We started back to school at the beginning of August, trying to tackle the rest of modern history before we bring on the science, the math, and whatever else it is we’re supposed to be doing. I grossly underestimated the amount of time this is going to take, but that’s okay, we’ve had some really good discussions and learning going on. I’m pleased to see the kids taking more of an interest in history. Finally.

This morning we started off by finishing reading an historical fiction book, “Witness” by Karen Hesse and discussing racism & the KKK in the 1920s, which is the main topic of the book. Our discussion drifted into the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, which brought us to watching Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech on youtube. Coincidentally, that speech was given August 28, 1963 - 47 years ago tomorrow.

Earlier in the morning Chris O’Donnell had posted a link to this editorial cartoon on his facebook page and I couldn’t help but see the tie-in. I showed the kids and asked them what they thought it meant and what they thought of it, and showed them a Venn diagram I had posted a link to on facebook earlier this week. Both related to the current theme of hatred toward Muslims in America. All three could see the connection of everything we had covered in just a short time, and that prejudice is still alive and well in the United States of America.

We concluded that prejudice and hatred are an all too common theme in our history, which brought us to one of my favorite quotes:

Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. - Winston Churchill.

You’d think that was the end, right? The lesson was hammered home when an old classmate of mine (all through Catholic school, mind you) made a comment on a facebook “discussion” about letting “them” know they’re not welcome here (sorry folks, no link there. avert your eyes from the spectacle).

I couldn’t have written a better lesson plan that rolled all into one connected day if I had tried.

What have you learned today?

Okay, so it has a slight political angle.

The girls are in homeschool tumbling, and the group contains many conservative evangelical Christian families. (They sent out a letter before it started this year reminding everyone it is a Christian ministry for Christian families.) I tend to keep my mouth shut and my head down, lest I offend anyone and they give me the boot. Not that I am one to talk about religion or politics anyway, as you may have noticed from my lack of blogging on the subject (Don’s the mouth on that one, and just because I don’t blog about it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m in agreement with him). The frustrating thing is that they all assume that you are “one of them”. Yesterday I was told about someone’s “unsaved” granddaughter (her words) and my hands automatically went up and rubbed my face, I couldn’t help it.

Anyway, when we got to tumbling yesterday, there was a little suv with an Obama bumper sticker on the back window. All I could think was “That is one brave mamma.” Then I saw the sticker down lower:

Dog is my co-pilot.

Holy shit! I had the strongest urge to wait by their vehicle so I could shake their hand, to congratulate them on being so gutsy. But then I thought that was weird in a stalker sort of way, so I didn’t.

Heather makes some interesting points regarding how we, as homeschooling parents, respond to the “What about socialization?” question that seems to revisit us all too often.

Never once do you hear a homeschooler say, “Socialization with other kids? What makes you think they need it?”
There are problems with defending your homeschooled kids’ social development with a list of their social activities. Not only does it reinforce the idea that children somehow NEED other children around them to be mentally healthy, it makes attaining that goal seem like an exhausting task.

Go read the whole thing, before I end up block-quoting the entire thing, cuz it’s all good.

Although Daryl and Chris already posted this, it’s too good not to pass along. A great story on homeschooling from CBS Sunday Morning:

I must be getting old because all I ever do anymore is complain. OK, well on with it then…

Over at the HomeEdMag News and Commentary blog, Valerie Moon points out more scare-mongering from HSLDA. This time it’s their subsidiary, parentalrights.org. They’re pushing a parental rights constitutional amendment.

What could be wrong with parental rights, you might ask? Well, nothing in and of itself. The problem is with their amendment. First, an amendment to the constitution is a big deal. It’s not like getting a city ordnance passed to put in a stoplight or something, we’re talking about the highest law of the land. Let’s not go changing it on a whim, k? Second, as Valerie points out, the proposed amendment is so vague that it’s often been referred to as “the lawyer’s full employment act”.

So we have an organization run by lawyers, pushing for a vague constitutional amendment that will virtually guarantee years of lawsuits. How long until the Home School Legal Defense Association morphs into the Parents Legal Defense Association? This is nothing but another scare tactic, and all of the HSLDA sheeple will fall for it.

I’m reading Parenting Beyond Belief, and today while reading the essay “Passing Down the Joy of Not Collecting Stamps” by Penn Gillete (of Penn and Teller) I came across this:

Who trusts anything from government schools? “Better to be uneducated than educated by your government.”

At the time the essay was written, his children were still very young. Sounds like an unschooler in the making.

Maybe you’ve heard about the new movie Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed that is due to be released in a few days. It stars Ben Stein; you know, the guy that plays the droning teacher in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off (Beuller…Beuller…Beuller…). Except this movie is no comedy. Unless of course you think dishonesty and attempts to sway people with propaganda are funny.

The movie is about the alleged problem of academics being “expelled” from thier positions because of their belief in Intelligent Design. The truth is that the scientists they claim this happened to were all crappy scientists. And some of those profiled in the film aren’t even scientists. One is an M.D. and another a journalist.

The filmmakers also interviewed several prominent scientists who are critics of Intelligent Design. But they did so under false pretenses and used some convenient editing to use certain statements to get a reaction, while leaving out much of the scientific context.

They are marketing the movie mainly to churches and religious groups. They are trying to draw in Christian schools, and even homeschoolers by offering them the chance to win $10,000 for submitting their ticket stubs from the movie. Obviously they are trying to set up an artificial science vs. religion division. This is not an issue about the validity of religious beliefs. The theory of evolution has been accepted by Catholicism, Judaism, and mainstream Protestantism as being compatible with their theologies.

Don’t be misled; and don’t pay to see this giant load of crap.

The National Center for Science Education has set up a website (ExpelledExposed.com) that tells the true story behind the movie, and also deals with some of the larger issues raised.

The NCSE needs some help with getting the word out. If you have a website or a blog, link to ExpelledExposed.com using the word “Expelled” as the link text, like so: Expelled. At the very least, go to the website, read what they have to say, and be informed.

Note: If you have a blog or website, you could also link to the movie’s website using the phrase “giant load of crap” like so: giant load of crap

I’m writing this for the Thinking Homeschoolers thingamabob. The subject is:

Relative to the services that you receive from government, do you think you pay too much in taxes? Explain.

Geez. That sounds almost like an essay question, and I hate essay questions. How about a nice multiple choice instead:

Relative to the services that you receive from government, do you think you pay too much in taxes?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Not Sure.
D. Sometimes.

There. My answer is D. And I didn’t even have to scribble an outline in the margin and get a hand cramp from writing furiously for 50 minutes.

But I guess this is supposed to be for thinking homeschoolers, and that didn’t require much thinking, so perhaps I should explain. But before I go any further with this, I should disclose right up front that I work in state government here in Iowa. My entire salary and benefits come from your tax dollars. I work for the Medicaid program, which is jointly state and federally administered, which means part of my salary comes from federal funds so even if you don’t live in Iowa, you’re paying me. Thanks. I appreciate it.

So my perspective might be a little different than yours. Taxes are a mixed bag. Essentially, you’re required to pay your taxes and you’re supposed to get certain services and benefits in return. Do you get what you pay for? Well, yes and no.

Let’s start at a high level. Right now the U.S. is paying big bucks to fight a war in Iraq that never should have happened in the first place. As I write this, we’ve spent over $511,000,000,000 on this war, and what have we received in return? Four-thousand dead American military personnel; between 80,000 - 90,000 dead Iraqi civilians; and increased terrorism in the mideast, just to name a few. But that doesn’t mean that I think all of our military spending is a waste of taxpayer money. Our military provides a valuable service. We need them to defend our homeland and we should be using them against the real terrorist threat.

OK, enough about that. Next up: education. This is one of those things that can vary from state to state or even from school district to school district. There are public schools out there that have great facilities, great teachers, and where the students can receive a great education. And there are also many public schools that are falling apart, have crappy teachers, and do a poor job of educating kids. Is this fair? Shouldn’t quality education be a priority for all children, no matter what school district they happen to live in? With the current state of education, some people are getting their money’s worth, but many others aren’t. There are also people out there who think they can do a better job of educating their own children than their local public school. They call us homeschoolers. We still pay taxes that support the school system, even though we don’t get anything in return. That’s OK, I’d rather them have my money than to have to do it their way.

What’s next? Healthcare. Our taxes pay for Medicare for the elderly, and Medicaid for the poor and disabled. I don’t fit into any of those groups (although I’m getting poorer all the time), so I don’t get anything from those tax dollars either (not counting my above-mentioned salary). But the whole point of these programs is to provide coverage for those who can’t afford it on their own and don’t have it through an employer. Unlike education, this is a system that is purposefully and inherently unbalanced. It’s that way because we have collectively made a decision that it is a worthwhile thing to do. No, healthcare is not a right, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t decide to pay for everyone to have it.

So where do I think I get my money’s worth? How about roads? I’ve traveled on roads all over the US and with only a few exceptions, found the roads to be pretty decent. Des Moines used to have a horrible freeway system with all kinds of weird stuff like entrance ramps that merge on the left and places where the entrance and exit ramps merged with each other within a space of maybe 20 yards. The metro area just finished a 5 year project that basically rebuilt the entire freeway system, including all the bridges. They did it with minimal disruption to traffic because they had really good project management. The whole thing actually finished on schedule. I was impressed with the job the DOT did on the project. Now if they can just do something about the drivers…

Also on a local note, our public works department in Altoona does a pretty good job. Every time it snowed this winter (and that was a lot) our street was plowed before I left for work in the morning. They also spray for mosquitoes all the time. I mean it’s so often that I sometimes start to worry that they’re trying to poison us. But hardly a mosquito dared to show itself last summer.

Oh yeah, and parks. We’ve been to a number of places run by the National Park Service and have never been disappointed. We’ve been to Rocky Mountain National Park dozens of times, Mammoth Cave, the Great Sand Dunes, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Hot Springs, the Grand Canyon (Chris and I separately when were were younger), plus a number of other National Historic Landmarks (like the Alamo and the St. Augustine Historic District to name a couple). They’ve all been well managed, and provided lots of educational opportunities. For the small amount of taxes that go to the National Parks, what you get in return is a bargain.

I’m sure I could go one with more examples of both the good and the bad, but you get the point. Simply saying whether or not you pay too much taxes is an oversimplification.

The problem, in my mind, is that we don’t get to decide the degree to which our tax money supports these various things. Here’s a novel idea. Wouldn’t it be cool if each year when you do your taxes, you could designate what area of the federal budget your your tax dollars would be allocated to? It could be done by percentage. Think we need a strong military, but you don’t want to give up your Medicare part D prescription benefits? Designate 70% for the Pentagon, and 30% to Health and Human Services. Convinced we need to spend more on education, but also want to support the space program and make sure you have something to retire on? Designate 33% each to Education, NASA, and Social Security.

If you could really do that, and the Federal government was required to use the aggregate amounts as budget allocations, what would you support?

If you missed John Scalzi’s homeschooling post last week, in which people made all the typical arguments for and against homeschooling in the comments section, he has another post up today that outshines it in terms of pure, internet bickering goodness. The topic? The existence of God. OK, that’s not the real topic, but it does come up in the discussion. The post is actually about Vox Day’s book “The Irrational Atheist” in which Mr. Day (not his real name by the way) attempts to refute the arguments put forth by some of the so-called “New Atheists” like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris.

I haven’t read the book, but then again I haven’t read any of the atheist books either (except about half of The God Delusion), so I really have no opinion on that. But I do love me a good, rousing, comments-section argument complete with quote-mining, people going off on tangents, misrepresenting what others have said, and trying to change topics in mid-stream. It’s almost like watching a political campaign except nobody there is as eloquent as Barack Obama. At last check, there were 435 comments and counting. Go check it out if you dare.

Christine did something to hurt her back and since yesterday afternoon she’s been in pain and really can’t do much of anything except lay around. Most of the time she needs help getting up to standing, and she can’t bend or reach for anything. I took the day off so I could help her get around, and will be taking her to the doctor this afternoon. She keeps saying how she appreciates me doing all this, but she’d do the same for me. In fact she did do the same when I broke my foot last year. However, I think she’s getting a little sick of me referring to her as an invalid.

So today I’ve taken on the task of getting the kids to attend to their studies. I think Christine is probably a lot nicer to them than I am, and if I were to do this all the time, I’d probably be a real hardass. But it is kind of fun too, and I think I could get into doing it everyday. At least until I got burned out and disgruntled anyway.

Feel free to leave your get well wishes in the comments. I’m sure it will help cheer Christine up.

Kim of Relaxed Homeskool fame is hosting this edition of Unschooling Voices, so go on over and check it out.

Go on. Why are you still here?

I haven’t been in much of a blogging mood lately, so I thought I would do a quick update.

The kids have been much more on the ball with school. They have been getting up and starting in on the table work first thing. They still goof off, argue, and take way longer to do things than you would think is humanly possible, but I’m relieved not to have to tell them ten times to get dressed, it’s time for school. They’re doing it on their own. It’s not all rosy, they still whine when we do more than their language arts and math, they still don’t do their reading unless I ask, they still don’t do their impossibly simple chores without reminders, and they still don’t deal with laundry in a good way. I think it’s time for them to do more of that task. Maybe they’ll understand why I don’t like seeing something that was wrinkled from being crammed in their dresser worn for an hour, then thrown on their bedroom floor for three days before finding its way to the dirty laundry, when all it needed was to be taken care of properly.

I went in to have my new crown that had cracked worked on. They re-did the molds and cut off chunks of my crown until I was back to the stub, did more molds, and put on a temp crown. I took Don’s I-pod along in hopes of drowning out the noise; it didn’t work. It wasn’t a bad experience (no pain, it went smoothly), but the temp feels like crap. It’s rubbing on my tongue, my other teeth don’t come together quite right, and I’m stuck with it for three weeks until my new one is ready. I’m beginning to feel like I should have waited to have anything done to that cracked tooth.

Allison had her first dance competition Saturday. I think my stomach hasn’t completely untied all of the knots it was in. Her team did well in both of their dances (gold), and even though Allie got behind at a few points she got back on track pretty smoothly. I couldn’t tell you how the other girls did, my eyes were pretty well glued to Allie. I’m still waiting for the photos from it to be online so I can get a closer look at it. Their next one isn’t for about a month, so they’ve got a few more weeks to work out the kinks.

My dad left town to get away from this dreadful Iowa weather. He headed to Denver first (he just needs to move back there already - he loves Colorado, but I know he likes being close to family, so I understand. That’s why we put up with the crappy Iowa weather too.) He called me once to tell me how warm and sunny it was and how much better he feels in the sunshine. His nose didn’t even sound all stuffed up like it does here. He called me again today to tell me that it was bright and sunny and had just gotten cloudy, which made him think of us - we were at home watching it snow. Next, he’ll be heading down to Las Cruces, NM for even more sun and warmth. It makes me ache for traveling.

He has been cooking for us for so long now that I think I’ve forgotten how to menu-plan. I’ve got to get back on the ball. I’m glad to be doing more of it though, his cooking is heavy on meat (and salt. and garlic.). I’m sick of meat, so I checked a book out from the library called “Almost Vegetarian.” Now if I can get the kids to eat vegetables we’ll be in business.

I’ve been tagged for a few memes lately, and I promise I’ll get to them. Really.

I’m surprised that in the several years that we’ve been homeschooling, this story has consistently escaped my attention.

Back in 1999 Home Education Magazine published this account of the harassment of Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff by Christian homeschooling leaders. Some of the big names in the Christian homeschooling movement that were involved include Michael Farris of the Homeschooling Legal Defense Association, and Mary Pride, author of many homeschooling books and publisher of Practical Homeschooling magazine.

A basic summary of the events: Cheryl Lindsey was a prominent figure in the Christian homeschooling community in the 1990s. She published Gentle Spirit magazine and was a frequent speaker at homeschooling conferences around the country. There were ongoing problems in her marriage due to her husband’s “anger issues” when her husband left her and moved out of the state. She started a relationship with another man (whom she eventually married). After her former pastor disclosed confidential information about the relationship, various Christian homeschooling leaders intruded upon her personal life, harassed her, systematically drove her out of business, publicly chastised her, and negatively affected her mental health and her family relationships in the process.

hat tip: Unity-n-Diversity

Dawn at DayByDayHSing has an excellent post, Inviting People Into Our Homeschool Even if you are not a homeschooler, it is a good read.

This quote really spoke to me regarding kids missing out on some public school experiences.

There were things that I did enjoy that my kids won’t experience. Does that bother me? Not really.

Any choice carries that consequence. By changing jobs my husband will miss out on some good aspects of his former job. By choosing to stay home with my kids I’ll miss out on the great moments of working outside the home. But the thing is, well-considered choices often have benefits that a person would miss out on otherwise.

Well put. We have made a lot of choices within the past few years that have had a huge impact on our lives, and the one thing we took from them all is that there is always a trade-off. We are missing out on some things, while gaining others.

Dawn also talks about letting others into our homeschooling world to see that homeschooling is about more than academics. She has added a few teachers to her blogroll and invites the author of one to take a closer look at what her kids are gaining from their homeschool experience, rather than focusing on what they might be missing.

go read this, The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List. It’s from the first issue of Secular Homeschooling Magazine. It’s making the rounds in the homeschool blogs, even the Christian ones

I can’t help but want to put a good word in for the magazine, I’m looking forward to receiving my first copy. A subscription to the magazine will be on this bitter homeschooler’s wish list.