Home schooling?

I had a mother at the school I used to teach at decide when to pull her children out to home school them. She usually pulled them if she didn't like the teacher. I support those that would like to home school their kids if they do it correctly. When I got her kids they were a grade level behind in reading and slightly below grade level in everything else. I spend the next year with one and two years with the other catching them up just to have them pulled again. I discovered that this mom had a blog and decided to check it out. It is one that I frequently visit to see how she educates them. Technology didn't even exist. I asked the kids how often they use the computer at home and their response was maybe once a week! They were writing letters during "writing" time and I was thinking why don't you throw in e-mail every once-in-a-while?

So how much technology does a student that gets home schooled use? In a previous post I made the comment "Where are the parents?" One of my followers made a good point in stating that maybe the parents don't know how to use technology either. What if that parent is one that educates their kids at home??? I think a home school situation is an awesome situation to be utilizing technology. I recently watched a video on YouTube "Learning to Change-Changing to Learn" that addressed standards and No Child Left Behind. Standards and NCLB are all that teachers focus on, but at home that's not the case. Some schools hold a Back To School Night to inform parents about the upcoming year. A situation like this would be a great way to get parents involved with a new form of technology as well. One idea I have for next year is to put a Wiki page on my classroom website to help parents and get them networking as well! Another idea would be to hold a class focusing on some type of application that anyone in the public could attend, I know my parents would have appreciated a class!