What's in Practical Homeschooling #85?

FEATURES

• How homeschoolers are already providing a $25 billion bailout -- each year -- to state governments
• Love the "Berenstain Bears"? We interview Stan and Jan's son Mike about how they taught him to join the "family business" and why he and his mom have created their new faith-based series
• First-ever National Bible Bee has great scholarship prizes. Here's how to enter.
• Share the homeschool day of a family that lives in a national forest

COLUMNS

• M.I.T. graduate (and Ph.D. mathematics candidate) Bill Pride tells how his homeschooling experience helped lead to a new career
• Best-selling science author Janice VanCleave shows kids of all ages how the scientific method works -- with great activities that demonstrate it
• Don Aslett, the world's #1 cleaning expert, has tips for helping your kids escape the "clutter trap"
• Homeschool author Joyce McPherson reveals how to participate in the National History Day competition -- and how to win
• Melissa Morgan, co-author of Homeschooling on a Shoestring, shares how to combine your children's home-based education with your church life
• History expert Sam Blumenfeld traces the major events of George Washington's first term. Must reading in today's political climate!
• Jeannette Webb, recipient of the Presidential Scholar Distinguished Teacher Award and expert at getting kids into top colleges, with 25 questions to ask when picking a college

NEWS

• A great champion of homeschool has passed on, but his legacy survives
• California blows it (again). This time it's the University of California system refusing to accept high-school courses based on textbooks that utilize a Christian perspective -- even though the textbooks in question cover everything required by state standards
• Are today's kids crazy? Or at least craziER than previous generations? And is the drive to protect them at all costs from ever failing part of the problem?
• Beware the Bulb of Doom
• Brazil bans homeschooling... but the case is on appeal
• SAT offers new options
• Public school socialization exposed -- one DAY per year for hanging with kids outside your social zone

SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

• The most popular foreign language software of all time has a new version, just for homeschoolers

MORE REVIEWS

• Dual courses teach how to draw and how to draft
• And this course teaches architectural drawing
• Book on how to keep your kids "cyber savvy"
• Car design studio in a box
• Guide to educational podcasts
• How to make your own pop-up books

PLUS...

• Contests for subscribers
• Readers' opinions on important subjects
• Envelope Gallery of kids' art
• Ads with special offers