Any Homeschoolers Here?

[Rosie the Riveter]

Kate-

Back on topic - we homeschool 3 kids and are active with the Londonderry Homeschool group and the New Hampshire Homeschool coalition.

Well, after all that resisting she did decide to remain at her private school. I am an unschooler at heart and encourge my children to take the lead in their education.  Hopefully someday we'll be homeschooling again.

I hear great things about your group in Londonderry. You are lucky to have such an active group.

Kate

[Lloyd Danforth]

I'm trying to remember this guy. Are you sure it was 2005 and not 2004? I seem to remember someone from 2004 that sorta matched your description.

Cathleen

Woops! did I say 2005?  I meant the P'fest before last.

[jgmaynard]

There's a NH homeschool group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewHampshirehomeschool

JM

[Pat McCotter]

In Concord there is the Homeschool Scholars Bookstore & Family Activity Center

[davemincin]

I'm trying to remember this guy. Are you sure it was 2005 and not 2004? I seem to remember someone from 2004 that sorta matched your description.

Cathleen

Correct, it was two Porcs ago.  We got him a ride with some folks from CA, to IN were he had a sister.  Last we have heard from him.  He was thinking he could come to NH, and live off some of the folks?

[Nash]

Now that the mayor (Nashua) is cutting back, how can we start pushing to close the schools?

[Kat Kanning]

Hmm...some ideas:

Encourage people to sign the Separation of School and State proclamation:  http://sepschool.org/ (60 more signatures will make NH the top signing state..it's in second place now)
Write letters to the editor about the need to get government out of our children's education.
Look for ways to help families escape the public schools, such as the Liberty Scholarship Fund http://lsfund.org
Look for ways to promote homeschooling and private schools, such as holding an education fair.
Hand out flyers giving your reasons for closing the public schools.
Call in to talk radio and suggest closing the schools.

[marcyb1]

I homeschooled my two children for 7 years. They both say it was one of the best things I did for them. I also taught a few other kids on a summer term basis and two I took in for full year terms. Homeschooling is like anything else, we have to be responsible if we don't want the government to intervene. Having said that, I was much more of a free school mindset - even though we did certain "basics" I encouraged them mostly to love learning and to be critical thinkers.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I'm trying to remember this guy. Are you sure it was 2005 and not 2004? I seem to remember someone from 2004 that sorta matched your description.

Cathleen

Correct, it was two Porcs ago.  We got him a ride with some folks from CA, to IN were he had a sister.  Last we have heard from him.  He was thinking he could come to NH, and live off some of the folks?

As I was reading this I wondered what happened to 'Chicken Man' from last summer

[Pat McCotter]

Just for kids
   
A 'mini Main Street' 
New children's museum will be a place to learn 

By LISA ARSENAULT
Monitor staff
June 01. 2006 8:00AM

Two Concord art teachers hope their new Main Street children's museum will be like looking into a kaleidoscope: Children and parents will enter a colorful world of creative activities of all shapes and sizes.

Karen McCormack and Michelle Carignan's Kaleidoscope Children's Museum will have no televisions or video games. They hope it will be a place where children and parents play together while the kids learn basic math and art skills.

The target age group will be toddlers to first- and second-graders. Children will be able to climb into a tree house packed with musical instruments and then slide into a castle with a built-in stage stocked with costumes. They can walk a mini Main Street that will include a fire station, bakery, veterinarian's office, auto shop and beauty shop. And they'll be able to walk a plank on a pirate's ship.

"We tried to think of things we know as teachers are good for children of these ages," Carignan said. "We wanted to make it as diversified as possible, the many facets of creativity. That's where the kaleidoscope thing comes in."

The two women met in seventh grade at Rundlett Middle School. Now, they teach elementary art in the same school district and plan to open the museum by July.

McCormack and Carignan are converting a 2,400-square-foot space at 8 S. Main St., which last housed a trophy shop that moved out last summer. They plan to pack the entire space with interactive play stations, a theater stage and an art area. They will hold weeklong summer art camps, birthday parties, small concerts and readings with children's authors.
"We don't want a single space that's not filled with something the kids can do," Carignan said.

For a $6 charge at the door, parents and their children can visit the museum. For a $100 yearly membership fee, they can come anytime.

McCormack and Carignan came up with the idea for the museum this winter. Both women have children under the age of 6, and they were talking about how there aren't enough local places to bring children for a fun day out. Chuck E. Cheese is better for children a little bit older. The other places they like to bring their children, including the Portsmouth Children's Museum and Children's Metamorphosis in Derry, are a longer drive away.

Each has taken a leave of absence from teaching next year to get the museum off the ground. At the end of the year, they will decide whether they can do both jobs.

By word of mouth this spring, they have already filled most of the summer art camp sessions. They have already been talking with the Capitol Center for the Arts and Concord Hospital about programming they might offer next year.

Nan Hagen, executive director of the downtown enhancement group Main Street Concord, said the museum is great idea for the area.

"As I've come to learn, Concord is a very family-oriented town,"Hagen said.

[Pat McCotter]

BTW, everybody, Homeschool Bookstore and Family Activity Center has left Concord and moved to Chichester.

[Kelly Halldorson]

My daughter has begun resisting school and we'll probably return to homeschooling soon. She wanted to try school again, but obviously it's not working out.  She says "Different School, Same Story". She is so much more aware than she knows...

Anyway, since we'll be back to homeschooling soon, are their any Liberty minded homeschoolers in the Manchester area?

Kate

I'm a bit of a ways away from you (Dover) but we homeschool.

[Dreepa]

Hey Kelly,

Welcome to the Forum!

[Kelly Halldorson]

Hey Kelly,

Welcome to the Forum!

Thanks! I'm going to try and stop by more often.

[Kat Kanning]

I prefer to do business with private schools.