Shhhh! Do you hear that? It is the comfort of your home calling you. PJs, coffee (your flavor), and four fun filled days just for you!

In our quest to bring you the absolute best home school resource online, we have listened to your requests and are providing you with a fun filled online adventure! On July 31st through August 3rd, we will be hosting Heart of the Matter Online's first annual Virtual Home school Conference! We will be providing the attendees with motivational speakers, video tutorials, free products, question and answer sessions, and a vendor hall - all ONLINE! Just log on and either listen live during that time or log in at your convenience and listen to the audios.

We are trying our best to make it the most user and speaker-friendly conference possible. I know that God blessed us by helping us find this amazing conference software. The speaker will just log in at her/his scheduled time, with a plugged in microphone, speak about their topic(approximately 30-40 minutes), and then hold a Q/A session with the listeners (approximately 20-30 minutes). All the while the attendees will get to chat amongst themselves in true Instant Message format.

We really want the conference to be less like a "seminar" and more like a bunch of close friends in a chat room. We want everyone to feel comfortable. Some sessions will also be pre-recorded. Just wait till you see what some of your favorite home school personalities have done to educate and entertain you! At the end you will join in to chat with them, ask questions, and they will answer.

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I posted this today on my SmallWorld Reads blog as part of Sunday Scribblings, but it seems quite appropriate to post here, as well, slightly edited for a homeschooling audience. I spent most of today at our local homeschooling convention, so I have this particular type of "vision" in mind.

My family does not have a vision statement. It is something of which I am occasionally made aware, with a twinge of guilt, at this time of year. At the homeschooling conventions which are hed nation-wide in the summer, new homeschoolers often attend workshops called something like, "Getting Started in Homeschooling." And at these "Getting Started" type workshops, parents are often encouraged to write a family vision statement.

There are loads of "Getting Started" advice on websites, too. Like this from Trinity Prep School:

Developing a family vision statement .... or in my case, a paragraph, requires one to reflect on core family values. What is your vision for your family? Think long term .... what legacy do you want your children to pass onto THEIR children? Choosing action verbs in stating core values, creates an overall implementation plan.

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Back in November I blogged about how I was making adjustments to my beloved Sonlight material to better match my younger two children in 1st and 5th grades. As I explained in that post, I dropped the spine Sonlight offers for American History: The Landmark History of the American People. We also dropped  a few others and added in more hands-on activities. We  used Peter Marshall’s The Light and the Glory and began his From Sea to Shining Sea in place of the Landmark History.

The result has been wonderful. My daughter began this year saying, "I hate history," and I can happily say that she now loves history. Adding in all the hands-on activities was exactly what she needed. We took the year slowly, not adhering to any particular time-frame. We began with Native Americans and went through the Constitution. I thought we might finish with Lewis and Clark, but we didn't quite get that far. I look forward to starting next fall on the trail of those great explorers! I think we'd all agree that one of the best parts of the year was making our Revolutionary War lapbooks. Well, that and our trip to Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown!

And so, our year in American History:

Unit 1: Native Americans
The Story of the USA: Chapters 1 & 2
North American Indians (Marie and Douglas Gorsline)
If You Lived With the Sioux Indians (Ann McGovern)
Om-Kas-Toe by Kenneth Thomasma
Evan-Moor History Pockets: Native American
American Indian Prayer Guide
Come Look With Me: American Indian Art
Various recipes from the internet, including Indian fry bread and Maple Popcorn balls.
(During American Heritage Girls summer camp, we did the Native American badge and primarily used More Than Moccasins as a craft and food book. I highly recommend this.)

Unit 2: Columbus
The Story of the USA: Chapters 3-5
The Light and the Glory: Chapters 1 & 2
Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad


Unit 3: Jamestown
The Story of the USA: Chapter 9
The Light and the Glory: Chapters 4 & 5
Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Robert Bulla
A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla
My America Series: Elizabeth’s Jamestown Colony Diaries: Our Strange New Land; The Starving Time, and Season of Promise
Movies: Story of Pocahontas (Nest Family Movies); Disney's Pocahontas

Unit 4: Mayflower
Story of USA: Chapter 10
Light and the Glory: Chapter 5
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 (Ann McGovern)
American Adventures #1: The Mayflower Adventure (Colleen Reece)
Dear America: A Journey to the New World (The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple)
American Family Paper Dolls: Pilgrim Period (Tom Tierney)
Colonial Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in the New World (Laurie Carlson)—begin various crafts, recipes, etc.


Unit 5: Plymouth
The Light and the Glory: Chapter 6-7
American Adventures Series: Plymouth Pioneers; Dream Seekers; and Fire by Night.
Movies: William Bradford: The First Thanksgiving (Nest Family Entertainment); Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale (Disney)
Pilgrim Coloring Pages
Pilgrims from American Family Paper Dolls


Unit 6: Life in the Colonies (late 1600s-1770)
Light and the Glory: Chapters 8-9
Story of USA Book 1: Chapters 11 & 12
American Adventures: Smallpox Strikes
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Sign of the Beaver (novel and movie)
Colonial crafts from Colonial Kids: braided rug, sock dolls,
Colonial crafts from Colonial America Easy Projects: log cabin for Sign of the Beaver
Dear America series: Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan (1763)


Unit 7: Countdown to the Revolution (1770-1775)
Light and the Glory: Chapters 10 & 11
American Adventures: Boston Revolts
Johnny Tremain
Movie: Johnny Tremain
Colonial America Easy Projects: Boston town meeting, map of Boston
What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?
Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?


Unit 8: The American Revolution (1775-1776)
Light and the Glory: Chapters 12 -14
American Revolution: A Magic Tree House Research Guide (Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce). Fantastic guide to life in the colonies and the American Revolution. Great amount of information—not too much and not too simplistic.
Boston Tea Party: Excellent picture book of the events leading up to the Revolutionary War.
Meet George Washington
George Washington's Teeth: a picture book describing the real story of GW’s “wooden teeth.” The timeline at the end is especially interesting.
George Washington (video—Nest Entertainment, Animated Hero Classics)
My America Series: Hope's Revolutionary War Diary: Five Smooth Stones; We Are Patriots; and When Freedom Comes
Phoebe the Spy
Meet Thomas Jefferson
And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?
Hands-On History American Revolution projects: Boston Tea Party flip book, Mini-book of Paul Revere’s Ride, Declaration of Independence quiz panel.
Websites: Paul Revere's Ride (http://www.earlyamerica.com/paul_revere.htm) and here
http://www.cvesd.k12.ca.us/finney/paulvm/h1_midride/ridepages_nosound/ridefset.html
American Independence (video—American History for Children series by Schlessinger Productions)
History of US flag coloring book dowload (www.hellopress.net/free%20downloads/May-July/US_Flag_Coloring_Book.pdf)
Make Revolutionary War lapbooks
Source for famous quotes

Unit 9: A New Nation
The Light and the Glory, Ch. 15
From Sea to Shining Sea, Chap. 1
The Story of the USA, Book 2: Chap. 1 and 2
If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution
Shhh! We're Writing the Constitution!
Family Trip to Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown!

Unit 10: Moving Westward
The Cabin Faced West
(to be continued next fall!)

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This week's meme at Heart of the Matter asks us to share our favorite homeschooling moments. I've had a lot of favorite moments that are like snapshots in this journey: reading around the sandbox, nature journaling in the Smokies in late October, reading with a newborn baby on my shoulder during our first year, playing kickball together for PE, oh, I could go on and on with these precious snapshots.

But I can also be more concrete. The moment that reading clicked with both Duncan and Laurel. I'd always inwardly scoffed at those who said, "It's so wonderful to be with your children when they learn to read!" See, Jesse had learned to read at public school, and I didn't feel as if I'd missed out on anything. But when Laurel truly began grasping reading, and then when Duncan did a few years later, I thought: "Now I get it!" And I still get those moments of pure joy when I see her reading and realize that we did that -- together.

One of my favorite moments most recently was getting Jesse's ACT scores in the mail. I have to say that this was a big one for me. We have never had our kids do standardized testing. I've always felt that we could appropriately measure their learning levels ourselves. I felt intuitively that at 15 Jesse was ready to take the ACTs. In order to take dual credit enrollment classes at our local community college (he'll get both high school credit and college credit at the same time), students have to have a composite score of 19 on the ACT. That was really our only goal: that he would score  a 19. Well, let's just say that he way, way surpassed that goal.

That was a favorite moment.

But here's the thing: it's not me. God has blessed us so richly in so many ways, and having children with sharp minds is, indeed, a blessing. I don't take that for granted, and we initially felt led to homeschool largely because Jesse was such an eager learner. I saw a glimpse of his future in the public school system when, midway through first grade, he began scribbling on his math sheets out of sheer boredom  with the repetition. He was seeing already what it means to "teach to the middle" of the class.

I guess, then, that those favorite moments include (but certainly aren't limited to!) the loveliness of life with our children at home--the prolonging of their childhood and our parenthood--, and those moments when we see  educational successes.

Do you have a favorite moment you'd like to share? Click on the Heart of the Matter link above to share your blog post, or just post here in the comments!

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Today's Heart of the Matter Meme asks for ways we socialize. That is hilarious. How do we not socialize? I love those quiet evenings at home, socializing with just our family. Those rare evenings are a nice respite from all the other activities that we choose to do. You know: Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, American Heritage Girls, church,  co-op classes, camps, sports, performing arts, and just hanging out with friends. That kind of stuff that people can do if they want to.

Or they can just stay at home and enjoy their flowers, or each other, or a good book. Some days are party days, some days aren't. What I seek: a well-balanced life.

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The following is forwarded in its entirety from Rob Shearer, publisher of Greenleaf Press. The outcome was good for today, but there are more steps to come. Read below for details:

*******
BEGIN FORWARD FROM ROB SHEARER

What happened today on HB1652.

 The terminology is QUITE confusing… apologies to all. Enacting legislation is messy… today was a little messier than most.

 When the problem with the police officer and daycare worker surfaced, the deadline for introducing legislation had already passed, so Rep. Bell made a quick search for already introduced bills which dealt with the appropriate section of state law (sometimes abbreviated as TCA , stands for Tennessee Code Annotate). Rep. Ferguson had originally introduced a bill dealing with the section of state law governing Church-related schools (the so-called “caption” of the bill must state which section of state law will be amended). Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson agreed to use his bill to try to amend state law so that diplomas from church-related schools would be accepted by state agencies, regardless of whether the church-related school was accredited. To do that, they needed to take Rep. Ferguson’s original bill and “re-write” it by amending it and stripping out all of the original language and substituting the new draft that they wanted.

 So, Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson were the co-sponsors of a bill before the House Education Committee today, and their first task was to seek to have the committee approve their amendment which re-wrote the bill to do what they wanted.

In the meantime, the department of Ed’s representative (Dr. Obee(?)) had informally circulated an amendment to Rep. Bell’s bill. That amendment would have required CRS’s to only hire instructors with baccalaureate degrees. That amendment was never introduced, although Dr. Obee make some joking references to it having been circulated widely around the state. His logic was that if the state was going to have to accept a CRS Cat IV diploma, then the state should have some oversight over what was taught and who taught it. Topic for more discussion later.

So… Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson present their bill to the committee. Their first order of business is to request that the bill be amended with their agreed-on new language (which had been reviewed and recommended by a sub-committee). At that point, the Memphis delegation began their hour-long filibuster and proposal of an “amendment to the amendment” of the bill which would amend existing state law. Everybody still with me. The Memphis amendment would have directed the State Department of Education to recognize those public school students who completed all their course work but failed the Gateway tests as having valid high school diplomas as well as recognizing category IV diplomas as valid if issued before July 1, 2008. Next year, of course, we’d be back in the same dilemma and fighting with the legislature all over again. The Memphis delegation tactic was to hijack this bill for their own purposes. Gateway tests have already been re-defined to count as only 25% of course grades, rather than being must-pass, but they are valiantly attempting to get high school diplomas for kids who have been unable to pass the Gateway tests in years past.

On the vote on the Memphis amendment, the Chairman (Rep. Les Winningham) originally called for a voice vote and then announced that the Memphis amendment had passed. Rep. Bell asked for a roll call vote. He can’t get one automatically, unless a Rep. on the committee asks for one. When one of the committee members asked for the roll call, the chairman directed the clerk to call the roll. Much to the embarrassment of the chairman, the roll call showed that the amendment had failed by a vote of 7-10.

So the Memphis amendment was defeated… now they were back to Rep. Bell and Rep. Fergusons’s original request to re-write the bill with their agreed-on language. That vote was also done by roll call and it passed, 9-7 with one voting present. It was immediately followed by a vote on the amended bill itself, reporting it out of committee (called “sending it to calendar and rules,” which is the committee which actually schedules bills for the full house of representatives). That vote, also by roll call was identical, 9-7 with one voting present.

 Result: Representative Bell’s and Representative Ferguson’s bill came out of the Education Committee exactly the way they wanted it, written the way they wanted, without any amendment that they don’t want.

 The Department of Ed amendment which would have required a baccalaureate degree for every instructor in grades 9-12 was never introduced or voted on. The Memphis amendment which would have dealt with prior year Gateway exam stopped public school students AND only recognized CRS diploma’s through July of 2008 was also defeated.
 

This is an important (and surprising) result. The bill which was reported out would require all state agencies to accept CRS diplomas as valid high school diplomas. Period. Regardless of whether the CRS was category II, III, or IV. This was the situation until just this year. In effect, it reverses the new policy of the department this year which began treating non-accredited CRS diplomas as invalid. It would require DHS to accept Cat IV diplomas as valid for work in a day care center, and it would require the Police accreditation commission to accept CRS diplomas as valid for those seeking to be police officers.


Next step: the bill must pass the full house of representatives AND a companion bill must pass the state senate AND then be signed by the Governor. None of these three steps is automatic or easy… though they may be easier than the mountain that had to be climbed today.


UNLESS this bill is passed, the state dept of ed will apparently continue to treat Cat IV diplomas as “worthless.” We need this bill to pass. Ironically, its not so important for homeschooled students who go on to college. Colleges and universities both in TN and nationwide have had NO problems with Cat IV diplomas. They have the ACT/SAT and other criteria to go with them. It’s the jobs that do not require a college degree but DO require a high school diploma where the problems have arisen. You don’t have to have a college degree to be a police officer – but you do have to have a high school diploma. You don’t have to have a college degree to work in a day care center – but you do have to have a high school diploma. It is in precisely those two situations where the problem has arisen. Please stay in touch with your homeschool community over the next two weeks. There is much work still to do in order to get this bill passed.

Footnote: Though the Dept spokesman today did say that they were going to internally review individual cases and would attempt to handle exceptions( like the police officer who had completed the police training academy but was then told he could no longer serve as an officer because his Cat IV high school diploma was not acceptable), I do not find that reassuring. The old homeschool law required a college degree to be able to homeschool your high school student unless you had a waiver from the Commissioner of Education. In 10+ years, despite a number of well-documented and reasonable requests, no Commissioner ever granted a waiver.

- Rob Shearer
  Publisher, Greenleaf Press
  http://www.greenleafpress.com

  3761 Hwy 109 North
  Lebanon, TN 37087

 

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Dateline: Monday, May 5, 2008

Worthless Diplomas

Here in Tennessee, we're once again facing illogical legislation. Some of our diplomas are being called "worthless" and "not worth the paper they're written on." Kay Brooks explains it best on her blog post titled   "Good Enought for UT, Vandy, Harvard..."

Brooks calls this " a heavy handed and protectionist power play by educrats and their political appointees."  This isn't the first time we've been through this kind of nonsense. Back in February,   Rep. GA Hardaway tried to slip in HB2795 which would have required all students whether public, private or home schooled to submit to state testing. Thanks to the vigilance of homeschooling lobbyists in our state, the bill was thrown out.

Here in Tennessee we've been flooding phone lines, sending emails, and certainly a big crew will be present in Nashville right now. As Brooks says, we're "tired of this year of assault and [we] will be remembering this election season who was for freedom in education and parental rights.

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Dateline: Friday, April 25, 2008

Heart of the Matter Meme: Happy Habits of a Homeschooler

I must admit this meme perplexes me. How can a habit be happy? Sometimes my grammatical twitches can be smothering.

And so, habits. Good, happy habits.

* Our electronic toys rule: Two hour maximum per child on TV, computer, Playstation. None of that stuff between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. I actually make a little chart each day for my younger two so they can see how much time they've used and how much they have left. This takes out all the guesswork and put an end to that afternoon and lunchtime "Can I watch TV?" When their time is done, it's done.

* Room cleaning: The kids must all make their beds and pick up 10 things in their rooms each morning. On Saturdays, their rooms must be completely clean in order to receive their allowance.

* Reading aloud: This is such a pivotal part of our life that I forget sometimes that not everyone reads with their children for 2 or more hours each day. I can't imagine life without this. That is what I love so much about Sonlight--it's all about the reading.

* Independent work schedules: For my 5th and 9th graders, this has been a lifesaver in the past 2 years. I write down my daughter's independent work day-by-day for the week, and for my 9th grade son, I write down a list of everything that needs done for the whole week. My 9th grader does everything on his own but of course he needs to know what to do. My 5th grader works partly with me and partly on her own, so when it's time for me to work with my 1st grader, she has her list to go to.

* Craft supplies: I keep a hefty store of craft supplies of all sorts in easy access. I don't hinder their creativity by putting them up on shelves and insisting they come to me when they want to use supplies. We also have an "invention tub" that holds everything from styrofoam packing to pie tins. Paper, glue, markers, crayons--this stuff is always in a state of disarray, but they use it, by themselves, at moments like this when I am, well, blogging instead of starting school like I should be. Which brings me to...

* Flexibility: A very happy habit.

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Dateline: Friday, April 18, 2008

Heart of the Matter Meme: What I've Learned from the Kids

Today's Heart of the Matter meme asks for The Things Your Child Taught You During Homeschool. Here are just a few:

• My children reflect my moods. (Yes, I said reflect, not affect.) If I am distracted, grumpy, and/or irritable, they will be, too. I should be nice all the time.

• My children are, indeed, wonderfully and fearfully made with his/her own unique personalities and needs, which will determine how they learn best. And I have to be constantly aware that what works for one child will not necessarily work for another.

• My children love me to just be in the room with them. They are thrilled with the simplest of things, like me watching a movie with them or playing a game of kickball.

• Book-learning is a lifelong process. I learn something new every single day, especially in history and geography.

• It’s much more important to show love to my child than to finish the math book.

• If I am nice, my children are nice. Did I say that one already?

• We began homeschooling for two main reasons: to provide our children with a high quality academic education and to enjoy the family flexibility to which we were accustomed (and which the public school discouraged). Nearly nine years later, our list has grown to dozens of reasons. And homeschooling, somewhere in the very early years, became about life. The academic education becomes then, not an entity unto itself, but merely one component of our life—of our constant process of learning together.

• I have forgotten that I ever wondered if I would be making a huge personal sacrifice by homeschooling. I have forgotten that I ever imagined long stretches of days, writing and gardening, while someone else taught my children at school. Why would I have ever wanted to garden without a child next to me, ready to pick a worm out of the dirt or plop a flower into a hole?

What have your children taught you through homeschooling? If you post on your own blog, be sure to leave a link at The Heart of the Matter.

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