Homeschool Resource Pages of Santa Clara

What Is This and Why Do We Do It?
In the Homeschool Resource Pages (HRP) Silicon Valley area homeschoolers can find a lot of information they will need for the homeschooling of their children, plus leads toward satisfying other needs that the HRP doesn't cover. The HRP isn't exhaustive, but you'll find here listings for many area Support Groups and Independent Study Programs, National and state organizations, magazines, curriculum publishers and distributors, sports leagues, classes, a list of area museums for field trip ideas, and more. Yes, we are "back," have updated several pages, and will contiue to do updates. While we have not resolved Internet Explorer 6 compatibility issues with our mouse-over drop-down menus (our webmaster is a full-time student and has a job), the menus work properly in both Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2. If you are an IE6 user, we recommend either upgrading to IE 7 or to Firefox (we've used Firefox for a year and a half and prefer it). Our family started homeschooling in 1987. Dinosaurs no longer roamed the earth then, but support and resources for homeschoolers were much more difficult to find, and less was available than now. However, we found several experienced homeschoolers and groups who helped us through those sometimes scary first couple of years. It is partly in honor of these dear people that we are continuing their example of helpfulness and have published this directory, first on paper and now online, for over 12 years. It will bring us joy, knowing that other homeschoolers, new and experienced, will find helpful information here in the HRP.

Some Personal Observations and Exhortations
Change is a constant in homeschooling. Some new homeschoolers were themselves homeschooled. There are leadership changes in support groups and ISPs pretty much every year. We urge group leaders to remember to encourage members to take on group responsibilities and develop new ideas. You'll be saving your sanity plus developing future leaders. Along the same line of thought, we want to encourage parents who have been homeschooling for several years to consider how they could use their experience to encourage new homeschooling parents while contributing to the education of your and others' children. Homeschoolers have a tradition of mutual support that considerably enhances the education experience of our children. At the same time, that tradition is always 5-10 years away from dying out, as homeschooled children grow up and their parents move on to new stages of their lives. Please, keep that tradition alive and use your talents and creativity to make it better!

If you have some resource, activity, update, or correction for the HRP, please e-mail us at hrpages@earthlink.net Please tell us the name of the resource or event, what it is, the location, the time, costs, and who should be contacted. If it is an event or otherwise time-sensitive, please send us the information at least a month before the event or any registration deadlines. New items will be included at our discretion.