The IRS and the Tax Project from Life Prep

Posted on February 27, 2009 by Barb

Today dd17 and I worked together on the Tax Project found in Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers.

It’s a weird feeling, teaching my child out of a book that I wrote. But I wrote it eight years ago, and that’s long enough that I sometimes forget the author’s identity for a second 🙂

We sometimes get questions from people asking how old a teen should be to do Life Prep. We respond that it depends on the teen, their goals and which project in the book is being considered.

For instance, a 14-year-old boy will find the Car Project (link goes to free download of this project) a lot more interesting than the Credit Card project, just because most boys of that age are eagerly looking forward to having their own cars.

In the case of the Tax Project, we tell people to wait until their teen has a job that generates a paycheck. There’s nothing like receiving a check for less than you earned (because of taxes, Medicare, and Social Security) to get your attention. It’s amazing how that event can arouse a teen’s curiosity about taxes (primarily why they’re so high!)

Since dd17 has been earning paychecks since last summer, this was a great time to do the Tax Project. Add the fact that it’s time to determine if she needs to file a tax return for 2008, and she was more than eager to do the project. There’s nothing like a receptive student, is there?

It all went well, and only took a few hours. However, I learned that one part of the Tax Project has changed since I wrote it. In the book, I referred to a little pie chart inside the IRS’ 1040 booklet that showed exactly where our tax dollars go. That pie chart is gone, and I could not find it on the IRS web site.

However, I did find a simplified version of it in an IRS Power Point pdf (see page 5). It may be simplified, but it’s as depressing as ever. Dd and I had a good discussion about that, too. We homeschoolers are so fortunate to have the time to teach our teens about these things before they leave home.

The Joy (and Savings) of Homemade Bread

Posted on February 25, 2009 by Barb

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It’s been probably twenty years since in-store bakeries became the rage in grocery stores. I remember walking into the store and smelling the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread. I grabbed a bag of warm rolls and brought them home with anticipation.

But as good as they looked, they really didn’t have much taste. I tried that grocery store’s baked goods a few more times and finally decided that there was something they sprayed around the store that smelled like fresh bread, because the bread and rolls weren’t what was giving off such a great aroma.

Since then I’ve preferred my own baked goods. Several years ago, I got a bread machine as a gift. I hadn’t really wanted one, preferring to make my own bread the old-fashioned way, but once I tried the bread machine, I was hooked.

I especially liked the dough cycle: you could have the fun of shaping and baking the bread without the work of kneading the dough. And as far as I’m concerned, nothing smells as good as freshly baked homemade bread that tastes good, too.

At the grocery the other day, I saw a bag of dinner rolls for $2.49 in the bakery section. They didn’t look fresh, and in fact felt a bit hard. I thought $2.49 was a pretty steep price for day-old rolls. Those sad-looking rolls made me so glad to have my bread machine. I throw in a few ingredients in the morning, set the timer, and have lovely dough or even a baked loaf of bread when I want it at dinnertime.

I’ve had good luck with the recipes that came with my machine. But if you buy one secondhand, or are gifted with a used bread machine, you might want to visit this site for some good recipes.

BTW, I don’t use bread flour because it’s so expensive. I’ve had good luck with plain old (cheap) flour from Aldi’s. But if you’re picky about your bread, give bread flour a try.

Also, buying yeast in those tiny envelopes gets really expensive. Over at Sam’s Club, they sell two very large packages of yeast for less than $4. I freeze one and put the other in a Mason jar in the fridge, and it takes me quite a while to go through both. Definitely a money saver!

Call Your Senators….Soon

Posted on February 24, 2009 by Barb

Recently I posted about U.S. Deputy Attorney General candidate David Ogden, who not only approves of the controversial U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, but already recommends that judicial decisions be decided as though the U.S. has ratified it (which we have not!)

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Ogden’s confirmation this Thursday, February 26, 2009. If you value your parental rights, you’ll want to learn more about this situation, and then let your senators know how you feel before they vote on Thursday.

Please be aware that the best way to get through to senators is by phone. Email is certainly easier, but they often don’t pay attention to emails about controversial issues. On the other hand, thousands of phone calls from concerned citizens get their attention, especially when they overwhelm the phone system (as homeschoolers did back in 1994 regarding H.R. 6).

If you’ve never called your senators before, it’s not a big deal. An aide will answer the phone, you tell them that you would like Sen. So-and-So to vote for or against something, and the aide will make note of your opinion. He/she will likely ask for your name and address (especially if it’s your first time to call their office), and that’s that. You shouldn’t have to give your reasons or defend your opinion.

If they ask for your name and address, it’s so that they can 1) make sure you live in the senator’s state, and 2) have an address so they can send you a form letter thanking you for your opinion. At least that’s been my experience over the years.

Should We Be Teaching ‘Prepare for Verbal Abuse 101’ In Our Homeschools?

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Barb

One of the things homeschooled kids miss out on is being criticized by teachers for their personal beliefs.

I don’t think it’s bad to miss out on such experiences, but it does get me thinking about how to prepare (or whether it’s possible to prepare) our college-bound homeschooled offspring for that kind of situation, which is becoming increasingly common.

Not that it never happened in the past, of course. I recall being graded down in Biology 100 back at the good old U of I for refusing to accept the theory of evolution as a valid one. And as recently as last fall, my teenage daughter took some flak from her community college professor (in a graphic arts class, no less) for commenting that she liked Sarah Palin.

But it appears that the teachers are becoming more vehement and profane:

Jonathan Lopez, who is working on his associate of arts degree at Los Angeles City College, quoted a dictionary definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman and cited several Bible verses during a public speaking class in late November, his suit says. His professor, John Matteson, interrupted, called Lopez a “fascist bastard” and refused to let him finish his address, according to the suit.

Nice, huh? We don’t have to worry about Jonathan, who has since sued the college district with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund. But what about our kids? John Matteson isn’t the only idiot professor out there. Can we prepare our kids for this kind of attack, and if so, how?

I think we should warn them that this happens, and discuss ways they can deal with it. In the case of my daughter, we discussed the inappropriateness of her teacher’s remarks (which I won’t go into here), especially since her dad and I were paying $400 for graphic design instruction, not misguided knee-jerk political philosophy. We also talked about what she wished she would have said, and what she’ll do when (not if) it happens again. We talked about knowing what you believe and why you believe it. And I told her I was proud of her for politely standing up for herself when verbally attacked by an authority figure.

Did I leave anything out? What else can we do?

Money-Saving Fixes to Annoying Tech Problems

Posted on February 20, 2009 by Barb

What should you do if your cell phone falls into the kitchen sink full of suds? (Or worse, the toilet?)

When you’re at the front of a long line at the store, and your credit card won’t scan, is there something you can do to help the clerk get it to work?

If your hard drive should crash (perish the thought!), what’s one way to hopefully bring it back to life that requires the use of a common kitchen appliance?

You’ll find the low-cost answers to these and other tech dilemmas here.