My Wife's New Blog

My wife has started a blog. She keeps up with hers much more than I do with mine. Check it out at http://gracecoloredglasses.blogspot.com/

It's been awhile

Well, I've probably lost any readers I had after not posting since February, and pretty sporadically before that for a while. Basically, 2008 was the worst year of my life and I'm really just now recovering. I wrote a little about the year here. I've had several ideas of things to write about but very little time, and even less motivation. However, I am feeling more "with it" now and hope to begin again.

A friend called my wife yesterday and said she is going to start homeschooling. Tammy told my wife that she never felt like she was looked down on for not homeschooling with my wife, unlike some of her other homeschooling friends. Others have said that also, and I just want to take this time to praise my wife for her generous attitude. People appreciate it a lot.

They will doing some accredited workbook curriculum, something that would never fly with most my boys. Workbooks are an anathema to them. I'm not sure why, but that kind of teaching is useless in our house. That's probably why son #1 couldn't/wouldn't do very well in public school.


Tags:
Parents, Parenting,Home School, Homeschooling,

Cheese Sandwiches Are Cruel: or, There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

A school district in New Mexico is doling out cruel punishment. Some kids have to eat a cold cheese sandwich!

A cold cheese sandwich, fruit and a milk carton might not seem like much of a meal...

Not much of a meal? This is what one of my kids wants to eat every day. And by "every day" I mean 4 or 5 days a week. In fact, we're lucky if we can get him to eat the fruit. The whole family eats sandwiches most days for lunch.

Critics argue the cold meals are a form of punishment...

What kind of people are these critics? I took a sandwich to school for lunch for most of my life. My kids eat sandwiches most everyday of their lives. Because that's what they want.

Second-grader ... said she will never eat sliced cheese again.

Well I don't want to either, really. Can't blame her. Besides, she will be healthier for it.

...and more children in the lunch program means more federal dollars for the district.

Do I need to say anything here?

"Some parents don't have even $1 sometimes," the 27-year-old single mother said. "If they do, it's for something else, like milk at home."

I know this is true, and it's sad, and it's why I had to take sandwiches when I was in middle school, but is it the public school's responsibility to feed the kids a hot meal? If you can't pay, you don't complain about the free stuff you get, you take it with gratitude. Of course I don't like kids being singled out and having their little psyches damaged. But there is nothing wrong with a sandwich for lunch! Good grief!

Tags:
Public Education, Public Schools, Parents, Parenting, Home School, Homeschooling,

The Civic Literacy Test

Time once again to take the Civic Literacy Test from ISI. Here's my score.

You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %

Average score for this quiz during December: 74.7%
Average score: 74.7%

I missed the very last question! Anyway, some background: ISI does a survey of students in 50 colleges to see if college helps improve basic understanding of how America works. The Government anyway. It turns out that going to some elite universities makes you dumber. A Summary:

Seventy-one percent of Americans fail the test, with an overall average score of 49%.

Only 24% of college graduates know the First Amendment prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States.

Talking on the phone, watching owned or rented movies, and monitoring TV news broadcasts and documentaries diminish a respondent’s civic literacy. (RML This includes Fox News and CNN, not just Oprah and Days of Our Lives.)

Only 54% can correctly identify a basic description of the free enterprise system, in which all Americans participate.

Check out more info at American Civic Literacy.




Tags:
Public Education, Public Schools, Parents, Parenting, Teachers, Home School, Homeschooling,

Parenting Goals

So, what are your goals as a parent? My wife has always thought we needed some goals, but I'm just not that kind of person that goes around making "goal" and "objectives" (much to my detriment in other areas). I want my kids to be:

• Solid Christians.


• Contributing members of society.


• Good family men.


• Workers with integrity.


• Know what the heck they are talking about (i.e. educated).


• Able to fix simple things


• Kind but tough


• and, all-around good guys.

Apparently though, I need some kind of objective measurable goals. (This was the part I hated about getting my teaching degree during the "outcome-based education" fad.) So, what kinds of goals do you have? Do you have some goals for this next year? For a longer time span?

• Daily prayer?


• Daily devotions?


• X-number of scriptures memorized?


• Understand Latin?


• Know how to read music?

Please leave comments, I really am interested.


Tags:
Parents, Parenting,

Do Computers in the Home Help with Test Scores?

A new study by Charles T. Clotfelter, Helen F. Ladd and Jacob L. Vigdor of Duke University shows that just having a computer in every home is not going to help students learn. In fact, it may be detrimental. Especially in Math and Reading. These are some very surprising results. Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement is a 56 page PDF, just so you know. Some interesting quotes:

Among students in nursery school through 12th grade, rates of home computer use were 78% for whites and 46% for blacks; 88% for those with a postgraduate-educated parent and 35% for those with high school dropout parents.

Students who own a computer but never use it for schoolwork have math test scores nearly indistinguishable from those without a home computer, while scoring slightly better than reading. Students reporting almost daily use of their home computer for schoolwork score significantly worse than students with no computer at home.

Italics mine.

Could it be that students waste time surfing? Facebooking? Gaming? Does depending on a computer for schoolwork cause the brain to fail at learning how to figure things out? Or does working on a computer keep things in short-term memory? Does it create impatience?

Rather than spending so much time facebooking, or even doing schoolwork on the computer, what they need to be doing is learning how to do things with the computer. Create games and web pages, do programming, and yes, learn math and reading. These are the things that will help them make a good living. Sitting around entertaining themselves will only leave them and their children "underprivileged."

Discovered at Libraian.net

Tags:
Public Education, Public Schools, Parents, Parenting, Teachers,

New Carnival of Homeschooling is Up

Be sure you check out this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Dana's place. For those who may not know, a carnival is simply links to a bunch of blog posts on one subject brought together in one place.