Lighting Fires for Homeschoolers

Hey!

I just got an email from my friend, Cindy Rushton. She is “pumped” about her Ultimate Homeschool Expo resource library. Actually, she is so “pumped” that she has just shared a sneak peek into her Membership Site.

You see one of the neat things about the Ultimate Homeschool Expo is that everything is ONLINE as more than a convention–it is the ULTIMATE homeschool resource library.

With every online event that Cindy plans, she builds a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the UHSE in one place–it has audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can’t believe all of the things that we receive for only $39.95. It is truly ULTIMATE!

Anyway, back to the reason that I am sharing with you…

Cindy just sent me permission to give you a sampler of one of her free gifts that is included on the Membership Site. I am so excited to give it to you! It is a audio and ebook set that she actually sells on her website, but she is giving away on the Membership Site. Here is the link:

Let’s Get Ready for a New School Year Super Set!

Let’s Get Ready for the New School Year Mommy Planner…
Ebook by Cindy Rushton

Need some help gearing up for the new school year? Wish you had a friend to take you by the hand and help you plan your year? You will LOVE this! It includes a quick Mommy Planner with a potpourri of planning sheets from all of Cindy’s products to help you get started on the right track with your homeschool planning. It is full of goodies! AND YOURS…

Download Part One
http://www.cindyrushton.com/pdfs/GearingUp1.pdf

Download Part Two
http://www.cindyrushton.com/pdfs/GearingUp2.pdf

PLUS! Companion Audio!
Let’s Get Ready for a New School Year–Audio

Download by Mp3
http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/GetReadyNewSchoolYear.mp3

Isn’t that FUN?

You know the saying that a picture captures a thousand words,well…what about a a gift like this??? And, just think…this is only ONE of the awesome gifts included on the Membership Site. There are hundreds more!

Take my word for it, you will WANT a ticket to this event and access to all of the wonderful resources. Grab your ticket here:

http://www.cindysaffiliates.com/go.php?offer=hsmom3&pid=25

I can hardly wait to see you there during this awesome event! Meet me in the chat room and say hello!

Orilla

Looking for some helpful and fun material, we have a suggestion, “The 2008 Schoolhouse Planner Useful Excerpts”.

This is a very wonderful ebook that has been put together by The Old Schoolhouse.  They have it setup for monthly areas.  Here is what you will find:

• A special topic of interest for help how to teach and make it easier for you and your student(s), ex. “To Make Math Stick”.

• Recipes for your family to experiment and try, all us love a new recipe!

• A store resources list for that month, they have unit studies, ebooks, etc.

• Important United States Documents, ex. The Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the Gettysburg Address, and others.

This 78 page ebook will be helpful to use over and over, we highly recommend it. To purchase it go to http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com.http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com.

MATCH board wants to personally thank FHE and HSLDA for all the work that they put into this rally. Thank you for those that attended the event and to those that weren’t able to attend but prayed. It takes everyone to help keep this freedom and with God’s help we will.
—————–

FHE’s Rally at the Capitol Demanding Changes to SB 291
Late afternoon on May 13th, due to the only to the Grace of God, FHE’s newest Regional Director was listening to the Mo House debate a bill of interest. After the debate was done, she continued to listen and learned of a change to Missouri’s “Home School” law. She alerted FHE’s Executive Director, who immediately called FHE’s lobbyist. The change would have allowed DESE to monitor and regulate home schools during high school, and would have controlled curriculum and when a student was no longer under the statute.

FHE and HSLDA coordinated, sending out alerts within minutes of each other. The alerts were forwarded and the FHE Board and many of our families changed plans and arranged to be in Jefferson City on Thursday, May 14. Meanwhile, our lobbyist (the ONLY registered home school lobbyist in Jeff) worked late into the night hammering out a “fix”.

On May 14, the weather was perfect, and an estimated 2000 home schoolers were on the front lawn of the Capitol at 1 pm. (The KC Star article says “hundreds”, but I guess 20 hundred is “hundreds”. The Star also misrepresents what the final bill does.) After opening with prayer the crowd was briefed on what the current status was for the bill, then Kerry explained the compromise amendment to which all had agreed. The House sponsor apologized for any problem his language caused home educators, as that was never his intent. He also promised the assembled crowd that if our “fix” was not adopted, he would pull the bill, killing it for 2009. About 1:30, we began a “walk around the legislature.” Parading all 2000 home educators thru the Capitol took over one hour! About 2:45, SB 291 was introduced, amended (as promised) and passed. Later in the evening of the 14th, the Senate passed it, and it is on its way to the Governor’s desk. (We also got language that clarifies that the county prosecutor is the ONLY person who can review home school records.)

Several legislators remarked that they had never seen such a large group, and the capitol police said they had never seen such a respectful protest! Thank you to all who came, to all who couldn’t but prayed, to Sheryl Schmidt, Kerry Messer, Scott Woodruff (of HSLDA) and to all the Directors, support group leaders and faithful supporters who passed the word. You made this happen, and the Lord has blessed your efforts.

This was sent to us by Brad Haines, Director of FHE

There is only ONE registered homeschool lobbyist in Jefferson City. He is Kerry Messer, with FHE and Missouri Family Network. This Rally and this potential threat are REAL!!!

FHE needs all homeschoolers that can make it to the capitol by 1PM tomorrow to meet on the Capitol Steps. HSLDA sent the alert at FHE’s request.

To find the FHE Executive Director and fellow home educators, look for the 1776 Bennington Flag. The American Flag with ‘76 in the blue field.

If you do not attend the Rally, pray for your lobbyist and fellow homeschoolers!

In Christ Service to Home Educators,
Brad and Deana Haines
FHE Executive Directors

Scott Woodruff at HSLDA has asked me to send this out on his behalf:

Dear HSLDA members and friends,

The rally at the capitol steps scheduled for 1 PM tomorrow, May 14, is
definitely on!

This rally is being jointly called by FHE and HSLDA, who are working
together closely on this urgent issue. If you receive information from
any other person or organization, it may not be reliable.

I have heard a report of an individual who sent out an email supposedly
referring to “3 homeschool lobbyists.” This email did not come from,
nor was it authorized by, FHE or HSLDA. To the extent this email
conflicts with information FHE and HSLDA have distributed, I urge you to
disregard it.

Update: there is a chance the bill will be amended tomorrow to remove
the harm to homeschoolers. But it is not certain. We need you at the
rally more than ever to convince lawmakers that the bill must be
defeated or amended!

Please come to the rally as FHE and HSLDA have urged. Your presence is
essential to prevent a attack on your liberty.

Sincerely Yours,
Scott A. Woodruff, HSLDA Staff Attorney

=======================================================
>From the HSLDA E-lert Service…
=======================================================
Missouri–Emergency Rally Tomorrow, May 14 in Jefferson City–Urgent!

HSLDA Members and Friends,

We urgently need your attendance at a rally tomorrow on the steps of the Capitol in Jefferson City at 1 p.m. to stop an extremely serious threat that has emerged with literally no warning. There is no time for phone calls or emails to be effective. We need thousands of homeschoolers physically present tomorrow!

This dramatic threat would massively increase government control over homeschooling. Every homeschooled child (except those in St. Louis City)–whether 16, 17, 18, 19, or 20–would be subject to compulsory school attendance until they could prove to the state’s satisfaction that they had completed “sixteen credits towards high school graduation.”

This would suddenly give the state power to control and define what a homeschool “credit” is. It would immediately give the state power to control what is required for homeschool graduation. This would destroy liberty for homeschoolers in Missouri on an unprecedented scale and cause unimaginable problems.

ACTION REQUESTED

We need 5,000 homeschoolers tomorrow at 1 p.m. on the steps of the Capitol in Jefferson City to send a message: VOTE NO ON S.B. 291. Car pool if possible to make parking easier for others. Forward this to other homeschoolers.

BACKGROUND

The legislature closes this Friday. This bill could be voted on late Thursday or Friday. S.B. 291 posed no threat to homeschoolers until it was very recently amended to add the credit and graduation provision. Immediate action is required. Families for Home Education (FHE) joins HSLDA in calling for this rally. Brad Haines of FHE will lead the
rally.

This is our hour of need. Can you set everything else aside for freedom and be ready in a minute, like the minutemen of old?

Thank you for standing with us for freedom!

Sincerely,
Scott Woodruff

======================================================================
The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of:

Home School Legal Defense Association
P.O. Box 3000
Purcellville, Virginia 20134
Phone: (540) 338-5600
Fax: (540) 338-2733
Email: info@hslda.org
Web: http://www.hslda.org

Are you a mom of a tween daughter ages 9 to 12? Then you’ll want to be at the Faithgirlz Tour, featuring nationally-known speaker and tween expert Nancy Rue, coming to Woodcrest Chapel in Columbia Saturday May 9! This special morning out for moms and daughters, youth groups and leaders will be filled with fun, prizes, a craft and messages from Nancy Rue. Nancy has spoken at Match’s SHEM conference a few years ago and she can’t wait to share ideas with you and your tween on Girl Politics, Friendship Flubs, Body Talk and understanding God’s love.  She has written over 100 books such as Everyone Tells Me to Be Myself, But I Don’t Know Who I Am - and her latest book, Dear Nancy.  Your tween may also know her from her Sophie and Here’s Lily novels, and more recently, her Lucy novels.

The Faithgirlz Tour at Woodcrest Chapel in Columbia, is Saturday May 9 from 9 am until 11:30. Tickets are $10 each and include a book and giftbag for each attendee! More information can be found at www.Faithgirlz.com/tour or by calling
573-445-1131.  Purchase tickets online at www.woodcrest.org Bring a friend!  Mention that you saw this on MATCH when you check in at the church, and you’ll receive a free 5×7 signed photo of you with Nancy at the event!

Starting tomorrow morning, MATCH has cut the membership yearly fee from $25/year to $10.  This offer is only available from tomorrow morning until May 1st.  We hope that you will sign up during this time and also sign up for a friend.  This is the lowest the membership dues have ever been and may be to lowest for awhile.

We will be at the SHEM convention in Springfield April 23-25 at the MATCH booth.  Come check us out and see what all goodies we have at our table.  Everything at our booth is free, except for the membership.  We will be holding drawings throughout the day on Friday and Saturday.  We have 103 items to give away this year and you won’t want to miss out on them.

To take advantage of the discounted membership and pay by PayPal go to http://www.match-inc.org/application.html and you can pay by credit card there.  We will only accept cash or check at the convention.

Looking forward to seeing many of you there that we have come to love over the years and meet new ones.

Blessings,

The Crider family

We are very excited about the upcoming SHEM convention that will start on Thursday evening, April 23 and go through April 25.  We look forward to seeing many of you during this great event.  You will want to make sure to visit our booth and take part in the drawings that we have going Friday and Saturday.  We will be giving away 103 items.

You can renew your membership for only $10 during the convention and also sign up a friend while you are there.  This is the lowest we have ever had our membership fee.  We are trying to make it as low as possible to help those that want to join but just don’t have the $25.

Read the extra newsletter on the convention at http://www.match-inc.org/april09extramatchnews.pdf.

Blessings,
The Crider Family

All-

PLEASE, Pass this on to EVERY home educator you know in Missouri, or who had a Home School Grad in Mo that applied for a position w/ ANY Missouri “political subdivision” and was told they had to get a GED to qualify.

A “Political subdivision” is a fire dept, police or sheriff’s dept, city street crew, etc, for positions that the entry level would typically requires only a high school diploma. In some cases, additional training may have been available and taken, but the hiring entity still required a GED (or diploma from an “accredited” high school.) A case in point (and if you know the grads involved, put them in touch with us) was 2-3 years back, the KC Fire Dept refused to allow two home school grads into the fire academy, despite graduating from home school in Missouri AND passing a technical school fire training program AND getting acceptable scores on the application exam. THE KCFD hires KC district grads, despite the fact KC has not been accredited for years.

We need as many stories, with as much detail as you are comfortable with (first hand knowledge only, no second person accounts). IE, the grad or parent, something about which or someone you know personally, and you were party to DIRECT information when it occurred. Please, no stories about what you heard from your support group leader or next door neighbor. If that is the situation, please have THEM contact us.

Include when, what “sub-division”, what position was being applied for, what the grad was told, what they chose to do (get the GED, pass up the opportunity, try elsewhere, or another state, etc.) Also, what was the final outcome (got the job, did well, got it but experienced discrimination, felt passed over, etc.)

Send your account of the occurrence to my email, or to mofamnet@ldd.net (Subject line: URGENT GED-Pol-Sub-Div occurrence).

We must have as many stories as possible no later than NOON on April 7th, 2009. We have a committee hearing for which these situations will be critical.

It is time for the premier Missouri Grads to be treated like first tier candidates, not third.

In Christ’s Service to Home Educators,

Brad L. Haines
Executive Director
Families For Home Education
(877) MY MO FHE (877-696-6343)
PO Box 742, Grandview, Mo 64030