Susan Ryan blogs about a Thanksgiving Throwdown with Master Chef Bobby Flay and Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman:

In the introduction of The Pioneer Woman’s life, Bobby Flay pointed out that she homeschools her four kids.

And:

This particular hour of Throw Down a Thanksgiving Feast was charming and fun and half of it was about a homeschooling mom’s life.

Check it out via Susan’s Corn & Oil blog.

Susan Ryan at Corn and Oil cautions: “I want to point out again…that the Regional Offices of Education are systematically pushing for daytime curfews in Illinois communities to rein in homeschoolers. It’s all over the state, but quite a few southern Illinois communities in a couple of Regional Offices of Education areas with anti-homeschool agendas have passed curfews in the last few months.” Click on Susan’s link to read much more.

Susan Ryan writes at Corn and Oil:

“I wonder if bureaucracies fail -and homeschoolers prevail- with the continuation of poor fiscal governmental affairs.

“I like how that sounds. Not our sorry Illinois affairs, but that our bureaucracies are breaking down. Something does have to give, rather than constantly getting. Even as many of the involved government employees – real people with real lives and families – must suffer many days of dread and discomfort, I can’t say I’m disturbed to see that some of the Illinois public school bureaucracies are hitting hard times.”

Titled Sorry State Financial Affairs Cause Bureaucratic Breakdown, it’s an interesting and thought-provoking post – as most of Susan’s are. Read it at the link above.

Susan Ryan blogs about educational freedom at Corn and Oil:

“Some Americans are disturbed that Swedish homeschooling families are losing their right to educate their children at home. What a depressing notion turning into a reality, that children can and will be taken from their homes because they’re learning at home with their families.

“In Sweden – a country oft considered a progressive’s dream- and Germany, families were torn apart when their homeschooled children were forced from their homes. But here in the US, states such as Pennsylvania and New York bear down on homeschoolers with oppressive rules, regulations and bureaucratic paperwork having little and nothing to do with learning.”

It’s a good post, worthy reading for anyone interested in educational freedoms – and, of course, we all should be.