Khan Academy Math: Not Shaming + INCLUSION = PROMOTION?

If you are a homeschooling parent, chances are you are quite familiar with Khan Academy website. If you're not familiar with it, make sure you check it out; it is an invaluable resource!

Khan Academy is a website started in 2008 by Salman Khan, a former hedge fund analyst, who began tutoring his cousin online. After awhile, other of Khan's relative's children began using his tutoring videos with their own children. Before long, his videos took off! And I mean through the roof! Through a combination of relatable lectures and SmoothDraw, Khan brought clarity to complex math ideas.

Before long, maybe a year!, Salman Khan quit his full time job to focus on creating and building Khan Academy School, a website with thousands of videos of discrete concepts and ideas for teachers, classes, and students. All of his work is completely free to users of the website. 

We used Khan Academy during our homeschooling years for higher math concepts that I was completely unable to understand, much less convey with any clarity to the kids. My kids became self-learners, in part, because of Khan Academy. I send my sincerest and heart-felt appreciation to Salman Khan.

 

KHAN DO!

Anyway, the reason for bringing up The Khan Academy is this. My friend Janeen brought a Christian website to my attention, specifically an article criticizing Khan Academy for promoting the LGBT agenda. The purpose of the article was to discourage Christian parents from using the Khan Academy because of its Leftist agenda, based on those who fund KA. The so-called evidence of this claim is coming through in the material presented as exercise problems. Take this example given in the OP:

The lesson is on "Irregular Plural Nouns: from 'f' to 'ves.'" The unsuspecting student is told to "Choose the correct plural noun to use in this sentence":

'Brittany and Sofia went to lunch with their _____ every Saturday.'"

Khan Academy's "correct" answer reveals the gay agenda behind the English "problem":

The only choices are "wifes" or "wives."

GASP, the gay agenda (as Janeen texted to me)!
Because INCLUDING is PROMOTING.  😠

And my educated and intellectual opinion is this: 
Those bitching about this can fuck right off.

On the other hand, I strenuously endorse Khan Academy as a source of inclusive, well-executed personal learning opportunities that are absolutely FREE and much of the material is available on YouTube. Subject matter on KA ranges from beginner to extremely advanced math to science to computing to arts and humanities to history or econ to test taking to career exploration to support resources for parents and teachers.

Khan Academy is truly an AMAZING resource that, sometimes, I think we don't deserve!  LOL
Salman Khan, many thanks to your dedication to the spread of accessible resources for all! Khan has also given us some wonderful TEDtalks and other resources on YouTube, please check it out!

No, REALLY, What Do You Think?

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Other Posts You Might Also Enjoy:
Strategies for Your Homeschool
Natural Learning
Teaching Things I Don't Know

ABSOLUTELY FREE TEXTBOOKS!

atheist homeschool

Maybe you are a great homeschooling parent, already familiar with and using OpenCourseWare, or maybe you are like me, unfamiliar. Let's look at these programs. OpenCourseWare (OCW) are lessons, lectures, textbooks, teaching materials, and more created by universities and published online in digital form for free access. Projects to provide free access to educational materials of this nature have been around since the 1990s. I don't know where I've been.

Tonight I ran across information about OpenStax, a global collection of educational materials completely coordinated by volunteers and maintained by generous donations by philanthropists like Bill and Melinda Gates, Andrew W. Mellon, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and others under the auspices of Rice University in Houston. The entire collection is available completely free of charge. It can be downloaded in various digital forms and can also be remixed and edited. WOW.

Make sure you check out OpenStax K-12 materials here. I haven't used it and I haven't vetted the site. So if you know anything, please comment below.

MIT also has Open CourseWare here. 
In my fantasy brain, I'm at MIT.

Has anyone tried Homeschoolsciencegeek?

I'm fricking' amazed that these humans and foundations have funded this program. YES, if my husband and I were zillionaires, we would TOTALLY do something like this.

Thanks to those who have made getting education materials into all hands a priority.

A to Z of Atheist Homeschooling

atheist parent atheist homeschool

For a little bit of fun I am going to spend time creating an A-Z post with things related to Atheist Homeschooling, or to just homeschooling in general. I should mention that I'm watching Bob Ross painting some happy little trees at this moment, so I'm feeling super laid back...and in love with squirrels.

• A - Algebra: I've mentioned this many a time, but I'm definitely not a math lover and this can be a detriment to my kids with their skill-building. Both Elizabeth and John have far better math abilities than I do. Elizabeth, though, struggles with Algebra. Right now she is taking Intermediate Algebra at the community college. Her dad is helping her a bit today...and we have an appointment to meet a new algebra tutor on Tuesday.
• B - Books: Do most people have this many books in their homes? I wonder. I used to think I could never have enough books; I often told myself that little fib when shopping Amazon.com late at night. I know better now. You CAN have too many.
• C - Co-op: Although we are not active in a co-op at this time, time was the co-op was our entire life. It was our social, our classes, our friends, our down time. If I hadn't found our secular homeschool group I might have not been as confident as I am. I learned so much from those families.
• D - Documentation: As you know, different states ask for different documentation for homeschooling families. You can find out what is required in your state here on the HSLDA website.
  
  
• E - Expense: The amount of money that a family spends on homeschool is so unique from other families. I know of families that spend tens of thousands of dollars on science equipment, materials, books, lessons, travel, etc, and who have spectacular libraries and I know of families who are very frugal and find other ways to meet the needs of their children.
• F - Friendships: My kids always had friends from our co-op community, friendships that have been so special and in-depth. Oh and FIELD TRIPS.
• G - Grades? Totally unnecessary. Unless you want them, totally your choice.
• H - John Holt: GOOD reading.
• I - Internet: In-freaking-valuable. When I was a kid I'll bet homeschoolers had very little in terms of resources available to them. Today our children can find information and connections ad infinitum online.
• J - Joy Hakim: Her science and history books are priceless.
  
• K - 
• L - Library: FREE materials, excellent reading groups, art, magazines, games. I hope your community has at least one great library.
• M - Methods: Unit studies, Charlotte Mason, School-at-home, Classical, Unschooling.
  And yet, eventually, most homeschooling families develop their own method, a no-name, unique, personalized method.
  
• N - Nature. Rocks, clouds, animals, weather, stars, germs, dirt, flowers, insects, wind, creeks, caves, prairies, mountains, gardens, seeds, eggs, birds, zoos, farms, oceans, rivers, fish, minerals, shells, fossils, strata, the water cycle, nitrogen, all things anatomy, the atmosphere, oxygen, fungus, seasons, the moon, the sun, the stars, ecology, energy, feathers, snails, trees...
• O - Organization. Some families have special rooms, bookshelves, and file cabinets for their family homeschool. But most families that I know homeschool everywhere, every time, all over the place, no special room necessary.
• P - Pencils, pens, and markers: I can buy hundreds and hundreds of them and still not be able to find a decent one when I need it.
• Q - Homeschool quotes, I love them. One of my favorite by an Apologia science (LOL) is this one:  If the purpose for learning is to do well on a test, we've lost sight of the real reason for learning. OR this one by John Holt: What children need is not new and better curricula but access to more and more of the real world...to make it easier for them to get where they want to go and to find out what they want to find out.
• R - Record keeping: when I first started homeschooling the record keeping was a nightmare. Now the online resources make it easy and intuitive.
• S - Secular curriculum? Don't confuse secular with atheist because lots of publishers and friends will be willing to overlook lots of religion in their books...
• 
  T -Testbooks: I make no secret of it, I think that many of the homeschool books and curriculum are completely unnecessary, unnecessarily expensive, and not atheist enough for me.  :)
• U - University: There is no reason why a homeschooled child can't go to college. I think that many people say this to frighten us, but I guarantee you, colleges are hep to our youth.
• V - Volunteering, Mentoring, 
• W - What grade are you in? Erm....?
• X - 
• Y - YouTube and TEDtalks and Crash Courses and The Learning Company and all of the excellent free or affordable resources available online.
• Z - 

That was fun...kind of.
Still digging the happy little trees; you can put one where ever one lives in your little world. You decide.

Homeschool Driver's Ed

atheist homeschool

How will you teach math? 

What will you do for prom? 

What if they want to play sports? 

What about driver's ed?

Are these not the usual questions?!  lol

I've heard every one of these questions about a hundred and fifty times and I'm sure that I'll continue to hear them. So will you.

The funny thing is that homeschool seems so natural and normal to me that these questions do nothing to challenge me. All the questions do for me is suggest that the questioner doesn't really understand homeschool. And that's OK.

A few months ago I posted a bit about John getting his driver's permit. He is kind of a lucky kid because he was able to drive in another country, a country that totally drives on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road! Even though he was quite young (12-13 ish) while we were in Australia I had him get behind the wheel a bit (in a very safe spot) and drive just so that he could have the experience of driving there. Elizabeth did too.

So John has had his permit for several months and he's been driving both with me and with his dad. My husband will take John driving on the road and I'll take him on safer back roads. We also spend time reading Rules of the Road. As we drive we talk about right of way, roadway signs, cautions, emergency procedures, city and country driving, parking, driving requirements, map reading, GPS, mapquest, operating the car, gas and oil, and all of the what not that a knowledgeable driver needs to know. 

Today John started something new.

CONGRATULATIONS
Me!

A couple of years ago Elizabeth chose to take driver's ed through the local high school district so John wanted to give it a try too. This morning he started his first class, the first of two weeks worth of classes. Three hours a day for eight days. After three hours of school, his FIRST EVER CLASS IN A SCHOOL he had this to say:

He laughed about the so-called instruction. He laughed about the outdated driving simulator. He laughed about the way the class was dictated by the instructor. He felt that the instruction itself was very boring and the students were used to the boredom. The two classrooms that his class visited were both small rooms with too many kids in them. He found it difficult to focus because the instructor was either droning or being annoyed with students who were talking. Overall John was not at all impressed with the school. But he did feel that most of the kids in his class were perfectly nice and well-"behaved" during classes. 

How do we Driver's Ed?
We use all resources available to us. We drive, discuss, learn as we do, use our state's free driving book from the DMV, and we took the unessential driver's ed through the school district.

How will you do it? That's up to you.

Would any other veteran homeschooling parents

like to add anything to this?

Does anyone have any questions?

CONGRATULATIONS TO ME

FOR MY 800TH POST.

THANK YOU for staying with me.