Publishers will now have a great tool available to create e-books by simply dragging a Word file into the application. The application then takes over and automatically formats the book. Images can then be re-sized and dragged around in text and terms and definitions can be added.

Once the book is complete it can be previewed on an iPad or uploaded directly to the iBook store.

Additionally, Apple’s Phil Schiller announced there would be a new textbook experience in iBooks 2.

While Schiller announced that they plan to include “every subject, every grade level, for every student,” they’re focusing on high school for now.

Textbook publishers McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have partnered with Apple and two text books are available today for $14.99 each in the iBook store.

This is great news for the homeschooling community. Homeschoolers will now be able to purchase e-textbooks at a fraction of the cost of their dead tree counterparts and changes to those books can be made available without having to reprint the books or send out addenda.  Publishers of homeschooling textbooks now have a way to offer digital, interactive books to their customers for a fraction of what it used to cost.

I’m hoping homeschool publishers jump on this bandwagon and take this opportunity to easily digitize their books and get them in the iBooks store soon!

With the school years starting all of the the country, many parents are stepping into homeschooling for the first time.  There are many reasons they may choose to remove their children from public schools one of which is bullying.

The Internet can make someone famous or infamous in a matter of days and that’s what happened earlier this year when Rebecca’s Black’s video Friday appeared on YouTube.  Little did Black and her parents know that it would lead to thousands of derogatory remarks and eventually bullying in school.

The Daily Caller is reporting that Rebecca Black is now being homeschooled because she could no longer endure being bullied at school.

Speaking to ABC’s Nightline, the 14-year-old Los Angeles native said she faced so much teasing and harassment this past spring that her parents resorted to homeschooling.

“When I walk by they’ll start singing ‘Friday’ in a really nasally voice,” Black told the network. “Or, you know, they’ll be like, ‘Oh hey, Rebecca, guess what day it is?’”

Read more

It’s unfortunate when parents feel their children are no longer safe in public schools.  Granted, children chide each other all the time and homeschooling will not shield them from this.  When it occurs within families parents are quick to deal with it accordingly.  I cannot imagine the overwhelming feeling’s Rebecca Black and her parents must feel after all the jokes, distasteful remarks, and rumors that are spreading withing the school and on the Internet.

I hope that Black’s parents find joy in homeschooling and continue to explore the vast options available to homeschooled parents and children when it comes to a fulfilling education.

Kozumel / Creative Commons license

Recently passed legislation in Minnesota now only requires homeschooling parents to report their intent to homeschool at the beginning and the end of the school year.

Previously, quarterly report cards had to be sent to the school district’s superintendent if the parents lacked a college degree.

Additionally, the requirement to have the superintendent visit the homes of each homeschooling family was removed as well.

According to GrandForksHerald.com, the new law lets homeschoolers “save the time and money” and allows them to “continue to do the good job they are doing.”

Some other changes include the ability for parents to teach driver’s education classes and a change to the reporting requirements regarding immunizations.

Read the complete article here.

Credit: RonAlmog | Flickr.com / Creative Commons License

A homeschooling family in Midland Park New Jersey will need to wait a little longer to find out if the state of New Jersey will allow school districts to include home-schooled students in high school sports.

A recent appeal “of a decision by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association denying the home-schooled an opportunity to compete in public high school athletic programs” to the Commissioner of Education by Superintendent Dr. Marie Cirasella was rejected by the state Commissioner of education.

The school district intents to continue to seek equal access for home-schooled students to high school sports programs and are “merely asking the state to uphold its own rules allowing each district to decide whether to allow the home-schooled to participate in public school sports programs.”

Read the complete original news article at NorthJersey.com.

I received an email today from Jeff Schmitz over at Cogniti.us:

Cognitius has been renamed to Scholaric.

We’d like you to continue using the same homeschool planning, tracking, and organizing tools you’ve come to rely on, but at a new domain, scholaric.com

It is important that you switch to use scholaric.com, because the cogniti.us domain will soon point elsewhere.

Your lesson plans are available there right now, so make the switch today!

Thanks for your understanding and help during this transition.

The Scholaric Team

If you’ve used Cognitius in the past, make sure you change your bookmarks.

Don’t know about Scholaric?  Listen to the interview with the creator (Jeff Schmitz)  andlisten to my review.

If you have news about any online homeschool resources, feel free to send it my way: wiredhs (at) gmail (dot) com, post it on The Wired Homeschool Facebook page, or forward it my way on Twitter using @wiredhs in your update.