Microbusiness Stories and a New Article on the Website

I’ve posted a new article in the Home Business section of the Everyday Education website. It’s Franchises: What They Are and What You Need to Know, and it’s an overview of what you need to think about before you make a decision on whether franchising is right for you.

As most of you know, I am a big advocate of entrepreneurship, including microbusiness and home business. Teens who can start a microbusiness based on their interests can earn high school credits for what they learn, and they’ll also learn valuable life and business lessons as well. (Transcripts Made Easy will tell you how to track what they do and properly assign credit for it.) Imagine going approaching colleges or businesses with several years of entrepreneurial experience on your transcript and resume. It can be pretty impressive!

I’ve been an entrepreneur since the days when I dragged my little red wagon through the neighborhood selling the avocados from our back yard tree. You might think that wouldn’t be a very lucrative way to spend time, but during those years (I realize that I date myself when I tell you it was the late 1960’s), I averaged about $100 a year which I banked and used to pay for my wedding. I eventually outgrew the little red wagon, but it was fun while it lasted.

My next venture was in middle school when macrame’ bracelets were all the rage. I custom made them with my client’s name beaded in, and they sold like hotcakes for as long as that fad lasted. I profited from that venture because I knew it would come to an end, so I didn’t stock letter beads ahead of time, but bought them on an as-needed basis.

In high school, I used calligraphy skills to letter certificates, invitations, and anything else that was wanted. This was the most profitable venture yet, and I worked as a calligrapher and taught calligraphy for many years, until I started earning more money through writing and editing.

The key to all these ventures was that my parents allowed me to make decisions at a time when the stakes were relatively low, so I learned from each experience without getting into financial trouble. If you want to make the most of your teenager’s high school years, encourage them to consider a microbusiness!

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I was honored to have last week’s post on The Perfect Cure for Boredom featured in the first section of this week’s huge and wonderful Carnival of Homeschooling. Be sure to check out all the posts (this may be the biggest Carnival ever)!

Don’t forget about the Convention Season Specials! They end at the close of July 12, 2009, so be sure to get them.

If you plan to be at the Northern Virginia Home Education Conference (NoVA) on 7/10-11/09, please visit at me at Booth #203!

The Perfect Cure for Summer Boredom

Don’t forget to use the Convention Season Specials by July 12!

It’s summertime, and a few days after you put away the schoolbooks, you may hear the dreaded complaint, “I’m bored.” It’s a complaint I always welcomed, because I had found the perfect answer. However, let’s look first at the history of boredom.

Next time one of your children complains about being bored, or you wonder why you have to do the same task over and over again, consider this: You may be bored, but did you know that the very word itself wasn’t even invented until after 1750? Now that’s an interesting fact to keep your boredom at bay!

Think about it: If people were bored back in the 1700s, they had no clue. They might have felt it, but they hadn’t come up with the word to describe it yet, according to Patricia M. Spacks, the author of Boredom: The Literary History of a State of Mind. But once the concept had a name, it became universal. Children soon pointed it out. Researchers blame it for a number of society’s ills, including drug addiction. Even entertainment is seen as boring, because there’s so much of it to go around. The bottom line, according to Spacks, is that there’s no cure for boredom. You just have to accept it, and know there will be a change for the better soon enough.

The late poet Joseph Brodksy had this depressing thought to offer in a 1989 college commencement: “When hit by boredom, let yourself be crushed by it; submerge, hit bottom,” he said. “The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.” According to some experts, the real trick is to simply get used to monotony. It’s a part of life, even among exciting people. They suggest that you try to experience things in new ways, and not mistakenly assume that only new things are interesting.

That’s all very well, but my perfect cure for the complaint of boredom was to cheerfully say, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that! Here’s a little project you can do” while handing them the tools for accomplishing a chore from the day’s to-do list. My boys learned very early that it was much more fun to choose an activity from the Summer Fun List (a list of good books to read, art projects to try, things to build, games to play, etc.). The key was that once the word “bored” was uttered, there was no taking it back, and the suggested chore had to be completed. Trust me, this works like a charm!

If you feel a little guilty for requiring your children to entertain themselves, or worse, you suffer a bit from the inability to keep yourself happily occupied, I assure you that banishing boredom is a noble goal. Consider these quotes:

“Many hours of solitary occupation and enjoyment, will lead to the development of the highest intellectual and moral traits of character; in fact, his mental resources may be considered entirely unknown and unexplored, who cannot spend his best and happiest hours alone.” (Jacob Abbott, c. 1850)

“Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio, or looked at television. They had loneliness and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would work.” (Carl Sandburg)

All creative people know that there’s really no such thing as boredom– it’s just a feeling of dissatisfaction that, if properly channeled, can lead to great work. Don’t be tempted to respond to complaints of boredom by rushing about, providing distractions. Let your children learn how to constructively use time, and they’ll never have to be bored again.

Free is Good for College Textbooks

For many families, the cost of college textbooks comes as a shock. Paying $100 or so for a book your student will use for a mere 18 weeks seems entirely foolish. For families whose high school students are getting a jump start on college from home, it can be a real problem, as there’s no financial aid to buffer the blow. You can sometimes find old textbooks at yard sales, but they are often dated, damaged, or otherwise inferior. I just discovered Flat World Knowledge, which looks like a good resource.

I know there are other sources for free or cheap textbooks. Do you have any links to share?

Andrew Pudewa’s Video on Excellence In Literature

I know that many of you still have a lot of questions about Excellence in Literature. Andrew Pudewa of the Institute for Excellence in Writing has just put together a little video (about two minutes long) to give you an overview of the EIL approach.

If you have enjoyed IEW’s materials, or if you have a teen who loves to read or write, I think you’ll find that Excellence in Literature is an ideal next step for your motivated teens. But I’ll let Andrew tell you all about it!

IEW co-published the American and British Literature levels with me, but there are three other levels (Introduction to Literature is a available now; Literature and Composition and World Literature will be available by late summer, Lord willing–if all goes as planned). All five levels have the same format and approach, and they don’t have to be used in order. You’ll find more about them at www.ExcellenceInLiterature.com.

One of our Convention Season Specials is Evaluate Writing the Easy Way for only $5 with the purchase of any level of Excellence in Literature. This offer is good through July 12, so don’t miss it!

Note: If the video doesn’t show up for you, try playing it at the original site.

College Choices - Homeschoolers Have Options!

This post featured in the Field Guide to Homeschoolers blog carnival!

This post is featured in the "Field Guide to Homeschoolers" blog carnival at Principled Discovery!

Visit the convention season sale through July 12!

Now that homeschoolers have proven to be high achievers in both academic and social realms, they are being actively courted by many colleges. However, just as many homeschool parents paused before placing their young children on the big yellow school bus, they are now considering whether the traditional model of sending young people to live on a college campus for four years is an ideal way to meet the goal of higher education. Homeschoolers have blazed trails in elementary and secondary education, and they are now earning early college credit through exams or dual-credit classes, completing college at home, or simply choosing to attend a local college while living at home. There are more options now than ever before!

Why Not Live on Campus During College?

According to Dr. Jeff Myers of Inspired Leadership, spending four impressionable years of life living closely with the world is similar to the immersion method of learning a foreign language. If parents are willing to have their child absorb the good, the bad, and the ugly along with academics, four years in a dorm is the way to go. Most parents feel that older teens still need daily mentoring, stabilizing family relationships, and spiritual answers to the questions that inevitably arise when studying academics presented through a secular filter. According to Anne Miller of the Home Educators Association of Virginia, whose four oldest children were attending college at the time of this writing, living at home keeps young people from developing a self-centered attitude as they continue to serve the family through helping with home chores and interacting with younger siblings.

Earning College Credit in High School

Students who are capable of undertaking challenging work can accumulate a year or more of college credit while still in high school. Traditional-school students take Advanced Placement (AP) classes, followed by an AP test, in order to place out of entry level courses in college, but homeschoolers can go a step farther and earn actual credit by taking a CLEP (College-Level Examination Program) test, rather than the AP exam.

Students can prepare for exams by doing extra study on their own, taking an AP or honors class (online or traditionally), or by participating in an advanced co-op. Advantages of earning college credit while still in high school include:

• Time - One 90-minute CLEP exam covers one or two semesters of a subject, and by taking several carefully selected exams, it is possible to shorten the time it takes to earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree by a year or more.

• Money - The cost of earning 3-6 credits is about $75.

• Advanced placement - Instead of sitting through a basic class that covers material learned in high school, students can skip directly into more advanced and interesting classes.

Students who plan to use CLEP exams to get a jump start on college need to create a high school curriculum plan that includes advanced-level course material for subjects in which tests will be taken. These subjects will be recorded on the high school transcript as AP or honors courses, and students receive weighted grades (one extra grade point) for each class. College credit is awarded by the college the student attends in the future, and it is based upon a passing score on the CLEP exam. Not all colleges award credit for exams, so it is important to select a school that does.

Dual-credit classes are another way to get a jump start on college. To earn dual-credit, a student studies a subject in a community college class instead of a high school class, and earns both high school and college credit. Mature teens may be ready for the challenge of the classroom atmosphere, and taking dual-credit classes can provide a gradual transition into a more structured learning environment.

College From Home

If you have heard of the Swann family, you know the idea of college from home is not new. Each of the Swann’s many children was homeschooled, not only through college, but also through graduate school, receiving their master’s degrees at an age when most other teens are graduating from high school. This family used traditional correspondence courses for each level of schooling, and this is still possible, but the Internet has dramatically increased the number of options available. Students at home can participate in classes which include a variety of online elements, including virtual labs and real-time discussions. The degree earned at home is just as marketable as a degree earned on-campus, and it often comes with less spiritual risk.

Attending College While Living at Home

This final option is probably the most familiar - students attend a traditional college, but live at home, rather than on-campus. While this option limits the choice of a college to one within reasonable driving distance, it provides several advantages. In addition to being more economical than on-campus living, this option provides students with the familiar, supportive environment of home and family in which to process all the new information they are receiving. Second, they have instant access to spiritual, academic, or personal counseling from someone who knows and loves them, and who shares their spiritual worldview. Third, the presence of other family members of various ages with various needs helps to remind young people that they are not the center of the universe - self-centeredness can be a problem for students whose primary consideration is “my schedule, my classes, my choices.” And finally, this option enables students who are academically ready for college, but younger than traditional college age, to benefit from the home atmosphere while they mature.

Just because our teens are growing up, it isn’t necessary to follow the rest of the world in their education. If we don’t want the results we see in the culture around us, we can change the input. The purpose of college is an education, resulting in a degree, and each family has many options for achieving that goal.

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Don’t forget the convention season specials– you can save on my most popular books!

I’ll be speaking this week at the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2009! It’s an online convention that has the fun of convention without the hassle and expense of leaving home. I’d love to “see” you there!