BellaOnline.com
Homeschooling Newsletter
Meg Grooms, Editor
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August 24, 2006

Contents:
-Dear Reader
-Featured Articles
-BONUS CONTENT
-Site of the week
-Visit our Forums
-Links of interest
-Closing

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Dear Reader,

Hello! Welcome to another homeschooling newsletter.

We're experiencing homeschooling at it's best in action right here in northwest Georgia! Last night the kids were playing in the woods behind our house and found some animal bones and started excavating (I think it's really gross but my husband is in his glory with them digging through the mud, he is an anthropologist, after all!)

During the excavating process our three year old managed to step on some sort of bee hive and was swarmed. Thankfully she was stung only six times (I say only because I counted twelve bees on her pants when we got her inside) and did not have any sort of allergic reaction, but she is quite sore and itchy today. This is how homeschooling works best...free play turns into science turns into first aid!

Yesterday I was sitting at the midwife's waiting room and decided to pen an article in my free time. I decided to write about the stereotypes homeschoolers face. This was prompted by the comments readers left at the following news article: http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/articles/2006/08/22/news/news02.txt (see if you can figure out which comment left is mine!)

Boy was I ever surprised at how much I started writing. I asked a girlfriend to help me out with some stereotypes. Between the two of us we came up with so many that I didn't have room for them all! I picked the top eight (or 5 pages of content) and went with those. I have started a thread in the homeschooling forum (accessible through http://homeschooling.bellaonline.com) for us to discuss what stereotypes we have faced and how we deal with them.

I hope this newsletter find you well and having fun in your homeschool journey!

Warmly,
Meg

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Featured Articles

Combating Homeschool Stereotypes
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art45409.asp
All of us confront stereotypes face-to-face every day. Perhaps the reason is our faith, our ethnicity, our lifestyle or our hobbies. At one time or another all homeschooling families have had to combat a stereotype, and there are many stereotypes about homeschooling.
*Note from Meg – this article was written in five parts. Please click “continue” on the bottom of each individual article page to keep reading! Thanks!

Book Review: The Mislabeled Child
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art45056.asp
In today´s world of ADHD escapism, learning disability over-diagnosis and medication-happy classroom environments, this book is a much needed and called for resource for frazzled and frustrated parents.

Curriculum Review: HomeschoolLearning.com
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art45031.asp
HomeschoolLearning.com is an online curriculum designed to provide an education comparable to pricier curriculums at an affordable price.

Curriculum Review: Brighter Vision
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art44728.asp
Brighter Vision is a curriculum company that operates on a monthly subscription basis. BV offers the first month free with no strings, so I ordered the toddler and preschool packages. Normally I don't order curriculum for this young age but since I already have everything for my older child's upcoming school year I decided to try the younger set.

Main Homeschooling Page, Forum and Article Archives
http://homeschooling.bellaonline.com

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BONUS!!!

Ok, so I don't normally hand out recipes in the newsletter. I made an exception today, however. When you read the link of the newsletter (below), you'll understand!

Good Old Fashioned Sweet Cornbread

This recipe is easily adaptable to meet vegetarian, vegan and allergy diet requirements, just use common sense.

This is definitely not your boring old cornbread recipe. I remember in school the cafeteria would serve cornbread a few times a year. I grew up in the northeast, no one ate cornbread. The cafeteria workers would try to disguise it as cake by icing it or sprinkling powdered sugar on top. Let me tell you, that went over about as well as the times they tried to give us prunes for dessert!

I live in the south now, cornbread is a staple (it's also good for you) but it can be so bland and boring. I LOVE this cornbread and my kids love it too! I love it so much, in fact, that we're having it for dinner tonight! Leftovers double as a great breakfast.

Good Old Fashioned Sweet Cornbread

1 1/4 c white flour
3/4 c yellow corn meal
4 Tbsp sugar
5 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c milk
2 Tbsp bacon fat or butter

Grease 9" pie plate with bacon fat and preheat oven to 375, place greased pie plate in warm oven while prepaing ingredients. (note: you can just toss the fat into the pan and let it melt in the oven to speed the greasing process up a bit)

Sift dry ingredients together.

Beat egg with milk and add to dry stuff.

Stir well.

Place mix in warmed pan.

Bake 30-35 minutes at 375 degrees


HAVE FUN and let me know how you like the cornbread!

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Link of the newsletter!

How has cooking changed over the years? Do we prepare green beans prepared the same way our ancestors did?

Here is a timeline of cooking and cooking methods, I hope it inspires you and your children to research more and try new ideas!

http://www.geocities.com/napavalley/6454/history1.html

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Visit our Forums!

Want to meet other homeschooling parents?
Check out our homeschooling forum!

http://homeschooling.bellaonline.com (at the bottom of the page!)

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Links of Interest

Early Childhood – http://earlychildhood.bellaonline.com
Preschool – http://preschool.bellaonline.com
School Reform – http://schoolreform.bellaonline.com
Art Appreciation – http://artappreciation.bellaonline.com
Attachment Parenting – http://attachmentparenting.bellaonlline.com
Education channel – http://www.bellaonline.com/Channel/c4.asp

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Closing

Thank you for reading this far ;)
Questions, comments, feedback?
Contact me here: http://www.bellaonline.com/about/Homeschooling

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