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Dec 2, 2009

Positive Letters

poinsettias, christmas flowers, Merry Christmas, holiday flower
Hello, I wanted to introduce you to one of our friend's, Hilary. We met her at an event last year and she was so very nice. She has a wonderful blog called Positive Letters, it's full of great stories and information. She reminds us that in life each and every event is an opportunity to learn something new and we can do it all year, every year, any day!

Take a look!

Christmas tree, Merry Christmas,

Home Based Charter Schools

      A home based Charter is a public Charter school that offers a home based schooling program available to us in our town. They do use state curriculum and all rules apply the same as any public school. The difference is the parents not teachers or schools are in control. 

We get several curriculum choices and can use the curriculum as we see best for our child. We have an advisory teacher for support and to help us use and choose curriculum if we need it. We keep attendance and have to turn that in as well as 3 work page samples once a month, which is very easy and the requirements are very reasonable. 

Not unlike what we would have to do anyway if homeschooling privately. They also offer extra curricular classes and events which are not required but an added bonus. Our advisory teacher who is a certified teacher also home schooled her own 3 children so she knows the game! 

California is a low regulation state for home schooling see Home School Regulations.
We have chosen to use the Charter program so I wanted to give you an update on how it's all going. What are your Home School Options ?

With this program we have a advisory teacher who is available during the week and we see about once a month. She was a home school mom to her three children, they are now grown. She assist us in curriculum selection and all curriculum is provided for free from the school, as well as any other workbooks we may need. The also give us vouchers to buy school supplies at the school stores, we love this!

They offer classes for my children to attend and we love the science class at the local nature museum. At the school there is other resources, and materials for us to use as well.

I am thankful to have this program right in our town, there are many home based charter schools to choose from and you would have to check with you state to find programs like this for your family. You may also be able to use a online charter program depending on were you live but I think this is pretty widely available.

The problems with a program like this in my opinion is, we do have to use state standard curriculum for now this is fine but in the future I may not want to use a state run curriculum.

We do however get to use any curriculum we choose but we do not have the option of the state paying for it, for example a religious curriculum etc.

Starting in 2nd grade children have to participate in state testing and we do have to turn in attendance and progress records, ideally I do not like it but I understand why it is done, and it helps me to have a record of our hard work.

If you are just starting out like we were last year, then a program like this may be right for you. If you home school already I want to know about your school, do you go threw a program like ours or do something else?

Nov 29, 2009

The Pursuit of Happyness

This is from the movie Pursuit of Happiness with will smith I just watched it for the third time we really love this move and his has such a power message. This is one of my favorite parts, he realises what he had said to his son.

If you haven't seen this movie you are missing out, it is a great movie!



Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do something!

Protect your dreams!

Pursue your dreams, make it happen! No one else will do it for you!

It will be hard to do and others will tell you, you can't do it, only because they are not willing to do it them self!

Encourage your kids, tell them they can do anything!

To Your Success!

Nov 27, 2009

A Great Project, My Six Year Old Is Doing

proud to be an american homeschooler, home schooling, american homeschooling
The other day my son and I were discussing what an average is, after I explained it to him he was wondering what the average favorite color was. I told him why don't you take a survey! He really liked the idea and I felt it would be a great project for him to do, he decided to survey one hundred people, asking them what their favorite color is. Today we bought a little pocket note book for him to record his findings and while we were at the park he asked eighteen people of all ages for starters. After he records his findings he will create a graph to show which color was favored more. When we go somewhere he will have is notebook so he can continue his research.

What your child will learn from this project: I think this is a great project idea because it teaches graphing, surveying and getting an average.

It also teaches public communication skills, "Hi My name is Hayden I am doing a survey can I ask you a quick question?" politeness, and real socialization skills, Imagine that lol!

Your kids can do this project as well they can pick what ever topic they choose to conduct their survey, for older kids they can choose a topic suitable for them my son is six so favorite color is appropriate.

Just make sure you are with your children supervising them, because this project requires talking with other people you and child may not know.

Thanks for reading!

To Your Success!

Nov 25, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving To My Followers And Readers!

I can't believe it is Thanksgiving again the year goes so fast!


thanksgiving blessings, happy thanksgiving


I am thankful that I am home schooling, I am even more thankful for my wonderful children.

I remember when I had each one, I have two, the moment I held them in my arms and looked into their eyes It felt like I always knew them, like they had been here all along! I was so amazed at how it felt, maybe it was the nine months of pregnancy but I think it was something more and for that I am truly thankful! I pray that all Mothers felt that way, I know many do!

I am thankful to all my followers and readers of my posts, thank you so much it make me feel so happy to know of such wonderful people and I hope to know you better!

I am thankful for my family and all the wonderful things life has to offer and I wish many wonderful things for everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To Your Success!

Joanne

happy thaksgiving, thanksgiving cartoon

Nov 24, 2009

The Media Destroys Kids And The Parents Let It Happen!

What The Kids Are Watching!

    This is a continuation of my last post I felt I needed to address this as it does go with what I said before, thanks to the posters of my last post who reminded me of this issue!

You sit down grab the remote and you start flipping the channels, you just have to see what is on. After a few min of channel surfing you see sex of every sort, violence of every sort, foul language, and the like! I am not even just talking about programming said to be for adults only! and what is that these days  triple X ?

Apparently the media thinks if there isn't full nudity then it is children's programming!

Now when I say children I mean people up to the age of legal adulthood but really the things that I have seen from regular channel surfing in my opinion doesn't need to be viewed by human beings, period! Now I know I am conservative but for good reason, many kids are disrespectful to each other and their parents, they use foul language, dress inappropriately, and view sex and drugs as something cool to do for fun! Oral sex in school bathrooms as well as doing lines on the classroom desk, this is the norm for many kids!

I know this is not every kid and I hope not most kids but you can agree it is a big problem.

I see first hand when I am out with the kids the affect of this media programming. I have also seen it personally with my self as I have gone threw my life up to writing this post. I do not care to get into detail about my childhood but I will mention a few things.

Lets just say by the time I knew what sex was I was exposed to it over and over again from many different media sources, not good, it affected the choices I made and the way I viewed woman and men for that matter. I was friends with the kids who did drugs at school as well as doing lines in English class, many of my friends by Jr high were sexually active and the parents knew about much of it, Ok enough said.
 
Even cartoons which are designed for young children are not any better considering the ages they cater to, for example many of the popular cartoons for kids have words like stupid, shut up, idiot and moron. I have even heard Squidword from Spongebob say "would someone kill me". This is in many popular kids shows and not just Spongebob.

Now likewise there are also some great programming for kids like PBS kids and Disney channel is good only  in the morning and early afternoon hours. Later in the day you have the "teen shows" were you will see kissing, dating, back talk, as well as disobedience to adults and parents.

These shows which are said to be for kids are raising these kids and indoctrinating them with this bad behavior! If you the parent allow it to.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn form it"
Prov 22:6

You can't blame school to much since the kids are watching the media at home! But obviously considering the things I mentioned that are going on in schools and the lack of supervision on the part of the schools as well as parents are to blame.

Parents in my opinion need to get rid of the cable, pay attention to what the kids are watching and control what they are exposed to! I am not saying shelter your children, only allow information to be fed to them in an age appropriate way and only when children are ready for certain information.

If kids are going to school the parents need to know what is going on and were! Parents need to be actively involved with school officials to guarantee the safest and most educational environment possible!

I know I am guilty of letting my kids watch some things I shouldn't, like Spongebob, I am also guilty of watching some of it myself, but I will also say that I have always been more conservative with it then many parents that I have encountered.

We had cable early on and we did enjoy cartoons and such, but I learned early on to use the parental controls but honestly that wasn't even enough. We got rid of the cable completely then we moved in with my brother in law who had cable in the house, once again I gave in a little but limited what we watched. Now thank God we have no cable and will never have it again!

I know that you already know this and I do not wish to insult your intelligence, I only want to remind you about the dangers of media viewing. We prefer to go to the library and get good books and educational movies provided to us for free from our local library, media viewing is just not necessary and in fact can be damaging to our true self!

Supervise your kids no matter how much of your time and money it requires, in fact cable can cost 30, 40 even 80-100 dollars for many families and you can use that money each month to attend a play and or visit a museum with your family! You can even go to the movies instead just choose what you see carefully.

Thanks for reading please comment if you have anything to add it is greatly appreciated!
To Your Families Health and Happiness!

Here is my last post if you haven't read it note the comments really add to it!

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