Days Like These...

No Homeschooling, No Christmas for the Johansson Family

Posted by Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
8:33 AM, Dec. 24, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

As you celebrate Christmas this year, please remember all the parents who are still fighting for their right to homeschool, and for parents who have had their children taken from them by force without just cause because they homeschooled their children--like the Johansson family of Sweden. This Christmas we can rest easy knowing that the gifts that we bought for our children will help further their education or offer a new way for your family to have fun together. The Johanssons have been denied Christmas with their only child, and so much more.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Special Needs Children: Bring Them Home Where They Belong

Posted by Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
3:18 PM, Dec. 17, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

More abusive teachers are in the news, this time two teachers tortured and abused several special needs children in their care--children who couldn't speak out about what was happening to them.

Parents, even your special needs children deserve to be at home where it is safe, and where you can be there to protect them. Homeschooling special needs children can be done!

Check out these resources to start:

E-Book: Teaching Jeremiah--a complete curriculum for teaching special needs children in preschool and early elementary grades.
E-Book: Someplace Called Special--A Look at Homeschooling Special Needs Children
Special Words for Special Needs--Blog posts by a mom homeschooling several special needs children.

You can find many more resources by searching online, and don't be afraid to ask questions! Trust is a huge thing for children with special needs. Your child trusts and needs you, not a person that neither you nor your child has never met before. You wouldn't just leave your child with strangers otherwise, why do so just because that stranger works for a public school?

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Background Checks for Homeschoolers?

Posted by Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
7:16 PM, Dec. 16, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

World Net Daily reports that just may become the case for British parents who wish to homeschool their children. The law stems, in part, to a problem that some parents are using homeschooling as a way to disguise abuse. However, what the law doesn't stipulate is what is required to pass a background check, it invades the rights and privacy of parents, and presumes them guilty until proven innocent.

As I've said before, there are already laws in place--in both Britain and the U.S.--in regards to child abuse. Government agencies are refusing to back those laws up. While there are several homeschool parents in Britain who are in agreement with making tighter restrictions on themselves in order to get rid of the few who give them a bad name, they need to recognize that this bill isn't really about protecting them. It's about a government trying to find ways to slow homeschooling down--period. Find out which parties and agencies are backing this bill and I think you'll find they aren't, and never have been, friendly to homeschooling.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Latest baby updates on facebook...

Posted by Amy Verlennich
7:00 PM, Tuesday, December 15, 2009 .. 1 comments .. Link

Just to let you know... I will be giving the latest updates on our new facebook group... so feel free to join and hear the latest on when the newest addition (who WAS due the 13th) will FINALLY decide to enter the world! :)

Click on the following link: THE VERLENNICH BABY'S COMIN'!