My son is 11 (and probably wouldn’t want to participate in something like this, LOL) but I thought I would pass it along in case anyone was interested. It sounds like an excellent opportunity to educate young people and their families about homeschooling in a mainstream way.

I received this in my inbox today:

Dear Andrea or to whom it may concern at Single Parent Homeschool,

My name is Morgan Robinson and I’m helping to produce and episode of MTV’s award-winning documentary series, “True Life,” about young people who are homeschooled. We’re looking for people who want to tell their stories, share their opinions, and possibly dispel some misconceptions about what it really means to learn at home.

Our goal — as with all episodes of “True Life” — is to help MTV’s young audience understand why many young people, and their parents, choose to homeschool. We also want to show the benefits and challenges that home-schooled kids experience on a daily basis. We will treat the people who participate in this documentary — and the educational, philosophical or religious beliefs they possess — with respect.

We are particularly interested in hearing from homeschool families who wish to continue homeschooling despite difficult odds (for example a death of a family member, or a difficult financial situation).

I’m reaching out to you in the hopes that you would be open to helping us spread the word about this important documentary by distributing our flyer to people in your network. Attached and below is our flyer that provides more information about the episode, which you are welcome to distribute to anyone and everyone who might wish to share their story.

I look forward to hearing from you and hearing your ideas. Please call or email me know if you know of any stories or if you can help us spread the word,

Sincerely,

Morgan Robinson
Associate Producer
718-422-0705
morgan@punchedinthehead.com
TLhomeschool@gmail.com

Please download the attached flier here:

MTV Homeschool Documentary Casting Flier

And feel free to repost on your own blog or site!

I am clearing off my bookshelf of stuff Shorty never used or hardly even glanced at. As such, I’ve just put up LOTS of great educational and fun kids’ books and curriculum on eBay, as well as adult non-fiction reference books and a bunch of sheet music, mostly Broadway shows. Check it out and feel free to pass the link on to any interested parties; I would really appreciate it
The link to my listings are here.

Lara at TexasHomesteader.com has discovered a neat and ingeious way to use Skype, the free video chat software that lets you talk to anyone on the Internet using a webcam, a computer and a regular Internet connection.  Her daughter Kyra’s harp teacher moved away, and they live in a fairly remote location where it wasn’t easy to find a replacement harp instructor, so she came up with a neat solution. 

I loved this idea. It’s probably the wave of the future in homeschooling. Music teachers can now reach students all over the world for no additional cost. We use Skype to keep in touch with relatives around the world that we can’t see face-to-face very often; Shorty uses it to talk to his dad in Boston every week and it’s been great for that.  The video chat is still not great quality (no matter how good your camera and how good your lighting, you will still look consumptive and sleep-deprived) but it’s vastly improved in the last couple of years, and the sound is about as good as a phone call.  I’ve been trying to get my mom, who lives 45 minutes away, to use Skype more often, too. I’m reminded of The Jetsons and how they thought we’d be viewing each other clear as day on 7-foot-high screens by the 80s. Technology has moved a little slower than that, but i’m thinking homeschoolers can probably make great use of video chat technology to create educational opportunities for themselves and others.  Skype even offers group chats. Virtual co-ops, anyone?

One caveat:  Skype has its cavalry of spammers like any other service and some of them aren’t G-rated. Parents are cautioned to set their children’s account to the highest privacy setting - only allow contact from specific users - and to not allow unsupervised use.  Thanks for the post, Lara!

Yesterday I signed up for a del.icio.us account, and finally buckled down and created the link directories I’ve always wanted. All pages and links are now officially done! Visit my brand spankin’ new:

• Homeschool Page
• Working At Home Page
• SPH Links Directory

I’m so excited! Please do feel free to suggest any links I might have missed in the contact form at the bottom of each page, and let me know what you think.