The Future of Homeschooling in an Obama Administration

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Barb

It’s been nearly two weeks since the presidential election. President-elect Barack Obama’s supporters are catching their collective breath and planning excitedly for the future. Republican voters are in mourning. And third-party supporters are resigned, having known full well before the election that they would not be happy with the outcome because it was unlikely that a third-party candidate would win.

Everyone is forming their own opinions about what will happen to the economy, the war on terror and our country in general over the next four years, now that we know who will be president during that time. What I’m wondering is, what will happen to homeschooling?

What has me worried is the very real possibility that Obama could choose his friend William Ayers as Secretary of Education. Phyllis Schlafly suggested this a few weeks before the election:

After all, Ayers is a friend of Obama, and Professor Ayers’s expertise is training teachers and developing public school curriculum. That’s been his mission since he gave up planting bombs in government buildings (including the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon) and assaulting police officers.

I lived in the Chicago area for my entire life until last year, so I’m well aware that both Obama and Ayers are part of the same social circle that congregates in Hyde Park on Chicago’s near South Side. I know better than to believe those that claim Obama and Ayers barely know each other. I’ve read enough Chicago newspaper articles to know that Barack Obama has been deeply entrenched in the South-Side liberal Democratic network for many years.

Ayers is pro-socialism. His post-terrorist career has been based on training teachers to indoctrinate kids into groupthink, particularly in regards to certain social issues.

If Ayers becomes Secretary of Education, do you think he’ll have a problem with homeschoolers and our freedom to teach our children the way we see fit? I do.

Go See This Movie

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Barb

I noticed banners for the movie “Fireproof” on a few blogs last week.

I mentioned the movie to my husband on Friday.

On Saturday I saw in the newspaper that “Fireproof” was at our local theater. We decided we should go see it sometime.

At church on Sunday, the pastor mentioned that he had just seen “Fireproof” and that he wanted to recommend it to everyone, and especially to married couples. He said we could buy discounted theater tickets after the service.

We’re not dense. We can take a few hints. 🙂 We bought tickets, and went to see the movie on Monday.

Definitely worth it! The movie has a great message, and it has humor in it despite some heart-wrenching moments. I read an interview with the star of the movie, Kirk Cameron (one of the kids on TV’s “Growing Pains” from back in the last century). What I found most interesting is that when his character was supposed to kiss an actress in the movie, he substituted his own wife. She’s also an actress, and she put on the lead actress’ dress and did the scene with her husband. How cool is that?

Do you and your honey a favor. Go see “Fireproof.” And bring Kleenex.

Carnival of Homeschooling…Don’t Miss It!

Posted on November 12, 2008 by Barb

You know, I’ve thought about hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling, but what’s holding me back is that I am just not creative enough to think of an outstanding theme.

Week after week, the various bloggers who host the carnival come up with the coolest ways to present the posts! Take this week, for example. Jacque Dixon is hosting, and she’s using the Homeschool Blog Awards as her theme, and it came out beautifully.

I think I’ll just stick to participating in these wonderful carnivals….that, I can handle. 😉

Saving Money at the Grocery Store

Posted on November 12, 2008 by Barb

Our public library has a table where people can share magazines. I love this! It’s like a treasure hunt. You never know what you’ll find. I also like leaving my own magazines there instead of throwing them in the recycling bin for the garbage man.

This week I found the September issue of Good Housekeeping. Years ago, I subscribed to GH, but over the years its editorial mix changed to more of a celebrity/decorating/beauty type of magazine, and I stopped getting it.

But this issue had a few useful things in it, including a time vs. money list of grocery store purchases. Some examples weren’t that impressive. For instance, if you make your own ground beef patties instead of buying them preshaped, you’ll save 13 cents per patty (92 cents vs. $1.05 each). Using dried beans instead of canned beans will save you just 15 cents per serving (10 cents vs. 25 cents). Shredding your own mozzarella only saves 8 cents per serving.

But most of the examples made it clear that you can save a decent amount of money by shunning convenience (all price examples are per serving):

Romaine (head) vs. precut Romaine: 25 cents vs. 97 cents

Whole carrots vs. preshredded carrots: 25 cents vs. 48 cents

Baking potatoes vs. frozen steak fries: 20 cents vs. 43 cents

Jello cooked pudding mix vs. Jello refrigerated pudding: 20 cents vs. 62 cents

Celery (in a bunch) vs. precut celery sticks: 29 cents vs. 62 cents

Fresh green beans vs. fresh green beans in a microwave/steam-in bag: 37 cents vs. $1.33

My personal favorite is the brown rice example:

Raw brown rice (cooks in 30-40 minutes) vs. precooked brown rice in microwaveable pouch: 19 cents vs. $1.10.

And that’s per serving, so for a family of four that’s a savings of $3.64, just on rice!

(Here’s another article from Good Housekeeping about saving money when grocery shopping.)

Australia Says He’d Be a Burden

Posted on November 10, 2008 by Barb

Does this make any sense at all?

A rural area of Australia badly needs doctors. A German doctor and his family fall in love with Australia while on vacation and soon move to that rural area, where he becomes the only internist available to 54,000 people. Everyone is happy UNTIL…..the doctor and his family apply for resident status and are turned down by the Australian government.

The locals protest this refusal, and people across the country chime in, but so far, the Australian government has not relented.

Their reason for turning down the good doctor’s request for residency? His teenage son has Down syndrome and is likely (according to the Australian government) to be a drain on its health care and education systems.

Good grief! In a world where we regularly hear about male teens overdosing on drugs, transmitting social diseases, getting girls pregnant, and knifing or shooting each other (all the while running up plenty of hospital bills), the Australian government blocks the residency of one young man whose risk of health problems is a little higher than the average teenager?

Sometimes it feels like the world’s gone crazy.