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Texas Home School Coalition Leader Letter
October Leader Letter
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in this issue
-- Make Your Plans to Attend Now!
-- Scholarships for this Year’s Leadership Retreat
-- An Answer to an Oft-asked Question
-- What About Dads? -- Creating the Image Society Has of Home Schoolers -- Let Us Know What You Think
Dear Leader, September 2006 |
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Make Your Plans to Attend Now! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We would like to invite you to join us at the annual
THSC Leadership Retreat which will be held
the last weekend of October, the 27th-29th, at the
beautiful T Bar M
Resort and Conference Center near New
Braunfels. This has always been a great time for
leaders to get together and to be encouraged by one
another. We are really excited about the venue this
year. There are plenty of hotel rooms for our group,
and the facilities are very pleasant.This year’s theme is Raising the Bar. We have some great workshops planned to help give the vision and the tools for raising the standards for our groups and our home schools. We have lots of time in the schedule for networking with groups similar to yours, to give you time to share ideas and ask questions of those who have “been there, done that.” As an attendee at a past retreat said, “I have thoroughly enjoyed every Leadership Retreat I have attended over the past five years. I appreciate everything the leaders of THSC have provided for my personal learning and spiritual growth in a home school leadership position.” The deadline for registration is October12th. If you cannot go, I would encourage you to make an effort to facilitate some of your board attending. It will be a blessing to them and to your group as well. |
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Scholarships for this Year’s Leadership Retreat ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, we are offering scholarships again this year. THSC works hard to keep the expenses as low as possible, and we charge participants only enough to cover their own expenses, so that as many leaders as possible might be able to attend. However, we do have a limited amount of scholarship money, so we are making scholarships available first to leaders who have never come to the THSC Leadership Retreat before. (We hope that those who have been to the retreat before are so convinced about the benefit of attending that they have saved $10/month over the past year!) So, if you have board members who need help getting to the retreat, please let them know that these funds are available and perhaps help them with the other details that might need to be handled (like childcare issues) so they can attend. Leaders’ teens are invited to come, participate in the Teen Program, and enjoy fellowshipping with others who share their parents with other home schoolers. However, because of the limited funds, the scholarships are available only to leaders. |
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An Answer to an Oft-asked Question ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is Schooling Really Happening?Recently we were contacted by a leader who asked a question that we are often asked by support group leaders and members. If this has not come up in your group, it will; so I thought it might be helpful if I shared with you Tim’s answer. The question: Occasionally, we will have a family who I get the feeling is not being diligent by any standard in their school work. Do other groups ever have members sign something stating that they are homeschooling their children in a bona fide manner? That statement is in our membership forms, but it is not emphasized. I'm uncomfortable with the thought that we would ever be part of covering up truancy. |
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What About Dads? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this day and age, support group leaders have
many issues that they have to think about. Here’s
another one to ponder. Home schooling has
historically been a women’s movement. In fact,
usually the question is about how to get dads
involved. However, I received this email from a dad,
who bemoaned the fact that his local support group
seemed to serve only the moms, and as an involved
dad, he felt left out in the cold. We have seen an
increase of stay-at-home dads who are actually
doing most of the homeschooling as well. Does your
group have a way to support these families?
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Creating the Image Society Has of Home Schoolers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Years ago, when we had just started home
schooling, I was at the local fair with my sister. I
ran into a friend of mine, with whom we visited for a
few minutes. As we walked away, my sister
asked, “Was that a home schooler?” to which I
answered in the affirmative.Then I queried, “Why do you ask?” “She looks like a home schooler.” “So, just what does a home schooler look like?” “A hippie.” Now, since I was home educating my children and I didn’t look like a hippie, and she knew me better than any other home schooler, I’m not exactly sure where that idea came from, but in the early days, that was a pretty common preconception about home schoolers. Who is painting the picture of home schoolers today? Shouldn’t we as home educators be involved in that discussion? If we’re not, society at large will get its opinion from shows like Law and Order (Yes, I saw that episode; it was about a child being starved by his “home schooling” mother, but “fortunately, it happened in New York where there was regulation...”) |
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Let Us Know What You Think ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have you enjoyed this newsletter? Do you like this
format better than the plain text emails?Please let us know if you, as a leader, are encouraged by hearing from us and if you’d like to like to get these letters on a more regular (monthly?) basis. We’d love to hear from you. Even more than that, we’d love to see you at the Leadership Retreat the last weekend of October. Make your plans to attend now! Click here for questions on which we’d like some feedback... |
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Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email:
staff@thsc.org
phone:
806-744-4441
web:
http://www.thsc.org
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