WordPress made some changes to how their sites work and that has forced us to embrace change! They’ve changed how their menus work, and our old way of doing things no longer worked on mobile devices. Although most people use EP on a computer, we do serve families who need to use their phone or other mobile device to access school. The change in appearance is all related to needing to accommodate these changes.
If you don’t like change, I’m sorry, but it had to be done, and I’m sure you’ll get used to it soon!
Last week I was interviewed by homeschool.com. They are having an event this week where you can listen to interviews with the “experts” and ask them questions via facebook. If you would like to advertise EP this week on your blog, you could link to my interview page. I’m not sure if I did the best job, but I hope it will encourage people at least! I would urge a little caution in listening to the interviews. What you’ve decided to do for your own children to educate them is enough! If your child has the goal of getting into an elite school, then let them pursue it, but be careful of letting these interviews make you feel like you should be doing more. There are many educational philosophies/goals that aren’t worth sacrificing your family for. My answer to her question about whether it’s possible to have an extraordinary homeschool was that we’re just ordinary people and that in every home homeschool looks different because it’s an extension of parenting and everyone’s family life looks different, so their school life will look different. I said that I thought an extraordinary homeschool is one where the family is enjoying the experience. I hope you are enjoying homeschooling! In my eyes that makes your homeschool extraordinary!
Here’s the link to join the talk on earning college credit while homeschooling high school. It’s happening tomorrow at 2 PM EST. You just click on the play button to join in. You can also use this same link to watch the recorded version later if you miss it.
I hope many of you will help me out with something. I would like to give gifts to the main admins who can literally spend hours a day helping me, helping you, keeping all this going. I couldn’t keep creating new curriculum if I didn’t have them taking care of “customer” support. This week I will use donations to send them gifts as a thanks for their dedication to this ministry.
You can give to allinonehomeschool@gmail.com through Paypal. You can also find the donate button the About/Donate page on the site. I even moved the donate button to make it easier for you to find.
One thing this curriculum does not prepare your child for is to enter public school. I want to help people get out of the public school system, not back in.
Public schools do not have to recognize the courses you’ve completed homeschooling. This is most important in high school. Colleges are used to seeing transcripts from unaccredited schools, but your accredited local public high school is not. It is up to the local school whether or not to accept your credits which can put your child behind for graduating.
I don’t want at all to discourage anyone from homeschooling high school. Homeschooling will allow your children to specialize in their areas of interest. They can personalize their course load, find work or internships in their field, and have the time to put in the hours that will get them ahead. It will also keep you close to help maintain a close relationship while they are navigating these important years.
Here’s a video intended to encourage homeschoolers to keep on through high school. (It’s by Lee Binz, my go-to for questions about homeschooling high school.)
New courses are popping up. I made a brief PE/health course for the coming year. It’s a weekly health article and a daily workout routine. Bible 2 is now complete. It picks up where Bible 1 left off. The goal is to read completely through the Bible in four years. I also posted the biology course I’m in the middle of working on, so you can see what will be available. The first two quarters are done. It should be “open for business” by summer like the rest of the new high school courses, though it may be ready sooner.
British Literature and Algebra 2 are under construction. You can find them in the course list. They should be ready this spring for anyone to begin over the summer.
The plan is for biology and the second half of American history, post Civil War, to be completed for this school year as well. The goal is to have everything ready for use by June.
I have helpers for English, science and history. I’m so grateful for the moms helping out with these courses!
Lee Binz has another free book on Kindle today. It’s on keeping comprehensive homeschool records. I am hoping to get a record put together for each of the high school courses that can be used by everyone. It will have the course description. reading list, grading criteria, etc. This isn’t done yet, but I am hoping to get them on Wikis, so that together we can create them and get them as high quality as possible.
Remember, you don’t need a Kindle for this. You can read it online through Amazon.com.
