Defining unschooling is a little like describing a color, and every bit as elusive. You can rely on commonly-held descriptions; for example, we generally all agree what blue looks like, but what about cobalt, aqua, navy, cyan, sapphire, azure, indigo, cerulean, turquoise or cornflower? It’s the same with unschooling. There’s a generally accepted definition, but then there are all these wonderful variations…

Unschooling embraces a broad spectrum of learning, and trying to describe and define it has resulted in some of the most colorful and interesting writings on the web. With this feature we’re sharing highlights from some of our favorite articles, resources, websites and more on unschooling!

Articles About Unschooling

Revelations of a Homeschooling Mom by Carol Wanagel – “You can’t give them knowledge or force it on them; they have to reach out and take it. They’ll only do that when their own nature and interests command them to, and then only if they don’t feel coerced.”

The Things I Really Want My Kids to Learn by Sue Smith Heavenrich – “I think I’d put ‘making your own lunch’ at the top of the list.” Knowing how to make a tuna sandwich or whip up a pot of macaroni is as important as knowing how to divide fractions. Maybe even more important.”

On Unschooling and Life by Ruthe Matilsky – “How unsettling it is sometimes when I think that we have scoffed at the script and now we have to take responsibility for how it all turns out. If we’d done what was expected of us, nothing would ever be our fault. Right?”

Becoming Unschoolers by Janet Keip – “Fear kept the artificial vision alive. Fear made me think Jaime would be “left behind” like some hopelessly out-of-date little coal engine on the railroad tracks of life. Fear made me reject my heart vision and follow the common path.”

Compulsory Education vs. Unschooling by Shay Seaborne – “Human beings are hardwired for learning; we have proportionally huge brains, and are born with the desire to explore and learn about our world.”

Peaceful Unschooling by Charlotte Monte – “I simply couldn’t go on. I felt like picking up the phone and calling the local school district to throw him in the nearest school, public or not! I had to save myself.”

My Kids Won’t Let Me Teach by Ann Leadbetter – “I worry about my lack of discipline, my laziness. Am I justifying our lackadaisical approach to homeschooling just because I don’t feel like doing it any other way?”

Compulsory Unschooling? by Janet Lowry – “Well, here is a quandary I hadn’t anticipated. What is freedom, if the individual given it doesn’t want it?”

Waiting for Unschooling to Work by Shay Seaborne – “Am I doing the right thing? How can I tell if my children are learning? And where are those interests unschooled children are supposed to follow with excitement?”

A Gift of Time by Sue Smith Heavenrich – “‘Do you read books together?’ I ask. ‘Play games, go on walks, ice skate? Do you rake the lawn and look at bugs and see who can blow dandelion parachutes the farthest?’”

What My Children Taught Me by Helen Hegener – “I’m pretty certain that I’ve learned much more from my kids than they ever learned from me.”

How’s School Going? by Mary Kenyon – “I, too, plan each summer, order workbooks, hunt down bargains on used curriculum, and start out each year with the good intentions of buckling down and having daily schoolwork.”

Interview with Sandra Dodd by Emily Subler – “Gradually (or just all of a sudden, if you have that ability) stop speaking and thinking in terms of grades, semesters, school-days, education, scores, tests, introductions, reviews, and performance, and replace those artificial strictures and measures with ideas like morning, hungry, happy, new, learning, interesting, playing, exploring and living.”

Five Steps to Unschooling by Joyce Kurtak Fetteroll – “Maybe a few, well-defined steps in the unschooling direction could lead out of at least the very pea-soupiest part of the fog.”

One of Those Days by Deb Baker – “I look at the children and announce, “This is One of Those Days.” They stop and look up expectantly; ready to hear what crazy cure Mom has in mind this time.”

Questions and Answers

Unschooling FAQ Frequently Asked Questions about Unschooling

Questions and Answers from HEM Laura Weldon’s Reader Response Q and A columns

Networking with Unschoolers

HEM Unschooling Discussion list for unschooling readers of HEM

Unschooling-dotcom Discussion list for the Unschooling.com website

Resources for Unschooling

Unschooling resources Collected reviews of learning materials for unschooling

Unschooling.com Articles, news, blogs, resources and more!

John Holt’s Bookstore Books, writings, back issues of GWS

FUN Books Helpful resource catalog for unschooling families

For further reading about unschooling, check out these great web sites:

Best Homeschooling The best advice from seasoned unschoolers

A to Z Homeschooling: Unschooling Ann Zeise’s Home’s Cool

Life Without School An online publication and blogging community

Sandra Dodd on Unschooling Practical and philosophical support for unschooling

Unschoolers Unlimited How to access the real world

The Natural Child Project Articles on Learning, many on unschooling

The passing of nearly two decades has taught us much, and from this vantage point we can better understand what we were seeing in 1991. The same dynamics which worked to divide the diverse homeschool networks twenty years ago are now more clearly visible. Individual responsibility and diverse, effective grassroots action was hijacked by the pursuit of political power. The history of the homeschool movement is instructive, in its details and its broader lessons, for the national politics of today.

Unfortunately, our most important lessons, the understanding families have gained about children and learning, remains mostly hidden outside of homeschool circles. Homeschoolers have been sidetracked from the task of gaining deserved respect and trust for children and the empowering dynamics of families. In fact, that effort has been made much harder by unreasonable and perceived ‘fanatic’ behavior, and today homeschooling families are facing renewed calls for greater regulation.

In spite of this, homeschooling is still an influential grassroots movement, and homeschooling families are making a strong social and political statement. This series of articles is offered with the hope that readers will better understand the lessons of homeschooling’s history, and thereby find a way to come together once again to shape homeschooling’s future.

© 1991, Home Education Magazine

Many of us, in our complacency, have come to believe we have the right to homeschool our children. That is true. We do have that right. Along with that privilege is the responsibility involved in home education. And many of us have dealt with that, too. We know we have taken upon ourselves the privilege and obligation to educate our children in the best possible way. Amen. So simple, right?

Wrong. It isn’t that simple. Among homeschoolers, who I have always believed were the new freedom fighters, a great schism has occurred. Many people have failed to understand the connection between privilege and responsibility. They are freedom fighters in name only. Instead of letting the school superintendent tell them how to educate their children, they are letting the homeschool leadership of a neighborhood, city, state, or national assembly tell them how to educate their children.

I see many people falling into the trap of believing they are educating their children when, in fact, they have turned over their liberty to some other authority figurehead. People who have shown great spirit and have worked through much difficulty to regain custody of their children from the school system are being convinced to again allow some other bureaucracy make the decisions concerning the who, when, and why of their family life and education.

Many of these organizations are encouraging people to turn over their own personal power. They are encouraging their constituency to let the alliance make decisions, let the group design the system of education best suited for their children. Membership is encouraged to “trust” the leadership to “know” what is best for the collective associates. Member input and options are kept to a minimum. The leadership makes all decisions and passes these decisions down to the membership.

I see two different bands: those that wish to maintain control over the decisions that affect their families, and those opting to give that control to their local, state, or national homeschooling association. The people, the individual, has the power, the right, the responsibility to make decisions for themselves. No matter how hard an association tries to convince the individual s/he doesn’t have that freedom, or the information to make a choice, the individual does have the power. In our complacency, we have allowed the government, in its many forms, to convince us we are not capable of making certain decisions.

We have been happy to give up the opportunity to make some choices because we don’t want the responsibility that goes along with it. “If I send my child to school, and the child doesn’t learn, I am not responsible for his/her illiteracy. It is the school’s fault s/he hasn’t learned.” The parent gives up the power, the particulars of the child’s education and also the responsibility for the education. It’s a nice safe package. “They” can be blamed — and given the credit — for the child’s education. The parent is absolved of the responsibility. Or so the bureaucracy would have us believe. That’s not the truth. Deep down inside, each of us knows this. The parent is always ultimately responsible for the child. And the parent knows what is best for his or her own child.

We have worked hard in many states to keep from answering to a state bureaucracy about the curriculum we use, or don’t use. Many have worked to have testing abolished or at least minimized. All of these efforts were done to expand the parameters of the homeschooling family’s personal options. Again, so many individuals are giving up those hard fought for freedoms by turning over those same personal choices to an organized group. They are allowing an association to decide which curriculums, which books, which tests, which support networks have their approval, and can be used. Without questioning this, families are accepting these arbitrary decisions. Without meeting any of the members of this or that support network, the state or national group’s endorsement tells me if I do or don’t want to meet these individuals.

Homeschoolers are leaders, not followers. Homeschoolers have chosen to take the responsibility for their own lives. They do not defy authority, they question it. We must recognize that these privileges we have worked so hard to establish concerning education are individual and personal. These liberties are part of the freedoms included in the framework of our founding fathers (and mothers) declaration of independence. Freedoms so important that thousands have, and continue to, risk their lives to establish and preserve them. When any sect sets itself up to define these rights, sets itself up to choose these rights, sets itself up to take the responsibility of the outcome of the enactment of those rights for us, we have lost everything we have struggled so long and hard for.

Homeschoolers! Recognize the “organization” of homeschooling for what it is — an attempt to control and manipulate our choices for the greater glory of the organization’s leadership. The power of these groups is not drawn from the combined freedom of the membership. It is created by diminishing the individual members’ autonomy. All that is accomplished by these highly organized contingents is not done to provide independence for the membership, it is done to bring tighter control over the membership, to diminish even further the freedoms of the members, and to ultimately escalate the power of the leadership.

Accept the responsibility for your freedom. Examine what is given to you. Question decisions made for you. Take the leap of faith — trust your own instincts. Only you can make the best decisions for yourself and your family. Stand up and be counted as an individual supporting your own and others’ privileges and responsibilities. History has shown us repeatedly that when we allow the autonomy of any society to be diminished, more and more is taken from that group. When we contribute to the schism of the national homeschooling community, we contribute to the erosion of the independence of the homeschooling community at large. If the highly structured organizations allow the freedoms of the unstructured coalitions to be taken away, soon the freedoms of the structured alliance will be attacked.

The time has come for homeschoolers to stop arguing among themselves and join together to protect the freedom of all people. We must protect the opportunity to choose public education, private education, structured homeschooling, unstructured homeschooling, religiously based homeschooling and secular based homeschooling. If we allow anyone’s choices to be diminished, we allow our own choices to be compromised.

“In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me–and by that time no one was left to speak up.”Pastor Martin Niemoller

© 1991, Home Education Magazine

This piece is part of the series Homeschooling Freedoms at Risk Originally published
in the May-June 1991 issue of Home Education Magazine (Top)

Freedoms At Risk – Twenty Years Later
Homeschooling Freedoms At Risk
Freedoms Responsibilities And The “Four Pillars”
Homeschooling Rights and Responsibilities
Bitter Pill-ars to Swallow
From Across the Nation

You’d like Doc Preston, too. Short in stature, a giant in heart, he’s a pediatrician par excellence. No white jackets here; his casual sweater and shoes remind you he’s a person first and foremost, yet still as professional as the next guy.

Welfare kids and the sons and daughters of rich businessmen – black, white, yellow and brown – are greeted with the same smile, respect, and sense of awe all children deserve.

When first he became my new pediatrician when I was thirteen, I thought him an old coot, asking all those personal questions instead of just taking my blood pressure and temperature. I’m still amazed at how much he learned between then and the birth of my first child twelve years later. Though many years and many more miles separate us, Doc Preston shines as a beacon by which I measure the light of the heart and soul of all professionals. Today it takes just one visit to discover whether a practice is Hippocratical – or hypocritical. Men and women as selfless and dedicated as he in homeschooling are the first I’d bestow the title of “pillar” on. Funny, isn’t it though, but folks like Doc Preston would shun the title, anyway.

And what of self-appointed pill-ars? It’s a title that feeds the ego; Doc Preston’s ego faded long ago. It’s a title that begs respect; Doc Preston earns his. It’s a title that serves its bearer as a shield; Doc Preston has nothing to hide.

What bothers me most about hiding behind words like pill-ar and Christian is not the terms, but that which I discover is being hid – lies, fraud, slander, and a divide-and-conquer methodology reminiscent of the most evil, hostile takeovers in recent history.

Normally, I’d say any group who needs to stoop to such duplicity to gain power doesn’t warrant attention – they usually die by their own hand. But this group preys on the most powerful emotions and vulnerabilities of humanity; ignorance (that of the new homeschooler seeking service), greed (I want my child to have/be the best), and most viciously, fear (don’t mingle with the heathens!).

Think about it. You’re a new homeschooler and you hear of a workshop within travelling distance. You gladly dig into your pocket and plop down money to hear what the “expert” has to say. He says you must spend thousands of dollars for a proper home education. You believe him. And he just happens to have thousands of dollars worth of material to sell you.

Or how about the attorney, well-versed in state regulations, who has raised fear mongering to an art form? He tells you your state regulations are fine today, but “we’ve got trouble brewing right here in River City.” He just happens to sell insurance to “protect” you. Do you buy?

I’ve got nothing against people making a buck. But any pill-ar forced down my throat is a bitter pill-ar, indeed. Particularly at a time when humankind’s very survival depends heavily on unity, cooperation, and our ability to raise ethics and service above profit. Those of us who oppose separatism and exclusivism must speak out to protect the service, ethics, and personal empowerment in which we place our trust.

It seems the moment we put our faith in experts in any profession, the fees increase in direct proportion. Personal energy, and thus, ability, dissipate. Our own energy mingles with theirs, and theirs grows beyond energy to explode in power. Are not the queer politics of power merely representative of the price for relieving ourselves of the obligation, responsibility, and constant vigilance personal power requires?

Perhaps the most bitter pill-ar to swallow is the justification offered by taking scripture passages out of context, further distorting the beautiful truths Christ taught 2000 years ago. My patience wears thin with folks who don’t know me or my family, who don’t comprehend me or my homeschooling purpose, and who don’t care to do either, yet they profess to validate my political beliefs through absurd public statements, create regulations that have me contemplating moving out of my state, and hold on their shoulders the weight of a burden I long ago chose to bear myself. I don’t want justification – I want truth.

When a publication refuses to consider my writing because I will not sign a statement of faith, I choke on that pill-ar. There is nothing Christ-like about closed minds, closed doors, closed policies, or closed hearts. Indeed, these states are anti-Christ and go against the very fiber of His message of understanding, compassion, acceptance, and love. Bitter pill-ars gag, separating us from the life-sustaining joy of free thought, feelings, and deeds accomplished in love.

I see quacks prescribing miracle “pill-ars” for every homeschool growing pain, searching for a way to capitalize on any suffering it may be causing, getting so lost in the opportunities for power they represent that, at best, the good of the movement is lost in both mind and heart. At worst, the good of the movement as a whole is never even considered.

For if it were, what would be their Christ-like response? Would it not embody truth instead of lies, guidance instead of dictatorship, giving instead of receiving, unity instead of divisiveness?

I remember Doc Preston getting us through 3 cases of chicken pox, 10 bouts of the flu, and at least a dozen ear infections via Ma Bell, because he shared his wisdom via the 6:30-7:30 AM call-in hour, saving patients countless time and expense if an office visit wasn’t really necessary. He taught me how to mix a batch of home-made cough syrup which worked just as well as store bought, yet was healthier and safer to administer. When I called him not long after we moved away because the kids were sick and I had yet to find competent medical care, he spent half an hour reminding and assuring me that I, too, possess the knowledge and love necessary to see them through.

This, my friends, is the kind of person the homeschooling movement needs, and in fact, already has. I, along with folks all across the country, field innumerable phone calls every day, sharing information and a warm, loving approach with anyone who asks. Just yesterday a woman returned a stack of books and magazines I loaned her because she intends to begin homeschooling her oldest in the fall. Just in time, too, because a teacher’s college student in Rochester is scheduled to call this evening for information he needs for a paper he’s preparing on the subject. Is there fame? Profit? A title? No, there’s a greater reward – the joy of Christ-like service, not in name, but in deed.

Thanks, pill-ars, but you’re too hard to swallow. I’ll continue seeking out the Doc Prestons of the world. And we’ll continue building the solid foundation that makes pillars not only unnecessary, but tastelessly ostentatious. Personal empowerment -sharing what we have and know freely with others, and turning to true friends who do the same in our time of need – is working just dandy. Maybe you should try it.

© 1991, Home Education Magazine

This piece is part of the series Homeschooling Freedoms at Risk Originally published
in the May-June 1991 issue of Home Education Magazine (Top)

Freedoms At Risk – Twenty Years Later
Homeschooling Freedoms At Risk
Freedoms Responsibilities And The “Four Pillars”
Homeschooling Rights and Responsibilities
Bitter Pill-ars to Swallow
From Across the Nation

“Every movement attracts some people who are motivated by a need for power, and when such people manage to work their way into positions of leadership they typically confuse their personal needs with the needs of the movement. Frequently, the result is that the original goals of the organization are subverted, and its original reasons for being are forgotten. We should be suspicious of anybody who claims to be a homeschooling ‘expert’ – there are none – or who puts him or herself forward to speak for homeschoolers in general. We need to be as wary of self-promoting, coercive forces in the homeschooling movement as we are of experts, professional educators and politicians in general.

“Homeschooling organizations shouldn’t be allowed to become our shadow versions, so to speak, of state offices of education.

” It’s important that homeschooling parents reassert their independence and let others–in education, government, and the media–know that they are homeschooling for educational reasons and not in order to help a few narrowminded empire builders promote their political agendas.”
- David and Micki Colfax, California, March/April, 1991

National

“The National Center for Home Education has made it clear that its political agenda includes much more than homeschooling. It actively involves itself in politically right-wing issues that are not related to homeschooling, and we can’t in good conscience support an organization that seeks to identify homeschooling with one particular political group.”
- Patrick Farenga, Growing Without Schooling #76, August, 1990

National

“In Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich notes that our society is plagued by pedagogical hubris — our belief that men can do what God cannot: namely, manipulate others for their own salvation. As educators, we need to recognize this pedagogical hubris in ourselves and within the homeschooling movement as well. We must remind anyone who claims to know or represent what is best for the education of our children that there can never be concensus on what is the best way to educate our children, that is why there are public, private, and home schools throughout the country. It will be a sore irony if these special interests create a de facto national board of home teaching standards by loudly proclaiming the correctness of their teaching practices and strictly denouncing what they perceive as false educational philosophies. I am not criticising or objecting to people promulgating their religion through their own organization, and I fully support religious freedom. These groups should, and always do, or nearly always do, put their religious affiliations up front. What I am objecting to are national groups claiming, in words, to serve all homeschoolers, yet by deeds, denegrate and isolate homeschoolers from different religions and educational philosophies. Surely, after years of school experts telling us about how our children will suffer if we don’t do it their way, there is no need for us to cannibalize one another with this same argument.”
- Patrick Farenga, address at Washington Homeschool Organization Conference, Tacoma, Washington, June, 1990

Top

Alabama

“A few national organizations and leaders have been creating policies, involving statements of faith, which have put pressure on Alabama Home Educators (AHE) and other non-sectarian groups to split into two separate associations.

“Not everyone realizes that AHE could not sponsor Gregg’s Christian Life Workshop due to the fact that AHE is not ‘an exclusively Christian organization.’ …This policy has encouraged the formation of strictly Christian organizations…

“AHE does not qualify [to publish a state news insert for The Teaching Home] because The Teaching Home insists that each statewide organization provide documentation which ‘ensures perpetual Christian leadership.’ …This policy has encouraged the formation of strictly Christian organizations…

“AHE, as a non-sectarian organization, is precluded from membership on the advisory council [of NCHE]. This national policy has the potential to encourage the formation of strictly Christian organizations…

“What disturbs me is the insistence, of these very people I care so much about, that they are serving the needs of all home schoolers and/or helping to provide assistance and support to state organizations, when in reality they are dividing these organizations, discouraging Christian homeschoolers from helping others outside their faith, and causing disunity among Christ’s body. When general policies encourage the formation of exclusively Christian groups, then the policy-makers should advertise the truth — that they exist to primarily support Christian associations, even to the point of causing division. Why be ashamed to admit this stand, if it is an honorable one?”
- Lee Gonet in The Voice, Alabama, Summer, 1990
Alabama

Dear Mark and Helen,

It is with a great deal of trepidation that I address this letter to you, dealing with the issue of the formation of various splinter groups each with a narrow xenophobic view of homeschooling. Since this has been a very real and personal issue to Lee and I here in Alabama, and one we have finally laid to rest, I am not terribly eager to re-open those wounds.

We are in a rather unique position, having one of us on either side of the Christian/non-Christian demarcation. That being so, we are nonetheless both on the same side when it comes to the issue of unity among homeschoolers. Because, after all, the issue is homeschooling (or so it would seem).

Wiser men than I have coined the phrase “United we stand, divided we fall,” but it would seem that not all people see the wisdom in these words. These are the people who are convinced that they do not need anyone else as long as “God is on our side.” The only problem is there is no unilateral agreement whose God it is. The general assumption is that it is the Christian God, but then the problem lies with which brand of Christian you choose to supply the God. Is it the evangelical ‘born again’ God, the Catholic God, the Mormon God, the Seventh Day Adventist God, the Jehovah’s Witness God, the Presbyterian God, Methodist, Unitarian, Episcopal… or what? Among any of these groups the understanding is that they have a lock on the truth when it comes to any other subject as well. It is therefore their benevolent duty to lead the other people who would otherwise flounder about in a state of blindness, like sightless cave fish blundering here and there.

The major problem with this entire scenario is that there will always be those in the organization who will profit from the willingness of others to be led by the nose. This may be a financial profit, an emotional profit, or one of power and prestige. The motivation remains the same, that of gain for a particular individual, group, or philosophy, generally at the expense of the central strength of the homeschooling movement. That strength is the diversity and individual freedom that it presents to the disparate participants, for homeschooling is the penultimate source of personal power, second only to the concept of individual choice and self determination.

Until there is a serious threat to the homeschooling community as a whole there will continue to be forces arrayed to divide the ranks of the movement. This is natural, and in fact evident in most all causes. There is nothing like a “bogey-man” to galvanize a group of people towards a cohesive union designed for self-preservation. Until such a specter rears its head, we will continue to fight this same battle, trying to counter the propaganda and religio-political machinations of the ones who would take homeschooling and mold it to their own design.
- Phil Gonet, Alabama

Top

New York

Dear Mark and Helen,

After many years of homeschooling we are coming to understand more fully the importance of self-reliance among home educators to protect our educational and family rights. While it is tempting, especially in the first year or two of homeschooling, to focus exclusively on the education of our children, it is critical to remain attuned to and involved in the preservation of our legal right to educate our children at home and of a positive atmosphere in which to do that. If homeschoolers don’t take responsibility for protecting their rights in these areas, somebody else surely will. We believe the situation in New York State is in many ways typical of what has happened and is happening in many other states.

Prior to the 1988-89 school year New York was one of those states which had a fairly vague homeschooling law (“substantially equivalent” to public school education) and no state regulations. Many home educators had a very easy time dealing with their school districts, and some were treated unfairly. During he 1987-88 school year a loose group of home educators began to meet on a more-or-less monthly basis to address a decision by the State Department of Education to require home educators to take certain tests which were required of public and private school students at the third and fifth grade levels. These meetings were open to all and inclusive of many different approaches to home education. Progress was slow as many individuals and representatives of different groups tried to reconcile their differences and to agree on questions of both substance and procedure.

At approximately the same time, three other groups were becoming increasingly active in New York State homeschooling. One was the New York State Education Department which temporarily held off requiring students who were learning at home to take the state tests; the Department was considering imposing a more uniform statewide system on home educators (addressing more than simply the testing issue). The second group was the Home School Legal Defense Association; on behalf of several families being represented by HSLDA in Family Court educational neglect proceedings, HSLDA began a sweeping challenge in Federal Court to the way in which homeschooling was administered in New York State. The third group was the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA); that group sought increased state regulation of home education and became involved, on behalf of the school districts, in the Federal litigation commenced by HSLDA.

After sending representatives to speak with home educators throughout the state, the State Education Department appeared to ignore much of what those home educators said to those representatives and proposed regulations which would require standardized testing every year. Home educators protested loudly. Soon thereafter Mike Farris of HSLDA and a representative of Loving Education at Home (LEAH – a statewide fundamentalist Christian homeschooling organization) met with representatives of the New York State School Boards Association and drafted regulations on which the three groups represented at that meeting (HSLDA, LEAH, and NYSSBA) could agree. Mike then met with a group of independent home educators and support group leaders to discuss the alternative regulation he had helped to draft. In many respects that draft was preferable to the State Education Department proposal, and many of the independent homeschoolers decided to go along with it.

There was a great deal of concern among the independents about their exclusion from the actual negotiations at the time the alternative regulation was drafted. That concern grew even deeper when they were excluded from meetings at which the draft regulation was presented to the Commissioner of Education and his Counsel. The regulation was supported by the upper levels of State Education Department staff and approved by the State Board of Regents.

Within weeks of the adoption of the regulation, a small group of home educators began meeting with many of the members of the Board of Regents seeking an amendment to the new regulation which would allow for alternatives to testing at all grade levels (the new regulation required standardized testing at the fifth, seventh, and all high school grade levels). Those individual “lobbying” efforts came very close to succeeding, but the Regents put off the decision at the last minute and then proved to be a lot cooler to the idea when it came back to them.

Part of the reason the Regents cooled to the testing amendment was that a new deputy commissioner in the Department indicated that he would work with home educators, on an inclusive basis, to identify the problems with the new regulations and that he would report to the Regents on home education issues at the end of that school year. A series of meetings were held between Education Department staff and home educators from around the state, and the framework for a more flexible regulation was negotiated by those participating in the meetings. Unfortunately, the deputy commissioner was unable to convince the commissioner to proceed with the regulation.

Here we are now, approximately two years after the framework for regulatory changes was negotiated, with the HSLDA-NYSSBA regulation still in effect and home educators throughout the state complaining of unequal treatment, too much paperwork, inappropriate testing, and an unduly adversarial dispute-resolution process. Reflecting on the past three years, we see the following mistakes. The first mistake was in not opposing strenuously the regulation developed by HSLDA and the NYSSBA. Sure it was better substantively than what the State Education Department proposed, but the price we paid was too high. We gave up our autonomy rather than continuing to build a strong coalition of New York State home educators. We accepted what was given to us from outside of the state’s homeschooling community rather than working for what we wanted from within that community. We accepted a short-term solution, rather than paying attention to more important questions of process which left us seriously disempowered in the long run.

We compounded our problems by then relying on the State Education Department to bring us together. While it was not necessarily a mistake to meet with the Department staff to discuss changes to the regulation and other issues affecting home educators, it was certainly a mistake to have no alternative forum for homeschoolers to meet and discuss issues of importance to them. When the Department staff members ran into a brick wall in trying to advance the negotiated framework, we were firmly strapped in next to them. Sounds like the same mistake all over again. Allowing someone else to do our work for us, we virtually assured it would not be done the way we wanted.

Where are we now? This past fall unaffiliated support groups and individual home educators from throughout New York State formed the Home Education Network of New York. Our personal resolve in joining this effort was that homeschoolers should work with other groups and agencies to ameliorate the situation for home educators in the state, but must no longer allow themselves to become dependent on any of those groups or agencies. Unifying home educators from around the state has proven to be more difficult than we would ever have imagined. This is a truly diverse and strong-willed group of individuals. But at some level, we all seem to realize that we have the capacity to accomplish much more working together than we will ever accomplish by our sporadic and uncoordinated efforts as individuals. And we also realize that we are the only ones on whom we can rely to do this job the way we want it done.
- Sincerely, Seth Rockmuller, Katharine Houk, New York

Top

California

Dear Mark and Helen,

Even though I am personally a Christian who prays daily, attends my church regularly — sometimes more than once a week, and attends at least one Bible study a week; I do not consider that a prerequisite for homeschooling or belonging to a homeschool organization. Perhaps the primary cause of my resentment towards the “Christian Homeschool Mentality” is because I have watched “Christian” homeschool support groups become separatist–to the point of excluding those of us who welcomed all people into our homeschool support group from further activities.

In the past I have remained relatively quiet about this but now I must speak up. I have homeschooling friends throughout the United States who have had similar experiences and this saddens me. How can we present a united front whenever homeschooling itself is under fire?

A few years ago our family joined HSLDA, until we witnessed a support group become separatist because they believed HSLDA wanted them to exclude anyone not signing a document of religious beliefs. Incidentally, everything in that document coincided with my husband and my religious beliefs so that was not the problem–the problem was we felt it was unfair to exclude non-believers from a homeschool support group–after all we weren’t a church, we were supposed to be a homeschool support group!

My husband and I joined a newly formed support group in Santa Maria because Lompoc did not have a support group at the time. We participated in the brand new group’s organizational meetings. After several meetings it was announced that everyone had to sign a “Statement of Faith” because the newly elected officers had been informed that such a statement was necessary in case of possible court action (none was threatened then or now).

We objected because we knew several families homeschooling because they were convinced of educational benefits (as opposed to doing it for religious reasons). These families wanted to join support groups in order to share ideas, but these families were put off by strongly worded religious overtones.

Officers of the group were advised (by whom was never made clear) to keep the group aloof from people or groups homeschooling for non-religious reasons as this would negate the “Christian” commitment should group members be taken to court and it was shown they had non-Christian contacts in their homeschooling experiences. This incident caused my husband and I to question our association with HSLDA and made us wonder if we would be adequately represented by HSLDA should we run into problems.

We also read and heard other comments along the same line–that HSLDA is primarily interested in serving families claiming homeschooling for religious reasons only. At that time we wrote to Michael Farris of our concerns. His reply was that the strongest defense is one which is rooted in religion. This is not the only defense, but it is the strongest. He went on to add that HSLDA always uses all available defenses and if the Free Exercise clause in the First Amendment is not available they use all other defenses available.

Shortly afterwards a group was formed in Lompoc. Within two years a group of rather exclusive “Christians” decided to split off for a church oriented group (which has since disbanded because its members preferred our more welcoming group). Unfortunately we are once again headed for another “split” along the lines of “Christian” and “non-Christian.” Only this time I fear it will cause division among friends–it is already happening.

A friend in San Luis Obispo has experienced something similar where she was one of the founding members of an “open” support group. Only her experience ended up with a strong “exclusive” group taking over and nothing left for homeschoolers without religious reasons for homeschooling. I keep hearing of similar instances and have friends (in Lompoc, Santa Maria, Santa Ynez, and Santa Barbara to name places in my immediate vicinity) who no longer try joining a support group just so they won’t become outsiders again even though they want to belong to a support group.

Seeing what is happening locally, I fear that by next year our support group will become “exclusivist” as many more people are turning to homeschooling locally and most of them are doing it under religious auspices. Because of financial difficulties a local Christian day school is having to close down in June and we already have many people inquiring about homeschooling. I put in my two cents worth whenever I have a chance, but often it is like trying to talk into the wind.

I worry about anything that promotes homeschool legislation when we don’t need it. Once we get a law on the books, we really will have a battle on our hands and will need even more constant vigilance. First of all we must put our own house in order–that is become united in our diversity–before we can effectively defend our rights to homeschool.

All homeschoolers are leaders (and should realize this) in their community. Otherwise they would not be homeschooling. Each of us contributes to the whole homeschooling community in some manner. Have you ever met a more independent bunch of people? I certainly haven’t! I do not consider myself a homeschool “expert or “Leader.”

I consider myself more as a resource person who enables others to take charge of their own homeschooling situation. Many of them homeschool in a manner I would not–but then I do my own thing, too! We get along fine when we respect each other’s differences.
- Agnes Leistico, California

Computer Bulletin Boards

The Prodigy computer bulletin board network includes an active home schooling network in the Homelife Club, Parenting bulletin board. Recent bulletins in the home schooling section have included a discussion of exclusivist groups.

POSTED: 03/01 4:47 pm

…The move toward exclusive home school parent organizations is coming from the top down. What we have found is that many parents do not know that the organizations they belong to have by-laws that restrict who can hold leadership positions. This information tends to be “hidden” until someone is willing to expose it. I suggest that we work from the bottom up. Once the “masses” find that most of them cannot hold leadership positions they tend to be upset. In many states new homeschooling parent organizations are springing up that are inclusive. I think the tide is turning, but there is still much work to be done by the average homeschooling parent.

POSTED: 03/07 10:59 am

The exclusive vs inclusive home school organization debate is not about support groups, but about state home school organizations. Our state home school organizations are our political arms or voices. one of the most important functions of our state organizations is representing home schoolers at the state capitol. A problem arises when a state organization promotes itself to the general public and home schoolers as being open to all (inclusive), when in fact the organization has written and unwritten policies that restrict leadership positions based on one ideological or theological point of view. In many cases the members do not even know that the policies exist or how restrictive the policies are. I know of one such state organization that claims to be open to all home schoolers, however the by-laws restrict leadership positions to people belonging to certain Protestant denominations. This leads one to question the motives of the leaders. Who do they represent, serve and work for, all home schoolers who belong to the organization or only those who share the same beliefs. (The members didn’t even get to vote on the by-laws, this was done “behind closed doors” by the leaders.)

Don’t misread me. I am not against exclusive home school organizations. I am against only those that do not openly promote themselves as such. I hope this clears up the misunderstanding. It is not about having support groups exclusively for home schoolers.

We seem to have quite a few home schoolers from across the nation here, I would like to know how you all feel about this issue. Is your state homeschool organization inclusive or exclusive? If it is exclusive, does it work with other state organizations in an alliance or coalition? Why, or why not? Many of you may be surprised to find out that your state organization is in fact exclusive. Do a little research, read the by-laws. Does your state home school organization get involved in issues not relating to home schooling or education? Are members welcome to attend all meetings?

DATE: 03/09/1991

There has been a lot of discussion lately about home school support groups… I hear rumblings of discontent among those who feel support groups are splintering along religious lines. I’m hearing (correctly?) some uncomfortable things about people running around announcing that they represent me (the home schooler) when they don’t. I also understand there are a certain amount of self-proclaimed leaders claiming to represent all home schoolers as subscribers to their viewpoint, causing those who hear them to think we are all of one mind, when anybody who knows us knows we could probably not agree on even the weather aside form home schooling. What’s happening? What’s the story behind what I am hearing? Is there any truth to it? Where is it coming from? Who is it coming from? Oh, and for the record: I represent myself. No individual or group speaks for me. Enough said!

© 1991, Home Education Magazine

This piece is part of the series Homeschooling Freedoms at Risk Originally published
in the May-June 1991 issue of Home Education Magazine (Top)

Freedoms At Risk – Twenty Years Later
Homeschooling Freedoms At Risk
Freedoms Responsibilities And The “Four Pillars”
Homeschooling Rights and Responsibilities
Bitter Pill-ars to Swallow
From Across the Nation

I recall others asking if I was spoiling my children by homeschooling them, or damaging them somehow by not forcing them to follow the norm of leaving our home and following a rigid schedule. I don’t know what our interrogators thought our life was like, but we did have a schedule, chores and our own list of what we thought was important in an education and what we would do to help our children achieve their goals and desires. Still, having gone to school, I will admit that when public school let out I sometimes felt a bit less responsibility to make sure I was doing all I could to help my children ‘learn’. However, as the seasons passed, I learned to relax as if it were summer all year and I enjoyed seeing what the freedom to learn, live and explore offers a child and it was delightful. Below are some articles and resources that look at learning.

Playtime – A Time for Children and Parents to Share and to Grow – Amber P. Keefer

Studies show that some of the most creative children are those whose parents have played with them. From my own experiences as the parent of a highly active and resourceful child, I know how important it is for children to channel their creative energies into constructive and rewarding outlets. Child development experts remind us that parents are among a child’s first and best playmates, and for this reason, we must actually involve ourselves in our children’s play.

Learning from My Kids – Helen Hegener

I learned the value of learning, and I think it’s a lesson my kids will need to learn for themselves. Like so many things in life, it’s not something you can just tell someone else and expect to have any meaning , it really needs to be experienced, to have a context all its own.

Early Years Child’s Learning Assets – Linda Dobson

Homeschooling uses childhood energy instead of constantly trying to dam it. Now, curiosity creates interest, interest increases attention to the task at hand, and attention gives rise to learning.

Why Independence Is Essential To Homeschooling – Larry and Susan Kaseman

Homeschooling offers parents tremendous learning opportunities. Thanks to our children and our homeschooling experiences (both the stunning successes and the flops), many of us have developed a new understanding of learning, revisited and recovered from our own difficult school experiences, discovered or rediscovered the joy of learning, and done things that we wouldn’t have if we hadn’t been homeschooling.

A World of Learning by Barbara Theisen

I’ve never believed that the only way to get an education is to sit at a desk with four walls around you. The world is our classroom and our home – a 41 foot sailboat – takes us there. My husband Tom and I dreamed of sailing around the world before our daughters were even born. Their arrivals only increased our desire to live the “cruising lifestyle” – a way of life that has given us the opportunity for lots of quality and quantity of family time.

Educating our two daughters while living afloat on our sailboat, Out of Bounds, has added a wonderful new dimension to our lives. Kate is in sixth grade this year and our youngest daughter, Kenna, in third grade. Homeschooling hasn’t always been easy. But it has been fun.

Five Steps to Unschooling – Joyce Kurtak Fetteroll

And, finally, forget the linear approach to learning we grew up with. For instance, we learned that the way to learn is to read “all the important” stuff about a subject gathered and packaged for our convenience in a textbook and then move on in line to the next package of information.

Self-Inspired Learning - Karen Vogel

But, despite living an unremarkable existence in the depths of suburbia, my kids all manage, at one point or another, to develop an interest in a subject I never bothered to introduce. As most of my friends know, I regularly suffer paroxysms of guilt over my complete neglect of science as a school subject. Aside from having a birdfeeder outside our kitchen window, with a bird identification book handy (well, when we can find it) and a cheap pair of binoculars (which are often missing as well), my children’s parent-led science education is nothing short of woefully inadequate. But my oldest, at the age of nine, followed me around the house with a bird book, demanding that I read it to him. In fact, we ended up buying him the aforementioned birdfeeder for a birthday present. He has since developed an interest in gardening and botany, both subjects at which I am an abject failure.

The Many Faces of Home Education – Tamara Orr

During the summer of 2002 and 2003, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet dozens of homeschoolers across the country. I came home filled with their enthusiasm, their curiosity and their wonder. I also came home knowing that no matter how many families I met, not one of them homeschooled exactly the same way. Like snowflakes, they may have had many commonalities, but when it came down to how they actually homeschooled, from day to day, they were each wonderfully unique.

Other Resources

Teach your Own by John Holt
I Learn Better by Teaching Myself by Agnes Leistico

I recall reading and being deeply touched by Helen Hegener’s Conversation with Michelle Wilbert: Living life “Close to the Root” in the September-October 2004 of HEM. Michelle Wilbert is a midwife, homeschooler and author of Close to the Root: A Handbook of Simple, Sustainable and Earthy Alternatives for Family and Community Life.

As I said earlier, I think that I started out thinking about the potential for cultural transformation that I found in these ideas. Early thinking about homeschooling and midwifery were located within a value system that was home and community centered, democratically oriented, staunchly independent of any ideas of government or public involvement or oversight and really wedded to concerns about changing society for the better and that was true whether people were Christian homeschoolers, hippies or eclectics. They might have had different societal goals in mind, but changing the world was definitely part of the package.

In addition to Conversation with Michelle Wilbert: Living life “Close to the Root” you can read more about and from Michelle Wilbert here:

• Kneelingwoman ~ Thinking, Living and Writing “Out of the Box
• Close to the Root Family and Community Resources

In An Interview with Cafi Cohen by Marsha Ransom we were given a glimpse into the Cohen household. Cafi wrote:

Jeff adds that he would never trade his homeschooling years for high school. He has commented more than once that he never would have been admitted to the Air Force Academy if he had not homeschooled. He feels homeschooling allowed him time to get a private pilot’s license, to act as commander of his Civil Air Patrol squadron and edit their newsletter, to practice piano, to teach piano, to participate on a world-class diving team, and much more. Eventually, it was all those activities (and close to 30 units of college classes taken concurrently with high school homeschooling) that he feels got him admitted.

My daughter Tamara now says, “I wouldn’t change anything about my homeschooling. Despite our easy-going approach, I have attended four different colleges in three different states and encountered nothing academic that I could not handle.” She adds that she loved the flexibility of homeschooling, graduating “early” and earning money to travel on a student-exchange program to Australia when she was 16.

Here are a few more interviews for your enjoyment:

• Interview with Deborah Stevenson - Judy Aron
• Interview with Linda Dobson - Helen Hegener
• Interview with Mary Griffith - Helen Hegener
• Interview with Patrick Farenga - Helen Hegener
• An Interview Leila Giles and Celeste Land – Mary Nix
• An Interview with John Munson – Mary Nix

There are many more interviews and articles from past issues that offer glimpses into homeschool lives, and you can access them via the HEM Archives. To avoid missing any future issues and interviews, you can subscribe to HEM here.

Below you will find a brief synopsis of Kathy’s past columns(click on the title for those included online) and some links to other resources Kathy has to offer online.

Hands-On Learning Columns by Kathy Ceceri

Magnifying Lenses (January-February/09)
Kathy explores magnifying lenses of all kinds explaining ways you can bend light for a clearer look at the smaller things in life.

Economics and Recycled Crafts (November-December 2008)
Kathy Ceceri shares ideas about how your kids can learn how to make good choices … AND how to get creative when money is tight.

Two-Jar Ant Farm (September-October 2008)
An ant farm is a great way to learn about the lives of insects and ants are real low maintenance pets!

Mancala Board Game (July-August 2008)
There are many ways to play a game of mancala. When you make your own playing board, it gets even more fun.

Geography and Arctic Life (May-June 2008)
There’s much to learn about and from one of the world’s coldest places.

Chemical Crystal Garden (March-April 2008)
Utilizing common household chemicals, you can experiment with and grow your own crystal gardens.

Coil Baskets (January-February 2008)
The humble basket is probably among the earliest human inventions. There are many ways to make a basket, but coiling is a method found around the world.

Archeology (November-December 2007)
Kathy Ceceri suggests how to introduce and involve your kids in the world of Archeology.

Inventions Old and New (September-October 2007)
Kathy tells us how we can get a taste of inventing by making a model of Morse’s telegraph.

The Sport Of Boomerang Throwing (July-August 2007)
Kathy Ceceri explains why boomerangs fly, shares a story about Aborigine tradition, tells the record for keeping a boomerang in the air before catching it, and shows how to help your kids create their own beautiful and far-flying boomerangs – which will really return

Medieval Beasts (May-June 2007)
Kathy’s Hands-On-Learning project looks at the fantastic beasts of the Middle Ages.

Build A Robot Hand (March-April 2007)
Instructions on how to build a simple cardboard robot hand that uses strings as tendons.

Foreign Language: Mexican Yarn Craft (January-February 2007)
Kathy shows how to combine the study of a foreign language with creation of a local handicraft; in this case, studying Spanish while crafting the lovely Ojo de Dios, or “Eye of God.

Jug Band Music and Invented Instruments (November-December 2006)
Hands-On Learning editor Kathy Ceceri explains how to make and play jug band instruments

Flipbooks (September-October 2006)
Kathy introduces her readers to flip books as a great way for beginning animators to create instant movies.
This article originally appeared in the issue of Home Education Magazine.

Solar S’mores and Other Sun-Powered Crafts
Kathy Ceceri describes how to make a solar cooker from simple materials and use it to create tasty S’mores.
This article originally appeared in the July-August 2006 issue of Home Education Magazine.

Early American Paper Quilling (May-June 2006)
Kathy Ceceri shows how quillwork can be used to make greeting cards, earrings, mobiles and holiday ornaments.

Ice Age Animal Cave Paintings (March-April 2006)
Kathy Ceceri describes the wonders of Ice Age Animal Cave Paintings, and shares ideas and tips for helping your homeschooled kids create their own “prehistoric” masterpieces using everyday resources found in the home.

Make a Wooden Abacus (January-February 2006)
Kathy Ceceri explains how to build your own abacus, and offers tips for using your new math tool.

World History Crafts (November-December 2005)
Kathy Ceceri explains the history and traditions of the unique Tibetan Sand Mandala – and provides instructions for helping your child create a beautiful replica of this ancient art form.

Other Resources from Kathy Ceceri

Kathy Ceceri’s Crafts for Learning

Around the World Crafts by Kathy Ceceri offers 30 plus projects that includes step-by-step photographs. In addition to the crafts, Ms. Ceceri includes resources and facts about the people who originally made the craft an how they would have used it. At the site you can read a sample chapter or peruse the Table of Contents. There are also things to make, things to read, and links to explore.

Home Chemistry
Making science fun for my homeschooled kids

Kathy does make science fun for her kids and more in this chemistry blog. You will find many interesting science resources within her posts along with some great resources as well.

Home Biology

Kathy’s blog tag reads: For Homeschoolers-And Anyone- Who wants to learn about life science without a lab.

Here are a few more excellent Kathy Ceceri resources on the World Wide Web:

• The one-stop world of Webcams
• 10 Cartoon Classics to Share with Your Kids
• What Makes Kids Love Math: Community and Playfulness
  

Also available online:
Around the World Crafts: Great Activities for Kids who Like History, Math, Art, Science and More! by “Hands-On Learning” columnist Kathy Ceceri

Time Travel with a Teaspoon Archaeology For Kids by Rebecca Rupp was featured in the September-October 1998 issue of Home Education Magazine. Rebecca opened the column by writing:

Caleb, our youngest son, wants (just now) to be an archaeologist when he grows up. Accordingly, he reads everything he can find on archaeological topics, surfs the Internet in search of the ancient, and subscribes to the magazine Archaeology, published bimonthly by the Archaeological Institute of America. Archaeology, which is aimed at adults, has a fairly sophisticated text, but the pictures – all in color – are great for persons of all ages. Each issue includes several feature articles about archaeological discoveries worldwide.

In this one paragraph, Rebecca explains the beauty of learning and that children do not have to be limited to age appropriate material when exploring their passions in the real world! The column was written over ten years ago, but as always, much of what she shared remains available today. Here are some of the Archaeology resources she shares:

Society for American Archaeology (SAA) http://www.saa.org. This first one offers many great resources, but I was delighted find Frequently Asked Questions About A Career In Archaeology In The U.S.

Next she offered these recommendations:

• Calliope http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazine/CAL/
• Faces http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazine/FAC/

I was able to find the following book suggestions at my local library:

• Dig This! How Archaeologists Uncover Our Past (Michael Avi-Yonah; Runestone Press, 1993) Also in this series; Scrawl! Writing in Ancient Times; Fired Up! Making Pottery in Ancient Times; Piece by Piece: Mosaics of the Ancient World; and Sunk! Exploring Underwater Archaeology
• The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells: A Book About Archaeology (Jackie Posner; Scholastic, 1997
• The Young Oxford Book of Archaeology by Norah Moloney (Oxford University Press, 1997)
• Gods, Graves, and Scholars by C.W. Ceram (Bantam, 1976

I could not find these at my local or statewide library, but as Becky writes, many can be found in libraries or used bookstores.

• All About Archaeology by Anne Terry White (Random House, 1959)
• Archaeology by Dennis Fradin (Children’s Press, 1983)
• The Practical Archaeologist by Jane McIntosh (Facts On File, 1986
• Archaeology: A Brief Introduction by Brian Fagan (Addison Wesley, 1996)

As always, Rebecca offers some interesting hands on resources as well.

• Prehistoric Cave Painting Kit and Rock Art Painting. Both kits are available from Ancient Graffiti, 52 Seymour St., 888) 725-6632 fax (802) 388-7104; e-mail: ancientg @ sovernet.com. (I could not find the company on line, so I’m not sure if they remain in business or not.

• PIT (Passport in Time) Traveler
• The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training

In this column Rebecca also reviews some other great resources. was able to find: Reading Through the Ages By Linda Thornhill and Sally Barnard, The Game of Shakespeare, Beaver Tooth and Days of Knights and Damsels

HEM columnist Rebecca Rupp has a Ph.D. in cell biology, has written for many magazines, and has published several books. She lives in Vermont with her husband and three sons.

I thought I’d show you just what I mean by looking at one of the earliest Good Stuff columns that HEM shares online, All Aboard! The article was published in 1997, but I was still able to find many of the resources she listed today that I’m sharing below. I hope you see how you could easily do the same.

In this March-April 1997Good Stuff Column she wets our whistle by writing:

Almost everybody loves a train, from small-sized admirers of television’s Thomas the Tank Engine to teen-aged students of American history, who want to know what happened to the much-talked-about Golden Spike that completed the Transcontinental Railroad. (For those who have rosy visions of driving to Promontory Point and extracting it, forget it: it’s in the Smithsonian.) Our kids were first introduced to the appealing train through Watty Piper’s classic The Little Engine That Could (Platt & Munk, 1930), now available in any number of editions, but all starring the determined little pale-blue train who finally (“I think I can; I think I can…”) made it over the mountain with a load of toys. It’s supposed to instill the virtues of courage and persistence in the very small; parents can quote bits of it comfortingly to frustrated five-year-olds, who have thrown a failed project on the floor and are stomping upon it.

So beginning with the Transcontinental Railroad’s Golden Spike and the beloved Little Engine that could, she begins to share resource after resource and I always feel as if I’m in a candy store and don’t know which one to pick first. Let’s look at these she refers to in the first paragraph:

This is America, Charlie Brown,Volume 3: The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad. I found a copy of it at the Railroad Bookstore and was also able to reserve it at my local library, along with Watty Piper’s Little Engine that Could.

Next she reviews the following books, all of which I was able to find at my local library. I’ve also added a few resources that I discovered as well to illustrate what great jumping off points Becky provides:

• Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express(Margaret K. Wetterer; Carolrhoda, 1991
  1. Hero Book from Crayola
  2. Reading Rainbow

• The Boxcar Children(Gertrude Warner; Albert Whitman & Co., 1989)
  1. Boxcar Children Website
  2. About Gertrude Warner

• The Death of the Iron Horse(Paul Goble, Bradbury, 1987)
  1. Other books by Paul Goble

• The Transcontinental Railroad by Peter Anderson (Childrens Press, 1996)
  1. Other books by Peter Anderson
• Great Trains to Cut Out and Assemble, Bellerophon Books (I didn’t find this one at my library, but is still available for purchase here
• Jackdaw Publications, “James Watt and Steam Power” portfolio which is still available, but the price has gone up.
  1. Steam Engine History
  2. James Watt

Then she offers up some games. (Again, some of the prices have gone up, but the resources still look like interesting finds.)

• Uncle Happy’s Train Game - I couldn’t find this game for sale at Mayfair, Inc. any longer, but
  I did find several new railroad games that you can look at here.
• The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons (If anyone has a copy of this game, it was going for a mighty high price on Ebay. The link that I share is a free download, but I can’t vouch for the site that offers it.)
  

• Music for Little People offered a train whistle which they didn’t seem to have any longer, but I found one at Windy City Novelties, Inc. along with more whistles than I’ve ever seen.

In this column Becky goes on to review ElementO, Gumshoe Geography, PBS Home Video/The West, Dino Math Tracks, My Best Math Puzzles. This certainly seems as if it would be more than enough, but she shares more that you can explore at Home Education Magazine Content Archives here.

HEM columnist Rebecca has a Ph.D. in cell biology, has written for many magazines, and has published several books. She lives in Vermont with her husband and three sons.