation with adults, shake their hand and even look them in the eye doing so.

There is a risk, which I acknowledge, that exposing children to such an unconventional lifestyle and all its wonders may taint their attitude and future choices regarding getting an MBA and working for Goldman Sachs but, hey, it's a risk I think I should take.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Dhillen

[Andy73]

We have been using Calvert for 2 years with my 11yo daughter. She enjoys the syllabus and with the lesson plans from Calvert it is easy to support her.

There is some online work but we have kept it to a minimum and just relied on the hard copy material.

Last year, we spent some time in Perth AUS and put her back into the school system at a well regarded primary school. She was near the top of her class and all her teachers had very positive things to say about her progress.

As an aside, Calvert is announcing a new High School program (all the way through year 12).

[rsysol]

We also used Calvert for our 11 year old son while cruising Mexico. Very good program and having the full curriculum on board helped when we were in remote areas (no internet).

We're in year two now and still liking it.

One thing to think about is shipping the program to remote places, it may be expensive, on top of the already expensive cost of the program!

[Carla_B]

For those of you using Calvert, may I ask how many hours per day does it take kids (on average) to do their curriculum? What grade are they in? Are you required to check in weekly?

Thank you, in advance, for your answer.

[socaldmax]

as a former Navy MTS (curriculum developer) I am extremely impressed with Khan Academy available for free online, originally started on youtube. The variety of lessons, quality of instruction, depth of material and subject expertise is astounding. One could get the equivalent of an Ivy League caliber education in one on one lessons via computer for free. Bill Gates, Google, and others have donated hundreds of millions to increase staff and resources for this project.

You can download lessons for free via FLVto youtube downloader. One could use these in conjunction with another curriculum for maximum benefit.

The Navy commissioned studies on learning and found that people can learn in 3 different ways. Some can hear it and learn, some need to read it to learn, and some need to physically do it themselves in order to learn. Effective curriculum includes all 3 methods and tests on all 3.

I'm all in favor of home schooling, the public system has totally failed for many reasons beyond the need to discuss in this thread. One of the surprising things I've seen in the last 10 or 15 yrs is people's lack of understanding how things work, and how to repair them when they broke. I wish more parents would involve their children in maintenance and repair of everything they work on. As a kid, my stepdad tossed all broken household items to me for repair and never bought me anything new if the old one was broken, either I fixed it myself or I paid for the replacement.

That's become invaluable in later yrs - a $6000 diesel injector replacement at the dealer I'm going to do myself with factory new injectors, gaskets and seals purchased for $1600. That's a significant savings of $4400. I just replaced the DLP chip in my 65" DLP TV. It started with a burned out bulb, replaced it myself with a $30 bulb. Then the DLP chip went out, $500 repair from the TV repair company. $180 for the chip, and installed it myself with Arctic Silver thermal paste for better heat transfer this morning in about 1.5 hrs, including cleaning out the entire light engine.

There are only 2 things I will not try to repair myself: an automatic trans (lacking the manuals and tools) and wind up watches: too many small parts and springs. Everything else, especially electronics, is fair game and pretty easy.

[Carla_B]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

as a former Navy MTS (curriculum developer) I am extremely impressed with Khan Academy available for free online, originally started on youtube. The variety of lessons, quality of instruction, depth of material and subject expertise is astounding. One could get the equivalent of an Ivy League caliber education in one on one lessons via computer for free. Bill Gates, Google, and others have donated hundreds of millions to increase staff and resources for this project.

You can download lessons for free via FLVto youtube downloader. One could use these in conjunction with another curriculum for maximum benefit.

Yes, Khan Academy is a wonderful site. I remember watching some of his original videos way back when. Btw, when you mentioned the sorry state of education, I knew you must be from CA- LOL!

[rsysol]

Originally Posted by Carla_B

For those of you using Calvert, may I ask how many hours per day does it take kids (on average) to do their curriculum? What grade are they in? Are you required to check in weekly?

Thank you, in advance, for your answer.

We are using calvert for our 12 year old son. Currently doing 7th grade + 8th grade math. We spend about 4-5 hours per day on the curriculum including some extras like Kahn Math and Programming.

There are no requirements to check in, we did the ATS program where we send in the work and teachers corrected and commented on the progress. This was an extra cost. We are doing all the work ourselves this year and it is going well, especially for a 12 years old pre-teen!

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by Carla_B

Yes, Khan Academy is a wonderful site. I remember watching some of his original videos way back when. Btw, when you mentioned the sorry state of education, I knew you must be from CA- LOL!

I was fortunate, my mother home schooled me before I went to kindergarten, then she was relentless in her quest for perfection in all of my school work. I attended middle school and jr high in overseas schools with 15-20 per class taught by inspiring teachers which kept me further ahead of the CA curriculum.

[Lepke]

When commercial fishing - years ago - there were many families on boats and around the harbors home schooling. I don't know what systems they used, but all the home schooled children I met knew so much more that city kids. I think school taxes should be refunded to parents that home school as a incentive. The few I know of from 30-40 years ago went much further in life than you would expect from a fisherman's kid.

[BJames777]

This is a very interesting topic and as a parent of 2, this very issue is one we are dealing with now.


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