TrevorCarpenter.com

Recently, the wife and I started using a homeschool forum. The curriculum we use, My Father’s World, is a great resource and we love the whole package. For homeschoolers who want to interact with other homeschoolers you need to consider the two best venues.

1. Local support group
2. Online forum

I won’t go into all the value and details of joining or starting a local support group. I will state that it is extremely important for all homeschoolers to join one. This helps in ways you can’t even see right now.

Additionally, participating in an online forum, dedicated to homeschooling, can expand your support group. Generally speaking, a forum will help connect you with other homeschoolers, increasing the chance that you will find someone with a very similar situation.

The possibility of a single-dad homeschooling, finding a local group of homeschooling single-dads is pretty slim. But, hitting the internets, that dad is going to find a whole assortment of dads, in need of wisdom, and willing to share their own.

So, where do you start? I suggest that you start with either looking for an online group that fits your unique make up; ie. single-dads. Or you can start with your curriculum.

That’s where we started. Our curriculum is not the largest. In fact, many have not even heard of it. However, with the ease of installing an open source (read: free) forum, even the smaller curiculum companies can afford to adminstrate a forum.

The My Father’s World Forum is great. Deanna is able to find encouragement from other moms who are using the same text books that we are. She is able to seek advice from moms who did exactly what she is doing now, last year. It’s great!

I even signed up with an account and have taken the opportunity to encourage a couple of exhausted homeschooling moms.

But, sometimes, we homeschoolers need a bit more. Sometimes we are separated from the simple things that can limit our kids’ opportunities. Years ago, homeschoolers had to play in community leagues if they wanted to compete in organized sports. But now, many private schools and even public ones, have programs in place to allow homeschooled kids to participate. That’s just one example of how, over time, we’ve been able to solve one of the simple issues.

Well today, the fact that our homeschooled kids can’t have a “.edu” email address can be limiting.

Just a few days ago, a local Fox affiliate in Austin, TX, reported that homeschoolers are being kicked off of Facebook because they don’t have an “.edu” email address. Facebook says that in order to verify that these minors are in fact minors, they need an “.edu” email address. They are concerned about predators getting into communication with our kids. Hey, I have no problem with Facebook working hard to keep their place safe for children. I think they should be applauded for doing so. However, Facebook is one of those great tools that our homeschooled children can use to their benefit for many things.

I briefly tried to find out how to purchase an “.edu” domain name. I could not find anything.

However, I, alone, would not have much power to influence Facebook, if I were handing out “.edu” email addresses. But, a national homeschooling organization could do this. They could at least offer up an email address for each of their own members.

So, I’m challenging the HSLDA, the nation’s largest homeschool advocate, to establish an email address system for all of its members. This would allow our children to have that coveted “.edu” email address.

It may seem like such a small thing, but for a homeschooled child who properly uses the internet for opportunities to expand their homeschool experience, this is very necessary.

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So, many California homeschoolers freaked out when we learned of the recent decision. Then, we started reading more, and working to understand what really happened…

First, it should be noted that homeschoolers have been legally educating their children. The 1953 decision didn’t ban homeschooling, including those without credentials. In fact, California law currently allows homeschoolers to register with the state as a private school, only educating their own children. The Homeschool Legal Defense Association provides good information for all interested in the legalities of homeschooling in all states. Here’s the options for Californians.

Additionally, it’s important to understand that this recent decision not only wasn’t clear enough to forbid the currently legal homeschools, but it doesn’t change things today or tomorrow for those of us legally homeschooling here in California.

And to those ignorant enough to think that the government’s certificate is enough to make one qualifited to teach, you should ask your own children’s public school teachers if they ahve any cohorts who shouldn’t be in the classroom.

I don’t mean to be so defensive, and I know that my observance of successful homeschooling and my own homeschooling is a limited experience. However, it should be noted that the majority of homeschool students achieve significantly higher in everything thrown at them, including college admissions, SAT scores, and even graduate school admission.

Taking a short investigation of the US’s history, you’ll find that many great American’s were homeschooled. Abraham Lincoln, Sandra Day Oconner, John Quincy Adams, John Rutledge, Abigail Adams, Martha Washington, John Jay, Thomas Edison, Robert E. Lee, Thomas Stonewall Jackson, George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, Booker T. Washington, Patrick Henry, Ben Franklin, Sam Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington are all the “victims” of homeschooling. If any one of my kids turns out half as accomplished, they’ll be blessed to have been homeschooled. You’ll also find that homeschooler statistics even support the idea that homeschooling generally produces better human beings.

Just one more article that helps us understand some of the modern history of homeschooling in the USA.

I know that we all “know someone who was homeschooled.” Usually that statement includes socially limited kids who are horribly deficient. Let me tell you that those kids are not the norm, nor are they even very quantifiable in today’s modern homeschooling environment.

Feel free to comment below, and join the conversation! If you’re interested in learning more about homeschooling, shoot me an email, and we’ll chat even more.

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Here’s the skinny…I’m taking my wife on a cruise for our 10th Anniversary. We’re going to visit many cities in Great Britain and Ireland. I hate the pre-packaged excursions you buy through the cruise-line. I’ve written a detailed page, you can see the tab above, and I’m interested in your input.

I need tips and ideas on what to do and where to visit. I’m especially interested in photographic locations and places you live or have actually visited.

Please head over and read the article I wrote, and comment there. Commenting has been turned off for this post.

Thanks!

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I’d like to tell you all about a really awesome new photoblog that is launching today, Fine Art Photoblog. This exciting new site is not just the hard work of one person, hoping to capture a small audience. In fact, this is a joint venture between 7 of the most talented photographers I’ve had seen in quite a while. You can learn more about each photographer here. You’ll recognize one right off the bat, Brian Auer, my friend from Epic Edits.

The Fine Art Photoblog is a unique website dedicated to collectors and admirers of fine art photography. The site is something of a mix between art gallery, photoblog, and search engine.

You’ll find that they’re one part gallery, one part photoblog, and one part search engine. Basically, it’s not that they’re just trying to pimp their photos, but that they’re hoping to share their photography experience with you. This isn’t for every photo they take, it’s for the very best. Even now, you’ll see some really great looking photographs and you just might want to purchase one to hand on your wall. Of course, you can do that there too!

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Has anyone else noticed that the internets has gotten quite boring since Macworld? Nothing is going on, and nothing is happening. My Twitter and Pownce friends haven’t said anything important or interesting, nor have I. Zooomr is upgrading, again, and Zipline has turned into an orange Twitter.

What is going on?

I’m sick of it, I’m heading out later today to take some pictures of the storm-torn Southern California.

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Months ago, my two oldest, The Princess and The Padawan, got themselves a Webkinz stuffed animal. Do you know what that is? Then you don’t have young kids.

Basically this is a hybrid of beanie babies and Facebook, for kids. You get the real toy, then go to the website. Parents may have to help here. Set up an account and enter the code from your toy. Now your kid has a semi-virtual world, where they manage the life of the toy. They name it, build it a room, and feed it. They also get to go around and earn Webkinz money to spend on their animal. They do this by entering contests, playing games, and taking trivia quizzes. OK, now you’ve got the picture. It’s actually pretty cool to watch my two playing, enjoying themselves, and learning a bit about using the computer.

The problem we’re having is that my daughter’s login is screwed up, and nothing, I mean NOTHING we’re doing makes any sense. I’ve been an online adventurer for years. I understand the basic principles of logon and account management. The one thing that the Webkinz team has failed miserably at is that they are unreachable. I dare you to go and find a real email address for me to use, or a telephone number! Even their help/complaint system is a preset list of questions, without providing you with any way to enter your own question. And to top that off, the preset questions each require you to log in to your “home” to go find their answer. WE CAN’T GET HOME, you &#*@&!@!!!!!

So, here I am blogging about it. I know I’m no Scoble, who can get it done with a little bad publicity. But, I thought I’d give it a try.

**************Update**************

Well, just a bit after I blogged my tantrum, and many of you had commented, The Princess’ logon miraculously began to work again. It worked just fine the rest of the day. A unique thing though is that I learned a bit about website customer service. Let me tell you, if a company runs a website, they sure as heck had better make it easy for me (the customer) to get ahold of them. Thanks for all your help and support!

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For the few of you who are regular readers, you may have noticed that I’ve been tossing out Challenges to my photographically minded fans. In October, 2007, I challenged you all to select an area or genre of photography that you wanted to learn better. I chose black & white photography. In lieu of something else, many of you chose the same thing. That challenge turned out to be fun, challenging, and educational. I find myself looking at a scene with more awareness to the light balance now. This is a direct result of my black & white’s.

Then in December, 2007, I set out to shoot a portrait a day, all month long. This time many more people joined the Challenge. At one point I counted over 30 people submitting images to Flickr and Zooomr. I can’t say that I met the Challenge exactly, but hey it’s my challenge. I only missed a few days.

I’ve been working on some more ideas, to help expand the idea. I’m also working on a book idea, to combine the December Challenge into one nice catalog.

The largest project idea that has been birthed is to combine my existing efforts to document my own suburban community and the lessons of disciplined shooting, every day.

Today I’m announcing the 2008 Challenge. What is it? I’m challenging each participant to spend the whole year of 2008 documenting their community. All you need to do is commit to shoot just one great image a week. Just one a week. That’s not bad!

The one important thematic issue to follow is to shoot your community. We’re going to get out there and document our immediate community. Wherever you live, commit to shooting it. This will take a bit more work, thought, and planning however. I’m not looking for your best shot from your weekly photowalk. I’m looking for a thoughtful image representing your community from that week. So, for example, on Independence Day (in the USA), I’d like to see how your community celebrates our nation’s independence.

As the next week approaches, I’ll publish another post, with many examples of other photoblogs doing similar things. Until then, take a look at Kathleen Connally’s; A Walk Through Durham Township.

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I want you all to see my “Best of 2007″ collection. I’ve compiled my top photographs from Zooomr and Flickr, from over this past year, and organized them with a pretty nice tool. Click on the ones you want to see up close.

Take a look!

This nice tool came to me from a photo buddy, Kevin Devin. You can see his gallery too.

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Most of you know by now about the December Challenge I’m running. So far I’ve seen over 30 people participate on Zooomr and Flickr. Portraiture was a big scary monster to me, before this project started. Now…I want to shoot them as a part of my business. Am I that good? Naw, but you don’t have to tell anybody.

My pal Brian Auer, over at Epic Edits, is running a project for us all to shoot a self portrait. Now, most of you may have already done that, as a part of the December Challenge. However, if you haven’t I urge you to use what you’ve learned so far this month, and shoot yourself!

Here’s mine:

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Sorry folks. Yesterday, when I sat down to post for day #8 of the December Challenge, I discovered that my blog was  freaking out. Photowalking.org was too. I tried to figure it out, but I couldn’t. I got some help from my Zooomr and Twitter friends, but still, nothing. I reported it to Dreamhost, my webhost, and went to bed. I had a long day yesterday, and I wasn’t about to stress out about it, yet.

When I woke this morning I set out to get it solved. Swimming through the WordPress admin panel I stumbled upon the theme section. Lo and behold, my themes were jacked. WordPress was trying to load a jacked up classic theme, for both blogs. Reload the correct themes and presto! We’re back in business.

So, I’m going to post two portraits today. Later.

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***********Update***********
Follow along with the participants at Zooomr and Flickr.
***************************

My October Challenge was so successful for me personally, and for the handful that participated, that I decided I want to continue growing and stretching my abilities. So I took some time this month to look at more areas of photography where I could use some work. I spent a good deal of energy flipping through pages of Zooomr, Flickr, and many photography blogs searching for genres of photography that interest me, but I lack the skill. Many ideas came to mind, but I continually kept coming back to portraits.

So, without further adieu…

For the month of December I will be shooting portraits. This time I won’t be committing to shooting only my topic all month. This challenge will be to shoot a portrait a day. One a day, each day, for the whole month of December.

Back at the beginning of October I was introduced to the photography of Bill Wadman. Bill is a New York based portrait photographer who completely rocks. During this whole year, 2007, he has been viciously attacking his own challenge to shoot a portrait a day, all year long! You can follow along, and see the year’s total so far, at 365Portraits.com.

Next, I sent out a call to my photoblogging friends, in search of the best existing blog posts about creating portraits, and I’ve been reading up on their tips. Here’s a short list of some good articles I’ve read:

• Photographing The People of Monterrey: Epic Edits
• How to bypass the Portrait Mode on Your Digital Camera and Get Great Portrait: DPS
• Overcoming Depth of Field Problems in Portraits: DPS
• Experiment with Different Framings with Portraits: DPS
• Top 5 Friday Better Portraits: Open Origins
• Super Quick And Easy Tip For More Flattering Portraits: Photodoto.com
• Portrait Lighting Names: Professional Photography 101
• Portrait Lighting For Beginners, Portraits With One Light: Sublime Light

You might think that a whole month is a long time to shoot a portrait every day. I’d agree, on a different month. December, however, makes it quite easy to shoot more people. This is mainly because of the increased interaction we all face during the Christmas season; Christmas parties, family dinners, gathering a bit more even at church, all events and activities that get me out and interacting with people more.

Another element to this Challenge is to try and shoot people in their daily life. A staged portrait in a studio has its place, but I’m not looking for that refinement. Catching people in their place of work, or in a place or state that is very typical for them is what I’m looking to capture. Below are several examples of what I’m striving to achieve.

I think I’ll actually schedule some of the shoots. I see no reason why I can’t plan ahead to stay on top of this undertaking.

So, do you think you have what it takes to accept an challenge like this? Are you satisfied with your own portraiture? Do you need or want to grow in your own ability to be more creative and get great light when shooting portraits?

Then join me as I shoot a portrait-a-day!

When tagging your images on Flickr and/or Zooomr, use “DecemberChallenge” so that we can track our progress. Additionally, if you want to vary this a bit for yourself, you could choose to shoot a stranger each day. That’s not my focus, but you may do that if you wish.

Below are a few really good portraits…

Oh yeah, Digg it!

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My friend Brian Auer, of Epic Edits, has put together one of the best lists of photography blogs I’ve ever seen. I knew I was following some good stuff, when I saw a great majority of the blogs I’m subscribed to, on that list.

Check it out!

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