Homeschooling Help

There is one homeschool student who has impressed me from the first year I met him. When I conducted his eighth grade homeschool evaluation, he was already more articulate than most of the eleventh grade students in my public school classroom, and his passion for politics was unquestionable.

This same student later took my class on student governmental affairs and blew away his fellow classmates. He continued his study of government by attending several leadership conferences in both Harrisburg and our nation’s capital.

Every year, his writing grew more and more sophisticated, and his other academics were equally impressive.

Not a quiet and reserved intellectual, Justin could command the crowd everywhere he went. Funny and passionate, he was never afraid to share his opinion or enter into a debate.

Technorati Tags: Homeschool Student Government, Homeschool Student Scholarship

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I am happy to share Subway’s apology to the homeschool community:

We at SUBWAY restaurants place a high value on education, regardless of the setting, and have initiated a number of programs and promotions aimed at educating our youth in the areas of health and fitness.

We sincerely apologize to anyone who feels excluded by our current essay contest. Our intention was to provide an opportunity for traditional schools, many of which we know have trouble affording athletic equipment, to win equipment. Our intent was certainly not to exclude homeschooled children from the opportunity to win prizes and benefit from better access to fitness equipment.

To address the inadvertent limitation of our current contest and provide an opportunity for even more kids to improve their fitness, we will soon create an additional contest in which homeschooled students will be encouraged to participate. When the kids win, everyone wins!

Technorati Tags: subway homeschool apology

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Apparently the fact that homeschoolers are proving to out do their counterparts in spelling bees, geography bees and math competitions makes them ineligible to enter Subway’s creative writing contest designed for school aged children.

Now I know that homeschoolers do tend to sound more intelligent than their chronological age, but that does not change the fact that they are school-aged? :-)

Seriously though, Subway’s creative writing contest does specifically exclude homeschoolers and this exclusion can be interpreted one of two ways . . .

Either Subway believes:

Technorati Tags: discrimination against homeschoolers, Subway writing contest homeschoolers

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The on-going debate in California regarding homeschool rights took a positive turn on Tuesday of this week when nineteen members of the House of Representatives filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of homeschooling families.

The brief reminds the court that the “primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition” and that that role includes their education.

It also reminds the court that “all 50 states and the District of Columbia permit home-based education, either under a specific statute or alternative provision.”

Currently there is no specific homeschooling law in California. Instead, California homeschoolers fall under the private school code, which defines a private school as ‘a person, firm, association, partnership, or corporation offering or conducting private school instruction on the elementary or high school level.’

It does not require that teachers within the school have a teacher credential.

Technorati Tags: California homeschooling; California homeschool law; Ca

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What better way to celebrate Christ’s birth than to spend your Christmas vacation serving him? That’s exactly what Bridgeway Academy homeschooling families did this past Christmas season by traveling to Russia to share Christ with the people there.

Through street ministry, evening concerts, and their ministry to area orphanages, these incredible kids made an impact for Christ.

The Kozcman and Persons families joined together with others from their church for this incredible missions trip. The JF Band, which performed several evening concerts was made up of seven young people, including five homeschool students from Bridgeway Academy!

One of these homeschool students writes most of the songs for the band and has a passion to reach the world for Christ.

The team of homeschoolers especially loved the orphans, and treasured their times of visiting and ministering to the children in the orphanage.

Technorati Tags: Exceptional Homeschool Students, Homeschool Band, Homeschool ministry

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Evaluation season is well under way here in Pennsylvania. As a homeschool evaluator, this is one of my favorite times of the year. It is this time of year that I am most encouraged about the success of homeschooling.

Every day I meet another homeschooler who impresses me, either because of strong homeschool academics or because he or she has been outstanding as a volunteer. I have met students who have been named national merit scholars, who have earned full academic scholarships, who have played major roles in the races of local candidates; who have spearheaded ministry campaigns for the homeless, for refugee families, for shut-ins, for battered women, for children struggling with cancer, and others. They willingly give their time, energy and effort to make a difference in the world around them.

These students are homeschool champions.

Technorati Tags: homeschool success stories, homeschoolers make a difference

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No doubt the state of Pennsylvania has some of the most stringent homeschooling laws in the country. Affidavits, portfolios, daily logs, evaluations, standardized testing, June 30th, August 1st . . . all terms you will find in the Pennsylvania homeschool law. Many parents find the homeschooling laws in Pennsylvania to be an annoyance and an infringement on our rights.

However, I want you to see just the opposite is true.

Pennsylvania laws are actually a good thing for our Pennsylvania homeschoolers.

Why?

1. First, we will never have to go through the battle that is going on in California, where homeschoolers are scrambling to retain their rights to homeschool. Because early homeschoolers fought for a specific homeschool law in Pennsylvania, we know exactly what we must do to retain our rights to homeschool in our state.

Technorati Tags: homeschooling in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania homeschool law, Pennsylvania homeschoolers

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If you are a current homeschooler or homeschool graduate who read Jack Lessenberry’s essay on homeschooling I am sure you felt the hair stand up on the back of your neck. This uninformed journalist fills his essay with unresearched claims and foolish ideas that substantiate his lack of knowledge when it comes to homeschooling.

Despite his assertion that “home schooled children . . . are typically badly deficient in science education,” the facts tell another story. In fact, Mr. Lessenberry, statistics indicate the exact opposite:

In 1990, the National Home Education Research Institute issued a report entitled “A Nationwide Study of Home Education: Family Characteristics, Legal Matters, and Student Achievement.” This was a study of over 2,163 homeschooling families.

The study found that the average scores of the homeschool students were at or above the 80th percentile in all categories. The homeschoolers’ national percentile mean was 84th for reading, 80th for language, 81st for math, 84th for science and 83rd for social studies.

Technorati Tags: anti-homeschooling, homeschool graduates, homeschool success, why homeschool

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