Tasha Tudor, Former Homeschool Mom

A 92-year-old former homeschool mom passed away last week.

You may have heard of her. Tasha Tudor was an award-winning illustrator of books who was known for her love of the past. For most of her lifetime, she lived as though it were the 1830s instead of the 20th and 21st centuries, shunning modern inventions for a lifestyle very similar to that of the Amish.

Long before it was fashionable, Tasha Tudor homeschooled her four children. She often sketched them as they played and used the illustrations in her work. One of her sons would eventually build her a house, by hand.

I have a lovely book of hers called Take Joy! The Tasha Tudor Christmas Book that is just wonderful. It’s full of Christmas stories, poems, music and recipes, but what makes it so special are the illustrations. They make the book so warm and homey.

Tasha Tudor’s lifestyle did not go unnoticed by members of the homeschooling community, some of whom admire and emulate a similar lifestyle of simplicity and the shunning of modern culture. A while back, Practical Homeschooling Magazine published an article about Tasha Tudor, written by a homeschool mom who once worked with her on a book.

You would probably recognize Tasha Tudor’s work in certain editions of old books that your children might have, including The Secret Garden (HarperClassics) and A Little Princess. You can learn more about her work at the site run by her family, Tasha Tudor and Family.

Homeschooler Gets Full Ride to University of Chicago

Ok, so I'm always reminding (nay, nagging) people to check out each week's edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. There's a reason for that: you'll find awesome posts there!

Take this week's edition, for example. Lots of good stuff, but one post in particular stands out for me. A new blogger shares her family's homeschooling journey, which includes the news that her son (a bright guy who scored 35 on his ACT and 2300 on his SAT) has been awarded a full scholarship to the University of Chicago.

In case you don't know, that's not some lame Mickey Mouse college. It's an excellent school with a fantastic reputation. This is a great story that should encourage current and prospective homeschoolers everywhere.

No, I'm not linking to it. Go to the carnival and search for it yourself. Bet you'll find lots of good stuff while you're there. :)

Used Homeschool Books blog

Just a reminder that I continue to post a book for sale each day at my other blog, Used Homeschool Books, as I go through the many boxes of books that moved here with us and force myself to part with most of them (we've downsized).

If you especially like vintage textbooks, scroll through the posts...there are still a few left. (Books that have been sold have a notation in red at the end of the post, where the price had been.)

There are also some more recent books. Tomorrow's book is a pretty popular one, so don't miss that post! You can subscribe to the blog by email if you want to be among the first to see each book as it's posted. You can also look up books by topic using the labels on the right side of the blog.

The Perils of Using the Internet for Research, and the Solution

In Scotland, a parent-teacher organization is blaming the Internet and specifically Wikipedia for the falling test scores of Scottish children.

Let's set aside the discussion of test scores; that's a huge issue in itself, and one I don't want to go into right now. It's the rise of the Internet and the way kids have figured out how to use it to their perceived advantage that interests me.

When I was in college, one of the so-called advantages of the Greek (fraternity/sorority) system was that its members had access to the completed tests and essays of past members. Thus they could memorize test answers instead of learning what was presented in class, and re-type the essays of others inside of writing their own. This saved those students all sorts of work; we who were not "Greek" felt it was an unfair advantage. But the bottom line was that these students didn't learn anything because they didn't have to read the assigned books, nor did they learn via the process of assembling information and giving it back to their professors in the form of essays.

I imagine that frat house filing cabinets are collecting dust now that kids have the Internet. There are sites where they can go to find prewritten, high-graded essays that they can pass off as their own, thanks to the cut-and-paste function.

And for the times when they actually have to do their own research and writing, there are sites like Wikipedia. Savvy teachers probably check Wikipedia's take on the assigned topic before they correct the essays so that they can tell who's been playing cut-and-paste there. But this doesn't solve the problem, which is that kids are wasting their time and not learning anything, at least not much that's accurate.

One solution to this would be to require kids to write their essays while in the school library or classroom, using the books and materials available there, with no Internet access. With a tool like the Neo (which I own and highly recommend), students could type their essays and never get near a computer.

For homeschoolers, this is much simpler. We can supervise our kids more easily than a teacher can keep tabs on thirty kids. By requiring our kids to use printed matter only for research, they will learn the material and develop writing skills in the process, because we've removed the temptation of the Internet.

But printed matter can be dated, and we've become accustomed to the immediacy of the Internet. Isn't there some way to take advantage of that immediacy?

The good news is that there is. By requiring our kids to use primary sources and reputable secondary sources, we can avoid the problems that are going on where kids are allowed to use Wikipedia and other sites that have proven to be inaccurate.

On the Internet, primary sources are sites where the information is first generated. For example, for the activities of our president, kids can visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/. Further government info can be found at http://www.usa.gov/. For government statistics on employment and information on the labor market, go to http://www.bls.gov/.

Secondary sources are trusted entities that access primary sources. A large city newspaper like The New York Times or the Chicago Tribune is considered a secondary source. Newspapers are not as trusted as they once were; recent cases of lying reporters have tarnished their image, and budget cuts have forced them to reduce the number of editors who check on the sources used by reporters. Still, quoting a large newspaper should be considered fairly accurate, and certainly much better than Wikipedia.

This is not to say that Wikipedia is not useful. I've allowed my teen daughter to use it as a jumping-off point, as it gives her a quick briefing on a topic. But she is then required to back up what she finds with research from trustworthy sources.

Sympathy for the Teachers

I know, you think I've lost my mind. I'm the one usually posting articles about abusive, crazy or pedophile teachers. And yet today I'm offering sympathy to teachers.

There certainly are bad teachers out there. I suffered through many of them during my years of incarceration, er, public school. But I'm aware that there are some good teachers who struggle to help kids within the framework of a flawed system.

A couple of them are friends of mine, and the one consistent thing I hear from them is that parents can often be harder to deal with than students or administration. One friend has actually gotten into shouting matches with angry parents who want her to raise their children's grades even though the children have not put forth the effort required for higher grades.

But even if some American parents cross the line when it comes to being obnoxious to their children's teachers, apparently Japanese parents are even worse. Read this article and see if you don't feel even a little sorry for teachers in Japan.

Wanted: Common Sense

Are we raising children with common sense?

The ability to think for yourself based on what you see going on around you is not as common as its name would suggest. And when it's purposely snuffed out, as adjunct college professor AWR Hawkins suggests in this essay in American Thinker, the result is this:

Our society as a whole seems to have accepted the mental framework which holds as a maxim the idea that we are not allowed to know what we know; rather, we are only allowed to know what we are told. As a result of this, although common, decent, everyday people see their beloved culture eroding and intuitively sense that something is not right, they dare not declare that this downward cultural slide is wrong. Instead, they just keep their mouths shut, without realizing they are keeping their minds shut as well. In the end, others speak for us, and this explains everything from our over-reliance on the judicial system to our dependence upon experts for many everyday decisions.

If Hawkins is on target, then raising kids with common sense is simply a matter of what you don't do: you don't snuff out individual thought, but instead encourage it. You don't insist on going to experts but instead urge your children to educate themselves. And you can't insist that B is true when all the child has to do is open his eyes and look around to see that, in fact, A is the real truth. By doing so, they won't end up like Hawkins' students:

My students, and with few exceptions the students of my colleagues, are the fruits of a garden planted with the intention of producing only identical fruit. As a guarantee to that end, the plants in this garden have been pruned of their trust in innate knowledge, i.e., common sense.

Common sense used to be common. I'm hoping that homeschoolers will help make it the norm again.

This Week's Carnival of Homeschooling: Let's Go to the Movies!

This week's carnival has a great theme: "Let's Go to the Movies!" I love how she has mixed the movie quotes with the posts. Speaking of the posts, there's quite a variety this week. So be sure to make time to visit the Carnival of Homeschooling over at Apollos Academy.

The Skydiver with Down syndrome

This is the coolest story about a young man with Down syndrome who loves to go skydiving. (Gulp!) The video, in particular, is just so good. The joy in Casey's face is just wonderful to see.

For those of us who have kids with disabilities, hearing about adults like this encourages us, even if we'd rather not see any of our kids, disabled or not, go skydiving.

(Hat tip to Ann M.)

The Newsletter is Up

I sent out the June newsletter right before I took the week off, so I didn't get a chance to post the link to it here until now. If you're a subscriber who doesn't check your email very often, be aware that this was your last issue if you haven't already renewed.

To renew your subscription, just fill out the form you'll find here. If you're new to the newsletter and want to subscribe, you can use the same form. All renewing and new subscribers will receive our latest special report, "Ten Tips for Coping with Temperamental Teens," once they confirm their subscription.

The next issue won't be out until mid-to-late July because I'm working on a new book and need to dedicate some time to it. I don't usually do monthly newsletters in the summer because most people are so busy with things besides homeschooling anyway.

A Bit of Gatto Before I Go

Children learn what they live.
Put kids in a class and they will live out their lives in an invisible cage, isolated from their chance at community;
interrupt kids with bells and horns all the time and they will learn that nothing is important;
force them to plead for the natural right to the toilet and they will become liars and toadies;
ridicule them and they will retreat from human association;
shame them and they will find a hundred ways to get even.
The habits taught in large-scale organizations are deadly.

That's by John Taylor Gatto, and he cuts right to the chase, doesn't he? Here's a quote from a review of one of his books over at Amazon:

I wish I'd read this while I was in school; I'd have seen then that there was something wrong with the system, not me.

That's heartbreaking. How many adults were wounded by school when they were children? Gatto knows. He taught in the public schools for thirty years. When he was given the New York State Teacher of the Year award, his acceptance speech (pdf) was not exactly what they were expecting! It was a criticism of the institution of school.

I'm thinking about Gatto today because I mention him in a new article just posted to my Web site. I also have plans to re-read a lot of Gatto this summer.

Summer for me officially begins on Saturday, because tomorrow is our last day of school until after Labor Day. I plan on starting off my summer with a week off of work (that means this keyboard), so I won't be posting here for about ten days....if I can stay away. ;)

Don't Miss the Carnival!

Tami's got a great collection of posts over at this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. Whether you're looking for homeschooling information, encouragement or both, you won't want to miss this!

There's More to Education Than Smarts

Homeschoolers have developed quite a reputation for being smart. After all, they're winning spelling and geography bees, and colleges are actively recruiting them.

But it's not enough to be smart. I think a look around our society these days shows there is a great lack of good moral character. Think of the people who make the news with their bad behavior: celebrities having affairs and using drugs, corporate CEOs making off with millions while leaving employees and shareholders to suffer, and politicians spending their spare time misbehaving in public restrooms.

Once in a while, the fact that these are immoral behaviors is pointed out. Take an excerpt from this article, for example, describing what happens when a GM stockholder attends the company's lavish annual meeting:

According to an Associated Press calculation, GM chairman and chief executive officer Rick Wagoner received compensation valued at $15.7 million for 2007, up 64 percent from the previous year.

"I came to scold you for your greed," Mary Ann Wiley of Seattle told Wagoner.

Wiley, 77, said she has owned General Motors Corp. stock for 70 years, but that Tuesday marked her first annual meeting. Wiley said afterward that GM has moved far too slowly in developing new and better products and embracing next-generation fuels, and that management should not receive higher salaries and bonuses when the company is struggling.

"If the company does not do well, management should take an equal hit, and I don't think they've taken an equal hit," she said, adding that GM has grown so big that it has lost its humility and its "sense of democracy," not caring about shareholder concerns.

"This was a charade," said Wiley, looking out over the ornate Gold Ballroom of the Hotel DuPont, where GM has held its annual meetings for more than a decade.

"I would suggest they have a stockholder meeting at a factory," she said. "They don't need to rent the DuPont hotel."

Mind you, this is a company that sustained a $38.7 billion loss last year, and just today laid off thousands of people in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and yet its CEO had no qualms about accepting a 64% raise. Bravo for people like Mary Ann Wiley, who is not afraid to confront this man and this company.

We need leaders in business and politics who do not put themselves first, but instead try to make things better for everyone. If we can educate our kids to be ethical and moral as well as great spellers, we will have done right by them, and also by our country.

Getting an Education in Driver's Ed

It’s been a while (eight years, to be exact) since we signed up one of our kids for Driver’s Ed. I’d forgotten what it’s like. Your offspring's first few times behind the wheel can test your nerves and rev up your prayer life, that’s for sure.

Dd17 is doing fine, though, and it’s interesting to get her take on the classroom portion of the instruction. We’re using a private driving school because Driver’s Ed is not offered in the public schools here as it was where we used to live. As a result, the class is not run by the school district yet is full of kids from the public schools. If there’s another homeschooler in her class, dd is not aware of it.

Each time she comes home from class, she thanks me for homeschooling her. I remember my son doing the same thing when he took Driver’s Ed at the local high school. He used to come out to the car where I was waiting and say, “I feel dumber.” This might have been because the teacher (a coach) breezed through the material and then showed the kids movies (popular movies, not driving instruction movies.) This went on for an entire semester.

Dd is surprised by the amount of wasted time in class. She’s used to working efficiently, and the classroom is not at all efficiently run. Sometimes the class doesn’t start until 15 minutes after it is supposed to start. The teacher sits up front and says, “Let’s wait in case there are latecomers.” There might be one or none. Nevertheless, she does this each class. Considering the classes are only two hours long, that’s a good-sized chunk of time lost at the beginning of the class. And yet sometimes, the kids are released early.

This is not a good thing, because the classes are held at night. Dd can call us to pick her up early, but it’s 15 minutes away, so she is left waiting there in the dark with a few other kids. As a result, her dad has taken to waiting in the car with a book. This means he’s right there whenever the teacher lets the kids out, and it also saves gas (one round trip instead of two). But it also means he loses 2 ½ hours to Driver’s Ed. Starting this weekend, the classes will run ten nights in a row. Losing that much time is going to get old. We’ll have to take turns bringing her to class.

So it’s not very convenient for us, but it’s important for her, and not just in order to get her driver’s license. I can see with her, as I did with her two older siblings, that having a classroom experience for the first time (excluding Sunday School) is a real eye-opener. If you want your child to appreciate homeschooling, sign them up for the classroom portion of Driver’s Ed!

Survivor: The Kindergarten Edition

I am appalled by this story: a boy in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's was voted out of his kindergarten class by 14 of his 16 fellow students, after his teacher put him in front of the class and asked each child individually whether the boy should stay or go.

Here's a video report of this story, where you can see the boy and his mom. After watching this video, I have so many thoughts:

1) What kind of teacher humiliates a small child like this? She must be mentally ill.
2) Why would this child's mother humiliate him further by discussing this traumatic event on national television with him present the entire time?
3) What has the teacher taught her students about dealing with people with disabilities? Vote 'em out!
4) Is this an example of how mainstreaming a child with special needs can sometimes disrupt the classroom and therefore the learning experience of the other students, resulting in resentful children and an exhausted teacher?
5) I wish I could congratulate the parents of the two kids who voted no on raising such kind-hearted children.
6) How thankful am I that I can homeschool my disabled son so that he cannot be humiliated like this? Incredibly thankful.

Rejecting Fanatic Feminism in Favor of the Joy of Motherhood

Imagine having a mother who's a famous feminist (and author of The Color Purple) and believes that having children turns women into slaves. She treats you with annoyance, when she's not neglecting you, because she sees you as a millstone around her neck. You are raised believing that you are one, and that any children you might have will be millstones, too.

And then, in your mid-30s, you have a child and you fall in love with him from the moment he's born. You begin to wonder how your mother could believe what she did about being a mother. But you can't ask her this, because she cut you off once she found out you were having a baby.

Rebecca Walker's story is amazing; don't miss it.

What Happened to Andrea Jaeger?

Maybe you remember her. I do, because she's from Chicago, where I'm from. Andrea Jaeger was a famous tennis player from age 14. She had fame and fortune, and she was miserable.

And now she's not. Post-tennis, she started a foundation for kids with terminal cancer and then became a nun. Read her story if you want to feel good, because it's wonderful.

Ditching Class

I was at a blog recently (not a homeschooling blog) and saw this comment:

I ditched 5 out of 6 days in High school. Would goto the library and read. The truant officers never looked in the library. The best place to get an education is the library. I would show up to school on test days get an A and leave. Hated high school. Tested at 15 out went to college at 16 was in the was in the army at 17. That was the real education sitting in the desert having someone shooting at you.

I'll admit it's obvious that this man ditched punctuation class. :)

But he's now a self-supporting adult (I don't know how old he is). Given his ability to test out of high school and be accepted into college, just how much did he miss out on by ditching school? I see his posts occasionally at that blog, and clearly he's quite knowledgeable about economics and business. Makes me wonder how many others would be better off spending the day in the school library reading and hiding from the truant officers.

New Project

Summer's almost here! Dd17 and I are taking off the summer from homeschooling, and I'll only be doing regular review with dsds15. So I'm already making plans to get a few things done this summer that I haven't had time for this past year.

One thing I really need to do is sell some of the many homeschooling books we've accumulated over the past twenty years. The homeschool group I'm in is having a big used book sale soon, but their process for booksellers is so time-consuming that there's no way I can participate. So instead I've started a blog, where I can post the books for sale (with photos) one at a time, as time permits. That way I can break this big project down into smaller chunks, which will work a lot better for me.

I think it will work out well for potential book buyers, too. All they have to do is subscribe to the blog. Each time I post a book for sale, the post will automatically be sent to subscribers via feed or email.

The blog is called Used Homeschool Books. I've posted a link to it on the right side of this blog for those who would rather not subscribe.

Bribery for Class Attendance

They're paying kids to go to school again.

Seriously, this is pathetic. A Connecticut high school's Advance Placement (AP) classes are not attracting many students, so it's decided that the way to get kids to take these harder classes and pass the AP tests is to pay them for doing so. A $450,000 grant from the National Math and Science Initiative will be providing the cash for these kids.

How much are kids likely to really learn if they're only there for the money? The root of this problem is not being addressed: what happened to kids' inborn desire to learn? How can that desire be nurtured instead of snuffed out?

Not that I approve of bribery, but since NMSI is going to spend this money anyway, I think they should start a program that offers parents some "hard cold cash rewards" to start reading to their kids and taking them to libraries and museums instead of giving them DVDs and video games from the time they're tiny. Seems like that would be more productive than bribing the kids.

A Young Actor with Down Syndrome

In England, a new book written by the mother of a boy with Down syndrome is due out in two weeks. The boy is 15, loves acting and currently has a role in his second movie.

I love how she describes life with him in this article. She certainly captures it well. (He's almost the exact same age as our son.) I especially appreciate her comments regarding her unwillingness to have a subsequent pregnancy tested for Ds because she would never abort a baby with Ds. I think she and I would get along just fine.

Two Wonderful Homeschooling Magazines

There is a lovely little homeschooling magazine in Australia called Otherways. How do I know this? (Considering that I live in the U.S.?) Because they just sent me a complimentary copy so that I could see how they used my article "Homeschooling a Child with Special Needs," which is excerpted from my new book.

I am thrilled to have my work in this publication. It actually reminds me a little of Growing Without Schooling, one of the first homeschooling magazines in the U.S. Last year, when we moved and were forced to whittle down 20 years' worth of belongings, I sold my beloved collection of GWS to a homeschooling mom who snapped them up as soon as I posted them online. I hope she's enjoying them as much as I did. They're a gold mine.

Fortunately, some GWS back issues have been posted online. I go there when I miss my old issues too much :(

When Are They Too Smart To Be Homeschooled?

Imagine homeschooling your extremely intelligent son and realizing that he's so smart that he should be in college....at age eight! What an interesting story.

Carnival of Homeschooling

The new Carnival of Homeschooling is up, and I'll let you find your way there by using the lovely new Carnival of Homeschooling icon, which you'll find on the right, just between the blog archive and the post labels.

The Cates, founders of the Carnival of Homeschooling, had an icon contest, and that icon was one of three winners. You can see the others here.

Now you can use this icon to see the latest carnival (but that doesn't mean I'll stop reminding everyone when there's a new carnival!). If you have a blog, feel free to put one or all of these icons on your blog to lead your homeschooling friends to the carnival.

Happy 17th Birthday, Mimzy!

Yesterday, in a Mother's Day post, I mentioned the best Mother's Day gift I ever got, which was my daughter, born on Mother's Day 1991. That was May 12, which is today! So Happy Birthday, DD17, aka Mimzy. You are so special to all of us :)

(That's her banner ad on the right, btw, with all the little creatures on it that she makes and sells. )

The May Newsletter is Up!

This month's issue of "The Imperfect Homeschooler" newsletter is now online. Feel free to check it out, and remember, you can always subscribe to the newsletter at my site so that it turns up in your email box and you don't have to wait for me to remember to post it here (because sometimes I forget, like this month, and post it late....sorry!)

New articles include "Our Entrepreneurial Homeschooler," "The Kids' Flea Market" and "Preschool Pressure or Preschool Peace?" And as usual, there's the "What Our Kids Are Missing Out On Dept." Sadly, I never seem to run out of news in that department!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother kissing infant

How well I remember the moment it really started to sink in that I was a mom.

It was the middle of the night, and I was trying to beat back the lingering adrenaline rush and fall asleep a few hours after giving birth to dd24.

A nurse walked into the dimly lit room carrying a tiny pink-wrapped package, and said, "Here's your little angel, Mom."

Mom? Me? Well, the bracelets matched, so I guessed she had the right person.

The nurse handed me my baby girl, who stared into my eyes (I soon learned she liked being awake at 4 am). And at that moment, it hit me that I really, truly was a mom.

It's a sweet memory. As it turned out, over the next ten years I was fortunate enough to be handed three more packages totalling four in all, two pink and two blue.

What joy! What responsibility! Even now, it amazes me that God would loan out some of his best work to someone as flawed as I am. Good thing He looks out for all of his children. Because it's tough being a mom, and if it weren't for His help, how would I have managed?

Fast forward to May 1991. My doctor tells me that I'd better hope the baby comes before my due date, Memorial Day, because if she doesn't arrive until then, she'll easily hit 11 pounds. Ouch. But she's a wonderful child, so considerate to kick hard enough to break the water she lives in, so that I spend Mother's Day giving birth to her. At 9 lb. 9 1/4 oz., she's my biggest baby, but she's not 11 lbs. for which I am so grateful. And what a great Mother's Day gift!

I have great birth stories about my boys, too, but I won't go into them now because I've gone on about birth long enough. Yes, it's what turns us into moms, but what really counts is how we spend the rest of our lives loving our kids and doing the job God gave us when He loaned them to us.

I've been blessed to know some truly awesome moms. Some, like Sandy and Darlene and Bev, are my role models. Others, like Mary and Ann and Bobbi, are my friends and my encouragers, just by their existence. And then there were Julia and Linda, who died long before they were done mothering. Their smiles and their joy live on in their children, all of whom are now young adults.

To all moms everywhere, and especially to those who visit this blog and to those whose blogs I visit (you know who you are!), Happy Mother's Day!

Book List for Homeschooling a Child with Down syndrome

As I mentioned in my recent post on homeschooling a child with Down syndrome, there have been many books that have helped me as I homeschool dsds15. Not all of them have been "school" books.

There’s a certain amount of acceptance that parents of kids with disabilities must gain, and it takes a while to get there. Sitting down to work with your child makes you realize just how hard it is for him to learn things, and that can really get you down.

Some books have helped me understand that homeschooling him is a process that will go on in one form or another for his entire life. It’s not like it was with my older kids, where we worked together for a certain number of years and then sent them out into the world. This guy has a lot of hurdles in front of him, and while I try not to be negative, it was plain to me pretty early on that he would not attain anywhere near the level of education his siblings would. That was a pretty depressing realization for me, and I had to find encouragement from a multitude of sources, including books, in order to keep homeschooling him.

(Sometimes, when I got discouraged, I thought about what it would be like for him in school, and that usually got me back on track. After all, who has time to sit patiently with him each day and work and play if not me? No teacher or aide has time to work with him one-on-one, which is what a distractible guy like him needs, and no teacher or aide can know him as well as I do, anyway.)

Keep in mind that while these books helped my son and me, that doesn’t mean they’ll work for all parents homeschooling kids with Down syndrome or other developmental disabilities. Children differ in temperament and ability, and so do parents. There’s a wide range of abilities among children with Down syndrome, and they develop at different rates, although most do develop more slowly than your “typical” child.

In my son’s case, there are other issues. Due to central apnea during his infancy, he may have sustained minor brain damage. His doctor said we could run a lot of expensive tests to find out for certain if and where such damage occurred, but he felt that we’d be spending a whole lot of money without being able to change things. We agree. But what our son went through makes it harder for him to learn certain things. Even his long-time speech therapist said some of his speech patterns are not typical of Down syndrome.

So he is a unique individual, and so am I, thus don’t rely on this booklist to cure what ails you and your child. On the other hand, I’ve always felt that if I learned one useful thing from a book, it was worth reading. So hopefully, you will find at least some tidbits in these books that will make them worth your time.

(Do keep in mind that the curricular-type books here are not the only things I use to homeschool my son. We do a lot of hands-on work also. But the purpose of this post is to share books we’ve found helpful.)

Christian Homes and Special Kids by Sherry Bushnell and Diane Ryckman

This book is a great resource and encouragement for all parents homeschooling their child with special needs, and I’m not just saying that because there’s a chapter about our family in the book. It’s just a book written by parents who want to share their experiences and their favorite resources.
ISBN-10 09744332-0-9
Available at http://www.nathhan.com/

Helps for Special Education Teachers by Eileen Shaum

I bought this book from Rod and Staff, one of my favorite sources for homeschooling books. It helped me establish a well-rounded foundation for my work with Josh. It helps you set goals and gives you activities for reaching those goals.
Available at http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/item/19031

Rod and Staff’s Preschool Series of Workbooks

We bought and worked through the entire series twice, that’s how much we liked these workbooks. Lots of cut-and-paste educational activities. Pages are nicely illustrated (farm animals, not licensed characters!) without being too busy and cluttered as many workbooks are. I used this series with dd17 when she was little and wanted to do school with the big kids, so that’s how I knew about them when dsds15 reached that developmental level. I can’t say enough about these workbooks!

Available at http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/item/10020/

NOTE: You can usually find Rod and Staff products at homeschool conference vendor halls. I highly recommend their products for all children.

Teaching Reading to Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Teachers (Topics in Down Syndrome) by Patricia Logan Oelwein

Excellent resource! This book offers complete instructions for building a reading program for your child. By the way, I have been to two of Ms. Oelwein’s seminars and learned so much. If you get the chance to attend one, go! You won’t be sorry.

Teaching Math to People With Down Syndrome and Other Hands-On Learners: Basic Survival Skills (Topics in Down Syndrome) Book 1 by DeAnna Horstmeier, Ph.D.

Personally I don’t find this book as useful as Patricia Oelwein’s book, but your mileage may vary. I do like the fact that this book is intended for people of all ages with Down syndrome, not just children. I attended Dr. Horstmeier’s seminar and enjoyed her stories about her adult son with Down syndrome.

Communication Skills in Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents (Topics in Down Syndrome) by Libby Kumin, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Filled with ideas for encouraging proper speech development in your child.

When Slow Is Fast Enough: Educating the Delayed Preschool Child by Dr. Joan Goodman
An eye-opening book that helped me understand exactly what early intervention is all about.

Teacher Created Resources

My son is a workbook guy: he gets great joy from finishing a page and getting a star on it. We have had success with some of TCR’s math workbooks. I love how they have several workbook pages for each step in the learning process. I photocopy the pages over and over and over until he gets the concepts (it can take a long time).

You can buy TCR books online, but I recommend going to a teacher store and flipping through them yourself to see which might work for you and your child. If that’s not convenient, you can download many of their titles as eBooks at:

http://www.teachercreated.com/

Here are two of their books that we’ve really used a lot:

Math Practice for Beginners

Math Picture Puzzles Grade 1 (Practice Makes Perfect (Teacher Created Materials))


Take It To Your Seat Learning Centers
published by Evan-Moor

These premade manipulative activity books called “Take It To Your Seat” are really good—clever learning projects all ready to be cut out, laminated and used regularly. Two we’ve enjoyed are:

Take It to Your Seat Math Centers, Grades K-1

Take It to Your Seat Phonics Centers, Grades K-1

Buki Books

We love Buki Books! They’re educational but so much fun that kids don’t mind. There are dot-to-dot books up to 1-150 (painless way to learn number sequencing), Calc-U-Color books (color by number where you have to figure out the number first using addition or subtraction), maze books and more. They have several age levels for each type of book. Once again, I find these in teacher stores, but you can also check out their online catalog at:

http://www.poof-slinky.com/catalog/catalog.asp?org=15

Note: They don’t show the full line on their site for some reason. In teacher stores, they’re often found on freestanding kiosks. They’re very colorful and hard to miss!

Betty Lukens Felt Activity books

Great for teaching Bible stories to kinesthetic learners. My son (15) still likes to look at these books and arrange the felt pieces on them. I think the fact that they’re realistic-looking and not babyish helps.

http://www.bettylukens.com/

50 Bible Paper Pop-Ups: 3-D Visuals for Hands-On Learning Fun by Robin S. Parimore and Lynne Marie Davis

We’ve been working our way through this book for the past year. Requires cutting skills. I combine each project with the appropriate Bible story.

The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling by Barbara Frank

My new book has a chapter in it on homeschooling your child with special needs.

The Dance Goes on by Roberta Bandy

The true story of how the birth of a child with special needs grew the faith of a young couple. We’ve known the Bandy family for years; their story is so encouraging!

A Mother's Day Treat

Melissa of Melissa's Idea Garden has a lovely Mother's Day treat for all of us homeschooling moms this week: the newest edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. There are so many wonderful posts included that I don't know where to start.

One interesting trend I'm noticing in the carnivals as of late is that more young people are getting involved. What a great way for them to get their work out into the blogosphere!

Making Gifts in "School"

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that you can take the time to indulge a child’s interests. I tend to keep a fairly regular homeschooling schedule with my kids, but when we need to change things, we do so.

That’s what happened at the end of last week. On Thursday we devoted the day to Home Economics. What this means is that I found a really cool new bulk cooking cookbook at the public library (more on this in a future post) and decided that dd16 and I should do some major cooking during the day Thursday and count it as a school day.

While we worked in the kitchen, I mentioned to dd that I still needed to wrap presents for dh’s birthday the next day (one of those major birthdays….let’s just say an AARP card turned up in the mail right on schedule, lol). And she responded dejectedly that she had wanted to make her dad the perfect gift but had been unable to come up with anything. We discussed a few ideas, but nothing caught her fancy.

That night I heard her sewing machine humming up in her room and went to see what she was making. Sure enough, she had come up with a gift idea for her dad. It was a great one, but quite ambitious, and I wasn’t sure she would be able to finish it by the next day.

By the time she designed the project, chose the fabric and cut everything out, it had become obvious to me that she would not get done in time. But she got up at 7:00 the next morning to work on it, and after hearing her sewing machine humming for three hours, I made the executive decision that school would again be Home Economics that day, but this time sewing instead of cooking.

She finished her project after lunch. She chose the subject because one of her dad’s favorite Bible verses is Isaiah 40:31. Needless to say, he was quite taken with her gift.

The Kindergartener's Plastic Surgeries

I read this story and just felt so sorry for this little girl, who went through "radical and painful" plastic surgery three times by the time she was five because her parents felt it would help prevent people from judging her by her appearance.

Her appearance was that of a child with Down syndrome. That's why they had her tongue reduced in size, the area around her eyes changed, and her ears adjusted so they didn't stick out.

I've always felt like my son's facial appearance is a gift. Yes, he looks like he has Down syndrome, and that's good, because it gives people a visual cue that he might have some delays, helping them control any knee-jerk reactions they might have. How much harder it must be for children whose developmental disabilities offer no visual cues. They immediately see the reactions of strangers to any behaviors they might have that are different.

My son with Down syndrome has been fortunate not to have had any surgeries, cosmetic or otherwise. And let me tell you, he's a good-looking fella. Don't take my word for it, though. Tell him he looks handsome, and he'll say "Yep! Thanks!" :)

Post #300!

In celebration of my 300th post on this blog, I share with you this lovely print by my favorite artist, Carl Larsson:

Getting Ready for a Game, 1901

I have many framed versions of Carl Larsson's works, but I would not have known how to post one on my blog if I hadn't read Renae's blog, Life Nurturing Education, where she has posted some wonderful links to places where you can obtain free artwork for use on blogs. Thank you, Renae!

The Homeschool Bag Lady

Dana over at Principled Discovery certainly had her hands full organizing a large group of posts for this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. But she did a great job with it, using the theme of "The Homeschool Bag Lady." Don't miss out on the fun; check it out now.

I Should Have Known

There's this site I like to go to that is so cool. It's done by a family in L.A. that turned their small city lot into a gardener's paradise. Seems like every square inch outside has been put to good use, whether it's for growing vegetables or goats.

This family has so many clever ideas, and I love reading about them. I've been popping by there for some time now, so one would think I would have figured out something about this free-spirited family that seemed very likely. But I had to stumble on to this page to learn what I should have figured out a lot sooner.....they were a homeschooling family! Duh.

Strong-Willed Children

It has been suggested that these two at left look like our eldest and our youngest when they disagree. Yes, they're my strong-willed kids, and yes, neither is very willing to give in to the other. It can actually be pretty entertaining to watch each of them try to get the other to back down because, despite their ten-year age gap, they are pretty well-matched when it comes to wills. And yet, they adore each other.

Celebrity as a Goal

The British press is a lot different than the American press. Across the pond, they tend to be much more liberal when it comes to things like nudity in their newspapers. But oddly enough, they can also be quite open, more than we are, about what they see wrong in their culture, particularly when it comes to social mores.

Take, for example, this article written by Melanie Cantor, a judge on one of the many performance-based reality shows on British television. As she puts it, “I'm billed as the tough celebrity agent” on the show. Of the contestants she sees, she says:

“Everyone feels they have the right to fame because they know that talent is no longer required. The cult of Big Brother has made it possible for the most stupid to make millions simply on the back of being stupid.

…We live in a country where our children no longer aspire to be doctors, nurses, lawyers or teachers - they want to be famous. To them, celebrity is an easy escape from the mundane, a quick route to riches based on no particular skill or effort on their part.”

Isn’t that the truth? And since American television is no better, I wish there were more Americans willing to admit that many, though not all, of the contestants on these shows have no talent and know it. They just want to be celebrities. That’s their only goal in life.

Instead of pointing out how useless the goal of celebrity is, American culture celebrates it. Little girls are given Bratz and Barbie dolls that come with guitars and microphones, not to mention limousines. In school, children are taught songs like “I’m a Star!” that are supposed to build their self-esteem.

But the elusive goal of becoming a celebrity will likely destroy self-esteem instead of developing it. Ms. Cantor makes it plain when describing today’s culture:

"Celebrity is all - Fame is held up as a God to be venerated. Never mind the emptiness, ignore the public scrutiny that might tear your life apart, better to be famous for nothing than to be nothing.

The joy of anonymity has been lost to this next generation.”

Britain is not the only country with this problem. We have it, too. And it’s up to us as parents to present our children with good examples of achievement, not celebrity, if we want our culture to let go of the worship of celebrity status.

Homeschooling Your Child With Down Syndrome

Momto4 recently left a comment on a February post from this blog:

I had my daughter in public school, she is 6 in kindergarten and has down syndrome. They haven't a CLUE what they are doing. I was very disappointed in their lack of teaching. I will be homeschooling her and it will be interesting as I have never done such a feat. Is there anywhere one could go to help start off in kindergarten for my little girl? Is the curriculum the same? So many many questions. I do know this, anything is better than what we have now.

Since there might be other parents with this same problem, I thought I’d post my response here, where they can find it easily.

Momto4, I admire you for taking matters into your hands once you became unhappy with your daughter’s schooling experience. Pro-active parents are the best asset a child with a disability can have.

Every child with Down syndrome has unique abilities and unique needs, and that’s why I did not use a specific curriculum with my son with Ds, who is now 15. Having homeschooled three older children, I could see that my son was not at or near grade level in scholastic subjects at age 6. I decided instead to test him (using a test I rented for a very reasonable cost from HSLDA). There weren’t any surprises in the test results because I’d been working with him since he was 3 or 4, but you might find such testing very useful for you and your daughter. It will give you an idea of where to concentrate your efforts.

Anyway, after testing him, I continued working with him as I had since he was small, using my own IEP to chart the path we’d need to follow at his speed. We read many, many books, he practiced his printing every day, and we played lots of board games that stressed the different skills he needed.

For example, he had real problems grasping numbers conceptually. He could recite numbers but did not understand what they meant. We played the game “Trouble” once or twice a day and that helped him understand what “six” meant, because that’s the best number to get in that game. BTW, I frequently found the best educational games (sold in teacher stores) discounted at TJMaxx and Marshalls. For my son, educational games where he learns by using his hands instead of just sitting and listening are a real blessing.

My son is speech-delayed, like many children (especially boys) with Ds. I sat in on his sessions with the speech therapist and imitated what she did with him at home on a regular basis. We could not afford thrice-weekly sessions, which had been recommended, but at least this way he was getting daily speech practice. One of the most effective methods of working on speech sounds with him was something the therapist taught me: he’d say a word or sound and I’d reward him with a puzzle piece. So he had to make 100 sounds to get all the pieces of a 100-piece puzzle, and then we’d work on the puzzle together. (We still do this at least once a week, because he really enjoys it.)

In addition to working on his letters, number concepts and speech, we did lots of artwork, including working with crayons, paint, stampers and clay. He loved this, and it was a nice break from the “school” work. We also got him out in nature by going on bike rides (we used a third wheel attachment on my husband’s bike because our son loved to run off and we didn’t want to teach him to ride a bike on his own, thus helping him get away from us more quickly!) Visits to parks, zoos and the aquarium also widened his horizons.

One more thing we did as part of his “school” was to teach him how to work around the house. He’d seen the older kids doing their chores and wanted to be like them, so this wasn’t hard. In fact, he’s been a very eager helper. He also likes to work with his dad in his workshop. (I can still picture him at around age five or so driving nails into a piece of wood with great intensity.)

You’ve asked for specific materials that will tell you what to do with your daughter. There have been several books that helped me learn how to work with my son, and I will list them in a subsequent post. In the meantime, I’ve asked another blogger who homeschools a daughter with Ds to answer your question. You’ll find her post here.

The bottom line, Momto4, is that you are really doing something wonderful for your daughter. Homeschooling her will mean she will get much more one-on-one instruction, or “face time” as I like to call it. Not only is that much better for her, but it will help you learn more about how she learns. She’ll also be able to avoid the negative effects of school socialization, such as picking up bad habits and being bullied because of her disability. And, of course, the bottom line is that you know her better than any teacher can know her, so she’s getting a teacher who knows her well and wants the very best for her. I think your daughter is very fortunate to have you for a mom.

Feel free to ask any questions you might have, and I’ll try to get that book list together soon!

It's Official: "The Imperfect Homeschooler's Guide to Homeschooling" is In Print

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted, but we've been a bit busy. On Tuesday the semi pulled up with our new books! The neighbors were probably trying to figure out what the heck was going on over here. You don't see many semi's in this neck of the woods :)

The books look beautiful! They also take up a lot of room, but we stored some of them in the garage and the rest were taken into the house so they could be packaged and shipped to everyone who ordered a copy via our pre-publication special. Thank you to all of you who ordered a copy of the book! It took three of us (dd16 was a big help) a couple of days to get all of the orders together (good thing no one was planning to take photos of our living room for Architectural Digest, as there were USPS containers all over the place for a while.) The good news is that we loaded up the van this morning and handed all of the boxes over to the good people at the U.S. Postal Service. So your books are on the way!

We were excited to learn that Eclectic Homeschool Online has already reviewed the book. If you haven't been to that site before, you're in for a treat. They offer anything a homeschooling parent could need to make her job easier. Thank you, EHO, for the lovely review :) Rumor has it that another review should be popping up before too long over at Homeschoolbuzz.com.

Now that the book is out, the hard part starts: marketing it! And of course, I can now finish the other book I was writing before I got distracted transforming this one from eBook to print. All of this takes a lot of time, and I can't work at it full-time thanks to that little thing called homeschooling that we still do every day. Still, homeschooling is my priority!

Lotsa Books Headed This Way!

The Imperfect Homeschooler's Guide to Homeschooling is on its way!

The printers emailed us yesterday to say that the new books are on the truck! As soon as they get here, the book is officially published and that's the end of the prepublication special mentioned here.

But until that truck full of books pulls up here (we're hoping for Monday!), you can still buy the book for the special price of $12 plus free shipping! (Continental U.S. only; contact us for discounted international shipping.)

(Remember, the 192-page print version of The Imperfect Homeschooler's Guide to Homeschooling is twice as large as the eBook, thanks to the addition of lots of homeschool encouragement for all homeschooling parents (some of it from my newsletter). It's full of the strategies I've learned over 20 years of homeschooling.)

Once that truck pulls up, the prepublication offer is over and the regular price ($13.95 plus shipping) applies. So click here to save a few bucks and be among the first to read my new book!

P.S. I almost forgot----the first two reviews of this book are in! Thank you, Carol and Kathy, for your kind words:

I recommend her guide to new homeschooling parents. It’s neither dryly theoretical nor boastfully self-congratulating. It’s practical, encouraging, and unintimidating, without underestimating all that homeschooling involves. If you’re not new to homeschooling, but low on energy and enthusiasm for it, this guide is for you, too.

Carol Goudie
Otherways Magazine
(full review in May 2008 issue)

….(T)he truth is there is no perfect home school. Even though I know that already, how empowering it is for me to read Barbara Frank’s book The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling…. This guide is an excellent resource both for those just starting out and the rest of us that need some good old-fashioned encouragement and empowerment.

Kathy Davis
Homeschoolbuzz.com
(full review to be posted late 4/08)

ACT Day

Dd16 took the ACT this morning at the local high school, and it was interesting to see the reactions it provoked among us.

My husband came home after dropping her off and immediately said how glad he is that she's who she is. He then described the kids he saw, specifically how they were dressed (skimpily in today’s spring snowstorm), and how they drove into the parking lot (he worried about getting hit).

Meanwhile, dd16 was forming her own impressions. She said the girls seemed pretty calm, but the boys hung together in loud groups, with lots of yelling and swearing. The first thing she said to me when she got home was, “Thank you for homeschooling me.” That’s always appreciated :)

She also mentioned that she said a quick “Thanks!” to the proctor when she left, as everyone always thanked the teachers after class when she took homeschool classes at the community college where we used to live. But today, the proctor looked at her as if she had said something strange. Guess he wasn’t used to a student being polite to him.

Finally, she said that there was not a single cute guy there. Not one of our concerns, but it ranks on her list.

As for my reaction to her taking the ACT (you knew I’d have one, right?), it came when she told me what the essay question was (she took the ACT writing test after the main test). She was asked to write about whether schools should limit kids to one extracurricular activity. Mind you, the practice question on the ACT web site for the writing test asks the kids whether they think students should have to attend a fifth year of high school.

Good grief! Is that all these people can think about…school? Whatever happened to asking kids to describe their favorite character in literature, or their favorite historical figure, or to choose sides on a current social issue, like global warming or free trade? Aside from the fact that “school” questions are biased against homeschooled students (who are admittedly a tiny minority of those taking the test), they’re just dumb questions that really don’t require a lot of thought.

Anyway, she should be able to look up her scores online fairly soon. She doesn’t know if she wants to go to college right after high school or ever, but as we learned from our son’s experience, you need to take the ACT at least once in order to skip some college placement tests and even to help qualify you for scholarships. So taking it is a necessity if there’s any chance at all a teen might go to community or four-year college.

Is There a Young Writer in Your House?

I began writing when I was quite young. The best encouragement I ever got back then was seeing my work published in my junior high and high school's newspapers and also in my local paper. Seeing your work in print gives you a tremendous boost.

We have a young writer at our house, dd16, who is hard at work on her second novel. Once she finishes this novel, and then works with me on editing both novels, we plan to publish them using Lulu.com.

I've used Lulu for the proof copies of my books and have been so pleased with them. I don't used them for subsequent printings because we generally order a couple of thousand books at a time, and other printers are more competitively priced for large quantities. But you don't need to have a bunch of money squirreled away for printing. The new publishing model called Print on Demand (POD) is the perfect thing for personal projects, and it's what Lulu does best. You write the book, format it, design a cover and then upload your files to Lulu. They keep the files on hand; whenever someone orders a copy of the book, they print one and send it out. Today's printing technology allows this to be done fairly quickly and very reasonably, price-wise.

Just as an example, the proof copy of my new book is 192 pages and cost me a little over $8 plus shipping. That's a great price for a single copy! Just think, you could have your child's work printed and bound for less than ten dollars! Lulu has a printing calculator on site where you can work out the exact cost. They do offer expensive packages for teaching you how to assemble and market the book, but you can find that information for free online or at your public library, so unless you're impatient, I wouldn't recommend it. Besides, unless you think your child is the next J.K. Rowling, you're probably just doing this as a family project, right?

When I use Lulu, I classify my printing projects as private because they're just proofs. But at Lulu, most people sell their books through Lulu's online bookstore as well as other places. So if Grandma wants a copy of your child's book, just send her to Lulu's online store, where she can order copies for herself and probably all your distant cousins. Your child will earn money on those sales of his/her work. How encouraging would that be?

Here's a great interview with an 11-year-old young man who's already selling his fiction work via Lulu. He cites homeschooled Christopher Paolini (author of the Eragon series) as his inspiration. Maybe his interview will inspire your young writer.

Upcoming Homeschool Conferences in Illinois and Wisconsin

Many of you know me from the newsletter I used to publish, the "Northern Illinois Homeschool News." So, in case you aren't already aware of them, here are the details on two upcoming conferences in your area, one in Illinois and one in Wisconsin.

Homeschool conferences are a great way to restore your homeschooling enthusiasm for the coming year. Plus, it's so much fun to meet other homeschoolers!

Wacky Week

People are freaking out about Wacky Week, a yearly event at a school in my newly adopted home state of Wisconsin, where kids voted to dress up as the opposite sex or as a senior citizen. Those having fits about this suggest it’s a public school effort to promote cross-dressing.

Given the propensity of public schools to promote so-called “alternative lifestyles” in recent years, I can see where parents would be suspicious at first. But it appears that this was the kids’ choice. Besides, if the school really was promoting cross-dressing, I doubt the principal would have said this:

"I can assure you we will not be having this day (again).”

Instead, she would have been quoted as saying something like, “This was simply an exercise in diversity,” while straightening the tie she wore with a pin-striped suit.

I’m not defending Wacky Week here. I don’t see how dressing silly for a week helps anyone study harder, and as someone with one of those ends-in-zero birthdays coming in a few months, (ahem), I don’t see the humor in dressing like a senior citizen…..what does that mean anyway, wearing Depends under a housedress or chest-high pants?

Regardless, it does bring back a memory from when my older children were little. They were probably four and five years old when they came running down the stairs one afternoon, giggling and calling for me. I was in the kitchen making dinner when they burst in. They had switched clothes. My daughter could barely fit into her little brother’s clothes, and hers were way too big on him. I thought they looked pretty funny and we all had a good laugh.

But then Daddy came home, and he was not amused. He told them to go change back into their regular clothes, and he gave me a look when I whispered that I thought it was funny.

Now, this was nearly 20 years ago, before cross-dressing changed categories from mental illness to celebrity fad. Looking back, I can see why he wasn’t happy about it. But they were so young at the time that I knew they didn’t mean anything by it. In fact, the thought of it brings a smile to my face because I can still hear their giggles in my memory. They’re now in their mid-twenties, our son is five inches taller than his older sister, and neither of them would be caught dead in the other’s clothes, lol.

Stossel Weighs In On California Homeschool Ruling

I don't normally blog on Sundays, but today I saw this and just had to share it with you. John Stossel puts his common sense attitude to work and the result, as usual, is clear and understandable. Spend a few minutes reading this and then share it with your friends (and relatives!)

They Had It All

Twenty years ago, British journalist Valerie Grove decided to interview women who “had it all” for at least 25 years. She defined having it all as:

"...they had to have been married for more than 25 years and have had three or more children, as well as a brilliant career."

She turned her findings into a book, The Compleat Woman: Marriage, Motherhood, Career - Can She Have It All? Her conclusion was that it was very rare for a woman to be able to successfully juggle a husband, children and successful career.

Now, a British newspaper has marked the twentieth anniversary of the book’s publication by going back and interviewing some of the women whose lives were chronicled in it to see if they think it’s gotten any easier to “have it all.” The very interesting (and lengthy) article is worth reading, but if you’re pressed for time, I’d like to share a couple of key points these women now make, as they look back on their lives from the vantage point of old age.

1) Women try too hard to give their children the perfect childhood.

Author Faye Weldon, 77 and the mother of four sons, says:

"Today, we try to fight that destiny and give our children the perfect childhood in the hopes that it will make them perfect. I think children are the better for a little healthy neglect. Mine certainly were.”

I don’t think she means neglect in a bad way. What she’s saying is that if we give our kids more autonomy and stop trying to micromanage their activities, they’ll do just fine and we’ll be less exhausted. This is a point we homeschooling moms, who are already involved personally in our children’s daily education, need to take to heart.

2) Women should realize they can have a career while raising children, but it won’t be easy, and the children must come first.

Shirley Hughes, 80, the mother of three children and a well-known children’s author, recalls writing at home with children underfoot:

“…despite publishing more than 50 books, Hughes managed without a nanny.
"I would have been too jealous of her relationship with my children," she explains.
"We did have au pairs to help out domestically, but I would never have left them in sole charge of the children all day…..But fractured concentration due to interruptions from children is the bane of a working mother's life, especially if you work from home as I did.
"But it was the right thing for me. I was able to be there for my children, and so glad I was self-employed and did not have to disappear off for long days away from the home."

3) Women expect to have too many material things that don’t matter in the long run.

Sheila Kitzinger, 80, a mother of five grown daughters and honored by the British government for her years of work for the National Childbirth Trust, says:

"Women now think they need so much more. Everyone must have a second car in the family.”
She also seconds Ms. Weldon’s concern about providing a wealth of perfect educational experiences:
“But also, we feel the need to do so much more with our children. There are constant educational trips - must see the Tutankhamun exhibition, must see the Chinese warriors at the British Museum.
"It's relentless, exhausting and very expensive."

Ms. Hughes agrees:

"Perhaps women think today they need to have too much. We all say we work because we need the money, but are there sacrifices to be made.
"Perhaps not having a second car; maybe moving to live somewhere cheaper.
"It's very sad when people think they cannot afford to have more children. What do you regret at the end of your life? Is it the expensive stuff, or not having a child?"

According to the article, these women with such successful careers look back over their lives and see where their time was best invested: in their husbands and children. As Ms. Hughes put it:

"My only regrets are that I got too bogged down with getting the shopping and household chores. I should have let it all go to pot a lot more than I did.
"What I wish I'd done more of is sitting and talking to my children round the kitchen table.
"And conversations with my husband, too, now that I'm widowed. Once your husband dies, that is what you long for above all.
"But when you're young and busy with work and family, you are always rushing on to the next thing. That's life."

We can all learn from those who have come before us. And with that, I’d better go make dinner and spend some time enjoying it with my family :)

Disabled and Gifted

Since I have a teenage son with Down syndrome, I do know something about having a child with a disability, but I only really know about his specific issue. There are many other disabilities that I know little or nothing about.

One of those disabilities is autism. My cousin has a son who’s six weeks older than mine and he’s autistic. But I’ve only met him a few times because we live pretty far apart. I also have a homeschooling friend whose youngest son is autistic, but again, I’ve only seen him once or twice because we don’t live near them.

So I wouldn’t say I’m familiar with autism, but I have to admit that stories like this one fascinate me. To be able to recreate a scene with so much detail from memory is just completely amazing, and an incredible gift.

A Great Carnival.......

The April Fool's Day Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up, and I'm not tricking you when I say it's really well done. The Cates used real April Fool's Day pranks from history as the framework for this week's carnival, and it's so interesting. My personal favorite? The prank involving San Serriffe....a publisher's dream vacation spot, LOL.

Our Entrepreneurial Homeschooler

Way back when I read the book that turned me on to homeschooling, Home Grown Kids by Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore, and then their subsequent books, one of the things the Moores described that fascinated me was the opportunity homeschooled children had for entrepreneurship. My older kids were babies then, but I could just picture them someday sitting behind their own little lemonade stand.

They did have lemonade stands when they got older, and I remember one summer when they made a killing by selling cold pop and homemade brownies to people attending one of our garage sales. One of our daughters also sold handmade cards door-to-door. I’m sure there were other entrepreneurial experiments that I’ve since forgotten.

They learned so much from those experiences, and lemonade stands were just the tip of the iceberg. Back when I first read that book, how could I (or the Moores) have foreseen the advent of the Internet and its usefulness for entrepreneurs of all ages? Indeed, I never would have imagined that I would someday be writing and selling my own homeschooling books via the Internet.

Well, homeschooled children have that same opportunity, and our dd16 has taken up the challenge. She’s gotten so many compliments on the funny stuffed fabric creatures she makes that she recently set up her own online shop to sell them. She’s still in the process of adding her products to her shop, but already has quite a few creatures online. You can see her shop here. Feel free to look around; she loves having visitors browse her shop :)

This has been a great exercise for her. She keeps track of all her expenses very carefully, including the time it takes her to make each creature (around two hours including design time). She’s careful to use her raw materials conservatively (no waste). It took her a while to figure out how to use etsy.com, and she discovered that the site offers very cleverly designed virtual forums where she can learn more about marketing her wares. All of this has taken a lot of time, but being homeschooled, she has more free time than she would if she were in high school all day.

She's in 11th grade, and we’ve been studying economics (Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell, excerpt here) since the fall. But I have to think that the things she’s learning right now by setting up her little business are at least as valuable, if not more so, than what she’s learning from Dr. Sowell’s book. Add in the dinner time discussions her dad and I have about our own businesses, and I have to think she’s fortunate to learn real-life economics in her daily life. That she has the time for all of this is yet another blessing of homeschooling.

What Do YOU Think?

Presales of the new book are going great, and I'm starting to look ahead to the next few projects, now that this one is at the printer.

I have one book halfway done; it's about preparing our children for uncertain times in our economy. I will enjoy finishing that book, but most of the research is already done, so I need a new topic for the book after that.

I had one idea which was recently brought to my mind again by a writer who needed some info from me for an article she was writing. Said article just came out, and reading it has made me think harder about the topic: preschool. I'm thinking of expanding on "Preschool Pressure or Preschool Peace." What do you think? Is this an issue that needs further discussion?

What the World Needs Now.....Some Good News

Henry Cate of Why Homeschool has declared today to be Good News Thursday. Here's what he's asking bloggers to do today:

Much of the news today is depressing. Newspaper headlines tell us about awful things happening in our neighborhood, at the national level, and around the world.

I want to try something different. I invite you to join with me in focusing on good news. This can be as local as your baby taking his first step or you saw the first flower of spring. It could as earth shattering as someone has solved world hunger or there is a break through in a Grand Unification Theory. It could be some new insight you had about a topic you are studying, or life.

If you are interested, you can add your post via Mr. Linky.

Even if you don't have a post to share, head on over to Henry's and read some uplifting posts so you can have a Good News Thursday.

Such a Deal

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is offering its Spring Promotion again this year. You get 25 free bonus gifts when you buy a $25 one-year subscription. The prizes are $550 worth of actual products donated by homeschool companies. That's a pretty good deal. You can learn more here.

Spring Break!

We're taking this week off of school for our spring break. The funny thing about doing so is that it doesn't seem much different than an ordinary day except that the kids were allowed to sleep late and we didn't do any bookwork.

Otherwise, dh and I have been busy working, dd16 is hard at work on her new etsy store (she sells adorably silly stuffed animals that she sews; I'll have a link soon) and novel #2, and dsds15 is enjoying the fact that he was able to watch "The Flintstones" in the morning instead of waiting until after we're done with his school work.

We did travel to see family over the weekend and just got back yesterday, but today it seems as though we never left. Just another day....time flies when you're having fun!

My Newsletter is Up!

Well, I'm a bit late with it this month, thanks to being busy getting the new book to the printer, but my March newsletter has gone out to all subscribers, and can be read here if you're not a subscriber.

Since it's so late, it's actually the March/April edition this time. I did include a few extra things in it, so it's a bit larger than usual. If you'd like a free subscription, just sign up here.

P.S. So far, the most popular article from this issue has been "Take Control of Your Family Schedule." Interesting.....

Why the California Ruling Affects ALL Parents

I’m almost afraid to write about the recent California court decision that has freaked out many homeschoolers in that state as well as everywhere else, because most of the things being said about it can be found all over the blogosphere by now.

But columnist Ken Blackwell has makes an important point about this landmark ruling that we parents (not just homeschooling parents but ALL parents) need to be aware of:

It has been nearly 20 years since the United Nations first agreed to codify the Convention of the Rights of the Child into international law and since that time, America has been only one of two member states of the United Nations to have not ratified the Convention.

The California case is a perfect example of why America has not ratified the treaty……..

But, as Blackwell goes on to emphasize in his column, the NEA is a supporter of that U.N. Convention and would love to see us ratify it. If you don’t know what it’s all about, you need to read up on it. The short version is that the “rights” it grants to children are built on the removal of parental rights. And that’s what the California appellate ruling is all about, taking away the right of parents to teach their children.

I’m glad Blackwell is bringing up this aspect of the story, and I hope it gains some legs. I find it even more important than other angles of this story, though they’re certainly not minor issues. Besides the homeschooling aspect, they include:

1) Requiring homeschooling parents to be certified teachers could ultimately hurt private schools, which do not always insist on that requirement for their own teachers.

2) Requiring teachers to be certified could also be applied to substitute teachers. The NEA does not state that California requires substitute teachers to be certified, but they must have a bachelor’s degree at a minimum. This site comes right out and states that CA substitutes don’t have to be certified. If, as this article mentions, the California teacher’s union's members think all students should be taught by certified teachers, shouldn’t CA substitutes be certified before they go after homeschool parents?

3) To become certified in California, you must take the CBEST exam. I’ve written about this before: that test is a joke. See for yourself.

Our New Book Is On Its Way!

Our new book is finally at the printers! That's right, The Imperfect Homeschooler's Guide to Homeschooling will be available in softcover in a few short weeks, probably early April.

We began selling this title as an eBook last year. We got lots of great feedback on it, but the thing we heard most is, "I want a print copy!" So we began work on that last summer, but our move from IL to WI really slowed things down.

It also took a while because we added so much information to the eBook version (which has been kept in its entirety). The eBook was just over 100 pages, while the print version is 192 pages. You can see the table of contents at the book's page over at the Cardamom Publishers site.

If you'd like to pre-order this book, just go here for a pre-publication special that includes a discounted price and free shipping. As soon as the books get here, we will send your copy right out to you.

This book is chock-full of what I've learned over 20 years of homeschooling our four children. I hope it will be a blessing to you :)