• In 1512, Michelangelo’s paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were shown to the public for the first time.
• In 1952 the United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb in a test in the Marshall Islands.
• In 2002 I registered the domain homeschoolbuzz.com. Coincidence?

After 7 years and 3,432 blog posts plus 550 book reviews, we’re still enjoying working on this site. We also enjoy reading the 165 fine homeschool blogs contributing to Homeschool Blog Buzz. We hope you each are blessed in some way by our efforts. I hope we can continue doing this for a long time.

After Hurricane Katrina kept thousands of kids out of school for weeks and months, and after talk of months-long closing of schools due to avian flu began popping up on the news, I organized a project, working with the staff and readers of Home Education Magazine, to write a guidebook for families who were unexpectedly given the job of teaching their kids at home. One immediate dilemma I noticed as I read through the pieces submitted for the book was the question of whether to try to keep up with what the school would have been teaching, or to use the time to do things better suited to the family’s own interests and needs.

This split between “school-at-home” on the one hand, and “unschooling” or “eclectic homeschooling” on the other, is a continuing debate among long-term homeschoolers as well. But for the family that is intending to homeschool for a year or less, it can be a big decision – and one that they don’t want to spend a lot of time worrying over. Read more…

A reader writes to say that his five year old came home from public school kindergarten with a flyer alerting parents that the kids are about to have a whole week of “Just Say No to Drugs” education. It shocked him that kids as young as this are being subjected to this sort of thing, and made the reader and his wife consider whether they would be better off getting their kids out of the public school environment, and homeschooling them.

He wrote me asking for homeschooling advice. I told him a couple of things from our experience. First, be realistic. Homeschooling is not for everybody, and it’s no panacea. You have to have a certain amount of idealism to get through the tough parts, but understand that there probably will be tough parts. Not everybody is ideally suited to be a teacher, nor are all kids suited to home learning. If you can go into it without illusions, you’ll do better. Read more…

Yes, this is the 200th edition of the COH!
(Today, October 27th, also happens to be my birthday!)

Thanks for responding to the COH invites.
Come on in and settle down… we have some great reading in store for you!
Read more…

The latest numbers from 2007 show 1.5 million kids in the United States are home-schooled, an increase of half-a-million kids in just 4 years according to the U.S. Department of Education.

We now meet one South Dakota mom who is teaching her five kids at home and find out why she made the decision to teach her kids, herself, at home.

Christina Driver doesn’t just help her kids with their homework. She’s assigns it, choosing to spend 180 days a year teaching at home….concerned about what her kids could be exposed to at public schools. Read more…

The latest numbers from 2007 show 1.5 million kids in the United States are home-schooled, an increase of half-a-million kids in just 4 years according to the U.S. Department of Education.

We now meet one South Dakota mom who is teaching her five kids at home and find out why she made the decision to teach her kids, herself, at home.

Christina Driver doesn’t just help her kids with their homework. She’s assigns it, choosing to spend 180 days a year teaching at home….concerned about what her kids could be exposed to at public schools. Read more…

Some evangelical parents need monitoring by the state because they may ‘intimidate’ their children with ideas about God, sin and hell, a BBC radio host has said.
The Government’s Schools Minister replied by saying this is part of the reason for conducting a review of the rules on home education.

The comments were made on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Programme, broadcast on 18 October. Read more…

Some evangelical parents need monitoring by the state because they may ‘intimidate’ their children with ideas about God, sin and hell, a BBC radio host has said.
The Government’s Schools Minister replied by saying this is part of the reason for conducting a review of the rules on home education.

The comments were made on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Programme, broadcast on 18 October. Read more…

One of the great benefits of educating our own children is the ability to be free of the standard school calendar. Our family takes advantage of this by spending 16 weeks each summer in Maine. I want to share the beauties of our adopted state with some snapshots and fun facts.

Maine is a land of forests and shore. The tides rise and fall about 8 feet so there is a stark contrast between low and high tide so even little children can tell the difference and can figure out scientifically if the tide is coming in or going out. (Hint, look at boats on their moorings to tell which way they are being pulled) Read more…

One of the great benefits of educating our own children is the ability to be free of the standard school calendar. Our family takes advantage of this by spending 16 weeks each summer in Maine. I want to share the beauties of our adopted state with some snapshots and fun facts.

Maine is a land of forests and shore. The tides rise and fall about 8 feet so there is a stark contrast between low and high tide so even little children can tell the difference and can figure out scientifically if the tide is coming in or going out. (Hint, look at boats on their moorings to tell which way they are being pulled) Read more…