Feeling More "At Sea" than You'd Like? We've Got Anchors!
We who teach our kids know the benefits. Choosing and changing curriculum, encouraging our speedy learners, supporting our challenged learners - fantastic! But the very individuality we love means we can feel self-doubt and very alone in our own individualized boats. We know this first hand. So, we've created many anchors for you at our site. Try our Forums for support from other families, our Support Subscription, our Columns, and our free custom home school planner, PER (Plan/Educate/Record). PER helps you anchor yourself by creating a visible yesterday, today and tomorrow of what you're doing in your school. We're here to help!

Are You Working?
Of course! Every day is full. And though it's not widely talked about, many homeschool teaching parents are also employed in some way. If this is true for you, or if you suddenly need to earn extra income, please know that you're not alone. While it's tough, take heart. It also can be do-able. Many homeschool moms also work either part-time, in a cottage industry at home, a family business, on projects, and in other ways. Some common sideline occupations are these: evening office work at medical practices and emergency rooms; teaching music lessons; tax preparation during tax season; home party selling such as The Pampered Chef, book lines, and craft products; and all manner of family businesses such as bee-keeping, farming, tailoring and upholstering. Some moms teach classes to children from other homeschooling families.

Another major source for homeschool moms to earn extra income is through home day-care and tutoring. Let's take a closer look. There can be additional benefits to our children when we have a sideline job. Children who see their parents getting ready for work, and see them dealing with the challenges of employment, learn up close many a life skill involved in getting a job, doing it well, and keeping a job.

While teaching my daughter (K-12), during most of those years, I earned extra income for our family through a variety of writing-related projects. During some years I wrote local newspaper news stories by attending evening park board and school board meetings. Then at home I wrote up the news stories for the local papers. I saw benefits accrue, not only to my child, but to other homeschooled children as well. Sometimes I brought my daughter and her friends to these board meetings to broaden their knowledge of local government. They saw me taking notes and interviewing people. Sometimes they too joined in and asked more questions. Later, they saw me writing many drafts and finally being proud of a finished piece. In our house everyone came to learn that a first draft is never the final draft -- for mom or for anyone else!

Life skills come from many areas. Seeing mom's or dad's employment, their employment paths, their ups and downs, and the skills they gain -- up close -- is one of them!

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Virginia Vagt is a writer, speaker, editor and 13-year veteran homeschooling mom. Click here to read selections from Vagt's Be Encouraged column or, for additional resources, visit www.HomeFieldAdvantage.org.

Remembering the RMS Titanic
At the time, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world and with an on-board swimming pool, gymnasium, Turkish bath, multiple libraries, a squash court and richly appointed staterooms, White Star Line's Titanic was also considered one of the most luxurious. On Wednesday, April 10, 1912, the Titanic set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, with Captain Edward J. Smith in command. After boarding additional passengers in Cherbourg, France and Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland, the Titanic set her course for New York City. Approximately 2,200 passengers and crew members were on board.

On Sunday, April 14, 1912, at 11:40 p.m., the Titanic - traveling 23 m.p.h. under clear skies and calm waters - was ripped open after colliding with an iceberg. Earlier messages from nearby ships cautioning the Titanic about dangerous icebergs in its path failed to reach the captain. By the time the "lookouts" spotted the iceberg, it was too late.

Titanic's 20 lifeboats would accommodate a little more than half of all people on board. Yet as the boats were lowered into the North Atlantic, some confused the call on deck as a safety drill and decided to stay inside rather than face the cold temperatures. Others saw no imminent danger and chose to stay on board the ship rather than climb into the small boats rocking on the frigid water. Women and children were loaded first and sadly, not all boats were filled to capacity as they drifted away from the sinking ship.

The Titanic sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912. Approximately 1,500 were lost in one of the worst maritime disasters in history. The survivors - just over 700 - were rescued by the RMS Carpathia and arrived safely in New York on April 18.

Affordable and Effective Help for Your Struggling Reader
Some children who struggle with learning to read or doing math seem to be bright, agile learners in every other way. Struggling readers may have 20/20 vision and yet may also have a variety of visual skill deficits. 

Eye Can Too! Read, a creative e-book series by optometric vision therapist Lesley Barker, is uniquely designed for homeschool families and features a wealth of specific graded activities (Pre K-8th Grade) for your core curriculum, explanations of the visual skills related to learning, specific tips on how to observe your student's performance as they do these activities, and information on professionals who can provide more in-depth help.

The series is available as a PDF download for $19.95 per title. Purchase all three e-books for the special price of $53.85. Click here to read more about the entire Eye Can Too! Read series or to purchase.