There's a little over a week before the project is due and the work has just begun.  Due to a conflict of scheduling (and slight procrastination) only Stephanie and Jason will be visiting the homeschool group in Topeka tomorrow to collect info, interviews, video and more.

To make up for my lack of participation, I (Amanda) was given the task of creating a map.  Through creating this map, I learned that homeschool groups are not unique in the Kansas area.  All of the schools shown in the map operate like the one in Topeka under the influence of CHECK - Christian Home Educators Confederation of Kansas.

Take a look at the Homeschool Groups Across Kansas Counties and be on the lookout for more posts and Steph and Jason adventure to Topeka tomorrow.

Amanda

Choosing our topic

This project has been a long time coming.

I, (Stephanie) first met Jason in our computer assisted reporting class during the Fall 2009 semester. Amanda was also in this class and knew us both prior to enrolling in the class. The three of us talked during class and got to know each other better. 

One day, I was talking to Jason and the fact that I was homeschooled came up. This simple piece of my past unleashed a million questions that I had never really been asked before. Jason was very interested in the concept and was interested in doing a story about K-State students that were homeschooled in high school. I gave him some information, but ultimately, that never happened.

Flash forward to the Fall 2010 semester. The three of us ended up in the same convergence reporting class with Sam Mwangi. Sam starting talking about what we would be doing throughout the semester and mentioned that the majority of the semester would be spent working in groups. We knew we would be working together right off the bat. Not two minutes after the announcement had been made, I had a text from Jason asking to join the "ginger twins' party" (Amanda and I both have red hair and have been called the ginger twins for a while. Thus our team name became "Ginger-J".) We, of course, accepted him.

At first, we thought about doing our big multimedia project on the reserve soldiers that are also K-State students. We all agreed that it would be a cool story and that was all we needed at the time. About a week or two later, the fact that I was homeschooled came up again. Cue the light bulb. I remembered the year old conversation with Jason and we all knew right then and there that we had a winner. 

Currently, we are working out the logistics. The homeschool group we plan to work with, my alma mater Cornerstone Family Schools, is in Topeka. This gives us the challenge of additional planning. We have to thoroughly plan our trips down the road to get the most out of what little time we can be over there. I have been going through the current roster looking for families to tell this story through. You wouldn't think there would be many options, but there is a rather large number of families in Cornerstone to choose from. Keep checking back here to find out who we pick and what happens on our adventure.

-Stephanie