The following list contains some of the more common mistakes that are often made by families new to homeschooling. These items are in random order and are by no means all of the mistakes that could be made, nor is the existence of this list a guarantee that all new homeschoolers will make these mistakes. In an effort to help families avoid these errors, I have included links to other articles containing further help, encouragement, or explanations.

1. Doubting their ability to teach their own children

2. A. Attempting to copy the schedule, curriculum, or lifestyle of another homeschooling family
B. Attempting to copy public school classroom models for time schedules, room arrangements, or teaching methods

3. Being overly strict with schoolwork, teaching methods, and discipline, thinking that is how to avoid homeschooling failure

4. A. Leaving the house too often, due to over-involvement
B. Not leaving the house enough, due to fear or due to a too-intensive load of schoolwork

5. Trying to do too much -- too many subjects, too many activities, or too many projects

6. Viewing the household chores as Mom's Work, instead of as a team activity that benefits everyone

7. Assuming that what they may have heard about homeschooling is true, without checking into the facts: legal accountability requirements, time or financial commitment, or curriculum availability

8. Giving too much information on official documents

9. Refusing to try alternate methods or materials, even when something is not working well, feeling that changing methods will bring inconsistency

10. Giving up too quickly, instead of allowing themselves time to adapt to this totally new lifestyle (the second year is much easier than Year #1)


Once again, beginning to homeschool your children does not mean that you will make any or all of the above mistakes, especially if you attempt to tailor the academics to your children's interests and fit the educational experiences into your family's lifestyle (instead of the other way around). Guilt-Free Homeschooling is based in the homeschooling method which is comfortable for you and keeps you relaxed (not tense and stressful). Guilt-Free Homeschooling fits your family's lifestyle -- and there can be few mistakes in that.

For more encouragement, browse through the Titles Index for intriguing articles, or check out the category listings in the Topical Index for help with a specific problem you may be enduring.

Posted by Carolyn M @ 4:07 PM | 4 comments

In many states, creating a portfolio of your child's work is a legal requirement for homeschoolers. Doing so gives the state authorities the reassurance that your child is making sufficient academic progress, as well as provides a written record for your homeschool's program. But, creating a portfolio with meaning and memories can add so much more to your family's homeschool journey. By creating one that is personalized and tailored to your child and your program, you will be creating a book that will be cherished for years to come. Additionally, a well organized, personalized portfolio will give its evaluators a better understanding of your child and your family. This way, your evaluation will be far more significant than one for a more generic or haphazard collection of your child's work.

Compiling your children's portfolios does not have to be difficult, but it can be time consuming. Here are some ways to stay on top of things, as well as ways to put your own personal mark on these "end of year" collections:

	Begin organized and stay organized. Keep a file for every subject area, for every child. You will find that just having a folder into which your children can place their work will save you hours of running around at the end of the year. Date all completed worksheets and place them in the appropriate file immediately. For books (like math consumables), you can date the appropriate worksheet and leave it in the book, tearing out examples when you put your portfolio together.
	Document everything you can. It's a great deal easier to document field trips, books read, and schedules as you are accomplishing them, then to try to reconstruct the year after it's complete. You can do this on the computer, or simply keep a notebook into which you write all relevant events as they happen.
	Write a weekly log. Writing daily lesson plans in advance can be helpful, but for most of us, schedules can change as the week goes by. Doctor's appointments, unforeseen events, needing extra time to complete an assignment or simply moving ahead more quickly can all lead to those lessons changing on a daily basis. If you keep a weekly log for what did take place in your homeschool, you will be able to provide an accurate, written account of what was covered and any special classes your children were able to take.
	Take lots of pictures! Not only do photos provide a visual aid in helping to envision your homeschool program, they also afford you the chance to record events as they happen. Pictures don't have to record only the "big" events. Doing a science experiment, curling up reading a book, playing a math game or reading a map are all day-to-day events that you will want to remember in pictures. There are many ways to document these pictures, the most popular of which is the hobby of scrapbooking. Scrapbooking materials and supplies are available from private consultants and in hobby stores. You can decorate pages with journaling, explaining what's happening in each photo, and enhance them with your own creative flair.
	Take photos of items too large to fit into the scrapbook. For example, if your child has created a number of wonderful art projects or science experiments, make sure you not only photograph your child working on them, but take ones of the finished project, as well. So many of these special "treasures" are fragile and photographing them will preserve them forever. For prolific artists, you can also assemble an art "show" monthly and photograph the group of projects altogether.
	When in doubt, keep it! It's a good idea to keep all sketches, diagrams, spelling tests, maps, current event projects, reports, handwriting samples, book reports, creative writing examples, math worksheets & tests, foreign language samples, ticket stubs to special events (such as museum trips, theater events, etc.) and map & timeline projects. You can always weed out later ! But by saving them in an organized, methodical way, you will be able to pick and choose which samples you can best include.
	Give yourself plenty of time to sort and compile your portfolio. Don't wait until the last minute ! I like to give myself some time every day for a few weeks to really create the picture of each of my children I wish to convey. Rushing will only stress you out and make you want to hurry through the process. Take the time to create organized groups for every required category and then pick the 'best' reflections for every quarter for every subject. Using a three-ring binder, I use standard section separators and create different sections for required forms given by the evaluators, book logs, field trip logs, weekly logs, calendar (attendance chart), writing samples (creative writing, as well as reports), handwriting samples, math samples (worksheets & tests), spelling (worksheets & tests), science logs, foreign language samples and photos.
	Neatness does count! To provide the clearest record, I take my scrapbook pages and take them to the local copy center and have them color copied. I also find that this presents a tidier, less bulky 'feel' to the pages in our portfolio. Additionally, this keeps our cherished family photos in the family album. Copy centers will reduce and/or resize your scrapbook pages if they don't fit onto a standard 8" x 11". I also have color copies made of my children's writing samples so I don't have to tear out samples from their "final copy" books & journals. Copy centers will do this for you for a nominal fee but some copy centers will allow you to make the copies yourself. Standard Xerox does work but doesn't look as crisp or presentable. Scanning on a high quality scanner on your own home computer might be another viable option, but may not offer you the same resize opportunities as a copy center's professional touch.
	Don't forget the basics. Make sure your child's name, address, phone number, age, grade and other relevant information is right on the front of your portfolio. It makes it far easier for evaluators to  pertinent information first thing. Additionally, it helps evaluators to know if you use a specific method in your homeschool. For example, if you employ the Charlotte Mason, unit study or Classical methods, it helps your evaluators to have that information right away so that they can best read your portfolio with that in mind.
	Have fun! Remember to look at this as your opportunity to share your year with your child's evaluators. Express your passion for homeschooling and your child's special gifts on every page. The love that you convey for your child will clearly show on the pages of your portfolio!

Editor's note: With Ellen's great ideas you can start the year off right by planning for the end of this year's evaluation today! How easy it will then be to send the portfolio to HOME for your review!

HSLDA will be at the Homeschoolers of Maine's 18th annual convention this year. We are at the Samoset Resort in Rockport this year. Two vendor halls, great speakers and beautiful location what could be better.

HSLDA is having another contest, details below:

HSLDA: 2008 Art Contest Deadline Approaching
 
Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:
 
There are about three weeks left for you to submit entries to the art
Contest, so get those paints and pencils flying! The deadline by which
Entries must be postmarked for the preliminary round is February 1.
 
Students must submit a piece of artwork with a theme inspired by one
Of the following quotes from American authors:
 
Category 1 (students 7 to 11 years old):  "What we have once enjoyed
We can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."
--Helen Keller
 
Category 2 (students 12 to 15 years old): "Humility, like darkness,
Reveals the heavenly lights." --Henry David Thoreau
 
Category 3 (students 16 to 19 years old): "A moment's insight is
Sometimes worth a life's experience." -Oliver Wendell Holmes
 
Be sure to check our website for the entry form, rules/guidelines for
The contest, as well as instructions on how to send in your entry:
http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=4631 .

Happy Thanksgiving all. Wish the weather was better but we are giving thanks for it just the same.

Enjoy your Holiday.

I know this is preaching to the choir, but I found this article to be well done and wanted to share it with other homeschoolers.

Happy homeschooling. 

I Was Raised By Wolves

By Gena Suarez

That sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it?  I’m not referring to my parents.  My mother, in fact, is the one the Lord commissioned to bring me to Himself.  I can’t wait to see her again (she resides in Heaven).  I’m not alluding to grandparents, aunts, uncles, or any other adult in my life who may have had a hand in my upbringing, indirectly or otherwise.  I’m talking about the ones who really raised me.

I’m referring to my peers and even some of my instructors; they were my true mentors and teachers. Everything I learned about the streets came from them.  Any profanity, sensuality, hair-raising talk of witchcraft, and revelations of what gangs really do to teens in Salem, Oregon, were infused into my being, never to be forgotten. My mind was filled with all that I read in the school library; I won’t elaborate for your sake and mine.

Johannah Bluedorn has written a book titled My Mommy, My Teacher. My Julia used to cart that small book around, tucked under her little arm, because she loved the pictures. She couldn’t read the words yet, but if she could, they only would have confirmed in her what the pictures were already conveying—there is safety with Mommy. Home is where Julia belongs.

I too could write a book—My Public School, My Teacher. But my story would read very differently from Johannah Bluedorn’s, who, by the way, was raised in a normal home and received a true education—hence, her genuine ability to create a book which brings comfort to children all over the world.  My volume would be dark, most certainly lacking of much comfort.  It would be explicit and full of godlessness.  It would contain heartbreak, rejection, shame, profound sadness, and abuse. Pictorially, it could be described quite easily. Here’s a visual—an illustration, if you will:  myself, Miss Gena Renee Wright, commencing at the age of kindergarten and moving up (chaotically) through my high school years, sampling every last piece of fruit off the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Not just gingerly tasting, either.  Gorging.  In fact, my book now doesn’t even need words.  That artistic depiction says it all. 

I’ll never write that book.  My God (Jesus, who is the Word) tells me that, because I am a new creation in Christ, I am to focus on what is good and lovely, pure and true (Phil. 4:8). I have no desire to wallow in the mud of my past, my sin. I keep my mind far from reflecting on that tree from which I ravaged. Why should I continuously go back to it? God gets no delight from my reporting on it in detail—even if the last chapter is victorious. We are not to delve into sinful memories for the sake of general reflection. We’re not to boast of our “sowing the wild oats” days, either. The world is sick; everyone already knows that. Why savor it even in memory form? That can be a real trap, for others and for ourselves. Leave the sordid details in the dark, where they belong.

As a senior in high school, through a series of incredible, heart-wrenching events, I ran to Him and clung. The scales fell off and victory prevailed. The angels sang and Heaven rejoiced. I was new, reborn! I praise the Lord for drawing me to Himself. But I had years ahead of desperate struggle based on the wolves’ prior (and even very current at the time) influence over me—those who had raised me had brought me up well. I could say I was a new creation, and I meant it. I  could meditate on God’s Word, and I really tried. I went to church and worshiped my God, my Savior. I recognized what He had done. But I had an entire “movie” still inside me, all my memories. Film after film. Screenshot after still form. Profanity was second nature; when you hear it thousands of times on a regular basis, it becomes almost a part of you. You default to “hearing” it internally even when you don’t expect it (or want it!). Our children’s minds are like sponges, and when they are little, what we allow in, stays in. Garbage in, garbage out—and in. It often stays. While now saved by the grace of God, my “sponge” was still full. And it was a dirty sponge.

Many of you were raised similarly. You know what I mean about the sponge. I don’t want that for my children; it’s not God’s way. They are called to something much, much higher, and do you know what’s really exciting about that? The Lord has equipped us, imperfect mommies and daddies, to raise them up in a way they should go. He gave us these precious gifts for a reason! We can direct what hits the sponge.

What does His word say about raising children? Deuteronomy 6:7—And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Can we achieve this if we send them out all day? Sounds like we are to be training them up in Him, teaching them, right? When we rise in the morning, when we lay them down at night, when we walk throughout the day and even while sitting with them in our homes. If they are gone all day long, how does this work? Can it? Even worse, what about the sponge? Who is filling it? Even if you can get a few quick sound bites into them in the morning and at night, what about their real life? What about those who are truly raising them up? Because if you send them away, make no mistake, you are not personally raising them up. Someone or something else is. Beware of this truth, please.

The ones who raised me accomplished their goal. My sponge was filled and filled until it “ran over.” And the things that ran out were a stench, pure sewage. I got quite the education while being raised by my wolves. And statistically, I should have ended up a wolf myself, wholly poised to carry on the tradition and raise my own.

But the Lord had the next generation in mind for something greater. He stopped the tradition in its tracks and issued Paul and me a new one. Our children are homeschooled. Their sponges are filled by those who we allow to influence them, namely, us. We fill them with God’s Word, Truth itself. We tailor their education so that, unlike me, they actually receive some semblance of “academics” within that education.

Many folks believe that their local government schools are safe. They have no idea what’s really going on. I can tell you story after story, things that would drop your jaw. Parents are losing their Christian children to the world in droves because of the wolves who are truly raising them. They believe the lie (sometimes from their own pastors, even!) that, not to worry, they are the ones actually raising their kids up, not the schools. They are blind to the homosexual agenda, the “religion” of evolution, the “swaying away from” their parents which they are receiving from their teachers and/or peers. Some school teachers literally tell the students not to tell their moms and dads what happens in class. Several schools force participation in “Gay Day” events or “tolerance assemblies.” Kids have no choice but to go and watch the smut—this is “education.” Teens in Georgia were taken to an offsite clinic where some were given pap smears, AIDS tests, contraceptive devices, and a “good talking to” (more “education”)—all without the parents knowing of the little field trip. And if the parents ask for the results of pregnancy tests or AIDS tests, guess what they get told? Basically, to mind their own business! Have you heard of the Title X program? Look into it. There are “privacy rights” your child has that you probably don’t even know about—and it’s all federally funded and made use of by many schools now. If we turn our children over to the schools, they become the business of the schools. And the parents are often the last to know, if at all.

Parents are oblivious of the R-rated visuals their children are taking in on a regular basis, the exposure of pornography on the school buses, the hushed discussions and even sexual encounters their children get to gawk at. The parents are not there, so they do not know what happens during the hours and hours their children are away. See my blog for more of such reportings, complete with site sources (www.genasuarez.com).

I was there in public school; I can tell you. These things exist, and it’s by far worse today than it was for us ’80s kids. And please don’t assume that these things are only happening in certain schools. To some degree, ungodliness is happening in ALL public schools every single day. And it will continue to spiral downward. That’s the world’s way.

3 John 1:4—I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

How I love the above verse and cling to it. It reminds me in a very practical manner of my children’s sponges. May I work diligently to fill those precious minds with what is pure, lovely, and true. I pray that the Lord will bless our efforts. May our children grow to be faithful to Him, hopelessly in love with the very God who created them. Anything else is for the wolves.

Paul and Gena Suarez reside in Gray, Tennessee, where they homeschool their four children: Paul (17), Luke (15), Levi (13), and Julia Rachel (10). They enjoy long country drives while listening to books on CD, hanging out with good friends, and staying up late. The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC

www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/TOSPublisher

Copyright 2007.

Originally appeared in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, Summer 2007. Used with permission. Right now, 19 free gifts when you subscribe. www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

*** HOME Used Curriculum Sale 2007

Saturday, July 14th, 2007 from 9:30am - 1:30pm at St. Paul’s Center in
Augusta

Please help HOME by sharing information about the 2007 Used Curriculum Sale
with your friends. Plan to participate in this popular event as a seller, a
buyer or both!

The Heart of HOME Bookstore will also be on site!

For all the details, visit: http://www.homeschoolersofmaine.org/UC07.htm

*** Deadlines Extended for the HOME Convention, April 20 and 21, 2007!!!

It's still not too late!! Registration deadlines have been extended. You now
have until April 10 to register for the HOME Convention. You also have until
April 16 to reserve your room at the Summit and receive the discount rate.
Don't delay! Plan now to attend HOME's 17th Annual Convention. In addition
to the many blessings you'll receive, you will be supporting your state
organization! For all convention details, visit our website at
http://www.homeschoolersofmaine.org/convention.htm

Are you staying at the Summit Hotel Friday Night? Be a part of
HOME's Friday Night International Social! Visit
www.homeschoolersofmaine.org/internationalnight.htm for all the details!

Educator Savings Week March 22-27, 2007

Current and Retired Educators save 25% on Books, CD's, DVD's and Cafe items.
Share this link with all Educators!  http://www.bordersstores.com/educator
And join us for our special reception Friday, March 23 from 4:00-8:00 PM at
Borders, 430 Main Mall Road, South Portland-next to Macy's at the Maine Mall

Enter to win Seattle's Best Coffee for a year! Great prizes, food and personal service for all your book, music and movie needs.