Not Another Homeschool Blog

Every other Friday night when assignments are due, I find myself cyber stalking my kids accounts to make sure their courses are entered.  If they are late, they will lose 10 points a day. Daughter forgot one test completely, so I sent her to do it.  When she was done, the score had not calculated, when it finally did she had a low grade.  Fortunately, it was just one of several quizzes this week.  My problem is that we could not access the site for a couple of hours today, so I don't know if the site was still having problems, or if she did not know the material.  I have been on the internet for enough years to know how software glitches work. (I made a note in her notebook about the site being down, just so that when final grades are issued, I can compare my notes to her grades to see if there is a pattern.  If there is, I will adjust accordingly.) Speaking of the site being down for a couple of hours, my son announced that all of his work was comple...

Georgia Cyber Academy was profiled on the local news. http://www.11alive.com/news/article/205836/3/Going-to-a-virtual-charter-school  That's all find and Dandy.  It is working for a lot of kids, although I also hear from a lot of kids it does not work for.   But, if it rocks your boat, go for it. But.... Please don't call it homeschooling. If public school at home, and homeschooling  becomes synonymous, people who want to homeschool without the governments help will lose their rights. Ok... so I need to add a disclaimer here. My kids are using Georgia Virtual School, which is individual classes provided online to all kids in the state, should they want to partake. It walks the line between homeschool and public school.  It is taught by public school teachers and paid for by the state, but the parent remains in charge of what the kids take. (I dare say that if we don't agree with a grade, we could technically re-evaluate the kid and assi...

I just finished my son's homeschool portfolio for his application to SCAD.  Included in it as a short syllabus from every course he's taken (or table of contents from the books he's used).  A transcript, a reading list, a resume of activities and accomplishments, and a writing sample...  probably his best essay to date. He still has to submit his art portfolio in hopes of getting a scholarship and write his statement of purpose.  I will mail it tomorrow, and am getting everything else submitted.  We are hoping to have his application in by the end of Sept because I hear scholarships are first come, first served.  We will apply to his second choice college in October.   If we apply to others, it will be in November. Feels good to have it done. But it doesn't end there... getting my second child ready to take the PSAT in a month. FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE   MY BUSINESS WEBSITE WalletPop Contributor Brighthub Contributor

Welcome to the September 13, 2011 edition of carnival of homeschooling. In reading the entries submitted to this Carnival of Homeschooling, I got to thinking about the different ways you can  categorize  homeschooling.  Then, I got to thinking that it's pretty darn impossible to  categorize.  After all, homeschooling isn't a segment of our lives, it IS our lives and to me homeschooling is more like living and breathing and less like a thing we do. Regardless, I did my best to present this carnival in bite size pieces giving you home stuff , school stuff , somewhere in between stuff , and other valuable stuff .  Enjoy! As a little bonus, I am including some FREE KINDLE BOOKS you can use in your homeschooliing journey.  You don't need a Kindle to use them. Home Stuff Cristina Payne  presents  Perpetual Motion  posted at  Home Spun Juggling , saying, "Contemplations on the loose tile in the bathroom." Fred L...

Actually, it's the other way around. So I have to confess that I just spent the last 3 days at Dragon*Con, " is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe!" Thanks to my teenage daughter and her friends who turned us on to the fact that our fair city hosts this ginormous convention every year where you can dress up as your favorite sci-fi or cartoon character, and get involved up to your elbows in the culture of all things intelligent and nerdy.  Sure, there was a palpable level of downright geekiness involved, but that was awesome too. Each member of my family had different interests and so convention fed us all.  For me, it was Star Trek  most specifically, The Next Generation and Sci-Fi Literature.  For my son, it was Gaming (video games).  My daughter, costuming (costume designing) and Manga (Japanese Cartoons).  For my husb...