Labels: homeschool

News broke last night that the California Appellate court had vacated the anti-homeschool ruling.

The Pacific Justice Institute posted a press release found *here. The short of it is that the court will reconsider the case and the ruling is no longer binding to the parties involved. The fight is not over, the court is asking for amicus briefs from several interested parties, including several teacher's unions- the after affects of all of this has the potential to make things difficult for homeschoolers. At least for now, we can catch our breaths.

Labels: homeschool

Gotta jump quick on this one, Jen over at Jeneric Jeneralities is giving away a Rosetta Stone foreign language program..to enter, you have to post this:

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!

...the blue part, link back to the original post here, and leave a comment at Jen's original post.

The contest ends today, so hurry if you want to enter! (wishing wishing for this, I really, really want to re-learn French!)

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

So, can you guess what I've been up to lately? Homeschooling a child not your own...thought I would blog some of the thoughts swirling around in my head lately;

The first important thing to research when considering homeschooling someone else's child is the legal aspect. What are the laws in your state concerning homeschooling, and are there any regulations about teaching a child not your own in your home-school? Find a homeschool group in your area and check their website or call, local state-based homeschool groups are a wealth of information.

The next major consideration is the impact this child will have on your own children's education.
Will the new student's needs, which could be considerable-in light of his current school situation not working-hence the need for you to homeschool..., absorb so much of your time as to negatively impact your own children's learning? Will adding this new non-family student change the birth order in your home? The implications of the oldest son no longer being the oldest son could be huge, or could be a non-issue...but they do need to be considered.

The biggie...can you realistically handle one more student?? really.

The next set of issues are more meat-and-potatoes, the nitty-gritty details of homeschooling a horde... Does the child get along well with your children? Does the child mind you? (a biggie for me) and will the parent enforce your discipline or perhaps become defensive if you report on negative behaviors you feel need to be corrected? If the child has been public- schooled long, will the child introduce teasing or language you do not allow in your home? Or the inverse- will your children plague the life out of and overwhelm a shy only child?

If you are homeschooling to rescue a child in great need, will the greater needs of this child at risk take so much of your time that it will become a compromise between the perfect learning environment for your kids and the educational needs of the new kid?

Will the other parent(s) value your time? Will you ask to be compensated and how much?

If the arrangement does not work out, and you have to quit...will your relationship/friendship with the parent(s) be jeopardized?

I'll share in a later post about our new student...

Labels: homeschool

Labels: hens, Wordless Wednesday

Well, if I close my eyes- it's like the bloggy-world does not exist...

My- oh -my!, first I am without internet connection for almost 2 weeks (eeekk!!)
and then, I get sick.

I flinched when I opened my bloglines account today, most of the blogs had numbers like 22 or 30 new posts....I have a lot of catching up to do, and I am so busy! Things do get a little quiet around here when I have homeschool records due (which I have right now...)

Some days, I just don't feel like homeschooling- and after being sick, it is doubly so. I've had a real hard time getting back into the swing of things this week. Usually, when we are sick, you can still squeeze in a few subjects each day- but I was so sick, we took 2 days completely off.



On to a new topic; we were so happy to look out our big front window and see these:
a pair of Band-tailed pigeons. My bird guide says "The big wild pigeon of the west may be common all year on the Pacific seaboard, in oak woods, pines, foothills." Well, notice it didn't say large Southern Californian cities. We happen to be favored with these birds because of the mature oak trees in our neighborhood, they eat acorns. These are not your run of the mill pigeons...they are larger, more colorful and have yellow feet and bills...not red like most pigeons. We are visited by a more noble class of bird here friends. We were very excited to see this pair in our front yard, because they seemed to have disappeared after a large flock of common pigeons took of the neighborhood. They have the white band on the neck, and also one on the tail..though I didn't capture it in this photo.

So glad to be back, bloggy friends.

we're still here...no homeschool arrests yet to report...

A slight comedy break from all the California homeschool drama of last week...

California parents arrested -- Caught Home-schooling their children without a teaching credential

just the parts that had me rolling...

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 contestants, finalists and winners of the National Spelling Bee Contest, unusually high SAT scores and any kid who passed a random drug screen and/or pregnancy test.

"Also, we followed home any polite, courteous or well adjusted child," said Dug Martinez, SWAT Commander. "Oh, and any kid we caught actually doing their homework at the library."

and...

Listed among the home-schooling educational material seized by police: copies of "Plato's Republic; The Prince; The Magna Carta; The Federalist Papers; The Declaration of Independence; The Constitution and The Bill of Rights."

"You know until today's raid, I never even bothered reading this stuff myself. Let alone read it to my kids," said Officer Martinez. "I just found out we've alienated these good people out of at least three of their inalienable rights. Now, that ain't right."

Click over to *TheSpoof.com* to see the whole, very clever spoof.

Labels: homeschool

Sheesh, what a week to not have internet access!! I woke up one morning and it was like the world had suddenly gone mad...

what a time, really, to not being able to blog much, and to have limited access to homeschool forums, boards and blogs...

To sum it up, from the little I have been able to read...nothing has changed in California. We have no new laws against homeschooling. We do not have to run and enroll our kids in a public school. A side note that the public schools wouldn't have room for us if we all did...

From what I have read, the judges in this one case, involving one family... seem to have outlawed homeschooling, charter schools, school-district run independent study programs and private schools, all in one swoop. If the child's tush is not in a seat physically taught and supervised daily by a credentialed teacher, then according to this case it is illegal. A calm, reasoning mind would realize that this could not be what a small group of judges intended. Or maybe they didn't realize the ramifications of what they had done.

There are several homeschool organizations with legal departments looking into this and deciding how to handle this, and I would suppose angry calls to whomever by upset parents and friends wouldn't be the best, professional way to handle this.

We don't watch t.v. and we most certainly do not watch t.v. news for insight into these matters, I really shudder to think of how the networks are covering this, and what kind of miss-information must be headlining. Just the blurbs I heard on the radio news where upsetting enough. I wouldn't recommend the t.v. for news on this...

Tammy*** wrote an insightful, calm post on this at her blog...click on over to read more- and maybe direct your family to it when you get the latest panicky call.

We are still here in California

we are still homeschooling

and we don't plan to go anywhere.

Labels: homeschool, homeschool California

Well, I'm still without internet...it's driving me crazy! So, I am camped out where ever I can- at the library, at the local bakery with free internet access, and at Graceful mom's house. It's hectic and sporadic and non-conducive to blogging and blog-party-visiting..grr... We are supposed to be with dsl sometime Tuesday. I hope, I hope...

So, on to happier subjects...




Have you heard of this little place? We drove by several times during our weekend, always shocked by the incredibly long lines.


Would you wait in line an hour for a cupcake?? I wouldn't...but these people did. Sprinkle's is actually 4 stores down from where I was standing to take this photo...it's the brown-faced storefront.

We passed the shop midday on Sunday, and the line looked to be maybe 20 minutes to 30 minutes...My friend asked if I wanted to get one for my kids. I just couldn't do it. I might stand in line for a really good, life-shifting chocolate truffle experience. But not for a cupcake. Even I can bake a cupcake...

Is this an LA experience? Or are there other cities where people are crazy for cupcakes?
The Jen collective decided that there was a very happy, rich cupcake maker-concept person/Sprinkle's owner out there...

I couldn't help but think this would make a good Seinfeld episode...

Labels: Jen's world

The Jennifer club had a non-work weekend convention of sorts. Guess where?
...well, this sign gives it away. My friend Jen had a work conference to attend in Beverly Hills and she invited me to join her once is was finished.

Can you believe that I am a born and raised Southern California girl, and yet I have never visited Rodeo Drive?!






Well, that's the best photo I have of us...it's kind of a hard thing to corral a stranger and ask them to take a photo of you...

I thought this part of the street was the prettiest,
kind of European-looking.

It was so unbelievably relaxing to sleep in each morning, breakfast late and to wander the many shops without a time table (or potty breaks or cries of "I'm bored, can we go now?!")





Here is the view from our room balcony- I think this was the nicest hotel I've stayed in (think down pillows, down duvets and marble).


The hotel was the ...something "Continental"

which of course made me think of this- every
time I said it or thought it...






It was a blast of a weekend, more to come...

Labels: Jen's world, trips

{{This blog is under construction, a new update about us page is coming soon! }}

Welcome to our little spot on the internet!

This is the week for The Ultimate Blog Party '08
hosted over at 5 Minutes for Mom. Click to hop on over and visit other parties!

Make yourselves at home, grab a diet coke and feel free to look around the place.

We are a Southern California homeschooling family;
Jenny is the blogger and homeschool-mom,
Sky is resident principal, handyman/visionary, building inspector by trade (specializing in schools and hospitals) and farmer wanna-be. Our Children are; Meg 12-loves horses and plays the violin, Josie 11- plays the piano, paints and is very into The Warrior series, Demi-Sky 8- very into dragons, Wii and beginner skateboarder (also known as The boy wonder and Snackman) and Amie 6-inhouse personality, budding Irish dancer and always very "sewerious".



This blog is mostly about our family, the things we find humorous, our homeschool adventures, homeschooling methods and books, our faith, our love of reading, travels and projects around the house.

Things around here are kind of scattered, kind of eclectic- a reflection of our house and
homeschool style.



In some ways, we are a typical Orange County family....and in many ways we are probably not.


We currently have 4 hens as pets, this one is Dapples- click on over to see her musings on a perfect day...
We also have a cat named Oliver and a guinea pig named Guinea-Guinea.

We joke that we are farmer wanna-bes...and dream sometimes of having a farm somewhere. But then we come back to reality and realize we are city folks...we love our Barnes & Nobles date nights,
our Indian food, our libraries and our days at the Skate park and Disneyland.

So glad to meet you! Drop a comment so I know you were here...
and stay and visit a while!

Labels: family, memes

I wrote in an earlier post that we were getting cable after more then 5 years of being t.v.-free. Oh how we have paid and paid for this impulse! After the cable-guy left, our home phone no longer worked, our wireless router no longer worked, and we could not figure out how to turn off the cable box. -Which meant, being attached to my computer monitor (no real t.v. in the house) that whenever my computer went to sleep mode- the cable came on the screen. This is actually very upsetting for parents who do not allow their kids to watch t.v. or worse, the commercials.

We called and asked them to come take it away. Far away.
Evil, thy name is cable and my house and life are now disrupted.

They came..and now my home phone does not work, my wireless does not work, and I no longer have internet connection. I started to twitch yesterday.

We are getting a bundle from our original internet provider now, and after 4 or so technicians have visited our house- we now have phone service, but still no internet. "Why, oh why?"...I lay awake at night wondering. O.k. not really, I just stay awake late reading, because what else is there to do now that I can't read blogs and so forth?...

I am at the library writing this. Which is useful, but still not my comfy home.
Did I mention I started twitching?

I have lots to post about, and photos too...but it might be a few days, internet friends. I actually went on a mini vacation with a friend this weekend, lots to post about...

see you around the internet, friends- have a great week!

Labels: Jen's world