July/August 2006

Homeschooling

Questions to Ask the Candidates
by National Home Education Legal Defense

As November elections approach, homeschoolers should try to find out the positions of the candidates on the issues of most importance to parents. NHELD has compiled a short list of suggested questions. Whether you use our questions, or make a list of your own, the important thing is to pin down all candidates regarding what they stand for and why homeschoolers should vote for them. Make them specify their positions, don’t let them equivocate.

Home is Where the Learning Is

by Valerie J. Steimle

One of the first things I learned when I pulled my children out of public school and started teaching them at home was that parents are ultimately the people responsible for educating their children. As I mentioned earlier, they go along in life sending their children off to conventional school assuming their children would learn all they need to know and not worry about it again.  It doesn’t always work that way.  I now have nine children and through them I have learned that they don’t always catch on the same way. There are more ways to teach one concept to a child.

Homeschool Teaching and Learning

Where Have All the Readers Gone?

by Dr. Renée Fuller

Something happened with that respected morning tradition; the reading of in-depth reports by The New York Times, The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal. Early each day many of us faithfully read the dispatches sent by journalists stationed all over the globe informing us about the latest world news. But then things began to change.

A to Z - 26 Activities for You and Your Child

by Kimie Bringle

Aa…Arrange all of the clothes in your child’s closet by color, from lights to darks or to resemble a rainbow.  Not only will you be teaching your child about colors and matching, it’ll give you a chance to weed out those clothes that are too small or no longer worn.

Six Steps to More Efficient Reading

by Annie Laura Smith

How can we keep pace with the flood of printed words that challenges us daily? Each publication often seems to be a priority. You have perhaps tried reading some of these publications faster only to discover you were understanding less. Or possibly you eliminated information and realized later you were uninformed in an important area. These are time-saving strategies, but not efficient reading techniques.

Writing and Responsibility - The Connection

by Dave Marks National Writing Institute

There's a responsibility when we write and this must be taught to children. They must see that their words give to people a picture of themselves. People know us by what we do, say and write.

Homeschool Family Life and Parenting

Making Chores Fun For Kids

by Cheryl Carter

Fun and children are synonymous so the fact that we must turn some things into a game should not surprise us. You may be wondering, how does making something fun serve a child long term? Ultimately, we want our children to develop the life skills of personal organization, self discipline and meticulous planning. These serious skills must be developed early and are easily adapted for children if they are presented in a an enticing way so it becomes a habit. Once the skill becomes habit, then we can remove the fun factor as the child matures to internalize his accomplishment.

Moving Became a Family Adventure

by Jon Remmerde

I finished my work on the windows of the intake house for the day and walked up to the house to see how packing to move from Oregon to Colorado was going. I had planned to start early, dispose of everything we decided not to take with us, pack everything quickly and efficiently, and begin loading our pickup and a rental truck early. I was in the habit of treating a move as something to get through, a necessary but not very pleasant way of getting from one place to the next, with tension created by a sense of fleeting time, and without a great deal of joy in the process.

Feels Like Home

by Dawnelle Breum

If you’ve moved, you know the feeling of unfolding a new map at a stoplight, trying to figure out how you got lost running errands. You know what it’s like to walk through the store, knowing you won’t bump into anybody you know because you don’t know anybody.

Divorce in the Family

by Shirley M.R. Minster, MS.Ed.

Part I
A pastor once said that every family has been touched in some way by divorce, either in the immediate family or the extended family. God established the family unit to be father and mother raising their children together. When divorce occurs, insecurity, anger, fear, and mistrust are on the short list of emotions that both parents and children experience. My hope in writing the following is to give direction to parents in divorce situations.

Viewpoints

A Study in Critical Thinking (Looking at Compulsory Education and the Push for an Earlier Start)

by Wayne Walker

When compulsory school attendance laws were originally passed beginning in the mid to late 1800's and into the early 1900's, many states did not start compulsory attendance until age seven because it was commonly accepted that a lot of children were not developmentally able to handle the stress of school at ages five and six.