Homeschooling for 3

Just in from the front -- homefront that is. There's a new writing site available to homeschooled children. I've copied Melissa's original email announcing her site in its entirety. I look forward to reading the submissions from those homeschooled children out there! :-) "Hi everyone,I've started an online literary journal just for homeschool students. Write at Home will be published monthly on-line at www.writeathome.org . We are currently looking for submissions of poetry, short stories, and artwork from homeschool students across the country (the world actually).I'm looking to launch the first issue in January of 2008.While we will not be able to publish all submissions, everyone who submitswill receive a response. Please visit www.writeathome.org/submissions for submissions guidelines.Feel free to forward this email to other lists that you may be on. If you have any questions, please email me off-list at mvanbaast@austin. rr.com . Regards,Melissa Van Baa

"Anyone can be faithful to an employer; millions are, daily, constantly; it is one of the dullest and most vulgar of loyalties." - Rex Stout from "A Nero Wolfe Mystery: The League of Frightened Men" Well, it is a start. Obviously, this is my first true adventure in blogging. It is a little like auditioning for your high school play - only without the stage, lights and props. Still, there is a script and the script is being written by me. I need a better editor.

My family has just started attending a local church in the area. This is a new experience for me since I was raised to believe that secular churches were harbingers of Satan. Anyway, after 39 years of life I've successfully crossed the threshold of church without imploding. Anyway, my girls are quite comfortable there and I am enjoying the experience. It's so different from my experience. There's a curriculum, activities and songs that the girls are learning. My youngest has been practicing her song about God didn't give us a spirit of fear but the spirit to be brave. She's so cute. My eldest child just learned about the origins of Halloween and she's trying to decide if she should play Animal Crossing (Gamecube game) during the Halloween season. It's her first moral dilemnia. :-) I guess all I really wanted to say today was that for the first time in a long time I am happy and enjoying worshipping God. Now, if I can get my baby to cooperate and stop

Well, this was a good week of homeschooling. The tears were kept to a minimum. Now, if you don't homeschool, you may not understand that tears is a frequent side-effect of homeschooling. Sometimes its the parent who's crying and sometimes its the students who are crying. Let me explain. Most homeschoolers have a schedule for doing their schoolwork. And invariably, at least once a week in my home, the child(ren) cannot fathom that its time to do math, language arts, you name it they can't understand why they are expected to get to work. So, that's when the tears start. But they never admit that the tears are about the schoolwork -- oh no, why make it easy. My eldest daughter, for example, will claim she's crying because her baby sister is humming (yes humming is a capital offense that should be punished, at least Ms. 7 year old thinks so). Or, the dreaded "is it time for lunch yet?" question. If the answer is "no" the child will commenc

I am a Christian. I know what I titled this piece, but I want to let you know that I am a very God-centered person. However, I am sick (sick, sick, sick) to death of people who proclaim that their religion is "The Truth" and others are misguided fools who will die at Armageddon. I was a part of a religion that believed that only they had the Truth of God's Word and that all others are actually worshiping Satan the Devil. Now, these people may not think that they are agents of Satan, but they are. Because of this I had never entered a church, other than my own, until two weeks ago. Now, the church that I belonged to initially kicked me out because I wouldn't agree to their disciplinary actions (I left a husband that was an alcoholic) . Anyway, I'm dead to about 150 people whom I grew up with and knew throughout my 30 years of association. Anyway, my mother (and others from that church) really believe that if you don't attend their services and read thei

Hi. My name is Cheryl and I am one of the many moms who work from home. I'm also one of those brave souls that educate their children at home and still manage not to pull all of their hair out of their heads. I have one husband, three children, one dog, cat and a couple of fish to round out the group. My dog is neurotic, my cat thinks she's a dog and life is very interesting on this side of the world. Actually, I think my husband is the bravest (or kookiest) because he willingly commutes across two states to keep us in food and shelter. I like to tease him when he gets home and enters the madness of children fighting over shadows, dogs chasing cats and our little son sticking his head into things that no person should willingly place their heads. You know, he was in the land of grownups and willingly returned to the chaos that is our home. He claims we're more fun, but sometimes I wonder about the state of his sanity. LOL! My golden retriever is the only dog that rai

I decided that I needed to do a blog as a way to keep my writing skills from getting rusty. But, it has been a struggle. You'd think that I'd be able to find 10 minutes to jot down a few thoughts before I recommenced (is that a real word?) running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But nooooo that would be too easy. First of all, I couldn't even log into my own blog. Each time I tried to login I was told that my email address was unknown. So, I played the retrieve the password game and finally got in. (And by the way, I'm actually quite good with computers, so this was frustrating on many levels.) Then I set up the blog and play with the graphical backgrounds. By the time all of this was done I was tired and my 10 month old was waking up to eat, so I logged out. But when next I tried to put a few thoughts together I got the same error message when I tried to login to the blog. So, there goes another 10 minutes lost for foolishness. (I've set the a