The Christian Carnival is up over at Something Epic!

The Carnival of Education is up! Go check it out for everything educational. They have very graciously included our post on Prop 82!

One day last week I received my California Primary Election booklet for the election on June 6. I knew that one of the propositions was on Universal Preschool but I didn’t really do much contemplation on the subject (I am against it, big shock). I started getting all kinds of emails from a yahoogroup on homeschooling in California about stopping this and I filed the material to read later. Then the straw that broke the camel’s back, I was reading one of my new found favorite blogs, Spunky HomeSchool, and she was doing an article on Outsourcing Bedtime. She had a quote from the Telegraph:

Four in 10 parents want schools to set bedtimes for their children because they cannot do it themselves,

That caught my attention and I went a read the article and it is true. I admit I had my doubts because you can always get a crazy quote out of the Telegraph. This quote from the article (and the true jist) made Prop 82 fall in view.

Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “It’s quite bizarre, but on the other hand it could be a cry for help and when schools and parents work together it can be a very effective way of enforcing discipline.”

I have now read the entire analysis provided in the booklet and frankly, their own material condems it. In the background information they tell you that:

Survey data suggest that 62 percent of the state’s 4-year olds attend some kind of center-based program prior to attending kindergarten.

Let us skip ahead to the goal, also found in the booklet:

Based on information from other states that offer public preschool for all 4-year olds, our best estimate is that—over time—roughly 70 percent of 4-year olds would participate in the new preschool program.

This means in money, to acquire an additional 8% of the 4 year old population it will cost $109,000 per new student (according to Lisa Snell). Now that is not per kid but per NEW participant in a preschool program. I understand that a big reason for this push is for lower income families, but these resources already exist (and are already funded). Here is a logic question, if they are not willing to exert the engery to take advantage of free preschool(like Head Start), why would they do it if Prop 82 passes?
Let’s move on to the real problem, the wresting of our children from us. Granted that this is a voluntary program not mandatory. I believe that this is the state’s biggest problem (taken from the Voter info booklet):

Children not in center-based care are tended by parents or relatives, or served by other arrangements (including babysitters, nannies, and family child care providers).

The proponents of this program say this way more kids will be reading by 3rd grade. Shouldn’t we focus on k-3rd then? Is this really because they want to be indoctirnating their PC values and not ours? Maybe we as parents should make our children’s education a priority in our own lives but (according to Spunky):

We heard alot about outsourcing jobs in the last election. Everybody was worried about the number of jobs moving overseas. Yet, a bigger problem is brewing right here in the US. We are outsourcing parenthood. Parents are knowingly giving the job of raising their children over to another.

We know that parental involvement in education and specifically reading is essential. Here are some quotes from a report from the National Literacy Trust.

• Early reading experiences with their parents prepare children for the benefits of formal literacy instruction. Indeed, parental involvement in their child’s reading has been found to be the most important determinant of language and emergent literacy (Bus, van Ijzendoorn & Pellegrini, 1995). Furthermore, parents who introduce their babies to books give them a head start in school and an advantage over their peers throughout primary school (Wade & Moore, 2000).

• Although parental involvement has the greatest effect in the early years, its importance to children’s educational and literacy outcomes continues into the teenage and even adult years (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003). For example, Feinstein and Symons (1999) found that parental interest in their child’s education was the single most powerful predictor of achievement at age 16.

Maybe we should vote No on 82 and we should all look at educating our own kids both in academics and in life.

Why Homeschool has put up the Carnival of Homeschooling Week 19. As usual they have done a wonderful job. In addition to reading about great posts you can also read about one of my favorite people, Einstein!

The HeadMistress over at the Common Room had another great idea From the Index Card Files for little ones. I decided to bring it over here since so many of my friends have multiple toddlers!

Name the Object

Get two bags, boxes, or big socks. Put several identical objects in each bag.

Player one reaches into his bag, pulls out an object, and asks the other player to show his matching object (‘show me your spoon’).
The other player must reach in his bag and find it without looking.

This will be played often over here!

Ok, so one of the big benifits of public school for parents are the gifts and holiday training. We moms don’t want to tell our children how important we are and how they should make us stuff or give us gifts. How about we take a different tact (or Dad can just teach this unit;)? Let’s look at this holiday as a historical event, a learning occasion and an event to celebrate our mothers (kids are smart, they will get the hint;). I have found a collection of resources to help with this endeavor. Mother’s Day on the Net has the history of Mother’s Day. Wilstar has a great list of verses on what the Bible says about mothers. For a little learning fun, Kids Domain has a list of printables including mazes, word searches and crosswords on the bottom of the page. Now onto creative fun. Crayola has a list of crafts, “lesson plans” (their term) and activity pages. Enchanted Learning has some great craft projects and fantastic pop up cards with instructions. I hope you all enjoy Mother’s Day and tell a mom you love her!

So I was over atthe 5th Kosher cooking Carnival and me-ander reminded all of us that just because Passover is over, we can all eat matzo all year. This reminded me of a great recipe I came up with a few years ago to use up leftovers. I don’t know if I would call it a recipe or more of a method.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lube up (with fat of your choice) a baking dish (of your choice).
2. Take a couple of eggs and come water and mix it up to make a dredging liquid. I would also add any herbs, spices or seasonings you would like. At this point don’t make the liquid to thin, you want it like a batter(ish).
3. Pick the leftover meat of your choice. By picking (a southern term) I really mean shred. Now, I have done this with cornish game hen and beef roast but I am sure it would work with anything.
4. Put a layer of meat in the bottom.
5. Now dip so matoz (what ever will qualify as 1 layer across) into the egg mixture and place it on top of the meat.
6. Continue until you have used all your meat, ending with a layer of matzos on top.
7. Top with oill and cover with foil.
8. Bake for 30 minutes (for 8 by 8) to an hour (9 by 13) or until matzos are set and everything is warm.

I am sure that you could also add root veggies but I have always had them on the sides.

Here are some nerd facts out of this week’s Parade Magazine.

Here is why taxi’s are yellow!

Chicago car dealer John Hertz had an idea to make money off his inventory of used cars: turn them into cabs for people who couldn’t afford pricey limousines. To attract riders, he painted the cabs sunny-side up. By 1925, Hertz’ Yellow Cab Company had produced 2,700 cabs—the largest taxi fleet in the world. John Hertz also started another business for America’s newly mobile masses: DrivUrSelf, which later became Hertz Rent-A-Car.

Here is an interesting fact about the first plantiff in Brown v Board of Education!

Lucinda Todd was angry: Her daughter Nancy, a music student, was not allowed to play in a school concert because of her skin color. So Todd, a teacher, opened her Topeka, Kan., home to the local NAACP chapter in 1950 for strategy sessions to end school segregation. That same year, Todd took the brave step of signing on as the first plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit Brown v. Board of Education. In 1954, Todd and the other plaintiffs (including Oliver Brown) prevailed, and the U.S. Supreme Court denounced school segregation as unconstitutional.

The HeadMistress over atThe Common Room has a great post on the basic tools to start homeschooling. I encourage all to check it out!

So NerdDad came home with this one. I will admit that it is a little goofy but for those of use who played through this game a million times it will be funny.