In each of these activities, some topics may apply more to you than others. Feel free to spend more time on some and less on others.

Reading Assignment

Please read the following chapters:

Chapter 6 - Answering the Socialization Question

Chapter 5 - Understanding Unschooling and Unit Studies.

Unschooling can be scary--it sounds so irresponsible! But Sherri Linsenbach does a great job soothing responsible parents into this powerful form of education. This is one of my favorite chapters! :)

Home Sweet School: Seceding from School found in Time Magazine, August, 2001.

You'll find the article at this link. You may want to print this out for your class binder. Even though it was written a number of years ago, it has a good sense of both sides of the issue and the history of homeschooling.

Finding Resources in Your Area ☼

Let's take a look to find out what support groups are in your area. These form quickly and new ones emerge as the home schooling trend grows.

Go to www.google.com

• Search for home school [your town]

• Then Search for homeschool [your town]

Saving Sites

Depending on how you access the Internet, you should be able to save Favorite Sites. You may want to create a Favorite Home School Sites folder for things you find. I've often gone back to things at a later date. If you are working through Internet Explorer to take this class, here are the steps for creating a folder and saving Favorites:

Creating a Folder in Internet Explorer

• From the Main Menu bar at the top of the screen, choose Favorites

• Choose Organize Favorites

• Click Create a Folder and name it Home Schooling

• Click Close

If you don't see your list of Favorites displayed on the left edge of your screen, follow these steps:

• From the Main Menu bar at the top, click View
• Choose Explorer Bar and then Favorites.
• It should now be displayed.

You should see a list of folders, including your new Home Schooling one, and you simply click on that folder to save the site in that folder.

If you don't see the list of folders, click the Create In box next to the Naming box and it should display.

Social Skills in Demand

We've talked and read about social skills and socialization, but those are general terms. I'd like you to create a list of 5 specific things you'd like your children to know how to do in social settings.

• Be specific! "Be Polite" is a general term. "Know how to shake hands when introduced to someone new" is a specific term.

• Make the list of five things. Over the coming week, take a few minutes to spend time teaching your children how to do those things, one each day. Demonstrate, role play, give them opportunities to practice and, then, see if they use those skills on their own when socializing.
• If you'd like to make the project fun, write each skill on a piece of paper and fold them up in a jar. Let a child pick from the jar to decide which one they'll learn that day.

Gail Martin has written a book entitled What Every Child Should Know Along the Way. It is strongly religious, but if that is not your preference, it still may be worth acquiring. It has the most wonderful series of lists of age-appropriate tasks, life skills, manners, and safety skills that I've seen. I've found all kinds of things that I wouldn't have thought of! You'll find this book available from Growing Families International at this site:

Go to http://www.gfi.org/java/jsp/cust_store.jsp