Dear State Leader,

It has come to our attention that multiple homeschool leaders have received phone calls from a person falsely saying they are from the Home School Foundation.

This caller, who is believed to be male but identifies himself as a woman, will often claim to be calling from the Home School Foundation and indicate that you have been nominated for a grant or award of some sort. This individual usually states that “she” has 10 children and a degree in psychology, before proceeding to ask questions about your family’s homeschool practices to follow up on the grant/award that you have been “nominated” for. The questions quickly get around to your disciplinary methods and practices. Please note, HSF has no need to ask you about your disciplinary methods with your children!

If you are ever on the phone with someone saying they are from HSF and you become even slightly suspicious, or if the questions don’t directly relate to the work of the Foundation (i.e., helping families homeschool through hard times), please ask for a name and number and offer to call back. The Foundation’s number is 540-338-8688. If you are given a different number and/or receive a call from an individual that fits the above description, please alert us immediately!

We are trying our best to find out who this caller is and stop him from harassing homeschoolers in our name. This is not actually a new issue; we had a similar situation many years ago and came close to finding the caller before he went underground. This may be the same person.

If you receive such a phone call, write down the date, time and as much information as you can about the caller. Personal information disclosed by the caller and the questions he asked would be helpful. Also collect any information displayed on your caller ID or obtained from tracing the phone number (often by dialing *69). Contact HSLDA or HSF with this information and we will collect it to help authorities in their attempt to track this individual down.

If you have any details that may help us find out more about this caller, please email them to info@homeschoolfoundation.org with “impersonator” in the subject line.

Also, please forward this e-mail on to other homeschool leaders you know—if people are aware of the issue ahead of time, we are more likely to stop it.

Thank you,

Mike Smith, President

Dear Friends of the Harris Family,

I am sending this message to you with confidence that you will act and pass it along and together we can make a difference!

Over the years as a home educating father, I have been mentored, encouraged, and inspired by Gregg & Sono Harris and their incredibly talented family: Joshua, Joel, Alex, Brett, Sarah, Isaac and James. You are probably familiar with Gregg and Sono’s tireless efforts to encourage and create in-roads for homeschooling over the last three decades. Josh gave young adults a biblical approach to dating by penning I Kissed Dating Good-Bye and most recently God has used Alex and Brett to encourage youth to Do Hard Things.

About a month ago, I was in a hotel room in South Africa when I first heard that Sono was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. I can remember dropping to my knees in my room and crying out to God to have mercy on her.

How has the Harris family dealt with this life-changing event? Although difficult beyond words, they have walked through this with the same grace and courage as they have other challenges; by seeking and trusting in almighty God. You can read Joshua’s latest updates on his blog here. www.joshharris.com

At the end of last week I spoke with Gregg. He shared that God has been very gracious toward Sono in that she has experienced very little pain, however, he also shared that her body is weakening and she speaks of seeing Jesus soon. Although they have not been given any indication as to timing, Gregg said that it could be any time now.

As the devoted husband and Godly family leader that he is, Gregg has stepped down from his speaking engagements and away from his daily business responsibilities to care for his wife. Obviously this has taken a major toll on their household income and the medical bills are mounting. Gregg mentioned to me that he believed some homeschool organizations were trying to gather donations for the family. According to Gregg “now is better than later,” and I believe the truth is — action needs to happen quite quickly to help save this dear family from more distress.

Each year in his annual “How to End the Year” blog, Doug Phillips, President of Vision Forum Ministries, reminds me to remember those individuals and ministries who have invested in my family’s life. In Luke 17, Jesus teaches us of those ungrateful recipients of blessings who simply went their way without demonstrating gratitude, and Doug’s challenge stems from that concept. “When was the last time I responded to their investment in my life with gratitude, blessings, and even money?”

If the Harris family has been an encouragement or an inspiration to you and your family, would you consider responding to their investment in your life at this time of need?

Cards and notes can be sent to:

Gregg and Sono Harris and family – 6920 SE Hogan Road, Gresham, OR 97080

You can also donate to Noble Institute, marking the donation Friends of Sono Harris Fund. www.nobleinstitute.org

It is my prayer that we, as the body of Christ, would pour out our love and comfort and help “bear one another’s burdens” with the Harrises.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Please feel free to forward to others as you feel led.

Grace and peace,
John and Kristi Collins
The Extreme Group, Inc.

The governor’s recent signature on SB 738, giving state approval for “virtual school programs,” guarantees that public-school-at-home programs, under various names in different places, will soon ramp up their efforts to recruit homeschoolers.

Participation in these programs—full time or part time—will immediately turn your child into a public school student. Newly enacted Virginia Code § 22.1-212.27.A says, “Any student enrolled in any online course or virtual program offered by a local school division shall be enrolled in a public school….”

This means your child will be required to take the Virginia SOL tests. It means the program’s teachers cannot teach your child about God. It means that the free books they require you to use must not teach about God.

You will be told that the curriculum is wonderful. But pause to think a moment: They are offering the exact same curriculum to thousands of students. One curriculum can’t possibly be best for all of them!

Of course, they will tell you that you can “supplement.” But the demands of the mandatory curriculum may swallow up the time and energy of many a well-intentioned parent who told himself he would supplement.

In other states, public-school-at-home programs have hired recruiters who are well known local homeschool moms. The person who soon tries to talk you into giving up your freedom and joining one of these programs may actually be your best friend.

HSLDA membership services are not available with respect to a child enrolled full-time in a public-school-at-home program.

Homeschool students across the country are achieving outstanding academic results partly because their parents can educate them without public school restrictions and red tape. Your freedom to pick the right curriculum—and change it as necessary—is a key in helping your child do his best. Homeschool parents personally keep educational responsibility—rather than delegating it to a public school program—and the kids are the winners.

And if you want your child to grow up understanding the truth about God, one of the very best things you can do is make sure that your curriculum teaches your child the same truths that you are teaching.

“If one member suffers, all members suffer together; if one member is honored all rejoice together.”  ~1 Corinthians 12:26

Dear State Leaders,

Many of you are aware of the ministry over the years of Gregg & Sono Harris. Gregg has been a long-time Christian homeschool advocate, speaker, and pastor and has been very instrumental in the Christian homeschool movement. In fact, Gregg’s ministry helped launch many of our state homeschool organizations.

Sono was recently diagnosed with stage IV inoperable cancer. She has been an inspirational presence to many with her energetic, bright spirit and dedication to her family and others. May we, who love this family, now be mirrors and reflect back on Sono the strength of character, tenderness, and courage which she has so brightly shone upon others.

The family is facing many additional expenses that we can share. Curt & Jenny Bumcrot (long-time friends of the Harris family) have set up an account at West Coast Bank to help offset the additional expenses the family is facing. A gift to the Harris family can be made at any West Coast Bank branch in Oregon and Washington. The account number is 1141007201 under Sono Sato Harris. If you don’t live in Washington or Oregon, you can send cards and gifts directly to the Harris address:

Sono Harris and family
6920 S. E. Hogan Road
Gresham, OR 97080

This is not a tax-deductible contribution, but rather a gift of love to a family who has done so much for the Christian homeschool community in America. Because they are gifts to the family, the Harris family will not incur an additional tax liability. 100% of the gift will go to helping them financially through this crisis.

Of course, the most important gift we can give Sono and her family is the gift of prayer. Please pray for her healing. Her hope is in the Lord. She is also following a strict dietary regimen that has helped other cancer patients in the past. Please pray for the pain to be relieved. She has had some very bad days lately struggling with pain. And pray for the family as they work to support Sono.

Dick & Dorothy Karman
The Oregon Christian Home Education Association Network

Bringing used cartridges and Box Tops to the convention is a great–and easy–way to support homeschooling! We’ll have boxes there to collect these items.

So…hold on to those used cartridges, and before you toss that next food box or can, check to see if it has a Box Top label. Then collect the labels, trim them neatly, rubber band them in sets of 50, put them in a zip lock bag along with a completed form, and bring them with you to turn in at the convention!

Learn more about the Box Top program and cartridge recycle program today.

From the Fairfax County Times. Wednesday, March 31, 2010. Reprinted with permission.

Home schooling numbers on the rise in Fairfax County
Networking, flexibility make option more attractive for Fairfax parents
by Holly Hobbs | Staff Writer

Fairfax County parents are increasingly turning to home schooling as an alternative to public schools for their children.

Since 2005, the number of students learning at home in the county has grown 23 percent, said Lori Hershey of the Department of Special Services. This is compared with a 6.5 percent rise in public school enrollment during the same time, also recorded by the school system.

The reason for the increase is that home-based instruction has become easier, more acceptable and attractive in Fairfax County, local parents of home-schooled children said.

“These numbers don’t surprise me,” said Janice Lum, whose eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son are two of 2,330 students being educated at home in Fairfax County. This is the family’s first year of home schooling.

“The area is becoming increasingly congested; some people are no longer satisfied with the system in general, including the financial decisions impacting the classroom setting,” Lum said. Lum also attributes the popularity to a growing body of knowledge about effective home schooling and “general myth-busting that is occurring within society.”

Like many area home-schooling parents, Lum belongs to a network of families holding classes at home, chatting online about lesson plans and meeting for group classes. Thanks in part to these networks, the days of spending lessons glued to the kitchen table are gone, parents said.

The educational opportunities available to children during school hours could fill weeks, said Mary Sutton, who home schools her eight- and nine-year-old daughters. She and her daughters take art classes, piano lessons, gymnastics, and more, Sutton said.

“The hardest part of home schooling is managing to stay at home and do school,” she added.

The flexibility of holding classes when and where they wish is one benefit of home schooling, parents said. But one drawback is that her daughter misses school, Lum said.

“She sees her friends and is still actively involved in school activities, but she would enjoy and prefer to be with her friends all day long,” she said. “This has been hard for me and has weighed heavily on me.”

Parents who home school their children must register the child through the Fairfax County Public School system each year and are required to submit an annual progress report to the system showing–through standardized test or composite score–that the child has progressed and is on track. At a minimum, the parent must hold a high school diploma.

Lum is a non-practicing registered nurse with a master’s degree in theology. Sutton holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and geophysics and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Both mothers said they were not home-schooled and that they struggled with the decision to home school their children.

“I never wanted to home school,” said Lum, adding that she toyed with the idea for three years before deciding to “bite the bullet.”

“In a nutshell … it had just gotten to the point where [my daughter] wasn’t learning enough of what we wanted and too much of what we didn’t,” she said.

Kathy Kuhl, who helps run a science and biology lab program for the parent group, Centreville Homeschool Enrichment Support Services, began home schooling her son in fourth grade after a learning disability began interfering with his classwork.

“My son is bright, highly distractible, and dyslexic,” Kuhl said. “He was coming home from school emotionally exhausted and was starting to think he was stupid.”

What started as tutoring during the summer and spring break became home schooling, she said, adding that her son is now a student at Northern Virginia Community College.

Colleges are seeking home-instructed students because of the quality of education they get at home, parents said.

Local colleges and universities have seen a boom in the number of home-schooled applicants.

George Mason University has seen a steep increase in the applications from home-schooled students, from 38 in 2008 to 66 in 2010, said Dean of Admissions Andrew Flagel. Admission numbers are up in general this year, he said.

“But the applications from home-schooled students, while a smaller percentage of the total, have clearly grown at an even faster rate,” he said.

Home-instructed students are accepted at a slightly higher rate than public or private school students, Flagel said.

Officials from several state universities said their schools do not track the success rates of home-instructed students once they enter college.

What does your family talk about around the table? Share your dinnertime ideas as a comment below for others to benefit from.

Commentary: Why We Homeschool Our Children
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 | 11:50 AM
by Aretha Taggart, as told to Yolanda Sangweni
When most people think of homeschooling, they think rich celebs and White families. But figures from the National Home Education Research Institute show that more Black families are gaining in on the practice. In 2007, an estimated 220,000 Black children were homeschooled, compared to 84,000 in 1999. Black students make up nearly 10% of the estimated two million students who are homeschooled nationwide–more than any other minority group.

Albert and Aretha Taggart decided no one could do a better job at educating their four children than they could. So Aretha left her corporate job and began teaching her children at home six years ago. Here she shares why her family made the choice to bring the classroom into their home.
Read more: http://www.essence.com/lifestyle/parenting/commentary_why_we_choose_to_homeschool.php#ixzz0gEPjEQ9P

Resources
National Black Home Educators (NBHE)
The National Black Home Educators is a nationwide organization dedicated to mentoring parents and training youth.
http://www.nbhe.net

Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV)
On the “Support” page, HEAV provides listings of Virginia support groups by county and city.
http://www.heav.org/support/index.html

Become an HEAV member and save an additional $25! HEAV members save $25 on their HSLDA memberships–that brings your savings up to $50!

When you sign up, write “Affiliate 2294016″ in the space marked “Other” on Section 2, Question B (the question labeled “I received this application from”), and HEAV will receive $20 as well (new members only)!

We recommend homeschooling families join HSLDA. Even if you never experience legal trouble yourself, your HS LDA membership will help enable other homeschooling families to get the legal help they need and will help defend our right to homeschool. Joining HSLDA is a great way to support homeschooling freedoms nationwide and in Virginia at the same time!

Have your own homeschool stories? Share them here! Send them to kloop@heav.org, or leave them as a comment.

Dear HEAV,

This is one I had to share: Last month we finished studying the postal system and began studying the fire department. We began with how the Pilgrims used the bucket brigade to extinguish fires and so on. My children had questions I could not answer, such as, “How long are the hoses on the trucks? How many forest fires have there been in Virginia this year?” and others.

Instead of looking up the answers for them, I asked them to write a letter to the fire department and see if their questions would be answered. I thought it would be good practice after learning about the postal system. Three weeks passed….

Tuesday afternoon the doorbell rang. I thought something terrible had happened, but instead I was pleasantly surprised. The fire department had come to our front door for an “in-person,” 30-minute, hands-on class (fire truck, ambulance, and four wonderful people). We were so shocked and overwhelmed! They said they would’ve called, but we didn’t include our phone number in the letter. WOW!

We’re working on a HUGE thank-you letter for all four fire fighters.

Note to self: Homeschooling can be full of pleasant surprises, and be careful what you ask your children to do!  8-) Amy Pickett