Principled Discovery Principled Discovery Homeschooling mother of four takes a break from third grade to reflect on issues of faith, family and education. 
Articles
Homeschooling: Recipe for success
2008-04-02 04:54:00 2 Measures Relationship An Equal Measure Patience A Pinch of Creativity A Dash of Inspiration Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until firm but pliable. Fold in curriculum. Place in warm and nurturing environment and allow to rise. Activity: Spend some time with the stars! Stellarium allows you to turn your personal computer into ... More About: Recipe , Homeschooling , Success
Dana?s terible, horrible, no good, very bad day
2008-04-01 05:55:00 So, yeah. Today was not such a good day. But to understand, perhaps we need to go back a few days. To the end of last week. When I joyfully announced we were ahead of my plans for history. And I asked mouse what she would like to learn between ... More About: Good , No Good
Profiling Home Educators
2008-03-31 06:42:00 Introducing Mouse, my eldest: Often seen downtown during school hours, her favorite haunts are the Y, the zoo and the nature center. Her favorite place is up: up a tree, up on the shed, up on the roof, up on the back of the couch, up on the refrigerator. If she ever figures ... More About: Home
Life before homeschooling
2008-03-30 05:07:00 Welcome to Home Education Week at Principled Discovery (March 30-April 5)! Today’s topic is Looking Back. Share your personal history?before you were a home educator. What was life like? Think about things you miss and things you and your family have gained. Happy Home Education Week! As I looked forward to my junior year of college, I ... More About: Life , Homeschooling
What constitutes abuse?
2008-03-28 06:39:00 Thank you to everyone who shared their stories of survival yesterday, and I really only have one question: What on earth were your parents thinking? It is something I think a few of your mothers may have said as well. I am still trying to picture TLMinut’s mom as dad attempted to explain exactly what it ... More About: Abuse
Abuse or lapse in judgment?
2008-03-27 06:44:00 Or maybe a guy thing? Because I could almost see my husband doing something like this, although probably not with a four year old: He was demonstrating a trick at his home during the girl’s visit that involved heating up a liquor bottle and dropping a match inside, creating a shooting flame. After doing the ... More About: Abuse , Judgment
Home Education Week is here!
2008-03-26 06:10:00 Well, almost. Last week, I shared our governor’s ground breaking proclamation, giving Nebraska homeschoolers their own holiday perhaps slightly less well-known than Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. Not to be outdone, Florida’s governor followed suit. Now, as I attempt to figure out what I can do in the real world to bring ... More About: Education , Home , Week
Not the ?s-word??!
2008-03-26 04:24:00 The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Phatmommy, demonstrating there is more than one “s-word” in homeschooling. Share This More About: Word , S word
Homeschoolers and certification
2008-03-25 09:30:00 For those who have been following the discussion between Stephen Downes and homeschoolers who took his post on the California ruling as an attack against homeschooling, he has responded with a post in which he better clarifies his stance and answers some of the points I brought up in my posts (Homeschooling is NOT abuse ... More About: Homeschoolers , Certification
Fighting the sunset
2008-03-23 07:59:00 This week has been a rough week. Last Friday, my daughter filled a toilet with blood and since then my heart has been heavy with worry. A week later, I sat in the emergency room watching the doctors take her blood again after several bouts of bleeding and dizziness possibly associated with blood ... More About: Sunset , Fighting
Home Education Week is coming!
2008-03-21 12:51:00 Yippee! We Nebraska homeschoolers have our own holiday! Can we take the week off? Or, more fun yet, can I write a curriculum for use in the public schools? It would be my honor to help our schools honor this portion of the proclamation: …I do hereby urge all citizens to take ... More About: Education , Home , Week
Note to homeschoolers: Don?t be psychotic!
2008-03-20 09:30:00 On March 17, Stephen Downes, a senior researcher with the National Research Council who also writes and speaks extensively on education issues, published a brief entry on the court ruling in California in which he essentially equated homeschooling with abuse. Quite a few commenters objected, and I dedicated an entry to the false assumption ... More About: Homeschoolers , Note
On Homeschooling
2008-03-19 16:53:00 I’ll respond in more detail tonight when I have time, but Stephen Downes responds to the criticism of his stance equating homeschooling with child abuse. Response is made difficult since his presentation is in video format, but since he presents all of the main public criticisms of homeschooling in one session, I’ll try to ... More About: Homeschooling
Operation Safe Passage
2008-03-19 05:48:00 Sounds like a police state. Crane’s detailed external security plan already includes blockades that divert all traffic but buses from in front of the school; CTA buses at the school waiting for students as they exit; school security guards at each bus stop and Crane staffers on every corner; 10 to 14 police squad cars that ... More About: Safe , Operation
Homeschooling is NOT abuse
2008-03-18 07:52:00 Where to begin? An interesting debate has exploded into the mainstream as a California appellate ruling that bans homeschooling by uncredentialed parents. My own criticism of homeschooling has alwas [sic] been in line with the ruling by the court: it is a form of child abuse to subject children to an education at the ... More About: Abuse , Homeschooling
With my brains and other people?s money?
2008-03-17 20:29:00 The Arizona Republic published an interesting editorial yesterday taking a look at the problems caused by judges meddling with education and the growing fixation on credentials as a measure of teacher quality. More people are beginning to recognize that credentials are not an adequate measure of teaching ability. Maybe soon they will realize that parenthood ... More About: People , Money , Brains
Carnival of Principled Government, A few questions.
2008-03-17 04:08:00 Welcome to the Carnival of Principled Government , where we take a monthly peek into a concept that seems a bit of an oxymoron these days. Last week, a couple of professors in California wondered what children could possibly learn from their parents who were questioning a court decision on internet forums. Apparently, they didn’t like ... More About: Questions
A few carnivals?
2008-03-16 16:43:00 A few carnivals for your perusement: Dr. Sanity is in…and sanity is out with the Carnival of the Insanities. Enola has put together the Carnival Against Child Abuse. Then there’s the Carnival of Political Punditry. And The Seventh Day. Don’t forget to submit to the Carnival of Homeschooling…and an entry for the Carnival of Principled Government might be nice as ... More About: Carnivals
Blog tour and open thread
2008-03-15 06:58:00 I have been busy playing with wordpress plugins and I think I finally found everything I could possibly want on my blog that is worth the time to figure out how to use. Until next week, anyway. So I thought I’d give you all a quick tour of my new and improved site so you ... More About: Open , Blog , Tour , Thread
Homeschooling: elitist and anti-democratic
2008-03-14 07:26:00 The LA Times has an editorial beginning to get a little attention, not for the arguments it raises but for the blatant stereotypes it portrays against homeschoolers. Crimson Wife was right that this is little more than a grown up version of the Daily Titan article looked at yesterday. Written by two professors ... More About: Democratic , Homeschooling , Anti , Elitist
Passing stereotypes as fact
2008-03-13 04:27:00 An exemplary piece of writing appeared the Daily Titan, a paper run by students of California State University at Fullerton. I say exemplary because it would have been posted as an example of how not to write by my high school journalism teacher whose infamous red pen often doubled the weight of pages she ... More About: Stereotypes , Fact , Passing
Abuse cases spur reform in Hawaii
2008-03-12 08:09:00 January 17, 2008, 23 month old Cyrus Belt was thrown to his death off a pedestrian bridge in Hawaii . This ended a short life apparently characterized by abuse. Cyrus was just one day old when his first child welfare file was opened. Just six days before his death another threat of abuse and neglect complaint ... More About: Abuse , Reform , Cases
CA Department of Education finally responds
2008-03-12 02:52:00 Three posts in a day, but since I was accused of making people fall out of their chairs with this afternoon’s post, I thought I’d better pass this along (pdf): Released March 11, 2008 SACRAMENTO - State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced today that the California Department of Education has completed a legal review of the February ... More About: Finally , Department of Education
Ok, now it is time to panic
2008-03-11 19:17:00 In a startling development in California, a special task force consisting of SWAT teams and truancy officers has been developed, virtually overnight, targeting homeschool families. Originally thought to be a logistical nightmare, distinguishing home-schooled children from that of the public school system, officials quickly learned they could gather up a list of suspects from last year’s ... More About: Time , Panic
D.C. proposes greater restrictions on homeschools
2008-03-11 08:15:00 Updates at the end. Our nation’s capitol has some of the most lenient homeschool laws in the country, requiring only notification with a form that is now available online. In the wake of the Banita Jacks case, however, Mayor Fenty vowed to institute a tracking system to keep track of all homeschooled or transfer students. ...
Carnivals?
2008-03-10 06:49:00 The Carnival of Principled Government is supposed to go here. But do to the first principle of there only being so many hours in this week, it will be postponed until next week. I know you are all now shocked and don’t know how to get on with your Monday, so here are some options: The Carnival ... More About: Carnivals
Lawyers instructing lawyers on homeschooling in CA
2008-03-09 06:08:00 Friday’s post was going to be my last post about California until the State Board of Education finished reviewing it and made some sort of public statement, but then I came across this little video: In re Rachel L. Pay attention to it. This website provides case summaries to lawyers so they can fulfill the State ... More About: Lawyers , Homeschooling
HNW?Broken Education News
2008-03-08 08:19:00 Broken Education News Secret to Asian school success Building work ethic and bravery one window at a time Simple fact-checking gone awry Vermont High School humiliated by reporters HNW Economic Update NJ Schools Rejecting US Currency Eighth graders served detention for…paying in cash Lost and Found A heart wrenching tale of love lost…and found Raising the Bar Eight year old’s test score prompts federal ... More About: Broken
Questions regarding the legality of homeschooling in CA
2008-03-07 01:31:00 Yesterday (March 5), World Net Daily released another story about the homeschool situation in California. This one led to more interesting tidbits: A “breathtaking” ruling from a California appeals court that could subject the parents of 166,000 students in the state to criminal sanctions will be taken to the state Supreme Court. WND, ... More About: Questions , Homeschooling
CA, HSLDA and protecting homeschooling
More articles from this author:2008-03-06 10:59:00 Via Just Enough and Nothing More’s comment box, comes an interesting “lesson” to be learned from the California appellate court’s decision that essentially seems to find homeschooling illegal: Moral of the story: Keep a current membership in HSLDA, and stand prepared by keeping attendance records, etc., as required. Beyond that, we don?t have control anyway. But ... More About: Homeschooling 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
|
 |
|
 |
