Archive for the ‘News & Issues’ Category

Or something like that… I feel like singing  “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” from the Wizard of Oz because of the ruling IN FAVOR of Homeschooling in California.  It’s a good celebratory song, but it doesn’t quite fit.  ANYWAY…… for those of you who haven’t already heard, it is STILL legal to homeschool in California. Read the rest of this entry »

Being a homeschooler means that your children “go” to school whenever you want them to.  Often, we have days off when others don’t, and the reverse is often true as well.  There’s been plenty of Winter “Vacations” that we’re vacations at all for my boys.  That’s one of the nice things about homeschooling, we’re free to do what ever the heck we want, WHEN ever we want!

So today, as I was working in my office (by working I mean sitting at my desk doing pretty much nothing, because it’s a dead day for oversized transportation permits), I noticed that the kids that live behind us were still bouncing on their trampoline at 9am.  Then I noticed the boys next door were in our yard playing soccer.  What the heck was going on???

So I went to our lovely school district website to see what the heck was going on.  Right on their front page they have a little tiny news snippet saying ” Nov. 4th District Wide Staff Development Day”.  Of course there’s nothing saying what they heck that means or why it just happens to be on Election Day.  So I went surfing around the web to see if there were other school districts conveniently taking today off to vote.  Low and behold, they are!  I don’t think that they ALL are, but I think a huge majority of schools are taking today off.

The question is, are they taking today off to vote?  If they are taking today off just to vote, why are they doing this?  I mean, don’t the rest of us have to work during the day and squeeze in voting around our busy schedule?  And what about the burden this puts on parents who’s children aren’t in school?  How understanding are all those businesses going to be to allow their parent employees the day off to allow the local schools to send the teachers out to vote?

Voting is extremely important, but the polls are open pretty early and stay open pretty late.  My specific voting poll is open from 7am – 8pm.  So no matter when I decide to go vote, I’ll be able to.  I don’t see why teachers can’t do the same thing.

What do you think?  Do you think the teachers are taking today off to vote or for actual “Staff Development”?

With the internet comes a lot of wonderful things.  People who wouldn’t ever think that there is another person like them in the whole world, find that they are not alone at all.  I have found, that I am not the only single parent homeschooling, which I was sure that I was when I first started.  Now, I have 4 email lists that are filled with other single moms who homeschool.  We’re a small fraction of the homeschooling community, but we’re still growing too.  In fact, I just found out yesterday that a local friend had wanted to continue homeschooling when she got divorced, but didn’t know how, and didn’t know there was anyone who was doing it, so felt she couldn’t continue.  Although I live in a City of over 2 million people, we still found each other, and via the internet! Read the rest of this entry »

A while ago, I talked about wanting to write an article for the Secular Homeschooling Magazine about dealing with “The Talk” as homeschoolers.  I was able to get that done, plus a short article with answers from several experts in the fields of child psychology, pediatrics, and education on several tough questions.  The issue that these articles will be in will be out soon!  You can order your subscription on their site.  Along with my two articles, there will be others tackling tough issues such as sex, death, controversial types of homeschooling and a lot more. Read the rest of this entry »

This was a very interesting turn of events for me.  Just recently I became the Nevada State Rep for Time4Learning.com’s forums.   It’s a new forum where you can ask questions about any topic that you need more information on.  From questions about Time4Learning itself to questions about your individual state, whatever your question, there is someone there that can help you.

Come stop by and chat awhile!