Public School Student Locked In Closet For A Year By Her Parents

A Public School Student was locked in a closet for a year by her parents except to attend public school and go to the bathroom. Apparently none of her public school teachers, who are supposedly taught to look for  signs of abuse, noticed that she was malnourished. CPS didn't get involved until one of her three brothers alerted school officials.

Read more in  The Sun Herald

But They Are So Normal

The post on anti~homeschooling views at Why Homeschool got me thinking about a conversation I had a few years ago with some Soccer Moms. My boys have been involved in recreational soccer for a number of years and my husband is usually the coach or assitant coach. So I know the parents and kids pretty well. These are all nice intelligent women who care passionately about their kids. So we are all sitting around on the bleachers watching our kids practice soccer when one of the mom's announces that "She doesn't know why anyone would homeschool. All homeschooled kids are social misfits that can't hack "real" school". I calmly announce that I homeschool (you could have heard a pin drop - I definitely heard her jaw hit the ground). Then she replied in shock "But they are so normal and added they were the exception to the rule" at which point I just had to point out that three of the other boys on the team were also homeschooled. She couldn't believe it, and the three other boys were so normal that she couldn't manage to pick them out either.

After further discussion I learned that she didn't realize she knew kids that were homeschooled. All she knew about homeschooling she had gleaned from magazine articles. And that she was feeling guilty because her son was doing poorly in school and wanted to be homeschooled. At this point a public school teacher added her two cents which was that homeschoolers were usually more well rounded students. And while some public school teachers may be anti~homeschooling, it's important for us to remember that not all of them are. I have exchanged lesson plans and classroom ideas with many public school teachers I am acquainted with and when I have run into problems they have always been willing to help me. In fact it was one of Jonathan's public school teachers that first put the idea of homeschooling in my head.

So maybe homeschoolers should start talking about homeschooling more when we are in public. I had known these ladies for a number of years, but the only one who knew I homeschooled (we had exchanged lesson plan ideas) was the public school teacher. After all if people don't realize they know nice sane homeschool families can we blame them for believing the misinformation they read in the media? After my friend got over her initial embarrassment at having put her foot in her mouth we had a nice productive conversation about homeschooling. A conversation that wouldn't have happened if I had gotten defensive.

Carnival of Homeschooling

Anti-Science Fundamentalist Fruitcakes give homeschoolers a bad rap

I do wish Greg Laden would stop characterizing all homeschoolers as anti-science fruitcakes.

And I do wish the Anti-Science Fundamentalist Fruit Cakes would stop acting like they speak for all homeschoolers. I am sure there are some secular or inclusive homeschool groups in Minnesota who actually do REAL SCIENCE, not this Christian Viewpoint as Science tripe.

Honestly I am not sure who I am more upset with. Greg is smart enough to realize all homeschoolers aren't anti-science. The Anti-Science Fundamentalist Fruit Cakes are just deluded. The purpose of Science Fairs isn't to convince people to attend church.

Lawsuit: Ohio teacher tied boy's hair in ponytails - News Updates - SunHerald.com

And they wonder why so many parents choose to homeschool?
Lawsuit: Ohio teacher tied boy's hair in ponytails - News Updates - SunHerald.com
For a teacher to intentionally humiliate a student in unconscionable.

All Homeschoolers Are Not Christians & All Christians Are Not Homeschoolers

My post Mislabeling of Public School at Home Causes Confusion sparked heartburn among a few readers, and lead to an email dialogue with one reader. Here are some of the comments she made.

I've been actively involved in education for over 30 years. I support limited gov't involvement in education no matter where it takes place.
Most of the abuse of homeschool has come from unchurched families (not all, most) and someone needs to help these children without a voice.
Your position on this makes me think--your children are more important than the little one I am speaking of--in fact they are so important you are willing to sacrifice these little ones so you can do what you want with your children.

The government has no reason to be involved in homeschooling. Those who do not feed at the public trough (public schools) should be free of government involvement. Apparently this woman assumes that only Christians are fit to homeschool. I also find it troubling that she believes that without government intervention parents would abuse their children, and uses this to justify her belief that the government should be involved in homeschooling. Considering the government can't even protect public school students from abuse by public school teachers, bullying by other students and school shootings, she has a lot of nerve insisting that ALL homeschoolers should allow government intervention in homeschools to "protect the children". It's not my duty to protect "all the children of the world", it is my duty and responsibility to protect my own children and to see that they get the best education possible. No parent should be expected to do things for the greater good at their children's expense. 

all of us that parent as Christians homeschool. I would consider any parent that is the primary teacher for their children is homeschooling. That would include private school, public schools--any parent that is doing what God has called them to do.


Really!!!! I respectfully disagree, if you are a Christian and send your child to a public school you do not homeschool. Also all homeschoolers are not Christians. There are many Atheist, Deist, Wicca, etc that homeschool. Christians do not have a monopoly on homeschooling. Non-Christians even have their own homeschool support groups, since the majority of the Christian Groups discriminate against Non-Christians or Christians who do not measure up to their standards.
Homeschool Support Groups for Non-Christians & Free Thinking Christian's
Free Thinking Home Educators (you can be a Christian and a Free Thinker)
Jewish Homeschoolers
Islam/Muslim Homeschoolers
Resources for Pagan Homeschoolers
Of course there are parents who belong to other religions/philosophies then those listed here who homeschool, my apologies for leaving your specific religion/philosophy out - but this post is already long.

As to why I don't accept the legal definitions-- (of homeschooling) I don't consider them Biblical. I also would not accept the legal definition of gay marriage if it was allowed in my state--because I believe that also is against scripture. I only accept legal defintions when they do not contradict the Bible.

Well at least this explains why she has so much trouble comprehending that Dan isn't a homeschooler. She refuses to accept legal definitions & Dan's a Christian parent therefore according to her reasoning he is a homeschooler, even though he sends his son to a PUBLIC School. Here is one of the legal definitions which makes it pretty clear that homeschoolers are nonpublic school students (all the legal definitions I found specified non-public school student).

Home school - A non-public school in which one or more children of not more than two families or households receive academic instruction from parents or legal guardians, or a member of either household. http://www.nche.com/law.html

You simply can't send your child to public school and claim to be a homeschooler because you are a Christian. That is the most illogical thing I have ever heard. And excuse me, but I have never read a definition of homeschooling in the Bible, so how prey tell can the legal definition of homeschooling contradict the Bible? Also since she is so dogmatic about only using scriptual definitions, I wonder if she realizes that the words of the New Testament were changed in the process of copying them (Whose Version of Luke?)

As to my question

What would you call a parent whose child does not attend a PUBLIC SCHOOL, is educated at the parents expense, and the parent is the one solely responsible for deciding what curriculum and textbooks to use?

Anyone that falls into this category can call themselves whatever they wish. They can call themselves homeschoolers

Since the legal definition of homeschool was created to describe non-public school students, whose parents bear the burden of their education, it makes sense that they call themselves homeschoolers. It does not make sense that parents that send their children to public or private school would mislabel themselves homeschoolers. As for people calling themselves whatever they wish, it would make communication impossible if everyone decided on their own meaning for words. What's next if you don't like the way something is spelt you decide on your own spelling? The fact that no one would know what the heck the word is suppose to be would be beside the point apparently. Just as it is necessary for us to spell words in a standard way so people know what word is being used, it's necessary for us to use standard definitions so the meaning of the word is clear. Homeschooling is an educational choice, not a religious calling!

Carnival of Homeschooling

This weeks CoH theme is for Those Considering Homeschooling.

This Stinks

Senate Bill 2221: Prohibiting Homeschool Students from Receiving Particular College Grants


Sponsors:

Senator Bill Stone

Summary:

This bill would require that homeschool students receiving a Mississippi Resident Tuition Assistance Grant or a Mississippi Eminent Scholars Grant be graduates of an “accredited” home instruction program. Home instruction programs in Mississippi are not accredited, nor is there any procedure for them to become accredited. This bill would effectively prohibit homeschoolers from receiving these grants for college expenses.

10 Famous and Successful People Who Were Homeschooled

Click here to read more.

For Further Reading

In Response to the Supposedly Scholarly Critique of Homeschooling... @ Homeschooling on the Hudson

"Teach Your Children Well"....Or Else! @ PrawfsBlawg

On Educating Children: A Parentalist Manifesto by Steve Gilles

Taking Pierce Seriously: The Family, Religious Education, and Harm to Children by Richard W. Garnett
Notre Dame Law School

The Ministry of Truth Is Located in Texas @ PolitiCalypso

Another Illiberal View About Homeschoolers

Illiberal Education: Constitutional Constraints on Homeschooling by Kimberly Alexandra Yuracko, Northwestern Law School

In case you are wondering about the definition of illiberal, from the Merriam Webster Dictionary

d: not broad-minded : bigoted


Ms. Yuracko's views on homeschooling and homeschoolers is certainly bigoted.


She says
Although homeschoolers are a diverse group, the homeschooling movement has come to be defined and dominated by its fundamentalist Christian majority many of whom choose to homeschool in order to shield their children from secular influences and liberal values.

At least they are finally catching on that homeschoolers are a diverse group, but contrary to what she believes homeschooling is not dominated by a fundamentalist Christian majority.

The reason for homeschooling that was most frequently cited as being applicable was concern about the environment of other schools including safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure. Eighty-five percent of homeschooled students were being homeschooled, in part, because of their parents’ concern about the environment of other schools. The next two reasons for homeschooling most frequently cited as applicable were to provide religious or moral instruction (72 percent) and dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools (68 percent). ~ Parents’ Reasons for Homeschooling


72% cited religious or moral instruction but no study reveals the parents religion affiliation. Therefore there is no data to support Ms. Yuracko's claim. One of my Pagan friends is homeschooling for religious reasons due to her daughter being harrassed at her former public school due to her Pagan beliefs. The majority of parents according to this study 85% choose to homeschool due to the school environment, not for religious reasons. I also have to question why Ms Yuracko believes it is OK for liberals to pass on their values in the public schools but not for conservatives to pass on their values to their own family members?  BTW I consider myself a LIBERAL

The paper relies on federal state action doctrine and state constitution education clauses to argue that states must—not may or should—regulate homeschooling to ensure that parents provide their children with a basic minimum education and check rampant forms of sexism.

I have to give Ms. Yuracko credit, I think she is possible the first to accuse homeschoolers of practicing rampant forms of sexism.

Is homeschooling sexist
The Feminist Homeschool
Feminist homeschooling is educating your children with the understanding that feminism is as much a lifestyle as it is a movement. It teaches that women and men are of equal value, neither being better or more worthy than the other. (read the rest here)

From Just Enough, and Nothing More
Homeschooling Is Anti-Feminist?
Feminist Homeschooling Concerns

Home Education Magazine November-December 2000 - Articles
Is Homeschooling Sexist? - Laurae Lyster-Mensh

I am a equal partner with my husband. I have an equal say in any decisions made concerning our family. My work as a housewife and a (former) homeschool Mom is valued.  We have never had strictly male/female jobs in our home. If I am sick my husband pitches in with the housework and both our boys have been taught how to cook and clean.  I am also the one that keeps track of our finances and deals with the insurance, although hubby will help if I ask him to. The time when women had no say in decision making is long gone. The CHOICE to stay home and be a housewife should have the same value as the CHOICE some women make to work outside the home. Those women who seek to deny women the CHOICE to stay home are as wrong as those who in the past sought to keep women imprisoned in their homes.

In some homeschool families it is the husband who stays home and homeschools the kids while the wife works outside the home and supports her family. I am just glad we live in a  country where we are free to make the CHOICES that are right for our individual families and not in a country where THE GOVERNMENT tells you what to think. Ms. Yuracko has no business using the government to ram her "sexist" beliefs down other women's throats.

At the moment I don't have time to download Ms Yuracko's bigoted paper on homeschooling and do a point by point rebuttal but I am sick and tired of women like Ms Yuracko and Ms. West trying to use the government to force their bigoted and intolerant beliefs on the rest of us.

Carnival of Homeschooling

Homeschool Dad is hosting this weeks Carnival of Homeschooling.

Robin L. West takes a potshot at homeschooling

The Harms of Homeschooling by Robin L. West is included in Philosophy & Public Opinion Quarterly The Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy School of Public Policy • University of Maryland (page 7) apparently no intelligence is needed to write for their quarterly.

She says
The explosion in homeschooling of the last quarter century, however, is a different phenomenon altogether. The majority of homeschoolers today, and by quite a margin, are devout, fundamentalist Protestants.

Really!!!!! I know Pagan Homeschoolers, Atheist Homeschoolers,  Wicca Homeschoolers, Catholic Homeschoolers as well as a few Fundamentalist Protestant Homeschoolers. The Fundamentalist do not dominate the homeschooling world contrary to what Ms. West believes. In fact religion isn't even the main reason most parents choose to homeschool.

The reason for homeschooling that was most frequently cited as being applicable was concern about the environment of other schools including safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure. Eighty-five percent of homeschooled students were being homeschooled, in part, because of their parents’ concern about the environment of other schools. The next two reasons for homeschooling most frequently cited as applicable were to provide religious or moral instruction (72 percent) and dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools (68 percent). ~ Parents’ Reasons for Homeschooling


72% cited religious or moral instruction but no study reveals the parents religion affiliation. Therefore there is no data to support Ms. West claims. One of my Pagan friends is homeschooling for religious reasons due to her daughter being harrassed at her former public school due to her Pagan beliefs. The majority of parents according to this study 85% choose to homeschool due to the school environment.

Ms. West also seems confused about the history of homeschooling according to her it was illegal or highly regulated until the 1980's
The short answer to how it happened is simply that in the 1980s, all fifty state legislatures, in response to massive political pressure from religious parents and their lobbyists, legalized homeschooling.

But the modern homeschooling movement was actually lead by educators.
It is difficult to peg the exact origin of modern homeschooling. Some might say the seeds were being planted in the sixties and seventies by educational reformers and authors who questioned both schooling's methods and results. Notable among them are Ivan Illich (Deschooling Society, Harper & Row, 1971), Charles E. Silberman (Crisis in the Classroom: The Remaking of American Education, Random House, 1970), and the prolific John Holt (How Children Fail, Dell Publishing, 1964; How Children Learn, Dell Publishing, 1967; What Do I Do Monday? Dell Publishing, 1970), a teacher who eventually gave up his original vision of school reform as hopeless. He began advocating instead no school for youngsters, and in 1977 began publishing Growing Without Schooling, a magazine that continues today even though John passed away in 1985. (Author's Note in 2005: Unfortunately, the inheritor no longer publishes this magazine.) ~ A Brief History of American Homeschooling

Ms West states
The main purpose of this essay is to criticize this “right to homeschool” that the religious parents and their lawyers and lobbyists have claimed, or created, over the past couple of decades. My criticism will rest primarily on the basis of the harms such a right might inflict upon the children so educated.

That's right "MIGHT" she has NO PROOF that homeschooling is actually harmful.

And talk about hypocritical she even concedes that unregulated homeschooling has been and continues to be successful.

Second, although I will be criticizing the right to completely deregulated homeschooling, I do not mean to deny for a moment that homeschooling itself is often—maybe usually—successful, when done responsibly. Passionately involved and loving parents, whether religious or not, can often better educate their children in small tutorials at home, than can cash strapped, under-motivated, inadequately supported, and overwhelmed public school teachers with too many students in their classrooms. Results bear this out, as homeschool advocates repeatedly point out (and as critics virtually never deny): the homeschooled children who are tested, or who take college boards, whether or not religious, perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, do very well on standardized tests, and on the average, they do better than their public school counterparts (though it must be noted that the parents and children who voluntarily subject themselves to testing are the self-selected educational elite of the homeschooling movement). My target is not the practice of homeschooling, whether religious or secular.My target, rather, is unregulated homeschooling—the total abdication of responsibility by the states for regulating the practice.

And yet it was unregulated homeschooling that allowed my kids to succeed. We NEVER did testing of any sort until they were ready to enter college and then they took the ACT. My eldest son started college at 16 based on his ACT scores. He now has a Bachelors of Science Degree in Computer Science and is working on his Masters. My youngest son has just completed his first semester of college as a full time student. Homeschooling's success is due to the freedom the parents and students enjoy to move at their own pace and study what is of interest to them, instead of being forced to follow some bureaucratic regulations.

She claims
First, children who are homeschooled with no state regulation are at greater risk for unreported and unnoticed physical abuse

Not true. Child abuse is NOT a Homeschooling Problem.  Child Abuse Laws apply to all parents and Child Protective Services are tasked with protecting all children not just public school students. See Homeschooling and Child Abuse: A Response to Recent Media Reports

Second, there’s a public health risk. Children who attend public schools are required to have immunizations. 

With all the controversy surrounding immunizations it is not necessarily in a child's best interest to have them receive immunizations. Also as homeschoolers are not crowded into classrooms with sick children they are less likely to contact  diseases. Some states even offer exemptions to public school students.

Children are loved in a family because they are the children of the parents in the family. The“unconditional love” they receive is anything but unconditional: it is conditioned on the fact that they are their parents’ children. School—either public or private—ideally provides a welcome respite. A child is regarded and respected at school not because she is her parent’s child, but because she is a student: she is valued for traits and for a status, in other words, that are independent of her status as the parent’s genetic or adoptive offspring. The ideal teacher cares about the child as an individual, a learner, an actively curious person—she doesn’t care about the child because the child is hers. The child is regarded with respect equally to all the children in the class. In these ways, the school classroom, ideally, and the relations within it, is a model of some core aspects of citizenship.

Baloney and hogwash. I had public school teachers who bullied me and verbally abused me. I had other public school teachers that adored me and made me the class favorite. All the children in a classroom are not treated equally. And it seems daily I read about some public school student being sexually involved with a public school teacher or bullied by classmates. Public Schools are anything but safe havens.

Fundamentalist Protestant adults who were homeschooled over the last thirty years are not politically disengaged, far from it. They vote in far higher percentages than the rest of the population. They mobilize readily.

I thought being politically engaged was a good thing. Apparently Ms. West only wants those people who share her beliefs to vote. (BTW I am not a Fundamentalist Protestant Homeschooler, but I believe they have as much right to vote their beliefs as I have to vote my Liberal Secular beliefs.)

Child-raising that is relentlessly authoritarian risks instilling what developmental psychologists call “ethical servility”: a failure to mature morally beyond the recognition of duties of obedience.

So public schools aren't authoritarian, public schools students are allowed to do whatever they wish? Hogwash! Homeschool parents are not all relentlessly authoritarian and I dare say there are some public school teachers and parents who are relentlessly authoritarian too. And why do I get the idea that Robin L. West would not have the slightest problem with public schools students being obedient to the state and her political beliefs.

Finally, the economic harms. The average homeschooling family may have a higher income than the average non-homeschooler, as was recently reported by USA Today. The radically fundamentalist “movement” family, however, is considerably poorer than the population, and it is the participants in these movements—the so-called “patriarchy movement”and its “quiverfull” branch and related groups —that are the hardcore of the homeschooling movement. The husbands and wives in these families feel themselves to be under a religious compulsion to have large families, a homebound and submissive wife and mother who is responsible for the schooling of the children, and only one breadwinner. These families are not living in romantic, rural, self-sufficient farmhouses; they are in trailer parks, 1,000-square-foot homes, houses owned by relatives, and some, on tarps in fields or parking lots. Their lack of job skills, passed from one generation to the next, depresses the community’s overall economic health and their state’s tax base.

One can only wonder where Ms. West gets such garbage.

While half of private school students have family incomes of $75,001 or more, public and homeschooled students families are approximately equal in falling into income brackets of up to $25,000, $25,001-$50,000, $50,001-$75,000, and $75,001 and up. ~ Homeschool Statistics

So the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that homeschool students and public school students families are pretty much equal in income even though homeschoolers often only have one parent working.

However, even if we assume that the benefits of homeschooling when done well are quite substantial, and even if the harms of public school when done poorly are equally so, nothing follows regarding the wisdom of deregulating homeschooling.

Really!!! It is the very deregulation of homeschooling that allows homeschool students to flourish. If homeschoolers are required to meet the same regulations as public schools then you have destroyed homeschooling and just created mini public schools in the students homes.

Annual standardized testing is not the bane of all existence it is often made out to be, and it would give rightly proud parents and children alike a record—and evidence—of their accomplishments. It would also make clear where they had slipped, and where there is need for correction.

And who would pay for the expensive annual standardized testing? Where would the testing take place? Annual standardized testing is unnecessary in a homeschool environment as the parent teacher knows if their child student comprehends the material and is ready to advance to the next level. Also one of the chief criticisms being leveled at public schools is that valuable learning time is being wasted teaching to the test in order to improve test scores. Why would anyone want to force homeschoolers to teach to the test like public schools do?

Mandatory testing would give the states, and the parents, a way to ensure that the students are performing at a level consistent with their own abilities, and consistent with the abilities and performance of their public and private schooled peers. It would give the parents and the state a way to ensure that the children who should be college bound are being prepared for that path, or at least, it would ensure that the parents are aware of their children’s capacity for college level work. Periodic visits would open the door to college and career counseling, of benefit to both the children and their parents. They would give the state a window into the quality of home life, and a way to monitor signs of abuse as well as immunizations. The sanction for failure to comply with minimal curriculum, content, visitation, and testing requirements would simply be enrollment in a certified private or public school.

So homeschoolers should have their learning time disrupted by some bureaucrats visit to make Ms West happy. And who is going to pay for all the "parental monitoring" Ms. West wants? Lets leave raising children to the parents and keep the government and those of Ms. West ilk out of it.

Apparently Ms West inspiration for this diatribe against homeschooling is anti - homeschooler  Robert Reich.

For further reading
How Fundamentalist, Patriarchal, Uneducated Homeschoolers Who Live on Tarps in Parking Lots with Their Eight Kids are Harming America by Joe Carter at First Thoughts

Carnival of Homeschooling ~ The Dog & Cat Edition

Fenris was adopted from the Bay St. Louis/ Waveland Animal Shelter.  He is a well loved Mutt.  The best guess is he is an Great Pyrenees & Australian Shepherd Mix. Fenris' name comes from Norse Mythology.

The Fenris Wolf (aka Fenrir) is a creature of the Asgardian dimension who is said to be an offspring of Loki and the giant Angrboda. It is a huge wolf (usual height 15 feet tall) with human-like intelligence, vast strength and the capacity to change its shape to that of a god or to change its size to that of a real wolf.

Little Bit is a Purebred Great Pyrenees.

Just like there is a lot of diversity in the dog world there is a lot of diversity among homeschoolers.

Homeschool Diversity

A Tea Party Question is featured at Why Homeschool. How many homeschoolers are involved in the tea party movement and are homeschoolers more likely to support the tea party idea? I am interested in seeing what conclusions are drawn from the polls.

This is Jen's first time to participate in a blog carnival she brings Politically Correct Homeschoolers @ Joy Ever After to us.

What does The Sound of Homeschooling sound like find out at About.Com: Homeschooling.

Charybdis & her litter mate Scylla were rescued by the Mississippi Alliance for Spay and Neuter, after their Mother (a feral cat) was poisoned. We adopted them when they were four weeks old and bottle fed them. Sadly loss is a part of life. Our sweet Charybdis left us too soon.

 How Homeschoolers cope with change

Sometimes homeschoolers feel overwhelmed to the point of quiting Katherine explores this topic at  No Fighting, No Biting! (I love the title of her blog) in her post school tour.

Pamela Jorrick presents Less School-y Than Usual? posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.

Linda Dobson presents What’s Old Is New Again posted at PARENT AT THE HELM.

Something we hardly see in the Deep South is snow, although at the moment we are dealing with colder then usual temperatures. My pond actually froze so I found  Shannon Dodd's Snow Day! posted at Mommyapolis very timely.

Scylla

Scylla and her sister Charybdis were named after monsters in Greek Mythology. Homer mentions them in the Odyssey.

Socks

Scylla & Socks took part in the Pet Postcard Project.  Every pet postcard you send in earns 1 pound of food for shelter dogs.  Homeschoolers also take part in many service projects.

How Homeschoolers Define Success

Cheryl Henderson-Khalid presents Success on Paper or Success in Life ? Which Would You Choose? posted at Homeschooling for 3.

Dana presents Homeschooled kids: Did they fall through the cracks? posted at Roscommon Acres.

ChristineMM presents Thoughts on Teaching Fractions and Student Work Ethic posted at The Thinking Mother.

This is Artemisia, Artemis for short she is the newest addition to our household.

Artemisia is the name of a plant and suits this lovely petite girl to perfection. Artemisia(pronounced /ˌɑrtɨˈmiːziə/) is a large, diverse genus of plants with between 200 to 400 species belonging to the daisy family Asteraceae. The beliefs surrounding this genus are founded upon the strong association between the herbs of the genus Artemisia and the moon goddess Artemis, who is believed to hold these powers. In Israel Artemisia is sometimes referred to by the name "Shiva", the Queen of Sheba.  It is also said that the genus Artemisia (which includes over 400 plants) may be named after an ancient botanist. Artemisia was the wife and sister of the Greek/Persian King Mausolus from the name of whose tomb we get the word mausoleum. Artemisia, who ruled for three years after the king's death, was a botanist and medical researcher, and died in 350 B.C.

In Greek Mythology Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo. She is a goddess of transitions, a hunter, a virgin, and one of the goddesses who assists at childbirth. She was on the Trojan side in Homer's Iliad.

Artemis knows first hand that being the new kid on the block isn't easy.

Homeschooling Resources

This week at home ( a homeschool diary) chronicles a week in the life of a homeschooling family posted at Home is Where You Start From.

Cristina presents What Moth is This? posted at Home Spun Juggling.

Sebastian at Percival Blakeney Academy post Homeschool Mini Conference telling how even a small group of homeschoolers can put on a curriculum fair that is helpful to current and prospective homeschoolers alike.

Margy Hesser presents How To Write a Lab Report and Keep a Lab Book posted at Homeschool High School.

Apples and Jammies (what a cute name for a blog) brings us Educating Myself about some homeschooling books Beth has been reading.

Foreign Language Instruction in Our Home posted @ Petticoat Government.

Large Family Workbox System for Homeschool posted @ Peace Creek on the Prairie


Craft Stew presents Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions posted at Craft Stew.

Sarah presents SmallWorld's WordSmithery: Form Poetry posted at SmallWorld.

The Home Education Blog gives advice on planning homeschool lessons.

Rachel Lynette presents 10 Fun and Creative Thank You Note Ideas posted at Minds in Bloom.

Misty presents Free Online Homeschool Videos: Math, Science, and More! posted at Homeschool Bytes.

Amanda at All American Family is a first time submitter and she has Great Homeschooling Resources for your perusal.

Miscellaneous

 Work and Play, Day by Day offers Reasons for Homeschooling- Part 1 .

Designated Conservative reports on Killing Homeschooling in Michigan – The Other Shoe to Drop in 2010?

A Call to Homeschool posted at True Femininity has compelling biblical and logical reasons to homeschool your children.

This ~n~That
Anne Simone presents 50 Best Cookbooks for the College Kid in Your Life posted at Online Schools.

Rosetta Stone, FuseFly, and Heart of the Matter Online are sponsoring their first Homeschool Language Learning and Networking Trip for homeschoolers and their families to travel to France and Spain this summer. Organized by ACIS, the premier educational travel company, the trip includes visits to famous European sites and kicks off on August 2, 2010 in Paris, France and concludes in Madrid, Spain on August 11, 2010. Homeschool families as well as homeschoolers over the age of 16 are encouraged to register now to receive preferred pricing. Visit the Homeschool Language Learning & Networking Trip site to view additional trip details or register. Hurry! The deadline to register is February 15, 2010.

Honeypurple presents 100 Best Job Sites for B-School Students posted at Online Colleges.org.

Dolfin presents Our Store posted at Lionden Landing.

Laura Kluge presents Top 20 Blogs to Help Working Mom’s posted at Court Reporter School.

This wraps up The Dog & Cat Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. Thank you for participating. The next Carnival of Homeschooling will be hosted by Home School Dad. To find out how to submit a post click here.

Robotics Anyone

According to The Sun Herald It’s robotics season again at Stennis. My youngest son was a member of Team Fusion 364 and it is a wonderful group and this is a great program. I encourage any homeschoolers on the MS Gulf Coast to look into joining. If you are interested contact Mr. Gunkel by email at andy.gunkel@gulfportschools.org.

To read more about my sons experience with Team Fusion 364 click here.

Rosetta Stone Rewards Homeschoolers with First Annual 10-Day European Language Learning and Networking Trip

Homeschoolers and their Families Connect Learning with Life through Visits to Paris, Madrid and Barcelona in Summer 2010

ARLINGTON, VA— Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE:RST), a leading provider of technology-based language-learning solutions, announced today that the company will sponsor their first Homeschool Language Learning and Networking Trip for homeschoolers and their families to travel to France and Spain this summer. Homeschoolers will be able to put their French and Spanish language skills to use and experience all of the benefits of immersion the moment they arrive abroad. The Rosetta Stone Homeschool Language Learning and Networking Trip kicks off on August 2, 2010 in Paris, France and concludes in Madrid, Spain on August 11, 2010.

The 10-day long trip is co-sponsored by FuseFly, a social network connecting homeschoolers around the world, and Heart of the Matter Online, a home education website dedicated to bridging the gap between parents and children. Organized by ACIS, the premier educational travel company sponsoring student trips worldwide, the trip includes visits to famous European sites such as the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Palace of Versailles, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia and the Prado Museum. The first-annual trip will allow homeschoolers to fully experience all of the benefits of their language curriculum while learning about history firsthand.

“We are thrilled to sponsor the inaugural Rosetta Stone Homeschool Language Learning and Networking Trip,” said Eric Duehring, Rosetta Stone general manager and vice president of consumer marketing and sales. “The trip provides families that are dedicated to the education of their child with the chance to immerse themselves in another culture and truly experience the power of learning a new language. For the homeschoolers themselves, this is a unique learning opportunity that will have lasting impact on their future personal, educational and professional development.”

Rosetta Stone® Homeschool curriculum provides students with a rich, interactive and engaging language-learning experience. The scalability and flexibility of the solution allows parents to assign lessons based on students’ individual needs, allowing students at all levels to learn a language. Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3 helps learners develop speaking, listening, reading and writing skills easily and systematically from the very beginning.

Homeschool families as well as homeschoolers over the age of 16 are encouraged to register now to receive preferred pricing. The deadline to register is February 15, 2010. A Rosetta Stone purchase is not required to participate. For more information or questions pertaining to Rosetta Stone Homeschool or the Rosetta Stone Homeschool Language Learning and Networking Trip, contact homeschool@rosettastone.com .

Soliciting Homeschool Post

I am hosting the upcoming Carnival of Homeschooling and I would LOVE for you to submit a post. To find out how go here.

Possible topics

• Homeschool diversity
• How homeschoolers cope with change
• Homeschool resources
• How homeschoolers define success/ how homeschoolers are involved in their communities
• Anything you can come up with

And please pass this on to other homeschoolers you know. ~Thanks, Alasandra

Why Homeschool: Carnival of Homeschool: Week 210 - The 4th Anniversary

Why Homeschool: Carnival of Homeschool: Week 210 - The 4th Anniversary

I'll be hosting the next Carnival so please get those submissions in.

Carnival of Homeschooling

Enjoy the Winter in Idaho Edition of the CoH.

2009 Winners of the Homeschool Blog Awards

Wind Rider ~ Best Youth Blog
Why Homeschool ~ Best Group Blog
Blogging 'Bout Boys ~ Best Adult Blog