We are in the middle of kid transitions.  2 started dual credit courses this week at the community college.  (More about that further down.) Another is here (most of the time) before transiting to her new adventures.  And 3 households (albeit 2 of them are apartment size belongings) are fit into our big house and adjacent buildings until further notice.  Who needs to re-decorate when I have so many choices with former student housing decor/grandparent castoffs?  4 cats are also part of our inheritance  caretaking duties. 

Blogging has been taking the backseat.  But we’re working on the situation behind the scenes regarding Regional Offices of Education that blatantly demand over-compliance from Illinois homeschoolers.  More to report later.

Our older kids have also taken dual credit classes, but did them online.  Our youngest, always homeschooled kids wanted to be in a classroom with their peers.  We were all a bit shocked that the boys were initiated into their English classes with the professors’ introduction that they were "liberal" "left-wing" "tree-hugging" errrr….English teachers.  One asked the class to write an essay about their personal political views and their family’s political views.  Seems as if there could be a less loaded assessment possibility.  The other was asked in a different class with a different professor - what 3 challenges they have had regarding ethnic, racial, gender biases.  And yes indeedy, back in the day, when the husband and I took freshman English class, I had no clue about my teacher’s political leanings. I did know the expectations were lots of writing with proper grammar, punctuation, spelling and such. 

There have been several links and articles that have caught my eye or been sent along.  I need to clear the computer window clutter, and give that information heed.  Then I can go back to tomato canning, salsa concocting, and applesauce simmering (and smellin’). 

It appears that Illinois is not the only state with non-trustworthy public officials passing along proper information to questioning homeschoolers (and others).  The Wisconsin Parents Association notes this below:

To maintain our homeschooling freedoms, do only the minimum required by law. Doing more than the minimum encourages public officials to increase requirements for homeschoolers and exceed the authority they have been granted by law.

Illinois does not have to notify that we’re homeschooling, unless our kids are transferring out of a public school to homeschool.  Wisconsin does need to notify, which makes the paper trail trickier up north than here.  But this good advice from WPA about doing the minimum required and no more is appropriate counsel to homeschoolers.  I wish all Illinois homeschool groups would consider this warning rather than visiting namby-pambyville.  Here’s WPA:

You do not need to submit a form for children until the year during which they are six years old on or before September 1. WPA recommends that parents NOT report children who are younger than six, even if they are submitting a form for older children. Again, this is doing the minimum the law requires. It also may help minimize the chances that your local school district will contact you for information about these children or pressure you to have them screened. (For more on problems with screening, see the WPA handbook, page 219.)

• For accurate information about homeschooling and Wisconsin’s homeschooling law, contact WPA. Do not contact the DPI. Much of the information about homeschooling on the DPI’s Web site is inaccurate or misleading; homeschoolers should not trust it. The DPI and the educational establishment have been opposing and misrepresenting the rights and responsibilities of homeschoolers since before the current homeschooling law was passed in 1984. Although they have grudgingly made certain corrections in the information they distribute, they still are not a trustworthy source of information about homeschooling.

Not a trustworthy source of information indeed.  They’re job protectors (their own).  We’re parents and families. 
By the way, WPA put out a richly enlightening pamphlet that I am delighted to see available on-line.  Kitchen Tables and Marble Halls is one good read for those interested in preserving family rights and freedoms.  Wisconsin Parents Association were wise in the selection of their name.  Sometimes I’ve felt homeschoolers diligent in protecting homeschooling freedoms do just as much in protecting public school family freedoms, as well.  This below is from Kitchen Tables and Marble Halls preface:

Kitchen Tables and Marble Halls is the exciting story of ordinary parents accomplishing extraordinary victories for their families and for posterity against great odds. It is a story of how committed people have risen above individual differences in areas as fundamental as curriculum, politics, religion, and philosophy to form a grassroots organization that safeguards the right of parents to homeschool according to their principles and beliefs.

Kitchen Tables and Marble Halls is also a call for homeschoolers to understand their history, including the courage, sacrifice, and principles that undergird it. This booklet offers new and experienced homeschoolers a chance not merely to marvel at what has been accomplished and have a vicarious or nostalgic experience of that history, but also to gain or renew our commitment to what will be required of us for this story to continue and for this history not to have been lived in vain.