Legality of Homeschooling

It is completely legal to home school a child.

Some parents are concerned of legal restrictions they feel home schooling may impose on them when deciding to home school their children. Parents fear that home schooling their children is either illegal or that the steps needed to acquire home school certification are too ponderous or odious to accomplish. Some of these fears are justified depending on where the parents reside; however, the fears are usually larger than is appropriate.

The rules and laws of a child's education are set down and enforced by the individual states even though the Constitution of the United States makes no mention of education and the Department of Education tends to play a very large role in the certification of home schooling. The laws do vary from state to state, though.

It is legal in all fifty states to home school children, but some states have fewer restrictions than others. For example, Texas and Idaho place a minimum of restrictions on parents who decided to home school their kids. However, Massachusetts and New York are very particular about the methods and keep a close watch on parents who do home school their children; even requiring curriculum approval, regular student achievement scores to be submitted on a timely basis, and even home visits. Pennsylvania requires local school districts to review any materials that are to be used in home schooling for approval.

Many bills have been introduced into Congress that would expand the power of the states to enter the home of children who are home schooled or to compel parents to enroll their children into public school. While efforts have been made to monitor or defeat these legal efforts, they were overturned in 2006. Parents need not worry too much about rights being taken away since the trend of courts has been stalwartly in their favor for many years.
The Supreme Court case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) stated that the care and education of a child rested solely on the parents of said children, not the state in which they reside. The court also reaffirmed the rights of parents to make decisions regarding their children's education in 2000 with the Troxel v. Granville case, which in and of itself was not an issue of home schooling, home school advocates used it to further their goal of freedom to choose how their children are educated.

The HSLDA (Horne School Legal Defense Association, http://www.hslda.org ) was founded in 1983 to support the rights of parents who wish to home school their children and has fought many battles in the courtroom on behalf of such parents. This association closely follows any changes made by Congress and the states regarding education and publishes a yearly account of legislative acts.

Even though government from state to federal levels have tried to chip away at the parents' rights to home school their children, court cases generally have been settled in the parents' favors.

There have been cases of social workers who zealously try to protect what they feel is their duty to protect the children of parents who home school. Even with no evidence of parental abuse, such social workers try to follow through with their attempts. The HSDLA works to provide support and resources to parents so that such legal and social issues never have to be dealt with in the first place.

It is a good idea for parents considering home schooling to assiduously investigate all the necessary paperwork, supervision and requirements by law of their resident states. The parents are the ones who need to be first educated in home schooling.

Normal Frequency of Sex

Have you ever wondered how your sex life stands up to another couple? Have you wondered if you are having too much sex, too little sex, or just the right amount? Have you wondered if there is a set amount that is considered normal? I will discuss the idea of a normal sex life and what factors may be influencing your numbers and how you stack up to other couples.

One of the major factors that determine approximately how much sex is "normal" is your age. Much younger people, especially young hormonal boys, want sex many more times than they are usually getting. Their sexual appetites far exceed what would be considered normal. Newly married couples or couples that have just gotten together are more likely to have more active sex lives. It is "normal" for these couples to have sex at least once a day however it maybe more or less. Their "normal" is much higher than couples that have been together for a while. People in their forties will have less sex than people in their twenties but still more than older couples. Their frequency is more likely to be a few times a week or a few times every few weeks. Then you have people in their fifties and higher that are likely to still have sexual desires but are much more diminished. They may have sex a few times a month and that is considered their "normal".

The amount of sex you have also depends on the stage of life you are in. Young people without any major responsibilities are likely to have more time for sex but less opportunity. College students may be busier with school work and have less time but more opportunity. Couples that have married, gotten their first big jobs, and started families are extremely busy and may be too tired to have sex all the time. Couples who have established their careers and have kids that are grown still have strong desires and more time to indulge them. Older couples definitely have the time but their desires are not as strong so are less likely to have sex.
There are numerous different factors that can affect your sex life besides just age and stage in your life. Factors such as stress, diminished desire, and illness can affect your frequency as a couple. The important thing to remember is there is no across the board number that is "normal". What should be considered normal is what is right for you and your partner. Do not feel the need to compare your sex life with that of other couples. Some couples may have sex all day everyday and that is normal for them but you may have it a couple times a week and that is your normal. No matter what your number is as long as both parties are satisfied there is no need to worry about normalcy. Chances are your numbers fluctuate and so do your friends.

Increasing your RSS

Every strong website or blog has an RSS feed. These feeds are used by subscribers to read your content and stay updated when changes happen. The stronger the site is in maintaining and increasing these visitors the more money the site will make. However, RSS feeds work off of their own business model and website owners should understand what works in RSS feeds and what doesn't.

Tips for Increasing RSS Feed Subscriptions:

Original Content: Original content gives readers a reason to subscribe to your feed. If they can get the information somewhere else they will subscribe there. Even though it is acceptable to add interesting articles from other authors most of the articles should be uniquely designed for your site.

As well as content the owner of the blog or website should concern himself or herself with quality over quantity. Misspelled words, poor grammar and typos detract from the overall impression of your site. Continual mistakes will make it appear as though you are an amateur.

Credibility: Subscribers to your work want to know that what you are telling them is the truth. They don't enjoy information that is questionable and may hamper their overall reading experience. Questionability is a sign of an amateur who can't back up his work.

There are a number of ways to increase credibility. Quoting well known people in your writing, using references like you were in college, having an appropriate knowledgeable tone for your work. It is also important to understand that the quality of your work (i.e. spelling) also supports the overall credibility of what you are saying.

Listen to Your Audience: The internet group is very verbal about what they like and what they don't like. Listen to your audience's feedback, comments and emails. Watch how certain articles bring in new visitors and try and offer similar type content.
You may also consider adding a poll to your website so that you know exactly what the want. Once you have narrowed down your overall topic base you can then ask them which they prefer. After you have collected this information you can move forward in the process of designing your page and writing content that appeals to them.

Getting Exposed: The best way to increase your overall RSS subscribers is to get your information out there. Submit your RSS feed to RSS directories. You can either do this for free by hand or you can pay a service that will help you submit to these directories. The more times people see our RSS subscription button the more people will subscribe to it. It is a numbers game.

The second method is to locate this subscription feed in a place that everyone is going to see it. Simply shoving this feed some haphazard place on your page isn't going to work. Market in your site, write about it and make your readers aware.