School Pot Calling Homeschool Kettle Black - Acceptance is not taught in school
I challenge the notion that public schools inherently teach kids how to deal with people who are from diverse backgrounds. In fact, I would argue that students in school who do not have an adult or groups of adults to model acceptance, are generally taught the opposite—to be wary of people who do not fall into the school-based idea of what is “right”. And th

Testing Forces Cultural Dominance
In an online discussion about oversight and assessment, this little gem about testing came up in the conversation. The problem is that ‘integrating in civil society’ is just by no means defined well enough to create enough consensus to make any means of monitoring or testing acceptable without letting one view of life prevail above others. A state that does that cannot stay ‘neutral’. It would lead to blatant dicrimination between sets of moral values, one way around or the other. - Peter van Zuidam Good point Peter, that I hadn’t thought of. One doesn’t generally make a connection between “concrete” t

Homeschoolers Do NaNoWriMo
Today is November 1st. That means homeschoolers around the world are starting NaNoWriMo. (Ok, so other people are too.) Kids and parents can do NaNoWriMo, and try to write a whole book during the month of November. There are two challenges, one for adults and one for kids/teens. Are you NaNoing? If so, join our HomeschoolNaNo group.

Zenschooling: Living a Fabulous and Fulfilling Life Without School
Zen is the practice of choosing peace over drama, balance over dogma, and compassion over judgment. Homeschooling is an extraordinary experience, but it can also be stressful and overwhelming. Bring a little Zen into your education at home, and use the power of experience, mindfulness, and acceptance to create an amazing homeschooling life. Bring out the best in your children, and in yourselves, with Zen

200th Carnival of Homeschooling
The 200th edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling went live today. Very cool that it’s been around 200 weeks! BTW, as a side note, it seems to me like there are a lot of non-homeschooling, business related posts on the carnival these days. What do you think? Here are a couple of posts that caught my eye: Should learning be fun? Open Source Education - has the Obama administration changed the meaning of &#