Let's get Political

Legislator Wants to Take Homeschool Law Back to the ‘Dark Ages’!

Nebraska homeschoolers are facing the most serious attack in decades from legislation proposed by Senator DiAnna Schimek. Nebraska’s current law was drafted and passed in the early 1980s after Nebraska was embarrassed nationally for harsh treatment of homeschooling parents, including the jailing of pastors and fathers, and with mothers and children fleeing to other states. During a rally by homeschoolers at the state capitol last year, Senator Schimek was heard to say, “We don't know what these homeschoolers are doing. They really need to be monitored.” She is making good on her concern about not knowing what homeschoolers are up to in the form of L.B.1141.

The bill would do among the following:

• Impose mandatory annual testing and assessment requirements.
• Grant the Nebraska Department of Education ("NDE") approval authority.
• Require first-time homeschooled children to take a “baseline” test allowing the Department to determine whether or not “progress has been achieved.”

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rest of the article can be found here... http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/ne/200801290.asp

I find it simply amazing, considering how GREAT the public school system has been working so far that these legislatures take so time worrying about this sort of micro managing of homeschooling families!!!

Winter Fitness

It's snowing out. The temps are dipping into the 20s (if you're lucky) and the kids are driving you crazy.... or at least mine is.Living in the colder regions of the US and homeschooling can sometimes be a daunting task. We are just getting used to the transfer - as this is our first cold season since moving from Southern California and Vegas.

It is said that kids need at least 60 minutes of activity a day. While it is harder when you are homeschooling to keep the kids (and yourself) active, it is entirely possible. Being creative with your time is very important as it is easy to get in a rut, especially if you are an unschooling or eclectic schooling family. Here are some ideas to get you and your kids out and about to fight off the winter cabin fever.

Sledding:

Remember sledding when you were a kid? You probably didn't think about it then, but going down the hill is fun... coming back up is a whole new area of aerobic exercise! You can burn up to 500 calories in 2 hours of sledding just by going up and down. If you have a younger child and a rope, you can also pull the along behind you just like a wagon and get some walking in. You can bet you will burn some calories, but you can also talk about velocity and science concepts as well!

The little ones can play too! They now have baby sleds like the Sledz Racer Jr which is light weight and has shock absorbers as well as two man sleds you can go down together on and pull them back up.


Snow Play:

Whether rolling up the balls for a snowman or running and dodging snowballs, you are bound to work up a sweat with your kids, and this also provides some great motor skill building! They have snowman kits as well which can customize the snowman or you can incorporate daily lessons in by making life size geometric shapes, forts, or letters!

Hiking:

Just because there is snow out, doesn't mean you can't hike... you just have to choose your hikes carefully as well as make sure you are bundled up. We have had some great hikes going and finding old bridges, frozen water falls, and animal prints in the snow.

Remember - just because it is cold, you still need water!

Wow - where have I been?

Don't get much (ahem any) foot traffic on here so it has allowed me to get lazy. However how am I EVER going to get anywhere if I don't write.

It is a long story, but I lost my password, couldn't figure it out one night and then I simply got lost in the holidays.

The holidays for us was very simple actually. Living in Colorado now I have found that since there is no family around us, that the holidays are relatively simple. However with us getting into the middle of January, and I STILL have not sent out ANY presents or cards.... they are here I assure you, I just haven't sent them.... maybe it isn't as simple as I thought. Hehehe

But we are back into full swing, we have found a new home school group and hired a new piano teacher. I realized math was getting hard for T and that we should bump him up a level. He is now on 3rd grade books and much happier. He loves math.

It is amazing because you learn so much more about your kids when you are teaching them. This should be a given of course, however really when it comes down to it you learn things you wouldn't think you would. For example, I have learned that my son is good at reading, he can read, but he is for some reason embarrassed about it. He likes to take things at his own pace in reading and English, but in math and science he is a little show off. Each subject he learns differently, rather than just having a learning style. It's all relative I suppose.

We are getting back in the new groove though, and more active with other kids, finally getting settled, making friends and such. So all is well. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks Tristan will have some friends - you know the kind he actually knows their names and such? HA!

We have been thinking about moving AGAIN. The more we get settled with T's community and friends though, it is looking like less and less of an option. This is or can be one of the downsides of home schooling - though realistically I guess it would be a down side if he was in public school as well.

I will keep everyone posted though and work on getting some more traffic on here. This means I will somehow have to figure out how to be more interesting!