Book Review ~ Trixie & Jinx by Dean Koontz

A delightful children's book. I highly recommend it and love it's message "a friend is more precious than pirate gold".

Carnival of Homeschooling & News

The CoH is up. In other news the verdict is in, MISSISSIPPI REJECTED THE PERSONHOOD AMENDMENT!!!!! I want to thank my fellow homeschoolers in Mississippi who helped to get out the word to Vote NO on 26.

Carnival of Homeschooling – Saintly Edition

The CoH is being hosted by Homeschool Buzz this week.

Carnival of Homeschooling ~ Rollerskating in a Buffalo Herd Edition

The Rollerskating in a Buffalo Herd Edition of the CoH is up at Dwey's Treehouse.

I Certainly Don't Support Bachmann, I Think She Is Crazy

The title of the article, Evangelical Iowa homeschoolers could be important to Bachmann campaign,  gave me hope that finally the media was catching on that not all homschoolers are Christians and that not all homeschoolers support Republican Candidates.  Alas it was just another piece touting how homeschoolers support so and so.

No one group can speak for all homeschoolers no more then any group can claim to speak for all public school parents.

I certainly don't support Bachmann, I think she is loony.

Required Reading

I believe that The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood should be required reading. A chilling account of how a religious group takes over America and creates a theocracy, where the government controls everything concerning reproduction. Women are divided into groups and are forced to dress in certain colors to donate what group they are in. Wives wear blue (only first marriages are recognized), Cooks and Household Help (composed of  unmarried older women too old for child bearing) wear green. And Handmaids (all second marriages and non-marital liaisons were declared adulterous the women's children were taken from them and they were arrested and forced to become Handmaids) wear red. Econo Wives wear striped dresses of all 3 colors. Handmaids are given to men in positions of power who do not have children and are forced to bear these men's children. (Under the new laws Men are not infertile if a woman doesn't get pregnant she is entirely to blame).  Anyone breaking the new harsh laws can be killed and hung on the wall or sent to the colonies where they are forced to clean up toxic waste. And under the new laws reading is forbidden for women. 

Josiah Cantrall American Non Thinker

Mr Cantrall wrote Repeal Obamacare - but Keep Socialized Education? for American Thinker, apparently he put little thought into it.

Horace Mann (1796-1859)

Horace Mann, often called the Father of the Common School, began his career as a lawyer and legislator. When he was elected to act as Secretary of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, he used his position to enact major educational reform. He spearheaded the Common School Movement, ensuring that every child could receive a basic education funded by local taxes. His influence soon spread beyond Massachusetts as more states took up the idea of universal schooling.  

Mann's commitment to the Common School sprang from his belief that political stability and social harmony depended on education: a basic level of literacy and the inculcation of common public ideals.

Apparently Mr. Cantrall is unaware that before Horace Mann's idea of universal schooling took hold much of the population was illiterate.  Or perhaps he just doesn't care.

According to Mr. Cantrall

However, as we all know, "free education" isn't free, but subsidized through tax levies on all citizens -- even those with no school-age children and those who have chosen to educate their children privately.  Herein lies the genius of the left: by dictating the funding of government-run education and health care programs, millions of families are left with few alternatives outside the government's control.  Although the right to enroll their children in private schools remains, this "right," for all practical purposes, often cannot be exercised due to income limitations. The reality is that many middle- and lower-income families cannot afford to pay taxes towards our public schools while also sending their own children to schools of their choice.  The same holds true for health insurance policies -- thus, freedom of choice is suddenly available only to the elite and wealthy.

On the contrary public schools ensure that ALL children will receive an education, not just the children of the elite and wealthy that can afford to educate their children.  School taxes are a mere pittance of the taxes you pay in most areas and a well educated community provides benefits to all in the community. Those who wish are still free to send their children to private schools or to homeschool them. And in many states homeschool restrictions are very lax and do not provide any undue hardship for parents wishing to homeschool. Without public schools many children would not receive even a basic education as their families would not have the resources to provide an education for them. To the detriment of not only the children, but the communities in which they live.

Just like public education aims to ensure that every child can read and write The Affordable Care Act seeks to ensure that each American has access to affordable health care. 

You can read The Affordable Care Act here.

Carnival of Homeschooling

This week you will find the CoH at SmallWorld.

Crown of Thorns by Stephane Groueff

Biography of Boris III of Bulgaria. Very interesting college level reading.King Boris III, helped save the Bulgarian Jews from Hitler and tried to keep Bulgaria out of WWII as much as possible.

Recommend

Calling myself a homeschooling mother doesn't make me one By Rose Godfrey/For the Appeal-Democrat

The Chicago Tribune has been calling Lydia Price a homeschooling mother. Apparently, for the Tribune, restricting the definition of homeschooling mother to someone who actually educates her children is as nit picky as expecting me to pass all those pesky Harvard classes before saying I've earned that Ivy League degree.

Was this really written by a homeschooler?

Homeschooling is Bad Because sounds as if it was written by one of the children of  a stereotypical Fundamentalist Homeschooler and I feel for her/him I really do, if they actually exist.  But just because this was their experience with being homeschooled doesn't mean it is everyone's. Honestly this hatchet job on homeschooling sounds as if it were made up.

Because you might have to spend the ten years after being homeschooled for 18 years recovering and trying to find out all of the things that were hidden from you. All of the things you were not allowed to know- about history, science, the world... I'm not kidding- this is MY experience. Not pushing it off on anyone else.

We choose to homeschool our children because we wanted to provide a better academic education for them then was available at the local public schoools and because we wanted them to be free to dress as individuals not forced to look like clones in mandatory public school uniforms. We certainly didn't want to hide anything from them.

And if you are doing a kick-ass job teaching your kids everything and MORE then why would you be afraid of someone checking in to make sure it's all okay. I mean, for the sake of the kids that aren't in a right situation, other homeschool families should be advocating for it. 

I did a kick ass job educating my boys, they are both doing very well in college. That said I did not want some bureaucrat telling me what I had to teach and when I had to teach it. I am sure the bureaucrat would have found some reason my eldest son couldn't start college at 16.

We don't learn how to get along by sequestering ourselves away and hiding. We don't learn how to be more open-minded. We don't learn to accept.

None of the homeschoolers I know sequester themselves. We are out in our communities often doing volunteer work and lending a helping hand. We belonged to a INCLUSIVE homeschool group, PEAK Homeschool Network,  when I was actively homeschooling.

Now I have to question WHY a site that sells homeschool curriculum would publish such nonsense. Did they do so in order to attract traffic to their site? I certainly wouldn't buy from them if that is the case.

Carnival of Homeschooling

The CoH is up at Raising Real Men.

Book Review ~ Neighbors by Jan T. Gross

A chilling account of how the Poles of Jedwabne killed their Jewish neighbors during the German occupation. Mainly out of greed, but also due to long held superstitions spread by  Catholic Priest that the blood of Christian Children were used in Jewish rituals during Passover.

Carnival Of Homeschooling – Hosted by Home Grown Mommy

Home Grown Mommy is hosting this weeks CoH.

NOT a Republican Foot Soldier

I really expected better from Reuters, then this hatchet job portraying stereotypical homeschoolers.

Homeschoolers are a diverse group just like public school parents are. Some of us are even DEMOCRATS or Independents. By no means are we all Republican Foot Soldiers. In fact my husband is running for office as a Democrat.

Another myth is that homeschoolers are all Christians or that we all teach Creationism. Nothing could be further from the truth . There are Pagan, Atheist, Agnostic, Jewish, and  Buddhist Homeschoolers just to name a few, and many homeschoolers believe and teach EVOLUTION.

And contrary to how the Reuters article portrays us their are many PRO-CHOICE homeschoolers that are supportive of both boys and girls being given mandatory vaccinations  to prevent the spread of HPV, a sexually transmitted disease.

Consent Of The Governed: Carnival of Homeschooling - 300th Edition!!!

Consent Of The Governed: Carnival of Homeschooling - 300th Edition!!!

Homeschool Bytes presents

The Welcome to the Harvest Edition of The Carnival of Homeschooling.

Homeschooling best for children according to the Brazen Careerist

 I feel like I have no choice. Because while I was waiting for the kids to go back to school, I was reading. And, of course, now my homeschool site makes me a magnet for research about school. And the evidence is overwhelming that schools are not meeting the educational needs of children

Unstructured play is more important than everything else for young kids. 

Test scores are not important. 

The homeschool trend is huge among educated parents. 

Passion-based learning is an impossible goal with 30 kids and one teacher.  

Almost all serious talk of school reform is about redefining what school is.

I challenge you to read these links and tell me you don’t think homeschool would be better for your kids. And this is why I tell myself that I have to make homeschooling work.

Read the full article here.

Notes From A Homeschooling Mom

is hosting this weeks Carnival of Homeschooling.

15 Key Facts About Homeschooled Kids in College

Read the article here.