Search Results for: blog adjustment at home

No homeschooler left behind act (according to me)

After taking a look at the No Child Left Behind Act, I decided to re-write a No homeschooler left behind act. Here is a summary of the NCLB Act No Child Left Behind requires all public schools administer a state-wide standardized test annually to all students. Schools which receive Title I funding must make Adequate Yearly Progress in test scores (e.g. each year, its fifth graders must do better on standardized tests than the previous years). If a Title I school fails to make Adequate Yearly Progress, it is put on a list of “failing schools” published in the local … Continue reading →

Reasons I am glad we homeschool: Cheating on tests

Were you aware that students print cheat sheets in a very small font, then tape them to the inside of a water bottle label. The water magnifies the text, and walla! They get an easy A? Were you aware that students scan a coke label, and then edit in a graphic design program to have information on the exam instead of the ingredients? Neither did I? Did you know that you can purchase a pen that you can tape cheat information in and each time you click the barrel, it reveals more information? I am amazed. Did you know you … Continue reading →

When Kids Have Trouble Sleeping While Away from Home

Some of us are blessed with children who can sleep anywhere—they just snuggle down and manage to tune out the world and get some good rest whether they are at home or away. Many children, however, may sleep just fine in the comfort and routine of their own home, but find that spending the night at grandma’s or staying in a hotel or any other type of away-from-home sleeping is impossible. What can a parent do when a child has a hard time sleeping when not in his or her own bed? Some of us adults have a hard time … Continue reading →

Calls from Home when You’re on the Road

I am not a constant work traveler, but my work in the last couple years has started to take me on a few trips. While months may pass between the trips I have had to take for my business and work–it is still a big deal to my family when I am gone. As a single parent, the realities of traveling for one’s business can be daunting and while my kids do have another parent in the picture, it has so far not been a replacement for me. One of the challenges of business travel is those constant calls from … Continue reading →

Is There Such a Thing as a Recession-Resistant Home Business?

With all this talk of recessions and the bumpy economic present and future (and it DOES seem to be a topic on the tip of everyone’s tongues in my world lately), I wonder if it does not make us home business owners feel a little insecure? Is there anything we can do with our home businesses in order to create a cushion or make them a little bit more recession resistant? I live in an area of the country where it has felt like we are in perpetual recession; our economy is just not that strong and the tax structure … Continue reading →

Do Homeschoolers Qualify for the Educator Expense Deduction?

The plain and simple answer to this is no. There are not any federal tax credits or deductions that you can claim on your federal taxes for your expenses as a homeschooler. I’ve already written about why I oppose tax credits for homeschoolers in the first place, but so many homeschoolers feel that it is unfair for teachers to get the expense deduction and not home educators, that I thought I’d take a moment to address this. Is It Fair? The snub here is that in essence it would appear that the federal government is saying that there are ‘real’ … Continue reading →

Book Review: Bringing Asha Home

The long wait common in international adoptions can seem inconceivable to children. When their mother is pregnant, older children can see that the baby is there, see the mother’s belly growing and hear the baby’s heartbeat at the mother’s doctor visits. They can be given an approximate date for the baby’s arrival, or at least a general time frame like “just after next Valentine’s Day”. In an international adoption, there is no such certainty and no markers along the way. A children’s book which is unique in addressing this aspect of international adoption is Bringing Asha Home, by Uma Krishnaswami, … Continue reading →

You Can Go Home Again!

Greetings from New Orleans! After two years and two months, Tyler and I are finally back home in New Orleans. Okay, we’re not in our house but we are in New Orleans to stay. We arrived Friday and are staying at a hotel until my house is complete. It’s coming along slowly but the work being done is excellent. The house looks better than it did when I bought it eight years ago! Returning to a city that has suffered a major disaster like Katrina is something that you have to experience for yourself to really understand. When you have … Continue reading →

What If Your Kids Don’t Prove Homeschooling Works?

Statistics overwhelmingly show that home schooling works. There has been research that shows that home schooled kids are better socialized, have better opportunities, score higher on achievement tests, and get into better colleges. Colleges are coveting young homeschoolers who they deem are more mature as a group and more serious about their studies. In fact, I’ve yet to see a good study that suggests that home schooling, on the whole is bad for kids. But what if your kids just score average on their SAT’s (or worse–what if they don’t do well), and what if they’re socially awkward. What if … Continue reading →

Coming Home: Don’t Underestimate Jet Lag!

The first day we brought our one-year-old daughter home from Korea, we were pleased that she fell asleep at 8 p.m., just like our three-year-old son. “This is great,” we thought in our ignorance. Then a couple of hours later, my husband and I were just getting into bed when she screamed, panicked from waking in an unfamiliar place. “Oh, no,” we said as it slowly dawned on us. “That was her afternoon nap!” Sure enough, she was awake until five o’clock in the morning. You’d think that having just returned from Korea ourselves we would have remembered that we’d … Continue reading →