Homeschooling AT the park?

That's right today we packed up our school bags and went to the park. DH works near this park so he was able to join us at his lunch hour. We had already eaten lunch at home before we met DH at the park so it was more of a recess for us, but it was still fun!

After we got done swinging DH had to go back to work. I then let the kids play some more and did our work, but it prove to be too windy! So we decided that the car was a good place to work!

After we got our work done we went on a walk and got lost in the woods! Well clearly we are home now because I'm able to blog about it. When we found our way out of the woods Superstar said "Look Mom there's a sign for a picnic area! Let's go there, they always have a map there."

Sure enough the picnic area did have a map. I called DH to let him know that we got lost, found a map, and now heading back to the car. It took us another hour to get to our car from where we found the map. So we were really lost!  So besides our normal school work, the kids learn how to find our away back to the car via wits and maps! LOL

More on the Lap Dancing Teachers

Earlier I posted about the Lap Dancing Teachers, well here's the latest: Newer news reports are saying the teachers were suspended WITH pay! I sincerely hope that is NOT the case! Not only that but the board is NOT sure what they are going to do regarding the teachers. They may not make that decision until late April. They are still investing. Further more they are going to also make a ruling  regarding the students that FILMED the dance. Apparently it's a against school policy to have cell phones, cameras, etc. So the STUDENTS COULD be facing disciplinary actions for filming the teachers as well.

I understand that it was wrong for the students to have the phone and cameras. I get that they are against the school rules and that the cameras and phones should have never been there, but honestly I'm glad that in this case they did have them there! I know the students broke the rules and 2 wrongs don't make a right, however I agree with Shawn Van Walleghem.

Mr. Van Walleghem daughter is one of the students who took one of the videos and he stated what they did was a public service. Let's not shoot the messenger okay!

What where these teachers thinking?

Mark Shea was right to label this post reason #239729328992239847239 to homeschool. The SHOCKING video which student's are calling "Two Teachers One Chair" was taking during the school's prep rally. The video is NOT something you are going to watch with the kids in the room!

In the video the female teacher is setting in a chair she throws her head back and thrust her one leg out as the male teacher continues to dance over her. The female teacher at one points even slaps the male teacher's behind. If that's not enough the icing on this shocking cake is that the male teacher dipped his head down between the female teacher's legs to simulate oral sex. The female teacher has been identified and has been suspended without pay. They are still trying to identify the male teacher.

How many students seen this? Well according to the article about the video over 100 students witness this; some were as young as 13.

T/H: Catholic and Enjoying It!

UPDATE: I have seen NOW there is a clearer video of what took place. I know there is no question on the video I linked above, but this is a clearer video. I didn't know if I really should embedded it here, but then again I thought it might be good for those of you that don't really want to click over to other sites. AGAIN watch with caution this is NOT for the kids!!!

UPDATE: The male teacher has been identified as Adeil Ahmed. He just started teaching at the school. Students described Ahmed as a fun and popular math and science teacher. One student also stated that he, Ahmed, just graduated last year from university.

UPDATE: You'll notice that if you go to play the ABOVE video that it has been pulled and no longer available on YOUTUBE. However some of the dance can still be seen on MSN site and The Globe and Mail Site. (Both are news sites).

I will survive (the video)

This is a good pick me up! I've seen it several times before, but most recently it was posted Maureen @ Maureen Wittman I hope that you enjoy the video that follows:

Teacher MAKES students buy condoms!

WTF? That Ladies (and perhaps Gentlemen) was my response to a post that I read from a middle school teacher. This teacher in her post this morning, described how she took her students to a local walgreens and MADE them buy condoms. She posted how several of the students did NOT want to do this and that the parents knew what her attent was for this "field trip".

What kind of world do we live in that a field trip would be to a local walgreens to buy condoms? What kind of world do we live in that the parents would agree to this type of education for their middle schoolers?

My stomach is still upset over this story.... NOW MORE THEN EVER I am gald that I homeschool!!

Accepting me for who I am

I think one thing that homeschooling has done for my kids this last year is given them a VOICE and the confidence to say what is on their mind without the fear of being rejected.

So many kids when they go to school worry about fitting it, be it the "right" clothing, "right" hair styles, "right" shoes etc. It was those things that helped influenced our decision to homeschool our children. After all our DD last school year was in Kindergarten and we were appalled that she came home wanting to know when she could have a bikini waxing and an eyebrow waxing. Why was our kindergartner wanting these things? Simple that's what her PEERS (i.e. the other children in the class) were talking about and doing. She wanted to fit in. Oh and this may be more "common" then most may think!

I may live in the mid-west in a mild of a metro-cornfield, but seriously we are seeing the same things here as in the large cities. Don't be fooled into thinking just because you live in a small town that it won't come your way! It's down right scary!

Fast forward to today. Well the kiddos have come a long way. They are less and less worried about what others think when it comes to clothing, looks, etc. I didn't realized how much so until we visited a local homeschool group recently.

Currently we belong to what I would label as a "secular" co-op. It has been a good thing, but DH and I have felt the draw to join something a little bit more faith based. So we have been visiting co-ops. Most of the co-ops we have visited have been very welcoming and very open to allowing us to come for a day or two and just get a feel of the group.

We visited one group recently. It was a really nice group. The kids enjoyed spending time with the kids. We enjoyed our time with the adults. The cost was a little pricey but we thought perhaps we could work something out. That was until DS learned of the dress-code.

DS has longer hair. (pictures of the kiddos can be seen on my website). One of the dress-code requirements besides moderate dressing had to do with the boys hair. It basically could not touch the collar and go over the ears. Well if you look at the pictures you can see that my DS hair does NOT comply with this code.

Once DS learned of this requirement he looked at me and said "I'm NOT joining! I am NOT going to cut my hair just so I can belong to some group. They should just accept me for who I am, not how my hair is!" WOW! That came out of my soon to be 8 year-old mouth! Whose kid is he and when did he became so wise?? Now if only more kids would be like that!!

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and homeschooling.

I'm really not into celebrity gossip much! I tend to take it with a grain of salt, but with celebrity news reports of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie homeschooling Maddox (with the assistance of a tutor). It makes me wonder:

Are they really homeschooling?
Is using "tutors" homeschooling?
Why are they choosing to homeschool?
Are their reasons similar to the average homeschooler like myself?

If celebrities are homeschooling their kids does it help to remove the negative stigma at times that are attached to homeschooling? Or does it make it worst?

All kinds of things to ponder here!

Catholic Social Teachings

The beauty of homeschooling allows me to give my children an affordable Catholic-Christian Education. I was looking up movie reviews and trying to find info about a movie and book that I saw and read in about 6th-7th grade. (Where The Red Fern Grows)

It was in the course of looking for this info that I STUMBLED upon resources that are available for FREE on the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) web-site. This stumble was so great that I thought I had to share it here. USCCB offers resources and lesson plans on their web-site for educators to aid them in teaching Catholic Social Teachings to children (and adults).

The resources include a list of books that can be read to children. This list also explains what subjects those books teach. What's so cool is that many of the books can be found at any good size public library and/or library system. So I'm really excited about this!! Many of the books on the list (for my kids age range) I have already have check out and read to my kids. I just didn't think about how these books could be teaching my kids Catholic-Socialism.

It was an WOW moment for me. Many of the books I will be re-reading to the kids. There will be others that I will be seeking out now. This is truly a hidden gem for me! I have browsed the USCCB site many times before, I just didn't know that all of these Educator's Resources were there until tonight.

I'm hoping that my US Catholic-Christians readers knew this Educator's Resource was available at our bishops' web-site. If not that's okay; you know it now!!! (Please share this with others homeschoolers, especially Catholic homeschoolers. Our bishops' have this on their website for our use, so I think we should take advantage of it.)

Testing (ISAT)

I love my mom dearly and she is a good help and actually over all is supportive. (For those that my not know this is our first year of homeschooling; our kids were in PS {public school} we pulled them out). However she, like all good grandparents, is worried about how the kids are doing compare to their peers.

She called me this morning and in the course of talking to her my DS asked to play his video game. I had to tell him no not now after school. This of course prompted him to wanting to start school right then and there, but I had to tell him that he had to wait until I was off the phone. Mom being on the other end could hear some of my conversation with my DS so she asked what does he want. I told her to play his video game but I told him not now he has to wait until AFTER school. So now he wants to do school right now, but I told him that he has to wait until I'm off the phone. She chuckled and light heartily made statements about me cracking down the whip because right now the PS students here are still on vacation.

This prompted her to ask about ISAT and when I was going to have the kids take them. ISAT are the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. They measure individual student achievement relative to the Illinois Learning Standards. I tried telling my mom that I don't have to send the kids to testing. That I don't have to do anything like that by law. All she kept saying in reply, was then "How do I know that they are learning what they need to learn and that they are retaining it?"

I briefly mention that they are free sites and resource that tell you what your child should be able to do for each grade level. I also explained to her that every year the school district here on their web-page has an outline of what each grade is taught. I also went on to tell her that we are still friends with people that send their kids to PS, so I also ask them what their kids are learning, so I can compare. However, all of this didn't seem to matter she was still hung up on the testing.

Sure I could test my kids, there is nothing wrong with that. It's just that I don't want to send them to get tested by the state; especially seeing I don't have too. It's just one less thing for me to worry about. I'm thankful that IL laws are reasonable regarding homeschooling. It truly does allow the parents and child to have the freedoms to learn in a way that suits them best.

It's just hard to explain that to my mom. She love my kids dearly and like me want what's best for them. She respects me enough to be supportive of our choice to homeschool. I honestly believe that she feels that I'm doing what I feel is the best and she's okay with that. She is just worried and wondering if they are meeting the "standards".

Of course they are not meeting the standards. In some areas we are way above standards and in others we have some ground to cover. However, that's not because of homeschooling, we noticed we had some ground to cover BEFORE we pulled them out of PS. I'm not sure how they would do on a test, that's not how I measure if they know the material or not. Being able to communicate the material back to me is how I measure, being able to communicate the material to other people is how I measure.

What my Mom may not fully realize is that when this school year is done we are going to jump right into the next one. We are going to take a break but it will be a short break: 2-3 weeks no more, no less. There is no reason to have a 2 (almost 3) month vacation. I honestly believe it's those LONG breaks that cause information not be retained.

It's not practical

It's not practical or you need a back up plan are things we hear a lot. I know it was something I heard a lot growing up. Johny would mention to everyone how he's going to be a basketball player and the adults around him would say that's nice Johny, but not everyone is going to be the next Micheal Jordan so you need to have a "back up".

Susie would talk of being an famous actress only to hear things such as it's not practical, it won't pay the bills, it's not the kind of life that is good for a family, etc. The reasons and list of why a person shouldn't shoot for those dreams are endless. The arts are something that just isn't valued and we wonder why they are disappearing from the PS (public school[s]).

The above video was/is a huge eye opener for me.

If you have 20 minutes please spend it watching the above. I found this after I made my decision to homeschool and it was refreshing. It really (for us) helped cement in our minds that we were/are doing the right thing.

I guess that is why I was floored to listen to several of the moms in my homeschool group talk about their children and they have "dreams" of being a dancer, artist, etc. Not only were they talking about their children dreams, but how they have been telling them to get "real". That those dreams are not going to buy food, pay the light bill, or even keep a roof over their heads. (These kids are very close to my own kids ages. The oldest can't be any more then 9, and they are being told to get real.)

It is a given that I don't want my children to be homeless nor do I want them starving. However, I also don't want to squash their dreams, their creativity, their hopes, by some statement from me saying how it's not practical.

I was taken back by the moms in my group. I thought one of the reasons to homeschool was to provide an environment that the WHOLE child could flourish in. My kids have expressed many interests in being this or that. It changes day by day sometimes. When I'm face with it I tell them that's great and share with them the "work" that is involved to make it happen.