(home)school in the news

Around here we typically only discuss the pro-homeschooling arguments, like this recent Washington Post article. Well, this week on the Diane Rehm show there was a pretty balanced discussion between pro-homeschooling reps from the HSLDA and some Stanford professor arguing for greater oversight of homeschoolers. Both sides raise some good ideas and it's a pretty good all around discussion. (Thanks to my attorney for sending the link.)

And, then, for another side of the story altogether, here's a link to a video highlighting some really interesting educational advances the Tampa, Florida school district is experimenting with. If this had been going on when I was in high school, I would have ran away from home just to go to school in Tampa! The video tries to explain the situation like it's controversial or something, but, they're just putting a negative spin on it.

Ok, yes I'm being completely sarcastic there. That link is to a news video describing three separate arrests in two weeks in Tampa of women teachers who were having sex with their 14-15 year old male students. That's THREE completely separate incidents in two weeks in one city. It apparently brings the total in Tampa up to 10 since 1995. I'm sure this is nothing new. It's very likely that women teachers have been seducing students since the 1870's and we're just now starting to pay attention to it. Just as male teachers have been doing the same thing (but in much higher numbers that hardly ever get media attention).

Other than the prevalence rate the only real difference seems to be that men get sent to prison and women get probation and told not to do it again. But, it makes sense. Judges don't like sending pretty women to jail. There are good reasons for this. I guarantee that if you're a judge and you send a pretty woman off to jail... she definitely won't sleep with you. Nothing turns a women off like incarceration! Probation on the other hand... totally different story.

And, finally (and more seriously), here's an article from an Arizona paper about some parents of autistic kids who are having quite a bit of difficulty with their local school district. The parents have organized and are trying to collectively encourage the school district to treat their special-needs children humanely and to, you know, educate them. Here's a good paragraph from the article:

District officials argue that the complaint process in some cases didn't end the way that parents would like, dismissing concerns about specific administrators who in one case denied a mother's request that staff members stop using physical force on her 5-year-old son.

The comments in the article are pretty interesting as well. Lots of fed up and frustrated parents and a few pro-establishment folks who feel that parents who complain too much when school staff use "physical force" on their autistic 5 year old kids are just a bunch of "whiners." It's like: Dude... you're kid's autistic. What'd you expect?

Well, that last bit was supposed to be more sarcasm, but there may be a point there. If you have a child with special learning needs and you send them to an average American public school... what do you expect? If you aren't rich enough to move to an affluent neighborhood or to put them in a private school you're just kind of screwed. Or, to be more precise, the students are screwed and the parents just have to put up with it.

So, I guess the overarching lesson is this: If your child is attending public school but is autistic or has other special needs... or if they go to school in Tampa... they're screwed.

Is it spring yet?

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????



Sniff

Two posts in one day

You can tell I am home sick :)

I forgot I wanted to post about this, but it is mostly so a year from now I can re-read THIS post and say, "Oh, what was I so worried about!" Yes, Gwen is now 3 years and almost 2 months old and no closer to potty trained than the day she was born. I am getting grief over this because, "She is a girl and they always train so easily!! She'll be out of diapers before her 3rd birthday!" Yes, well, that didn't happen.

I know Simon was almost 4 (yes, 4) before he was potty trained...and I know I am not the only mother on the planet with a 3-year old daughter who isn't potty trained, but I just dread doing this whole thing again. We went out and bought "big girl underwear" and a new potty seat a few weeks ago, which resulted in Gwen announcing she was a big girl and didn't wear diapers anymore. That lasted about 3 hours--the amount of time she held it before she peed her pants, freaked out and said she wanted a diaper again.

She will sit on the toilet about once a week now and do nothing. She can hold it ALL NIGHT long and sometimes even an additional 2-3 hours after she wakes up. She tells me when she needs a new diaper, and you always know when she has to do #2 because she hides somewhere and shouts, "Don't look at me!"

So, why is she not potty trained? Is it because I am too tired and lazy? Probably. I am too tired right now, that is for sure. I was hoping she'd be trained by this summer so we could go camping without having to drag 500 diapers with us, but I doubt we'll be so lucky.

So, the point of this post is just to vent about the lack of potty training that is going on here...the fact that diapers went up about $5 a box and she has to wear a size 6 diaper...which means you get about 12 in a box for $40 now...we even bought the cheapo brand this time which reminded me why we stopped buying the no-name brand--they leak like crazy and do not come in a size 6.

Anyway...my hope is that 1 year from now, I will read this, and will not have a single diaper in my house. The diaper genie and changing table will be things of the past, and I will never have to change another diaper again.

Wednesday, March something or other

I am home sick today. Well, I work from home Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but I have some horrible throat/nose/cold/ache thing going on...it was bad enough yesterday for me to go into the doctor, only to be told that I didn't look that bad and take over the counter stuff. Does it make anyone else mad when you wake up in so much pain you cannot even talk, your abs and back hurt from coughing so much, and the dr says, "Oh, you look fine." Thanks...this is why I almost never go to the dr anymore...unless I am in extreme pain (like yesterday). Lot of good that did...I thought for sure I had strep throat, but I won't know that until tomorrow. Probably not--probably just a cold...from hell.

Simon is forcing me to watch every episode of Star Wars...yesterday we watched Episodes I, III, and V, (the odds) and so far today we have watched Episode II. I imagine we'll watch the IV and VI when we finish this one....I like the original movies from the 70's but do I even have to comment on the new movies?

Simon is plugging away with his schooling. I had to explain away homeschooling to the new dr and the rest of the office staff yesterday which I wasn't in the mood for. The question I have been getting a lot lately, and yesterday was no exception, was what "state standards and tests" did I have to put my kids through in order to homeschool. As usual, I got the usual looks of horror when I said I didn't have to do anything in the State of Michigan while homeschooling... I just had this debate with some coworkers last week who don't even KNOW that I am homeschooling and was surprised by the ones who said, "Why should the state decide what your kids need to know." More importantly, why should your kids have to study and memorize a bunch of stuff they are going to forget the minute after they take a test because it is boring and they aren't interested in it.

The conversation on homeschooling continued yesterday when a physician's assistant asked Simon, "Don't you want to go to school so you can have lots of friends?" Yes, I thought. I had SO many friends in school. Note sarcasm here. Not that I would expect my kids to be social outcasts like I was, but it tends to run in my family. I was then asked if I was doing the homeschooling (as opposed to Hawksbill) as it seems like that is what people think--it is the mom's responsibility or something...but no, I said we were both teaching him. I don't know why this question bugs me so much. As if only one person should be doing this, the mom only, the certified teacher only, I don't know...it just kind of irks me. I should have been more polite or more excited while describing homeschooling, but I was tired, sick and feeling a bit defensive yesterday and wasn't in the mood for the list of usual homeschooling questions so I made some excuse about not feeling well (ha!) and left.

Simon has been learning a lot of Spanish words lately. He was mad that the Spanish word for "no," is "no," because it isn't different. We were reading some book the other day and I said to Simon, "I wonder what the Spanish word for 'snake' is?" and he replied, "Uh, mommy...it's 'culebra'." I had to look it up because I didn't believe him and he was right!! I had 2 years of high school Spanish, and three semesters of college Spanish and I might remember how to count to five yet my kids know more Spanish than I do after watching Dora or reading books they find laying around.

Hawksbill is at school today. His afternoon class was canceled, but he is staying later to do homework. I have a lot of work I should be doing, but I officially called in sick again this morning. I am so tired I can't think straight, but hopefully this will pass by tomorrow.

This weekend is Easter, but Hawksbill will most likely go to Ann Arbor to study so I imagine I will take the kids to my parents' house on Sunday. I used to love Easter, but I am really not in the mood for it this year. Maybe because it is so early--March 23rd?? It just doesn't feel like a Spring holiday should be taking place so early in March. The Easter bunny still comes to our house, but I don't know if he wants to hide eggs this year...ah, we'll see. Maybe I am just grumpy since I am sick.

My found money project is going well this year. I know I started the project later last year, but I have already found more money than all of last year in these past 3 months. I have even had to pass up some potential found money...I am hit or miss and the drive through...I saw about 5 pennies on the ground yesterday, but decided to pass since I was sick and there were about 5 cars behind me in line...but if there had been some silver coins, I would have gone for it :) Yes, I admit, I will open my door at the drive through and pick up coins under the drive through window. I never would have done something like that before, but I found almost $2.00 this year in one stop by a fast food restaurant. Yes, I am a nerd or geek or freak, but hey, if you don't want your quarters, I will gladly take them.

Skittles?

Here is a CNN report about an 8th grader in Connecticut who was caught with "Skittles" in school. That's the candy. It's not a euphamism for Oxycontin or heroin. Candy.

Michael Sheridan, an eighth-grade honors student who was suspended for a day, barred from attending an honors dinner and stripped of his title as class vice president after he was caught with a bag of Skittles candy in school ...

After getting bad publicity the school apparently decided to take things down a notch and they reinstated the boy to his position on student council.

Sigh... next thing you know schools will be calling the police and arresting 6 year olds for throwing temper tantrums. Oh, wait... they already do that.

If children would just learn to act like mature adults we wouldn't have these problems!

Snow Day!

Today, I experienced something that is rare for my work--A SNOW DAY SNOW DAY SNOW DAY!! Woo hoo!! Ok, so we did get about 8-10 inches of snow last night, but my work almost never closes. It would have been a more pleasant surprise had today been a day I work at work rather than work from home (and it would have been the ultimate of nice surprises if people from work weren't emailing me with stuff to do anyway) but at least I don't feel as guilty about putting off work until evening when I know no one is in the office.


I have to say, the above two photos of the trees and the snowman are actually from last week when we had a really good snowstorm of packing snow...last night's storm is summed up in the photo below--this was the lowest point on our driveway after Hawksbill took the snowblower to it this morning.


And, I am sure Hawksbill would agree, it would have been the best day ever if HIS school would have closed for today, but god forbid someone paying their tuition miss a single day of class -- no, we don't want to worry about public safety, the nasty drive and roads, but gosh darn it, if I am paying tuition, I better get every last dollar out of my professors even if it means car accidents and slipping and falling all over campus!

Although the snow is pretty, I can say I am officially OVER winter. We have had snow pretty much every week, seems like every other day, not to mention today is MARCH 5th!! And I am looking forward to spring. I heard that we are supposed to get a couple more inches of snow tonight, and more this weekend. I have to send out a big thank you to my sister who gave us her practically brand new snow blower since she has a snow service now. I didn't think we'd even use it this winter, but Hawksbill has put it to good use twice already.

And for my parents who spent 3 hours waiting on the runway in a plane waiting to fly to Florida last night, well, at least they are in Florida for a week instead of here with piles of wet, melting snow all over the place. I hope Spring gets here soon. I'd like to see some tulips, thanks!

Gaming Day

This past Saturday was a big all day board gaming day at our house that lasted from before noon until almost 2am. We had a great turnout and almost all of Team Foot Foot showed up. In all there were 8 of us, although not everyone could stay for the whole time. It's hard to get 10 guys with family's & jobs together on a regular basis, especially when some of them live in Grand Rapids, Washington D.C. or even New York. I hate waiting until the August retreat to see everyone though, so I've been trying to schedule these all day sessions every other month or so. I've been doing very little gaming with the guys while I've been in school anyway. I've been missing it.

My attorney showed up around 10am from D.C. and we played a 2-player game of Aquadukt, which I recently ordered off Tanga for about $8.00. Simon and I had played this one the day before and although it isn't a bad game, I'm glad I didn't pay more for it. After that my attorney and Simon and I played a 3-player game of Gulo Gulo. Simon is always glad to play one of "his" games with "the guys".

By that time it was noon and Paul, Steve and Larry showed up so we played a 5-player game of Fearsome Floors, which I'd never heard of before, although it was designed by the same guy who created Power Grid, which is one of my favorites. Fearsome Floors is a game that takes place on a large off-sized grid with a monster who makes predictable yet somewhat complicated moves. The players each control three characters who are trying to make it from one end of the map to the other without being nabbed by the monster. It's quite a fun game and I'm thinking of picking up a copy for myself because I think the kids would like it some day.

After this we were waiting for Jake and Mark to arrive so the 5 of us played a filler game of For Sale, which is one of the best 10-minute fillers around. The others still hadn't shown up by the end of that one so the 5 of us moved on to a fairly short game of Citadels before they got there. By the end of that time I think both Jake and Mark had arrived, which meant we now had 7 and had to split into two groups. Me, my attorney and Mark played Colosseum, while Steve, Paul, Jake and Larry played Cuba (I think. I've never played Cuba myself although the others did rave about it.) I do like Colosseum, but it doesn't work well as a 3-player game. It really needs at least 4 so that there's enough competition over resources. But, it is a fun game nonetheless.

After that my attorney, Mark, Larry and I played a 4 player game of Thebes, which is fun but suffers from too much randomness. After that I sat down with Mark, Steve and Eric to play a 4 player game of Power Grid with the new power plant expansion set. Initially I liked the new power plant expansions, but I'm not so sure now. They seem much more powerful than the original set. At the end of the game all four of us were powering 16-19 cities, which would have been unheard of in the original set. The original set is much tighter. Maybe I'll have to try it again though.

Finally, as we usually do lately, we finished the evening with a game of Zopp. There were 6 of us left shortly after midnight so we divided into two teams of 3 and battled it out. When I say "battle" what I really mean is that we occasionally shot the puck around the board, but mostly we discussed strategy and argued about how much of the puck was over the foul line. I was just glad that I scored a goal (maybe two, I don't recall). It is a much harder game than it looks and I should really practice more. Our team (me, Paul, Eric) finally won against Mark, Steve and my attorney when Paul made a stunning (and accidental) goal from one end of the board to the other. (At least it looked accidental to me... Paul may claim he did it on purpose.) Good times... good times...

All in all it was a great gaming day. I think I won a few games like Aquadukt, For Sale, Zopp, but Aquadukt was only a 2 player before the group arrived and Zopp was a team effort. That leaves me with For Sale as my only source of pride for the day... the 10 minute game.

Special congratulations to Mark, though! He was truly on fire. I think he won almost every game he touched. I seriously hope he gets that out of his system before the retreat in August! And, my thanks to everyone for coming over and having fun. I don't get to do this often enough with my current school schedule.

Next up, we're discussing a full day in May to play a single game of Advanced Civilization. Civ is one of my favorites, but it is an endurance game and can take over 9 hours to play. It was a brilliant game back in the early 90's, but it suffers now just because better (and shorter) games have been produced in the last 15 years. Still, I like to try to play it every few years. Back before we had kids Barb joined me for several consecutive years traveling down to the Origins game convention to play Civ with me and a bunch of strangers. It has been about 3 or 4 years since we've played it though, and I'm itching to try it again.