Ken Robinson reports that his wife - author and illustrator Ruth Sanderson - has her new and improved web site up and running. Set up by daughter Morgan.
Ruth, a homeschool mom emeritus and an accomplished equestrian, is enormously talented and imaginative. She works out of a home studio often using regular folk as models (as opposed to professional art models) for the characters in her books.
And, it looks like Jane Yolen, another beloved kiddie lit author, posed for the cover of the Mother Goose and Friends book.
More of the artist's work (showcased at the Michelson Gallery).
The homeschooling family extraordinaire welcomes another bambina to the clan. She weighed a healthy 8 pounds, 8 ounces and is 21 inches long. Michelle is doing great!
The AP says the D's will be on TV again: "The Duggars have been featured on several programs on cable's Discovery Health Network. The next special, the Duggar Family Album, is scheduled to air next month, Jim Bob Duggar said."
Calling him the "grandfather of homeschooling," a Freeper posts an item about the death of Dr. Moore. He was 91 years old. Thank God he used his time on the earth so productively and blessed many, many families.
Nothing like leading the examined life to paraphrase the DWM (dead white male) who originally coined the phrase. But when you're a public figure who happens to have ties to homeschooling, it's other people who often do the scrutinizing.
In "Blitzing Hollywood," Sports Illustrated looks at the ups and downs of Miami Dolphin footballer Jason Taylor's personal and professional life. Here's a "Day in the Life" video. What a crib!
Belgrade News editor, Andy Malby (in the photo), devotes an entire column to Roger Koopman, the iconoclastic Montana legislator, who is pondering a run for gov. I agree with Andy that Rog should stay put, since, among other things, Governor Brian Schweitzer's approval ratings have remained consistently high and raising money won't be a hassle for him. I disagree that Roger has "accomplished precious little" because lots of his bills haven't been enacted into law(s).
Roger is being lobbied for the top job, has been re-elected to office by beating a formidable opponent, dodges endless media brickbats, doesn't pursue spend-and-tax legislation, and is the vice-chair of the powerful house education committee.
The voting Vox Pop must view that record as "effective."
Meanwhile, this angry letter-writer scrutinizes Andy (who can take it).
The Hartford Courant offers a timeline of the career of Joey Logano, the 17-year-old homeschooler who has quickly risen through the ranks of the stock car racing industry and is being heavily courted by corporate sponsors.
Imagine accomplishing the following without having a driver's license: "At 9, he becomes the youngest driver to compete in a Legends Car race and is the Young Lions class winner in his first appearance. After turning 10, becomes the youngest INEX Legends Series feature winner in history on June 4. Wins Bandolero Bandits national championship. Wins nine consecutive events at one point during the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway."
A 14-year-old suit-wearing Brooklyn homeschooler rates a detailed, readable write-up in the Wall Street Journal Online thanks to his prowess as an investor.
Writes Paul Glader, "Brandon (Conley) and his crew are hardly the first teenage market junkies to come along, but their story suggests that some child investors are now hitting a new level of sophistication, and, sometimes, obsession. Brandon has taken on many of the conventions of a professional investment fund. He and his staff are raising money from outside investors, developing relationships with companies, and even speaking up at shareholder meetings. He even shorted some stocks right before a February stock-market decline."
Brandon is as risk-taking as the street stock racer (see below).
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Adam Burrows, a Montana homeschool grad turned street stock driver.
Now insert "very successful" between "turned" and "street."
An update on life in the fastest lane: "Adam Burrows of Belgrade may be only 20-years-old, but he's becoming something of a veteran at winning Gallatin Speedway feature events in the street stock class. Friday night Burrows captured his fourth career main event victory, and showed no signs of weakness in the process."
Nervy young man.
BTW: I couldn't verify this, but Darrell Waltrip, the ex-NASCAR driver, is mentioned as a home educator on the 'famous parents' list and on this site under "athletes."
She's only 12-years-old, but ESPN reports that Lexie Thompson has qualified for the U.S. Women's Open Championship: "Thompson, of Coral Springs, Fla., shot 72 and even-par 71 to finish 1 over at 6,435-yard Heathrow Country Club." Wow.
The famed golfing event occurs later this month in North Carolina. More about the golf prodigy.
High five to Lexie for making herstory.
P.S. The U.S. Women's Open site profiles another homeschooler - Brittany Lincicome.
Get acquainted with Adam Burrows. He's 20 years old, a homeschool grad, farm hand, and mechanic. He also races at the Gallatin Speedway in Belgrade, Montana.
More fun facts:
*Adam is known for performing "signature burn outs" after winning a race.
*His dad, Bob, is part of his pit crew.
*One of his sponsors is Northwest Concrete Services. The company is owned by a homeschool parent and friend of our family - Kerry Hughes.
Kerry's sponsorship got me thinking how nifty it would be to have "The Homeschooling Revolution" painted on Adam's car. Whatcha think 'bout that idea?
CBN News seems to be writing more frequently about home scholars. Or, at least, it seems that way to me. This piece looks at the 'Bee season's' winners and competitors.
I was struck by how much Evan O'Dorney's dedicated mother enjoys working with her son. What a treat to have a child who is bright, self-disciplined, and a daring learner. Think of all this family would have missed out on, if they had elected to go the conventional schooling route.
Photo: Jennifer O'Dorney with the mega-dictionary she used to quiz Evan for the Scripps competition.
*Catchy phrase that is used in these futuristic novels.
WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER!!! Last night, Evan O'Dorney, a 13-year-old California home scholar, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The "unflappable" lad told the interviewer - Stuart Scott of ESPN - that he doesn't even like spelling. LOL. On the other hand, his mom (Evan's teacher) and dad were understandably very emotional. Congratulations to Evan and his parents - Jennifer and Michael O'Dorney - and all the contestants. And what a May it's been for the homeschooling community. One for the history books.
BTW: Winning word: "serrefine."
Scroll down (Evan appears right after the personable Jonathan Horton) for the full bio.
Update: A video of Evan spelling the winning word which also features Joseph Henares, a homeschooler from CT, who makes a funny.
What's next for Evan, besides lugging all that cash and trophy home, calculus, of course.
It's Washington, so someone's got to protest "establishment" spelling.
Timemagazine ran a "where are they now" article about former national spelling bee champs who all grew up to be solid citizens.
The piece made me think of Rebecca Sealfon of New York, the first homeschooler to win the bee in 1997.
By now, Rebecca has been Youtubed yelling the spelling of "euonym," the winning word. After her victory, she was lampooned by the South Park writers and joined a vegetarian co-op.
Wikipedia reports that she's presently a grad student, in the sciences, at Duke University.
Her MO for the spelling competition: "When she was 12, Sealfon said she studied five days a week for three to four hours a day. There are words that are continually reused in the National Spelling Bee, and she began by studying this list of words. This activity, along with a regimen of studying Latin and Greek roots and learning Latin, helped her to win the regional finals."
It's never dull in Homeschoolville, and this month has had its share of extra-exciting news. Here's another one for the mental scrapbook.
Last week, Matthew Evans of New Mexico won the National Word Power competition. Sponsored by Reader's Digest, the 12-year-old home scholar's knowledge of vocabulary words is "staggering," according to the director of the contest. Matthew was crowned champ by NBC's Al Roker and received a $25,000 college scholarship. No suprise that the vocab. guy is also a spelling phenom.
Do click on the interview Matt does with CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Speaking of Cooper, Joie Jager-Hyman, who is working on her doctorate in education at Harvard, gamely tackles the topic of home education and brings up "Alice Cooper" for her weekly contribution to the Crucial Minutiae blog.
This is her first column on the topic, and Dr.-to-be Joie is eager to learn more about "our scene." I'm sure she'd appreciate a constructive exchange, as well as reading about inspiring tidbits from homeschoolers, deschoolers, or unschoolers.
19th Annual Geography Bee: Homeschooler is the Winner
Caitlin Snaring, age 14, is the brand-new champ of the National Geographic Bee which was held in Washington, D.C. She won a $25,000 scholarship and big-time bragging rights. She's only the second girl to win the Geo. Bee. The home scholar hails from Redmond, Washington. (Scroll down for that last link.)
Congrats to Caitlin and her proud family!
P.S. The effort that is required to get to this level of competition.
Update: The championship round is now available. Tough questions, no?
Another Update: ABC has a story on Caitlin's victory, and unlike the AP story, does mention her home education background.
His name is Joey Logano, he's sixteen years old, and he drives for Joe Gibbs racing. This home scholar beat Kevin Harvick (famous NEXTEL Cup Series driver) in a stock-car race this past weekend in Iowa. From NASCAR.com: "Logano won his third Grand National Division race in four career starts in Sunday's Featherlite Coaches 200. And his latest win came over runner-up Kevin Harvick by nearly two and a half seconds -- a day after Harvick won the Nextel All-Star Challenge and three months after he won the Daytona 500."
Ok, that does it. I'm re-naming this blog "Noteworthy Moments from The View."
For the third time, in less than 2 weeks, I'm linking to something from the chick show. This clip, however, features a home scholar, Jonathan Horton.
Specifically, Jonathan, the Arizona spelling bee champ, and another skilled speller, Kavya Shivashankar, get to watch Joy Behar whip through "oxydactyl."
One Women, One Revolution: Vibrant Michelle Duggar, the uber homeschooling mom, is expecting another bambina. This is child number 17, and Michelle is only 40 years old! Wishing her a safe and speedy delivery. FYI: A current photo of the entire family.
Melissa Keeps the Faith: As many newsy homeschoolers know, Miss Busekros is back home. Now the persecuted home scholar is forthrightly talking about her clash with the obnoxious German police state.
Her mamma pays the foreign agitators a compliment. She states: "A lot of letters came from the United States. Most of the letters came from there, even with invitations to come to their house and live with them if we want to escape. This was so nice." Goes to show that encouraging folks, even in a faraway land, is not a waste of time.
Growing Without Schooling Archives Available: Vets, take a stroll down memory lane. Newbies, acquaint yourself with the writings of the late John Holt and other gems. GWS, Issue #8, circa late 1970s, is here. It starts off with John's visit to the Phil Donahue show, before the advent of e-mails and before it was 'in' to casually discuss home ed. (And kudos to Phil for having him on the show. I watched his show with the Colfaxes, and he was much more engaging and positive than the other Phil.)
Former Army Specialist/Homeschooler's Appeal is Rejected
Which also means that Michael New's decade-long legal battle has come to an end. The New family is, of course, disappointed by the Supreme's decision. Daniel New, father of Mike, publicly thanked his son's supporters, but he also delivered a parting shot at the powers-that-be: "If you are in the military, or considering enlisting, it also means that the executive branch now will feel completely at liberty to ignore the U.S. Constitution and place you in a United Nations uniform, under the command authority of a foreign officer ... In effect, you may be turned into a mercenary at the discretion of the President. You are for sale, rent, hire, or loan, as determined by the political party of the moment, and you, or your children, may be ordered to fight, bleed and possibly die for the United Nations, without due process."
Hopefully, the News can put this difficult chapter behind them and experience joie de vivre for a season.
Jessica Long was born in Siberia, currently lives in Baltimore, and is a hugely accomplished (30 world records!) swimmer. The 15-year-old home scholar is also the first Paralympian to win the prestigious Sullivan Award which honors the country's top amateur athlete. Brady Quinn, Candace Parker, Joakim Noah, and Sasha Cohen were among the athletes nominated for this year's award.
Blessed with supportive parents and siblings (she's adopted), the pretty blonde is described by her dad as "fearless." Thoroughly inspiring, too.
More about the teenager aqui, and the Paralympics aqui.
A video which features Jess in the pool and which should thoroughly shame any exercise-deprived couch potato or desk jockey into physical activity.
I received an email from J. Parnell McCarter, the father of Calvin McCarter. Remember the Michigan home scholar? He won the National Geographic Bee in 2002 and, at age 10, became the youngest contestant to do so.
Mr. McCarter shares what the ex-champ, turned teenager, is up to these days:
"Calvin is still being home schooled. He is somewhere between his sophomore and junior years in high school. His sights are on attendance at the University of Michigan School of Engineering after high school graduation. His interest in engineering has been furthered by participation this past summer in an engineering program at McMaster University, as well as involvement in some robotics competitions.
His avocation is piano, and he is to participate in the semi-final round of the MMTA (Michigan Music Teachers Association) piano competition April 21."
Glad to hear that Cal is staying the course and keeping busy with serious endeavors.
Ruth, a homeschool mom emeritus and an accomplished equestrian, is enormously talented and imaginative. She works out of a home studio often using regular folk as models (as opposed to professional art models) for the characters in her books.
The homeschooling family extraordinaire welcomes another 
Belgrade News editor, Andy Malby (in the photo), devotes 
The Hartford Courant offers 
A couple of weeks ago I 
She's only 12-years-old, but 
Get acquainted with Adam Burrows. He's 20 years old, a homeschool grad, farm hand, and mechanic. He also 
CBN News seems to be writing more frequently about home scholars. Or, at least, it seems that way to me. This 
WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER!!! Last night, Evan O'Dorney, a 13-year-old California home scholar, 
Time 
Caitlin Snaring, age 14, is the brand-new 
His name is Joey Logano, he's sixteen years old, and he drives for Joe Gibbs 
One Women, One Revolution: Vibrant Michelle Duggar, the uber homeschooling mom, is expecting another 
Growing Without Schooling Archives Available: Vets, take a stroll down memory lane. Newbies, acquaint yourself with the writings of the late John Holt and other gems. GWS, Issue #8, circa late 1970s, is 
Blessed with supportive parents and siblings (she's 
