Natural Family News

If you’re looking for a way to get your children interested in literature, you should check out Literary Child. This magazine has been highly recommended by M0thering Magazine. Each month’s magazine contains activities and ideas for that month’s novel. The magazine is written by a single homeschooling Mom of three children under the age of 6. You can check out a sample activity on drawing music inspired by The Tale of Despereaux here.

Houston, TX (PRWEB) August 30, 2006—Knowhomeschooling.com is a new community-based website. As part of its grand opening, the owners held a drawing in mid-August for $500. Knowhomeschooling.com is pleased to announce Katherine Loop as the winner of their $500 prize.

Knowhomeschooling.com (www.knowhomeschooling.com) was created by husband and wife homeschooling parents of five, George and Jill Manty. Jill enjoys researching and often uses Wikipedia, the most well-known community-based website, or wiki.

“While Wikipedia is great for many researching general topics, it is not really ideal for finding in-depth information on a specific topic,” said Mrs. Manty. “We thought that we could take the idea of a wiki and create something really great for the homeschooling community.”

Although there are many homeschooling websites out there, Knowhomeschooling.com differs because it will utilize the collective wisdom of all participating homeschoolers to provide exposure to a wider variety of resources for homeschoolers. Rather than depending on only the research or interests of one person creating a website, a community edited website can reflect the tastes, opinions and knowledge of a whole community.

When asked why they ran a contest for their grand opening, Mrs. Manty had this to say, “We are really excited to provide this opportunity for homeschoolers, but we also recognize that homeschoolers are often Moms who aren’t aware of the latest technologies. Even though learning something new can be a bit intimidating, we know that homeschoolers aren’t afraid to step outside of their comfort zone when they need to. We created the contest to encourage homeschooling Moms and Dads to take the step to learn how to add things to the wiki. We really felt that if they tried it, they would see how easy it is and would continue to participate in the wiki.”

Any homeschooler who registered and created or edited a page between mid-July and mid-August was eligible to compete in the drawing. When the random drawing was held, the winner was 21 year old homeschooling graduate and website owner Katherine Loop. Miss Loop wrote an article on Math from a Biblical Worldview that reflects the information found on her website, www.christianperspective.net and in her book “Beyond Numbers, A Practical Guide to Teaching Math Biblically”.

Miss Loop explained how she plans to use the money to further help the homeschooling community.

“I’m currently working on a supplemental curriculum for homeschoolers that presents the different concepts in math biblically, and see the $500 as God’s perfect provision to help with those expenses.”

She further added, “The money came as a little hug from heaven. A few days prior to winning this, my brother had just been given a $500 scholarship for doing well in college. Meanwhile, I was home trying to keep the house in order while my mom was gone for three weeks caring for my sick grandmother. The Lord has used this to remind me that He has not forgotten about me, that I am doing what He wants, and that He will meet my needs before I even know about them. I am going to write this down in my book of God’s provisions/lessons that I don’t want to forget so the memory can encourage me for years to come.”

The wiki has grown considerably since it started in mid-June. Mrs. Manty definitely feels that the contest was part of that success. She also pointed out that many homeschoolers have been instrumental in spreading the word.

“Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn have been really supportive, sending out information about the wiki to various lists they’re on. Scott Somerville was also instrumental in getting the word out to homeschooling bloggers who added the first large batch of information to the wiki. We’ve been really encouraged by many emails from homeschoolers who feel like this is something that can really benefit the homeschooling community. And we just couldn’t be happier about the way God has used the contest to encourage and support Katherine in her desire to reach out to the homeschooling community and continue in the work he has called her to.”

All homeschoolers are invited to participate in the wiki, even though the contest is over. Adding pages or editing is really a pretty simple process, and there is even a tutorial on the site to walk writers through the process.

Okay, I didn’t officially announce we were going on break, but it seems that we did. I can’t believe it’s been over 6 months since our most recent post. Laura is busy getting ready to have her fourth baby later this summer, and I’ve had a new baby, of sorts, to care for, as well. My husband and I started a homeschooling wiki, called KnowHomeschooling. It’s going really well, and we’re really excited about it, so stop on by and visit. For those who don’t know, a wiki is a community-edited website. That means any registered user can add content, delete irrelevent content, or change content that is already existing. The homeschooling community has been great about jumping in and sharing their collective knowledge. We hope you’ll feel free to do the same.

So, now we’ll be back to posting more regularly here, keeping you informed about the latest happenings that may be of interest to you.

Amarillo, TX (PRWEB) May 8, 2006 -– Since blogs first surfaced in the late 1990s, more than 36 million have been created. Many businesses are discovering that blogs are a good way to establish expertise, educate and expose readers to new ideas, and keep customers informed. Alternative Phyto-Med Formulators (APMF) is a family business dedicated to doing all three.

APMF (http://apmformulators.com) offers a unique, organic, non-toxic salve for skin, but the business blog covers such topics as medical education for homeschool students, naturopathy, homebirth, midwifery, organic products, and domestic family care from a biblical worldview.

“Because it is not possible for a medical education to take place without reference to God, we look to the Scriptures as our axiom,” said Pete Hernandez, co-founder of AMPF.

APMF is one of many companies that use blogs to reach potential clients and readers. A blog, short for “weblog,” is a frequently updated web site. Most blogs are personal online journals, but businesses are learning that such web sites are also powerful and effective marketing tools.

“When consumers buy medicine, what they really want is a cure. When consumers buy a blanket, they buy warmth. When we write medical information, we want to arm readers with medical ammunition they can use. We decided to start a business blog to reach online users looking for organic products and to educate readers. We read blogs and know how important they are when it comes to sharing information.”

Through blogging, well-researched articles, products, and services, APMF supports individuals, families, medical students, and churches as they seek to implement a biblical worldview. At the APMF blog, you’ll learn how family medicine, the Bible, logic, and medical botany intersect through the time-honored approach to learning known as the TRIVIUM.

In 1994, Pete and Maribel Hernandez began studying a variety of medical courses because of a family medical crises. While researching hepatic encephalopathy, prostrate cancer, and variety of common aliments frequently suffered by family and friends, they found that clinical applications were highly toxic. They set out to learn more about alternative health care therapies.

For more information, visit the site.

I don’t suppose this comes as any surprise to anyone, but apparently children are picking up bad language in school. I found it particularly interesting that one teenager who was interviewed called it “a little bit of a problem” and then went on to say that it was “only among, like, half the students.” If half of the students cursing is a “little” problem, I’d hate to see a big one. This reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw at a homeschooling convention recently that said: “Public school? Aren’t you worried about socialization?”

You can read the article here

Indiana sounds like a great place to homeschool— very few regulations and even less oversite. Indiana superintendants would like that to change. Once again, we have bureacrats who are concerned about “what about those who aren’t schooling? Ultimately, they’ll end up a burden on the state.” So, I have a proposal for the educators of Indiana, or any other state, for that matter. When they start graduating a 100% literate population, they can start looking at whether homeschoolers are being properly educated. You can read the article here.

Perhaps the author meant well, but a recent article on homeschooling just makes my blood boil. Titled “How to Homeschool Without Making Your Child an Outcast”, it contains gems such as “Sports are Important” and “Let Pop Culture Into Your Home.” Blech! It makes the presumption that all homeschooled children are freaks or will be viewed as freaks without the proper “socialization.” Now I do understand that it takes special effort to get out and make friends for homeschooled children, but that’s what homeschool support groups are for. You can read the full article here.

Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) in England are proposing that the use of the word “fail” be banned from classrooms. They argue that it is demoralizing to students and should be replaced with the phrase “deferred success”.

read more here

Or, you could just teach your kids at home and quit worrying about it altogether.

Okay, at first this article made me mad— hopping mad. And then I got to the end. It’s written by—drum roll, please—a head custodian! Okay, nothing against the head custodians of the world— I wouldn’t want a world without them, but how does being head custodian give him any right to comment on who is best suited to educate anybody? By his own logic, shouldn’t he leave that to the experts?

(read the article here)