There are 14 years of archived articles from Home Education Magazine available to read here at the HEM website. From the Jan/Feb, 1997 issue through the current Nov/Dec 2010 issue, the HEM archives offer a wonderful assortment of writing from the oldest homeschooling magazine still being continuously published.
The feature article writers and regularly scheduled columnists who’ve written for HEM over the years provide a very broad perspective on homeschooling issues, and they’ve tackled some tough subjects for our readers, such as the openly questioning article by Ruthe Matilsky titled On Unschooling and Life from our March/April, 2001 issue:
How unsettling it is sometimes when I think that we have scoffed at the script and now we have to take responsibility for how it all turns out. If we’d done what was expected of us, nothing would ever be our fault. Right? Of course my husband and I don’t believe that, but I can’t help worrying. The standard good-parent line is, “All I want is for my child to be happy.” That’s easy to say when the kids are little, but what about a twenty-one-year-old daughter who is not on the college track?
Then there was Dropping the Bombshell by LauraJean Downs in March-April, 1998:
Those of us who homeschool are the experts in in-law relationships, right? We simply get on the phone and say something like,”Hi Mom! I just wanted to let you know that we are going to homeschool all of the kids next year. Have a great day!” The relationship just continues as smoothly as it always did, right? Wrong!
Another complicated subject was tackled by M. S. Beltran in Homeschooled Teens Can Rest Easier from March/April, 2004:
My daughter’s late rising has brought about a great deal of eye rolling and gaping disbelief from those who cannot imagine life outside the pre-set hours of institutionalized education, even though they are aware our child is not a part of that institution. Is it stubborn adherence to tradition that keeps people holding the early bird in such high regard, while the night owl is chastised for being lazy?
And there was the delightful Reflections of a Homeschooled Homeschooler by Rebecca Bangs Amos, Nov/Dec, 1999:
When my parents shared their plans of moving to a 500-acre farm in Northern Vermont where they would educate their children themselves, their friends responded with, “Are you crazy?” My friends wondered how I could even consider having my mother and father for teachers.
Issue after issue, year after year, Home Education Magazine’s feature article writers captured the essence and the excitement of homeschooling, the concerns and the questions of homeschooling families. Visit the HEM archives - it’s all free - and learn why HEM is “More than just a magazine…”
Tags: HEM, homeschool, homeschool decision, homeschooling, homeschooling families, LauraJean Downs, M. S. Beltran, oldest homeschooling magazine, On Unschooling and Life, reasons to homeschool, Rebecca Bangs Amos, Reflections of a Homeschooler, Ruthe Matilsky, ~ Homeschooled Kids, ~ Unschooling, • Home Education Magazine
I didn’t realize I must have been one of your early subscribers! I remember finding a copy of HEM and some of the books on homeschooling you published at an small bookshop here in Milpitas in the fall of 1993. Later on, the bookshop owner “shopschooled” their daughter, too! (Only form of education that might be better than homeschooling: getting your education from mom at her bookstore, and getting to read everything on the shelves!) Now, where did I stash all my early copies? Sure hope they didn’t get tossed in a fit of neatness!