Calls for materials

If you're interested in writing for Secular Homeschooling Magazine, this is where you can get a better idea of what we're looking for. If you want to submit an article or you have a question, e-mail me.

General guidelines

All articles submitted must be original and not previously published (appearing on a blog or web site counts as having been previously published). No reprints or simultaneous submissions, please.

When submitting, please include the article in the body of the email as well as in an RTF or Word (.doc) attachment.

The article should be as long as it needs to be. If you're worried, go ahead and query.

Payment is on publication. At this point, I pay $15 for full-length articles (other rates are detailed below). I apologize for the small sum; at this point, all expenses are out of pocket. My first priority is to pay contributors more as I get subscribers and advertisers.

Articles

We are always looking for articles about homeschooling. I would especially like to see articles on teaching science, math, and history; homeschooling the only child; homeschooling children of various ages; homeschooling a special-needs child; craft projects that teach; children's learning styles; and making it work as a working homeschooling parent. I also like "a day in the life of a homeschooling family" articles. Humor pieces are great -- just keep it clean, the kids might be reading this! This list is to give you an idea of the kind of thing I'd like to see, but these are only suggestions. I'll read about anything you think would be of interest to homeschoolers. If you're not sure and would like to sound me out before you go to all the work of writing an article, by all means send me a query letter.

Please understand the difference between an idea and an article. If you have a thousand favorite web sites bookmarked that you think would be of interest to homeschoolers, don't offer to send me the whole list. Pick some that are related and write about why you like them and how they've been of use to you or your children.

This journal is for all homeschoolers, so articles must be positive; it's perfectly all right to write a piece in celebration of unschooling, or about how school-at-home works for you, but no trashing those with differing educational philosophies, please. We also prefer that pieces be pro-homeschooling rather than anti-school.

No sexism, please. As the mother of a peaceable, introverted boy who has a knack for making friends with every wild-child girl on the homeschooling block, I can't keep a straight face when reading an article about how much more active and aggressive boys are than girls. When talking about homeschooling children in general, please alternate the use of "he" and "she," rather than sticking entirely with one or the other.

This is a non-religious homeschooling magazine. That doesn't mean that if you're religious, you can't submit an article. It means that I don't accept articles that are religious in tone. Articles about teaching the Bible for cultural literacy, or teaching comparative religion, are welcome. Articles about how homeschooling has made you a better Christian are not. Conversely, there is to be no religion-bashing. Non-religious does not mean anti.

Product Reviews

These are always welcome and should be at least 400 words in length. At this point, they're freelance projects. I hope to get to the point where publishers and manufacturers are sending me stuff to review, but for now, I'd love to hear about any book or educational product that you've used. Product reviews do not have to be positive! They should be personal, though. I'd love to hear about what disappointed you and why, especially if the issue is undisclosed religious content. Of course, glowing reviews are always nice, as long as you mean it. Just write what you wish you'd known, good or bad, before you purchased the book or product.

Right now, I can pay $5 for product reviews, or $10 if they're accompanied by professional print-ready artwork. If you write about a few products and it runs a thousand words or more, I'll pay you the $15 I would for a full-length article.

Home Scholars

Young homeschoolers are invited to contribute short articles, stories, black and white artwork, and poems for our Home Scholars page. Contributors will be paid $5 for each accepted submission.

Money Matters

These articles are for homeschoolers on a budget -- in other words, pretty much all of us. They don't have to be about saving money on homeschooling materials, although pieces about where to get used curricula and other educational bargains would be great. But they can be about penny-pinching in any ordinary area of our lives, from buying in bulk to inexpensive meal ideas. I'd love to hear about places to get worthwhile coupons, or an account of fighting for your rights to get educator discounts as a homeschooler.

Cartoons and comics

As we are a perfect bound journal on matte paper rather than glossy, black and white cartoons and comics relating to homeschooling are very welcome. Cartoonists will be paid $5 per comic.

Hot Chocolate!

This is a regular column, written by the editor but relying on input from readers. This is the place where we relay good news on the homeschooling front, whether it's a legal victory or one of our number winning the spelling bee again. The news doesn't have to be big or world-shaking, just good and homeschooling-related. I can't pay for the items for Hot Chocolate! yet, but you'll have my undying thanks and your name mentioned as the bearer of good news. (Please go ahead and give me your full name even if you'd prefer I not print it; I'll be happy to use first name only, or initials, or whatever you'd prefer. Just let me know.)

Here We Go Again...

Hot Chocolate's evil twin. Exactly what it sounds like. Whether it's a public figure saying something really stupid about homeschoolers, or yet another news story that makes a big point of calling the juvenile delinquent or abusive parent a homeschooler (usually not even true -- these stories rarely look into the legalities of homeschooling, and will happily label truants and negligent parents as "homeschoolers" -- and anyway, why don't they make a big point of saying that someone evil went to public school?) -- whatever the bad news is, we want to hear it, if only so we know who to write to or complain about. Payment rates are currently the above-mentioned undying gratitude and immortality of having one's name in print.