Saturday, October 18, 2008
Homeschool Blog Awards ~ Nominations Closed
Nominations for Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Awards are now closed. Since Mother Crone's Homeschool is now offline, I am going to drop it from the adult blogs. I am really disappointed that Angela choose to discontinue her blog as it was one of my favourites and I thought it contained a lot of wonderful material. I will start working on getting the polls up, I hope to be finished by November 1st.
Adult Blogs-
Mother Crone's Homeschool (offline) ~ removed from contest.
Ragamuffin Studies
Day by Day Discoveries
The New Unschooler
Bore Me to Tears
Get In, Hang On
Handmade Homeschool
Homeschooled Twins
Welcome to Barton Cottage
Our Busy Homeschool
Ramblings, Rants & Remedies
Survive the Experience
Little Blue School
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
At Home Science
Homeschooling Ideas
The Thinking Mother
Principled Discovery
Kim's Play Place
Home Spun Juggling
Hilltop Academy
Homeschool Buzz
Here in the Bonny Glen
Schooling from the heart
Renaissance Mama
As Cozy as Spring
Group Blogs-
Cocking a Snook!
Growing in Grace
Radical Unschoolers' Network
Life Without School
The Homeschool Classroom
Teen Blogs-
The Daily Planet
Quilted Story
Esme Emannuel
Mother Crone's Homeschool (offline) ~ removed from contest.
Ragamuffin Studies
Day by Day Discoveries
The New Unschooler
Bore Me to Tears
Get In, Hang On
Handmade Homeschool
Homeschooled Twins
Welcome to Barton Cottage
Our Busy Homeschool
Ramblings, Rants & Remedies
Survive the Experience
Little Blue School
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
At Home Science
Homeschooling Ideas
The Thinking Mother
Principled Discovery
Kim's Play Place
Home Spun Juggling
Hilltop Academy
Homeschool Buzz
Here in the Bonny Glen
Schooling from the heart
Renaissance Mama
As Cozy as Spring
Cocking a Snook!
Growing in Grace
Radical Unschoolers' Network
Life Without School
The Homeschool Classroom
The Daily Planet
Quilted Story
Esme Emannuel
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
I got an award
Life on thePlanet thinks I am worthy of the Brillante Weblog Award 2008, muchas gracias. And my apologies for taking so long to post it.
Now to pass it on.
Stop harassing homeschoolers about vaccinations
Chris Joyner claims homeschoolers are avoiding vaccinations. Read The Clarion Ledger's Some Miss. parents home-schooling kids to avoid vaccinations.
Some public health officials are concerned the growing popularity of home schooling has created gaps in the vaccination safety net, leading to outbreaks of rare childhood diseases
First off many homeschoolers do vaccinate their children to imply that all homeschoolers do not vaccinate their children is misleading and unfair. The reporter also ignores the fact that most parents make the decision to vaccinate before the child reaches school age (see vaccination schedule). The decision to homeschool may be driven by the parents desire not to expose their children to what they see as risky vaccines. But homeschooling isn't to blame for children being unvaccinated.
All states allow unvaccinated children to attend school with a medical doctor's excuse. Mississippi and West Virginia alone allow no exemptions beyond medical necessity, leaving parents with home-schooling as the only option if they do not want to have their children vaccinated.
So public school students with a medical doctor's excuse do not have to be vaccinated, but the reporter focus only on unvaccinated homeschoolers in his article. Also no mention is made of students enrolled in private schools, are they required to vaccinate or is it left up to the parents and the private school officials?
Like many states, Mississippi does not require parents to register their children if they intend to home school. Ann Zeise, an independent researcher who runs a home-schooling Web site, used Census data to project an estimate of the number of home-schoolers for each state. Her estimate for Mississippi is more than 14,000 students.
Shoddy reporting here MS law requires homeschoolers to register with the school attendance officer for their school district.
Caplan does little to calm the fears of parents who home school their children to prevent government-mandated vaccines. He said states should require home-schooled children to be vaccinated and make it tougher to get an exemption.
Really in light of this I think the decision to vaccinate should be left up to the parents.
After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.
Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court - Now What?
If the Federal Government can not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the vaccines are SAFE for all children then no one should be forced to have their children vaccinated.
Some public health officials are concerned the growing popularity of home schooling has created gaps in the vaccination safety net, leading to outbreaks of rare childhood diseases
First off many homeschoolers do vaccinate their children to imply that all homeschoolers do not vaccinate their children is misleading and unfair. The reporter also ignores the fact that most parents make the decision to vaccinate before the child reaches school age (see vaccination schedule). The decision to homeschool may be driven by the parents desire not to expose their children to what they see as risky vaccines. But homeschooling isn't to blame for children being unvaccinated.
All states allow unvaccinated children to attend school with a medical doctor's excuse. Mississippi and West Virginia alone allow no exemptions beyond medical necessity, leaving parents with home-schooling as the only option if they do not want to have their children vaccinated.
So public school students with a medical doctor's excuse do not have to be vaccinated, but the reporter focus only on unvaccinated homeschoolers in his article. Also no mention is made of students enrolled in private schools, are they required to vaccinate or is it left up to the parents and the private school officials?
Like many states, Mississippi does not require parents to register their children if they intend to home school. Ann Zeise, an independent researcher who runs a home-schooling Web site, used Census data to project an estimate of the number of home-schoolers for each state. Her estimate for Mississippi is more than 14,000 students.
Shoddy reporting here MS law requires homeschoolers to register with the school attendance officer for their school district.
Caplan does little to calm the fears of parents who home school their children to prevent government-mandated vaccines. He said states should require home-schooled children to be vaccinated and make it tougher to get an exemption.
Really in light of this I think the decision to vaccinate should be left up to the parents.
After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.
Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court - Now What?
If the Federal Government can not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the vaccines are SAFE for all children then no one should be forced to have their children vaccinated.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Why I pull my hair out sometimes
Natalie explains in her post at Ramblings, Rants & Remedies: Exclusively inclusive
Suspicious Behavior
Any student in the Hattiesburg Public School District soon will be able to be tested for alcohol or drugs based on suspicious behavior. That new policy was passed by the school board Tuesday night.
I wonder if they have taken into consideration the many things that can cause false positives and the possible law suites that will be brought as a result.
More than 250 over the counter or prescription drugs can cause you to test positive on a drug test.
I wonder if they have taken into consideration the many things that can cause false positives and the possible law suites that will be brought as a result.
More than 250 over the counter or prescription drugs can cause you to test positive on a drug test.
- Pain relievers such as Advil, Nuprin, Motrin
- Menstrual cramp medications like Midol and Trendar
- Ibuprofen is known to cause positive samples for Marijuana
- Anti inflammatories such as Naproxyn
- Dristan Nasal Spray, Neosynephren, Vicks Nasal Spray, Sudafed
- Over the counter appetite suppressants which contain propanolamine
- Common nasal decongestants can cause a positive reading for Amphetamines
- Medications containing chloropromazine and fluspirilene may yield a positive when tested for amphetamines
- Vicks Formula 44M containing Dextromethorphan, and Primatene-M containing perylamine as well as the pain reliever Demerol, and prescription anti-depressant Elavil test positive for opiates up to three days
- Quinine water can also cause a positive reading for opiates.
- Poppy Seeds such as the ones on a bagel from your favorite deli, represent a potentially serious source of falsely positive results in testing opiate abuse.
- Nyquil Nighttime Cold Medicine will test positive for Methadone up to two days.
- Amoxicillin has caused positives for cocaine
- Diazepam tests positive for PCP
- A small fraction of the population excrete large amounts of endogenons lysozyme or malate dehydrogenase in their urine which can produce a positive drug test.
- Africans and certain Orientals might test positive for marijuana due to the pigment melanin in their skin which shows up in a dark person's urine sample.
- Second hand marijuana or cocaine that you might inhale may give your test a positive result for several days.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
So glad that SPEAK became PEAK
Visit Natalie's Ramblings, Rants & Remedies: Personally secular, socially inclusive to find out why.
Doubts about the quality and integrity of a homeschool education
I know many public school parents who have their child volunteer to work on a political campaign. I also know public school teachers who encourage the students under their supervision to work on a political campaign. Some public school teachers even go so far as to offer extra credit to students who do so.
So why isn’t that a problem for the NNN?
This development becomes a little bit disturbing, though, in light of this PACs suspect efforts to recruit home schooled children as free labor for the McCoy campaign. When young people get involved of their own volition, as a step in developing their own political consciousness, that's a definite benefit to our democracy. But, where this involvement might cross the line into their school curriculum - dictated by parents pursuing their own political purposes - one starts to get a sense of why so many have such serious doubts about the quality and integrity of home school education.
Homeschoolers certainly have the same rights as public school parents and teachers. For anyone to imply otherwise is absurd.
Read Principled Discovery's Doubts about the quality and integrity of a homeschool education to learn more.
So why isn’t that a problem for the NNN?
This development becomes a little bit disturbing, though, in light of this PACs suspect efforts to recruit home schooled children as free labor for the McCoy campaign. When young people get involved of their own volition, as a step in developing their own political consciousness, that's a definite benefit to our democracy. But, where this involvement might cross the line into their school curriculum - dictated by parents pursuing their own political purposes - one starts to get a sense of why so many have such serious doubts about the quality and integrity of home school education.
Homeschoolers certainly have the same rights as public school parents and teachers. For anyone to imply otherwise is absurd.
Read Principled Discovery's Doubts about the quality and integrity of a homeschool education to learn more.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
F word causes pg pause
Visit Ramblings, Rants & Remedies: Leap of f...aith to discover how Natalie did on a recent statewide radio interview in which she promoted PEAK and home education.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Public School Parents Complain About Hit List
Toriano Holloway, principal of the St. Martin 8th and 9th grades, announced over the intercom on Sept. 26 that he had a "hit list" of students he was targeting.
Edutards like this are the #1 reason I homeschool.
Edutards like this are the #1 reason I homeschool.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Homeschool Resources in Mississippi
Visit The Homeschool Cafe to read Homeschool Resources by Natalie
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Homeschooling delivers
In the past decade or so, there has been more research into the reasons for and the result of home schooling. A study referenced by Woodruff compared public school students' scores using the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency with those of home-schooled students. The median score for home-school students in the eighth grade was about the same as the median score for 12th-graders in public schools. The study ended in 1999 and was conducted by Lawrence Rudner, whose children are not home-schooled.
An article in the Missourian bemoaning the fact that Home schooling operates on 'honor system'. Even after providing evidence that homeschoolers for the most part had higher scores on the IOWA test then their public school counterparts.
Relatives sometimes call local school districts with suspicions of poor home schooling.
"Sometimes we have grandparents that will call being very concerned, knowing that their grandchildren are not being educated even though they know the parents are saying that the child is home-schooled," Barnett said. In cases like these, the district directs the caller to the state hot line.
I would hazard a guess that in a majority of these cases the grandparents either do not like the parent doing the homeschooling or are prejudiced against homeschooling, and that the parents in fact are doing a wonderful job homeschooling their children.
An article in the Missourian bemoaning the fact that Home schooling operates on 'honor system'. Even after providing evidence that homeschoolers for the most part had higher scores on the IOWA test then their public school counterparts.
Relatives sometimes call local school districts with suspicions of poor home schooling.
"Sometimes we have grandparents that will call being very concerned, knowing that their grandchildren are not being educated even though they know the parents are saying that the child is home-schooled," Barnett said. In cases like these, the district directs the caller to the state hot line.
I would hazard a guess that in a majority of these cases the grandparents either do not like the parent doing the homeschooling or are prejudiced against homeschooling, and that the parents in fact are doing a wonderful job homeschooling their children.
Elect to Read a Banned Book
Classics like "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "The Catcher in the Rye," and "To Kill a Mocking Bird," have been removed from some library shelves due to challenges made by patrons.
Since 1990, the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has recorded more than 7,800 book challenges. A challenge is a formal, written complaint requesting a book be removed from library shelves or school curriculum. About three out of four of all challenges are to material in schools or school libraries, and one in four are to material in public libraries.
It is thanks to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, and students that most challenges are unsuccessful and reading materials like "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," "Slaughterhouse Five," and the Harry Potter series remain available.
Challenges are not simply an expression of a point of view; on the contrary, they are an attempt to remove materials from public use, thereby restricting the access of others. Even if the motivation to ban or challenge a book is well intentioned, the outcome is detrimental. Censorship denies our freedom as individuals to choose and think for ourselves. For children, decisions about what books to read should be made by the people who know them best—their parents!
In support of the right to choose books freely for ourselves, please support Banned Books Week (September 27–October 4, 2008 ), an annual celebration of our right to access books without censorship. Banned Books Week commemorates the most basic freedom in a democratic society—the freedom to read freely—and encourages us not to take this freedom for granted. Banned Books Week reminds us that while not every book is intended for every reader, each of us has the right to decide for ourselves what to read, listen to or view.
America's public libraries are the cornerstones of our democracy. Libraries are for everyone, everywhere. Because libraries provide free access to a world of information, they bring opportunity to all people.
Support our libraries and help end the censorship of books.
Since 1990, the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has recorded more than 7,800 book challenges. A challenge is a formal, written complaint requesting a book be removed from library shelves or school curriculum. About three out of four of all challenges are to material in schools or school libraries, and one in four are to material in public libraries.
It is thanks to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, and students that most challenges are unsuccessful and reading materials like "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," "Slaughterhouse Five," and the Harry Potter series remain available.
Challenges are not simply an expression of a point of view; on the contrary, they are an attempt to remove materials from public use, thereby restricting the access of others. Even if the motivation to ban or challenge a book is well intentioned, the outcome is detrimental. Censorship denies our freedom as individuals to choose and think for ourselves. For children, decisions about what books to read should be made by the people who know them best—their parents!
In support of the right to choose books freely for ourselves, please support Banned Books Week (September 27–October 4, 2008 ), an annual celebration of our right to access books without censorship. Banned Books Week commemorates the most basic freedom in a democratic society—the freedom to read freely—and encourages us not to take this freedom for granted. Banned Books Week reminds us that while not every book is intended for every reader, each of us has the right to decide for ourselves what to read, listen to or view.
America's public libraries are the cornerstones of our democracy. Libraries are for everyone, everywhere. Because libraries provide free access to a world of information, they bring opportunity to all people.
Support our libraries and help end the censorship of books.
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