Evidently profanity-laced political diatribes in the form of movies are now part of the Alabama 8th grade science curriculum. And people wonder if homeschoolers can cut it academically. At least our science class has actual science in it.
Ann has interesting post about her journey with child-rearing and the book To Train Up a Child. I think that about the worst thing a parent could do is to implement that book as written. There are something like 10 chapters on training, and one chapter on loving. Mr. Pearl talks about training your child into perfect obedience there, yet a recent issue of their magazine, No Greater Joy, has him talking about becoming a grandparent and going back to the days of crayon marks on the walls. (A besetting sin here. I go through paint and Mr. Clean Erasers like water.) To me crayon marks do not denote perfect obedience. Or could it be that the Pearls have a line as to what is obedience and what is not? Do they allow their kids to be kids? From reading the book you wouldn't get that, but my guess is that they do.
My personal opinion (I do not know Michael or Debi Pearl, so this is just conjecture on my part) is that they looked out at the Church and saw excessive permissiveness everywhere they looked. I think TTUAC is more their reaction to that, than it is a definative book on their methods of child-rearing.
My journey with TTUAC is radically different from Ann's. My parents were not Christians when I was a child and I was adopted. My father especially was excessively permissive, because he was afraid I wouldn't love him otherwise. I can remember standing in front of Kmart at about the age of 9 or 10 whining for a second allowance, already having spent the money given me in the morning. My dad gave in. If one of my kids tried a trick like that, we'd pack up and go home and they wouldn't get any allowance the next week either. Not that they get an allowance right now. I was a brat, it's amazing I grew up into a reasonably responsible adult.
So, TTUAC gave me some much needed structure to my parenting and helped me to learn to set limits and to enforce those limits. We still aren't 100% consistent, but we are approaching 99%. We have a list of things that are not tolerated:
Those are things that will get you a spanking in our house. Everything else that might be termed disobedience is met with logical let-the-punishment-fit-the-crime consequences. Make a mess? You clean it up. Hit your brother? Apologize and be nice to him. Not do your schoolwork? Sit at the table until it is done while everyone else gets to play. Turn on the TV without asking? You just lost your TV for the day.
The wierd thing is that I had a dream about the Pearls a few days ago. They had moved in next door to us, and they were chastising me for being too hard on my kids. I really have no idea what that dream means.
To finish, if you want to get TTUAC, also sign up for the NGJ magazine (it's free). Follow NGJ and only use TTUAC for reference. NGJ is full of letters from parents who followed TTUAC to the letter and lost their children's hearts and the Pearls explain where they went wrong and how to try to get them back. When reading TTUAC, pay special attention to the chapter about tying heartstrings.
An Indianapolis middle-schooler has been suspended and recommend for expulsion for turning in a knife. (Hat Tip: Mungo)
I generally hold up Indiana as a place of common sense, somewhere where, for example, it is illegal to purchase alcohol from a motor vehicle (unlike Ohio). It looks like the edu-nazis are taking over there as well. I can still remember the day my senior year of highschool when one of the underclassmen brought a gun to school. This was back in the pre-Columbine days, mind you.
The boy brought an unloaded pistol to school to scare a kid he'd been fighting with. He received a 3 day in-school suspension. That was it. I can remember the principal getting on the intercom that afternoon to say, "Well, folks, someone has ruined it for you. We had a kid bring a gun to school today and threatened someone. I know you boys like to go hunting before you come into school in the morning, but I'm not going to be able to let you keep your guns in your trucks anymore."
Yes, it was a very small school in a very hick town.
One of the mirad of reasons I started this blog (along with the desire to hear myself talk) was to create a record of our lives, specifically the farm and our schooling. I've been updating on the farm, but I've written little about school. I think now is the time to outline our curricula.
Mary (8yo)--Latina Christiana I, Elementary Greek I, Christian Studies I, D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, Spencerian Penmanship 3, multiplication facts. We are taking a break from Rod and Staff math and Classical Writing.
Ian (4yo)--Copybook I, Phonics Pathways.
Alex (3yo)--Phonics Pathways.
Mary spends about 2 hours a day with me on school, 2 hours on seatwork, and an hour on reading. Ian spends about 10 minutes on copybook (he's still learning to write his letters) and 15-20 minutes on reading, depending on how much he wants to do. Alistair spends anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes a day on reading, also depending on what he wants to do (and some days he doesn't want to do any, which is cool with me). Ian is reading CVC words with ease and Alex is still learning letter sounds. We also try to do our read aloud for 30 min and we fit in some science activities and Ohio history about once a week or so. Since the weather has been nice, we've been going for an hour walk most days.
Well, I suppose that I must comment on the whole illegal aliens thing. No one in congresss is getting this right. They are, as usual, illustrative of the absurd. On the one hand we can ask illegals nicely to please let us know about them and then charge them a fine roughly equal to a month's wages in a $7 an hour/60 hour a week job, after all it's not like they live below the poverty line or anything. On the other, we can grant them blanket amnesty and go on with our lives.
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I'm as white as they come. The number of Hispanic friends I've had throughout my life could be counted on one hand. I grew up in a place called White County, Indiana, for Pete's sake. So, I can't say that I'm any kind of expert on Hispanic issues or anything like that. On the other hand, I was the only Spanish-speaking teller at a bank in an affulent area of a large city. I saw more than my share of illegals trying to cash checks and open accounts. Most of them didn't have any ID, not even a Mexican driver's liscence (one guy did, but we couldn't accept it as ID). Generally one guy would have ID and would cash a large check, then pass the cash out to his buddies. So, I do have some perspective.
Here's my proposal:
1. Close the borders. Hire 50,000 border agents, put up a Berlin wall-esque fence, whatever. Before we try to deal with the ones already here, we ought to stop new ones from coming in as much as possible.
2. Grant blanket amnesty. You heard me. I'm a die-hard conservative, but this is the only thing that makes sense. The main issue we have with illegals is a security one. We need to be able to separate the sheep from the goats, and the only way to do that is to give them an incentive to show up. Give them a certain amount of time, say a month, to register. All they would need to do is provide an address and proof of employment.
3. Grant the employers amnesty. Employers would have to provide proof of employment for people, so they would need to be protected from prosecution, or they won't provide the proof of employment.
4. Remove impediments to hiring legal migrant workers, the only requirement should be that the job pay at least minimum wage and relevant taxes. (Don't want to pay the taxes? Hire the migrants as contract employees and make it their responsibility.)
5. After a month, anyone without a temporary green card gets deported, and anyone employing such workers is subject to heavy fines and mandatory jail time. Provide incentives for reporting this. Anyone with a temporary green card who leaves the country will not be allowed back in. Fines go directly toward the INS budget. Remove all temporary workers from public assistance and redirect that money toward the INS budget.
6. Hire the necessary number of INS agents to conduct background checks on registered temporary workers and to deport illegals. If a person can pass the background check, provide a green card, if they can't, deport or arrest them (depending on whether they pose a terrorist threat or not).
7. Put a hold on all immigration except that of dependant family members of U. S. citizens. The moratorium would be something like 6 months to a year, how ever long it would take to do the background checks.
8. When immigration is reopened, make it easier for people to emigrate. Toughen the background checking on new immigrants, but ease the financial requirements. Right now it is ridiculously difficult for a person to emgrate to this country unless they have a job waiting for them and an employer willing to jump through hoops to get them here.
I think this would solve most of the problems we have with illegals, and it would certainly address many of the security issues.
| Guinness (66% dark & bitter, 66% working class, 100% genuine) |
 Okay, we all know Guinness is the best possible score on any "What Kind Of Beer Are You" test, so you can just go on and pat yourself on the back now. Like the world's most famous brew, you're genuine, you've got good taste, and you're sophisticated. What else can I say, except congratulations? If your friends didn't score the same way, get ready for them to say: Guinness is too heavy; it's an acquired taste; it's too serious--and they probably think those things about you at times. But just brush 'em off. Everybody knows Guinness is the best. Cheers. |
| Link: The If You Were A Beer Test |
Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. We've had a rash of power and phone outages (still on dial-up out here in the sticks) and I've been working like mad to get the early spring crops in. The peas, beets, onions, garlic, potatoes, and lettuces are in and I've got the melons, peppers, cabbages, rhubarb, leeks, tomatoes and celery started inside. Now, I'm just waiting on the neighbor to get his tractor back from his dad so he can plow up the area for the new garden this year. The spring garden has taken up the entire garden plot I had for everything last year. Also, the ducks are on order and should be in about the end of May, we're going to brood them in the garage.
Okay, so I'm a little slow on the uptake. I've been hearing about NAIS for a while now, everywhere from the news to Coast to Coast AM, but I've not really looked at it myself until today. Man-0-man, do I not like it. I find RFID to be creepy when it's in a calculator, how much more so when it is in the animal born on my farm. The Orwellian and Mark-of-the-beast overtones get under my skin.
Not to mention that it violates my fourth amendment rights like crazy. And, there's no good reason for it. Small organic producers are very unlikely to spread disease and are very likely to know exactly where the animals from there farm went in the event there was a disease. So, why should the government be using spy satellites to locate my animals and why should I have to report their movements? What possible public good could be served by invading my privacy in this way? It's absolutely ridiculous. The entire movement is backed by agri-business in cahoots with the RFID manufacturers.
If you don't have a farm, don't think it will effect you, there is a movement to monitor pets in the same way. If you want to chip your dog, great, that's your business, but the government should not have the right to make you do so. For more info...
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml-- The USDA site
http://nonais.org/-- One of the many anti-NAIS sites, with info on upcoming public comment periods and how to contact relevant government officials.
I got five rows of carrots and three rows of radishes planted today. The radishes should be ready around the first full week of april and the carrots, the third week of may. My seed order came in today, and I got red onion sets, garlic sets, and seed potatoes today. I also need to get celery, peas, lettuce, asparagus, leeks, beets, and seed onions in over the next week or so. I'll post as I get them done.
Today was one of those soft early spring days that make me nostalgic. I don't know if it's the fecundity of this time of year or the melancoly of the skies, but this is the time of year when I miss my parents most. Growing up, this was always the best part of the year. We were getting ready for our big Easter banquet at Morris Bryant and annual trip to put flowers on the graves of all the family members who have gone before us. We were setting out the garden and planning for the reeactments we would go to. Dad would take me out to Fort Ouiatenon to throw tomahawks on a Saturday afternoon.
I live about 5 hours by car from all those graves and that continuity. The number of people in my adult life who share memories of my parents is growing smaller every year. It's down to my brother, my aunt and uncle, and a high school friend I keep in touch with. In some ways my life is similar to that I had as a child. I went out to the garden today and prepared the bed for my carrots and radishes. I could nearly hear my mother teaching me how to amend the soil as I shoveled manure on to the bed.
When the rain became too hard for me to stay outside, I came in to do some inside chores. I found a bluegrass station on the xm channels directv carries, and I've been listening to it as I work. My dad was the kind of guy who owned both a banjo and a wash-tub bass at different points in his life. I watch my children dancing to the music and am carried back to warm summer nights in Battleground, clogging to music at the Fiddlers'.
Spring is about continuity; the earth wakes from her winter slumber to start a new cycle of life. My children are part of me, and of my parents, and my grandparents in the long chain of life. As I pass down the traditions that were passed down to me, I bring back the spectre of my childhood and the loved ones on the other side of forever. I thank God for the opportunity to keep my parents alive with me in the little things, to be reminded of my rich hertiage as I pass it on.
