Do we have any statistics to answer these questions? Not as far as I know. You have your experience which tells you it's a tiny problem. Cathmom shared her experience which tells her it's a fairly common problem, which lines up quite well with my non-catholic experience. What I am trying to say throughout this thread is that if we are aware of the attitudes that lead to rogue homeschooling (hmmm... not sure that term works...?), we might as individuals find ways to combat the attitudes.

But we can open one another's eyes and minds as we discuss the issues.

Aren't they saying that we don't have data about how many home-educated students are abused/neglected? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding... but police and social workers don't have that data. I think as the CRHE works together, they will grow and change. I've already seen changes to their website every time I go there. And they will learn what flies and what doesn't... They are young. They want to set the world on fire... burn brighter than the sun. :)

Good ideas, one and all. I will take time later to look at each. Keep the ideas coming... I'm hoping to make a decision next week.

From the article: "It hadn’t started that way. Her parents began homeschooling Lauren when she struggled to learn to read in the first grade. They were Christians, but not devout. Soon, though, the choice to homeschool morphed into rigid fundamentalism. The sisters were forbidden to wear clothes that might “shame†their father or brothers. Disobedience wasn’t just bad behavior but a sin against God. Both parents spanked the children with a belt. Her mother, Jennifer says, hit her for small things, like dawdling while trying on clothes." She doesn't really explain this fully. Could we read between the lines that the family came into contact with other homeschool families who had these strict standards, and the mother's unhealthy desire to control plus the pressure to be like the other families led to the abuse?

Ideas like this should be suggested to the CRHE group, perhaps on comments for one of their blog articles. You could be right about this--I have no idea what they'd say about this--nothing I've read has come close to this idea.

I love the look, seriously. The colors are perfect and warm and inviting. Who is your targeted audience? Will your friends and relatives be reading it? Or do you envision using it to help connect with other homeschool moms? That should be a key to what content you choose... Just my .02! Even if it turns out to be a journal read only by 1 or 2 people, it will be worthwhile to you to do the writing. :)

Ha! I think my son already learned that by competing in debate... ;)

Hey, I haven't been around here as long as most of you, but maybe some of these topics should be in their own thread? I just found out what "s/o" means here--"shoot-off." So "what legislation is being proposed in your state to limit homeschool?" could be a shoot-off, and "home education in Europe/dialectica's country" could be another shoot-off. You might find some others who are interested in those topics who aren't reading this one... I leave the decision to those of you discussing these topics, okay? :)

Crystal roll-on works for me if I thoroughly coat my armpits after every shower. http://www.thecrystal.com/crystal_story.cfm Doesn't stop sweating, but inhibits the stinky bacteria. No fragrance.

Our family has the same opinion of Apologia as yours, lots-o-rice. We can't really see the point of reading and memorizing a series of boring facts just to take a test and get a score. I will be watching this thread to see what ideas others give. Oh--I'm forgetting about the exciting labs, in which you can experiment to answer a question that you really aren't asking (or maybe you aren't even clear what the question is) and that has been answered countless times by other people anyway. A couple things I can add: If other families in your area are in the same boat, you can really bless them by getting a co-op together. Even Apologia wouldn't be so bad if a group could do the labs together, discuss the material, study for tests together (once a week?). There is a similar co-op an hour from us which I seriously considered doing for our son, but didn't. They rotate through the science courses. I think homeschool families need all the encouragement they can get in the area of science! Online physics courses that are highly recommended. This article is from 2009, so perhaps there is some outdated info, but it may provide some leads. Another list here. How about comic books about physics? We were going to do physics this year, until my son mentioned he wanted to learn about the human body. So, it's anatomy and physiology right now, instead. We started w/ a college textbook, but that was way too much, so we are now using online resources.

HSLDA keeps track of legislative and judicial challenges to homeschooling: http://www.hslda.org/LandingPages/ Our state (Wisconsin) hasn't had any challenges (to my knowledge) for years, but there are times when legislation comes up relating to home education. Another organization, which disagrees w/HSLDA on how to approach some of these issues, is NHELD. I would like to read more about them, but haven't had time yet. One big difference between them and HSLDA: HSLDA meddles in federal legislation to "protect" parenting and homeschool rights. NHELD believes that we should not try to get our rights "granted" by the federal gov't. Reason: these rights are inalienable--not given to us by the gov't; if the feds give them to us, they can also take them away and regulate them.

Will any of you describe, in layman's terms, what is the difference between Counting & Probability and Number Theory, either in relation to AoPS materials or as general math topics? I am a typical public-school graduate who took the minimum of math and only 1 year of college algebra.

Ok, thanks, because I never would have figured it out myself. Is this abbreviation original to these boards, I wonder?

Shout out? ???

I have used that a little in the past, so I'm familiar with the option. Thanks.

Yes, you are understanding correctly. Thanks--I'll look at those suggestions. If I narrow it down to 2-3 of the AoPS courses, I will probably give him the diagnostic tests to see which subject interests him more. I would also consider the pre-calculus, even if he didn't finish the whole course.

Thanks for keeping us informed. This is problematic that HSLDA has done this--our state grass-roots homeschool organization, Wisconsin Parents Association, has been criticizing HSLDA on things like this for years. If you or anyone else here wants to discuss these ideas with the HA or CRHE writers themselves, I have a suggestion. If you can find any of their personal blogs, you should be able to leave comments there and connect personally with that writer. For example, at Homeschoolers Anonymous, many of the articles were previously posted on the personal blog first, so a link is included.

Seasider, I agree because I also know families who have neglected parts of their kids' education but are not necessarily abusive. Doesn't it sometimes come down to what the parents value? The very fact that we are homeschooling shows that we disagree with what gov't schools are doing, and that we think we can do better. Often, this means we decide not to teach something (or at least to spend less time on something) that we don't value highly. Science, for example.

Our one and only son is starting his last semester of high school. He is not motivated to pursue any education right now, but he is complying with the last few credits we are requiring. He is very quick in math--good at grasping the concepts and good at mental math, doing many algebra problems in his head. We used Jacobs for alg 1 and geometry; Lial for intermediate alg. I have the next book in the Lial series--whatever it's called--precalculus or trigonometry (can't find it at the moment), with dvt and solutions manual, used by one of our daughters. My dream course for this last semester would be something different that would capture his interest by being challenging. It would be a course he could do as independently from me as possible. It would be a course that will be valuable with only a semester to work on it, though there are really only 2 reasons for taking it (to get a half-credit for the transcript and to give him another chance to experience the joy of mathematics). I guess I'm thinking of a "quick-moving" course without a lot of practice problems. I haven't bought a high school math book for... 7 years. What is available? I don't really want to use the Lial text because I don't think it would capture his interest. I can picture myself pushing him through it... And how far could we get in a semester, with all the practice problems that are needed to master each lesson? As I mentioned, he's not motivated to pursue further education, so all we need is another semester of math to round off his transcript and prepare him for any college math he will (probably) eventually take. As far as our budget, I could spend up to $100 on materials; more than that would take some pondering. Thanks for any input you can give. I'm going to be reading up on AoPS; my preliminary investigation on their site raises my hope that this could be it...

Great ideas on this thread! I'm a big fan of reading aloud, though that has decreased as our children became older and busier with outside activities or interests at home. Reading aloud both encourages children to enjoy reading and increases their language skills beyond what they are ready to read on their own. Learning to listen is, of course, a vital skill, but a good book will generally lead them gently into this. With a little fear and trepidation, I just started reading Charlotte's Web to a 5 yo and a 3 yo whom we watch twice a week. Such a great book--one of the first chapter books I read to my own toddlers--would these kids listen? They did!

One story I find unusual* on HA is Samantha Field's. In this section, she writes about what her high school education was like. Independently working through textbooks, some of them poorly written. That may not be typical of the parents on this forum, but we probably all know families who do something similar to the Field family. I think we can do better by encouraging other families to aim high in their academic expectations (within reason). ETA: *The reason I say it's unusual on HA is because it doesn't focus on extreme examples of abuse.

I think we should be careful about pushing all stories of homeschool neglect/abuse into a certain category of church or belief system. Many of the stories on HA do include references to abusive groups (whether a church or a parachurch ministry), but many don't. Some could have been in mainline denominations. From what we know about abuse, it crosses all boundaries, doesn't it, whether ethnicity or income or religion? The group started with friends in christian circles who found out they had similar experiences. That doesn't mean no abuse exists in homeschools outside of those circles.

Exactly a27mom.

"This is not my issue. I am not part of that community." Tibbie is saying that, and others here are also saying that. But I see two ways of saying it. First is the person, like Tibbie, who is aware of the problem and shows concern and does what she can in her limited sphere. Second is the person (there seem to be several) who is aware of the problem but rushes to give reasons why nothing should be done about it. Ok, I understand that not everyone feels responsible for all children in the world. However, the abuse we are talking about is helped along by many things. Examples: by myths such as the HSLDA magazines SarahW mentioned earlier; if we refuse to admit that some homeschool families have problems; if we take a real relaxed attitude that implies it doesn't really matter if we work hard at our homeschooling or not. So, if you aren't going to support the idea of "doing something" to combat homeschool abuse (I'm not talking about regulation necessarily), at least, please, don't go on trying to save the reputation of home education by belittling or denying the problems that do exist. Please don't sound as if we shouldn't even be talking about this. Please be realistic about the educational method you are trying to protect and do your part not to perpetuate myths about it. And please be respectful of those who lived through some horrendous situations. If you really can't see anything you can do to promote a homeschool atmosphere or culture that would encourage families to treat their children with decency, at least don't attack the graduates who are telling their stories.