Contributor Guidelines | Learning Tangent Homeschool Magazine

First and foremost, we are a magazine for homeschoolers. Any articles must be connected to this subject in some way, whether you are just beginning your journey or you’ve been on the road a while.

Our mission is to bring homeschoolers together from across the religious and political spectrum to learn from each other. In this way we can solidify our own philosophy while learning about that of others. We believe that this is the surest way to a better world, where we do not agree with each other on many subjects, but it’s okay, because we are secure in our own skins.

“A strong foundation will not be torn down by an opposing opinion, but strengthened.”

We welcome writers pages who are Christian, Atheist, Pagan, Hindu, Buddhist, and more, and love the perspectives that each bring to our magazine. We are all unique, but we are all very much the same too: We want what is best for our family and are willing to do what it takes to provide the best to them. Keep this in mind when pitching a story.

Pitch a story – a real story. Show that you have read the magazine and understand what we are seeking in articles. Show us that you understand our readers (because you ARE one), and what they like to read. If it is not obvious that you have read Learning Tangent, we are not interested.

Imagine yourself talking with a friend either old or new – and write your article in a conversational tone, but with proper grammar, full sentences and sans the bad language we’re all guilty of using on occasion. Use first/second person – it helps readers connect more easily to what you have to say.

What we do want:

High-resolution images. Please don’t use your cell phone. No matter how good your phone is, it lacks detail that a dedicated camera would pick up. Do not send your images through Facebook or as part of a document, because they do weird things to the images and all the detail is lost.
Timely and appropriate articles for the theme of the issue.
Articles that reflect who you are as a person.
Information about new curricula coming out, book reviews, and projects that you can do with the kids, or even the kids on their own.
Articles that discuss how you celebrate or observe a particular holiday.
Special interest articles – submit a proposal and we’ll talk.
Advice for new or prospective homeschoolers.
Interviews with interesting homeschoolers.
Subject-specific ideas on making it more interesting, easier, effective, etc.
Ways to help your little ones become more independent.
What it’s like to homeschool in your state/country.

What we do not want:

We don’t celebrate one path over another. Ever.
Belittling of anyone with respect to homeschooling style, race, religion, etc.
Bad language or racy articles.
Irrelevant articles. If it doesn’t relate to homeschooling or parenting in some way, it probably doesn’t suit our market.
Articles that read like advertisements – yes, most of us are business owners, but if you want an ad, buy one.
Common Core-aligned resources.

We hope this helps you understand where we are coming from and where we’d like to be headed. We are not politically correct, nor do we seek to be. However, we also will not be going out of our way to offend anyone in the near future. It’s just not who we are.

If you’re still reading this, chances are that you’ll at least think about contributing to our magazine, and we’ll probably be glad to have you. There’s no guarantee that we will include your article in an issue, but we do sometimes hold on to them if they may be a good fit for a future issue. We don’t offer payment for articles, yet, but at some point will do this. For now, it’s just because you have something to say, and we are giving you a place to say it.

Sections (these can sometimes change, according to the articles submitted):

Common Sense Homeschooling
Quarterly Theme
Health & Food
Travel
Projects
Homeschooling Abroad

Basic formatting rules

To save the sanity of our editor, follow them as closely as possible. Every extra moment of time that she has to spend slows down the process of finishing each issue.

When you need to reference a passage or principle from your religious text, paraphrase it then include the specific passage in (parentheses). People of all faiths and no faith read Learning Tangent, and many do not know your religion’s details. It should always be educational in tone, and when you proof-read your work, try substituting the name of another religion in its place, if you feel offended or simply can’t do it, chances are others may feel the same and you should take that into account in your writing.
When using time signatures, a.m. and p.m. should be used with periods and no caps and no space a between the two letters.
Numbers ten and below should spell out the number, i.e. nine students were involved, 11 and above use digits, i.e. 19 students
Never use two spaces at the end of a sentence, it messes up our justification and we must remove them all, wasting valuable time.
The only return or ENTER you should use is at the end of a paragraph. Any extras cause problems, and our editor has to manually remove each extra carriage return.
Do not use bullets or numbers. We will apply where necessary. DO use ENTER after each item that should be numbered or bulleted, and you can of course let us know in a message accompanying the article that there are list items.
Percent should be spelled out as percent, not %.
Submit photos as jpgs, at least 4×5 at 400 dpi. They may be attached to your email.
We recommend using Microsoft Word or OpenOffice for your story submissions and use the most extreme spell and grammar check parameters.
When submitting your story, use the form on the submission page, or send via email if you have photos to include. You can attach them to your email.
When including website links, which we welcome, please list them at the end of your article. We’ve found that links in the middle of a piece sometimes distract from the message you are sharing.