De-Lurk-A-Thon
Posted by admin | 45 comments
We love our readers. Each and every one of you!! Oh yeah, if you are reading this post in your feed reader or email, click here and come directly to our site. You’ll definitely want to comment on this post. Besides, our website is beautiful eye-candy, in case you haven’t seen it in awhile.
We have many many loyal readers and subscribers, yet we do not know you. We see you…our statcounter and our feedburner stats reflect the amazing amount of visitors we are blessed with…yet we know nothing about most of you.
So come out of hiding, we’d love to get to know more about you.
Beginning today we are hosting an official Heart of the Matter De-Lurk-A-Thon. Please leave a comment and tell us something about yourself…such as how long you’ve been reading HOTM, how you found us, how long you’ve been homeschooling, what method of homeschooling you use, etc. Tell us a joke. Or just simply say hey.
As an incentive to entice you to introduce yourself…we’ll be offering 3 free tickets to our Spring Fever online conference held April 12th – 14th. Our speakers include but are not limited to: Debbie Strayer, Lee Binz, Karen DeBeus, Amy Bayliss and more. So, come out of the shadows and De-Lurk today!
This promotion ends at 12 midnight EDT on Friday, March 30th.
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I’ve been a reader for a long time but not sure that I’ve ever commented, so I guess I’m de-lurking! I’m a homeschooling mother of 1 child, a daughter age 8 in 2nd grade. We follow a classical method using “The Well Trained Mind.” I can’t remember how I came across HOTM but it has been an encouragement, thank you!
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I’ve been reading for probably a little over a year. My husband and I are educating our kids at home here in Arizona- son, age 6 1/2, daughter age 4 1/2, and future homeschooled baby daughter age 16 months. We are definitely eclectic using a bit of several methods – CM, Classical, a little bit of unit study – mostly we’re just having lots of fun learning together! Thanks for all the encouragement.
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Hey! I started reading when I started homeschooling my oldest last fall. I love blogging so it was natural for me to go seek out some great homeschooling blogs to read and I found yours!
I’ve got a kindergartner, a preschooler, and a toddler. We live in beautiful California.
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I’m de-lurking! I started reading after finding my way here because of the not back to school blog hop. I’ve been subscribed through a feed since then. I enjoy reading but never comment
I never comment on any of the blogs I follow actually, I just don’t like taking the extra time 
. I have recently turned 5 yr old twin girls I’m homeschooling as well as a soon to be two year old boy and I’m due in 8 weeks with another boy! So life feels full and I’m anxious to see how life is in the fall when things become more “official” with the start of Kinder for the girls. Love all the ideas and encouragement I get from here! Thank you!
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admin Reply:
April 5th, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Carrie,
You are one of our winners of a free ticket to the HOTM Spring Fever Online Conference. Please contact me at inquiry@heartofthematteronline.com for details.
Lori
Heart of the Matter
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I’ve been following your posts for a few months now, not sure when I started exactly or in which way I found you. Probably through another blog that I somehow found that linked to yours. This is my first year homeschooling my daughter (8) and we are taking a very relaxed approach this year of more unschooling than anything. I have slowly started to add a little more “required to” to our day. This fall I will more than like be homeschooling a friends to be 7 yo in addition so we are working towards a tad more structure to our days. I also recently started watching a 2 yo who was adopted from China plus we are considering foster care or adoption ourselves. I also have a 15 yo son who goes to a great project based Charter school. Thank you for all the informative posts you put out.
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Hey! I’ve been a reader for quite awhile, but I’m not sure if I have commented or not. I love all the advice, and inspiration you give, but I usually don’t have time for a great reply so I don’t reply
We have home educated 2 out of our 4 children for the last 10 years with our last one at home a Freshman next year.
Thank you for all you do!
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I started homeschooling my two almost two years ago!!!!! We have loved it. We took the first year to sort of “detox” from public school and have slowly moved into various curriculum that works for us. I don’t know what style we follow – we have just sort of tried things until we found what worked best for us. We plan to stick with that, as it is working! We live in Oklahoma. I found you through your not back to school blog hop the August we started homeschooling and have been subscribed ever since. Love all the resources and ideas I get from you!!!!!! And the encouragement is amazing!!!!! Thanks for all you do!!!! Staci
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I’ve been reading for about 2 months, since we pulled our daughter out of public school. Right now we just use a lot of various worksheets for our K daughter, and our teaching our 3 year old to read using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
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Really appreciate your posts. They’ve been so encouraging when I’ve wanted to give up, quit. Thanks for keeping me going.
We’re eclectic homeschoolers with a bent toward child interest. I’ve loved being home with my children, learning along with them. THey enjoy finishing with the required studies to move on to what they want to learn. The best part is that it takes 5 hours to complete what it took 9 or 10 hours to accomplish prior to coming home.
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Reese Reply:
March 25th, 2012 at 11:11 am
I should have mentioned, we’ve been homeschooling for our 5th year this year. Kiddos are 13, 12, 9, 5.
I’m not sure how I found HOTM, but it’s been fantastic!
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I’ve been reading for quite a while…just don’t comment very often. We’ve been homeschooling for 6 years and use lots of different methods. I love incorportating Charlotte Mason approaches whenever/wherever I can.
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Hi! I just found your website this last week from a pinterest link while I was looking for help with behavior issues we have with our 12 year old PTSD grandson that we just got guardianship of. I look forward to gleaning from your site. I’m not homeschooling yet, but it’s a possibility.
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Hello I think I have been subscribed for 2 years. This is my fourth year of homeschooling. I have a third grader and a kindergartener both girls. My kindergartener have juvenile bipolar, and un diagnosed aspergers. Then I have a three year old adventurous boy.i also have my eleven year old sister, who goes to a local public school. We tried homeschooling her last year, but it did NOT go well.
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Have been reading for about 2 years. 10th year homeschooler with five children, ages: 16, 15, 13, 10, and 8.
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admin Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
I bet a 10 year home educator has much to share with our readers. Be sure to stay “de-lurked_
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I’ve been a reader for about a year I guess. I am homeschooling our nine year old daughter. We’re fairly eclectic. We never intended to homeschool, and it was definitely an interesting process getting to this point, but we’ve been doing it for three years now.
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admin Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Would love to hear more about your “interesting process”? Thanks for de-lurking!
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I am de-lurking! I receive your posts by email, so I don’t usually come over here and comment. I honestly do not remember how I found you!
We are in our 9th year of homeschooling. My oldest will be 14 in June and my youngest is 12, both girls. This year, I am also homeschooling the 14 year old daughter of a friend, which has been a really good thing for everyone involved.
I use a combination of My Father’s World and Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.
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admin Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 11:38 pm
Love Amanda Bennett….did tons of her unit studies with my oldest two boys many years ago. Glad she is a HOTM supporter as well. Thanks for de-lurking.
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I am a homeschool mom of 4. We have been homeschooling for 10 years using an eclectic method. We have 16, 14, and 4 year old girls and a 10 year old boy. I think I came across HOTM through the Homeschool Lounge. I have attended two of your conferences and bought several sessions from your previous conferences. They are such an encouragement and I look forward to the next one.
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I have a daughter in Lima, Peru (missionary) that is beginning her journey of homeschooling so I wanted to look at some resources…I love your blog!! Very encouraging!!
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I’m a fairly new HOTM reader (within the past year). I can’t remember how I found HOTM, but thank you to whoever it was that posted a link. I’m “officially” starting to homeschool in the fall. My older one is starting K. We’re a blend of classical and something else? =p Not sure yet…
Here’s a joke from my daughter.
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Owls go.
Owls go who?
That’s right. Owls go whooo!
Hey!
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I’ve been reading for a few months, have posted on several things so I’m not totally unknown (hopefully). We’ve been homeschooling 9 years and are getting into high school. My oldest is in 9th grade this year and my younger is in 7th grade. We’ve mostly used Sonlight but are moving into more of a mix to better achieve our goals.
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I’m new! But glad to have a good reason to say hi and introduce myself. Our daughter is 12, we’re kind of unschoolish, but we’re INCREDIBLY new to homeschooling; Sarah, our daughter, was in public school up until Feb. 29 of this year! We are just starting our own homeschooling blog, and I have been trying to check out a bunch of others to get ideas. Thank you so much for all you do!
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De-lurking with a wave from across the Pond! We began home schooling when we became ex-pats 3 years ago, and we’ve never looked back. (Well, okay, maybe we’ve looked back a couple times in pure frustration, but HOTM posts help that!) I’ve been subscribed for about a year now, and I regularly refer folks in our home schoolers’ group to your posts. Thanks to you and all your contributors who help us along the journey!
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admin Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 11:42 pm
Oh…would love to hear more about your journey of homeschooling while in UK. You should guest post for HOTM when you can….and share about your home school journey over there. Thanks for de-lurking
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Margaret Reply:
April 6th, 2012 at 12:14 am
Actually, we are in Doha, Qatar! I could regale HOTM readers with tales of schooling from camel back!
(Ok, not quite – but we have taken field trips to Bedouin farms.) Don’t know how interested folks would be, but I’d be happy to help if I can.
Cheers! ~ Margaret
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admin Reply:
April 5th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Margaret,
You are one of the winners of a free ticket to the HOTM Spring Fever Online Conference. Please contact me at inquiry@heartofthematteronline.com for details.
Lori
Heart of the Matter
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I have been reading for about 2 years. We are approaching the end of our first year homeschooling! I enjoy reading the posts via google reader.
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HI, i have been homeschooling for 14 years. I found you about 8 mo.ago while playing on facebook and clicking on homeschool links. I really enjoy all of the homeschool blogs that are around now and also the finds on pintrest, how fun!! Thank You!
)
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admin Reply:
April 5th, 2012 at 12:43 pm
Sabrina,
You are one of the winners of a free ticket to the HOTM Spring Fever Online Conference. Please contact me at inquiry@heartofthematteronline.com for details.
Lori
Heart of the Matter
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Hi all! I’ve been reading this blog for about a month now. I really love it. I’ve only been homeschooling for about 1 1/2 years. Still learning the ropes, what works and what doesn’t. But I do love it!
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admin Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Hope you’ll join us for the upcoming Spring Fever HOTM conference online….great stuff for all stages of home educating. So glad to hear you love home schooling…..Thanks for de-lurking
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Hi. I can’t remember when or where I found you, but it may have been about 6 months ago. I home educate my nearly-4-year-old daughter here in England. Initially I did unit studies with her, but now she’s old enough to say “no” we’re mostly autonomous! I do try to follow a Letter of the Week (or fortnight, really!) structure with her as a kind or organising structure.
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admin Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 11:39 pm
Oh wow! Someone from the UK! Thanks for de-lurking. Exciting to know that we have readers from across the pond!
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Hi, I have been subscribed to HOTM for nearly 2 years now. I found you guys through the back to school blog hop! I love those! We have been homeschooling our kiddos for going on 5 years. We have 7 total-11G,10G,7G,6G,4B,3G,1G…We are very eclectic in style. We do CM,units,TJED,as well as some formal curriculum and even some unschooling. With 7 kiddos you have to be somewhat flexible!
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admin Reply:
March 26th, 2012 at 11:39 pm
Love the fact that you are being flexible to meet the needs of your individual children. Way to go! Thanks for de-lurking.
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I think I found your site last fall during the back to school hop. I love the inspiration I find.
We’ve HSed for 3 years now. DS-9 3rd grade. Also…DD-22, DD-19. We are eclectic with CM, Classical, and some unit studies. I also HSed my daughter’s second half of her junior year of high school and her senior year too. The oldest daughter was traditionally schooled. We love the flexibility of HSing.
Sunny Southern California
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I’ve been reading HOTM (through my reader) for about a year. I do like your articles, just don’t always have time to comment. I’ve been homeschooling for 10 years now, and we have a 16yo and a 15yo.
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Just started reading and enjoy HOTM. I’m always on the look-out for great articles and ideas I can share on my own blog or via Twitter. You have a wonderful blog! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
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(Beth) I am a wife of a worship leader, a mom to 9 beautiful children, 20 years to 11 months. I have been homeschooling for all of their schooling (15 yrs), since the oldest was 5. I have since graduated 2, and have 2 that are not schooling yet. We are a Messianic family, which just means that we love and support Israel, and want to do the things that Jesus (Yeshua) did. We celebrate the Biblical holidays (Passover is coming up next week!). I found a link to your site a few months ago on Facebook, and I love reading your FB posts. I just realized that I have never been to your website until today! Today I went into a Jewish store, and a woman asked me if I homeschool my children. When I answered yes, she said that she has noticed that homeschooled children seem to be nicer than other children. Made me feel good that someone who doesn’t even know us notices! (BTW, when I click on the link to “online conference” above, it takes me to a page that has chinese or japanese letters. I can’t read it!)
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Been homeschooling my autistic 6yr old son for 2 years now going on our 3rd. I have been reading HOTM online for about the same amount of time, every now and then I de-lurk and make a comment or attend a facebook party.
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I’m “de-lurking” too! We’ve been homeschooling for 7 years. Kids are 10 and 12. I’ve been a reader for a while, but I don’t think I’ve actually ever commented, truly a lurker I guess. I love to read your blog and posts though, I don’t know how many times someone has written just what I’ve needed to hear. We’re truly dedicated to homeschooling, but there are days that I need that extra boost. Thank you!
When we first started out, I used a boxed-type, curriculum. As we’ve continued this journey and I’ve gained more confidence in my abilities, I’ve started using more of a mix, basing it on what the kids need.
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Boy, this post makes me feel almost guilty for “lurking” about in the blogosphere
I’ve been a reader for 8 months or so. This is our third year homeschooling – I’m mom to three wild boys ages 13, 11, and 9. I really enjoy reading your posts both on the blog and on Facebook, and have been re-energized and encouraged by them many times. Keep it up!
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