A new national PTA kit, "Math Matters; Kids Are Counting on You," can help all parents make a difference in their children's education. Suggested home activities include doubling cookie recipes, surveying and graphing family ice cream flavor preferences, filling in football "stat" charts, and other tasks easily performed on a…

This booklet is the sixth in a series designed to assist parents who are home-schooling their adolescent children and focuses on ways to provide encouragement to home-schooled teenagers. The articles in this booklet are: (1) "First Year Surprises," presenting one home-schooling family's experiences during the first year related to the nature of…

Block parent programs that provide homes where children can seek help in case of emergencies as they go to and from school are described. Programs in Phoenix (Arizona), Detroit (Michigan), and the states of Oregon and Kansas, emphasize cooperation with local law enforcement agencies. (PP)

The Partners in Learning Take Home Computer Program, which began in New Mexico in 1989 to extend the learning environment into the home, distributes 200 computers to families. Results of the program include a 90% rise in parent to school contact; parental involvement in schoolwork; and increases in reading and math scores. (JMV)

Describes different home-schooling options available to children with disabilities. Services of a special-education consultant are reviewed, along with services of the Home School Legal Defense Association, an umbrella school that provides consulting services to home-schooling families, and a public school home-instruction program. (CR)

Describes a home-based family literacy intervention with a mother and her four children. Highlights the importance of motivation and family involvement in developing literacy skills.(SR)

This article discusses home schooling gifted children, including reasons families choose to home school their children, laws regulating home schooling, the educational background of parents who home school, and curriculum options. Advantages and disadvantages of home schooling are explored, along with data indicating the higher achievement of home…

Kindergarten teachers in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, were given a daily schedule to follow which allotted time for teachers to work with large and small groups, but provided no time for individualized instruction. This practicum was planned and implemented to meet the need for individual attention for the 45 kindergarten children attending…

In order to establish an initial data source for elementary level home-based intervention programs, 18 dyads of second-graders and their parents were divided into three mutually exclusive achievement groups and observed while completing an instructional tool introduced into the home by the childs' school. Parent/child interactions were stimulated…

Research on elementary school-based programs for increasing the educationally stimulating qualities of the home environment was statistically synthesized in a qualitative analysis of 29 controlled studies. Of 121 comparisons made in the analysis, 91.1 percent favored treatment over control groups, thus pointing to the effectiveness of these…

This paper discusses the use of technology by families who home school. Issues addressed include the extent of home schooling in the United States, the use of computers by home school families; how the home-schooling parent learns to teach; how the parent helps children learn, including a discussion of unit studies; whether fathers as well as…

This booklet is the first in a series designed to assist parents who are home-schooling their adolescent children and focuses on the socialization of home-schooled adolescents. The booklet advances the view that pivotal social experiences plus daily age-peer contact are not needed to produce socially competent individuals, that real world…

This booklet is the third in a series designed to assist parents who are home-schooling their adolescent children and focuses on providing instruction and experiences in reading, writing, and mathematics. The articles in this booklet are: (1) "Developing a Writer's Toolkit," discussing ways to incorporate techniques used by successful writers to…

Lists 10 practical suggestions and literature sources for parents to use with their children, including creating a "reading and writing corner," playing word games such as "pictodictionary," taking children to the library, and using magazines and newspapers as sources of learning material. Lists newsletters, brochures, and…

When parents of learning-disabled nine- to eleven-year-olds (N=12) used a teacher-made game for a home program designed to provide additional practice on reading vocabulary lists, a clear and positive relationship was found between the number of minutes spent playing the game and the number of words learned. (CB)