Homeschooling News Links



Loudon Times-Mirror

School Board debates letting home-schoolers take PSAT



The LaPorte Herald Argus

Home schoolers may soon sit in LaPorte classrooms



NewsNet5 (Cleveland)

Home-Schooled Girl Kicked Off Volleyball Team



Sun Herald

Lit class registration to begin



Modesto Bee

Truancy ruling on home-schoolers creates confusion



Worldnet Daily

Parent-directed education



Houma Courier Today

HOME & FAMILY: Homeschoolers find their niche



Miami.com

Home school to high school



Houma Courier Today

More parents opting for homeschooling



Pantagraph.com

Academy supplements home schooling efforts



Cape Cod Times

From classroom to living room



MidValleySunday.com

Who watches the home-schoolers?



Nunatsiaq News

The Homeschool Experiment



NorthJersey News

Cancer patient, high school at odds



Vancouver Sun

Community hall an alternative to long bus ride, homeschooling

Homeschool News Links



My San Antonio: Cartoons about homeschooling

Nacho Guarache #1

Nacho Guarache #2

Nacho Guarache #3

Nacho Guarache #4

Nacho Guarache #5



Houston Chronicle

Teens making the grade in medical school



Christianity Today

The little school in the living room grows up



Tech Central Station

Teach the children well



The State

Homeschooling new niche market



femai.co.uk

The Class Divide



The Dominion Post

Pennsylvania school board denies sports to home-schoolers



Daily Herald

Home, school one in same



The Republican Journal

Home-schooling up, SAD 3 enrollment down



The Washington Times

Online Instructors Conduct Classes



Herald Times Reporter

Students plug in to regional virtual school



Press Democrat

Simon Stumps in Sonoma



Newport News Times

Early enrollment shows loss of Eddyville Students

The perils and pitfalls of definitions



It is the nature of definitions that they limit.



How ironic, it seems, that trying to pin down a definition of homeschooling could impinge on our freedom to homeschool. But that is, in fact, exactly what defining it in law does.



Let's examine, for a moment, the alternative. If we don't define homeschooling, then anyone and everyone can call themselves homeschoolers. It seems a little silly to invite that possibility, yet trying to prevent it by defining homeschooling in law brings certain regulation.



If a state does not allow homeschoolers to self-identify — and by self-identify, I mean that they decide for themselves that they are homeschoolers, rather than having the state determine for them whether they are or not — then the state is regulating homeschooling in some way. In other words, if the state is not simply taking a homeschooling parent's word for it that they are educating their children, then the state is requiring homeschoolers to jump through one or more regulatory hoops to demonstrate or prove that they fit the state's definition of homeschooling.



We can't have zero regulation if homeschoolers are not allowed to self-identify. It's a messy reality.

More Homeschool News Links



Los Angeles Daily News

Home school issue unclear



The Claremont Institute

Home school backlash



Rocky Mountain News

Home schooling on growth spurt



Rocky Mountain News

Q&A: State reveals how to get started at home schooling



Times Record News

Learning curve



World Net Daily

Home-school battle heats up in California



Daily Camera

Women open store for home schoolers



WorldNetDaily

Public education vs. homeschoolers



Cincinnati Post

Home-schoolers worried about online academy



Pacific Business News

Maui-based virtual community targets home-school families



Abilene Reporter-News

Flexibility, control keys to homeschooling



Gates Chili-Post

Home schoolers hit hard by library cuts



Sun-Herald: Moms

Homeschool benefits outweigh public school experience



Education Guardian UK

Opting Out



Ames Tribune

Learning at home



Nevada Daily Mail

Learning in the living room



Greenville Herald Banner

Home school programs mark progress locally



Enlightened path

New school counters MCAS-based mentality



St. Petersburg Times

No place like home



Washington Times

The challenge of cyber schools



Tallahassee Democrat

Remy Shand at home on Motown



Anchorage Daily News

Murkowski speaks on education



Globe and Mail

Edmonton board embraces choice to fight cutbacks



Sun Sentinel

Parents in school groups will help



Modesto Bee

Private schools grow



Boston Globe Magazine

Encounter: Joe Perry

Homeschooling News Links



Boston Globe Magazine

Encounter: Joe Perry



St. Petersburg Times

No place like home



Times Daily

Enrollment decline costing area schools



Boston Globe

Enlightened path: New school counters MCAS-based mentality

Accelerated Unschooling



I have always equated unschooling with simply living one's life in a mindful way, free from the shoulds, oughts, tests, timetables and other prescriptions and proscriptions of the schooling world. So when a concept like accelerated unschooling comes along, I am truly dumbfounded.



Why would anyone want to accelerate life? I snarkily wonder if that would mean you'd end up dying younger. Ha!



Sure, if you or your children are bored, it might be nice to find more interesting things to do. And if you're just not managing to get things done that you really want to do, then arranging some sort of support or schedule to help you focus more on that could be just the ticket.



But the notion of a parent taking over the "motivation" (read "compulsion") aspect of learning because their unschooled child's interests just weren't quite varied enough, and their natural learning pace wasn't fast enough to suit the parent, is altogether different. Not a lot of trust involved there. The only remnants of unschooling in accelerated unschooling appear to be a nod to the child's interests, and maybe a lack of textbook type materials.



More often than not, I find my family wanting to slow down and take everything in, rather than find ways to amuse ourselves more and faster. And the risk is ever present that we might, in our excitement over something, sacrifice depth, understanding, mindfulness, and real connection, for speed and distance traveled.



Accelerated unschooling implies that living and learning is a race. It's not. That concept is totally foreign to our family's unschooling way of life.

California home-school fight goes public



Homeschooling father and attorney Will Rogers sent this heartfelt letter to the Washington Times in response to their coverage of California's intimidation of homeschoolers. His closing paragraph says it all:



"The fundamental right of a parent to direct the education of his or her child is older than the United States Constitution; it is older than recorded history. It is so deeply woven into the fabric of what constitutes a family that to deny this right is to do violence to the sacred bonds that unite a loving mother and father to their beloved child."

Homeschooling off the grid



I recently had occasion to explain how homeschooling works with our family's traveling lifestyle. Because laws regarding homeschooling vary from state to state, trying to comply with them could easily become a nightmare if we let it. Next time you go out of state on vacation - if you're lucky enough to get to do that - take a peek at how quickly your destination state requires children to be enrolled in school. Most states give you only a week to ten days, and a permanent residence somewhere else isn't any excuse for not complying!



Usually we find ourselves in a situation where it would take longer to comply with the homeschooling law than we would actually be living in the state. A ridiculous predicament, to be sure, and a sad demonstration of the burden homeschoolers in so many states have to bear.



Because we have the great good fortune to live in a free state homeschooling-wise, and can flee oppression elsewhere if the need arises, we have chosen a simpler route. We just go on living our lives, learning as we go, and ignore the legal hoops and chains that would only waste our precious time. In the past I have said that we homeschool underground. But how can I call it that when what we do is so deliberately out-in-the-open, and brings so much joy and light into our lives? We're living blissfully "off the grid" when it comes to school.

A slew of recent articles about homeschooling:



San Antonio Express-News

Home schooling today reaches beyond the house



The Ottawa Citizen (Canada)

Home schooling



TheDay.com

Storytelling family brings legends to life around nation



National Center for Policy Analysis (originally from WA Times)

California prepares to attack home schooling



Insight Magazine

Homeschoolers arrive on campus



Pioneer Press

Plan would shield home-school information



Hendersonville Tribune

'Battle Bots' attack apple festival



USA Today

As home schooling rises, districts fail to meet needs



Peninsula Daily News

Clallam: Homeschool band to help open Clallam County Fair



Sun Herald

Standing room only at homeschool seminar



Frontiersman

School district reaches out



San Diego Union-Tribune

Family finds success with alternative education plan



WXIA TV Atlanta

Home-Schooling Growing as Option



Washington Times

State eyes reducing home-school filings



Wellington Daily News

Bringing in home-schoolers



St. Petersburg Times

Young clogger hoofs her way to Brazil 



New York Times

If School Is Home: Web Help for Age 5



Tampa Tribune

At Home With Science



The Ledger

Disabled Child Home-Schooled With Voucher



Nashua Telegraph

Parents bring award home



Associated Press

Surf's up



Bakersfield Californian

Do-it-yourself school



Computer User Magazine

No place like home

NHEN contributed lots of contacts and info for this one. There's a link to NHEN and a quote from me in it.

Middle of the night is the best time for starting new projects, don't you think? We shall see how it goes.