Does anyone know what happened to Home Education Magazine?

[gaillardia]

I consider it an online resource. I know they were having lawsuit issues a couple of years ago but they continued to be online and as far as I know, printing a magazine.

The results that appear when I do a google search indicate it is still available, but when I click on it, it then reads that "this page can't be displayed."

Does anyone have a clue? I appreciated the resource for state homeschool laws.

[Ellie]

Well, Helen Hegener won her lawsuit but it took everything she had. AFAIK, she is happily living in Alaska. I don't think she's done anything with HEM.

 

You can find state homeschool laws on Ann Zeise's A2Z Homeschooling.

[gaillardia]

Thanks! I miss that magazine too, though, ya know?

[RootAnn]

Looks like it went out of business a little less than a year ago.

[Penelope]

It was longer ago than that. I had a subscription several years ago, then one day they said they were restructuring and would fulfill subscriptions when they were up and running again. It was a year or so, and then I got one, maybe two, issues out of almost the full year I was owed. They were probably good articles for someone who was doing full unschooling, but not for me. One of the things I liked about Home Ed. magazine was that even though it was unschooling minded, there was usually something of interest for me, too.

[gaillardia]

Thanks, ladies. I appreciate the links and the additional info, but not very happy the publication went under.

[Guest]

The automated subscription renewal emails in my inbox are making me so sad.

 

< sniff sniff >

Edited March 27, 2016 by Guest

[Cindy in CO]

The last I heard (2014), the court case had really taken its toll. It took all the Hegener's money and then some. Mark and Helen either separated or divorced, she moved to AK, gave up HEM and immersed herself in the Iditarod dog races (see Northern Lights Media: https://northernlightmedia.wordpress.com/about). Mark moved to MI and hooked up with Barb Lundgren (professionally speaking) and they changed HEM into a radical unschooling magazine, which Mark had always wanted it to be. I'm an unschooler, just not a radical one, and the new format was, in a word, boring. It had nothing to say. They moved the website to http://www.unschooling.com/homeeducationmagazine, which is no longer active either. I miss the old HEM, I miss all the archived articles, I miss their great resources I pointed Colorado homeschoolers to for so many years. There will never be another publication like Home Education Magazine.  :(  So thanks a lot, MR. (I refuse to put your name in print.)

 

 

Edited August 4, 2016 by Cindy in CO

[Ellie]

This is all so sad. It was a staple of home education back in the day.

 

Indeed.

 

The Teaching Home was a staple among Christian homeschoolers back in the day, too, and its demise was under pretty crappy circumstances, too (but of the publisher's own making). :crying:

[Helen Hegener]

I was searching for something related to the magazine and this site came up, I think I found it a year or so ago but wasn't ready to do much more than read the posts and remember when.... Now I'm feeling much more like adding my two cents' worth, which might be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

 

I appreciate the historical synopsis above by Cindy in CO (waving!), and she pretty much gets it right. To be blunt, I was even more disheartened by what Mark and Barb Lundgren did to the magazine than by the lawsuit's decimation; the latter was among the risks of doing business, but the former felt more like a betrayal of trust. I can only imagine what the bulk of my subscribers thought when my beloved magazine went from an understanding and welcoming publication for all homeschooling families to a radicalized rag with a bone to pick.

 

And most will not have lived that history and will have no idea what we're talking about. Water under the bridge.

 

But life is good, I'm enjoying my status as an author of good Alaskan history books (getting some great reviews!), and I am surrounded by my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. If you're on Facebook look me up! I have two profiles there, one is the old HEM-related profile which I quit using years ago; the one with me looking through my camera is the real deal.

 

[Ellie]

I was searching for something related to the magazine and this site came up, I think I found it a year or so ago but wasn't ready to do much more than read the posts and remember when.... Now I'm feeling much more like adding my two cents' worth, which might be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

 

I appreciate the historical synopsis above by Cindy in CO (waving!), and she pretty much gets it right. To be blunt, I was even more disheartened by what Mark and Barb Lundgren did to the magazine than by the lawsuit's decimation; the latter was among the risks of doing business, but the former felt more like a betrayal of trust. I can only imagine what the bulk of my subscribers thought when my beloved magazine went from an understanding and welcoming publication for all homeschooling families to a radicalized rag with a bone to pick.

 

And most will not have lived that history and will have no idea what we're talking about. Water under the bridge.

 

But life is good, I'm enjoying my status as an author of good Alaskan history books (getting some great reviews!), and I am surrounded by my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. If you're on Facebook look me up! I have two profiles there, one is the old HEM-related profile which I quit using years ago; the one with me looking through my camera is the real deal.

 

::waves::

[Guest]

Hi, Helen!!!

 

[ScoutTN]

When I was first considering homeschooling, I found a stack of HEM at a book sale bright and early on a lovely May Saturday morning. The seller just gave them to me because she said she couldn't bear to drop them into the recycling bin. I was the only person at her sale so early and she shared her coffee and many stories of her years homeschooling (3 kids all the way through). I took the magazines home, and spent the next rainy day reading, reading all day. I kept them for years and then passed them along to another newbie. 

 

Thanks, Helen, even though I never had a subscription and never met you! 

[Helen Hegener]

Awww.... your replies here made me smile on this cold Alaskan day (Hi Susan!)! It's funny how much I've thought about the good words posted here and under another HEM-related thread at this site. For so many years the Internet was my key to unlock doors and communicate with my far-flung readership, and I realize now how much I've missed it. I have no lack of readers and communications on my Alaskan history books - those keep me very, very busy! - but there aren't many people in my life these days who talk about homeschooling. Here in Alaska it's really easy to homeschool, with many very supportive networks, and I don't even think about it much, even with over a dozen grandkids and great-grandkids in various configurations of learning. It's just kind of a given and no more or less interesting than the latest good movie or yummy recipe. And I think that is just how it's supposed to be.

 

 

[wtmviolet]

I'm the keeper of the Home School Abbreviations with Links page, and I'm going through it and updating the links. When I researched the Home Education Magazine link, I was saddened to read about the troubles Helen went through. I want to keep the entry there for future reference, but I'm not sure what would be appropriate to put there. Right now I just changed it to "a homeschooling magazine which operated from 1984 to approximately 2014". That seems kind of sparse and I'm not sure about the dates. Suggestions/corrections?

[emzhengjiu]

I miss HEM as well!  It was a wonderful resource.  So glad you are happy now!

[Helen Hegener]

That's probably as a good a description as any.

[wtmviolet]

That's probably as a good a description as any.

Thanks, Helen! If it works for you, it works for me.