Local Resource: School for Independent Learners

Photo credit: School for Independent Learners

Overview

School for Independent Learners is a private high school in Los Altos which focuses on individual or small group learning. Local Bay Area homeschoolers may find it helpful because it offers community for students taking its classes (including in-person labs), and it is open to hosting external students for AP and PSAT exams.

High School Classes: Honors, AP, Dual Enrollment 

Students can sign up to take high school courses through SIL anytime throughout the year. The classes may be regular, honors, UC a-g accredited, AP or college level (e.g. Differential Equations). Instruction is usually 1:1, or families can form with a few others to make a small class; either way, instruction is individualized. 

SIL also has a dedicated lab space setup, and can work with homeschoolers to create a tailored lab experience. For example, they had a student who wanted to do a series of lab intensives before going to college and designed a sequence that the student completed over a few weeks in summer. Homeschoolers who feel disadvantaged by lack of lab access will find this option attractive. 

Community

Beyond academics, the school has lounges where students can hang out between classes and try new activities. Also, students can form interest-based groups each year, which is also a draw for homeschoolers seeking to connect with other high schoolers. 

Exams: AP, PSAT and more

Depending on their course offerings, SIL offers dedicated exams such as AMC and AP exams. They may also offer PSAT testing, depending on circumstances. SIL students have first priority, but generally there have been enough seats for external students (e.g. homeschoolers). As with other locations, the key is to contact them early - in early Fall, they publish a sign up sheet for the exams they will offer which also lists their proctoring fees. 

Tuition

Because course instruction is highly individualized, it is hard to predict how much a course will cost, e.g. a student may speed through a year's of material within a few months. SIL charges by the hour - for 2024, the cost was $155/hour for 1:1 classes and $120 for group classes (they have no minimum hours requirement). There are also part-time and full-time enrollment options, although those options are probably less applicable to homeschoolers. 

Summary

SIL's model is closely akin to homeschooling so many of its strengths will be familiar to homeschoolers. 

Pros: 

• Personalized instruction to fit your schedule and preferred mode of instruction (in-person or online)
• Advanced courses especially in mathematics, plus full lab for hands-on sciences. 
• WASC-accreditation for those who need a-g courses through a certified school (note that private homeschoolers are usually admitted by exception for UCs so this might actually be more useful when applying to international colleges)
• Opportunities to participate in larger student clubs/groups

Cons: 

• Cost: Regardless of model (instruction per hour, part-time or full-time), a SIL course will likely cost several times more than any other option open to homeschoolers. However, SIL is open to working with homeschoolers, e.g. if they want to design a specific class together. 

Field Trip: Advanced Water Purification Center

Credit: Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center

Where: Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center (4190 Zanker Rd, San Jose, CA 95134)
When : All year (preference is given to Santa Clara and San Jose groups, plan ahead)
Who   : 4th grade and up

Cost   : Free

Notes:  Wear closed-toe shoes. Photos are allowed but not videos

It's hard to miss the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center. As you exit the freeway, the huge water tank (2.25 million gallons!)  looms in the horizon. The signage to the visitor center is clear, and there is a small parking lot (additional spots are available in a different area). 

When we arrived, we first watched a presentation to understand the reason for investing in water purification - of the water on earth, only 3% is drinkable and some is locked up in forms we cannot access, e.g. glaciers, or inconvenient to access. Santa Clara county gets over half of its water from reservoirs that are far away, which makes for a vulnerable water supply. Water reuse (currently 5% of water use) can reduce that vulnerability. 

To see water reuse in action, students can start looking for purple pipes when they are outside. In Santa Clara county, these carry recycled water - wastewater that has been treated so it is safe for irrigation and industrial use. Recycled water is non-potable, i.e. it is not suitable for drinking. 

 

Purple pipe = recycled water
Credit: Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center

Purified water is wastewater that has additionally treated and disinfected, towards a goal of being potable. Students were tickled to hear that purified water is being used in other parts of California including Anaheim (Q: Does Disneyland make its own water?  A: Purified water is not made at Disneyland but when you run a drinking fountain there, you may be drinking some). This purification was the subject of our tour, and we were eager to begin.

We first walked past some pumps where water was brought up to 40 psi and run through a filter which would remove items larger than 40 microns (human hair being 60 microns). Students had fun peering through the mesh and seeing if anything could go through.

Having removed large impurities, the first step of advanced treatment began - microfiltration. In this step, water is pumped through pipes containing strands of fibers. These fiber strands have small pores of  0.1 microns so that as water runs through, anything larger than 0.1 microns will be caught in them (Q: What would get caught at 0.1 microns?  A: Solids, protozoa, bacteria and even some viruses!).

Cross-section of microfiltration pipe

Arrays of microfiltration pipes

The next step of advanced purification is reverse osmosis. In this step, the water is pumped to extremely high pressure to force it across a reverse osmosis membrane. The membrane has pores that are so small that only molecules the size of water can go through - salts, pesticides and even viruses are left behind. 

With this treatment, the water is almost as pure as distilled water - this also means it doesn't contain the minerals found in freshwater so treated water is usually mixed with ground water for a drinking supply.

 

The final step in advanced water treatment is UV disinfection. Sunlight contains UV rays which can kill bacteria and viruses (specifically, UV-C rays can break down their DNA). Running the water under UV lights replicates this process and kills any living organism still in the water. 

The water is safe to drink after this treatment though to bring it up to state standards, advanced oxidation will be required. Since the Silicon Valley plant does not currently supply the drinking water system, it does not do this step at scale though there was a machine labeled. The reason for this step is to add another safeguard against chemicals that might still be present.

Finally,  the guide showed us flasks with the water from various stages of treatment - we could see the color shift from slight yellow to colorless, and water become clear/transparent by the end stage. As a challenge, we were asked if there were any volunteers to try the treated water. All the students jumped to their feet to volunteer! 

We would like to thank the Center for offering free tours to the community. As specified on the tour reservation page, students need to be 4th grade (preferably 5th grade and up) so parents with younger siblings should plan on alternate activities while their older students go along with the tour; happily, there are fun activities nearby such as Legoland Discovery Center in Milpitas's Great Mall. 

The tour is also suitable for high school students who can find out about careers in the water industry, e.g. while we could expect civil or environmental engineering, we were surprised to hear about job openings for biologists. The facility is sophisticated -  one aspect of the facility which amazed us was its quiet since everything has been automated including checking of various components for failure. High school students in Santa Clara county can also apply to be part of Valley Water's Youth Commission. 

Local Resource: Elite Prep San Jose

Photo credit: Yelp

Overview

Elite Prep is a private college prep school with worldwide branches, including one in San Jose. The school offers full-time as well as part-time enrollment options - this post focuses on offerings which homeschoolers might find helpful.

AP Courses

EOS offers blended courses - AP coursework is written by Apex Learning, a provider of asynchronous* (with some exceptions) online courses which have been AP approved by the College Board. Most courses are also UC and NCAA approved.  * Some courses are synchronous: AP Research, AP Seminar and AP world languages (Chinese, French, Spanish) since they require feedback throughout the year. 

Students will watch lesson recordings on their own, and submit their work to the portal for grading. An EOS teacher will check-in periodically to ensure students are keeping up with recommended pacing and they are ready for the AP exams in May. If labs are required, students can schedule an appointment to do the lab onsite during business hours, while an EOS teacher supervises. Science labs usually take two hours, so EOS recommends doing the labs as they occur in the pacing guide, rather than accumulating them in a week of intensives. 

Since the courses are asynchronous, students can start a course in fall, spring or summer. Prior to enrolling, EOS staff meet with families to ensure readiness, taking into account the student's workload and level of preparation (e.g. AP science courses usually require a year-long regular course). 

Pros

• AP exam availability: EP is a test site, and students get a discount on AP exam fees.
• Flexible schedule: students can start an AP course in summer, or take a break mid-course to travel so long as they maintain pace. Signups occur in July (for fall), September (for Spring), or March (for summer).
• EP provides a space and supervision for hands-on labs . 
• External accountability with EP staff - good for students who are learning to be independent.
• Can be used by charter schools since Apex is UC-certified to provide a-g courses
• Offers AP Capstone Diploma: students take AP Research, AP Seminar and 4 AP exams. This option is usually not available for homeschool students since teachers must be trained for AP Research and AP Seminar.

Cons

• Cost: Tuition ranges from $1450 (as of 2024) which is more than some synchronous/live online AP providers. Families still need to pay for books, lab kit and exam fee (though discounted).
• Quality: APEX learning is asynchronous, which students may find less effective compared to live classes. 

AP Exams

EP offers limited seats for paper and digital AP exams. Families should email sanjose@eliteprep.com in early October about availability - first priority for exam seats is given to students in EP courses. For 2024, most exams are $250, though some exams cost more ($350: Music Theory, $550: world languages). EP also offers late testing. 

Dual Enrollment

EP offers dual enrollment courses including Psychology and English. The courses are WASC accredited so they can often be transferred into colleges. For 2024, college courses were upward of $1525. 

High School Courses - Honors, College Prep and Career Technical Education

EP Honors courses are UC-approved, meaning they qualify for an extra point on UC's GPA calculation. However, note that extra points are capped for 11th and 12th grade; also the calculation applies for charter school students but not for private homeschoolers (who apply by exception). 

Other courses include college prep and CTE. Some college prep courses are approved as UC electives, meaning they meet requirement "g" for charter homeschoolers applying to UCs. CTE courses may be specialized (e.g. learning Adobe Photoshop or Unity game programming) or broad (Career exploration courses). 

For 2024, high school courses were upward of $1225. 

Summary

Elite's strengths are in its wide variety of course offerings, and blended model which allows students to do hands-on labs under supervision. Since EP has WASC accredition and/or approval from College Board or UC, it can be a convenient building block for charter school students. 

Since EP is located in San Jose, it is a 40 minute drive for San Mateo county residents; however there is ample parking so it could be an option for weekly visits combined with other South Bay errands. 

Field Trip: Bianchis Flowers and Pumpkins

 

Where: Bianchi Flowers and Pumpkins (243 Butano Cutoff, Pescadero, CA 9406)
When : October
Who   : All ages
Cost   : $6/student to pick a small pumpkin

One of the perks of homeschooling in San Mateo county is our access to the coast just 30 minutes away. Though the coast draws crowds during events like Mavericks Surf Competition and Half Moon Bay Pumpkin and Art Festival, we can visit at other times and places to see where locals live and work. When a homeschooling friend on the coast mentioned Bianchi Flowers and Pumpkins as a 5th generation farm, we jumped at the chance to visit and hear from farmer Bridget about growing pumpkins. 

Bianchi's is a short drive from Pescadero downtown, so it is easily accessible. Parking is readily available besides the field. When you pull up, you'll see some tractors which make for great photo ops, as well as their pumpkin stand with loads of pumpkin and squash types. 

We had arranged to meet farmer Bridget at the stand. She started with the history of their farm - it was originally a cabbage farm started by her great grandparents, before transitioning to be a beans and flower farm. However, they had to diversify especially after NAFTA was signed in 1994 - flowers from South America flooded the market at pennies to the dollar, and it took them 1.5 years to clear their stock of strawflowers. They cut back their flower acreage, and added other crops like pumpkins and tomatoes. Diversification also helps with the unexpected - one year, their crop was wiped out by cucumber beetles. It reminded me of Laura Ingalls's story of locusts in "On the Banks of Plum Creek", and how one year's work could disappear in a couple of days.  It also explains why farmers have to be good savers. Still,  Bridget loves her work though it's hard and at times risky. 

One of Bianchi's distinctives is that you can pick pumpkins off the vine - after picking, people have come to her saying, "I never knew that pumpkin plants had fuzz/bristles!". She passed out paper bags and scissors, and the children eagerly grabbed wagons before heading out into the field to find the "perfect pumpkin".  A handy tip: Start from the back of the field and work your way back toward the entrance.

Along the way, we passed rows of sunflowers and corn flowers they had planted..

as well as rows upon rows of pumpkins in all sizes and colors. It was difficult to choose!

For those who have trouble choosing, there are deals where you can load up a wheelbarrow or wagon and pay a flat price. It can be as full as you make it - Bridget chuckled when she described a family wheeling their wagon back with children and adults making a human wall around it so no pumpkins would tumble off. 

We were also thrilled to see the tomato plants at the end of the field. They were bent over with the weight of ripe Early Girl tomatoes, and we quickly filled bags. For the record, they make excellent salad tomatoes and you can roast them for a gourmet tomato soup. 

Back at the stand, Bridget weighed our tomatoes, counted up our pumpkins and gave us generous prices on everything. She also answered questions about the types of pumpkins and squash at the stand, e.g. white pumpkins, Cinderella and sugar pies are great for baking.

Sugar pie

Carnival

Carver (Traditional)

Cinderella

Decorative gourds

Lunch Ladies (how unflattering!)

Minis/Bee bees

White

Spider

We enjoyed our visit and highly recommend Bianchis. Bridget is a treasure trove of information - students can learn so much from talking with her. Its quiet atmosphere also makes it suitable for families who want less stimulation. As a plus, it is also close to R&R Farms so families can stop by and pick late season berries.  How thankful we are for the Lord's provision!

Farming is a profession of hope - Brett Brian

Field Trip: Journey to Work (San Mateo County History Museum)

Credit: San Mateo County History Museum

Where: San Mateo County History Museum (2200 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94063)
When : During the school year
Who   : 1st-3rd graders recommended
Cost   : $110 for a group, max 30 students per group

Last year, we had come across this field trip on the San Mateo County History Museum's list of school programs, and thought it would be a fun trip for the younger students in our group. Booking is straight forward - if you sign up for their educators' mailing list, you will be informed when they begin accepting bookings (April 15 this year) and you can pay online. 

As in our last field trip, the museum scheduled our field trip to begin at 9:30am, before its official opening time of 10:00am. Once inside, we sat down and went over some guidelines for understanding what a museum was, and the artifacts unique to this one. Throughout the museum, there are signs specifying which may be touched, and which may not. This is one area we are thankful to be a homeschooling group - with all the parents present, we tend to have a good chaperone to student ratio.  

"Journey to Work" is a permanent exhibit at the museum. When you enter through the doorway across from the gift shop, you step back into time to the 1850s. Immediately, you see a beautiful display of saddles, as a reminder of the integral role the horse played in the West.

Turning the corner, you see a gleaming stagecoach, considered the bus of the 1850s. 

The docent introduced terms like the whip (driver), and riding shotgun (guard). An interesting difference from today is that there was no common currency then, so how did passengers pay for their rides? (Hint: what had just been discovered in California?)

Yes, passengers paid in gold. It took 2 oz of gold for a wagon ride from San Francisco to San Jose, about $32 then. Considering that most people earned $1/day, a stagecoach ride was an extravagance. 

Another question that stumped the students: How long did it take for a stage coach to ride from SF to SJ? Given that it takes about 1.5 hours now with traffic, guesses ranged from hours to days.  Answer: It took 3 horses pulling for 6-9 hours. They would have needed to change horses at stage stops. Wikipedia has a list of Peninsula Mile Houses, including 7 Mile House in Brisbane and Halfway House in San Mateo.

Students could do a few activities here - they could use a scale to measure some "gold" (pyrite). They could also write messages and stick them to a "Message Tree" - since there were no postal service, and towns were small with the stagecoach stop being a hub, it was common to hang notes off trees and hope the recipient would pick them up the next time they were in town.

Messages from our group

How we paid for our stagecoach ride

To our students' delight, the docent then divided the group into smaller groups of 10, then invited them for a stagecoach ride. Once aboard, the docent demonstrated how the ride might have felt on the uneven roads by rocking the coach, to a flurry of squeals.  The stagecoach was expensive, and carried only a few passengers so it made sense that it would be succeeded by the train. 

The construction of the railroad from San Francisco to San Jose reduced the travel time to 2.5 hours. However, it was still expensive so it remained the mode of transport for the wealthy who worked in San Francisco and came back to homes on the Peninsula. 

While we sat in front of the train cutout, our docent told a thrilling story when Mr. William Ralston, once decided to race the train in riding from San Francisco to his home in Belmont. To his advantage: the best horses money could buy, and a path that avoided a hill that would slow down the train. Against  him: the superior horsepower of the train. Which would win? The story had us on the edge of our seats, and you would have to ask the docent or read the archives to learn who won. 

The docent also told us about carriages, the car of the 1850s. There was a spider phaeton on display, the race car of the 1850s.  Per Wikipedia, the "Spider" name came its agility in maneuvering just like in nature, and "Phaeton" from its speed after mythical Phaethon, son of Helios, who nearly set the Earth on fire while attempting to drive the chariot of the Sun.



All this was very well, but trains and phaetons remained the domain of the upper class. The middle class would not use mass transport until streetcars/trolleys, which was our next stop in exploration.

The streetcar ran from San Francisco to San Mateo. It cost less than a train and was pulled by electric cables. There are no streetcars left in San Mateo county, but you can still see them in San Francisco.

The driver of a streetcar had to regulate the power flow - he could make the streetcar go faster by increasing the power, but too much power would shut it down. 

Students enjoyed "driving" the streetcar, one at a time, before getting off to ring the bell. 

After that, we came to familiar ground - the automobile. Students were asked to find differences between a large Chevrolet car of the era vs the cars we drove nowadays. At first, it didn't seem very different but once the docent started pointing out the details, they came tumbling out - large wheels, tail light designs which were different for each year, optional seatbelts. One difference which caught our fancy was that the car could actually have a record player - because cars were so long and heavy, the ride was smooth enough that a record player could play without skipping.

Photo credit: San Mateo County History Museum

We then moved into the next room, Charles Parson's Ships of the World. Mr. Parsons, a hobbyist from San Carlos, had meticulously crafted 24 models of famous ships. Most of the details lay in the descriptions of the ship, so the young students didn't appreciate the ships as much but the docent made it interesting by asking them to pick their favorite ship and to tell her its name, source of power (sail, oars, engine) and why they liked it. Older students would appreciate this room - they will likely find ships that tie in to whatever period of history they are studying.

Chinese (Foochow) junk model

To wrap up, we went downstairs to the classroom where students made their own ship models. Here, they went to town - designing ships with multiple sources of power, and decorating them.

The students left, happily chatting about their boats and full of stories to tell back home. This was another excellent field trip by the San Mateo County History Museum, and we highly recommend it. 

Field Trip: Cultural Feast - SJ Japantown

"Shikata Ga Nai/It has to be endured" 

Our last Cultural Feast field trip for 2023 focused on Japanese culture. As with Chinese culture, we had to limit our scope because there is so much to explore about Japanese culture or its storied history. Poignantly though, there are only three Japantowns left in the US, all in California - San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. 

We hesitated between San Francisco and San Jose. San Francisco's Japantown is larger and has malls filled with quintessential Japanese items, while San Jose's Japantown has retained more traditional stores.  What tipped the scale was the Japanese American Museum in San Jose - they were happy to arrange a tour for our group. Initially we hesitated since our group was nearing 40 people and they could only guarantee docent availability a couple of months ahead, but it turned out to be fine.

Stop #1: Japanese American Museum San Jose

Our tour was scheduled for 10am, which is before the museum's regular opening hour of 12pm. This was ideal since our group could focus on the exhibits without worrying about disturbing others. A nice side effect is that we could park in the museum's parking lot; otherwise we would have had to pay for street parking after 10am. That said, there is free street parking a few blocks away. 

Japanese American Museum SJ (535 N. Fifth Street)

We were especially looking forward to the Barracks Room exhibit - a recreation of a family's lodging at the Tule Lake camp. From a photo essay, "“The barracks were hastily constructed and the wood was untreated.. As the wood aged, the floorboards spread which created a gap. The frequent dust storms would cause sand and dirt to come streaming through the gaps and it would get into all of your belongings...Void of any insulation, the barracks quickly cooled. Without coal for the stove and without blankets or bedding, all seven of us  spent the night huddled together on the floor for warmth."

Credit: Japanese American Museum San Jose

The museum also describes the contributions of Japanese towards the agricultural economy. A KQED  article describes, "..before World War II, the area around San Jose was dotted with hundreds of Japanese farms growing vegetables for local and regional markets.. Japanese sent to camps in 1942 had to liquidate everything they couldn't carry with them.. (they) left $22 million of crops in the ground across California."

Stop #2: Japantown Landmarks

Still, they endured, and they returned. Japantown San Jose has various landmarks with inscriptions encapsulating Japanese resilience. Unfortunately it was raining the day we visited, but we had planned a scavenger hunt for them, including the Nikkei Lantern. If your students are familiar with WWII history, ask them to look closely: " Etched in the bend of the lantern is”February 19, 1942,” the date Executive Order 9066 was signed.  This bend symbolizes the profound stress and dislocations imposed upon Japanese Americans during internment."

Nikkei Lantern: photo credit Japantown San Jose

Stop #3: Heinlenville Park

Docents at the museum had suggested Heinlenville Park (200 E Santa Clara St) for our group to relax and have lunch. Not only is it a quiet place to relax for lunch after the tour, it has informational plaques and art that tie back to Heinlenville's history as a former Chinatown, and its entwined history with Japantown. 

#4. Shuei-Do Manju

While the students relaxed, some parents went over to Shuei-Do Ma\nju (217 Jackson Street) to pick up some manju that we had pre-ordered. Manju are stuffed rice flour cakes, and Shuei-Do Manju has excellent credentials because they served the Emperor of Japan on his last visit. They post the flavors of the week on their Facebook page, and to guarantee availability, it's recommended to call ahead to reserve. For an explanation on manju vs mochi, see this SakuraCo page.  The following menu picture may help you decide, but it's still a hard choice because everything we tried was delicious. 😋

Shuei-Do Manju menu

#5. Nijiya San Jose

Another option for lunch was bento boxes at Nijiya San Jose (240 Jackson St). We are so blessed in the Bay Area because we have several ethnic markets to choose from. 

Credit: Japanese Snack Reviews

We had earlier reached out to Nijiya's manager for suggestions on bento boxes for our field trip, and they had replied, "If you happen to stop by at our store after the Japanese American Museum, I would recommend some rice balls (onigiri), some snack, and some ramune drink to go with for lunch at the park. We also have pre-packaged lunch boxes (bento), side dishes (sozai) and sushi if your students are familiar with Japanese foods. "

Nijiya bento box (photo credit: Yelp)

Bonus: Nichi Bei Bussan

We hadn't scheduled this formally because younger students would have been tired after the tour, but we recommend stopping in at Nichi Bei Bussan (140 Jackson St). Owner Arlene has wonderful stories to share: she was born in the Topaz internment camp, her brother had been born in the Tanforan holding center and her father had taken the only private footage available of internment conditions. She is happy to describe Japanese culture or the immigration experience - we hope she will write them down sometime.

Nichi Bei Bussan, photo credit NBstore.com

Speaking of memoirs, we highly recommend the following books:

Nissei Daughter, by Monica Sone

Recommended for middle/high school

Journey to Topaz, by Yoshiko Uchida (also the sequel, Journey Home)

Recommended for elementary school

Our current culture tends to embrace pleasure - we know about Cherry Blossom festivals, and perhaps some others like Obon and Nikkei Matsuri. But we shy away from pain, which is why books like the above are important. Besides being firsthand narratives of Japanese culture and history, they bear testimony of a culture that endured pain. We recommend the above in particular because they show grace and forgiveness. True, Japanese history has had dark stains (Lord willing, we will cover another perspective of WWII experience with future Cultural Feasts including Philippines  and Vietnam). However, we hope the books and experiences above will help us remember that we are all sinners in need of God, and with Christ we can forgive and be free.