Central Indiana Homeschool

Interesting thoughts from the Headmistress and Zookeeper over at the Common Room.

It’s more and more common for churches to exclude children from their services these days. They want the children in the nursery, in the cry room, in the training room, at home, or in the children’s church, or anywhere but with the rest of the church family. Mothers of young children adn babies are made to feel guilty if their children so much as peep during the services. They feel like it would be better to stay home sometimes. I don’t agree. I love them there. It saddens me when some of God’s children see their younger siblings as a ‘distraction.’ Worship is not about ourselves. It is about our Heavenly Father.

Tall, Dark and Mysterious:

Are there any high school math teachers - or, better yet, developers of high school math curricula - who read this blog? I’ve decided to take a break from my usual undirected griping about how woefully unprepared students are to do college math, and divert those energies into something more productive - a working list of what students should be learning in high school math classes in order to prepare them for college (or even, for what they are supposed to be learning later on in high school).

…

In fact, I think that students often learn negative amounts of math in high school: in grade school, they learn how to perform basic mathematical operations and such, and by the time they’ve received their diplomas, they’ve been trained to leave those tasks to their calculators.

Check out the seven essential math skills that children must know to be prepared adequately for college math.

(Via Jenny D’s Carnival Roundup).

The Discovery Toys Think-It-Through Tile System is included in the “End of Season Sale” at Discovery Toys right now! The normal price is $16.99 and it’s on sale for $9.99.

The official product description is:

This learning system reinforces the curriculum introduced to your children at school and challenges them further! Think-It-Through teams children with a series of progressive booklets and an ingenious system of double-sided tiles that actively engage students in the lessons and enhance their studies. Includes sample book with lessons from various sets. Appropriate from 4 years - Elementary School. Additional booklet sets sold separately (Item #’s 3002, 3003, 3004, 3005, 3006, 3300, 3301 & Item # 3007 for the complete set).

It’s a great system with a good range of age-appropriate booklets. Our kids love them. Get ‘em while they’re on sale!! (Click here and then select “End of Season Sale” on the left nav bar).

That is the approach the Virginia Board of Education is taking to the History I SOL exam. (This covers the period from American Indian settlements to post-Civil War).

Bearing Drift breaks it down. (Via Spark It Up!)

I’m not sure what this has to do with homeschool, but I got a kick out of it.

Via Spark it Up!

I have been reading the various opinions from Christians regarding the Harry Potter series, and last night I finally realized that there were really only two arguments, and that the difference between them is extremely simple, though not obvious at first (at least to me it wasn’t obvious).

One one hand, you have the basic argument that anything involving witchcraft and magic is evil and should be completely avoided.

The other camp reasons back pointing out that Tolkein and Lewis, some of the most popular Christian writers of all time, made heavy use of witchcraft and magic throughout their fantasy writings. This camp argues that fiction should be read as fiction and analyzed and learned from as such.

Both perspectives can be persuasive at times, depending primarily on how articulate and rational the writer of the opinion is. (There are many non-thinking opinions on various “sides” of this issue as well).

So after reading and analyzing the many nuances of the various arguments for or against allowing Christian young people to read J. K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter books, I have come to the conclusion that the real difference in the perspectives is a bit more subtle. Really, everyone (well, all of the Christian opinions that I’m analyzing) agrees that witchcraft is evil. Everyone also agrees that these are fiction books, as are Tolkein and Lewis. It seems to me that the real underlying difference between the two camps is that the Tolkein and Lewis tales do not have real children at the center of their plots practicing this magic. Sure, the Narnia series have children in a central role, but they are fighting evil through dependence on Aslan, they are not themselves participating in the magical arts (unless my memory fails me, it’s been several years since I have read the series). The same goes for the Lord of the Rings, the characters are not human children.

It seems to me that the underlying unstated, maybe even unrealized, argument against reading the Harry Potter series is that when children read these books, more than in the other two authors’ writings, they identify with the characters who are involved in the witchcraft. They are more likely to imitate and role play, and even integrate it into their non-fantasy lives.

There it is, in a nutshell. Which side of the camp you fall on may not change, but now at least you understand what (I believe) is the underlying difference of opinion between the two sides to this story.

Michael Bérubé is collecting great first lines from novels. If you’ve got a personal favorite, jump on over and contribute. (Via Semicolon).

From Connie Stults. She is coordinating a meeting to talk about the group and the plan for the coming year.

WHO: This meeting would include anyone who is interested in Keepers of the Faith~ the Contenders for the Faith (boys) AND the Keepers at Home (girls). Even if you have not come to any of the meetings before, you are more than welcome to come and see if you would like to join us.

WHEN: Thursday, August 4 (in one week!) at 10 a.m.

WHERE: Connie Stults’ home ~ you can call her for directions.

If you have any questions, or if you can’t make it to the meeting but want to tell her that you’re interested in the group, you can call her at 289-3373 or email vstults[at]juno.com.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reports:

Willie Jude was in high school in rural Mississippi in the early 1960s when a teacher brought in a telephone to show to the students. It was the first time Jude set eyes on an actual phone.

On Friday, Jude walked out of a much different school, Custer High School, on Milwaukee’s north side. It was the last workday of a 32-year Milwaukee Public Schools career

He makes some great observations in the article (read the whole thing!), but here are the bullets as summarized by Joanne Jacobs:

–”Did my parents give me basic tools (for succeeding in school)? No, because they didn’t have them themselves. But what they did have was respect, discipline and courtesy.”

— Show up and show up on time. Both in his years in the MPS central office and in its high schools, Jude made a priority of fighting truancy and - something he considered just as serious - tardiness. He says parents and MPS don’t do enough in dealing with these.

“There are two major things that businesses are complaining about (related to the high school graduates). Tardiness and attendance. They go together into attitude and relationships. (Business executives say) if a kid comes in here punctually and they have a pleasant attitude, we can train them. But I can’t train them if they’re not on time or they’re arguing with every supervisor and co-worker they come into contact with. . . .

“Once a student is punctual and in school, a lot of other problems begin to disappear.” Jude said MPS policy since the late 1980s has barred principals from taking strong stands against tardiness.

Eduwonk agrees.

Mamacita over at Scheiss Weekly recalls looking up at the night sky through her pink binoculars.

I hope all you parents are teaching your children about the night sky. Every star, every constellation, every planet, everything up there has a story, an incredible story that will grab your child’s interest and never let go. And with just a pair of pink plastic binoculars, your child can see craters on the moon, planets that are ROUND (at certain times of the year) and a few of Jupiter’s moons. You can show your child that the stars all twinkle, but the planets simply shine. Most of these things can be seen with the naked eye. It doesn’t take big money to explore the sky; it just takes patience and a toy.

Take your child outside late at night in the fall and spring, to see the meteor showers. Wish on the falling stars; there are so many then that some of the wishes are bound to come true; it’s just one more little thing to help make childhood magical.

And after your kids are grown and gone, and hopefully looking at the night sky from their own balconies and backyards, you can still look up and see the man in the moon looking down, and grinning at you, and blowing you a kiss and saying “You did well, old lady with your pink plastic binoculars and your insatiable curiosity and imagination. You did well, because you passed them along to your kids, who will pass them along to their kids, and so on.”

This week’s Carnival of Education (a weekly round up of the “edusphere” - Educational Blogs) is hosted by Jenny D.

It’s all right here. One in particular that caught my eye was by Bruno Behrend (click through to read the whole thing).

Americans have unfortunately sold themselves on the absurd idea that we need massive buildings, with massive infrastructure, fueled by a massive bureaucracy and massive payroll, to educate our children. This simply isn’t the case. What American education really needs is a core group of dedicated professionals offering a cornucopia of varying methods and content in the open market place of ideas.

It’s called education choice, and there is no intellectually sound argument against it.

Nick Reddin, who is a youth pastor posting at Fide-O, excoriates parents for outsourcing their parental responsibilities. Here’s an excerpt:

Some of the things parents are having outsourced are teaching their children to ride a bike, play sports, birthday parties, potty-training and on and on. Their goal is to create a “specialized child”, one that excels in subjects through specialized coaching and guidance, absent of the parent.

…

The scariest part is I am sure a lot of parents are outsourcing their children’s spiritual development to the church and only the church. The problem with that is, while we do minister to the best of our ability we are not surrogate parents. Parents have the God given responsibility to raise and shepherd the hearts of their children (Proverbs 22:6, Proverbs 4:23) and most importantly to teach them God’s Word. As ministers we are limited to the time that we can spend with the children, our goal has always been to come alongside the parent because the parent has the ability and opportunity to make the real impact for the glory of God (Proverbs 1:8-9).

He’s got a point.

From the DCCHC board.

The result of these meetings has led us to not do a large Co-op but rather encourage and facilitate mini-co-op’s. These would be made up of 2 or more families with a common goal such as American History. Another example would be 3 families getting together to practice Spanish after personal study at home. This format actually allows complete versatility to initiate with any number of families to focus on the areas you are interested in. Families interested in starting a mini-co-op can use the email list to find others who are interested in the same things.

You can read the whole letter here.

I wonder if it makes sense to have a forum such as this blog to coordinate mini-co-ops. If you think it would be helpful or useful, drop a note in the comments section and maybe I can create a post for various topics of interest (foreign language, American History, music, etc).

I haven’t really checked this out, just happened across it, but there appears to be quite a bit of material at the online homeschool convention.

This study is a couple of years old, but I found the results to be interesting.

In 1985, when the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll first asked whether the homeschooling movement was a good or bad thing for the nation, 73 percent of respondents disapproved and only 16 percent approved. By September 1997, the disapproval rating had fallen to 57 percent and approval had risen to 36 percent. The September 2001 poll (Rose and Gallup 2001) shows a 54 percent disapproval rating and a 41 percent approval rating.

In the 1999 Kappan poll, respondents were asked what public-school services should be made available to homeschoolers and what standards should be applied to measure their achievement (Rose and Gallup 1999). The public enthusiastically supported provision of special-education courses for disabled children (92 percent), opportunities for homeschooling teachers to participate in teacher-development activities (80 percent), and opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities (74 percent) and in driver’s education (73 percent). A slight majority favored provision of transportation services (53 percent).

Of course, studies show that 1/3 of all studies don’t hold up.

Don’t forget that this week is the Delaware County Fair! Lots going on each day.

Details at The Star Press here.

I ran across some pretty funny stuff from FamilyManWeb.com. Check out their site. This one made me chuckle.

Taken from The Official Book of Homeschooling Cartoons Vol. 2 - by Todd Wilson.

Phil Johnson wrote an interesting post a couple of days ago taking Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren to task on their emphasis on marketing and business management in seminaries.

Read it, and then come back for my thoughts.

I don’t completely agree with his analysis, but it’s certainly food for thought. I think that in some ways the church has to move toward thinking more about the “entertainment” and marketing aspect of a church service due to the simple fact that the generation of young people that is growing up now has had their brains conditioned to require constant stimulation. It is one of the same problem that teachers are facing, that a child who has grown up being constantly entertained by TV and video games for three or four hours per day has difficulty finding a classroom interesting. Even a classroom which utilizes technical wizardry” such as PowerPoint.

Once a person experiences the fulfillment that comes from meeting the Spirit of God, yes, they will come back. But in our culture, the chance of that initial meeting seems like it may increase from a bit of marketing and entertainment.

After all, Jesus taught in the methodologies used during his time, as dull, unentertaining and unsophisticated as they may seem to today’s generation.

On a somewhat related note, Jason Robertson has some really interesting thoughts on the whole “emergent church” movement, taking to task the whole Saddleback concept.

So the post-modern worshipper wants small doses of God on man’s terms. God is on trial. God must submit to the critical, sinful, selfish desires of mankind. And God better not even think about that Lordship stuff . . . just short doses of spiritual experiences. All of this before they accept Him.

As always, comments are welcome.

Michelle Cannon has a great discussion of the idea of “Natural Learning” (sometimes called “unschooling”). Check out the whole thing on her the Homemade Living site, but here’s an excerpt, followed briefly by some of my thoughts on the subject.

The way I see it.. if you have children, you’re ALREADY homeschooling.. and then you put them into school and it all stops. You’ve been homeschooling since you gave birth. Look at the amazing mental and intellectual growth they’ve reached without “benefit” of school. Why is that? It’s because children naturally learn. They are naturally curious about all things. And when you child is interested and expresses interest.. what do you do?? You flow with it. You have conversations about it.. you get books at the library.. etc. This is what you’ve been doing since he/she was born. This is called unschooling or as I prefer to call it “natural learning”. This is what I do and have done with my children. No need for for curriculums and texts and schedules. (again–why not put them in school if that’s the
case?)

…

But how does this work? It’s simple. It takes little effort at all. Basically, you just live. Yes, that’s what I said. You live with your children, close to your children and open with you children. They do not have their “own world” because they are children. (In my opinion,
that view is exactly why there are teens out there having their own lives of which parents are totally unaware!) They’re there with you all day and everything is a learning matter. Whether they’re cooking with you, cleaning with you, working with you, watching the evening news with you, riding in the car having discusssions, going to a library, museum, historical monument, discussing people you know, or current world events or even discussing problems with people, work, or life. Simply keep the age and maturity of the child in mind. (Obviously, world politics is beyond my 2 year old and I don’t discuss the latest child-mutilation on the news with my 7 year old!) I would brave to say that there is a lot more conversation and relating with my children than I see in other families. Almost every waking moment, there is conversation going on between them and myself. And they are learning.

I wholeheartedly agree with nearly everything that Michelle says in the paragraphs above. She has put into words how we have tried to live with our children since day one. The one place where I would elaborate a bit is that there are two reasons that I believe we do actually need some structure in our homeschooling.

Hah! This cartoon
fits perfectly with
the theme of this
post. From
FamilyManWeb.com.

First, our children need to be able to work and learn in a structured environment, because in the future they will likely be in such a setting and we do not want them to be unprepared. College classrooms are structured, and most jobs have structure to them. If the family is involved regularly in activities where structured settings exist and learning happens within them, then this requirement may be completely met through the “Natural Learning” methodology of teaching. But if not, the addition of some intentional structure can be a critical facet of learning.

Second, and for us, more importantly, is to assist us in ensuring that we do not miss teaching the children a critical skill needed for the next stage of their lives. For example, I want to make sure my six year old memorizes his “math facts” for all four primary operations, I want to make sure he eventually learns physics, I want him to understand the parts of speech, not just be able to speak, I want him to know about famous literature, and many other things. While these things may come up in my daily conversation, without a bit of a structure (whether it be a formal curriculum or not), I may inadvertantly miss something critical. There have already been occasions where a basic building block of learning would not have occurred to me, had I (well, actually, my wife) not been reviewing the year’s curriculum plan.

I’m not sure that my teenagers will learn the formulas for the gravitational rate of acceleration in my every day conversation. Maybe they will, but I would hate to miss something critical without realizing it until it’s too late. You may argue that such a formula is not critical … maybe you’re right … but unless you - the parent - are extremely well rounded in all subjects, you’re bound to miss something. There are so many things that I am not an expert at that I could not teach (or more importantly, may not even think of) without assistance; from the history of European warfare to the ideas of quantum physics to basic Latin to advanced algebra or trigonometry.

Overall, I’m a huge fan of “unschooling” or “natural learning” as described by Michelle. I just think that there is a bit of a caveat that needs to go along with it, that we have a sort of “checklist” of critical learning events to keep us sane and accountable, and provides assistance where needed, during the time when our children live and learn in our homes.

Comments are welcome.

UPDATE: Here’s a site with more information on this whole idea dubbed “unschooling.”

UPDATE 2: Brandie has made me aware (via the comments section) that the website I linked to which contains the article is not Michelle’s, but rather was simply reprinting Michelle’s article in full. I have not found a link to the original article online, but Michelle runs a website called Holistic Health Hut which can be found by clicking through to the HomeMadeLiving site above. (Thanks for the correction, Brandie!). Interestingly enough, this article is also reprinted in full, with the exact same blog template, here.

Wow. This site has only been up a few days and already it’s jumped from an Insignificant Microbe to a Slimy Mollusc. Cool. I think.

Kim doesn’t think so. But the Sun Times article makes dire predictions.

Wow.

MUNCIE - Not only will the weekend’s hot weather continue, today will actually be the hottest day in nearly three years, according to SkyTrak 13 weather.

An excessive heat warning will be in effect until 7 p.m. today. Temperatures are expected to reach a high of 97, with humidity pushing the heat index to the dangerous 100-115-degree range.

Couldn’t resist posting this, as most of us homeschooling parents grew up when the “Dukes of Hazzard” was popular. Cooter (Ben Jones), says don’t go see the new movie.

Like you, I haven’t seen the film, but I have read the script, I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked on the set, and I’ve seen the raunchy t.v. commercial. Frankly, I think the whole project shows an arrogant disrespect for our show, for our cast, for America’s families, and for the sensibilities of the heartland of our country.

Unless they clean it up before the August 5th release date I would strongly recommend that true blue Dukes fans hold their noses and pass this one up. And whatever you do, don’t take any youngsters to see it. As plain as I can put it, the only thing this movie shares with our show is the title. Oh, they do have the General Lee flying through the air, although according to the New York Times, they didn’t even use stunt drivers.

Dex says:

The new Dukes of Hazzard movie is as much the Dukes of Hazzard as Herby: Fully Loaded is a Herby the Lovebug movie.

I was talking with a friend the other day about how when we were kids we read the Picture Bible cover to cover, and through it, learned the flow of the Bible very well. I hadn’t seen it in years, but apparently it’s still in print. Buy one for your kids by clicking the Amazon.com link on the right. It will be worth the cost for the learning, if they are anything like I was when I was a boy.

The email that went out to the DCCHC list had a break in the URL. The post you are looking for is here.

On July 29th from 4:00 - 6:30 pm, the WRTV6 Weather Crew will talk to kids about the weather and broadcast the forecast from the Maring Hunt Public Library.

Signup here.

UPDATE: Per Ben’s comment below, if the link above doesn’t work, you can navigate there by doing the following:
1. Go to the Library web site at http://www.munpl.org
2. Click on “Calendar of Events & Program Registration”
3. Go to the 29th and click on the WRTV6 Link.

If you’re not familiar with Classical Education, check it out.

I got a kick out of this that a friend forwarded to me today.

If you have a headache, do what it says on the bottle:

“Take two aspirin” and “keep away from children.”

Heh.

I’m seeing more and more thinking Christians (and in particular, on homeschool blogs), putting forth rational commentary that does not go along with the “Harry Potter books are evil” bandwagon.

Check out this one, for example. The common thread seems to be roughly this:

We had read The Hobbit and the entire Lord of the Rings series as well as the Chronicles of Narnia as part of our home school curriculum. My son loves fantasy-related literature. We discussed the potential harmful themes in the book (wizards, magic, etc.). All of these themes are present in the Tolkien and Lewis books as well yet no one questions the Christian elements in these author’s books.

Here’s another interesting post on the subject.

I don’t see how these books are trying to lure people towards witchcraft or sorcery. Otherwise, most of the spells, charms and tricks learnt at Hogwarts are simply the equivalent to our technological progress. Harry flies on a broomstick, propelled by magical spells, we fly with plane propelled by engineering and gas! They have wands that can be used as every day tools, we’ve got computers that seeminly will do everything soon, including the ironing! They have spells to make the clothes knit themselves, we have sewing robots in life factories that do the same, they have a floo network, we’ve got the Internet and engineers as well as scientists have been trying for years to design ways to transmitt instantenously solid things and bodies from one point to another, so it’s only a matter of time until we can be “beamed up” like Mr. Spoke. I don’t think I have heard many Christians flinch at the sight of these technological demonstrations in Star Treck, although some of it still remain wishful thinking. And since they are so many to voice their opposition to Harry Potter on the web, I presume that they are all using computers and modems. Actually, I think Rowling expresses this quite directly through the mouth of Mr. Weasley, in the second book (The Chamber of Secrets, pp.50-51):

…

In other words, magic used by wizards and witches in Harry Potter replaces the technological advancement made by Muggles since the the begining of the 20th century. Indeed, it seems that Rowling has frozen the wizarding world at the technological stage reached by all humans in the 19th century. On the other hand, Voldemort is seen as a terrible danger to the whole human community, whether magical folks or muggles, not only because of his hunger for power and brutal domination, but also because he is an expert in the dark arts. These are presented not only as being immoral and criminal, but also as going agains the rule of nature. Eventhough it is true that Rowling never truly mentions God as the creator of these rules and that she doesn’t explicitely advertise children or any readers of her stories as a matter of fact, to go to God for advices and consoling in time of hardships, she definitely promotes a Judeo-Christian morality.

I have not yet read the books, nor have I watched the movies. My children are a bit young yet for the fantasy literature, though we may be getting old enough for the Narnia series. Someday maybe I’ll have an informed opinion, but until then, I’ll not rush to judgment on the issue. There are those whom I greatly respect on both sides of this fence.

Here’s another.

I don’t agree, however, with those who think the Potter books should be automatically declared off limits for all Christians because they feature magical and occult themes. The argument simply proves too much. Ultimately, it would work as an argument against virtually all fiction. In order to be consistent, for example, those who make that argument would have to rule out The Wizard of Oz, everything from the Brothers Grimm, The Chronicles of Narnia, and my own favorite book from childhood, A Wrinkle in Time (which I read in 1962, before it won the Newberry Award).

All those books do teach some ideas I strongly disagree with. But they are, after all, fiction. Darlene and I taught our kids to read such books as fiction. We would have been concerned if the kids had shown any difficulty distinguishing between reality and fiction, or if they had become obsessed with Harry Potter, developed a fixation with sorcery, or taken any kind of personal interest in the black arts per se. If they had begun to live in a fantasy world of any kind, I would certainly imposed restrictions on reading fantasy and fiction. Since they weren’t prone to that kind of dementia, I encouraged them to read as much as they wanted to read.

Consider this: If you are a thoughtful and critical thinker, you’ll have to acknowledge that even the “family fare” coming out of Hollywood—virtually all of it—is grounded in one non-biblical worldview or another. It is therefore usually most seriously flawed at the very point where it aims to teach us some lesson about religion or Christianity.

As a matter of fact, speaking as a Christian who believes Scripture is authoritative, I have to say that I don’t agree with the basic spiritual world-view in “It’s a Wonderful Life”; “Star Wars”; “Pinocchio”; and a whole lot of other family films.

UPDATE: A commenter on this post pointed to an interesting article at NJ.com. Here’s an excerpt:

Look closer, he says.

The books are loaded with everything from resurrections to allusions to specific Bible passages, he says.

Whether readers realize it or not, one reason Harry Potter books are so popular is because people are responding to the Christian symbols in them, he says. “Everyone’s heart is designed for that message.”

…

Lewis and his friend and fellow Christian J.R.R. Tolkien started injecting Christian themes into their books. It was their way of expressing their Christian beliefs without being preachy. The result was Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and Lewis’ Narnia series.

Rowling is following in the tradition of smuggling Christian themes and symbols into a fantasy story, Granger says.

“However, she’s much more from what I guess could be called the liberal wing of the church, she’s not an apologetic like C.S. Lewis or Tolkien,” he says. “Lewis was a big critic of science and Tolkien had a problem with modernity. But Rowling is much more critical of social institutions. She’s interested in pointing out the problems in prisons and courts and schools.”

Or this one.

So far in this group we had lectures/scriptures about why women cutting their hair is a sin (I got that one too when I cut my waist length hair to my ears!), why bikinis were invented by the anti-Christ, why pants are sinful, why tight clothing is sinful, why God hates fat people and how it’s a-okay to watch a movie with people getting hacked up or shot or blown up but if you watch Harry Potter or anything that hints at boot-knocking and you’re gonna burn.

Here is a fascinating list. I’m not sure about the sourcing on all of these, but it’s interesting. Famous people who have homeschooled include:

John Jay
John Marshall
John Rutledge

Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Edison
Cyrus McCormick
Orville Wright & Wilbur Wright

George Washington Carver
Pierre Curie
Albert Einstein
Booker T. Washington
Blaise Pascal

Hans Christian Anderson
Charles Dickens
Brett Harte
Mark Twain
Sean O’Casey
Phillis Wheatley
Mercy Warren
Pearl S. Buck
Agatha Christie
C.S. Lewis
George Bernard Shaw

And more, check out the link above for the full list.

The Ringling Bros and Barnum & Baily Circus is coming to town! Sep 28 - Oct 2. Tickets go on sale August 19th, but for those of you who have memberships at the Indy Children’s Museum, you can preorder by August 10th and save $3 per ticket.

If you want to know about homeschooling laws in Indiana, here’s a good start (HSLDA).

Detailed analysis (pdf) is here.

And here’s info from the Indiana Department of Education.

Speaking of respect and children, check out the observations that Danny Carlton makes about the press attacks on John Roberts’ kids.

Remember when class meant the outward display of inner character? And that display wasn’t about clothes, but about words and actions?

Captain Ed and Michelle Malkin also have some thoughts.

like a trio of Easter eggs, a handful of Jelly Bellies, three little Necco wafers

Someone missed the journalism class on avoiding the superfluous use of silly similes.

UPDATE: Charmaine Yoest on the developing obsession with questioning the sexual orientation of Mr. Roberts.

UPDATE 2: Two Babes and a Brain thinks Charmaine is representative of a paranoid (or strategic, depending on which paragraph you read) “blame the left for calling Roberts gay” mob, when the insinuation as never there in the first place.

Manhattan Offender thinks it all started with his joke.

UPDATE 3: Charmaine responds.

Duane, over at the Black Informant, has some points worth considering regarding children addressing adults with titles of respect.

Two things happen when a child uses a courtesy name when addressing an adult. The first thing I have already covered (brings a visual example of authority in the life of a child). The second point is just as important: It provokes adults to carry themselves as adults. We live in an age where “grown folks” want to enjoy the privileges of adulthood without accepting its responsibilities. When an adult hears their name being preceded by a courtesy title, there is something in them that loudly reminds them of these responsibilities. It reminds us that we have to live our lives in a way that would make it easy for the child to associate the title with the adult. In other words, it would be very difficult for a child to address a 40 year old man as “Mister” if this man carries himself as a teenager (and we have plenty examples of that). Unfortunately, many of us interpret this loud reminder as just a sign that we are getting old. Guess what? You are! But that is only part of the message.

Read the whole thing here.

And I agree.

I’m a few days late on this, the 80 year anniversary of the Scopes Trial was 7/21.

Wittingshire has an interesting post on the subject.

The Smithsonian has found new photos of the trial.

Via The Common Room.

This is why, despite their incredibly leftist bent, I love the guys at Google.

Check out http://moon.google.com/ and zoom in really close. All the way.

(Via F&L).

Great “tip of the week” from Semicolon. Obvious? Maybe. But definitely worth a reminder.

READ. Out loud. Daily. Read picture books. Read science books. Read history. Read chapters from your favorite children’s fiction. Read nonfiction. Reading is better than lecturing. Reading is more fun and stimulating to the imagination than television.

I have lots of home videos around on VHS tapes that I’ve considered converting to DVD. I bought a piece of hardware that will convert RCA output to USB input, but it’s a royal pain and takes a lot of hard drive space.

I came across another homeschool family who has a business called Show Me the Memories, and they’re offering 10% off to readers of their homeschool blog as a sort of promotion. Figured I would plug them here, so if you, like me, have lots of old home videos to convert to DVD and you don’t have the time to do it, drop ‘em a line!

In the battle to protect property rights, Freestar Media is moving forward.

(Via Grizzly Mama)

When: July 21-24 8:00 pm
What: Shakespeare Under the Stars: Much Ado About Nothing
Where: Ball State University Arts Terrace
Cost: Free

The romantic comedy, Much Ado About Nothing will headline this summer’s outdoor Shakespeare Under the Stars festival on the Arts Terrace at Ball State University, July 21-24. Admission to the festival is FREE.

This year, festival patrons are invited to start arriving to the grounds at 6 p.m. to participate in an enhanced slate of pre-show activities, including roving performers, crafts for children, live instrumental music, traveling vendors, discussions with the production staff, and browsing the Ball State University Museum of Art.

…
Shakespeare Under the Stars is Indiana’s only free professional outdoor Shakespeare festival. Attendees are invited to bring lawn chairs or picnic blankets for seating. Patrons may also bring a picnic or dine at the new festival café. Blackmer adds, “the mission of the event is to provide East Central Indiana families with a professional, theatrical experience that is inexpensive and close to home.”

More info here.

(Nod: Tiffany Arnold)

Here is an interesting post by Danny in Texas, a homeschool Dad.

He takes apart, paragraph by paragraph, an article written by Dave Arnold at the NEA.

There’s nothing like having the right person with the right experience, skills and tools to accomplish a specific task. Certain jobs are best left to the pros, such as, formal education.

More on this article here.

Two home school travel teams are being organized for the fall season. Gene Brueggan will coach the 9-14 co-ed team. The high school boys’ team, ages 15-19, will be coached by Tracy Koch and assisted by Kevin Tharp. To qualify for each team, one must be within the age requirement by September 1st.

The 9-14 co-ed team will bu using the teal uniforms of the past years. We are asking for players that are no longer using their teal uniform to donate it to the younger team. This can best be accomplished by turning it in to the coach or Tammy Koch(team administrator) ASAP. The high school team will need new uniforms.

There is a MANDATORY call-out for any 15-19 year old male soccer player on Saturday, July 23rd from 10:00-12:00 in the field behind Union Chapel located on Broadway in Muncie. Take the 67 by-pass to Riggin Rd. Go west on Riggin Road to Broadway. Go left(south) on Broadway to Union Chapel(approximately 1 block). Go through parking lot to back of parking lot. You will see the field. This won’t be the home field. The home field is to be announced. Each player will be evaluated with skills and ability tests along with scrimmage play. A parent meeting will follow the call-out to answer questions and receive further information. Due to the unknown number of participants at this call-out, it should be understood that this call-out could be considered a try-out for this team. If there are more than the maximum players that will make up this team, the spots will be chosen by the coach. Any players not making the team will be put on an alternates list. All players will be contacted by the coach with results of the try-out. If you have further questions concerning this call-out, please call the coach or administrator(Tracy or Tammy) at 286-8991 on July 19th or later. We can be reached via e-mail: tekhome2001@yahoo.com.

Gene Brueggan wishes that all players interested in playing on the 9-14 team contact him via e-mail: GJBRUEGG@SJHSNET.org or by phone at 378-5091. He needs your name, date of birth, phone number, and e-mail if available. You should contact him by July 23rd.

Due to a lack of e-mail addresses in our possession, you may contact other home schoolers that might be interested in soccer and pass this information on to them. Thank you for your help.

We are looking forward to a very exciting & productive year!

Tracy & Tammy Koch

Since there are already a bazillion homeschool blogs out there, I thought I would start another one. The main function of this site will be to post information and current events of interest to homeschoolers in Central Indiana, particularly the Delaware / Madison County area.

Also, I’ll post whatever I find interesting related to homeschooling in general. It is yet to be determined if the content will be voluminous or scant.

Many of the posts will be taken directly from the DCCHC yahoo groups list, and it’s mostly for my easy reference on an RSS feed, but if you find it helpful, feel free to RSS, bookmark, or just stop back regularly!