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Home Education Magazine
Home Education Magazine is the grand-daddy of secular homeschooling magazines. It provides extensive coverage of homeschooling and issues concerning homeschooling families. Since 1983, Home Education Magazine has brought homeschooling parents timely articles, in-depth interviews, and regular columns about the homeschooling issues, joys and frustrations. The HEM back issue archive is a valuable collection of articles and columns on the homeschooling topics. A number of articles and columns from 1997 through the present are also available free online. Subscriptions are $26 per year (6 issues) and well, well worth the expense. GRPL’s Main and Seymour branches currently carry this periodical. KDL’s Alpine Twp., Byron Twp., Grandville, Kentwood, Plainfield Twp. and Sand Lake branches do as well.
Additionally, HEM supports blogs, forums, and is active on social networking programs such as Twitter and FaceBook. HEM’s respected presence serves as a point of reference and important information when homeschooling freedoms are challenged.
Secular Homeschooling Magazine
Secular Homeschooling is a new, non-religious, quarterly magazine that seeks to reflect the diversity of the homeschooling community. Its readers and writers are committed to the idea that religious belief is a personal matter rather than a prerequisite of homeschooling making it a magazine for any homeschooler, religious or not. Subscriptions are $28 annually. You can start a subscription with issue #6 or buy all back issues individually (note: according to the editor’s blog, issue #7 is running late due to a mechanical snaffu).
If you’re looking for interesting and educational websites to keep the kids learning all year long, you can’t do better than signing up for Diane Flynn Keith’s daily ClickSchooling emails. It’s easy to get on the mailing list, just sign up at the ClickSchooling Yahoo Group.
Every day of the week will bring something new and unexpected into your mailbox. Whether you’ve got a preschooler, a pre-teen or a soon-to-be graduate, there’s something for everyone over the course of the week. Look for math on Mondays, science on Tuesdays, English on Wednesdays, history and social studies on Thursdays, virtual field trips on Fridays and “electives” over the weekends (art, music, foreign languages, etc).
Use it as a jumping off point for daily learning, a current and future curriculum builder or simply as a fun break in the day. The referred websites are often so chock-a-block full of interesting content that a whole day could be spent learning from that one email alone.
Guest post by Patty, of possible interest to GRLE members and visitors.
A friend and I (Patty) plan to start a secular homeschool co-op in Lansing, to serve greater Mid-Michigan families with children ages 9-18. Everyone is welcome to join and will be expected to focus on homeschooling. Kindness and respect for everyone in the group will also be expected – regardless of personal beliefs, parenting style, homeschool approach, or background. It will not be aligned with any religious, non-religious or political group.
What will it offer?
This open co-op/support group will offer classes, field trips, events, seminars, clubs and activities for families with older children. Although the focus will be on older children, there will be some classes/activities for younger siblings as well. Parents may lead a class/event/etc. but will not be required to. Community members and professionals may also offer services. Offerings will be based on the need and resources available.
The group will offer a support/social venue for parents to interact and discuss homeschooling topics. It will be a place to meet new people, develop friendships, and support one another in our journey. The focus of the group is on education and networking. This will be a neutral, diverse place for older children and their parents to expand their homeschooling experiences.
Where and when will it meet?
We are working to secure a public building in Lansing. The location is easy to reach, and is near restaurants and cultural resources. Currently we plan to meet 2 days per month during the school year. It will be an easy drive, near major highways. Since we’ll meet only twice per month, it will not require driving every week.
What will the costs be?
Class fees will be determined by the instructors, in close coordination with the needs of the facility. We will try to limit membership fees to the minimal amount necessary to use the facility.
******Please tell us what YOU want!********
What is your level of interest in this?
I MIGHT consider it; I’m not really sure.
This sounds INTERESTING, please keep me in the loop.
Yes, I REALLY need something like this!
What are the 3 top needs you have from a group like this?
What are the 3 top obstacles to your participation?
How old are your kids?
Any added thoughts?
Thank you very much for considering the co-op. We really look forward to meeting everyone and sharing this adventure with other homeschoolers. Please post your response here in the comments section, or email Patty directly by clicking here.
Do you appreciate a great deal? I know I do! The Homeschool Buyers Co-op leverages the bulk discounts that schools and curriculum middlemen enjoy to bring deep discounts (sometimes very deep) to individual homeschooling families.
The Co-op has changed the way homeschoolers get curriculum packages, educational software, online programs and so much more by combining the purchasing power of tens of thousands of member families around the country to give homeschoolers some serious volume-based purchasing clout.
Some of my favorite features of the Homeschool Buyers Co-op are:
- exclusive members discounts;
- group discounts based on the number of participants (the more participants, the greater the discount);
- a database of free curriculum resources;
- a searchable database of contests and scholarships that are available to homeschoolers;
- a nationwide listing of discounts and coupons that is updated daily;
- a zip code-linked list of local stores that offer discounts to all homeschoolers;
- a listing of national hardware and software manufacturers that offer a homeschooler discount; and
- on-going prize sweepstakes.
And the best part is… membership in the Homeschool Buyer Co-op is FREE.
Think back to when you were little. Do you remember how you learned to ride your bike?
- Did you take a class?
- Did you have to learn the proper name for all the parts of your bike before you were allowed to get on?
- Did you have to take a proficiency exam before you were allowed to ride down to your friend’s house?
- Did you get a professionally trained, certified professional to show you how?
Or
- Did you look around for a big sister or brother, a mom or dad, a grandma or grandpa, a friend or a kindly neighbor who had some time to show you the ropes, give you some encouragement, run along the side of the bike and let go when at just the right time?
I bet it was that last one. Yet learning to ride your bike was a pretty complicated feat. It required you to master quite a few things: balancing, timing, over-coming frustration and a very real fear of falling, guaging speed, operating pedals both forward and backwards, steering and watching for obstacles (both moving and stationary). It also required you to very quickly learn a new skill – orienteering – so you could find your way home again from wherever you pedaled.
Certainly, there are certainly some things – many things – that require a fair amount of professional training to learn, surgery being just one example, but there are far more things that don’t require professional training – even if professional training for it exists.
This is a place to match up those many, many things that require only the simplest of things for someone to learn. This is a place to list those skills that require little more than:
- someone who already has some ability – even if they’re not an expert;
- an interest on the part of the learner;
- a bit of patience on each side; and
- a willingness on the mentor’s part to help someone with fumbling fingers or an overwhelmed brain
- a way for them to know about each other.
Grand Rapids Learning Exchange is set up to meet that last requirement. May you find the skills you desire, a way to share what you know, and a few more wonderful people to add to your world along the way.
I created this website to help homeschoolers, unschoolers, and any independent learners in the greater Grand Rapids area find secular and apolitical educational resources. You’ll also find a few superb resources further afield. I focus mainly on resources for older children and teens (10-19 yrs old) – a group that is generally under-served, but when I find a great resource for younger kids, I’ll include it. Posts are entered as I find them, in fits and spurts, because time is at a premium around here.
If you know about about a secular and apolitical program, class or activity, please send me an email by clicking on the Contact GRLE link on the tab above. You are welcome no matter what you believe, your family makeup, where you live, where you come from, or where you’re going in your educational journey. I have daily proof that helping a child learn is a remarkable gift.
If you’re new to homeschooling, you will soon learn that it means your lives will often resemble a path criss-crossed by academics, board-games, sports, music, household chores, friends and much more. I hope you will use this GRLE website for curriculum ideas, support, and community involvement, while remaining independent and true to your family’s own organizational structure and beliefs.
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