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By Mary Beach If your parents forced you to practice your scales saying it would build “character”, they were onto something. One of the largest scientific studies into music’s effect on the brain at the University of Vermont College of Medicine found something remarkable: Musical training doesn’t just affect your musical ability ---- it provides tremendous benefits to children’s emotional and behavioral maturation. 
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By Mona K. Koerner, PhD Last week I had the opportunity to share my vision for what the future of education should look like in a workshop titled, "Be the CEO, Not the Grunt of Your Child's Education" at the 2019 CAPE-NM Homeschool Convention. For those who attended here is a copy of the slides and the bibliography with links to the video talks I referenced:
By Mona Koerner This week in Santa Fe I watched the political machinations of what many called the "most extreme" abortion bill in the nation[1]. I read the bill[2], I read the existing law that the bill is repealing[3], I read the other abortion law that remains on the books[4], and I read the New Mexico Supreme Court ruling that grants a woman a right to a “medically necessary” abortion under the Equal Protection Clause of the New Mexico constitution[5].  I saw the TeenPact participants reaction to this bill and the mobilizing of people to oppose the bill. I read the rhetoric on both sides (all inaccurate and inflammatory). I spent 20 minutes in the Governor’s office listening to the secretary answer continuous calls opposing the bill. I received urgent messages via group text and Facebook to act to oppose this bill. I emailed and spoke to my representative. I discussed the issue with other moms. I saw the polarization of the people around this issue. And I prayed. And I really felt that God was telling me – “don’t waste your energy, this is not the battle I'm calling you to fight”.
By Deborah Klose
By Mona K. Koerner
By Mona K. Koerner, PhD The world is a constantly changing place. The pace of change is rapidly increasing. 'Structure' is being replaced with 'interconnectedness'. Just like the large supercomputer has given way to the worldwide web, the basic unit of the economy, the organization (or corporation), is transitioning into an inter-organizational network. 
Reprinted with permission from CAPE-NM Christian Association of Parent Educators - New Mexico Dear CAPE Families, We want to thank you for praying for this situation pertaining to the NM Homeschool Notification form. The CAPE Board has been diligently pursuing this issue, and we have felt your prayers. Sadly, after working with HSLDA and sending letters, emails, and having phone calls and meetings, we feel that we are at an impasse with the NM Public Education Department (PED). After our meeting with them in February of this year, we were of the understanding that the PED simply wanted to make sure that parents understood New Mexico requirements for homeschooling and would NOT require anything more to be signed by the parents except the Notification form, which we are required by law to do each year. We worked up what we thought to be an agreed-upon form which would serve as an informational statement of what the law requires of homeschool families in New Mexico.  By Angelina Anastasio FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a robotics program compiled of four different levels. It is for all ages, K-12th grade. FTC (First Tech Challenge) is the program that I am currently doing, it is for mid and high schoolers. I started robotics when I was only 6. Just last year I chose to move on to the next level that required learning design processes, programming, building our own parts out of metal and plastic, and learning to use power tools. I wasn’t really interested in robotics when we started. I wanted to go to law school and become a lawyer, not an engineer. But my sister and I started a team anyway, with a few other friends of ours. No one had any idea what we were doing, except for my sister. We were all just doing our best and learning what we could. After a while I really started to enjoy it! I successfully learned how to build and design a part all on my own.
by Wes Koerner
by Mona Koerner I often hear homeschool moms anxiously questioning whether their homeschool record keeping is adequate. The State of New Mexico requires homeschoolers to track the number of days of school and keep records of immunizations. I have a pile of yearly lesson planners where I have diligently recorded everything we did for 180 days each year. However, these records never inform my homeschool. In fact, I have never looked back on them (until now). It really doesn't help me to know that on October 29, 2013 we did: Daily Paragraph Editing, read 2 pages of Astronomy, wrote a paragraph on Harriet Tubman, practiced multiplication tables with playing cards, did pages 50,51 in Singapore 5A math curriculum, memorized AWANA scriptures, watched chapter 3 of Latin for Children DVD and had a violin lesson. While this may be what the state requires I submit to you that this is not the only kind of recordkeeping we should be doing. We didn't start home educating to please the state so we should develop recordkeeping systems that are consistent with why we are home educating: a desire to raise a kind, generous, thinking person.  |
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