Barb

I did a search on Yahoo and found "19,600,000 for homeschool resources". If we tried to use even one tenth of the available materials we would be studying grades K thru 12 until we are over 90 years old!

It is wonderful to have so many great educational opportunities for an at-home education!

Parents, students, family, and friends of home-schoolers --- Please tell your success stories. I'd like to hear everything from what the littlest homeschoolers say to what the graduates are doing in college and in their careers.

I chose a best answer very early on my previous success-story question. I'd like to have at least 20 to choose from this time.

This is for home-schoolers to answer. Please tell all about your personal success with an at-home education. And it is okay to tell about other people too.

I have enough stories that I could write a book!

I'd like to hear some of yours.

Everyone that wonders if home-schooling is good or bad should read all about the best parts of studying at home.

This is a letter I sent to the Gov. of CA. Please do likewise!

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

Thank you for the reply to my previous letter concerning the judges' ruling about home-schooling in the State of California.

I realize after reading it that I neglected a very important point.

The Long family!

It is important to me and to all home-school parents across the country that this family's rights should be restored.

The court ruling took away their right to enroll their children in the private school program of which they are affiliated. And it denies them the proper choice in raising their children according to their parental choices.

Please do whatever is possible to make this family whole again by empowering them to be able to train their children and teach them again in their own home.

Thank you very much for your time.

Barbara Besaw, SACHSNews editor

If you can read, write, and work out a math equation then you are fully capable of teaching what you know to another person.

I read so many comments from people that think parents don't have the brains to give their children an education.

My parents did not home-school my siblings and myself but I know with certainty that they were perfectly capable of doing so.

It is time for people to seriously think about your own self worth. If you have received an adequate education in the things that matter the most -- as in the basics --- you can continue learning for a life-time. And your children or other people can learn great things from you.---- Do you realize too that you can teach yourself anything that you need to know? Some advanced studies may take longer than others but with the right steps and material you can learn anything! --- Home-schooling works for tens of thousands of children all over the US and in other countries too. It isn't hard -- but it does take work.

The Governor of CA has made a statement supporting the efforts of home-school parents. ---- Quote from news-sources:

--Schwarzenegger denounced a state appeals court ruling that severely restricts homeschooling and promised Friday to change the law if necessary to guarantee that parents are able to educate their children at home.--

--"Every California child deserves a quality education, and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children," Schwarzenegger said in response to the ruling, which said children educated at home must be taught by a credentialed teacher.

-"Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education," Schwarzenegger said. "This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts, and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."---My notes: The Governor supports the right of parents to homeschool their children without having teaching credentials or certification.

http://gov.ca.gov/interact

Public school at home is not the same as what most home-schoolers are doing.

-Private/at home/parent directed education is by far different than the programs pushed through the public schools.

-We are free to choose from curriculum that will benefit each child as an individual. Our children can study things that they find interesting and they are not limited in subject matter.

-There are Home-School Conference's all around the U.S. and even in other countries. The information that is available through conferences and curriculum sale shows is phenomenal. You can choose from thousands of styles of learning material. The math options are seemingly infinite. Reading and writing programs are available in every price range. Many top companies provide science curriculum of all sorts, history programs, and much more.

- Check out www.hslda.org to find information for your state, county and community. Find a conference to attend and meet hundreds and even thousands homeschoolers

This is big. Parents need to hold on to their rights and responsibilities.

Many years ago education used to be the responsibility of the family -- parents, grandparents, etc. etc. In 1746 a man, Jean Jacques Rousseau, abandoned his new-born baby on the steps of an orphanage. He did the same thing in the coming years with four more children. They could have all died in the cold! This man, Rousseau, became a famous "education" philosopher that influenced modern day public schools.

The snow-ball effect of abandoning children to the care of others has diminished the role of the family in many areas.

God bless home-schoolers for trying to bring back to the family a nuturing and caring relationship through education and life choices!

Please give up to five main reasons telling why you have chosen to home-school your children.

I answered Oprah's question and it is lost in the tens of thousands of other answers. I've been rethinking my reply and would like to change it. So, I've adapted the question to fit only home-school people.

My answer is this: I would use it to help a family get started in home-education. I would take them to a conference with thousands of other home-school families and I would buy them the Robinson Curriculum, a good laser printer, all of the paper and pencils that they would need for 12 years, The First Reader from Eagle Forum, flashcards, plenty of classic literature and fuel for going on field trips.

I am waiting to see a tape of this show. But I have heard that it was highly unbalanced and prejudiced against home-schools.

Please describe the reality of your home-school.

The spectrum is very broad -- not one family's education system will be an identical match of another. And that is the beauty of having individual freedom.

The freedom to learn and to teach our children according to our own chosen method is a wonderful thing.

As far as I can tell Dr. Phil is not an expert on home-education. Nor is he an expert within the public or private education sytem. How can he know anything about home-schooling unless he has done it? Hear-say is not even excepted in a court of law but masses of people flock to believe a television personality or mere gov't school employees. It is better to find out first hand about home-education. Home-schools are not a mysterious thing -- there are tens of thousands all around us.

Read more about research at:

http://www.nheri.org/

It has been mentioned in another question that home-schoolers might be ridiculed and shunned by potential employers and college recruiters because they might be wearing a denim jumper or frumpy mom-clothes. (Poor boys..... I hope they are NOT wearing the jumpers!!! ;-) Well, maybe the girls do and maybe they don't.

My home school students don't seem to have a problem with style. And SO WHAT if others dress in other than the preppy, cool, brand-name, media promoted garb?

It is supposed that others might be mean to them.... Is this true? Will you yourself be mean to someone that you meet if they are dressed differently than you?

Will a boss deny the job to a qualified applicant because he isn't wearing the status-quo Nikes or whatever brand is in vogue at the moment?

Should a college recruiter tell a young person that they can't attend the University because they are in frumpy clothing even though they aced the SAT?

Good students get into college!

Good workers get the job!

Someone has said that not all home-schoolers grow up to be antisocial lab chemists.

I think that this is a funny statement. Some of our friends are lab-chemists and they are not anti-social. And even if they were I would say that it would be their own choice --- so what? Is someone sad that they don't have the company of the lab chemist?

Have you thought about the great strides in medicine that have been made in our world because of lab chemists? I would rather have 100 antisocial lab chemists working away at something that is interesting to them than to have a thousand students that may only be happy when partying.

My children have all been home-schooled. None are lab-chemists but they all know how to study and how to work and how to socialize ---------- funny thought tho': It doesn't take a group education to learn how to socialize. It comes natural from the day they are born.

I read a comment that said, "I don't think it is healthy for children to be around their parents 24/7". Well, duh!!!!! My children are not around me that much but they are educated at home. They don't go to the bathroom with me or sleep in my room.... eeeeewww!!!! We live with modesty and personal privacy. I know that it is not what the writer meant by the comment -- but I had to poke some fun.....

My question is: WHO is the best person to raise and supervise the education of YOUR own child? Is it you? Is it a group of children in a classroom? Is it a state-trained teacher?

I hear professional teachers saying opposite things -- some say that parents are the best ones to train the children from birth to adulthood and others say no, no, no, that only *they* can do a good job.

So, if I was taught be these professional teachers and they are sure that they did a good job and I completed the material with good grades - shouldn't I be perfectly prepared to teach my own child