Step right up, Ladies and Gentlemen and check out the latest Carnival of Homeschooling: The “Adventure” Edition, which went live this morning. This carnival is being hosted by, Wolf & Tiffany Holley on their “Life on the Road” blog. Thanks for all your work!

I’ve managed to steal a few minutes to check out some of the submissions & them are great! There are some very talented people in the homeschool community, but of course, we already knew that didn’t we

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about new like-minded  homeschooling bloggers and make some new online friends.

See you at the carnival!

Several months ago, a friend sent me this quote from the late President Reagan:

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.“

I really liked it and yet, it really bothered me. A lot. I couldn’t get it out of my head – it just kept nagging me. But why? I can be a little slow sometimes, but eventually, I realized, God was trying to teach me something.

My grandkids and I began our home education adventure late in the game, so to speak. First, my granddaughter asked to be homeschooled in March of her 7th grade year of public schooling. I knew it was the right thing to do and a week later, we began. She needed to be home where she could excel, but, as I wrote in an earlier post, she also desperately needed time – a full year to be exact – to decompress from the stresses she brought home with her. Once she was ready, she went from a struggling student who was barely pulling a ”C” in most of her classes, to one who will graduate this year with a 4.0 (so far) GPA.

The next year, in October, my grandson also in 7th grade at the time, asked to come home and try homeschooling. He is now a high school junior and doing great! His interests and style of learning are as different as night and day from his sister, but being home educated has afforded him to learn his way and pursue his interests. I know in my heart of hearts, had he stayed in public school, he would have sunk.

Before we began home educating, I prayerfully asked God to show me His priorities. His answer was very clear: “Teach them about Me and My Word, be a Godly example and trust Me to lead you as you continue.”

I confess I get side-tracked sometimes, putting my agenda before His. But, Read the rest of this entry »

More and more, students, including homeschoolers, are using the internet for research. However, just because something is on a website does not mean it’s credible, reliable, or even true. For a few dollars, anyone can put up a website up, saying anything they want about any subject.

Netcraft, an internet research firm, reported in January 2009, that there are nearly 188 million websites, with almost 75 million of them active! Let’s look at these big numbers from a different angle: if you were to spend one minute, 365 days, 24/7 on each active website, it would take you nearly 143 years to visit all of them! Whoa!!!

Okay… we have nearly 75 million active websites, who is responsible for evaluating the reliabilty and accuracy of online content? Simply put, you are. There are no “Internet Police” monitoring websites and their content.  It’s up to you, the internet user.

The question is, how do we teach our home educated kids to whether or not a website is a reliable and trustworthy internet resource?

Helpful tips to determine if a website is a reliable resource: Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous post, I discussed that college education may not be right for everyone. For some, both parent and teen know with certainty, that college is the right choice and that’s wonderful! However for those who aren’t so certain, there’s another option that homeschool graduates my want to consider – The Gap Year.

Sadly, I’ve spoken with many college graduates who, after graduation, found very lucrative jobs, lamenting, “I hate what I’m doing!” Many confess they would like to quit but can’t because they are up to their eyeballs in student loan and/or credit card debt. Some consider going back to school to study something different, but still don’t know what they want to do. One recent college grad I spoke with, just up & quit her very big-bucks job, because she couldn’t stand it. Would a gap year have helped these students? I don’t know. Would it have hurt them? No, I don’t think so.

The gap year concept – taking a year off between high school graduation and college – is a growing concept in this country. Many high school advisors and counselors are now recommending it to their students. Furthermore, high schools have begun having “Gap Year Fairs”, showing and promoting the many opportunities available to a high school grad during their year off from formal education.

According to an article in USA Today, as colleges’ witness more and more “gappers” arriving on campus with sharper focus, motivation and maturity Read the rest of this entry »

We seem to go through printer ink like water and as we all know it ain’t cheap! So, if you can answer “yes” to “Using a lot of printer ink with your homeschool?”, I have some really good money-saving news.

About 1 1/2 years ago, we had a good friend over who was trying to help us with some techie-type computer issues. As he was working away, he noticed we had the same printer that he has at work. He asked me if we used a lot of ink. “A lot?!?” I responded, “We should buy stock in the company! We’d be rich!”

He went on to tell me about a great company, 4inkjets.com!, he had found for the purchase of his ink supplies. Said he, “Not only is the price about 1/3 less than what we had been paying,  the re-manufactured cartridges they sell hold almost double the quantity of ink. (He’s a real detail kind of guy and actually told me the exact amount of ink the cartridges held!) “And,” he continued, Read the rest of this entry »

Only recently did I become aware of the threat of a new law and it’s affect on our purchasing and/or selling used and/or new homeschool books or curriculum. I want to make sure you are aware of it as well.

In August 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Act was signed into law. As I understand it, the intent of the law, simply put, was/is to protect children ages 12 and under from children’s products containing unsafe levels of lead and phthalates. The law goes into effect February 10th 2009.

So how can this new law affect your ability to buy or sell your homeschool books and curriculum?  Read the rest of this entry »

HSLDA is supporting a first-of-its kind application for political asylum by a German homeschooling family.

More: continued here