The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation have partnered with U.S. state arts agencies to support Poetry Out Loud, a contest that encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.

This support group, inclusive and non-profit, fosters a rich social life amongst homeschool and small school students by organizing sports leagues, dances, games, Karaoke, bowling, pizza or movie nights. Teens take responsibility to pick the events, decide upon the participants, set rules and select volunteers on this site, even to set up and clean up. Parents of teens then supervise and advise to make this group beneficial to all.

The TOS Homeschool Nation Leadership Group is sponsored by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and links together state coordinators of Homeschool Nation and those in homeschool leadership from the US and around the world. This list is geared for sharing news, information, exchanging ideas, networking together, and offering encouragement from leader to leader. Welcome to join are leaders within national or regional homeschool organizations, leaders of support groups or co-ops, board members, or those who serve the homeschooling community as authors, speakers, or conference organizers.

Do the public school authorities feel threatened by homeschooling? Judging by their efforts to lure homeschooling families into dependence on local school districts, the answer is apparently yes. For the last several years, homeschooling has been the fastest growing educational alternative in the country. The sheer number of homeschoolers represent a distinct threat to the hegemony of the government school monopoly. Qualitatively, the academic success of homeschoolers, measured by standardized test scores and recruitment by colleges, debunk the myth that parents need to hire credentialed experts to force children to learn.

The key to teaching students the basics of geometry is making it memorable. Get them out of their seats to experience geometry.

Admission-Persons Included. Section relating to compulsory education requirements.

This is a support list for all homeschool group leaders, regardless of religious beliefs or homeschooling philosophies. Here you can give or receive input, ideas, and support from other homeschool leaders.

Americans are increasingly aware that government education specialists in charge of K-12 government schools are lousy educators. This awareness is prompting parents to act rationally in a way that provides the best evidence yet that education bureaucrats cannot educate namely, more and more parents are homeschooling their children.

One of the basic housekeeping rules is to keep it simple. Roxanna Ward shares some simple tips for getting housework done without the hassle.

Out in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, the island of Alcatraz is a world unto itself. Isolation, one of the constants of island life for any inhabitant - soldier, guard, prisoner, bird or plant - is a recurrent theme in the unfolding history of Alcatraz. Alcatraz Island is one of Golden Gate National Recreation Area's most popular destinations, offering a close-up look at a historic and infamous federal prison long off-limits to the public. Visitors to the island can not only explore the remnants of the prison, but learn about the Native American occupation of 1969 - 1971, early military fortifications and the West Coast's first (and oldest operating) lighthouse. The island features many natural features as well - gardens, tide pools, bird colonies, and bay views beyond compare.