Bright Ideas Press

photo credit: Cornell University Library

Have you heard that your homeschooled high school student will never get into a good college? Listen carefully: this is simply not true! Homeschoolers have been accepted to and have excelled in colleges across the nation, including prestigious and Ivy League schools. Many colleges eagerly recruit homeschoolers because they have seen how well these independent, well-educated young people do on college campuses.

Good News from College

At the 1995 Clonlara Home School Conference, Robert Blackstock, representing Hillsdale College (MI), commented on Hillsdale’s encounter with home-educated students: “We have had a tremendous experience with homeschoolers. You’ve heard all the cautions: that they won’t be socially adjusted and they won’t be academically prepared, and I just have to wonder what is it they’re not socially adjusted to because they walk onto our campus and they are just fine. They seem to stand back…and take stock for a couple of weeks and then they become the editor of our paper, they take lead roles in plays, they go into student government…Our experience has been that their attitude toward learning is better, they’re more fully and more actively engaged in the learning process…they take the tone of the campus easily in stride. So one of the things we look favorably [on] in admissions decisions is the fact that they’re homeschoolers .”

The Great College Search does not have to be the high-stress process of which we often hear. Like thousands of homeschooling families across the country, we survived this rite of passage, and you can too. Although we made mistakes along the way, our oldest son Tyler was accepted into his first choice: a highly competitive Christian college. Our other son JB was also accepted into his first choice and was awarded a wonderful scholarship as well. We used no outside sources for transcripts or scholarships. Everything we did, you can do also.

 photo credit: Cornell University Library

Number One Tip

Here is the most important tip: Get Organized! Disorganization was my downfall and explains why we missed an important scholarship deadline to JB’s second choice school! My dear friend Celeste, the Queen Bee of Organization, made a wise decision while navigating the college search with her oldest child, Rebekah. Celeste kept a Master College Notebook from the very earliest days of their searching. Knowing that she had to be Rebekah’s guidance counselor, Celeste made smart decisions:

1. She kept a calendar in her notebook and noted every single deadline as she learned about them.
2. She searched locally, as well as far and wide on the Internet, for possible college scholarship opportunities. When she found one that Rebekah would be eligible to apply for, she filed it in her notebook and marked the pertinent dates on her calendar.
3. Most of the scholarships and all of the colleges required essays, so Celeste assigned them as part of Rebekah’s senior English course.
4. Celeste kept track of important correspondence from each college and kept good notes of all phone conversations and even personal visits. She then put reminders on her calendar of any follow-ups needed.

All of their hard work paid off: Rebekah won enough small and medium-sized scholarships to fully her fund her four years at an in-state university. It took much time on both of their parts to do this, but Rebekah graduated debt-free.

In my next post, we’ll look at some strategies for choosing the right college for your child.

Beginning its upward climb as a simple stalk straining it’s way out of Florida soil, my tree was at risk from day one.

I was counseled to rip it out of the ground when my precious planted-by-the-wind sapling reached the two foot mark.

“That’s a weed.” Labeled, at such a young age.

“It’s not a weed,” I insisted. (Some would say, pouted.)

I didn’t see it as a weed. I saw it as a gift from God. And somehow I saw it grow [in my imagination] into a big beautiful tree, albeit of unknown scientific nomenclature.

The talk of it being a weed continued, but my persistence in letting it grow did also.

I remember hearing such talk about my children when they were about two feet high, too:  “They are growing like weeds. Pull ‘em out of your house and put ‘em in school.”

Nope not me, I resolved. They may be growing like weeds, but they aren’t weeds. They are my children and I’m going to care for them myself. With God’s help. Right where they were planted by Him. In my home. In my heart. So there, Hurrah. And Hallelujah.

And so it was with my Weed Tree. I didn’t pull it. I let it grow. And it did.

And they did.

And now they are all three of them, two children and a nearly 30-foot tree, gifts from God, abounding, colorful, and bright spots in my life.

[insert a Jane Austen creation's snooty voice]
“Weeds?! I should say not.”

(Just don’t look at the rest of my backyard!)

Fluttering by for now,

Firsts are tough.  Remember your first step?  Your first kiss?  Your first baby?  Your first curriculum purchase?  All tough, in their own way.

I think it’s the expectations.  We have such high hopes – or our parents do when it comes to that first step.  We want it to be a momentous occasion, we want it to be picture-perfect and website-worthy !

And then we take that first.  Everyone cheers!  Then we step again:  applause!  Then we run around the house and the adults give a new directive:  Will you please sit still!

Expectations are like that.  We get our hopes so high that when the firsts become thirty-firsts, it gets a bit old, so we need a little motivation to keep going, or to help us up off the carpet when the first step didn’t go as smoothly as we’d so very much hoped.  I can’t count how many times I’ve needed some encouragement to keep homeschool stepping.

Having experienced the birth of one child, I wanted another one right away.  It was a very good first step.  God blessed with a second, nineteen months after the first.  I wanted another 19 months after that, and another, and another.  But we don’t always get what we want.

Just look at my homeschool curriculum wish list.  It continues to grow, but so do my children.  I have less than two years left in the adventure of home education, but twenty years of curriculum on my wanna-use list.  I’m gonna have to find some other kiddos to edu-guide, since my children are not interested in relearning grammar just because mama found a new curriculum.

For now, I’m enjoying this second approach to homeschool graduation.  The first graduated well in 2011 and is enjoying his first round of college education, thankfully just ’round the corner from home.  My second, still in the homeschool oven, is browning nicely as her third year of high school heat gets turned up

If this is your first time to this blog, I hope that it is like the first day of a new year:  It’s a good start, but there are many more days to come!

As for my sign off, I feel compelled to add a note of family history to this very first entry:  My big brother, 13 years my senior, taught me many of the words I use today.  Hecalopter (an aircraft with twirly blades on top) and flutterby (a delicate-winged insect) being two of his, and hence my, favorites.

So, it is in his memory that I will be (most of the time)  …

Fluttering by for now,*

* That just sounds better than “Hecalopting for now …”

I had so much fun reading The Little House CookBook by Barbara Walker.  Having grown up reading the books and watching the TV series the cookbook was like a trip down memory lane.

My 13-year-old daughter has developed a real love for baking, so it was a perfect opportunity to do a history lesson around cooking. We choose to make Laura’s wedding cake.  Wow, what an eye opener it was to the past bakers in history!

Our first task was to cream butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon!

A few minutes of stirring left us longing for our kitchen mixer.  While we were working the butter and sugar together we were able to talk about what kinds of sweeteners were available to Ma and Laura, my daughter then wanted to look up when powdered sugar was created.

The next undertaking was separating 10 egg whites and whipping them with a fork until they were stiff.

The cookbook said this would take 10 minutes, it took us 20! We decided to take turns beating and wondered if Ma and Laura took turns too. Then there was sifting of flour and then the slow folding of all the ingredients.

I should note that for health concerns we didn’t make the icing recipe with egg whites, instead we made a traditional butter cream icing. We also knew that we could only decorate the cake with things found in nature. We chose mint leaves and raspberries.

We spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen making this cake. Not only were there history lessons to learn but also there was fun time spent together.

Later in the evening our whole family had fun eating the wedding cake, and let’s just say the boys are happy when they hear the oven timer go off.

The Family Study Guide for the Little House CookBook will be available in Illuminations Year 5 due out in early summer.

In addition to spending time recently with Chiara, I have also had the pleasure of chatting with Linda Choi and five Korean college students from Seoul, South Korea. The students are currently are in the United States as exchange students, and will be spending Christmas in America for the first time.

photo credit: mlamprou
:: What is your favorite Christmas memory from home?
Linda: Traditionally, we hold a Christmas Eve parade with the Virgin Mary and other nativity figures. Many characters dress in costumes and sing onstage individually or in groups. Another tradition is to go from house to house with candles, visiting friends and family.

College students: We enjoy going to church with family.

:: What kinds of Christmas decorations are displayed in your country?
Linda: There is usually a large Christmas tree in a central location where everybody can enjoy it. Decorative lights are also displayed for the public.

:: What are some foods you make/eat at Christmas time?
Linda: We eat basic Korean food…barbequed meat with rice and vegetables, and rice cakes.

:: What do you think is the strangest Christmas tradition in the United States?
Linda: For a long time Koreans did not celebrate Christmas. About 100 years ago, Christian missionaries brought the message and traditions of Christmas to the Korean people. It is still pretty strange for many Koreans to see the Christmas traditions in America, but because I was born here, I am more used to it.

College students: All of the outside decorations are strange because in Korean cities, people live mainly in apartments. There is not a lot of outside space for decorations, although we do decorate indoors with trees and other things.

:: What is the Christmas music in your culture like?
Linda: Christian Korean music has more of a percussion/vocal focus. It is simpler than what one might find in a contemporary American church—a typical musical arrangement might include a choir and accompanying drums.

:: Are there any traditions that you have brought with you to the United States?
Both Linda and the college students I interviewed said that they are looking forward to the Christmas Eve church service. Linda’s father was a pastor and she grew up in the church, so the Korean church that she is currently a part of is very dear to her heart. This is the college students’ first Christmas spent in America, so they are looking forward to the experience.