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    Dear Terrified New Homeschooler 

    by
    Theresa Holland Ryder
    Published on 08-09-2010 06:17 PM
    Article Preview

    Reposted from the In Other Words forum....

    There will come a day. A bad day. The baby kept you up all night crying with a head cold. Your daughter, who could add double digit numbers yesterday, today cannot add 2 +2. She's forgotten how to read, too. Your son is staring off into space instead of doing his work. You've reminded him 15 times in the last 10 minutes to get back on it. You're ankle deep in craft paper from the failed origami projects. It's a quarter till noon, and everyone is still in their pajamas.

    Don't panic. You're fine. Everything is going to be fine. The baby will take a nap and so will you. Your daughter will add and read again tomorrow. Your son won't become a juvenile delinquent. Tomorrow he'll discover that he loves salamanders and want to write a report on them, all on his own. (By the way, Mom, can we pleeeze have a salamander? I promise I'll take care of him! His name is going to be George, after Mad King George of England. . .) The mess will get cleaned up. Tomorrow will be better.

    I hope that this bad day never happens to you.

    There's That Parent in your homeschool group who has never had a bad day. Her three-year old is doing Calculus. Her house is spotless. ...
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    Advice for First Year Homeschoolers 

    Published on 08-05-2010 01:20 PM
    Categories:
    1. Curriculum
    2. General Homeschooling
    Article Preview

    reprinted with permission from Jena at her blog Yarns of the Heart


    The school season will soon be here, and I'm sure most homeschoolers are planning and buying curriculum for the fall. If this will be your first year, I congratulate you. You are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime!

    I'm an unschooler, or a relaxed schooler, or an organic schooler, so I like to give my kids every opportunity to follow their interests without the restraints of a prepackaged curriculum. But I know not everyone is ready to jump into that type of schooling right from the start, so I suggest a somewhat relaxed approach to your first year of homeschooling, one that will take some pressure off and allow you to truly enjoy this new world of learning as you develop your own convictions about the best way to educate your children.

    So, based on all my years and all the families I've known on this journey, here's my advice for your first year of homeschooling:
    ...
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    July Giveaway Winners 

    by
    Topsy
    Published on 08-02-2010 08:06 AM
    Categories:
    1. Site News
    2. Monthly Giveaways

    We had two terrific giveaways for July, and the three winners have been chosen and contacted by email and private message on site. BIG congratulations to each of our winners and BIG thanks to all of you who entered!!




    The two winners of the Software Development I with Python Programming Curriculum are:
    The winner of the Learning with Little Lulu Lemon activity book is:

    3 Comments

    Chester Comix August Giveaway -- Official Rules 

    Published on 08-01-2010 08:00 AM
    Categories:
    1. Monthly Giveaways

    NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER THIS CONTEST
    ...
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    Time4Writing August Giveaway - - Official Rules 

    Published on 08-01-2010 08:00 AM
    Categories:
    1. Monthly Giveaways

    NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER THIS CONTEST
    TERM: The Contest will run through August 31, 2010.
    PRIZE - The winner of the Time4Writing™ August giveaway will receive a free eight-week course of their choice at Time4Writing.com (Value: $99). Time4Writing provides eight-week online writing courses that help elementary, middle and high school students build writing skills through one-on-one interaction with a certified teacher. Full details on the courses at Time4Writing.com can be found here. Copyright (C) 2010, Time4Writing.com. All rights reserved.

    ODDS OF WINNING: Odds of winning will be determined by the number of entries received.
    HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CONTEST:
    Only registered members of SecularHomeschool.com are eligible to participate in this contest. To enter, comment on the giveaway article on the homepage. Only two (2) entries per site member are allowed. One must be a regular comment on the giveaway, and the second can be a link to a member's post about the giveaway on either Facebook, Twitter, or a personal blog or website. SecularHomeschool.com is not responsible for errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects in part or whole, delays in operations or transmission, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alterations of entry materials, or for any technical or non-technical network, telephonic, electronic, computer, hardware or software malfunctions of any kind, or inaccurate or partial transmission of or failure to receive entry information by SecularHomeschool.comon account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet, at any web site or any combination thereof.

    SELECTION OF WINNERS. Winners will be selected in an electronically randomized manner on the afternoon of August 31, 2010. The winners will be notified the day of the drawing by email and private message on site. SecularHomeschool.com is not responsible for notifications that are misdirected or not received because of e-mail addresses or mailing addresses that are no longer correct. If a potential winner cannot be reached after a reasonable effort has been made during 1 business day from the first notification attempt, such person may be disqualified, with an alternate winner selected. Any winner who does not comply with the Official Rules will be disqualified and an alternate winner will be selected. Return of any prize or prize notification as "undeliverable" will result in disqualification and an alternate winner will be selected.
    REDEMPTION: Time4Writing.com will redeem the prizes as follows: Upon confirmation, winners will be contacted via email by Time4Writing.com with instructions on how to redeem and set up their course.
    CONDITIONS: By participating, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of SecularHomeschool.com and waive any right to claim ambiguity of these Official Rules. All decisions regarding this contest, including, but not limited to, selecting winners, will be made by SecularHomeschool.com, whose decisions shall be final. Winners are solely responsible for all applicable federal, state and local taxes..
    LIST OF PRIZEWINNERS: The winners of this prize will be listed on the website, following the drawing on August 31, 2010.

    SHS.com Has Reached 1000 Members!!! 

    by
    Topsy
    Published on 08-01-2010 04:27 AM
    Categories:
    1. Site News



    I am thrilled to announce that PamK of Kentucky is officially the 1,000th member of SecularHomeschool.com!! I can't tell you how awesome it is to see how in just over a year's time this little labor of love went from just a few of us leaving messages and hoping someone would respond, to 1,000 wonderful folks who are making this site the go-to destination for secular homeschooling!!

    Just for fun, you might want to go back and look at our original forum archives (before we switched over to vBulletin), and check out some of the "before" images of where we have come from.

    It was a strong suggestion that I take everyone to Vegas to celebrate this milestone event, but sadly Lady Luck nor Daddy Warbucks has been kind to me lately, so I'm afraid we shall all simply have to make our own margarita, turn up the music on the radio, and have our own private celebration.

    But if I DID have the resources, there aren't any people in the world I would rather hang out and lose money with! Thanks to each and every one of you for helping to create this incredible community of homeschoolers. It has been a sincere honor to get to know you here at SecularHomeschool.com!!!
    7 Comments

    Secular Homeschooling in the Bible Belt 

    Published on 07-31-2010 11:02 AM
    Categories:
    1. Secular Homeschooling
    Article Preview

    Reprinted with permission from the blog "This Adventure Life"

    If you haven’t heard the term ‘secular homeschooling’ then you might not understand what that’s all about. While I certainly am not the voice for all secular homeschoolers, let me explain a little bit about what that means for our family.



    I live in Texas, part of the Bible Belt, where many – the majority, I’d say – of homeschoolers do so for religious reasons. That may not be their primary reason, but it’s certainly on the list. Almost all of the homeschooling families I know (and there are a LOT of them here) use a religiously based curriculum, or participate in a religiously based cooperative group where the parents volunteer as teachers and they all share the workload. The key element in both of those is the religious content – it features prominently in their educational protocols, the material, the language they use, even in the conversations between parents and participants outside of classes – it’s impossible to separate the educational aspect from the religious aspect – and for many families, that’s awesome. It’s what they want, it’s what they choose and it works for them. I’m certainly not knocking that if it’s what works for you.
    ...
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