Well, anyone who home schools has certainly heard of the awful scene going on there right now with regards to stripping parents of the right to educate their children.  I pray with all my heart that this will be overturned.  ***If you have any interest at all in this case, I urge you to sign the petition against the CA ruling that makes home schooling illegal in that state!  Please visit www.hslda.org  You do NOT have to be home schooling to sign!***

Meanwhile it has really gotten me to thinking about home school freedom in general.  I live in a state that really doesn't require too much, and for the most part doesn't interfere.  But as we are praying for our house to sell so we can move on to a camp somewhere, I am putting much more stock into the "where" of that move.  I know the Lord always has our best in mind, but I do pray that He would lead us to a state where we can continue to home school with the freedoms we have now, or more.  It frightens me to think of a state taking away my right to "train up my child!"  I shudder to think of the road we are headed down as a nation if "she" gets into office next November and rallies her "village" around the children of the U.S....  God help us all.

The Home School Legal Defense Association web site (www.hslda.org) has a color-coded map of the U.S., indicating the overall requirements of each state in regards to home schooling.  It does vary state to state, but there are definitely some with far stricter requirements than others!  I'm currently in an "orange" state, but I've got my eye on all the "green" states for our move!! 

The CA case is so important to me, because all it would take is one state, one case like this, to start a deadly ball rolling.  We MUST fight for our freedoms, our God-given rights and responsibilities as Christian parents.

I find myself in a situation that is pulling me in two different directions.  Never mind that it's exasperating my feelings over my life right now!  I wrote the following in an e-mail to a friend today; I copy it here to put the same request for advice out there for anyone willing to comment:

"If your son were really struggling with school, mostly academically but also somewhat socially, and was developing other problems due to all that, would you pull him out of school mid-year or stick with it and "finish what you started" so to speak??

Ok, now that I have your attention!! LOL!  Oh, this is such a hot topic, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm not really here to get into a typical socialization discussion, but I have some ponderings on something that sort of pertains to that subject.  Everyone who uses that argument against home schooling, seems to think that you are all just holed up somewhere and never get out.  I know that's not true, but in the interest of helping my kids to not feel that way either, I've always made quite an effort to get out and do stuff with other home school families or groups and even a Bible study.  Not in a manner that over-schedules us so that we're constantly running all over the place, but to let the kids meet other home schooled kids and have some friends!  Is this pretty much "normal?"  Do most of you do similar things?  Are there any of you who really tend to keep to your own family and don't get out with others much (by choice, not by location - i.e. you live in a very rural area with nobody else around).

I'm actually at a point of debating whether or not to attend a Bible study this year.  I've gone many years in the past, and they have grown to the point of offering age-appropriate classes for the many home schooled kids that come with their moms.  I initially thought this would be a good idea, a chance for the boys to get out and meet other home schooled kids.  The flip side of it is, it would take up a full morning every week (and I tend to be most organized in terms of getting studies done, in the morning), and actually give all of us yet more work to do.  I will have my hands full keeping the boys' school work prepped (we use Konos, if that tells you anything...!) and wonder if I could keep up with the Bible study home work.  Also, in using Konos, we get a Bible verse every week and each unit studies a Biblical characteristic, so it's infused throughout their studies. 

I'm writing this as much for mental therapy for myself as I am to get opinions (sometimes it just helps to write out something you're trying to decide, and see it in print!).  But I would love to know how much other hs families "get out" and what types of things you do.

Well, as the time quickly approaches to start our home schooling year, I am facing some pretty deep emotion over it.  As in not wanting to do it!  Go ahead and ream me out...

I have come to the hard realization that, quite often, I really just don't enjoy it.  Now don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my kids.  But teaching them is quite another matter.  I like the idea of what home school could be, but the reality is often a far cry from that.  Sometimes I ask myself, "Why are you doing it, then?"  And sometimes I think the answer is that I do it because I feel I have to.  I fully admit that if we had the finances, the boys would be in a private Christian school.  But we don't, so the only option left is to home school.  At least that's how it seems.  I like our elementary school.  Two of the three boys went there for about 2 years.  The youngest is ready for Kindergarten this year and he would love to go there and make some friends.  There are no kids in our church his age and home school activity/support groups are very few and far between out here where we live.  In the years we have tried home schooling in the past, I felt very isolated.  In the years we used the local ps, I felt much more connected.  It's a small town so you get to know others through school and sports and town events.  Maybe the real root of all this is me feeling SO pre-occupied with all the work that needs doing on the house so we can get it up for sale....I don't know!

You know you home school when your supplies come in the mail and it is like Christmas!!  I got my Math-u-See manipulatives today and I am so excited! Hmm, I don't know if that's humorous or just plain sad...!  Oh well, I am what I am.

My office is jammed full of stuff from our bedroom right now but as soon as I can get in there, I need to dig out what I've got so I can determine what's left to buy.  I know I should have everything I need for my youngest, who's starting Kindergarten.  Learning is just plain fun at that stage so I don't feel the need for a fancy organized curriculum.  I was only going to do Math-u-See with the oldest (5th grade) since he's so hands-on and I think this will really benefit him, but now that I have the blocks I can see the other two wanting in on this so I may end up getting the 2nd grade books, too. 

I bought the 5th grade LifePac a few weeks ago for Language Arts, but recently I've been reading a lot of posts on a home school forum I'm in that were not kind to it!  I thought it was a fairly popular program but now I'm hearing from lots of folks who tried it and didn't like it at ALL.  I'm hoping that's just them and that it will work for us, because I don't want to be searching for something new at this late date.  Someone described it as "self-teaching" which I'm not sure I know exactly what that means, but if it's something that my son can do lots of on his own, I actually think that will work out better.  We'll see, I guess.  Someone said they used it one year and it didn't end up being up to grade level and they had to repeat a lot to catch up the following year...Hmm.  Maybe I'll go dig it out right now and see for myself!

Well, despite the fact that I have a blog at Homeschool Blogger, I have decided that from now on I will be blogging exclusively here at Homestead Blogger.  I just don't have enough to write about that's just home schooling!  It's just part of our lives, the day-to-day (well, from Sept. to May, anyway!...we do take the summers off).  I post over there and rarely get comments and just don't feel like I've "met" anyone.  Here I have friends!  Some home school, some do not, some don't even have kids (or young ones still at home).  So I feel it's a better fit for me and I'm happy with it this way.

On that note, I'm just about settled with what we'll be using for curriculum this coming year.  I stil have the Obedience unit from Konos - that will cover the first 9-12 weeks (depending on how rigidly we stick to the schedule).  If it goes well I'll get the whole Konos volume 1.  We're going to do Math-u-See, because my kids saw the demo DVD and loved it!  They "get it" just from the few examples they saw there.  Works for me!  And I think I have finally decided on Alpha Omega's LifePacs for Language Arts.  It's affordable for me and hopefully the kids will like it.  And all of that is really for the 2nd and 5th graders.  My youngest is starting Kindergarten and I have so many little workbooks and "fun" learning things in the office shelves that I don't feel the need to push him into "formal" education.  He'll learn just by following along with the rest.  He's excited to learn, though, so I'll feed that!