I am totally stealing that blog title but I am going to direct you to where I found it. It’s at a blog titled “Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers”– I just love that name! There is a picture of kids wearing tee shirts with that on them- you can find out how to get your own at that site too. But, while you are there, check out this post- titled “How Do You Know?” How does one know what level your child is reading on? Curious? At the end of the post there are two links to simple tests you can give your child at home.

If there is someone in your life who is a little, shall we say, concerned about your child’s education then you can breezily say “Oh, Junior is in 2nd grade but his tested reading level is the 11th grade.” Or you can use the tests to see progress- sometimes we lose sight of the little gains that are being made. It’s not about reading on a certain grade level but learning to read so that it is a love and a pleasure to the child in years to come.

It’s the time of year again when the question comes up- “Do we have to notify the Education Service District (ESD) that we are homeschooling this year and how do we do that?”

In order to answer that question, I’ll provide a few links. In the “Link” section of this page you will see one for the Umatilla Morrow ESD. That link will take you directly to their homeschool page. They have what information is needed for a letter and also a handy form you can fill out and mail in. Their address is there also.

Confused about when you have to inform them? The Oregon Department of Education provides that information on their home school page. The pdf is titled “Oregon Guidelines for Home Schooling- Questions and Answers“.

Another site that also explains Oregon requirements is this one at OCEANetwork.org.

I found some interesting reading out there in Internet Land- here are some links:

To get you thinking about “Back to School Planning” (did I just hear a big groan?) here is the Charlotte Mason Carnival- Back to Schooling Bash at On Our Journey Westward. There are a great many articles for you to sort through and I’m sure you’ll find something of interest, even if you aren’t following the Charlotte Mason method.

What makes a bad homeschool day? Guilt Free Homeschooling examines that question in an appropriately titled post- What made this a “bad” homeschool day? There are some ideas worth thinking about in this article.

Finally, Why Homeschool highlights an article that examines the question “Why Homeschoolers threaten our Cultural Comfort” and points us to a post by Judy that contemplates the question further in “Judy responds to why many hate homeschoolers.”

Go check them out and come back and tell us what you think.