Make Money HomeSchooling!

You Could Replace Your Families Income Without A Job!

Getting Started In An Online Family Business. 

It is my belief that anyone can do anything, there are no excuses! Now more than ever before it is relatively easy to start a business online. All you need is a product a few new skills and some information........

To read more about making money homeschooling please go to the original article. Make Money HomeSchooling article published at Hub Pages.

Parenting, Discipline and Kids.

  This content was move to Hub Pages you can read  Parenting, Discipline and Kids at Hub Pages. Comments always appreciated and you can leave them here or on Hub Pages.


Thank You For Your Support!


Joanne Utke

Critical Thinking And Reawakening That Professional Question Asker Inside You!

      It is my opinion that the general population of Americans and around the world, don't question authority much or what seems like authority. From the time we are born we are told different things some true, some false and some things just out right dangerous.

We grow up listening to Doctors, teachers, religious organizations, our well intended parents and the government, without really putting a lot of thought into it. As children we ask questions and accept the answers and most of the time we are not really taught about critical thinking and how to question authority. Our parents usually just answer the question to the best of their ability and we just move on not really thinking about the information that has just been fed to us.

Eventually we grow up as a product of whatever information and experiences that were fed to us and in many cases still fed to us, throughout our daily lives. Few question enough, compared to the majority who simply follow along the same path or paths as their parents, siblings and peers. Many people grow up confused or extremely stubborn even after truths have been revealed to them and many just don't want to know.

From the moment we can observe the world around us we had a natural curiosity and tendency to question the things and events around us, it is a natural state of being. As soon as we start to move around we are told No, don't touch that! Even when it is relatively safe many parents get in to this habit, forgeting that touch is a big part of our development.

We were professional question askers at one point in time. As children we asked many questions, the quality of the answers dependended on who we were asking, but it is my opinion that "there is no such thing as a stupid question," many of us were even told to stop asking so many questions! When a question arose which challenged the opinions and beliefs of authoritative bodies we were told "because that is the way it is" we were rarely given an explanation of the answers we got and were conditioned to take it on face value.

I even experienced silence as my answer as a teen after making a rather serious but inquisitive remark, I see that moment as a time that really had an impact on the choices I made. Once in school in wasn't much different, we had to sit and be quiet in many cases and the over stuffed class room setting allowed very little time for honest questioning and discussions over topics.

We were given a curriculum picked for us by the school or state and a full school day would be seven hours and by the time we got home more like 8 or 9 hours of our day.Coming home tired and hating school we had to do our home work, eat dinner and perhaps socialize with our family and friends for a few hours before climbing into bed to do it all again.

We had little time for true learning, which I consider to be asking questions, finding and getting the right answers, called truth! In many cases it is not until later in life that we really start to learn, if we are so lucky. Many of us have been conditioned in such a way that we would not question the things we have always believed to be true even if detrimental to our life, health and well being.

We are told to go to school, get a job, and work for the rest of your life and if your lucky! You can retire at 62 but we are also told not to count on that, without even an explanation or a morsel of what we could do instead. We accept this life as the life given to us and not as the life we can make for ourselves. In most schools we were not given any other options and since we are products of our parents and environment, most of the time at home we are not given them either.

We go to the doctor and take our children to the pediatrician who's answer to every thing is a drug that only covers symptoms. We give our children vaccine medications from the time they are born with little thought as to what is in the drug, what will it do, we don't even read the paper work the nurse gives us just before allowing them to inject a foreign agent filled with toxic chemical poisons and biological products into our children!

I will add there is a reason why they give you the paper work just before the shot is administered, without giving you time to question it let alone read the documents mandated by law to give you! When you ask the Doctor is it safe they say yes it is, and we trust them.

They tell you it is good and you have to do it, you have no choice. Many people go about actually believing that they have no rights and surrender to the system. Sure we all have a responsibility to seek the truth and we are all capable of doing so, but it is apparent to me that we are conditioned not to!

The thing is when you can control how people feel you can control what they believe, you can control what they do! We are programmed every day by everyone and everything around us some good and some bad, it is what makes us who we are. It is in our human nature to absorb information, that is how we first learn to walk, talk, and do everything else that we do.

The problem is when this is done with little to no critical thinking. We are conditioned by our environment not to be to critical, and that it is rude to ask to many questions or specific questions, especially questions that challenge the opinion or beliefs of the person and or authority being asked, as I explained earlier.

Since we are products of our environment we need to be careful about what we watch on TV as well as our impressionable children, this is so important. Many television shows and movies are filled with propaganda meant to shape what you feel and believe.

This is done by the media, government, religious organizations, product manufacturers and television networks. Much like the Internet television is a "advertising tool" it is meant with one main objective in mind, to sell advertising space to millions of relevant ad watchers. The television programming you get is just the vehicle used in which the ads are put in front of you the consumer.

This is apparent when watching teen shows for example, that infuse a feeling of materialism / consumerism on your children, even sexual behavior, without you or your children really noticing, and why would you if you are being conditioned not to question what is being fed to you. Really the list of propaganda, anti truths, and out right destructive information is being fed to you and your children on a daily basis, the good new is you can control much of it.

You can as our family does choose not to view much television and when you do be selective. Use critical thinking when choosing things in which to entertain your family. Ask your self, is it this really good for me and my children to take part in? Will the information that will in fact be fed to me and my children be productive or destructive? Will is shape our minds for greatness and success or not?

Well, today is a new day and you are reading this article, you may be hearing some of this for the first time and are not sure about it, or you may totally agree with me. I challenge you to think about it, critically, but not dismissively just because it may be contrary to what you currently believe. 

Don't take my word for it seek the information for your self, ask questions then find out if you got the right answer. This article is based on my personal life experiences and the things that I have learned and continue to learn. I do not ask you to substitute my judgement for your own, I only want to invite you into my way of thinking and challenge you to look at things a little differently.

We must reawaken the professional question asker in us that was present at early childhood but unfortunately stifled in many cases. We must not be afraid to challenge authority by asking the tough questions and we must be brave enough to seek the truth and act on it no matter how it contradicts with our current belief systems.

We deserve it, our children deserve it! We must take the time to read and read a lot and encourage our children not to just accept things on face value but to seek and demand the answers for them self. If you are home schooling this can be more easily obtained but even if your kids attend school encourage them to challenge their teachers and even you the parents and ask tough questions.

Think critically, objectively and with a sincere heart and you and your family will go far!

Thanks for reading!

Joanne Utke

If you like this article perhaps you will like this one too.

The Media Destroys Kids And The Parents Let It Happen!

I like To Think Of Unschooling As "Consequential Learning"

Message From A New Unschooling Mom

         I like to think of unschooling as "consequential learning." Learning is a consequence of life and life is a consequence of learning. For us, our daughter is six and so far unschooling is working for us. She sees the logic and reasons behind learning something to accomplish something else. When she learned how to write her name, she used all capital letters. She saw no need to write lower case letters - "Mom, I can already write my name." I could have forced her to practice writing lower case, create issues and a hate for writing. Instead she later wanted to learn how to write lower case letters because she saw how that is how most words are written and she wants to "sign" her name. She had practiced writing lower case letters for almost two hours on her own. Now when I point out that she hasn't practiced in a bit, she will sometime during the day practice in her books. Of course, I leave them conveniently open and ready for her. No fighting! That is just one example of how she is involved in her learning. She also watches PBS shows and we spring off them for extra activities - things she is interested in. I believe it does take an involved parent(s) to see and observe their children to take advantage of learning opportunites based on their child's interests when they happen. Or to let daily life activities teach, for example, as in math and science in cooking . Perhaps when she is older she may require or want a more structured approach. Perhaps...


Unschooling Mom from Michigan

Unschooled Children Learn Because They Love Life And Learning!

"The Best Way To Learn Is To Teach!"

A great saying but if you are an unschooler you might prefer this one.

"The Best Way To Learn Is To DO!"

I agree with both, unschooling as well as homeschooling is a one of a kind learning experience for the whole family. The parents learn by guided teaching and answering the many questions of a young healthy mind. And the kids learn much, much, more by doing things them self, looking up a topic and searching for the answers. The children learn because they love life and learning! And the topics they study are topics they have chosen to learn.

The fact is you learn and absorbed waaaay more when you are interested in the topic, you have a driving desire to learn it. The information has more value to you, you will remember it and be more likely to use it.. Not only that life experience is a great teacher and can teach us all the subjects as long as we stay active! Homeschooling / unschooling is not for the lazy, but active life loving learners.

If you went to school like me you would probably remember constantly being forced, bribed into learning and absorbing info that you just were not interested in at the time or not at all. It was a chore to learn and not fun ( so not what learning should be about ) and all so they can test you on it later. In unschooling you and your children learn because you want to know about something.

No stickers, or points are earned for learning, or bribed to the child in order that they make them self learn. The only reward is self satisfaction, a great self esteem, and the all around good feelings of bettering ones self.

Not that these things can't be achieved in a school, only that these things are achieved as unschoolers feel in a better way and without all the extra negative stuff that can come out of public school or even a private school. Homeschooling provides a safe place where your children can learn about them self, their family, the world and anything else they are interested in! Apposed to being away from their family 7 hours a day Mon-Fri most weeks a year, were they are taught in a production line fashion.

In conclusion to this post, I feel that homeschooling and unschoolng offer us freedom to learn and grow in the direction our hearts take us. I am glad I am learning about unschooling as well as homeschooling and the best part is I am absorbing everything I learn because I want to learn it.

I love to learn about many things and have only begun my education since I have been an adult. I went to school my whole childhood up until I was 16 years old were I finished school at home. That is when I really started educating my self on topics like health, and exercise. I even loved learning about it so much I got my personal training certification at 18 years old and worked at a gym.

I can honestly say that school taught me how to read, write, spell, and do basic math. My real education was the unschooling I provided myself at the age of 17 when I graduated from high school independent study.

I hope I have inspired you to look into homeschooling and the unschooling philosophy for your family. If you already home school I hope that by me sharing with you what I am learning about it you may also have the desire to continue to learn about this wonderful way of living life with your children!


More from this blog on Unschooling:

Eclectic Homeschooling

What is Unschooling? Home Schooling

The Unschooling Handbook

The Unschooling Handbook

A Great Book For Any Homeschooling Parent

            I have just started reading the book The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith. I want to learn about the unschooling philosophy and methods. I feel it can really help me to understand how I can be the best teacher mom I can be and also allow the world and children to be the teacher.

Basically unschooling is a way to allow the child who is an individual the opportunity to learn what they love when they feel like learning it. Typically unschooling requires no special curriculum, testing and schedules. You simply live your life spend time with your children learn together, play together and just enjoying your life and family the education is a bonus.

The fact is you learn the best when you are into the subject you are learning and you can spend as much of your free time doing it as you like. A 10 year old unschooled child may love to learn about model air planes and he may love it so much that he spends many hours a day on the subject. He will build model air planes, read books about how they fly or how to build them from scratch. This will eventually lead to using math to measure wing spans, calculate speeds, etc..

A 13 year old unschooled girl may love baking and cooking so much that she reads about it, watches television programming about it, she may even cook and bake for the whole family most day of the week. This would also lead to math skills and much more who knows the child will lead their own mind. Education is not a problem because the child learns about the real world and all skills necessary to be a productive adult and then some!

I do like this concept and feel it is a key factor missing in education today, I would like to explore these ideas more and see how they can fit into my families home school experience.


The Unschooling Handbook

Inspirational Lyrics

The Roses of Success

Every bursted bubble has a glory!
Each abysmal failure makes a point!
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.
So every time you stumble never grumble,
next time you'll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes grow the roses of success!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
For every big mistake you make be grateful!
That mistake you'll never make again!
Every shiny dream that fades and dies,
Generates the steam for two more tries!
There's magic in the wake of a fiasco!
It gives you that chance to second guess!
Then up from the ashes grow the roses of success!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
Disaster didn't stymie Louis Pasteur! No sir!
Edison took years to see the light! Right!
Alexander Graham knew failure well,
he took a lot of knocks to ring that bell!
So when it gets distressing it's a blessing!
Onward and upward you must press!
Till up from the ashes grow the roses of success.

These fine motivational words are from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We watched to movie the other day, it is a great motivational family movie with a inspiring message of perseverance. I especially love the word to this song so that is why I am posting it now, these words are to profound to be ignored! Watch this move with your family, they just don't make movies like they used to..

Peach Roses

Peach roses portray feelings of gratitude, admiration, sociability, success and friendship.

Homeschooling Is Not Easy!

We have been homeschooling for two years officially, I have two children ages six and three. I wanted to do another real post, I do not want to come across as a super mom! I am not a super mom although I wish I was lol! I made the choice to home school because for me and my family it is best and it is not an option for me to send them to public school.

Even though I believe in what I do and would do anything to do it, it is still hard and what is even harder than the actual schooling part is having my children with me 24/7 most of the time it is fine but I wish I had a break and more time to myself that is what makes it so hard, I am just being real. On a positive note I do have my kids with me all day, they go to the store with me we, and most places which is a pleasure most of the time. Also my kids are not perfect and do have some behavior problems ( my oldest the most ) this also makes homeschooling difficult.

Instead of giving up and sending them to school and never dealing with these problems we are able to fix them and teach our kids how to fix them in themselves. I have seen to many good kids being labeled BAD and kicked out of school, or kids who never really dealt with their problems and leave school on their own to early simply for lack of coping skills and the right attention.

My point is homeschooling moms and kids are not perfect and we have problems and good days and bad days but if this is something you believe in you must do it threw good times and bad, don't give up keep moving forward, always change yourself for the good so you can impact your children in a positive way!

Read parenting books and get help when you need to but don't give up!

Home School Business

I always new I wanted to home school and I will admit that even I had second thoughts my husband also was not convinced. Once we thought more about it we realised we are the ones responsible for our kids education and we wanted to teach them so much more than what any school could. We knew it would be hard work and I especially knew because lets face it the mom is usually the one doing most of the schooling, but it is worth it!

My husband and I have always been entrepreneurial and never was comfortable with the go to school and get a job message that seems to be the norm in our society. Not that there is anything wrong with that, absolutely not, we just believe in acquiring education and money in different ways. We wanted to have our kids at home so we could educate them about money, entrepreneurship and everything else that we feel they should know.

I really don't know the point of this post other then to give you a different perspective on home schooling and home school business. Our kids are still young but we teach them what they can understand about money and business, we always have. When they are older they will begin with home school business by helping us with our business and starting out with their own as well.

School just doesn't teach about making money, entrepreneurship , thinking outside of the box, getting creative and making money in ways other than having a job. We have come to realise there is a million ways to make a million dollars, we just have to educate our self to what ways those are and pick one and stick with it! Learn from those who have done it, by reading books and other inspiring stories.

It is very important for kids to learn these things, even if they choose to have a job as adults. One day they may loose their job or become disabled and not be able to work a laborious job like so many do. Or like in the days we live in right now their may not be any jobs at all for most people, that is why we must know how to get creative and entrepreneurial so we can always provide for our families no matter how bad the economy gets and without being on assistance for a long time if at all.

For us we want our kids to have the money, so they can have the time, so if they choose to attend college and or have a career they can do it for the love of learning and helping the world, instead of doing it because they need to.

Yes you can do and teach these things to your kids while they go to school full time but that won't leave time for much else.. For us we didn't want to miss out on are kids and the time we can spend teaching and shaping their future.

My husband and have many online products as well as physical products that we sell online. We have been doing this for five years. Right now we have a information course that teaches others the basics of digital products so they can then create a website that sells a product or products.

If you are interested in learning about making money online you can fill out the form at Digital Product Boot Camp and let us know, we may even be able to get you in our new course for free so you and your family can begin your legit online money making education. All you can do is just get started and if you make it a family event it will be more fun as well! Even if it is not with us no problem just get started reading books, talking about how you can get creative and make some extra income for your family.

Just get started on your home school business!

Thanks for reading to your success..

Hit Life Harder Than It Hits You! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

This is a quote I made up "Today I will Be Better Than I was Yesterday"! We can always do better, think better, love better, learn better. We must always do our best and more importantly always raise our goals and standards so we can achieve more than we ever thought possible!

Life is not easy sometimes, but I have come to realize it is not meant to be easy!

It is how we handle the tough times that gives us certain results! If you want to get different results than you need to do different things....."The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over expecting different result!" Albert Einstein

If you haven't seen this movie go do it. This is the best part of this movie another great one to watch!




When life hits hard then you hit harder, don't let adversity stop you!

To Your Success!

I Hope You Had A Great Christmas With Your Family

I can't believe the year is almost done, time goes by so fast but I probably don't have to tell you that lol!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and can start the New Year out fresh.

I know for me I want to get more organized with my home and school stuff, I would like to get more schedule oriented as well. All things we need to work on, I can't stand it when things are unorganized it just makes my brain cluttered as well.

I want to get a few more containers and some shelving with small containers. I need to go threw all of the finished school work and keep what I want/need and chuck the rest.

I wish you all a Happy New Year and home schooling success!

Home Based Charter Schools

      A home based Charter is a public Charter school that offers a home based schooling program available to us in our town. They do use state curriculum and all rules apply the same as any public school. The difference is the parents not teachers or schools are in control. 

We get several curriculum choices and can use the curriculum as we see best for our child. We have an advisory teacher for support and to help us use and choose curriculum if we need it. We keep attendance and have to turn that in as well as 3 work page samples once a month, which is very easy and the requirements are very reasonable. 

Not unlike what we would have to do anyway if homeschooling privately. They also offer extra curricular classes and events which are not required but an added bonus. Our advisory teacher who is a certified teacher also home schooled her own 3 children so she knows the game! 

California is a low regulation state for home schooling see Home School Regulations.
We have chosen to use the Charter program so I wanted to give you an update on how it's all going. What are your Home School Options ?

With this program we have a advisory teacher who is available during the week and we see about once a month. She was a home school mom to her three children, they are now grown. She assist us in curriculum selection and all curriculum is provided for free from the school, as well as any other workbooks we may need. The also give us vouchers to buy school supplies at the school stores, we love this!

They offer classes for my children to attend and we love the science class at the local nature museum. At the school there is other resources, and materials for us to use as well.

I am thankful to have this program right in our town, there are many home based charter schools to choose from and you would have to check with you state to find programs like this for your family. You may also be able to use a online charter program depending on were you live but I think this is pretty widely available.

The problems with a program like this in my opinion is, we do have to use state standard curriculum for now this is fine but in the future I may not want to use a state run curriculum.

We do however get to use any curriculum we choose but we do not have the option of the state paying for it, for example a religious curriculum etc.

Starting in 2nd grade children have to participate in state testing and we do have to turn in attendance and progress records, ideally I do not like it but I understand why it is done, and it helps me to have a record of our hard work.

If you are just starting out like we were last year, then a program like this may be right for you. If you home school already I want to know about your school, do you go threw a program like ours or do something else?

The Pursuit of Happyness

This is from the movie Pursuit of Happiness with will smith I just watched it for the third time we really love this move and his has such a power message. This is one of my favorite parts, he realises what he had said to his son.

If you haven't seen this movie you are missing out, it is a great movie!



Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do something!

Protect your dreams!

Pursue your dreams, make it happen! No one else will do it for you!

It will be hard to do and others will tell you, you can't do it, only because they are not willing to do it them self!

Encourage your kids, tell them they can do anything!

To Your Success!

The Media Destroys Kids And The Parents Let It Happen!

What The Kids Are Watching!

    This is a continuation of my last post I felt I needed to address this as it does go with what I said before, thanks to the posters of my last post who reminded me of this issue!

You sit down grab the remote and you start flipping the channels, you just have to see what is on. After a few min of channel surfing you see sex of every sort, violence of every sort, foul language, and the like! I am not even just talking about programming said to be for adults only! and what is that these days  triple X ?

Apparently the media thinks if there isn't full nudity then it is children's programming!

Now when I say children I mean people up to the age of legal adulthood but really the things that I have seen from regular channel surfing in my opinion doesn't need to be viewed by human beings, period! Now I know I am conservative but for good reason, many kids are disrespectful to each other and their parents, they use foul language, dress inappropriately, and view sex and drugs as something cool to do for fun! Oral sex in school bathrooms as well as doing lines on the classroom desk, this is the norm for many kids!

I know this is not every kid and I hope not most kids but you can agree it is a big problem.

I see first hand when I am out with the kids the affect of this media programming. I have also seen it personally with my self as I have gone threw my life up to writing this post. I do not care to get into detail about my childhood but I will mention a few things.

Lets just say by the time I knew what sex was I was exposed to it over and over again from many different media sources, not good, it affected the choices I made and the way I viewed woman and men for that matter. I was friends with the kids who did drugs at school as well as doing lines in English class, many of my friends by Jr high were sexually active and the parents knew about much of it, Ok enough said.
 
Even cartoons which are designed for young children are not any better considering the ages they cater to, for example many of the popular cartoons for kids have words like stupid, shut up, idiot and moron. I have even heard Squidword from Spongebob say "would someone kill me". This is in many popular kids shows and not just Spongebob.

Now likewise there are also some great programming for kids like PBS kids and Disney channel is good only  in the morning and early afternoon hours. Later in the day you have the "teen shows" were you will see kissing, dating, back talk, as well as disobedience to adults and parents.

These shows which are said to be for kids are raising these kids and indoctrinating them with this bad behavior! If you the parent allow it to.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn form it"
Prov 22:6

You can't blame school to much since the kids are watching the media at home! But obviously considering the things I mentioned that are going on in schools and the lack of supervision on the part of the schools as well as parents are to blame.

Parents in my opinion need to get rid of the cable, pay attention to what the kids are watching and control what they are exposed to! I am not saying shelter your children, only allow information to be fed to them in an age appropriate way and only when children are ready for certain information.

If kids are going to school the parents need to know what is going on and were! Parents need to be actively involved with school officials to guarantee the safest and most educational environment possible!

I know I am guilty of letting my kids watch some things I shouldn't, like Spongebob, I am also guilty of watching some of it myself, but I will also say that I have always been more conservative with it then many parents that I have encountered.

We had cable early on and we did enjoy cartoons and such, but I learned early on to use the parental controls but honestly that wasn't even enough. We got rid of the cable completely then we moved in with my brother in law who had cable in the house, once again I gave in a little but limited what we watched. Now thank God we have no cable and will never have it again!

I know that you already know this and I do not wish to insult your intelligence, I only want to remind you about the dangers of media viewing. We prefer to go to the library and get good books and educational movies provided to us for free from our local library, media viewing is just not necessary and in fact can be damaging to our true self!

Supervise your kids no matter how much of your time and money it requires, in fact cable can cost 30, 40 even 80-100 dollars for many families and you can use that money each month to attend a play and or visit a museum with your family! You can even go to the movies instead just choose what you see carefully.

Thanks for reading please comment if you have anything to add it is greatly appreciated!
To Your Families Health and Happiness!

Here is my last post if you haven't read it note the comments really add to it!

Home School Regulations

What States Are Best For Home Schooling?

There are four levels of homeschooling regulation in this country:

1. states with essentially no regulations.
2. states with low regulations.
3. states with moderate regulations.
4. states with high regulations.

States with no regulations are the best for home schooling. The more strict the regulations the less freedom parents have to teach their children how they want, when they want and what they want! For us this is important while, we do agree with teaching kids the basics, children should not be slaves to curriculum or doing the same things everyday. Home schooling should be free with the whole family learning what they love!

Many states allow home schoolers the freedom and flexibility in their curriculum's, and in the amount of time they decide to spend on educational activities. Currently, there are 10 states that fall into this category: Idaho, Alaska, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Connecticut, and New Jersey. These states require no notification. They do not have to notify the district in any way of their intent to homeschool. There are no forms to fill out, no phone calls to make. Even if one decides to pull their child from public school in order to begin homeschooling, there is not even a form to sign.

The states which have low regulations, require only that the parent notifies the district in writing of their intent to homeschool a child of compulsory attendance age. These states are also highly home school friendly as they require no testing, no reporting, and no home visits. Currently there are 15 states which fall into this category: , Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas,Mississippi, Alabama, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Delaware and Washington D.C.

States with moderate regulations, require written parental notification, they also require state standardized test scores and professional evaluation of the homeschooling students' performance. If the district within which the homeschooling family resides felt, after this testing and evaluation, that the homeschool was not fulfilling its legal requirement to educate the student to the state's standards, they could revoke that family's right to homeschool. These states are not considered overly homeschooler friendly. Currently 20 states implement this program: Washington, Oregon, Colorado, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Maine, and Hawaii.

The strictest level of homeschooling regulation in our country, requires notification, mandatory state testing, professional evaluation, and may also include curriculum approval, reporting of hours and progress, teaching certification of the parent and home visits by state officials. These states would not be considered the best for homeschoolers, knowing this info I would not live in one of these states. They are not homeschooler-friendly, allow little to no flexibility, and may just be states that homeschoolers prefer to avoid all together. Fortunately for most homeschoolers, there are only 6 states which currently fall into this category: Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

States may very in their enforcement of regulations. Some states may or may not have some of the regulations listed, this info is intended to be general you still must do your own research for your state and each individual state. My article is not a substitute for your own research and what is best for your family!

Now that you know this important info if you are planning on home schooling and moving consider the home school laws in the state you choose it could mean the freedom to home school your kids the way you feel is best for them. You know your children the best and in time learn the ways that is best for the learning of your children. Children should also be free to choose what they learn, learning the things that interests them the most.

Thanks for reading please comment!

To Your Families Success!

Joanne

For more on state home school laws visit HSLDA

Getting Discouraged About Home Schooling

We All Do It! Getting Discouraged About Home Schooling

One of the very real things about home schooling is that it is hard sometimes, and I think many moms including myself sometime don't want to admit it, we get discouraged! Maybe me more then some, I don't know. We have only been doing it for two years now and some days it is good my kids do real well and get things done as do I, but some times it just seems like it will never work!

We have a chart to follow on school days to keep us on track, the problem is if we get up to late or I wake up to tired to wake the kids up then the whole day is shot! I hate doing school work after noon and I have so much other things I need to get done in the house too!

I get discouraged often these days, I am the Mom, the Teacher, the house keeper, the cook, the shopper, the peace keeper lol! Add turning thirty soon and mood swings, oh and I need to loose fifteen lbs too! Add that together and you got your self discouragement lol!

I am sure many of you can relate.

I wanted to post this because I want to be real and not try to pretend it is all good and I am super woman. No I am not going to quit home schooling I still stand by my decision and feel it is best for my kids despite its challenges. I understand and hope you all do that home schooling is not just about teaching our kids and educating them about the world it is also about personal growth.

For home schooling to work for us we need to change the things about our self that may stand in the way of achieving our goal. And children need to understand that home schooling is a family effort and requires all involved to do their best!

Nothing worth doing is easy!

I stand by that and live by that daily, home schooling is so worth it and the benefits for my kids and yours are tremendous, I try not to take it to seriously and just have fun and enjoy having my kids with me on a twenty four seven basis lol! I need to take some time for myself and so do you don't forget that!

Thanks for reading!

From Joanne

World Map Color Page

Great Map Color Page Link

My son needed a world map to color for Social Studies and I could not find the one I was looking for until I found this blog * here is the post with the free printable map link * and I found just what I was looking for when I clicked on the map.. The link took me to a great site with other maps so I also found a great USA map color page as well.

This is a great blog with great resources you should check it out for your home school. I also am a follower of that blog you should follow too.

Home Schooling Requirements

Home School Law

It is important to satisfy the home school laws in your state and meet the home school requirements. Learn home school laws and requirements in your state, testing and record keeping requirements.

Read my other posts about home school laws laws home school

About.com: Homeschooling

Character Building

There are two ways to live your life, One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everthing is a miracle.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Stop And See The Miracles Everyday

We work on character building as a part of our home education, I get a binder with the character building curriculum to cover ca standard for character building so I am posting this to talk about that a little and tell you about how I hopefully am building good character and values in my kids. We all got to do our best because when they are grown up we no longer have a vote, and that scares me! We have to do our best at raising them so we can be confident that they will make good choices as adults most of the time!

Character Building Lesson

Don't just stop to smell the roses, stop to see the miracles around you!

My kids and I go for walks, less often then we should, But when we do we like to find miracles, I told my son we should call them miracle walks instead of nature walks anyway we look at flowers, bugs, people, plants and animals and we say there is a miracle and we talk about how everywhere we look we can see miracles. I want my kids to grow up thinking that way and taking the time to stop and see the miracles, take the time to appreciate Gods miracles and all that he has given us. I feel it is so important, we must all make it a point to do this and if you do already great do it more!

On our walk we seen beautiful flowers, plants bugs we even saw a worm in the water, and we were just in our neighborhood taking a walk so you can do this anywhere. If you go to the store make it a point to say look at all of the miracles that are here and start by pointing out with your kids all of the miracles you see!

I can't help but feel like to many people don't even take not even a little time to see the miracles that are all around them. In our society it is legal to kill 3-4,000 of the most precious of Gods miracles daily and many stay silent and do nothing while others are strait out condoning it and people actually put up with it, STAND UP!

With Out Life We Have Nothing!
Remember Life In All That You Do!

Like I teach my kids God is life and anything that has life in it also has God in it!

"What you do unto the least of you, you do unto me"!

I am definitely going to do this more, I hope you can to!

You are a Miracle!

Thanks for reading!

Phonics Curriculum

EPS Books Curriculum. Primary Phonics and Explode The Code Workbooks.

We have used the EPS books curriculum, Primary Phonics and Explode the Code workbooks so I wanted to give you a review, we love them and my son did to these workbooks are easy to teach to your kids and very affective my son learned to read using these. We had both the Primary Phonics and Explode the Code workbooks and we did a page a day in each. The Primary Phonics comes with easy readers to read at specific points in the workbooks after words have been mastered this way they practice the words learned. You can start with the pre school and move up to the next as your child progresses, or start with the one pertaining to the grade of your child.

What do you recommend? Post your Favorite K-2 grade Phonics/Reading Curriculum..

The EPS Books company is a great curriculum for the phonics as I mentioned, they also have other curriculum you should look into I feel this is a great company with quality teachable product.