I hope you have been enjoying my series on “Getting Started in Home Schooling!” Please continue to forward my posts to your friends (I know some of you have!) It’s tough getting something like this going and I appreciate all the help.
I am sending out this “interim” post because I came across a couple of articles that I thought were interesting and didn’t want to wait to fit them into my posting schedule sometime later on. The first is an article I came across on Twitter (you can follow me there if you are a “tweeter” at @homeschool911) – the article is a post at www.planningwithkids.com that gives 10 ideas for keeping your toddlers occupied without toys. I have four kids, none of whom are toddlers anymore, but I remember how hard it was to get anything done (much less home-schooling) when you have toddlers in the house. These are really great ideas that will occupy your child for quite some time and one of the things that I particularly liked was that they are activities your child can do right by your side while you are getting your own chores done. To see the article titled: “10 Simple Play Ideas for Your Toddlers that Don’t Involve Toys” go here.
The second article I wanted to highlight can be found at the Home School Legal Defense Association here. It describes a recent decision which granted political asylum to a German family on the basis that the German government is hostile to home-schooling and is, in fact, trying to “stamp it out.” In recent years there has been serious persecution of home-schoolers in Germany, and other supposedly “free” countries, that really defies understanding. We really need to see as home-schoolers that the right to direct our child’s education is a foundational freedom. History teaches us that oppressive regimes will always seek to hijack the children, their education, and anything that influences them (e.g. religion). It is therefore very suspect when a nation that claims to be free expresses such hostile attitudes towards parents who simply want to direct their child’s education. We need to stay vigilant in the U.S., and support the home-schooling communities in other countries.
One sad aspect of the story is that our immigration department (ICE) is actually challenging the judge’s ruling! I am sure I don’t have to tell you about all the stories re: immigration and a recent asylum decision that have been in the news – given these developments it is mind-blowing to me that our immigration department would seek to overturn a judge’s decision to grant asylum to parents who face losing their property, and perhaps even their children, simply because they want to home-school. Again, you can read the article about this decision (and other related articles) here.
Please keep in touch and let me know if you have any questions concerning home-schooling. If you fill out the form on the contact page I will get back to you!
