Ok, so the news doesn’t say you should homeschool but these incidents might. First up, a 5 year old has to write a letter apologizing for hugging a little girl back. You read right, she hugged a little girl back. According to TheBostonChannel.com:

At issue is a hug Savannah said she got on the playground from a friend named Sophie. Savannah hugged Sophie back. The hugs resulted in Savannah having to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, that read, “I touch Sophie because she touch me and I didn’t like it because she was hugging me. I didn’t like when she hugged me.” She said, ‘I’m really sad that I got in trouble for hugging,'” Brier said.”

There of course is a dispute of the facts:

School Superintendent Mark Masterson told NewsCenter 5 there was a “dispute of the facts between a hug and a lifting of a child off the floor.” The superintendent said the school reported “one girl bear hugged another girl and lifted her off the ground. The aide who was monitoring told the teacher. The teacher asked several students to write a note to their parents and describe what happened.”

Ok, so if it was just a hug get over it. If it was the bear hug situation, isn’t that a learning experience in how to get along (there appears to be no record of a complaint by either child). Not to mention you asking 5 year olds to write a letter of description. 5 year olds, who if they start kindergarten reading they are advanced. The parents are now looking for a new school.

On to the next case. A coach and teacher in Texas was distributing flyers (made and copied with our money on our time) to students encouraging them to attend a political rally protesting immigration law. I don’t know what bother me worse the slant, the waste of our tax money and time, or the poor grammer.

Rios, who still retains his duties as an English-as-a-second-language teacher, was copying and distributing a flier that read: “We gots 2 stay together and protest against the new law that wants 2 be passed against all immigrants. We gots 2 show the U.S. that they aint (expletive) with out us (sic),” according to district officials.

At least this teacher is getting disciplined. But it brings us to the issue of “reeducation camps”. Now teachers are trying to corrupt them so young you can’t even fairly call it “re”. Are these the people you want to give influence over your children. Put them in a position of authority, when they contradict you? These are issues to contemplate…..

So I just watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith a couple days ago. It was both good and bad. The worse part was if you saw a single commercial you knew the entire plot. It wasn’t a portion of the plot or an aspect of the plot, but truly the whole plot. Now that said, it was an ok movie. There was lots of hand to hand fighting without any real gore, so I always enjoy that (uhoh, My violent, agressive side is peeking out). Angelina Jolie really seems made for these type of parts. And yes, that means that I enjoyed Tomb Raider. It was another example of bloodless violence. Brad Pitt was ok, just a standard male action role and portrayal. This is definately not little kids friendly. Between the violence and the sex (it was almost all within the confines of marriage and you didn’t see much)it wouldn’t make it to a family movie night. So there is my 2 cents;).

GMC has this new concept car, the PAD. I really don’t think that this vehicle is a new concept at all. It is a RV aimed at a younger, hipper audience. It is cool looking but I don’t know how it would do. I will be watching this to see how popular it becomes. It was at the LA Auto Show and appears to be aimed at people using it almost like an apartment. Do you just park it in a lot or do you have to plug it in? A lot of questions to be answered.
(HT: BoingBoing)

Once again NerdDad came home with a great blog post for me to read. We all know about the mommy wars; working moms vs the stay at homes. Jane Galt was commenting in why there is a battle at all. I really agree with most of what she said about why the battle is raging, especially:

If there’s One Right Way to raise a child, I certainly don’t know what it is, so I’ll stay out of that battle. But I would like to point out that if you think you’ve found the One Right Way to raise YOUR child, then it does indeed make sense to fight hard to persuade as many other women as possible to make the same choice. If you are at home, working mothers are your enemy, at least until they chuck the rat race, and vice versa.

Why do I say this? Simple: having the majority of people live the way you do has significant positive externalities.

I don’t agree with the idea that having NerdDad compete with working mother is a problem for him and his salary. Now, we all know that NerdDad is brilliant and can throw down in the software areana with anyone, so there is no worries;). Go read the article and let me know what you thought!

Ok, I can’t speak for anyone else but I have been overwhelmed with ads for the Chronicles of Narnia DVD by everyone from Christian bookstores to Blockbuster. I got the Lazy Sunday Rap in my head so I decided to just repost an oldie but a goodie….

NerdDad came home with the SNL Lazy Sunday Rap and I loved it. It is hilarious and if you missed it, please check it out. (Just click the Narnia Rap on the side) And now there is the West Coast response with Lazy Monday. Check them out and let me know which is your lazy day;). Do we west coasters really go to Color Me Mine? I have never been but I know I am not cool, so how about the rest of you….

So, one of the many shows we watch is the most popular American show in the world. According to an article on CNN.com, CSI Miami is the most popular in the world. This is despite its 12th place rating in America. Now, I must say that I am not sure that this truly means this is a good choice for us;). Previous #1 shows are Hunter and Baywatch, both shows I have never liked. As a justifier, it is definately not our favorite show but something we Tivo. So has the world choice get better? Has our taste gotten worse?

The Homeschool Carnival is up! Go check it out!

So I have decided to address specific issues given to me by my non-homeschool friends. These are wonderful parents who, on the whole think homeschooling is a wonderful idea, but are afraid it isn’t for them. This is being discussed a lit right now because a bunch of us has kids that will be going into kindergarten next year.
1. Time, Time, Time: Ok, you are preaching to the choir. None of us have enough. Really homeschooling is a more efficient use of time. As our children start attending school the main complaint I hear from my friends is that they have become professional chauffers. You drive them to school and then all the activities. Well, eliminate the driving to school and that frees up a lot of time. As I am doing preschool I start asking around as to how much time I should be devoting. One friend (who is homeschooling 4) said about 1/2 hour 3 times a week for preschool Then start at 1/2 a day for kindergarten and add 1/2 every year until 4th grade. There are sites that advocate an hour a day, 3 hours a day, and 5-10 a week. That is also considering all homework and independent time. Considering the 2 hours a day you spend taking kids to school? I think that more than makes up. Then school is done and you can form your own schedule.
2. Can I really teach them?: Between the wonderful curriculm available and the tutoring clubs for kids in traditional school I say of course. Traditional, we all went through high school. I recommend that you read the lessons before them but are you smarter than your 3rd grader? I hope so;). Also think about all the time most parents spend on homework, reading logs, etc. Aren’t you already teaching them?
3. Cost? I am amazed at the great deals that are out there. There are used books, workbooks at Costco and libraries that carry a ton of great books. I bought brand new Explode the Code workbooks at Majesty Bible and Gifts for about $5 each. I also bought a 2 workbook set for kindergarten in Math and reading for less than $12. I just have to watch my Starbucks.
4. I work so I am going to send to private school.: Well, in my area tuition is roughly $5000 a kid, a year. So if you have 4 kids….$20K a year. That means pretax you are looking at 30K a year. The question becomes, do you need to work if you take them out of that pricey school? Not to mention all the people reading this saying, “No one can afford 4 kids”. Well, not in private school.

There are many pluses to homeschooling and I am not going to present all of those. These are for all of you out there looking at homeschooling but think you can’t or for any of us who happen to know these people. Later I am sure I will present why homeschooling is superior to public school And as all of you are saying “I lived through that” just think, is that all you want for your kids…suvival? But that is another day.

The initial answer to that question is that they didn’t. Now to be a little more complete;). Once again I have seen 2 different things on a subject I want to blog upon. The second always serves as a swift kick in the backside. So let me begin at the beginning. A couple of weeks ago NerdDad was watching a Tivo‘ed espisode of Modern Marvels on home appliances. I was busy “doing”, as a mom does, while he and the Nerdlings were watching. So through the show they were talking about the history behind house maintenance. They talked about the fact that the normal middle class homes all had domestic help. Maids were very commonplace, if not completely necessary if you were going to have children. Today I was reading over at
The Common Room on Schedules. It is a fascinating piece on a Victorian mother and her dilema’s, as documented in a Parents Review at the Library of Congress (go over and read it, it is a great piece). Ir refers to her cook and children’s nurse.

So the question arises, who lied to me? I always believed that with the advent of home appliances I had sooo much more tume. That just doesn’t appear to be true. I do know that in the 1950’s domestic help wasn’t as common but, that is when Jello and Tang became common. Also that is about the time of the advent of tv dinners. So why do we dog ourselves for not managing it all? It has taken me over 2 hours to write this one post. During that time I washed a load of laundry, made 3 batches of sweet tortilla chips for a Pampered Chef party I am doing tonight, convinced the 4 year old he really did need to poop, washed dishes (by hand even), changed the baby and put hime to bed, made his next bottle, helped the 2 yr old with her puzzle, and a couple other little things. Did mothers of old juggle this much? Shouldn’t we show ourselves a little grace? I say this like it will effect how much I do (audible laughing ensues). Well, hopefully we won’t judge ourselves quite so harshly.