And now for something new, and purdy cool. A homeschool parent just started a new organization called Southwest Home Educators' Association, which focuses on connecting us in the western states of California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. SHEA describes itself as: "A support group that encourages participation in sports, clubs, workshops, field trips, and co-op classes and love social opportunities! Through trained Area Leaders, SHEA will strive to bring you the warmth of a local support group, combined with the strength of a regional organization."

On the Home Education Leaders' Place of Colorado (HELP_CO) list, Angeline Rock, homeschool mom and SHEA Field Trip Coordinator wrote an introduction:

"Recently, a friend of mine organized a new 6-state home educators association and asked me to be field trip coordinator (probably because I am so passionate about getting homeschooled kids together, lol).

My duties will include traveling around the 6 member-states and visiting with group leaders. We want to promote home education on all levels, and hear about your concerns and share your enthusiasm.

I wanted our first field trip to be a big event – to kick off the "year" (most homeschoolers don't have a start and stop year, but some do). I think Disneyland is pretty big! So, our first Not-Back-To-School-Days has been booked for September 24 and 25, 2007 and we are taking part in Disneyland's new Youth Education Series.

Please feel free to email me with any comments – and I hope to meet some of you real soon at one of your activities, or one of ours!"

Good luck Angeline and SHEA! Hats off! We need more energy like this!

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I've got lots to blog about (and I will get to it, really) but there's not enough time in the day lately, and my get up and go left for vacation. Somewhere in the Andes, I think. At least I hope it's in the Andes. It's cooler there.

In the meantime, this just in from the HELP-CO list. Anybody got a little moxy and a spare building?

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"I've been contacted by Amanda Bennett of Amanda Bennett's Unit Studies and Jane Lambert of Five in a Row who would like to have a seminar here in Colorado in September or October.

Both have daughters in Colorado and wish to share part of their time here helping the homeschool community. I'm looking for help with pulling this off. There is a need for a strong facility coordinator who would help to find a facility to have this at, as well as a very organized registration person."

Please contact Paula if you are interested in helping. We need to get going on this by the end of July!

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