Homeschooled Children Educate Public School Students on The Dangers of Smoking

The performance is designed to educate youngsters about the dangers of smoking; its puppeteers are six children who are home-schooled in Georgetown. They've performed their 25-minute show three times: once at a church and two other times at elementary schools in Georgetown.

After taking a break for the holidays, the group has a few shows in schools lined up for this month.

"From my kindergarten class to fifth grade, they all loved it and understood it," Ford Elementary physical education and health teacher Codie Johnson said. "I've already had other schools from Georgetown call and ask about them."

Read the article in the Statesman.com here.

The Definition Debate?

From Homeschooling and Public School at Home The Definition Debate?

Homeschooling in the News

Before Amy Huffman pulled her daughter out of public school in Hagerstown 11 years ago, she was the primary wage-earner in her family, working as a mortgage account executive.
Disillusioned with the education her child had been receiving, she pondered her options.

Huffman, who now instructs her six children, ranging from 1 to 17 years old, began by exploring some homeschooling classes

Read the rest of the story here. Clearly homeschooling isn't restricted to stay at home moms.

Setting the record straight…

Over at Home Education Magazine Mary Nix post Setting the record straight…

I Stand for Homeschooling

Unity ~N~ Diversity maintains we are Victims of our own success , I hope not. I think it is important that we distinguish between those of us who are independent homeschoolers and those who engage in virtual public school at home. I blogged briefly about it here. That doesn't mean that we can't work with virtual public schoolers, offer them support and befriend them. It just means that we are clear that there is a difference between being a independent homeschooler and doing public school at home.

Being clear and upfront that virtual public school at home isn't homeschooling insures that when laws are enacted regarding virtual public school at home they will not automatically apply to homeschoolers.

JJ offers insight into where home education is heading

JJ to Unity-N-Diversity on Where Home Education is Heading

Organization and Homeschooling

For me organization is key to homeschooling. I usually draw up lesson plans over the summer and during our Christmas break and very few things have us deviating from my plan. But I have found it helpful to give Lord Epa a certain amount of control over what he is required to do on any given day. So one week we may do all our Advanced Mathematics on Monday, History on Tuesday, Literature & Spanish on Wednesday, Physical Science on Thursday and Sociology on Friday and the next week we may do a more conventional one hour (or more) on each subject every day.

The few things that have us deviating from my plan.

1. The opportunity to participate in a field trip - in this case Lord Epa and I usually mutually rearrange the schedule to accommodate the field trip.


2. Illness - In this case we try to do as much as we can. Lord Epa will usually cheerfully do all his reading assignments no matter how bad he feels. When I am the one who is ill Lord Epa does as much as he can on his own and then as I feel like it we work on those things requiring my input. On rare occasions Hubby/Shining Celebi take over my role as teacher.


3. Unexpected family vacations - This usually requires changing our allotted holidays to fit the vacation. Our trip to Oahu was well worth the additional weeks of schooling during what would have normally been our summer vacation.

Homeschoolers NOT for Huckabee

Molly over at GetReligion.org post Homeschoolers all look the same to me. Wouldn't it be nice if the mainstream media would wake up to the fact that homeschoolers are a diverse group and not try to paint us all as evangelical Christians blindly following HSLDA dictates.

HT: HE&OS

Homeschool Politics

The Illinois Review brings us Homeschool Politics.

Public schooling in practice today is a socialist collective

Drop by Cocking a Snook to read Individualism AND — not VERSUS — Institutionalism and Individualism and Institutionalism, Part Two


“Public schooling in practice today is a socialist collective. Homeeducation is an individual repudiation of that collective. Every debate among us homeschooling individuals seems to rest on this tension between the claims of the collective and the yearning for self-determination — for ourselves AND our own children.

No wonder home education is viewed as such a threat by collectives like unions and government bureaucracies, who perversely claim they can strengthen and support individuals by subsuming them.

I saw this first hand when my local public schools went to mandatory school uniforms with no opt out for those parents who were opposed to dressing their children like clones. The number one reason cited by the school for this socialist program "to level the playing field".

Notes From A Homeschooling Mom: Free homeschool Book Giveaway

Notes From A Homeschooling Mom: Free homeschool Book Giveaway

OK, I hope I am following the rules. I am suppose to tell you Why I homeschool. Gosh there are so many reasons I don't know where to start. We started homeschooling because the public school my children attended enacted a mandatory public school uniform policy that we disagreed with. It didn't take us long to realize that homeschooling offered so much more then not having to dress our kids like clones. We enjoy the freedom to move at our own pace, the freedom to take vacations when it is convenient for us, the extra family time. There are so many pluses to homeschooling it's impossible to pick just one reason.

Exclusivism = Bigotry

Unity~N~Diversity post on how Exclusivism = Bigotry. Sadly enough most of the Christian Homeschool Groups I know fit this description to a T, excluding those of differing beliefs from their groups and homeschool resources. Then many of these same Christians who exclude those with differing beliefs from their exclusive Christian groups flock to inclusive and secular groups and try to take them over, leaving homeschoolers with differing beliefs with few resources and little support.

NewsBusters & Washington Post are both wrong

According to NewsBusters
In an article that is ostensibly supposed to be about the many Iowa homeschoolers that are supporting Mike Huckabee, the Washington Post pins the reason to the fact that homeschooling parents must hate Mormons!

Why do they continue to lump all homeschoolers together. Even though I am a homeschooler I don't support Huckabee, I also don't hate Mormons. In fact I have a good friend that is a Mormon. So the fact that I don't support Romney either has nothing to do with his religion.

I haven't yet settled on a candidate. Before I do I intend to look at their stance on all the issues, not just homeschooling.

Homeschoolers are a diverse bunch, who care about many different issues. To imply that all homeschoolers will support a certain candidate because of his stance on one issue does us all a disservice.

Kids compete in Lego League

The Sun Herald finally got around to reporting about the Lego League Championship (better late then never I guess).

The championship began with presentations in the morning when judges meticulously scrutinized every group of students, both on the quality of their designs and on their ability to work as a team.

After lunch all the students poured into the gymnasium for the live competition, with the best-scoring team winning the championship. Home-school students affiliated with the PEAK Home School Network won the championship this year.

Ideas: Home Unschooling: Theory

Ideas: Home Unschooling: Theory

HT: O'Donnell Web

College Info for Homeschoolers

My local Community College held a College Information Day for Homeschoolers. They seem to be eager to help homeschoolers transition to college and had lots of valuable information to provide.

We of course discussed scholarships, grants and loans.

But they also revealed they would take homeschool transcripts notarized by the parent, as long as you had the required Carnegie Units for graduation.

Here is a sample transcript modeled on the one I used to get my eldest son into college. This is not his actual transcript.

To find the students Grade Point Average (GPA) you add up the Credits (Carnegie Units), add up the Points then divide the Points Total by the Credits Total.

Points
For 1 Credit (Carnegie Unit)
A = 4
B = 3
C = 2
D = 1
F = 0

For 1/2 Credit (Carnegie Unit)
A = 2
B = 1.5
C = 1
D = 0.5
F = 0

Carnegie Units required to graduate vary from State to State, so check the requirements for your state. These are the requirements for Mississippi according to the Ocean Springs School District.

The State Board of Education recently raised the graduation requirements for a Mississippi diploma. The new policy adds one credit in Math to the requirements, bringing the number from three to four courses. At least one of the four required mathematics courses must be higher than Algebra I. This requirement goes into effect with the entering freshmen of the 2005-06 school year. The new state policy also allows Pre-Algebra to be taught in eighth grade for a Carnegie Unit, an initiative we are pursuing at the Middle School. Beginning with the freshmen of 2005-06, Mississippi will require 21 Carnegie Units for graduation; Ocean Springs requires 28 Carnegie Units for a regular diploma.

Wichita Homeschool wins Frontier Trails BEST Regional Robotics Competition

Wichita Homeschool of Wichita, Kan., won out over 33 other teams from seven states in the BEST Award category in the Frontier Trails BEST Regional Robotics Competition held Dec. 1 at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, taking the top honors for the third year in a row. Wichita Homeschool, however, was the first winning team at the Fort Smith competition to take home something more — scholarships for two students.

The Voiceless Homeschoolers

A Fundamentalist Christian Homeschool Blogger wanted to know why Secular Homeschoolers seem to be so hostile toward them.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they presume to speak for ALL homeschoolers. They make inane comments like

• All homeschoolers belong to H$LDA


• All homeschoolers support ____________ for President.


• Homeschoolers don't believe in evolution.
  

And other blanket statements, assuming that just because I homeschool, I am willing to walk in lockstep with them, I am not. It's bad enough that non-homeschoolers force myths and stereotypes on homeschoolers, it's downright infuriating when fellow homeschoolers attempt to do it. The homeschool community is just as diverse as the public school community, just as no one group of public school parents can speak for all public school parents no one group of homeschoolers can speak for all homeschooling parents.

Then there is the issue of homeschool groups. There are plenty of 'Christian' homeschool groups, that require their members to sign statements of faith in order to join. They make no bones about only wanting 'Christians' in their group and not wanting to associate with non-Christians. These groups mainly spend their time praying and talking about religion. So why do the members of the 'Christian' groups join inclusive and secular groups and then try to monopolize the groups with prayer request? Why do they get all offended when they are asked to conduct their prayers privately and stick to homeschool topics? Why do they intentionally or unintentionally try to discourage the very people the inclusive and secular groups were created for from participating by dominating the group with 'religion' and getting all offended when they are asked not to? They have their 'Christian' groups where they can pray, bash those of differing beliefs, and talk religion all they want, is it to much to ask that they not infiltrate groups that are created for those who want less/no religion in their homeschooling journey.

If those of us who aren't white Fundamentalist Christians sometime seem hostile, maybe it's because we feel voiceless and homeless. We get tired of explaining to others that just because we homeschool we don't belong to H$LDA, we don't support H$LDA's goals, we do believe in evolution and we aren't going to vote for so-and-so for President just because some homeschooling guru said we should. That the homeschooling community is a diverse community full of Pagans, African-Americans, Gays & Lesbians, Jews, Pastafarians, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and any other group you can think of. We get tired of being told we aren't good enough to join the "Christian" groups because they only want to associate with other Christians, only to have these same Christians join the inclusive or secular groups we create for ourselves. Don't get me wrong I don't mind Christians joining my group, I consider myself a Christian. I do mind them trying to turn it into a "Christian" group and driving my Pagan, Jewish and other non-Christian friends away.

"Homeschooling Grows Up"

A report called "Homeschooling Grows Up" by the National Home Education Research Institute suggests that homeschoolers tend to reach higher levels of education than the general population.

For example, according to the report, 50 percent of homeschoolers have some college education but no degree compared to 34 percent of the general population; 9 percent of homeschoolers have an associate's degree compared to 4 percent of the general population; and 12 percent of homeschoolers have a bachelor's degree compared to 8 percent of the general population.

Mike Huckabee and Homeschoolers - The WHOLE truth. ~NOT

Prowling around the blogosphere I came across this piece of nonsense at Think Aware.

Let's not forget that Mike Huckabee has the endorsement of Michael Farris who heads up the Home School Legal Defense Association, our number one line of defense. I personally don't know any homeschooling families who are not members, and I am a member for life.

I am a homeschooler and I am NOT a member of the Home School Legal Defense Association (H$LDA) and I don't give a rip who Michael Farris endorses. It really irritates me when Fundamentalist Christian homeschoolers presume to speak for all homeschoolers.