Debt: Cutting 12th Grade

Yesterday we went to IHOP for FREE pancakes. It was a special that IHOP had yesterday and they were yummy! We met up with another homeschool family. After our free pancakes we decided to take the kids to BK (burger king) to play in the indoor play structure. We both got a coffee while at BK.

We sat and enjoyed our coffee as the kids play. In all honestly we were killing time before our co-op started. Our co-op started at 10 and it was 8:30 in the morning. So we had some time to kill. Yes we were at IHOP very early, but that was because we were afraid if we came later the wait would have been too long and we would have been late for our co-op.

We and another lady with her young child were the only people in the BK play area. Toward the end of our visit the other lady started to talk to us and ask if we heard the news about IL and UT wanting to cut the 12th grade because of the state debt.

We said no. She didn't have any real specifics to share with us other then she "heard" it on the news and that she "heard" that IL was looking to pass the bill later this month. She said that "they" wanted to get rid of the 12th grade to help balance the budget. Well anyone that is somewhat aware of Illinois politics and Illinois debt should not be surprise.

I did some Google searching yesterday when I came home. I could not find anything regarding IL, but found that in UT there is senator proposing that 12th grade be cut. Actually that was his original proposal but it wasn't getting the support he needed for it so he is now proposing that 12 grade be totally optional and that if a 11th grader has the credits they should be allow to graduate.

Many argue that in UT there is already that option, so I guess the senator is saying he would like to see more of a push to encourage the kids to graduate by the 11th grade. I could NOT find anything about IL wanting to do the same thing.

I know that Illinois budget is a mess, the state has no money, and things aren't going to improve any time soon. I know that state parks have been closed and that the state of IL owes each school district MILLIONS of dollars! The schools know they aren't going to see this money so they are making serious cuts. 

We have several local school districts here and I know the state owes the one local school district alone 12 million dollars! So it wouldn't surprise if the state of IL is really looking to cut its education expense by either getting rid of the 12th grade or HIGHLY, HIGHLY encouraging high schoolers to graduate early!

I don't know if cutting 12th grade is the answer to the debt, but I find it interesting that there are law makers that feel it is. What about head start programs? What about funding day (child) cares? I understand the need to make cuts and believe me I know the value of those programs, but I'm thinking that if cuts have to be made perhaps those early education programs should be the first to go?  Just a thought......

Book Rescue: Low Cost Text Books for Homeschoolers

 

Do you live in Northern IL? Do you live near Glen Ellyn, IL? If so then you might want to check out Book Rescue! Book Rescue collects text books from various sources and then turns around and give them or sells them to others for a low fee. School teachers get the books for FREE! However for Homeshoolers there is a small fee. Please see SCARE's Website for details on the fees for homeschoolers.  

What kind of selection is there? I don't know for sure because I have never been there. However seeing this local ABC station's news report I want to go check it out! I'm willing to pay the small yearly fee and text book fee! It seems it would be possible for me to get books for the kids for $50 per year. Assuming that I would be able to truly get all the text books I would need there. 

From the video it looks like a homeschooler's paradise!

Don't get me wrong I love using what I'm using, but I also like to save money. Even if I don't buy anything I would like to go and at least check it out in person!

I take better X-rays then Superstar

Web-princess was all proud of herself at the walk-in, immediate care, clinic last night because they didn't have to redo any of HER x-rays. Superstar when he had x-rays done of the summer needed to have some of them redone. Of course they at the clinic don't know us and so it heighten their curiosity of what was going on. Why did superstar have to be x-rayed? etc.

Sometimes I HATE going to walk-ins because they seem to automatically assume the worst of you. The line of questioning isn't exactly the same as what you would get from your primary doctor.  Last night made me a little more on edge because of Web-princess going on and on how she takes better x-rays then superstar. That and the nurse when it came to x-rays told me well you can just stay here in the examine room. While we go to x-ray. I must gave given her a look, because then she said "well you can't be in the room". I then reply I'm fully aware of that, but I will walk down the hall with her and I will wait outside the room until she is done.  I wanted to know what made her think I was just to let my 7 year old walk down to x-ray by herself.

I'm not totally sure what happen with Web-princess all I know is that she has a severe sprain and has to keep the air cast, boot thing, they put on her until it's better. I have to call our doctor today and schedule a follow up.

She can take it off for sleeping and bathing and is able to walk around on it with the boot on. Last night she sleep out on the couch because that's what Superstar did the first few days that he had "his cast". We are not having school today because that what happen when Superstar came home with "his cast".

Yes I know that this is not the same type of cast that Superstar had. Yes I know that she could have slept fine in her room and doesn't need the extra pampering right now, however in her mind she does and I really don't care.

 

How did she sprain it? I don't know. She said she tripped over her scooter here at home BEFORE we left for the play world and it started to hurt then. I  didn't notice any funny walking from her until towards the END of our play world visit and even then she was still playing. So really I didn't pay that close attention to it.

Then we met daddy for dinner and she was still walking funny into the restaurant and walking funny leaving the restaurant. However she sat and ate and never complain or mention anything over dinner. When we got home DH wanted me to look at it. I did, but didn't see anything wrong with it. So I suggested to her that she go ahead and take a bath and perhaps after the bath she'll feel better.

Web-princess gets out of the bath and is still walking funny and saying it hurts to walk so DH takes a look at it. It was swollen pretty bad. She had a huge ball like knot on the side of her ankle. Seeing that DH calls for me and ask "How can you say she's fine, Look at that?"  It was a Lucy you got a lot of explaining to do type moment. :) I looked at it again and can see that  it's swollen. I tell DH that  "I didn't see that before."

I really don't think I could have missed that but said maybe I didn't look close enough. There was no discoloration. Later last night after everything I talked to my mom and she said it's possible that the knot wasn't there before her bath and that the bath actually brought it out.

So after seeing that knot and consulting my medical manual, I told DH she has to see a doctor tonight. So I packed her up, took her to the walk-in, and as I said in the beginning they diagnosed her with a severe sprain. The x-rays showed nothing was broken, but they still have to send it to radiology to be sure. So I'll get a phone call from them in a day or 2.

Such Is Life Here!! I see a little irony in it all seeing yesterday was Ash Wednesday. However I'm sure that's just me. 

PRINTING! UGH! The cost!

One of the down falls to homeschooling is the PRINTING! Our Lexmark printer sucks, literally! The ink cartages for it cost $50 (This is 1 black and 1 color cartage). That yielded us about 300 pages. If we were lucky!

I tried really hard NOT to print things because of the cost. When we switch to Ubuntu for our operating system we found the printer to even be more problematic. It's really NOT compatible with Ubuntu. So we we have been in the market for a new printer. We knew that no matter what we would get an HP printer, because they work the best with Linux.

We figured that we would just get a laser printer because DH knows that toner would give us better yields then ink. We didn't want flush more money down the drain on expensive ink replacements. We ran out to Best Buy and started looking at the HP options there.  It just so happen that an HP rep was in the store! This for us was luck because we were in the market for an HP product!

Best Buy had one HP laser printer on sale for $99 (reg. price $200). I told DH well that seem like a good deal. We knew that it was just black and that we really could not afford the color laser printers.  Not only that but there was no way we could afford a color all-in-one laser printer. (Our current model is an all in one and I love being able to copy things as needed).

DH grabbed the toner cartgage for the laser printer it was $80. Knowing that the toner was nearly the price of the printer made me ask DH "How many pages can I print before I run out of ink?"

He said you mean toner and started to look on the box. He then said we have to go to HP website to learn the yield, because that is what the box said.  I told him to find a sales associate and see if they will find out for you. He found the sales associate and learn from them that there was an HP rep in the store and the rep would be able to answer all of our questions.

The rep shortly learned that we actually didn't own a HP printer and that we were in the market for one. DH explained to him that we homeschooled and that I needed a printer that was NOT an ink hog because of the amount of ink we go through.  We told him what we had at home and what ink cartages it took and he knew how it sucks!! $50 per 300 sheets is a lot of money!!

We explained to him how it's an all and one and that we figure we would keep it and use it as a copier as needed. 80% of my needs come out of printing but I do make copies some what regularly.  He then directed us to the HP Pro 8500. It IS a inkjet printer, but it's cartages rock. The black cartages alone yields 2200 sheet of paper. That already is 7x better then our current print and very comparable to the $99 laser printer. The laser printer toner yields 1800 pages.  The HP Pro 8500 is an all-in-one and does color. It's cost today was $280 (reg. $400).

I listen to him share what the ink yield was on the 8500 and some of the other bells and whistles like how I can scan a piece of paper and email it straight from the printer. Or if I scan items it will automatically file it. So lets say I scanned a art project that web-princess made it would automatically file it in "web-princess folder" straight from the printer.  Bells and whistles that we didn't really need.

I then turn my head to another HP inkjet printer. It was an all in one printer that was $200. He said you don't want that printer. I said what do you mean? He said I'll be right back went around the corner, grabbed some ink cartages, and came back. He showed me  how the ink cartages were for the model I was looking at and then showed me the yield on those cartages: 500 pages. Then took me around the add pointed out the price of various models (including non HP products), the cartages for those models, and what the yield on those cartages.

So in other words that $200 HP inkjet printer was only going to give me 500 pages for  $35 a black cartage where the HP Pro 8500 was going to give me 2200 pages for $35 a black cartage.

500 would be better then what we have now but not that much better. The HP rep said that's the problem SOMETIMES with cheaper models. The models are cheaper but the ink often cost just as much or if not more then the printer.

He said I would either go with the $99 laser printer that we were looking at when we first came into the store, or this HP Pro 8500. Either one of them are going to give a x7 better printing capabilities per (black) cartage then what we get now.

He also then picked up a coupon that was sitting on the shelf and said that this coupon is good for the 8500 model. It was $50 instant savings. All we had to do is give them our old printer as a trade in with the coupon and get $50 off the sticker price. So now this $400 is going to cost $230. That $230 also included ink to start with.

So now we had to decided do we spend $230 on the HP Pro 8500 or $180 on the HP laser printer and toner. (The laser printer did not come with toner).  Was the HP Pro 8500 worth the extra $50 today?

Well lets see besides the fact that the HP Pro 8500 is an all and one (print, scan, copy, fax) and has color printing its cartages were cheaper. Black at $35 gave us 2200 sheets and the color cartages would give us 1700 sheets for $26 a piece. Not only that but each color, yellow, magenta, and cyan was it's OWN cartage. So we could only have to buy the color we need when we needed it. 

Yes if we needed ALL 4 cartages at the same time it would be about $20 more then just the BLACK laser toner replacement. However I doubt that we would need all 4 at once and DH said that fact that each color is it's own cartage will mean that over time it would save us money because you aren't always going to need to replace all the colors.

So we went ahead and got the HP Pro 8500 for $280 today (It will be $230 as soon as I give them my old printer)! Although we do NOT have it today! The model was NOT in stock so we have to wait for it to be delivered to the store for pick up. We did a store pick up because I have to go back with our old printer. We didn't have it with us today in the store either.

It made sense to do the store pick up. I'll go pick up the new printer and drop of the old on the same day. When I give them my old printer I will have $50 instantly credited to our account making our final price for the printer (and ink to start with) $230.

I'm EXCITED! I NOW feel like I can AFFORD to print! Not only that but there have been materials that I have been considering using for our curriculum. They are free materials I just have to print them off, but didn't do that because our printer sucked! Now with a printer that give me 2200 pages per $35 I will be able to print materials off vs. buying them.

Science: Burning Paper With a Magnifying Glass

Seeing it's a beautiful sunny day today I took advantage of it and went ahead and did one of our science activities for this week. We are using Behold and See 3 for science. Our chapter is about the sun, moon and the stars. Our activities have to do with the sun, moon, and stars. On page 73 it actually suggest this activity to learn about how "hot the sun is". This is something that NEEDS to be done with parental supervision.

I have a 4x Magnifying Glass. We took it outside and focused the sun's rays onto a piece of paper to make it burn. Very much like in this video below.
We at first had a hard time with this we couldn't get things to burn. I just had some plan white computer/printer paper. I thought perhaps that we were moving around to much and not keeping still. So I brought the paper in and put a small x on it with a pencil. Took it outside focus the sun rays and within seconds the paper was smoking and we had a hole burned into it.

We then tried on a different spot and could not get it to burn. So we came back in and wrote some more xs and other things on the paper with the pencil. Everywhere that we wrote, with pencil, went up in smoke and had a hole in it within seconds. We know that lead has something to do with that but we are not sure what it is exactly.  We don't understand why we couldn't get it to burn without the lead.

Perhaps it's because it's the middle of winter here? The weather is in the 20's and there is snow on the ground.  Perhaps it's because we are using a 4x magnifying glass? It might not really be strong enough to burn the paper? Perhaps these factors are making it difficult for the paper itself to burn. However it burns within seconds anywhere there is lead. Perhaps the leads burning point is lower?? Or the lead is acting as an accelerator? Don't really know for sure, but he had fun burning the paper.

Later this week we will actually have a discussion on this and will be able to say remember Sunday on how we did that. If it's a sunny day when I plan on having the actual discussion we will go out and burn more paper. I just wanted to do it today in case it end up being a cloudy day later this week.



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