Mothering magazine’s web site has a good article by Becky Jackson titled No Time for Teaching: Spontaneous Learning at Home:

“In the four years I spent pursuing an education degree, I learned a lot about what to teach and how to teach it. Then I spent four years as a full-time mother. I would have to say that I learned more from the latter. In fact, I’ve discovered that the most effective way for young children to learn is not the Program for Effective Teaching model or the whole-language approach: it’s the natural relationship between a mother and child.”

And too wonderful not to share here: “I am, indeed, well qualified to help my children reach their potential-but not because of my teaching degree. My real qualifications are these: I’m their mother, I love them, and I know them better than anyone.”

Read Becky’s entire article at the link above!

In an article titled Does Your Homeschooling Support Natural Learning Behaviors? homeschool mom, advocate and blogger Sara McGrath explores the concepts behind how children learn through following their curiosity, through play and exploration, and through experience. Sara, the author of Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning, The Unschooling Happiness Project, and Memoirs of A Strange Little Girl, lives near Seattle with her husband and three daughters. She writes about homeschooling and many other topics for online publications and print magazines.

Susan Ryan at the Corn & Oil blog is upbeat about an article on homeschooling titled Grooming the Next Generation of Leaders. Good quotes:

“We have greater opportunities as homeschoolers to dance to the beat of our own drums,” Alyssa said, adding, “The only downside is that we can never just watch a movie without having to dissect the plot afterwards.”

“As a mother, I am always told, ‘You homeschool? I could never do that.’ I consider myself the most fortunate woman in the world to have the privilege to invest my life in three spectacular young ladies,” Austin-Taitt said. “In the process of teaching them through the years, it is I who have learned the greatest lessons from them. I have learned to laugh hilariously, cry passionately – and learn incessantly.”

This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling, at The Homespun Life blog, features some great articles, covering a variety of subjects, including lifestyle, faith, and classical music, and beginning with the founder of the Homeschool Carnival, Henry Cate from ‘Why Homeschool’.

“Look at people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison. They all dropped out of school.”

The Unschooled Life is an interview with bOING bOING’s Mark Frauenfelder, by Ted Balaker, from the November 2010 issue of Reason magazine. bOING bOING is a small technology-culture magazine that eventually evolved into one of the Web’s most popular blogs. In addition to blogging at bOING bOING, Frauenfelder is editor in chief of MAKE magazine. Another excerpt:

“Unschooling is letting kids get bored at home and get bored with their friends and come up with their own ways to learn.”

Read the article at the link above.

It has taken ten years for fact to overcome perception but as of August two important issues for Homeschool Families have been clarified. This year’s revision of the “Federal Student Aid Handbook: Vol. 2010-2011″ can be accessed on line.

In the first volume, chapter one, home school students are stated as eligible for FSA funds provided their education at the secondary level was treated by their state law as a home or a private school. Learn more at the link above.

The Air Force Times features an article on homeschooling by staff writer Jon R. Anderson, titled the ABCs of Home Schooling:

Experts estimate there are 2 million home-schoolers, with their numbers growing as much as 12 percent annually in recent years. And there is data to indicate that military families are home schooling at perhaps twice the national average.

That doesn’t surprise the Rexfords, who have been home schooling for 10 years. “Home schooling fits the military lifestyle very well,” James Rexford says. “When you move, the school goes with you. When you have time off, the kids can take time off with you.”

Former News & Commentary editor and Home Education Magazine columnist Valerie Moon, who runs the website The Military Homeschooler, remembers when the brass in Europe tried to forbid homeschooling, but adds, “That’s all gone now, the military has become very supportive.”

A sidebar highlights support resources for military homeschooling families, and explains how writer Jon R. Anderson’s family got into homeschooling: “My gut tightened when my wife first floated the idea of home schooling six months ago.”

The Military Times Media Group has been the premiere source for military news and information for the military and government sectors for over 60 years.

A good roundup post of mainstream news articles by Amy Wilson on the VA Homeschoolers site, titled Positive Press for Homeschooling:

It seems that the back-to-school season has inspired some recent media coverage of homeschooling. “Not everyone is going back to school” is the basic theme that VaHomeschoolers has noticed, accompanied by a human-interest angle that dispels stereotypes of homeschoolers as isolationists on society’s fringes and portrays us as a cross-section of the general American population that has chosen a different educational approach. Since VaHomeschoolers’ mission is to serve Virginia’s diverse homeschooling population, which includes families of all ethnic and national backgrounds, religious beliefs, and educational styles, we are pleased to see reporters for local and national media outlets portraying the diversity of the homeschooling community in their coverage.

Amy shares links to recent articles from CNN, MSNBC, and NBC News at the link above.

A group of home school students from Sequim and Port Angeles are defying teenage stereotypes by getting involved in local politics. Over the course of the 2010 primary and general election season, about 30 home school students have campaigned for political candidates in state and federal elections, attended debates and candidate forums and organized their own campaign events.

They have no established organizational structure, no name other than “the home-schoolers” and most are not even old enough to vote in November’s election. But this group is making a statement nevertheless.

Read the rest of this article, Home-schooled Politics, from the Sequim Gazette, Sequim, Washington.

Interesting article from ESPN:

“With action sports now an estimated $20 billion global business, and sponsors providing substantial salaries to young talent in an effort to lock up the next generation of stars, a growing number of athletes in surfing, skateboarding, BMX, motocross and snowboarding have discovered that their career aspirations conflict with school. For those who don’t drop out altogether, home school has become an increasingly handy option.”

Read the entire feature-length article (with photos) at the link above.