The "Parental Intelligence" site

This is Bob Collier writing to let you know that the Parental Intelligence website has now become a static resource with the completion of a new home page, where you can view a list of everything that's currently on the website and read something of the story of the Parental Intelligence Newsletter. Every issue of the newsletter going back to July 2007 can be found in the Archive.

Please bookmark www.parental-intelligence.com for future reference.

Thank you for subscribing to and reading the Parental Intelligence Newsletter. Thank you for the pleasure of your company though we may never have met each other in person. Thank you for your time and your kind and encouraging words over the years.

I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to be of help to you in your parenting adventure and wish you all the happiness and success you would wish yourself.

Bob Collier
Canberra, Australia

A-Level Report by Sheffield teen

A-Level Results 2012: Home-Schooling Is Just As Good As School Argues Student Eli Ingle

Eli Ingle says his exam successes show it is possible to be educated at home right up to A-level.

Hundreds of families across the UK every year choose to take their children out of school and teach them at home.

But but very few continue this past GCSEs into the traditional sixth-form stage.

Eli, from Sheffield, already has two A*s - in business studies and sociology - and is hoping for similar high standards when he gets his psychology result later today.

He said he thought about going back to college for A-levels but he and his family had enjoyed his home education so much he wanted to carry on.

"To me, that was like going back to school in a lot of ways which was exactly what I didn't want to do," he said.

"So it just seemed like a natural progression to move on to doing the A-levels."

There wasn't a byline, but here's the article.

Malaysian Homeschoolers

This article has some great photos of Malaysian homeschoolers:

It takes a 'village' to raise a child
1 August 2012
By NORLIN WAN MUSA

http://parenthots.com/features/It-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-child.aspx

Minnesota article on unschooling

The DIY approach to education

Article by: ASHA ANCHAN , Star Tribune  

 http://www.startribune.com/local/north/161685515.html

India, one brave teen

Aditi Parekh persuaded her parents to let her drop out of high school, and in India that's a doubly impressive feat.

It can be cool to ‘unschool’
Vaibhav Shastry, TNN | Apr 22, 2012,
The Times of India online

and

Unschooling: Aditi Parekh's way to happiness

When Aditi Parekh ascended the stage at the TEDx conference, no one expected the teenager to have such an impact on the proceedings. Within moments of her talk, the entire audience was buzzing discussing the topic of her intriguing essay — the phenomenon of ‘Unschooling’.

Coined by prominent educator John Holt, unschooling refers to a philosophy that allows children to learn through natural experiences such as playing, responsibilities and social interaction, as opposed to the more conventional method of school educative systems.

Defense of Video Games and other obsessions in kids

Penn Jillette Is Tired Of The Video Game Bulls***, an article at game informer dot com.

A graphic with a quote from that article is going around facebook, and someone brought the link above as the source of the text.



(At SandraDodd.com there's a page called Focus, Hobbies, Obsessions : http://www.sandradodd.com/focus)

Euronews article

March 14, 2012,
http://www.euronews.com/2012/03/14/unschooling-the-new-class-of-learning/

Unschooling: the new class of learning

Good article, and there's a video there well worth watching and sharing.

Mayim Bialik, interviewed by Juju Chang

Hollywood Star Talks About Co-Sleeping, Baby-Wearing and Unschooling

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/03/hollywood-star-talks-about-co-sleeping-baby-wearing-and-unschooling/

The article begins this way, and ends with Juju Chang admitting her feelings about comparisons to the ways she was with her own very young children.

Mayim Bialik is not your typical Hollywood TV star. She may be the only “celebrity” who speaks out in favor of attachment parenting. AP is known for a back-to-nature style of parenting — “baby-wearing” and “co-sleeping” and literally meeting your infant’s needs by being attached them as much as humanly possible.

She’s still nursing her 3 1/2 year old, though she recently blogged about weaning him from the three-to-four feedings he was having every night. When I ask her how people react she says: “I know it’s unusual, but when you surround yourself with other women who are intelligent, educated, loving, have incredible children who they nursed well past three and a half, I can see that I don’t get to say what’s right for someone else.”

Mayim first won rave reviews as the young Bette Midler in “Beaches.” She starred in her own popular TV show “Blossom” as a teenager. Then at 19, she took the obvious next step and earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience at UCLA studying hormones and bonding and OCD.

In addition to the article, there is this:

Museums Welcome Home-Schooled Students

The Home-Schooled Don’t Just Stay at Home

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/arts/artsspecial/museums-welcome-home-schooled-students.html

New York Times arts section, 3/15/12

Casting a Wider Net: Why Colleges are Recruiting Homeschoolers

http://www.nseducationalconsulting.com/2012/02/15/casting-a-wider-net-why-colleges-are-recruiting-homeschoolers/


By Dori Staehle on February 15, 2012

What do Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, and Duke all have in common? In addition to being top-tier schools, they are just some of the colleges that actively recruit homeschoolers – and offer them scholarships.

What these colleges have discovered is that homeschoolers represent a very attractive talent pool: These students tend to be exceptionally bright, motivated, and mature. Far from being sheltered and shy (the typical stereotypes), homeschoolers’ applications reflect students who have traveled, taken risks, and studied some pretty intense topics. In addition, they tend to have impressive reading lists and letters of recommendation. Most have volunteered, participated in sports, the arts, and activities too numerous to mention. They are more than likely to have been dual-enrolled in both their homeschool and a community college and have numerous advanced placement (AP) and/or honors classes. Consequently, their GPA’s and SAT or ACT scores tend to be well above average (Note to naysayers: If a student has stellar SAT or ACT scores and a community college GPA of 3.0-4.0, this proves that the parents did not fudge the student’s transcript!)....