Not Another Homeschool Blog

I woke up at 8pm realizing the alarm clock had not gone off. I pulled some clothes off and walked the dogs, yelling for everyone to wake up and get dresssed. I came in and made a quick breakfast (the same as yesterday) while preparing the roasted chicken for tonights dinner and searched for something to bring with us today for the pot-luck lunch at learning ops where the kids take fencing. Meanwhile I encouraged them to get some math done before we left at 11am and used the little time I had left to conduct a telephone interview. (I am still waiting to find out if I can use the persons name and likeness with the interview, or the website that assigned the article won't pay for it and I will have to market it to someone else.) I rushed through my shower when I was done and got the children to fencing on time. Then I ran back home to see if I had turned off the oven (where the chicken was roasting) and grabbed our cell phone. I stopped at CVS to grab some drinks and got back to the ...

After I dropped the kids off, I took some time and did a little shopping. I spent about 2 hours at Linens and Things and the dollar store and purchased mostly cleaning supplies. (when kids are home all the time, the house gets much dirtier.) I went home, had lunch and then tried to put my mind to my part time job of writing web content. Before I knew it though it was time to pick them up. We came home, and I went back to work from which I am taking a short break now. It is likely I will be up late as i am competing for a job as an about guide in addition to having a deadline tomorrow evening. Jackson is working on his math homework and project today and will probably go work out with his dad at 8pm... Jordan will probably snuggle into my bed near where I working and read while watching TV until she falls asleep.... which should be by 9:30.

(we are far from perfect, but as this day started well, I thought it would be a good time to record our lives hopefully all week) MONDAY MORNING I awoke to my new alarm clock ringing at 7am. (since hubby is working from home now, my old alarm clock... the garage door opening, is no longer functional) Pulled on my sweats, stretched, used the massage chair and walked the dogs. I got back in the house around 8am. I cooked breakfast of brown and serve sausages and French toast make from cinnamon swirl bread. By 9am My kids, husband and I were fed. It is now 10 am, and my son just handed me a worksheet to correct, and my daughter is working on her online curriculum . We need to stop working by 11:30 am so the kids can get to their Homeschool program

You may or may not have noticed that I insert time4learning links in my blog. That is because I am biased. I use and really love this program and I want others to know about it to. Here is our story. We started homeschooling in fall of 2002. I spent the entire winter before that reading as many homeschooling books that I could get my hand on, and having the kids try different programs, and sample programs after school. When the school was over, I had narrowed down my choices to the following: 1. ChildU.com 2. A series of books called "What your ___ grader needs to know 3. Do it yourself classical approach based on a book called the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia We spent the summer trying it all. In the end, as a novice homeschooler, ChildU.com just made my life a whole lot easier. It is a full, comprehensive online interactive program that allowed my already tech savvy kids to move at thier own pace. The other option while good, involved a whole lot of teaching on my p...

A whole lot! More and more top olympic athletes are homeschooled. If thier main focus is in athletics, then why not homeschool online , or with a tutor. Learning at home, or on the road, one or one can be done quickly, and effortly, and without interruption. Progams , both public and private exist to help the student athlete acheive state and national levels for thier grade . Very often, the homeschooled athlete can accellerate to a pace where they can finish before their traditionally schooled peers, providing even more time for them to excell in their sport.

Oprah validated homeschooling this week. Excuse my failure to happy dance... (no disrespect to Oprah Winfry) here is the article from www.hslda.org : HSLDA February 14, 2006 Oprah Winfrey Responds to HSLDA In response to our open letter to the Oprah Winfrey Show , HSLDA President Mike Smith received a call from Tim Bennett, the President of Harpo Productions. Mr. Bennett conveyed that there had been an oversight when homeschoolers were excluded from "Oprah's National High School Essay Contest," but that it was too late to amend the rules to include homeschoolers. Yesterday, HSLDA received a written reply from Harpo Productions, Inc. which recognized that "...homeschooling is an important contributor to the educational success of this country." HSLDA congratulates Oprah Winfrey for acknowledging that homeschooling is a viable educational alternative and entitled to equal treatment. I guess my question here is do we really need to be validated? Do we want to be...

here is a picture I will post more soon ... Excuse me but I am still working on making picture movies now back to "work"

The following story certainly made me feel uneasy about talking to strangers about homeschooling: Suspicious 'Truant Officer' in Sanford County A routine lunch for a Home School Legal Defense Association mother and her 8-year-old daughter at a local restaurant resulted in an unexpected and unwanted meeting. The lunching duo was approached by an older man who asked the mother why her daughter was not in school. When the mother replied that she homeschooled her daughter, the man identified himself as a school truancy officer and said, "I'm going to have to arrest you." The mother wisely decided that the best course of action was to ignore this man. After a few moments, he left the mother and daughter and did not bother them again. Later, the family called HSLDA. We called the school district with the name and description of the man. The school district immediately confirmed that he was not a truancy officer with the school district, and their truancy officer would n...