wrapping up the school year, sort of

Will officially graduated from 8th grade last night and the girls only have to attend class until Friday, but school is still going on at home. 

Charlie only has about 1 week's worth of English left as well as CAT testing, but we just started a new biography of Robert Goddard from the Childhood of Famous Americans series and began reading Treasure Island aloud. 

Since Timmy didn't officially start 1st grade until January, he obviously isn't going to be finishing his work anytime soon, but I'm not worried about intruding on his summer vacation, his work only takes 1 hour per day max. Mary and I decided that she could use a little 8th grade prep work this summer in grammar and math so we will be doing that for about 30 minutes a day. 

Add to that workload swimming, piano, and riding lessons and it will already be a jam-packed summer, but I'll still cram in races, gardening, taking care of my chickens, and finishing up some quilting projects.

stocking up on school supplies

It is the middle of summer, time for trips to the lake, dropping off kids at camp, swimming lessons, certainly not time to think about backpacks and notebooks, but now is the time to act if I don't want to spend a fortune on school supplies. Our local big box office supply store is Staples and they are running some great loss leaders on all the things I need this fall. When I combine that with my teacher discount card and a 15% off back to school card I bought for $10, the floor of my schoolroom is filling up with bags of gear. The big kid's school apparently does not come out with lists until the first day, by the time all the sales are over, but I can guess what items they will need and buy now. I already bought all their uniform needs at the school consignment sale last month, so all I need left are some cool lunchboxes (Maggie doesn't want to borrow her little sister's pink Hello Kitty one) and a year's worth of mechanical pencils.

reason # 567

Yesterday I stopped by the fish market to pick up a haddock and scallop casserole for supper followed by the grocery store for dessert. My total at Hannaford came to $17.76.

"How appropriate," I said. 
The cashier, a young woman said, "Huh?"
"The total bill, how appropriate that it is 1776." She still looked at me like I had 2 heads. 
"You know, the Declaration of Independence, the 4th of July," I explained.
"Oh, I never knew the year or anything," was her reply. 
And then it just slipped out, "You went to public school, didn't you?"
"Yeah, Hampden Academy."
"And that is why I homeschool my kids," I replied before I gathered up my bags and walked out. 

Too harsh, I'm sure. But I'll move hell and high water before I send my kids to a school where graduates don't know the date of the birthday of our nation.  
 

are homeschooled kids the only ones who still read?

I was listening to Howie Carr the other day, the Boston talk radio host, discuss how hard it is this summer for teens to find summer jobs. One comment he made really stuck with me, "It would be different if these kids were otherwise reading books, but they don't anymore. My girls don't read except for school." I don't know if this is true or not, perhaps it is like saying "All teens are bad drivers," but perhaps it is closer to the truth than it was 20 years ago. 

My children love to go to the library, if I don't let them pick out a stack to take home at least once a week then they mope and complain and I constantly see other homeschool families there (it is pretty obvious when they have kids over the age of 6 with them during the day). Now that the big kids are older I let them have more of a say over what they check out, but I keep a strict eye on the younger ones. Maggie just yesterday pouted when I took off several Goosebumps books and some inner city teen junk novel that was on her pile at the counter. 

It is interesting to see what sorts of things they come up with, occasionally it really lets me see a bit deeper into their psyche. I noticed Mary's bag of books on her bed and snuck a peek inside. It is obvious that she is a bit nervous about entering Catholic school this fall. Her choices include: Exploring Math with books kids love, Writing With Style, Reading Roundups, Spelling K-8, Word Smart, Math Puzzles and Brainteasers Grades 6-8, and Improve Your Spelling and Vocabulary. Her academic weaknesses are spelling and writing, after numerous years of struggle and crying she is just finishing up the 4th grade spelling book and I have had to help her extensively with her book reports every quarter since 2nd grade. She loves to read and she does pretty well in math if she carefully thinks through the problems, so I don't see why she thinks she needs to further study these subjects over the summer. Seeing these books on Mary's bed is a wonderful testament to homeschooling, in that she can see for herself weaknesses in her academic skills and is attempting to overcome them on her own.

school choice

Louisiana has passed legislation that I had hoped would happen in Maine this year, but our teacher's unions were too powerful to allow true school choice. All Americans at one time were homeschooled or went to private schools in one of their neighbor's home and it seems that more were literate at that time then they are today. Hurricane Katrina was a horrible, deadly disaster, but it seems that it blew away more than homes and trees, it blew out some of the entrenched liberalism and brought reform of the government and the educational system. Despite the doom and gloom predictions of the biased reporter in this Reuters story, the opportunities of Louisiana's schoolchildren seem to have gotten considerably brighter. I do wonder if some of the accredited homeschool programs like Abeka and Seton are included? If so, then homeschooling might just be the next wave in the Bayou State.  

Louisiana is embarking on the nation's boldest experiment in privatizing public education, with the state preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children.
Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kids will get vouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools.
"We are changing the way we deliver education," said Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who muscled the plan through the legislature this spring over fierce objections from Democrats and teachers unions. "We are letting parents decide what's best for their children, not government."

this is not acceptable

Not for my children, and it shouldn't be for any American citizen's children. What are public schools doing with children for 6 hours a day, 180 days a year, for 12 years, at $10,000 a year if not teaching them how to READ?

Nearly half of Florida high school students failed the reading portion of the state's new toughened standardized test, education officials said on Friday.
Results this year from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test showed 52 percent of freshman students and 50 percent of sophomores scored at their grade levels.
The results came days after the Florida State Board of Education voted to lower the standards needed to pass the writing part of the test, known as FCAT.
The board took the action in an emergency meeting when preliminary results indicated only about one-third of Florida students would have passed this year.
"We are asking more from our students and teachers than we ever have, and I am proud of their hard work," Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson said in a statement.

Does the Education Commissioner know that 50% is a failing grade? Does he know that these are children who, unless they have fabulous parents who tutor their children at home to relearn the material, are doomed to be trapped for a lifetime in illiteracy and poverty? Does he care? 

Public school and any bureaucracy's fatal flaw is the lack of accountability. Homeschooling is the opposite, parents are completely responsible for their children's education, there is no passing the blame if a child does not master the times tables or learn to read. I am very proud that my children not only know how to read, they love to read and they do it fast. Mary's best friend was amazed that Will and Mary had each read The Hunger Games  in one day, "That would take me at least 2 weeks!" Not only that, but they begged and pleaded and then demanded that I get the next two books in the series. Only after I read the book did I understand their anticipation. It might be dicey as to who gets first dibs, but since I have to drive the car home, my bet is that Mary will get hold of it first.

shortened work day for some

Since Tim had to travel for work a few days this week, I had to pack up the kids and animals to go down to the other house and take Will to school. We also came down for 1st Holy Communion/Confirmation practice and Charlie's 1st penance on Sunday at the Cathedral in Portland on Sunday. I didn't want to haul a bunch of stuff like schoolbooks down so I could stuff as much stuff in the van on the return trip (the more I move now the less I have to pay someones else to move later). 

Each child has 2 subjects and piano to work on; Mary: book report and math, Maggie: math and spelling, Charlie: math and reading, Timmy: phonics and math. They have had many hours of free time the past two days to sleep in, play with the neighbors, and run around outside. I, on the other hand, have been getting up at 5:30am to get Will to school, clean the house, and meet with the realtor. My bribery plan seems to be working, if she keeps working hard for another day Mary will have earned a manicure (the piano teacher demanded that she cut her nails short and after I chopped them off I promised her that when she finished the dreaded book report on St. John Masias she could get her nails "done"). Maggie and Charlie aren't too far behind.  I am looking forward to call Miss Lisa and starting riding lessons for the 3 of them both because it means we will have finished school for the year and so I can talk shop with another serious runner.

Knowing that both girls will be joining their brother at Catholic school in the fall has given me a sense of relief at having my days more free as well as dread that I will have to get up every morning as early as I did today to get them all up and out the door by 7:30. Homeschooling gets harder as the children get older because of the amount of material and the sheer number of children to manage and part of me thinks that I'm somehow "cheating" by sending the oldest away to school. I'll still be teaching the two boys and continuing to introduce a preschooler to letters and numbers so I certainly won't be sitting around doing nothing. Tim keeps telling me how this will be a big change in my life, but one in which I think will be beneficial to us all. I just think I'll have to remind myself of that fact over and over on cold dark Maine winter mornings driving the kids to school.

Reason #897 to homeschool

 The federal government is quietly collecting massive amounts of personal information on all children, starting at age 5. Over time, the files available on each US citizen will be able to be used in Orwellian ways we can't even begin to imagine. 

Privacy experts say the problem is that states collect far more information than parents expect, and it can be shared with more than just a student’s teacher or principal.“When you have a system that’s secret [from parents] and you can put whatever you want into it, you can have things going in that’ll be very damaging,” says Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “When you put something into digital form, you can’t control where that’ll end up.”

According to a 2009 report by the Fordham University Center on Law and Information Policy, some states store student’s social security numbers, family financial information, and student pregnancy data. Nearly half of states track students’ mental health issues, illnesses, and jail sentences.Without access to their child’s data, parents have no way of knowing what teachers and others are learning about them. US News

My favorite comment:

Just like the old Soviet state schools. They're coming to your neighborhood too. Data collection, personal information on the parents and family members. YOU can't see what they put in there, can you? GESTAPO sounds pretty familiar too. Revolt people. Don't furnish information, give the wrong SSN, and make sure you kid tells you what the teachers are asking them. Raise hell with your school board and get in their faces. Make them squirm and sweat. 

There is more. The College Board is experimenting with requiring digital DNA ID cards for students taking the SATs. (But somehow it is discriminatory to ask for a photo ID to vote)

It begins with mandatory pre-registering at a student’s home school with official legal ID documents only.

“All of that is uploaded to an I.T. system of wireless connections called the ‘CLOUD,’” Dr. Hayward said.

The student’s unique digital DNA code is created and assigned to an ID card with covert authentication marks printed onto it. Proctors can verify instantly with a simple UV light and smart phone scan.

“Now you can compare the image on the phone with the image on the ID card, and the image of the student,” Dr. Hayward said. CBS

Does this remind anyone else of the rumblings of a totalitarian state? My favorite comment:

Since they are now wanting to collect student academic data in a permanent record maybe they can just compare what they think a student’s score should be to what the results are and then surmise that a student was someone else! In fact, why have an SAT at all? Just tell every student what they can do with their life and what they will achieve like in the Soviet Union. Obama and his minions need to go before we are all treated like caged animals. Life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness not DNA identification, strip searches on planes, etc. This country has gone to the dogs – and taxpayers are forced to subsidize these dogs who receive generous Federal benefits. 

shadow a student

Yesterday Will went to his first day of school and loved it. He went to all the 7th grade classes with a nice, polite boy we met at the open house. Why 7th grade? Tim and I decided, with Will's input, that transitioning from being taught at home to a highly competitive environment in the middle of 8th grade, with 9th grade looming would be too hard on all of us. Will has never studied for a test without me, never taken notes in class, and never had to listen to and contribute to a lecture.  On the other hand, he has focusing on his work with a myriad of distractions around him down to a science. He would be a very young 8th grader and a slightly older than average 7th grader and this allows him to take Algebra 1 next year and be able to advance to Calculus by 12th grade. As he has always been interested in engineering, I would like him to have the prerequisites on his transcript. 

Apparently he had the most fun in gym class playing dodge ball, was the only child in science who understood the process involved in wastewater treatment, and contributed the fact in geography class that he had lived in Italy. I am sure that we will continue to teach him Seton's religion at home, as the classes at school are a watered down version of what he currently studies and much more touchy-feely than I am comfortable with. Of course we will be very involved parents, I can't imagine being any other type as Will's and his sibling's education has been the main focus of my life for the past 9 years.
 

all homeschoolers are "green-ribbon" schools

(CNSNews.com) – Next year on Earth Day, the Obama administration plans to announce which U.S. schools have been selected as “Green Ribbon Schools,” a designation that will “honor” schools for “creating healthy and sustainable learning environments” and for “teaching environmental literacy.”The Green Ribbon Schools program was announced in late April, but details on how schools will be picked or what the honor entails have not been released.

Jo Ann Webb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education, told CNSNews.com that the program is still under development.

[...]

Webb said the program would recognize schools for “engaging students on environmental issues and producing environmentally literate students; increasing energy efficiency and using renewable energy technologies; and creating healthy learning environments by addressing environmental issues in the schools.”

As soon as I heard about this while on my daily run listening to Rush, I thought that homeschoolers could inundate the Dept of Ed with applications. After all, homeschoolers use less carbon because they don't ride the bus or require mom to drive them to school, recycle their books and clothes, don't waste food at lunch, don't require massive buildings to house one aspect of their lives, and shut off the lights when they leave the classroom (plus school only takes 1/2 the time it does in public school). The savings in electricity and temperature control alone make every homeschooling family so environmentally friendly that the standard tree-hugger is "green" with envy.

whoops!

Tim thought it humorous that I wrote this response to this education article on American Thinker and used the wrong article, 'a' instead of 'an'. No one seemed to catch my grammatical error and since I only get about 30 minutes on the computer each day to check my mail, write a post, skim blogs, and read the news, I give myself a little slack.




"There are certain things that every person should know: basic arithmetic, reading comprehension, basic science and history, practical economics, and how to write a understandable paragraph. Most of these things can be accomplished by about age 12. What needs to happen is letting the floodgates open for innovation such as charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling; all without the double whammy of paying for the broken public system (75% of property taxes in our town go to the public school, it boggles my mind to think of how many more activities and lessons we could afford with that money) on top of paying for your own child's education. Some children won't go to college and don't need a college prep program, but they still need to be able to function and have enough learning so they can move up from dead-end service jobs if they become motivated past age 18.

Homeschooling is the best option right now, we have been doing it for 8 years and have seen much more acceptance among strangers than in years past, but it takes dedication and sacrifice, not something found among the vast majority of parents."                                                                                                   

                                                                           

What happens when public schools run out of money

Public schools spend approximately $10,000 per pupil for staff salaries and retirement, books, food, gas money, equipment, supplies, etc. This does not include the money for the building  or the buses used to drive them to school. Parents pay private schools anywhere between $4000-$12,000 per child in addition to already paying property taxes for the public school system (Our town in Maine states that 75% of the annual tax we pay on our home goes to the local education budget). In contrast, homeschooling costs between almost nothing and $1000 per child (for a full enrollment school-in-a-box enrollment).

There is obviously a great deal of waste that can be cut from any public school budget, but what is the first idea suggested in Michigan (with 41% of the residents of Detroit now considered functionally illiterate) and California? Cut the school year with the result that children are not receiving even the basic 180 days of schooling.   It is increasingly obvious that the public school model is not functioning. Children are not being educated, the teachers unions are growing richer and more powerful, and the financial dam is about to break. What will it take for large numbers of parents to break free from the warehousing that is going on now? If they were offered freedom with their pocketbooks to choose their children's education enviroment then things would change in a big, fat hurry. Those in charge of the current system know it and are holding on for dear life for their own benefit. 

Teachers and parents throughout the region and state have grown accustomed to significant cutbacks in their public schools, increased demands for fundraising and threats to layoff faculty as California copes with its relentless fiscal crisis.

But schools could face a financial hit so severe in the coming school year that many may be shut down as many as six weeks early, under an extreme cost-cutting measure that was first suggested in January with little fanfare and has been gaining traction ever since.
That means children could be cut lose (sic) from school in April next year, just after Easter. Sign On San Diego

why didn't she just homeschool?

An Ohio mom has been sentenced to jail time for illegally enrolling her children in a public school in a different district so they could get a "better education." The school officials hired a pirvate detective to follow her car and threatened to fine her $30,000, but she refused and has been put behind bars. Likely her children will stay with her father while she is serving time and then they will be in he proper geographical area to attend that school. abc news

I know the paperwork to homeschool is sometimes a pain, but wouldn't it be less traumatic than all of this in order to give her kids a quality education, one that doesn't insist on teaching them to lie to their teachers every day?

miracle product

I have a lot of big furniture that has been handed down to me from various relatives. While it is beautiful and usually very useful (old dressers have much deeper drawers than modern stuff), it is stressful trying to keep the children from damaging it and dark finishes show such scratches very easily. So it was with scepticism that I purchased a bottle of Old English scratch cover for dark woods last week. Since then I have been a mad woman with a rag constantly in my hand, rubbing down my china cupboard, two sideboards, and 4 dressers.

But the most miraculous transformation has been our 100 year old upright piano we bought about 5 years ago. We decided to start piano lessons for Will and found a great deal, it just cost more to transport the piano than the purchase price. (a friend found out after one sharp turn that using a pickup truck to move an upright is NOT a smart move) The piece has missing patches of veneer, scratches all over, chipped keys (I went over them with an emery board to smooth them out), but plays beautifully (the tuner said it would last forever). Yesterday morning I went over the entire case with the special polish and it really does look like a different piano. So...if you have dark furniture and lots of sharp object wielding children, I highly recommend picking up a bottle of Old English polish and expect to be amazed.

(before and after)

it's a good thing

that we decided against sending the kids to Catholic school, because we would have discovered (likely right after writing a big deposit check) that we couldn't have enrolled them anyway. Apparently, while the public school children in Maryland can claim religious exemption for certain vaccines that were created using aborted fetal tissue, the Archdiocese of Washington does not allow any conscious or religious exemptions. Since we don't contribute in this manner to the culture of death, we would have been pressured to vaccinate. I hate to feel that I am more Catholic than the bishop, but...



This is an excerpt of a letter written by Jennifer O'Brien whose daughter was dismissed from a local Catholic preschool because she didn't have the varicella vaccine.


not only was the Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, well aware of the connection between the vaccine and abortion, but she would continue to require the vaccine for all students attending Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. She has no intention as of now to change the policy, which allows for only medical exemptions from vaccines; no ethical, religious or conscience exemptions are allowed for vaccines in Archdiocesan schools.

The refusal to acknowledge a parent's right of conscience regarding the abortion-tainted vaccines seemed rather odd to us, especially since a medical and religious exemption is allowed in the MD public schools. So, our child can currently attend a public school without the tainted vaccine, but cannot attend a Catholic school.

Is not the Archdiocese, as well as Catholics around the country, currently fighting for the right of conscience regarding the health care plans? Why are we okay with the right of conscience in health care, but not in our own schools?

We are not anti-vaccine, but we are pro-parental rights and pro-conscience. In our quest to change the policy, we have been in contact with Bishop Barry Knestout. He was unaware of the nature of the vaccine, and thankfully researched the topic and read the information we sent. As of right now the policy is still unchanged, partly because of the lack of people contacting the Archdiocese to let them know this is unacceptable.

take some initiative!

Last Friday night I took Maggie to ballet class and afterwards went to La Madeline's for "girl's night out." While we were sitting in the studio lobby I got to chatting with a couple of fellow ballet moms. It was a pretty ho-hum discussion until one lady started in about the upcoming cuts in the county's education budget. Apparently her gifted 4th grader has to be bussed 45 minutes and she is already started worrying about what to do when he "runs out of math classes in 10th grade." Come on! I thought this woman was joking, but apparently she is convinced that her kid will have exhausted all of the county's resources in the year 2015. I did mention aloud the possibility of dual enrollment option at community college.

Then the other lady started in about her 2nd child who is in once a week speech therapy and was recently informed that her child doesn't have enough disability to qualify for more services. "She can't talk! I pay taxes, I can't believe they won't do more for her!" I brought up the idea of asking for suggestions of exercises, reading some books to get other ideas, and working with her daughter at home, but this was rebuffed.

Then I shut my mouth, for I understood that complaining about the system while doing nothing to change one's own situation is a form of recreation for these women as well as millions of their ilk. Those of us who homeschool might have complained or been frustrated in the past, but we didn't just gripe. We took some initiative and did something about our children's education. We have researched methods and materials, outlined a scope and sequence, organized our materials and our lives, and actually teach our kids. Having children means having responsibilities: helping them reach their educational goals, feeding them spiritually, taking care of their physical needs, and showing them how much they are loved and valued. If we pawn off all these responsibilities onto some government institution we have no right to complain about how poor a job they are doing. I just hope that sooner rather than later these moms will decide that the public school system is not designed for children who are not perfectly average and break free from just complaining and do something about it.

March for Life

FRONT ROYAL, VA, January 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Christendom College, a private Catholic college located in Virginia, says that it will close its doors on Friday, January 22 and its Student Activities Council will charter buses enabling the entire student body to attend the 2010 March for Life in Washington D.C.

Founded over 30 years ago Christendom College has attended the March for Life as a community every year. Its students are active in pro-life work year round, leading prayerful protests at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Washington once a week, as well as taking part in sidewalk counseling and other pro-life activities.

What a refreshing news story, especially after reading The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College , which described the cut throat process of getting into a "top tier" university and the immoral activities the students participate in, all on their parent's $$. I did learn some tips and hints for assisting the children many years in the future when they sit down to fill out college applications and prepare for the SATs. The main point I came away with with was that character counts, even at the most liberal, hippy-dippy school. High school kids who act like they are entitled to a sheet of vellum with Harvard in bold script across the top are less likely to be selected than someone with genuine enthusiasm for learning (and can prove it by their grades). I was not convinced of the value of a $120,000 diploma from a fancy Northeast school, but we have at least 4 years before we need to delve into that fray. Right now we are focusing on the work set before us and trying to be kind to one another.

now I can't get him to be quiet

This article from the UK Times implies that the blame for children who aren't talking by the age of 3 should be laid right at Mommy's door. I'm sure I have written before about my dragging Will into the speech therapist because he had only said 10 words by the age of 3 and only used them in the confines of our house. He went to Italian daycare one morning a week so I could volunteer on base and they said he didn't say anything the entire 2 years he went there.

Way back then I was the super-educational mama, reading to him at least a dozen storybooks a day, pushing his stroller around the baby loving Italian countryside ("Bello, bello bambino!!"), playing with him on the floor, taking him to playgroup, having a TV-free home. For some reason he was more interested in playing with the hinges on the cabinets than learning to talk. If he wanted something I could figure it out for the most part. Finally his brain and mouth clicked and he was speaking in full sentences by the age of 4. Now in 6th grade his verbal skills are just as well developed as any former smooth 2 year old chatterbox. The comments box after the article is filled with successful people who started talking late, evidence of the nonsense of these so-called experts.

Toddlers between the ages of 2 and 3 should be able to use up to 300 words, including adjectives, and be able to link words together, according to I CAN, the children’s communication charity. Late speech development can lead to problems, such as low achievement at school or mental health problems.

The survey of more than 1,000 parents found that a child’s background was not a factor in how quickly they learnt to talk. Working parents who put their babies in day care are just as likely to have a child whose speech develops late as those who leave their baby in front of the television. (Are these the only reasons why children talk late? But saying otherwise wouldn't induce guilt, I'm sure.)

Almost one in six parents reported that their child had problems learning to talk. Among parents of boys the figure rose to one in four. (Could it be that boys and girls are different? Could it be that development varies more than the "experts" suggest?)

an educational Christmas

You can only buy so many Brio train pieces, so many wooden blocks, so many picture books for gifts for the younger ones, but once the children are over 10 the possibilities of neat things to buy expands dramatically. Will loves all things science oriented so his haul from parents and aunties reflected that in Snap Circuit parts, a book of knots, a volcano making kit, and a solar car kit.

Mary had a very crafty Christmas with embroidery floss for making friendship bracelets, stencils and a drawing pad, and kits to make cards, erasers, and a latch hook rug.

In my ever super-thrifty way I found several of their gifts at the thrift store. My guess is that lots of kids out there don't consider science or crafts fun and discarded these gifts from grandma in favor of playing another round of Wii. When the children asked me if this was true, I said, "You could have 1 gift under the tree if I buy them at Target and 4 if I buy some from the thrift store. Which do you choose?"

Is sex-ed hazardous to your child’s health?

Read all 4 pages, I beg you.

The industry line is, argues Dr. Miriam Grossman, a psychiatrist who has worked on college campuses and seen too much pain and illness that the sexual revolution has wrought. She’s the author of the new book You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Ed and How They Harm Your Child, and took questions earlier this week from National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.