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HOMESCHOOL CYBER-NEWS #2
                                   Later that same June   (1995)

The first issue of Cyber-News was fun to put together, and after about the
ninth person said, "I can't wait for the next issue!," we couldn't either so
here it is, early.  Thanks and hugs to all who helped in various ways.

If you're sad already that you received this, not interested, too
overloaded--just hit "reply" and ask us to take your name off the list.  If
you're glad you received this, just read on, and welcome!

At the top of this you should see "bcc: [YourName]."  Everyone's comes that
way; we're all equally special <g>.
                         - -- --- ---- ----- ---- --- -- -
DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR PASSWORD IS?  Remember that AOL will never ask for
your password. DO NOT give your password to anyone. Change it frequently.
And, if you are approached and asked for your password, report the incident
to AOL immediately, using the GuidePager keyword.
                           - -- --- ---- ----- ---- --- -- -
CHAT SCHEDULE:
Particular details will be posted at the beginning of each week on chats, but
unless otherwise specified they are open discussions at which any
homeschooling issues are discussed.  They're given in East-coast times;
please translate to your own time zone.

Kids' Chats   (Hosts:   KTrautman and Elizabyrd )
   Wednesdays, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, The Shade Tree

Wednesday Chat   (Host:  Journey100)
   everyWednesday 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. EDT, Homefront Hall

Thursday Evening Chat   (Hosts:  TinaNH and RETROMOM)
    every Thursday 9:00 - 11:00 p.m., Homefront Hall
  Thursday, June 29  Homeschool Chat about organizational and/or money-saving
tips.

OTHER HOMESCHOOLING CHATS:

Monday 7:00 - 9:00 PM, Homefront Hall
              Practical HomeSchooling.  Contact: PHS Renee.
Thursday 2:00 - 4:00 PM, Homefront Hall
               Practical HomeSchooling. Contact PHS Renee
Friday, 8:00 - 10:00 The Shade Tree
               Home Education Magazine.   Contact: HEMAdmin.


FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES:

"My son was a animal in a large-scale production of Noah's Flood and we were
in the dressing room the last night of rehersals.  A public school teacher,
hopefully not representative of all around here, entered the room, did not
acknowledge the other adults in the room, and started screaming at the kids.
She was a teacher at _____ school and would not be embarassed by this group,
a very few of her students included.  They were too loud, chewing gum,
unprofessional and acting like kids!!!   Wow!  I think the oldest was 12 and
the youngest about 5,  how stupid of them to act so.   Well, the kids got
quiet and wide-eyed as she threatened to send them home if the didn't get
serious.  She really was steamed.  My kid has never seen a classroom and
didn't know to keep still.  He raised his hand and she said "What!"  He stood
up and said something like, "But if you send us all home, the show can't go
on because we are almost all of the people on the stage."  Her face grew red
and she said in a quieter, measured voice," I could send home the bad
individuals."  My innocent child looked up at her and said," Yes, but that is
not what you said and anyway, no one was THAT bad."  She told him to sit down
and went on to help the animals rehearse a song.  My heart burst with
pride.....   I later spoke to her alone and informed her that there were
several hs kids there who were not used to that kind of behavior in adults
and that she perhaps would not get the desired results that way.   Needless
to say, we did not go out for coffee later....   :^})"  (AUTOTELIC)

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                      THE CONTEST-CONTEST RESULTS

Last issue we asked people to submit their ideas for contests.  Nineteen
entries were received.  There were twenty judges.  The winning entries, the
submittors of which each receive one hour of AOL credit, are:

FIRST PLACE WINNER:  BRGFB
DINNER PARTY:  Since getting to know interesting people is such an integral
part of homeschooling/unschooling, how about having folks describe their
version of the Ultimate Unschooling Dinner Party? Name, say up to four
people, living today (I'm not sure dead people go to dinner parties, although
they do vote in Chicago, I'm told <g>), with whom you'd like to spend an
evening at your home with your kids. A brief word of biographical description
(in case the rest of us don't know who they are) explaining why you'd invite
them, and maybe even some ideas about menus (in case some folks you'd want to
invite are vegetarians, and others might not be, etc.), and perhaps some
ideas about entertainment/conversational topics after/during dinner (would
you just talk all evening, play instruments, have a game of UNO?).   [ENTRIES
DUE JULY 7]

SECOND PLACE:   Rex Head
COOKBOOK:  Who can submit the best kids recipes.  They should be simple
enough for a early reader to read, make and serve.  The end result of the
contest would be a cookbook for young children. It would encourage reading,
math, and cooking skills. We have two early readers so we would be good
judges for this one.

THIRD PLACE:   DeniV
AOL SCAVENGER HUNT.  Set a starting date to give everyone a chance to get
their announcement of the contest.  List things found in different areas of
AOL that would be somewhat educational (network news, National Geographic,
etc.) have the kids list a certain piece of info found in that area.

The first contest is open right now.  Try to limit your entry to one
paragraph.  I'll try to rustle up some prizes between now and then (not that
YOU guys do stuff like this for rewards, or prizes, or grades.  <bwg>).

The second contest needs this reminder:  Please don't violate the copyright
of any cookbook!  Make these original, in that they are things your family
has actually tested and used, and write the instructions as you've found them
to work best.  You can send recipes anytime.  If they are child-developed or
-augmented recipes, please say so  Let's give these budding chefs some
credit.   Send entries whenever you want to.  If we get enough for one
"online cookbook" we can just start a new one!


The third contest will be prepared and presented later in the summer.

If you want to judge, even if you don't want to enter, let us know.

    *  More contests NEXT TIME!  There are many good ones still on that list!
*

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                             ON-LINE SAFETY FOR CHILDREN

Here are the important parts of the 6/15 chat on on-line safety for children,
at which Guide RK was guest "speaker."  The full chat is in the library.

Teach your child what to do if trouble occurs.
Make sure they know how to:
-- Summon a Guide for help with Keyword: GUIDEPAGER
-- Use IGNORE
-- Report infractions to Keyword: TOS
-- Turn off Instant Messages
-- Forward unacceptable mail to TOSEmail.
Some children will be too young to learn all of these things.
But make sure they do know how to use GUIDEPAGER and IGNORE.
If they are too young to learn all these steps, be near at hand when they're
online and make sure YOU know how to do these things, so you can jump in
should the need arise.
__________
Here are a list of "NEVER" rules to keep in mind, and pass along to your
children:
-- Never give out your password.
-- Never give out any personal information without express permission from
your parents:   things like, full name, address, phone number, school, Dad's
or Mom's place of business.
-- Never use the US Postal service to correspond with or send things to
someone you have met online.... once again, not without permission from
parents.  The same applies for phone conversations.
 -- Never make arrangements to meet an online friend face to face without
parental permission and the strictest possible supervision.
_______________
To summarize the eight suggestions I brought up tonight:
1.  Teach your child AOL's Terms of Service.
2.  Give him/her the tools to take care of some problems themselves.
3.  Use Parental Controls.
4.  Familiarize yourself with AOL and the places your child "hangs out."
5.  Get to know their online friends.
6.  Make online adventuring a "family affair".
7.  Communicate with them regularly concerning their online activities.
8.  Give them the definite No-No's!
And one last suggestion...  Work out the rules, the contract, whatever you
want to call it for the time they spend online and then see that they stick
to it!

[One last suggestion from the staff:  When your child goes online, we
recommend that you turn on "log session" just as standard procedure.  It
gives a good record for unaccompanied kids if there is a TOS violation.]
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*  *

And now, without further ado:     THE FUNNY STUFF !

Do you know what you call it when a home school Mom talks to herself???
                 (The answer's in here somewhere.)

MADE UP WORDS

"My four year old was making a playdoh "cake" and needed a spatula to lift it
off the plate. "Where's the skootchula?"  she asked. When I figured out what
she was asking for, I agreed it was a better word since you "skootch" the
food up onto the utensil, you don't spatch it on."  (CopyKatz)

"The invented language of my children has always been a tremendous source of
fun for us. I wish I had kept a diary of them all. My eleven year old son,
when he was a baby, called anything in the shadows a scatticope (I think
that's how you spell it).  My 2 1/2 year old uses words like after-the-later
and lasternight.
     "My nine year old daughter has always been great at it and still is. We
were watching a Sherlock Holmes Mystery -- The Hound of the Baskervilles --
one Friday night (Friday night is mystery night at our house and my husbands
popcorn is famous), we were coming to the part where they let the hound out
of the tomb, when my Abi grabbed her friends arm and said "Oh, this is my
favorite part. It is sooooooo mystitious."  What a great word. It has become
a regular part of our vocabulary."   (RDoan75062)

--DO you know what you call it when a home school Mom talks to herself???--
                [A parent-teacher conference...LOL     (Shar JC)]

"Tonight while getting ready for bed,  my little one said, "Mommy, when I'm
30, will you come over every night and put my pull-up on for me?"  (CopyKatz)

                    RESPONSES TO CYBER-NEWS #1

"The 'For Elias' poem was beautiful -- and brought tears to my eyes -- on a
summer Sunday-wind-down-evening, as my first daughter approaches her first
birthday...  Particularly timely, considering the love floating around the
Baby Richard case lately.  Remember: 'Love, not blood, binds."     God bless
Elias and his loving parents." (Willawork)

"Thanks for the issue.  The poem about adoption brought tears to my eyes.  I
was asked to go with my cousin to meet his and his wife's new Korean baby
last December.  What an incredible moment.  I felt so honored.  I thought of
giving the poem to them, but I think it might be too touchy.  My brother has
two adopted children.  I've learned so much in the process of sharing my
relatives' adoptions with them.  It's such a complex topic with implications
on so many levels for all of us."  [Naniha (Nicky)]

"Thank you so much for sending me the Cyber News!  It is a pleasure to find
so many homeschoolers online.  I am having the best time with AOL.  It is a
very expensive toy, but I haven't enjoyed anything so much in years."
[JaElise (Jane)]

"Thanks for including me.  I am so thrilled to find you all that I am getting
our support group on line asap.  Sometimes we feel alone doing this work, and
it is so great to know there are so many of us and we are 'normal.'  I use
the term loosely!  Will join you all Thursdays as much as possible."
[L1atin (Mary)]

"Good news letter...am printing it out for our HomeSchool Charter School
group. I LOL, cried too....Keep up the good work!!!!!! :) :)"   (DWell73370)

THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU:  "Hi, I hope you can help me.  I got the June
newsletter and copied it off and have deleted it.  Well, I can't find it
anywhere downloaded or written.  I was hoping you could e-mail me another
copy? It was a great newsletter and I really want to finish reading it."
Anyone who needs another copy needs only to ask!  It's no problem.  If you
have friends who didn't get one and would like one, just have them write to
HS MAIL or MyCamelot.
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*  *

                                  DISCOVERING OUR PATHS

"Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with
other people as He is with you." - Oswald Chambers.

That's to keep me humble as I share with you what the Holy Spirit has
revealed to me regarding "Homeschooling" vs. "Unschooling".

I started Homeschooling last year with the idea that it meant doing the
school-thing at home.  Hence the name, "Homeschooling."   Because I was not
homeschooled, I fell into this trap.   It didn't take long before I began to
realize this was not what God had intended.   I give all praise and glory to
my Heavenly Father for the change of mind He has manifested in my life!

I became aware of an idea that I could homeschool my children without doing
it the way the public schools do it.    Hence the name, "Unschooling."   God
revealed to me that my #1 priority in homeschooling was to Disciple my
children.  "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..."  (Matthew
6:22).  Then, trust Him for the rest (academics, etc.) ..."and all these
things shall be added to you."  God, indeed, invented education but He did
not invent school.  He has made me aware of the dangers of adopting the
world's agenda for education.

I have been made aware of the misconception that "Unschooling" means
schooling without structure or schedules.  On the contrary,  our God is a God
of order.  "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith
goodness, and to goodness, *knowledge*, and to knowledge, self-control; and
to self-control, perseverence; and to perseverance, godliness; and to
godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love." (2 Peter
1:5).  Knowledge should never come before faith.  Our curriculum should never
tyrannize our homeschool.  Academics should never come before God's mandates.
"Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." (1 Corinthians 8:1b).

God put it all together for me when I had the privilege of hearing a speaker
by the name of Johnathan Lindvall who has a series of tapes on Bold
Parenting.  If any of you have the same feelings or misconceptions that I
had, I suggest you contact Bold Parenting Seminars,  P. O. Box 820,
Springville, CA 93265 or call [phone], and request Tape #501,
Homeschooling vs Discipleship.

In His service,
KarieJ
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*  *

              ONLINE HOMESCHOOLING INFORMATION
                          by Danetta Mecikalski (DAB7580)

Homeschoolers beware!  There is an impending crisis in the homeschool
movement and it is called--information overload!

Remember when it was almost impossible to find out anything about home
education?  Remember when you thought that you were the only one in the world
crazy enough to consider this for your child?  Remember when your library had
two books about home education and they always seemed to be out?  Remember
when you would have given your right eye tooth for a chance to speak with
someone who had personal experience teaching their own child?

Those days seem to be gone.  Rupp's "Good Stuff" is already in our library,
and new home education magazines appear every few months.  Homeschool
curriculum fairs are in every state, and if one is lucky enough to be online,
one can hardly keep up with the homeschooling forums that seem to be popping
up everywhere.

Of course, if you are reading this, you probably already know about the AOL
online forums in the Parent Information Network.  Keywords PIN and HOMESCHOOL
will get you to them faster.  I consider these forums as almost separate
areas.  Different people log on and concerns are diffferent in the General
Homeschooling, Practical Homeschooling (PHS) and Home Education Magazine
(HEM) forums and I glean information from all of these areas.

Less well-known may be the homeschool folders associated with the religion
forum.  Type in keywork RELIGION and you will see a list of faiths.  Faith,
or world view, family life, and home education are all intertwined, and
people of different faiths try to incorporate their world view into the
education of their children.

For example, under Atheism is the folder Educating Our Children.
Humanism/Uniterianism has the folder Other Homeschoolers, and under the
Jewish Religion in the Jewish II board is the folder Jewish Homeschooling.
Those parents who are logging on to the general homeschooling boards and
asking for specific information about secular or Jewish home education can
find additional information and support for their home education approaches.
Even if a particular religion's folder does not discuss home education per
se, they often have folders about teens or parenting.  For example, under the
Pagan board is the folder Pagan Parenting, and the Islamic and Baha'i boards
have similar folders.

If you have access to the Internet via AOL, a slip account, or a personal
commercial program for Netscape or Telnet, even more homeschool information
is available.  Taking Netscape as an example, click Net Directory at the top
in the control panel.  The list that appears includes art, business, economy,
education and science, among many others.  Many interesting educational
resources are available in these categories, and might be discussed in future
articles, but, for now, assume we are interested in information specifically
about homeschooling.   Click on Education.  If you then click on Alternative,
you will see a list that includes alternative colleges, distance learning,
and homeschooling.  Many of the areas under the homeschooling forum are new
and adding new features every time I log on.  You can read about companies
that cater to home educators, or read an individual family's homeschool page
where they describe what they are studying and how they organize their day.
You can go into the Home Education Resource Center which accesses Web sites
of interest to home educators.  You can browze through the Homespun Web of
Home Education Resources, which lists upcoming events (so far only in Austin,
TX!) , has program offers, offers expert help (from whom??), lists
collaborative efforts (like virtual science fairs sponsored by the University
of Washington), and lists organizations and homeschool suppliers.  There is a
small homeschooling chat forum here, as well.  Jon's Homeschooling Resources
lists, among other things, six homeschool mailing lists you can subscribe to,
Finally, there are two chat forums, Usenet-misc.education.home-school.misc
and Usenet-misc.education.home-school.christian.

If you use Netsearch you can scroll down to search engines and click your
mouse in the white space, where I typed in "homeschooling, alternative
education."  I clicked Run Query after that and got yet another list of home
education information.  Another homeschooler's homepage, information about
the National Homeschool Association, and Yahoo indexes (which get you back to
the Net directory list that we just came from!), head the list.  Someone
downloaded the Prodigy Home School Resource Guide from another online
service.  Particularly nice is the K-12 and Homeschool Page.  There is an
interesting list of Educational Resources and Just for Fun Kids Stuff folders
here.

This information does not represent any of the areas where one can go for
lesson plans or for homework help.  These are specifically areas where one
can find out about home education, what resources are available, and ask
questions of fellow home educators..  I'm in danger of having so much help
for home education that I don't have time to home educate!
 ____________________________________________________
                CONTINUUM PARENTING BOARD
                                 RRnFL (Francine)

John Holt said it best "If the world could be saved by a book, this just
might be the book." The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff, published
originally in 1975, documents her experience with a Yequanna Indian tribe in
a South American jungle. Her prescriptions for humankind focus on trusting
our "ancient instincts" that allow us to follow the continuum guiding our
species for the past two million years. Our recent cultural departures from
that continuum -- mother/baby separation, community disintegration, child
neglect as well as child-centeredness -- serve to cut us off from our own
well-being and true humanness.

HS'ers may be interested in her view of education.  Believing in the innate
sociality of our species, Liedloff writes: "If these educators base their
relationship to the children upon being available, the children will be able
to utilize their own efficient, natural way of educating themselves, by
making use of the people,things, and events of their world, to imitate,
observe, and practice upon, motivated by their own social, imitative natures.
There can be no more effective way to educate."

The Continuum Parenting Board was set up to explore how parents apply
continuum principles in our very non-continuum culture -- after all, the
Yequanna Indians didn't have to get their kids into carseats :-) For lots of
interesting observations/practical ideas and more, go to Parents Information
Network (Keyword: PIN).   Click on Parents Exchange, then Family Life where
you'll find the Continuum Parenting Board.  Please come and share your
experiences and insights.
 ________________________________________________
                           PLACES TO GO
                                   MathTeach

At the Teacher Information Network (Keyword: TIN), there are several message
boards that may be of interest to homeschoolers. There is a folder titled
"Idea Exchange."  Within the folder are separate message boards for each
academic area. Parents may want to browse these folders for ideas or join in
the discussions. Each academic area also has its own file library where
people have uploaded some very helpful academic information.

In the same area (TIN) you will find a folder titled, "Lesson Plan Library."
People upload their favorite lesson plans on a wide variety of subjects and
levels. Most are as appropriate for home schools as they are for public
schools.  Those who upload receive free AOL credits depending on the number
of people who download their lesson plan.  So, homeschoolers may be as
interested in uploading as in downloading!  I personally have earned a lot of
free time from that area.
 _______________________________________________

IN ISSUE #3 we hope to present the findings and beliefs of some of our
readers about the effects of teaching infants and toddlers to read, pro and
con.  If you have opinions on this post them on the boards, and talk to your
friends, and send us the best of what comes of it.

Until next time, be happy and healthy, safe and not too warm <g>--
SandraDodd, for RETROMOM, MyCamelot, Journey100, KTrautman, TinaNH and
Elizabyrd