There is such freedom in homeschooling, just one of the many things I love about it! One such freedom is all the options we have to decide what our kids study and how they study it. An option that many who homeschool highschool students may not be aware of is the “block plan” also nick-named the “Colorado Plan“.

As you might guess, this concept took root in Colorado at Colorado College in 1968. Their motto: “one thing at a time.” At a committee meeting, professors were discussing their concern that students were feeing pulled in too many directions at a time, i.e., spread too thin, depleting them of both time and energy. As a result, they felt that students were spending more time juggling schedules than learning. (Kind of sounds like public highschool students, doesn’t it?)

They wanted their students to have the time to be able to deeply grasp the subject they were studying, rather than doing only what had to be done in order to meet the requirements of all their other classes.

And so the Colorado Plan, which has come to be known as the Block Plan was born. 40 years later it is still used and considered a great success. As listed on the Colorado College site, these are the benefits they believe the Block Plan offers: Read the rest of this entry »

Hot off the presses! Finally!!! 50 Best Websites for Homeschooling Highschool is a directory that I have been working on for months and finally it is ready – yea!!!!

This terrific resource (if I do say so myself ) features 50 of the best and FREE online resources for home educated highschoolers.

When we began homeschool smack-dab in the middle of the school year, I frantically searched the web for sites appropriate for teens. I easily found a lot of information for younger grades, but finding sites appropriate for the middle or high school ages proved considerably more difficult.

As a result, I specifically targeted sites offering high school level information, lessons, etc., for this directory. The cool thing is many, if not most of these sites, Read the rest of this entry »

A little over a week ago, a California Appellate Court issued a disturbing order that could have chilling and far-reaching effects for homeschoolers across the country. If you are unaware of this court ruling, please take the time to read the first two posts in this series.

Update:

1. Yesterday, Friday, March 7, Focus on the Family pre-empted their scheduled broadcast to devote the program to the CA homeschool court ruling. With a panel of four, they discussed what the court order was, what it means to homeschoolers in California and across the nation. We all need to pay attention to what is going on! As Dr. Dobson said on the broadcast,

“What has occurred in California, as in the past, has a way of seeping its way into the fabric of the nation.”

I couldn’t agree more – the outcome of this ruling can have a tremendous impact on homeschoolers’ freedoms across the nation. If this ruling stands, homeschooling parents could be found guilty of a criminal offense! Read the rest of this entry »

Good Monday morning everyone!

Drum roll please…….Announcing…..

I am beginning a free through Homeschool through Highschool newsletter. I am starting with the intent of producing it monthly and take it from there. My desire with this newsletter is to continue to offer further encouragement, support and help to make your home education experience easier & better

To sign up, simply enter your first name and email address in the boxes below or to the right where it says “Subscribe to free HTH Newsletter.”

If you haven’t had a chance to read the World Net Daily article noted in yesterday’s post, Judge orders homeschoolers into government education, it’s critical that you do so now. Also, one of our readers, Crimson Mom, has written an excellent & very informative post on her blog regarding this court ruling that has potentially far-reaching effects for homeschoolers’ freedoms everywhere. May I strongly encourage you to read her post as well: CA Judges: Parents Have No Constitutional Right to Homeschool.

As noted in yesterday’s post, Randy Thomasson, of Campaign for Children and Families, commented that the government school system sometimes lies to parents about homeschool law and sited an incident where a parent was told three specific lies. Ending my post yesterday, I said I would share regarding my experience when we pulled our granddaughter out of public school to home educate her.

In all fairness, I have to say that I don’t think that all public school officials intentionally lie about the law, I think that sometimes, perhaps many times, they just don’t understand the law. In our state, PA, the homeschool law is very ambiguous and has many interpretations. Thankfully, before bringing our granddaughter home, I had done a fair amount of research and believed I had a good grasp of the PA homeschool law.

Appropriate papers in hand, knees knocking, Read the rest of this entry »

Heads up, parents….

According to a February 29 article on World News Daily, a California homeschooling family has been ordered by the court to put the two youngest of their eight children into the public school or a “legally qualified” private school.

According to the article:

“the trial court had found that “keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where (1) they could interact with people outside the family, (2) there are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children’s lives, and (3) they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents’ ‘cloistered’ setting.”

The court determined that homeschooling based on religious reasons was inadequate and that “California’s compulsory public school education law” did not violate first amendment rights. Read the rest of this entry »

If your child has special needs and/or suffers from a learning disability that seriously hampers his ability to stick to a routine, then homeschooling is your best choice. Not only will he or she be at home with you in a loving, flexible environment, your child will be gaining a quality education, without the attached stigma disabilities often bring in a public school setting.

As his or her parent, you know your child best and can adapt the learning style to best fit his or her needs. Learning from a textbook while sitting at a desk is not the only way to learn and often times is one of the least effective – for any child – especially for long-term retention.

Goal setting is an important part of homeschooling a child with disability. Try establishing a set the number of working hours per week for the child, but allowing for those “bad days” – we all have them. Read the rest of this entry »