A gift, the homeschool blooming cherry tree grows and thrives

By Lynn R. Mitchell

My memories go back 20 years every time I look at this blooming cherry tree in my yard, remembering a group of homeschool friends in North Carolina who were special in my life. The tree was a gift from them when we were transferred back home to Virginia with SWAC Husband’s job, a thank you and a token of the love that had grown between us during the years we educated our children and socialized together. This is our ICHE tree — ICHE being an acronym for Iredell County Home Educators. When presented to us, it was about 2-3 feet tall. It obviously loves the Virginia soil because it now towers over my head. This tree makes me smile.

Back in the homeschool classroom: Where it all began … blazing new trails

By Lynn R. Mitchell

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote this morning, my mind drifted back to the sixteen years we educated our children at home. Talk about going where there is no path and leaving a trail!

A tip of my hat to those homeschool pioneers who were there years before I joined up in 1990. I read books about their battles with school and state officials in various locations across the country, and was grateful for the tenaciousness and willingness of those faithful parents to basically lay it all on the line, plowing that path for those of us who followed. In Virginia, Delegate Rob Bell’s parents were pioneers in that movement, and local homeschool friends whose kids are now grown had been involved in the South Carolina movement.

Back in the homeschool classroom: ’50 reasons homeschooled kids love being homeschooled’

By Lynn R. Mitchell

I loved this article, “50 reasons homeschooled kids love being homeschooled,” by Kris Bales who wrote, “I asked the folks on my Facebook page to ask their kids why they liked being homeschooled and let me know what they said. I asked mine, too, and compiled the answers for you.  Some answers were heard a lot. Some were pretty unique. Some got my added commentary, and some stand alone. So, if you’ve ever wondered why homeschooled kids like being homeschooled, here are the results, in no particular order after the first two, of my really unscientific poll.”

Reading the list brought back lots of memories of the 16 years I spent schooling with my children so, after reading the list and nodding and smiling about various ones, I emailed both my kids with the link. I pointed out that my daughter would very much identify with #15: “Being able to do school with pets. Have you seen the recent studies that show that reading to dogs helps improve the proficiency of struggling readers?” Her kitty, Palmer, was often curled up beside her as she studied or read.