Countdown to Home Education Day at the Capitol

Mark your calendar and begin to plan your field trip to attend Home Education Day at the Capitol – Wednesday, February 25, 2004. An excellent field trip for individual families or support groups, Capitol Day provides learning opportunities as well as the fun and excitement of going to Atlanta, riding MARTA to the Capitol, spending the day getting to know more about Georgia state government and our beautiful Capitol, and meeting other home educators and legislators from around the state. Map, Directions and Parking (click here). Here’s what you can do now to prepare for this exciting event:

1. If you don’t already know the names of your state representatives, look them up at Just put in your zip code to find your representatives.
2. Call or arrange a meeting with your House Representative and your State Senator to discuss your interest in home education issues in Georgia.

You may wish to tell them you’re interested in protecting the freedom of Georgians to home educate and that you’d be happy to be contacted for your perspective as a home educator anytime they need insight. Do not be intimidated. Our representatives are ordinary folks and will appreciate your sincerity and willingness to talk with them. Be friendly and assume they mean well, regardless of their political party, their stance on other issues, or their current position on home education. The aim is to establish dialog with them so that you will have future opportunities to persuade them. Later, in the potential heat of political conflict, yours will be a friendly name and voice they will respect and be willing to listen to.

Our interests are best protected by being involved citizens! Legislators have told us they get incredible numbers of requests for their attention every day. The ones they listen to, they tell us, are those from their constituents who want to talk with them, not coerce them or threaten them or try to "shut down the switchboards" with canned position statements.

3. Visit http://www.sos.state.ga.us/onlinetour/Guided_online_tour.html to familiarize your children with our Capitol and take a virtual tour in preparation for the real thing.
4. Contact Joni Hyde at Joni.thea@juno.com to make reservations for a Tour of the Capitol on Home Education Day at the Capitol. Space is limited, so reserve your spot as soon as possible. You may reserve for individuals or as a group. If you have a group, please have a count of the number of participants.
5. Visit www.heir.org regularly to get up-to-date information on specifics as they are posted.

The Home Education Day at the Capitol Planning Committee
Mike Olson, Chairman – Suwanee, GA
Barbara Antonoplos – Atlanta, GA
Mauraina Bannister – Suwanee, GA
Cathy Carter – Columbus, GA
Stacy Davis -- Gainesville, GA
Sylvia Dibb -- Conyers, GA
Joni Hyde -- Jonesboro, GA
Lachlan McBane -- Lilburn, GA
Cindy Sewell -- Roswell, GA
Tammy Tucker -- Conyers, GA
Tracee Wood -- Conyers, GA
Woody, Sherri -- Murrayville, GA

You may wish to submit information for the displays being planned for Capitol Day. Please check the following categories to see if you think you can make a contribution to any of the tables; then contact the appropriate Planning Committee Member to discuss your contribution. Please contact the committee at info@heir.org, and we will forward the request to the proper person on the planning committee.

1. Sports – If your home educated student participates in sports, especially on a home education sports team, we’d love to have pictures, write-ups, and other information to show off. This includes individual and team sports but does not include the arts or other extra-curricular activities (see below). To contribute sports information, please contact info@heir.org.
2. Fine Arts / Other Extracurricular Activities – If your home educated student participates in the fine arts (dance, painting, music, theatre, etc.), we’d love to have pictures, write-ups, and other information to show off. To contribute fine arts and other extracurricular activity information, please contact info@heir.org.
3. Colleges / Admissions – If your home educated student has been admitted to college in Georgia or elsewhere, we’d like to know more about the admissions process he/she underwent. Was he/she admitted based on a portfolio? If so, we’d love to see and display a copy! Was he/she given a scholarship? We’d love the details. Also, please contact us if your student has graduated college. We’re interested in all aspects of college/admissions as they affect home educated students. We’ll also need some pictures! If you can help supply any of these needs, please contact info@heir.org.
4. Enrichment Programs, Unique Methodology, Internships, etc. – If your home education program includes variety or unique methods or opportunities that you think would be of interest to other home educators or legislators, we would love to hear about it for possible inclusion in our displays for Home Education Day at the Capitol. Please contact info@heir.org to tell us about what you have.
5. Support Group Activities and Support Group Newsletter/Brochure/Other – We’ll be having a table devoted to home education support groups, and we’d love to have yours featured. First, we’d like to have a copy of your support group newsletter to include in a file for legislators to browse. We will file these by county, so be sure we know where you’re located. We would also like to have notebooks featuring the activities of your support group to display on our table. Your notebook can contain pictures, publications, descriptions of activities, or whatever else you’d like. The more exciting they are, the more we think they’ll be enjoyed by other home educators and legislators. To get further information or submit a notebook or other display (if space permits), please contact info@heir.org.

1. Join HEIR or Make a Contribution to cover the expenses of Home Education Day at the Capitol. HEIR is sponsoring this free event, and all expenses are being paid by HEIR. Because our only source of revenue is our annual membership dues of $12.00 / family ($6.00 with group discount), we need your support to underwrite the cost of presenting this event. Join or contribute online or by e-mailing info@heir.org. No donation is too small to be welcomed and greatly appreciated!
2. Home Education Day at the Capitol COMPLETE SCHEDULE so you can plan your day.
3. Buy a One-Day MARTA Pass or tokens online for Home Ed Day at the Capitol. These can be ordered directly from MARTA by linking from the www.heir.org website and will be mailed to you in time for you to use for all your travel around town while you visit Atlanta on Home Ed Day! As soon as MARTA completes our special link, it will be available on the site.
4. HEIR T-Shirts will soon be available. You can receive one of these custom shirts as an appreciation gift for each $15.00 donation to HEIR (non-tax deductible). Be sure to check back regularly to make a donation in time to wear your HEIR T-Shirt to Home Ed Day at the Capitol (and everywhere else, of course). Below you’ll see some photos of a rather rough prototype. The real things will be professionally screen printed with printed sections properly placed and sized. They will all be ash gray, long-sleeve, beefy –T’s showing the elements included here. (For those truly alert among you, rest assured, too, that the screen printing will not be done upside down. J )

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