Hello and Happy New Year Home Schoolers! Below are a few thoughts I’ve had as I’ve started the new year. A few weeks ago I got a prompt by Facebook to wish a friend a Happy Birthday. I thought to myself, sure, yes. It had been a while since we had corresponded. Actually, quite a while. This…
Happy New Year! Beginning today for a limited time, register and pay for remote testing to take place in 2026 and pay last season’s prices! You’ll save $2.00 to $5.00 per student. This offer applies to private, semi-private, and remote group testing. Go to www.basicskills.net/testing for more information. Discounts are applied at the time of…
Beginning on Friday, you save 25% on all E-book Achieving Peak Performance and One Hour Practice Tests. Both practice tests are time tested and designed to boost student confidence and awareness of how to do well on their next achievement test. Not sure which practice test to choose? Click here to find out the differences. This…
Well, we’re well past the September unfilled expectation of the “catching up” of Christ’s church. I’m thinking I can safely suggest, without upsetting anyone too much, three talking points you can discuss with your children when non-events like this occur. Christians, depending on the social media consumed and faith tradition, likely found themselves in one of…
“I thought we were friends…” is one of the most memorable lines from the 1975 cult classic, The Stepford Wives . The movie uses the interface between human and robotic AI technology to challenge and raise questions about the social norms of the 70’s. Here we are, 50 years later, and AI is being baked into…
Hello Home Schoolers! The above subject line is a partial quote by Seth Dillon, CEO of the Babylonian Bee. Read the full quote at the bottom of this post. Most home schoolers consider the teaching of morality, of character formation, to be a big deal. Academics, while important, comes in second. Unfortunately, the polarized political…
I’m a subscriber to Michael Easter’s substack . Most of his topics center around fitness and health, but in his latest post, he presents some new social media research that is relevant to educating our children. Last Friday he pointed out that social media use among children has been linked to mental health issues, depression in particular….
Years ago, after the administrative rules regulating home schooling were passed, I had a conversation with a senior leader at the Oregon Department of Education. He was tasked with over-seeing and communicating with home schoolers in our state. He was very approachable, so I asked him, “How did the rule committee arrive at the 15th percentile as…
Most of my Oregon readers know that a total score, at or above the 15th percentile, means your student has made satisfactory progress. If so, you may proceed teaching your child for another year without involvement by the state. The 15th percentile score represents a student’s ranking compared to students nationwide. The scale is 1 (low) to…
September 1st is an important date for home schoolers. It’s the date ESD’s use to initially assign the grade level of six year olds who will be home schoolers. The administrative rules are clear that this grade level is kindergarten.* In another place seven-year-olds are identified as first graders.** Still, there remains a lot of confusion…