August 20-22 the whole family drove to Silistra, to the annual conference of Bulgarian homeschoolers. Viktor was the co-founder of the Association for Homeschooling earlier in July. There were families from Romania as well as the situation there is very similar to that in Bulgaria. In both countries the law supports mainly state-run education which is mandatory and the legal status of homeschooling families is uncertain.
There was a guest from the US as well, attorney Mike Donnelly, counsel with the Homeschooling Legal Defense Association, a powerful Christian organization in the US with international contacts in Europe.
Viktor delivered a talk on the importance of homeschooling in adverse laws and conditions, as those in Bulgaria, for the Christian family and for freedom of religion and conscience.
Dan and Matt appeared on a short report about the event on Bulgarian National television – Chanel 1 – speaking about their homeschooling experience – view the video of the one minute report in Bulgarian, here: http://testbnt.bnt.bg/bg/news/view/35310/uchene_u_doma
http://archive.bnt.bg/bg/news/view/35310/uchene_u_doma
And yet another 1 min segment on TV7, where both Matt and Dan are interviewed:
http://www.tv7.bg/news/91102.html (link does not contain video as of Feb. 14, 2016)
On the way back we stopped in Russe, where Viktor was born, and dad showed the boys and mom the place where he’d spent most of his childhood. We drank cappuccino on this occasion, at the restaurant built where Viktor’s grandparents once stood, overlooking the Danube river.