denise

JackLewis.net: Object to government schools recruiting your kid for homosexuals – get arrested

OK can someone explain to me how reading a book can recruit someone to become a homosexual? I’ve read a lot of books about Christians and I’ve never been recruited. I’ve read a LOT of books about straight folks (more than I’ve read about gays) and I’m ummm not straight.

I just don’t get it. I’m ok with people not accepting homosexuality. That’s ok, everyone gets to believe what they want to believe but this type of thing is something I’ll never understand.

jumping in: our homeschool wish list

I really liked this idea. We aren’t sure what’s on our Top 10 homeschool wishlist but it’s definitely making us think about it.

iVillage Daily Blabber: Authors Want Oprah’s Book Club Back

American authors are begging for Oprah to help them out with her book club. A group of novelists wrote an open letter to Oprah Winfrey begging her to return to selecting new novels for her book club. She had recently been picking historical classics instead. When she stopped featuring contemporary work in 2002, sales slacked for those authors. The group of 158 authors, called Word of Mouth, said, ‘Book Club members stopped buying new fiction, and this changed the face of American publishing.’ Some of Oprah’s picks since she started the club in 1996 have sold more than 1 million copies. Lately she’s been picking the likes of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. The Word of Mouth backers include A.M. Homes, Amy Tan, Jane Smiley and Junot Diaz. “

I have been really nasty about Oprah and her book club. I find it troubling that millions of Americans choose books simply because Oprah says so. Then I got even more annoyed when she started choosing the “old stuff”. If she’s going to choose books then how about use her status to help new, unrecognized, non-mainstream writers? Why wouldn’t she do this? Wouldn’t you do this if you were Oprah?

The highlight of our day was the final click in the Biology 1 class Michelle has been taking from FLVS!

She started the course during the last week in October and finished her final exam today. A 36 week course in 24 weeks. It actually took her considerably less time but there were some weeks when she didn’t do any work at all – she was simply so far ahead, there wasn’t much reason to do any work when she had other assignments to focus on. Her final score on the class appears to be around a 95, though the instructor hasn’t graded the last section of the exam yet. Since it was mostly a survey about the course, it seems unlikely she’ll have a low score. 😉

Now we’re pondering next year’s science course – jump right into Chemistry or give Marine Biology a try?

SpunkyHomeSchool

I have finally made my way through all of the “speakers’ and I clicked into each vendor. I’m glad my boss is out of town and wasn’t here to catch me slacking at work so that I could do this. I think the online convention was a terrific idea and even though the majority of “speakers” were totally opposite of me, my familly and our homeschool life they were all worth clicking into and they all gave me a few things to think about.

Michelle was sitting at her desk behind me as I flipped through each blog and I distracted her from her Biology exam on more than one occasion to comment out loud to her about something I read. I clipped a few of the “speakers” to send to her because I think she might find them interesting – the teens who contributed, the latin lessons because she waivers back and forth between liking the idea and not liking the idea, the “reading to our kids” piece because it’s the one I liked the most and a couple that were so far right that she simply has to see them because, well, because it’s good to hear that sort of point of view every now and then.

The Education Wonks: This One Just Has To Be Read To Be Believed

OK I’m ticked…my “passed note” to this “teacher” (all I can say is I hope retirement is near)….

I cannot believe you said “it is my opinion that this is probably more about getting attenion, and less about advocacy.”

Do you know these girls? How dare you, as a secondary teacher, assume something about young women who you have never even met? Why is it so difficult for you to believe that young women might actually BELIEVE in something? Oh wait, could it be because you can’t bring yourself to say the word vagina? Is it because you don’t find women’s issues important enough to be brought out into the open?

My 15 year old daughter, who is homeschooled, proudly wears a tshirt with “Value Your Vagina – VOTE” on it. She does this NOT to get attention but to draw attention to WOMEN’S ISSUES and to encourage people TO USE THEIR HEADS and THINK about women’s issues.

Here’s a link to the news story.

SpunkyHomeSchool: “WELCOME
TO THE ONLINE HOMESCHOOL CONVENTION”

aye yi yi – who has time for this right now? I love the idea but how in the heck will I find the time to read any of these “featured speakers”? Summer would be a better time for this, at least for me!

Philocrites: Unitarian Universalist college students are different.

Of particular note was the study’s findings regarding Unitarian Universalist students. According to the study, “students choosing Unitarian [Universalist] as their religious preference produced what is probably the most distinctive pattern of scores, differing significantly from students in general on 11 of the 12 measures.” Specifically, of the 19 religious groups broken out in the survey, UU students had the highest response scores on measures of spiritual searching, volunteer service, social justice work, caring for others, and interest in/respect for different religious viewpoints.

No real surprise here, is there?

Which File Extension are You?

Tomato Nation

TW is not Ronco dependent but she is an As Seen on TV fanatic. If I’m ever in doubt of what to buy her for some special occasion, all I have to do is look for the As Seen on TV section of the nearest drugstore. It doesn’t matter what I choose from that section, it will be appreciated.

I made the mistake of sending her this link and she’s pondering the Bow Lingual – it can’t be worse than some of the other things she’s brought home, can it?