Free Republic

Free Republic Homeschool Forum 2008-2009A spot for homeschoolers on Free Republic to share information Once again, we are reviving our Free Republic Homeschool Forum where homeschoolers can share tips and talk about curriculum for the upcoming year. Below is a list of educational books, curricula, and other resources recommended by homeschoolers on Free Republic. This list was compiled, updated, and reformatted using the suggestions many of you gave on our last thread. (If any corrections are needed, please advise.) Feel free to add more of your favorite books and products to the comments below. Which curriculum has worked well for...

This article is about parents who are teaching traditional math at home on the sly to their children. The previous article was pulled. Perhaps it was due to quoting Fox. I hope this thread is not pulled, the topic deserves discussion. Wintertime

case which threatened homeschooling in California earlier this year because parents supposedly weren't "legally qualified" to teach their children has essentially been rendered moot.

When it comes to getting a good education, apparently, there's no place like home. When homeschooling first came into prominence in the late 1980’s many viewed it with skepticism, but it has proved itself over and over the past two decades. Whether the average homeschooled student is getting as good an education as the average public school student is no longer a question. The verdict is in. The results of numerous studies show the average homeschooler is receiving a better education than the average public or private school student. In a 1997 study, Strengths of Their Own, Dr. Brian Ray...

After catching flak from homeschoolers over explicitly excluding them from its student story contest earlier this year, the Subway restaurant chain has now purchased banner advertisements on the website for Homeschooling Today magazine, touting its new "summer special" story competition. This new contest, named "Every Sandwich Tells a Story," carries the same name and prizes as the previous competition, but this time the contest is open to all students up to sixth grade, including homeschoolers. A screen capture that includes the banner advertisement can be seen below: In a general email sent by Jim Bob Howard, editor-in-chief of Homeschooling Today,...

A high school senior from Georgia won the National Right to Life oratory competition this past weekend, emphasizing in his speech how abortion “is but a branch to the Post Modernist root.” “They cannot say that an unborn child is or is not a person, because hey, it’s all relative. It may be a human to you, but not to me,” Blake Adams from Powder Springs, Ga., expressed in his entry titled “Truth.” Before winning the national competition Saturday evening in Washington, Blake had won his district competition in Cobb County, the Georgia state competition, and the preliminaries at...

When it comes to getting a good education, apparently, there's no place like home. When homeschooling first came into prominence in the late 1980’s many viewed it with skepticism, but it has proved itself over and over the past two decades. Whether the average homeschooled student is getting as good an education as the average public school student is no longer a question. The verdict is in. The results of numerous studies show the average homeschooler is receiving a better education than the average public or private school student. In a 1997 study, Strengths of Their Own, Dr. Brian Ray...

A judge in California has ended juvenile court jurisdiction over two children in a family case that prompted an appeals court at one point to declare that parents had no right to homeschool their children in the state. The opinion in the Rachel L. case when WND broke the story in February rocked the foundations of homeschooling in the state and across the nation, because of its implications that without such rights, parents could be liable for civil and criminal penalties simply for teaching their own children at home. It especially outraged those who opposed California's mandated advocacy for homosexual...

Last night, Mr. L’s attorney in the juvenile court reported to Home School Legal Defense Association that the juvenile court judge terminated jurisdiction over the two youngest L children in a hearing held on July 10, 2008. Mr. L is represented by Gary Kreep, who is the director of the California-based United States Justice Foundation, which has long been a close ally of HSLDA and homeschoolers in California. Two years ago, the children’s court-appointed lawyers had asked that the two children be ordered to attend a school outside the home. That request became the basis for the court’s February ruling...

Irate parents said a religious education teacher at the Alsager High School in England told students to wear Muslim headgear during a lesson on Tuesday. "But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion, there would be war," the grandfather of one of the students said.

Eleanor Holmes Norton is hoping to save nearly 2,000 city students from the dreaded federal voucher program that allows them to attend well-functioning private schools in a safe and nurturing environment. Mrs. Norton vehemently opposes the voucher program because of its imposition on the District´s public schools, which, of course, perform at levels of bad and worse. Mrs. Norton and the like-minded in the Democrat-controlled Congress want to end the $18 million program because it works, is a big hit with the parents of disadvantaged students and provides low-income families with a choice. Some of the testimonials of the parents...

On Wednesday, June 18, a district court in the German state of Hesse sentenced Jurgen and Rosemary Dudek each to three months in prison simply because they homeschool their seven children. HSLDA condemns this court ruling in the strongest possible terms. Good parents who love and care for their children should never be sentenced to prison for doing what is best for their children. Germany is a Western nation and should know better. HSLDA will be helping the Dudeks with their appeals, but German courts have so far consistently ruled against homeschoolers. More information will be forthcoming as this story...

We brought attention to the difficult climate for homeschooling in Germany in this column in March 2007. We shared the trials and tribulations of the Busekros family, whose 15-year-old daughter was forcibly removed from their home because she was being homeschooled. Melissa was placed in the psychiatric wing of a Bavarian clinic and was deemed to be suffering from “school-phobia.” There is good news to report on behalf of the Busekros family. When she turned 16, Melissa walked away from the clinic and returned home. Bavarian officials did not consent to her leaving, but because she had reached the age...

Political correctness portrays untamed America before European invasion as a natural paradise, where Indians maintained an exquisite ecological balance, living in a harmonious, idyllic relationship to the natural world. According to conventional wisdom, this pre-Columbian Eden flourished for peaceful millenia until brutal disuprtion by thoughtless, menacing and mercenary white colonists. Stewart Udall, one-time Arizona Congressman and later Secretary of the Interior for President Kennedy, became an early advocate of this point of view in his influential 1973 article, “Indians: First Americans, First Ecologists,” urging modern citizens to follow the native example of treating the landscape with love and respect. Udall’s...

A textbook monitoring group said that Maryland middle and high school students will be required to read about Islamic teachings that have been dumbed down and are products of political correctness. According to the New York Examiner, a new report issued by the American Textbook Council said that administrators who approved books for use in the Montgomery County school district caved into pressure by pro-Islamic groups seeking to present a less violent interpretation of Islam. Gilbert Sewall, director of the council, stated that, for example, the definition of jihad has gone through "amazing cultural reorchestration" in textbooks, losing any connotation...

The response of California's teachers' union to pro-family attempts to protect home schooling in that state has outraged one attorney who is working on the case. Numerous organizations on both sides of the issue have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the appeal of a California court's ruling that parents have no right to home school their children. But one reaction in particular caught the attention of pro-family attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute. "The California Teachers Association ... decided to file an amicus brief arguing before the court that parents should have no right over the education of...

Should parents need teaching credentials to home-school their kids?

...On May 29, 2008 the Worcester Telegram & Gazette published a story concerning a ten year boy who was immediately suspended when a school employee found him with a spent blank shell. According to the story entitled "Souvenir Rifle Shell Gets 4th Grader Suspended" the young man was given two of the spent casings by a uniformed veteran after a Memorial Day event. "This is a tragic example of how far over the edge this state and our schools have gone. For the school officials to react in such a manner is simply inexcusable," said Jim Wallace Executive Director of...

Subway apologizes for homeschool snub.

Subway -- the multi-national fast-food sub-shop giant -- has shot themselves in the foot. Again. The goal of their latest promotion was to win the loyalty of parents of grade school-aged kids -- to increase market share, revenue and profits. It was supposed to be a simple exercise in business marketing and promotion.

Subway sandwich contest: Homeschoolers not wanted Spelling-challenged promotion offers gift 'bastket' to winners Posted: May 24, 20087:00 pm Eastern By Jay Baggett © 2008 WorldNetDaily Subway, the sandwich restaurant, wants to hear your child's story – unless he or she is homeschooled.The national chain's "Every Sandwich Tells a Story Contest" offers prizes and a chance to be published on the Subway website and in Scholastic's "Parent & Child" magazine but specifically excludes homeschoolers: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied (sic) States who are currently over the age of 18 and...

Subway's online contest excludes homeschoolers. Prizes include a "Scholastic Gift Bastket (sic) for your home. Apparently Subway is a supporter of the teacher's unions and a victim of the public school system. Comments can be made at: http://www.subway.com/Applications/CustService/frmCustomerService.aspx

It’s true. The State of Tennessee has officially declared that from this point forward it will accept only less educated student applicants for state, county and city jobs in the Volunteer State. Why would the kindly folks in Nashville make such a stupid rule? Well, it’s all about control, you see. The state controls the less educated kids and they don’t control the ones that show higher academic aptitude. It really is just that simple. It has come to pass that the State of Tennessee has officially invalidated the high school diplomas of thousands of home-schooled Tennessee kids, at least...

It's springtime, and all God's creatures are ready for mating, but psychobabble killjoys are warning: Don't have kids. They'll make you miserable, and you'll deserve taxation for environmental abuse. On May 8, just as the songbirds were readying nests for their offspring, a Harvard professor tried to put a damper on the joys of human procreation by declaring that having children strips happiness from their parents. Professor Daniel Gilbert announced to the Happiness and its Causes conference in Sydney, Australia, that with each child the barometer of happiness plummets.

DOWNEY, Calif. - With the end of another school year approaching, college sophomore Moshe Kai Cavalin is cramming for final exams in classes such as advanced mathematics, foreign languages and music. But Cavalin is only 10 years old. And at 4-foot-7, his shoes don't quite touch the floor as he puts down a schoolbook and swivels around in his chair to greet a visitor. "I'm studying statistics," says the alternately precocious and shy Cavalin, his textbook lying open on the living room desk of his parents' apartment in this quiet suburb east of Los Angeles.

When Zachary Cataldo's daycare provider picked him up after school on Monday at Piedmont Avenue Elementary in North Oakland, she found him lying on the ground. An older kid had apparently slammed the 7-year-old into a tree, and he was too dizzy to stand up, according to Zachary's aunt, Janine Cataldo. Zachary was admitted to the intensive care unit of Children's Hospital-Oakland with a fractured skull and was released last night, Cataldo said. It wasn't the first time the boy was attacked at school. Cataldo said her nephew's front teeth were knocked out last year, when he was in kindergarten,...

About 100 people joined the Rev. Ken Hutcherson outside Mt. Si High School this morning to protest the Day of Silence being observed inside the school. The group prayed and sang as a noisy group of counter protesters tried to drown them out by beating on drums and chanting, "Go Home." Hutcherson, who had called for 1,000 "prayer warriors" to join him in protesting a national day to call attention to the harassment of lesbian and gay students, said his group was not against homosexuals or the Day of Silence. "We're against giving an entire school day to one club...

Anthony Cataldo of Oakland first raised concerns about aggressive bullying at his son's elementary school last year after Zachary lost four teeth on the playground - but he said he received only a verbal assurance that things would change. Cataldo said he complained again when some boys at school kicked 7-year-old Zachary in the stomach three months ago but got no response. Now - two days after an older student slammed Zachary against a tree, fracturing his skull and sending the first-grader to intensive care - Cataldo is hiring a lawyer, and school officials are paying attention.

It seems like a distant past now, but when Sen. Barack Obama delivered his "A More Perfect Union" speech in mid-March, commentators were quick to call it "historic." Now, though, as we are — or he is — knee deep in "bitterness" and loss in Pennsylvania, chances may be slimmer that his speech will make it into mainstream history textbooks. "At this point, it's too early to tell if it's soft soap or historic," says Gil Sewell, president of the American Textbook Council, a New York-based nonprofit group that reviews history and social studies textbooks. "I don't think the speech...

"In light of the irrefutable medical facts, it should be considered criminally reckless for educators to teach children that homosexual conduct is a normal, safe and perfectly acceptable alternative form of sexual expression (or 'sexual orientation')." Commentary by J. Matt Barber April 21, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Can you imagine officials at a middle school, junior high or high school setting aside a day to promote "tolerance" for heavy smoking and drinking among children?  How about a day where teachers encourage kids to "embrace who they are," pick up that crack pipe and give it a stiff toke?  Neither can...

I think its a wise decision, and who can blame them after such a horrifying situation? Their daughter was beaten by 6 other teenage girls just to put the video of it on youtube. Meanwhile, one lawyer is seeking a gag order on the case. See video of father's decision to homeschool here.

An advanced textbook on American government is drawing criticism from scholars for alleged errors concerning climate change and separation of church and state. The advanced textbook in question is called American Government (Houghton Mifflin) and was authored by James Q. Wilson and John J. Dilulio, Jr. Associated Press reports that a New Jersey high school student pointed out apparent errors in the textbook to the Center for Inquiry, which then released a "scathing report." Under criticism are statements that cause students to question whether the debate over "global warming" is really over, and whether the issue of "separation of church...

Did you catch the video this week of a student kicking the stuffing out of an art teacher in Baltimore, Maryland while the rest of the class cheered the pounding on? Y’know, if that teacher was moi, and some F-bomb dropping Darwinian throwback came over my desk to accost me, I’d grab my handy dandy scissors and plant ‘em in the feral teen’s skullcap, Jason Voorhees style. From there I would proceed to snag the American flag from the corner of the room (if there was one) in order to stave off the rest of the flesh eating zombies ‘til...

EAU CLAIRE, Wis — A middle school principal says he made "an error in judgment" last week by not more fully discussing a teacher's plan to tell seventh-grade students her sexual orientation during health classes. South Middle School Principal John Wallace said in a letter to parents of about 125 students in Stephanie Rowe's health classes that parents send their children to school each day "trusting that we as their educators will make the best decisions as to how to instruct and care for them." "On certain occasions, however, a decision is made that is clearly not in the best...

Home-schooled children in New York who receive special-education services through their school district will have to get their own therapy or go to school full time. The state Education Department notified school districts in January that they cannot provide the services. In a memo to superintendents, the state says the federal Individual with Disabilities Education Act requires students who are home-schooled to receive the same special-education services as those enrolled in private schools, if the state designates home schools as private schools. But New York State does not recognize home schools as private schools. The change came as the result...

Threat to Homeschooling By John Stossel Wednesday, April 2, 2008 The cat is finally out of the bag. A California appellate court, ruling that parents have no constitutional right to homeschool their children, pinned its decision on this ominous quotation from a 47-year-old case, "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train schoolchildren in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare." There you have it; a primary purpose of government schools is to train schoolchildren "in loyalty to the state." Somehow that protects "the public welfare"...

A state appeals court has agreed to reconsider its decision last month that barred homeschooling by parents who lack teaching credentials, raising the possibility that the judges will change a decision that has infuriated homeschool advocates nationwide. The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles granted a rehearing Tuesday at the request of a couple who have taught their eight children at home without credentials. It is not unusual for appeals courts to reconsider decisions, and the result is often a minor revision that leaves the original conclusion unchanged. But the three-judge panel in the homeschooling case hinted at...

During a break in a high school debate tournament not long ago, my 17-year-old son struck up a conversation with a student on the rival team from a New Jersey public school. "Where's your school?" asked the boy. When my son replied that he was home-schooled, the student probed. "How do you socialize when you're at home all the time?" he asked. "Well, for one thing, I'm here, right?" my son laughed. My children have gotten used to most of the standard questions from their conventionally schooled peers: Are you super-religious? Do you stay at home in your pajamas and...

There is a technology war coming. Actually it is already here but most of us haven't yet notice. It is a war not about technology but because of technology, a war over how we as a culture embrace technology. It is a war that threatens venerable institutions and, to a certain extent, threatens what many people think of as their very way of life. It is a war that will ultimately and inevitably change us all, no going back. The early battles are being fought in our schools. And I already know who the winners will be. This is a...

In the annals of judicial imperialism, we have arrived at a strange new chapter. A California court ruled this month that parents cannot "home school" their children without government certification. No teaching credential, no teaching. Parents "do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," wrote California appellate Justice Walter Croskey. The 166,000 families in the state that now choose to educate their children at home must be stunned. But at least one political lobby likes the ruling. "We're happy," the California Teachers Association's Lloyd Porter told the San Francisco Chronicle. He says the union believes all students...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two female middle school teachers were arrested Wednesday on charges they got into a fight in front of students, officials said. Eighth grade teachers Tawana Horton, 30, and Cambrella Pinckney, 28, bumped into each other during a hallway class change Friday afternoon at St. Andrews Middle School and began fighting, according to a report by the Richland County sheriff's department. The two teachers told an officer that they had an ongoing personal dispute, the report said.

The controversy over a California appeals court ruling on homeschooling continues to expand, even as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledge to defend the rights of homeschooling parents and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell on Tuesday affirmed families' right to homeschool their children. As The Los Angeles Times reported March 12, the superintendent told parents, "There's no cause for alarm." He continued: "I want to assure parents that chose to home school that California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling," he said in a written statement. "Parents still have the right...

A California appellate court has struck terror in the ranks of home schooling advocates by ruling that their children can't be taught at home without at least some oversight. Public education foes see this as an all-out attack on the concept of home schooling. That is not the case. And members of The Times editorial board didn't get it right either. (snip) It's evident that the vast majority who teach their offspring in front of the television do so because they don't want their children to be subjected to such dangerous doctrines as evolution, abortion, global warming, equal rights and...

The California appeals court decision criminalizing parents who homeschool their children is only the tip of an iceberg. Nationwide, parents are already being criminalized in huge numbers, and it is not limited to homeschoolers. During the Clinton years, the trend toward turning children into tools for expanding government power increased rapidly. Otherwise indefensible programs and regulations are now rationalized as "for the children."

What began a few months ago as a 12-year-old's bright idea may very well become one of Windham High School's [NH] most prominent features. David Hutchings, a home-schooled town resident, has proposed incorporating wind and solar energy into the $44 million school, slated to open in fall 2009. "I started this as a science project with friends ... and now it's turned into a huge project," he said with a shrug and a grin, sitting around a table yesterday at Lavallee Brensinger Architects in Manchester's Millyard. David was with a dozen adults -- one of them his mother -- at...

Anti-Catholic Education by: Malcolm A. Kline, March 14, 2008 The faithful are increasingly likely to face hostility to their beliefs in secular educational settings, the Catholic League’s 2007 Report on Anti-Catholicism shows: • On February 21, 2007, “A substitute teacher wiped the Ash Wednesday ashes off the forehead of a student at White County High School,” the League reports. “When the girl and her classmates protested, they were berated by teachers.” • On April 19 in Lake Bluff, Illinois, “A middle school teacher gave an assignment to her students pinpointing who was responsible for the Holocaust and listed Pope Pius...

Growing up, as I did, in the home of Russian Jewish immigrants, it figures that I’d start out thinking that, by all rights, FDR belonged on Mount Rushmore. But, all these years later, I have concluded that most of America’s woes can be traced back to his presidency, and that the best reason for his being up there along with Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington and Teddy Roosevelt, is that his head was already made of stone. Although FDR is often, mistakenly, credited with bringing the Great Depression to an end, as Amity Shlaes made clear in her book, “The Forgotten Man,�...

During World War II, my mother, at the time in elementary school, was sent to boarding school in Czechoslovakia when it became too dangerous to live in Vienna. In class one day, the teacher asked "Whom do you hate the most?" My mom raised her hand, planning to say "Hitler". Mom wasn't called on, but a good friend of hers was. The other little girl said "Hitler"; my mother never saw that little girl again, although Mom kept her friend’s photo with her until she died a couple of years ago. No one in America would believe that this could...

(Editor's Note: This story contains references to graphic material about homosexuality and violence.) Parents in Deerfield, Ill., are upset that a local high school is using books in advanced English classes this spring that they say are laced with graphic sexual content, pervasive expletives and mockery of religion. Worse, the books - "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (Parts 1 & 2)" - are required reading for advanced placement English students at Deerfield High School, but a parents' group wants them removed. "Who would have ever thought that we would be handing out pornography in public schools?"...