Home School Corner
Hopefully you're getting settled into your routine and digging in for a season of joy and learning with your little blessings! Or at least, hopefully all your hopes and plans for the fall are not falling apart before your very eyes, and you're seeing God's grace and Providence as you rise to the calling He gave you with your kids! Either way...
I thought this week would be a good time to suggest a few "life-lines," or resources that I have utilized over the years and have given our family help, hope, and encouragement.
Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA)
If I were to recommend one organization to join as a home schooler, I would tell you to join HSLDA. I am personally acquainted with several of their staff and have been associated with this organization literally since 5th grade. Now I'm in my, ahem, early thirties with three kids, and HSLDA has only grown in my estimation!
HSLDA is a nation-wide, multi-faceted organization that believes every child is unique and should be able to learn in ways that meet their needs. They believe that parents--not the government--are qualified to pursue the best interests of their children and that with home school, parents have the freedom to personalize education to realize the full potential of their kids. HSLDA advocates for freedom to home school and offers support for every stage of your home school journey.
There are three parts to HSLDA:
- Legal advocacy: protecting your right to home school in court, advocates for home school freedom in state legislatures, and works to advance home schooling in the public arena. Through the years, HSLDA has been critical in maintaining parental rights and freedoms in home schooling in the state of New Mexico.
- Educational Support: Offering personal guidance from highly trained consultants, HSLDA offers answers for every stage of home schooling, from getting started, to learning disabilities, to high school. I highly recommend utilizing this resource if you join the HSLDA community!
- Community: HSLDA believes in the strength of community, and through combined efforts, it is possible for families to enjoy the freedom to pursue the joy and success of home education.
Christian Association of Parent Educators (CAPE-NM)
HomeschoolSummits.com and Generations
Speaking of home school conferences, HomeschoolSummits.com offers online conferences and summits (most of them are free of charge, but you can purchase the option to re-watch or skip and then watch later all the sessions; I think it's about $20 to have access to all sessions, vender exhibits, etc. for a full year, and it's well worth it!). Until real-life conferences are back on the table, you can't beat HomeschoolSummits.com for accessibility, cost, and convenience—and the content is stellar!
I "attended" a virtual home school conference this spring, right in the middle of the initial COVID lockdown, and it was FANTASTIC. The topic was "choosing curriculum," and I couldn't believe how helpful every single session was! In my youth, I remember my mom spending hours flipping through resources in the physical vendor exhibit hall at one of the massive churches in Albuquerque where the Home School Conference was held. That exhibit hall has dwindled now, with all the online resources supposedly taking its place; and I've missed it terribly. The homeschoolsummits.com conference was able to provide helpful sessions comparing the strengths and weaknesses of various curricula, ideas for how to teach multiple age-groups simultaneously, how to infuse a biblical worldview into every area of education, what discipleship looks like in the home, and so much more! I would never want to replace a real-life conference permanently, but I highly recommend these virtual conferences for specialized questions and certainly for this season while everything is shut down!
A sister organization of HomeschoolSummits.com is Generations: Passing on the Faith
A sister organization of HomeschoolSummits.com is Generations: Passing on the Faith
I hope some of these resources are helpful to you in your home school journey—they’ve all been a help to me over the years. Please comment below if you have questions, or if there’s a home school topic that you’d like us to discuss on the Home School Corner of the blog!
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