The Common Core Standards Are Here. Now. What Are They? What Do They Mean to Home Schoolers?

Informative, Legislation, News, Preparing for College, Uncategorized

Taken from Practical Homeschooling Magazine #107
January/February/March 2013 Edition
www.home-school.com

“Despite three federal laws that prohibit federal departments or agencies from directing, supervising or controlling elementary and secondary school curricula, programs of instruction and instructional materials, the U.S. Department of Education…has placed the nation on the road to a national curriculum, according to a new report written by a former general counsel and former deputy general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education.”

So began a TruthInAmericanEducation.com story on the report The Road to a National Curriculum: The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and Conditional Waivers.   Sponsored by Pioneer Institute, the Federalist Society, the American Principles Project, and the Pacific Research Institute of California, it was released in February 2012.

As the report itself goes on to say,

With only minor exceptions, the General Education Provisions Act, the Department of Education Organization Act, and the ESEA, a amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, ban federal departments and agencies from directing, supervising, or controlling elementary and secondary school curriculum, programs of instruction, and instructional materials.

Left unchallenged by Congress, these standards and assessments will ultimately direct the course of elementary and secondary study in most states across the nation, running the risk that states will become little more than administrative agents for a nationalized K-12 program of instruction…

Who Are the Players? (more…)

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You Are Interested in Homeschooling but…

Burn Out, Classroom Help, Informative, Preparing for College, Preschoolers, Single Parents, Special Needs, Technology

Written by Lisa Trombley
http://thehappyhomeschoolmom.blogspot.com/

 

You are afraid you are not patient enough.

You are afraid you are not smart enough.

You are afraid you are not qualified.

You are afraid your children won’t listen to you.

You are afraid it costs too much.

You are afraid you are going to mess your kid(s) up.

No one is the perfect mom or home school mom.  Everyone is afraid at some point that they are not good enough to do something.  Don’t let fear stop you!  Over and over again in the Bible, we are told “Do not be afraid”, “Fear Not.”  Don’t let your fears stop you from homeschooling your children. (more…)

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History of the Fourth of July

Informative, Just For Fun

Taken from http://www.history.com/topics/july-4th

The Birth of American Independence

When the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical. By the middle of the following year, however, many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain and the spread of revolutionary sentiments such as those expressed in Thomas Paine’s bestselling pamphlet “Common Sense,” published in early 1776.  On June 7, when the Continental Congress met at the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence. Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee’s resolution, but appointed a five-man committee–including Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York–to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain.

On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively). On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.” On July 4th, the Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, which had been written largely by Jefferson. Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2nd, from then on the 4th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence.

Early Fourth of July Celebrations

In the pre-Revolutionary years, colonists had held annual celebrations of the king’s birthday, which traditionally included the ringing of bells, bonfires, processions and speechmaking. By contrast, during the summer of 1776 some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by (more…)

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