Common Core vs. Classics

We've all been hearing about Common Core, the newest government-based idea of what education should be, and we have probably taken a stand in one way or another. We either care or we don't, right? As people delve deeper into what books, textbooks, testing, and criteria are covered in Common Core, we find more and more to like or dislike about the program.

Some feel assured that Common Core has higher levels of expectations and that our children, through being required to perform at these higher levels, will automatically be more educated. Some are deeply concerned with the content required in Common Core and the apparent tracking methods that will be implemented. "The Great Conversation: The Substance of a Liberal Education", which was published in 1952, touches on many of these very same arguments that abound in today's conversations about education.

Questions such as:

• What are the Traditions of the West and do we need to still uphold these traditions?
• Can we expect the same level of education for all citizens in America?
• If we do expect the same level of education for all, can we provide to all equally?
• What should be included in a person's education?
• Is government responsible for providing a person's education?
• Do the classics of the past have anything to offer the modern day student?
• What standards does the current educational program transmit to our youth?
• What will the student lose/gain by a set curriculum rather than a diverse reading of the Classics?

There are many more, but these questions beg to be answered. Are we doing a disservice by adopting Common Core? What will be lost if we do adopt Common Core? What will be gained?

I have not extensively researched Common Core, but what I have learned is disturbing. We need more time as a society to study the materials presented and approve or disapprove of the content. What the experts are presenting to us leaves most of us questioning their motives. Is everything in Common Core bad? Probably not, but we are finding some things which should be questioned.

Such articles as these give a glimpse into some of the negative information surfacing about the materials included in Common Core:

• "10th Grade Class Reads Erotic Novel Recommended By Common Core Proponents"
• "You Won't Believe What We Found in Another 'Widely Adopted' High School Textbook"

What Common Core is missing the Classics have!

While we groan over what we feel Common Core is missing, or even worse, adding to the education of our children in the terms of pornographic material and bad character building, there are tried and true documents and books that have already been read by millions of people and deemed appropriate. These materials have all that develops the higher thinking that the government says they are trying to provide with this major educational change.

Why are we deviating from the Classics?

Why are we re-inventing education again in the wrong direction?

Why is the government spending millions to produce something that cheapens education?

In my humble opinion, they feel they have to do "something" so they choose anything over doing nothing. Yes, there are those that feel Satan has a plan and is using our corrupt government officials to do his dirty work (I am in that camp, but for the secularist I will continue to discuss facts as well.) Many also believe that these individuals may be misguided or even just really want our children and youth to learn this particular set of materials which they value themselves.

Whatever the reasoning behind it, WE have a choice. WE have a voice. I encourage everyone to invest in building your home library with the Classics from the TJED lists, get a set of The Great Books of the Western World, and any other books you feel can be added to your personal Classics list. Some day, this may be the only place to find them...

..and then READ THEM!

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them." - Ray Bradbury

How Homeschooler's Measure Up

A very interesting graphic that says it all.

 
Source: TopMastersInEducation.com

Seat Time vs. Instructional Time

I am happy to get private emails about homeschooling with Leadership Education principles. I've been getting a few about Transcripts lately. This is a challenging subject for the following reasons:

• Each person is different and is going to study different things.
• Each person is going to do different things once they "graduate" from homeschool. They will attend different colleges and universities, or just different types of careers. Each college/university has their own entrance requirements.
• Each state has different requirements for homeschool students. One state has no requirements other than an agreement to teach certain subjects while another has hours that need to be met each year. Yet another has subjects and hours per subject plus yearly state testing. This means each student will have to jump through different hoops.

Another thing to consider is how public school hours work. They have what they call "seat time" and then "instructional time". Seat time is the hours they are at school - 8am to 3pm. Instructional time for high school is 15 minutes of each 1 hour period. A student that goes to 6 periods a day actually only receives 1 1/2 hours of instruction time. Anyone who actually does a Scholar Phase is going to have tons more than that.

What are the other "seat time" hours spent on? - standing in line, walking between classes, lunch, waiting for class to start, waiting for class to end, finishing busy work assigned in class, etc.

So 180 days of instruction for 1.5 hours a day is actually only 270 hours of instruction per year, yet the public schools claim 1260 hours a year. I worked in public schools as a teacher and heard many discussions about seat time and instruction time.

If your child is spending 3-5 hours a day for 180 days a year, they are studying (not just sitting in a seat or standing in line) 540-900 hours a year. By the way, most state homeschool laws say they want 900 hours of instruction per year, which we all know is ridiculous for anything below high school and that the public schools don't even come close to that.

Underground Lava River Hike

The average Scholar will study 5,000 hours in their Scholar years! Divide that by 4 years of high school and you get 1250 hours per year of instructional time, not seat time. 

Granted, not all young people will finish their Scholar Phase in the "high school" years. This is okay. As you can see by breaking down the hours that even a student who is Transitioning until their Junior Year and then gets down to business for 2 years will have enough instructional time.

Seat Time - NOT!

Seat time is a myth. Who says learning only takes place in a seat? Think of all the things that are learned through homeschooling. We get out into nature. We get out into the real world to learn about how things work and to work with others of all ages. 

I was also asked about Physical Education. During good weather, we spend a lot of time outdoors with a 2 hour per week park day where we invite other families and play basketball, tennis, baseball, etc. We also schedule hikes and visit various National Parks and things that are available to us.

Over the years we've hiked canyons, visited several kinds of caves including naturally formed and man-made, visited Indian ruins and cliff dwellings, seen Civil War battlefields and outdoor museums, visited National Grave Sites, etc. We've been to the Grand Canyon and seen natural waterfalls. Probably the funnest place we saw when they were little was the City of Rocks and Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico.

The world is our school!

10 Easy Ways to Cut Your Homeschool Budget

Let's face it, homeschooling can be an expensive endeavor. One trip to a homeschooling convention with rows and rows of booths full of really cool looking curriculum can make any homeschool mother's mouth drool while at the same time her pocketbook shrinks. I know I've bought things that looked great and others raved about it, but when I tried to use it, well...it just didn't turn out like I hoped.

The important thing is to make wise purchasing choices. Doing the research before I buy has made for less costly mistakes and better purchases. I only have a budget of about $200 a year to spend on curriculum. Most of that is spent on Aleks math and then classic books throughout the year to build up our home library.

Here are a few tips to save money so that you can better budget for the things you really need:

1. Wet Erase Sheets

I discovered this trick a few years ago. Rather than buy multiple student worksheet books or copy everything, I made these cheap and easy re-useable sheets. (By the way, I own very few worksheets anymore, but we use these sometimes.)

Take a few clear plastic sheets and cut off the side with the 3 holes.

Slide the plastic sheet over the page in the student worksheet.

Using a fine tip wet erase pen, have your child finish the worksheet.

After you check the work, slide the sheet off.

Clean with a damp paper towel or washcloth (or sock, see below).

2. Personal Dry Erase Boards

These have become very popular in public schools, but I think they are a MUST HAVE for homeschooling. Children can go through a LOT of paper. I find these work for math problems, scratch paper, spelling practice, doodling, handwriting, etc.

3. Socks Erasers

We all have divorced and separated socks somewhere in our laundry, right? Why not reuse these poor lost socks as erasers for your Dry Erase Boards and Wet Erase Sheets. (They make good "dusting gloves" for kiddos too).

4. Use the Library

We use a ton of classics books and my budget does not allow me to own all the books we read each month (much less the space to store them). The library has most of the books we would want. If they don't, the Interlibrary Loan system has allowed us to borrow books from numerous local libraries without paying a cent.

5. Buy Used

Most families are also on a shoestring budget when it comes to homeschooling. Therefore, they re-sell their homschool curriculum in fairly good condition in most cases. I've bought from used curriculum fairs, eBay, Amazon, Home School Classifieds, Half.com, and Craigslist. For example, the Excellence in Writing Style and Structure program is $169 new. I bought it at a used curriculum fair for $40.

6. Sell Your Gently Used Curriculum

Like the post above, I also sell some of our used curriculum on the above websites. I often buy the items used and re-sell them later for about the same price I bought them for, breaking even!

7. Borrow Curriculum and Books

I was lucky enough to live in an area that had a great homeschool library that allowed members to borrow or check out items for a semester at a time. I also allow people to borrow items I have and have borrowed items from others to look at before purchasing. It helps to cut down on impulse buying and thus save you from spending money needlessly.

8. Use Online Freebies

The Internet is a vast source of free curriculum and teaching aides. There are too many to list here, but here are a few of the top contenders:

• Khan Academy - Math, History, Science, Economics, etc. Video based and easy to use. They have a Knowledge Map where students can master math topics and earn points and badges.
• YouTube - Many educational videos are available like Spalding Phonics, School House Rock, and The Human Calculator.
• Learning Page - Tons of worksheets for the early elementary years for math, handwriting, animals, etc.

9. Read for Free

Not only is the library a great free source for classic books. There are free Apps that can be downloaded for most phones, tablets, and computers to read books for free. 

The top eBook Apps are:

• Nook by Barnes and Noble
• Kindle by Amazon
• Google Books

Be careful of searching for "free" books as many undesirable books may also surface. Search for the specific title and author. We've downloaded several free titles, including, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "Sense and Sensibility", "Guliver's Travels", "The Red Fairy Book" and "McGuffey Readers".

10. Focus on the Core Subjects

I've found that there is a lot of "fluff" out there. Focus on a few sound foundational programs and the rest will fall into place with the reading of classics. 

Some of the foundational programs we own are:

• Spalding Phonics - I borrowed the book "The Writing Road to Reading" from the library and only use the notebook pages where the student copies the rules. I bought a laminated set of the phonogram cards for $14. I've used these for all my children and foster children and never needed anything else.
• Math-U-See manipulatives - I've found that the Math-U-See program was good until the upper maths, but we still keep the manipulatives. I don't think the lower grades even need the curriculum. Most parents can teach basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division without an official math program, but the blocks are really helpful.
• Winston Grammar - I use this easy program to teach basic grammar and learn about diagramming sentences. We re-visit the topic for a couple weeks each year to make sure that the knowledge is still there. No other grammar program is needed with a classics based education.
• Excellence in Writing - I have the basic Style and Structure videos with the workbook and that's it! You can literally spend hundreds on needless, repetitive drills. The basic teaching is all you need on a writing program to teach what is expected. Free writing takes the place of all the other fluff.

Just know that we are all sucked in by the need to buy cool looking curriculum that fits in with the conveyor-belt way we were educated. I still get excited when I see workbooks. WHY? I guess it just makes me think...

workbook = learning

...yet, we all know that isn't true!

Reading and Personal Study = Learning

Good luck out there! I get tempted to spend too much each year myself.

Educate to Innovate Initiative

Recently President Obama said in the State of the Union Address that he wants to focus on "educating for innovation" because we need to compete in a global world. (See the White House webpage here.) The website says this will be done through:

"five major public-private partnerships are harnessing the power of media, interactive games, hands-on learning, and community volunteers to reach millions of students over the next four years, inspiring them to be the next generation of inventors and innovators."

The part that bothers me the most about this statement is "media and interactive games".  From the list of contributors on the website, it seems like video games to me.

Several years ago before I started educating my children at home, I worked in a computer lab at the local elementary school where my children attended. I oversaw a set of educational games that were engineered to teach the children for the state's mandatory testing. The school district was shown all kinds of charts and predictions on how much the children's test scores would improve with this system. The school district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase this system for all of the schools and built additional computer labs in each school, then employed teachers like myself to implement and oversee the system.

I had access to two years worth of records on the student's test scores and I can firmly say that across the board absolutely NO improvement was made. A handful of individuals had improved scores, but as a whole it was a huge failure. In fact, the school lost some of the funding used for state testing after the second year. In other words, their test scores went down, not up. The school's test score rating in the state was lowered and they lost funding based on these results.

So what does that tell us? Could it be that entertaining educational products do not work?

In a 2003 study done about improving test scores using an ILS (Integrated learning System a.k.a technology driven, game like teaching) the following was reported:

"Controlled studies of ILS effects on reading achievement carried out over a period of three decades suggest, therefore, that ILSs do not usually make meaningful contributions to reading improvement in elementary schools."

However, if you do a search over the web you'll find countless websites telling us that educational video games do improve test scores. So what should we believe?

First of all, if you spend all your time teaching to the test then test scores will most likely improve. But what effect does that have on education for the individual? It might mean they know everything that their classmates know, but for how long? What cements that knowledge in place long-term?

Second, what do test scores matter in the world anyway? Does a student who does well in science and math always become an innovator? Does a student who aces the math section on the SATs always become an inventor?

I am a firm believer that we are what we eat. I also believe that we are what we read. If I spend all my time reading Comic Books, then I will only understand short sentences with very little plot. My focus will be minimal in understanding how the world works. I'll remain at a childish state of knowledge.

If I study Jane Eyre, Shakespeare, Socrates, Euclid, Einstein...all the great classics, I will be able to understand good vs. evil, philosophy, science, history, etc. My ability to discuss things of value will greatly improve and I'll know what the great minds of our world knew. I will grow to a mature state of knowledge.

I will become what I read.

The question is...what do people who focus on media and video games become?

Science, Slime, and the Human Body - 2009 - Week 8

I don't think reading a basic run down of every chapter we did in math and worksheets we used is fun to read....so we are going to focus on more what our real day looks like.

Science Fun
Human Body - Skin, Hair, and Nails Unit
On Thursday we started this very interesting- and a little gross - unit! In true Leadership Ed. (TJED) fashion I allowed the kids to take this lab to where their interests led them and then we looked up more with our books and the Internet. We have an awesome microscope that we bought at Amazon.com and slides (Kit A and Kit B) from the 4-Year Plan. Plus we made our own slides.

Here are the things we looked at:

• Dead skin from our own hands/arms.
• Hair from each of us and the dog.
• A dog eye booger. (eeewwww! not my idea)
• Saliva - Chris' to be exact.
  
• Prepared slide - Human Skin Cross-section - this shows the hair and how it grows out of the skin. We could also see the sweat pores.
• Prepared slide - Mouth Swab - the inside of our cheek skin.
• Prepared slide - Human Blood.

Book Resources:

• Usborne Science Encyclopedia - pgs.368-369
• How the Body Works - pgs. 31-41

Slime Lab
On Thursday thru Friday my kids wanted another lab day and so we went on a quest to find the BEST slime recipe. We tried several recipes and decided the best is to combine a Silly Putty and Slime recipe to get a nice, bouncy slime. The kids also discovered that if you put the concoction in the refrigerator over night it makes a better bouncy slime.

Read Together - We finished Little House in the Big Woods and started Farmer Boy.

Socialization Activities - Principles of Leadership Class

Marly - Projects - Loom Knitting & sewing balls for the Humanitarian Center. Reading - Diary of a Whimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Dairy of a Whimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Guy Time, Regular Guy, The Diamond of Darkhold.

Chris - Projects - Leatherworking. Reading - Redwall series, Diary of a Whimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Dairy of a Whimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules.

Mom - Many of my projects are on hold. My work has graciously given me more hours, to which I am grateful. However, I'm very exhausted! Reading - The Love Dare and Leven Thumps and the Gateway of Foo.

2009 - Week 5 - This Week in Homeschooling

In addition to Marly and Chris's babysitting job, Chris has been sick with a sinus infection this week. The level of his education was greatly effected this week and we hope he will get better soon!

Kid's School:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lesson 12 - We spent the entire week on the Atonement.
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
• Read Aloud Book - Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (and my kids THINK they have chores)
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last week's words - New Words - winsome, meager, haughty, foster
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - The Winston Grammar Program: Basic Level - Word Roots Level A A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Respiratory System - Usborne Science Encyclopedia pg. 358-359, How the Body Works pg. 69-77, Human Anatomy Coloring Book p. 218-23 (College level book - we do not memorize the terminology, but the detailed diagrams are really good).
  
• P.E. - Daily dog walks. Chris was too sick to do much else.
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 9-11
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Unit 2 Test, online math drills
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: The Story of the World: Vol.2 2-18, Molly Moon Stops the World, Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure, The Hounds of the Baskerville's (1st half)
  
• Chris: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Vol. 1, 1-38 thru 1-39 (1st half)
  

Mom's School:

• Reading list - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (still working on this one), The Love Dare (a 40 day challenge so I'll be reading this one every day for awhile - see this movie "Fireproof"), Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning (studying up on the levels of Scholar Phase to present to the family next week)
  
• Projects - cleaning and perfecting my bread making skills. See my favorite recipe at The Solar Cook.
  

2009 - Week 3 - This Week in Homeschooling

We had a great Monday with everyone taking the day off. Marly was sick this week and so we did not expect the level of study she usually applies, but she did a ton of reading while she was sick.

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 7-9
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last weeks words - New Words - supple, avow, brazen
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - Winston Grammar - Word Roots A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Muscles
  
• P.E. - (Marly was sick this week)
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 1-4
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Chapter 13
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: Story of the World, Vol. 2-11 thru 2-16, Oddest of All, Nelly in the Wilderness, Fablehaven - Books 1 & 2, Crystal Mask
  
• Chris: Story of the World, Vol. 1-34, Dragon Rider
  
• Mom School: Reading list - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Young Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews (I highly recommend this book!)
  

SAT Prep - Vocabulary and Spelling words:
I subscribed to a daily email of SAT words through Peterson's Word of the Day. It is a free service and we get the definition, example sentence, and synonyms. I write the word of the day on the dry erase board and we discuss it right after devotional. The website also has test prep questions.

Why do we do this? - I feel that we should focus on getting into college and part of that process is the SAT test. We do not do AIMS testing - that is for public schools to be graded and for funding. They really have nothing to do with the students.

Fed up with the Government? What do we do?

In my personal studies I have been learning about the Constitution and the way the US government is SUPPOSED to work. I am greatly disturbed by how broken the system is and how we are not really a free country anymore. I read an article this morning that has resonated within me the reasons WHY I am studying about our government. It also addresses how we can fix it....seems difficult doesn't it? I hope you will all take the time to read this article and ponder if it is something useful to you.

Education Must Proceed Activism

The real question to me is....What KIND of education do we need to correct the problems in our country? What do we need to know? How do we learn it?

2009 - Week 1 - This Week in Homeschooling

Rather than post hit-or-miss homeschooling posts, I decided it might be better if I post once a week at the end of the week and just include the subjects we focused on.

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 1-5
• Literature Focus - Legends Unit - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Book Club meeting
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - coddle, debacle
  
• Grammar & Writing -
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Skeleton
• P.E. - Rollerblading & scooter riding at park day, Wii Tennis and Bowling
  
• Math
• Marly: fractions and decimals
• Chris: geometry - area of triangles and trapezoids
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly:
• Chris:
• Individual Studies
• Marly: Loom Knitting - creating hats and scarves
  
• Chris: Game Maker Pro - creating executable games for downloading
  
• Mom School: Reading list -
  

Free Education Downloads

For those who are interested, here are a few free downloads on education. I have the books if anyone is interested in reading more....

• A Thomas Jefferson Education & Leadership Education books
• Audio - Talks by Oliver DeMille

The Baby is the School

This week we are tending the baby, and sometimes the youngest three, of a sister I visit teach since she is on bed rest right now. We are having a great time! My children do not have any little siblings and so having these three (ages 4, 2, and 6 months) has been a fantastic learning experience for Marly and Chris. I read something once about homeschooling families that have babies and how they incorporate the baby into school. It really struck me that my kids are missing out on that. But, thanks to this service opportunity, we are able to include this as our life skills.

"Baby School" skills:

• Diaper changing
• Playing with younger children
• Bottle preparation and feeding
• Burping a baby
• Rocking a baby
  

In addition to "Baby School", we are working on:

• Devotional - New Era - Dec. 2008
• Do Together - Listening to the last 1/2 of Stave 3 and Stave 4 of "A Christmas Carol". We really need to finish this soon. We have book club at our house tomorrow on this!
• Read-A-Loud - History - Story of the World vol. 1- Chapter 30 "Ancient India"
• Chris - Reading - Calvin & Hobbes, Math - more geometry practice on area of a trapezoid and area of a triangle, Life skills - cooking science (he is getting really good at cookies), Science - Rabbit 4-H Project.
  
• Marly - Finished final exam for Math-U-See Delta - 97%! She finished a whole year of math in 3 months. Reading - "Turnabout", "Hunted", and "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" by Mark Twain. Science - Rabbit 4-H project.
  
• Me - I'm a little behind in my grading with the extra kids here. Planning for teen book club meeting tomorrow. Reading - "Out of the Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis, "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" by Raymond Moore, and "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer.
  

Fieldtrip! - Teen Humanitarian Project

Fieldtrips are the bomb! One of the greatest things about homeschooling is we can go on lots and lots of fieldtrips. In fact, the local Chevron has become a favorite stop...(hee! hee!) just kidding. We do get a few stares sometimes until we showed the clerks our picture in the paper one day and explained we are homeschoolers. Now we are celebrities! Boy, I'm really cracking myself up today.

Today we went to the Mesa Cannery and bagged beans for the Arizona Food Banks. Don't we look cute in our little hair nets and pretty blue designer gloves? I have to say that I was having a difficult week and was not really in the mood to go down to the cannery today. But, I scheduled the event and was in charge of it so I kind of needed to go...don't you think? Once we got there to help set-up, we all jumped in and changed our attitudes completely. I felt so energized and happy to be serving the needy in our state. Another mom mentioned the same thing. She had also been having a bad week and considered not coming to this event. Like me, she felt so much better after having gone to the cannery.

Marly and Chris had gone to the cannery before with the Mutual, so they were pros and helped everyone else get the hang of the process. Chris kept our bean tubs full and even spent quite a bit of time helping in the cleanup. He does not like to get his picture taken though...

Homeschooling Today

I do not post much about home schooling, but it is the center of our life. I guess I just feel that most of my friends might be uncomfortable with my posts about home education...I'm not sure why I feel that way. Nobody has ever said anything to make me feel bad or anything. But, I want to share the joys and the difficulties of our homeschooling adventure so be prepared to read more posts about it mixed in with the "regular" family stuff.

I considered having a separate homeschooling blog, but what is the point of that? Homeschooling is part of who we are. But, I will separate homeschooling from other family events and thoughts even if I post more than once on the same day.

Our Schedule...
We are very flexible with our time. We have "school" from 9am-2pm with lunch from 11:00am to 11:30am. You might think, "That is short." However, when you consider the fact that we are doing one-on-one tutoring, it is much more streamlined than traditional school. We follow the TJED method, so it will not look like what you are used to or, most likely, what your children are doing.

Today we did...

• Devotional - New Era - Oct. 2008 - We have been reading all about the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. It is nice to have the stories in the New Era to go along with the standards in the pamphlet.
• Read-A-Loud - Story of the World Vol. 1, Chapter 29 "The Punic Wars", studied map of ancient Rome and located the ancient citites involved in the wars.
  
• Christian - Math-U-See geometry - area of a trapezoid, game programming using R4DS, reading "Calvin & Hobbes", journal writing
  
• Marlayna - read all of "The Shattered Land" (yes, the whole book in one day!), piano, singing, journal writing
  
• Together - Stave 2 and half of Stave 3 of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
• Me - Graded math, read journal writing, and prepared lesson for tomorrow's reading of "A Christmas Carol" which includes spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. We focus all of our standard English lessons on the current reading that we are doing together.

All of the "parts" of our education time include discussion and explanation of the topics.

Misinterpretations of the Constitution

I took a class from nccs.net earlier this year and it was fantastic. It opened my eyes to many things about our country that I had not known or understood before. This is part of an email I received and I wanted to share it with everyone. I highly recommend taking the time to read The 5000 Year Leap. It helped me to understand just how many of our freedoms we have lost.

Only Two Ways to Interpret the Constitution One of the friends of the Founders in the present Supreme Court is Justice Clarence Thomas. In a recent speech, he said: "Let me put it this way; there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution--try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up. No matter how ingenious, imaginative or artfully put, unless interpretive methodologies are tied to the original intent of the framers, they have no more basis in the Constitution than the latest football scores." (Wall Street Journal Opinion, October 20, 2008) A look at several of today's issues clearly reveals most of our government programs today are far from the Founders' original intent and as Justice Thomas says, have about as much basis in the Constitution as the latest football scores--the authority is purely made-up. For example: U. S. foreign policy: Founders' intent : Expressed in the Monroe Doctrine wherein the U. S. promised to stay out of the affairs of other nations, particularly those of the eastern hemisphere. Made-up intent: Involve ourselves in the affairs of nearly every nation on earth and try to buy their friendship with money we don't even have. U. S. monetary policy: Founders' intent : Congress to establish and control our money system based on gold and silver standard to prevent manipulation. Made-up intent : Give control of monetary system to private bankers who issue fiat money which lets them make money out of nothing--money on which we then pay them interest. Federalism or vertical separation of powers : Founders' intent : Only limited and carefully defined powers to the federal government. Government concerned with people's lives and property is only at state level or lower. Made-up intent : Allowing Washington to have direct influence and control of local government, which destroys strong local self-government. Horizontal Separation of Power: Founders' intent : The power to make law was given exclusively to the representatives of the people in Congress. Made-up intent : More laws are being made by the executive and judicial departments than are made by congress, which effect millions of people and their property. National Debt: Founders' intent : Debt is a temporary evil and if used must be paid off before the generation that borrowed it leaves the scene. It is immoral to pass debt on to next generation. It amounts to taxation without representation. Made-up intent : Debt is a blessing to America. We can borrow ourselves wealthy. Passing debt onto the next generation allows those to pay the debt who will benefit from the programs paid for by the borrowed money. Income Tax: Founders' intent : The Founders put a prohibition of income tax into the Constitution because its enforcement violates the privacy rights of U.S. citizens. They said there are much better ways to raise revenue. Made-up intent : Unconstitutional programs pushed in the "Progressive Era" became so expensive that new sources of revenue needed to be developed. A tax on incomes began at two percent and is only limited by what politicians can get away with. It is also a vehicle to implement a graduated tax to redistribute wealth. Welfare Programs: Founders' intent : The Founders' scale of fixed responsibility for one's welfare is: self, family, church, community, county, and state. Never was the federal government to be involved in welfare programs. Made-up intent : The federal government has unconstitutionally become the sugar daddy of the American people. One reason the federal government has done this is because the monetary system lets the money managers create money out of nothing. It buys votes and wins elections. Agriculture: Founders' intent : The Founders specifically excluded agriculture from the purview of federal authority saying it is only a local and state function. Made-up intent : Government programs in agriculture have taken away the freedom to fail, a necessary ingredient in the free-market system. The federal government has increased the cost of food by layer upon layer of regulation. Marriage and Domestic Law: Founders' intent : The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family, therefore governments have the responsibility to foster and protect its integrity. Made-up intent : State and federal judiciaries have injected themselves into the questions of marriage, redefining marriage and endangering the most fundamental building block of society. Thomas Jefferson constantly warned against letting the federal government gradually usurp power over the people. Such bureaucracies bring heavy spending and debt. He said such debt would put the people under such a burden that all they can do is to work long hours in order to survive. Said he: "And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude . If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, [and] give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow sufferers.... This is the tendency of all human governments." (The Making of America , page 395) Sadly, with the makeup of our new administration and congress, it looks like we may be far down the road to fulfilling Jefferson's fears. Sincerely, Earl Taylor, Jr. P.S. Our seminars around the country are increasing in number and frequency. Click here to see if one is coming close to you or your friends.

National Center for Constitutional Studies

37777 West Juniper Road
Malta, ID
83342
US

Free Education Downloads

Chris is more of an auditory learner than Marly. I have found this follows us as parents - Mike would rather listen to a book on CD than read it, where I would rather read the words. So we have one of each in our children as well - Chris listens to books and Marly reads them. Sam is also a great reader and falls somewhere in between these two.

I have found several free online resources for listening to books and seminars. I am becoming much better at listening to learn as I collect these resources for my family.

Classic Books & Education

• LibriVox - fabulous collections of audio files for public domain books (75 years or older).
• MIT Open Courseware - Free online classes with audio and video.
  
• Free Classic Audio Books
• Open Culture
  

Education Speeches and Seminars

• John Taylor Gatto
  
• Southwest TJEd Forum - I highly recommend that everyone listen to the first speech - TJEd basics.
  
• Homeschool.com - Free Radio Show
  

My Recommendations - Books, Books, Books

I love books! My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I would rather read than sleep.








Happy Reading!

Math-U-See Rocks!

Today Chris said to me, "I like this math. I finally really understand math." This year we bought Math-U-See. We made it through one entire year of math in two months! We have tried a few other math programs - A Beka, CIMT, Saxon, and Thinkwell. My children and I had difficulties with all of them. I am not very good at math...it only took me two tries to pass College Algebra...but who's counting. ;-)

Some might say this is exactly the reason parents should not home school their children. One argument is that the children will have the same holes and weakness in their education that the parents have. My answer to that is, "Not necessarily!" I have searched to find programs that are strong where I am weak. I often learn more about the subject right along with my children, allowing us to all fully participate in the education process. Our method of Leadership Education focuses on life-long learning, so shouldn't there be room for me to learn and grow as well? Do certified teachers KNOW everything they are teaching? Of course not! I worked with many teachers at our local elementary school that were forced to teach curriculum they did not know, nor where they educated/trained in the course material they taught. They were handed the materials and told, "Go teach it." Why can't parents do the same? They can and they do!

Just know that home school families do not need to be certified to teach their children. Most of a teacher's education is on "classroom management", which parents do not need. There is so much available to home school families in curriculum that are similar and often surpass what is taught in public and private schools. Please vote for freedom (should it ever come to that) and allow home school families to do what they love...teach their children at home without being certified.

I'll get off my soap box now...

Our First Egg!

We got our first chicken egg today! Whoo-Hoo! The kids were so happy. They have been checking every day to see if they were laying yet. We only got one today, but with three Americana chickens that is to be expected. They lay an egg about every other day and the color is a cool bluish-green. This breed of chicken is also know as Easter-eggers.

This is the culmination of a long project for the kids. It started with Marly learning about birds and then focused on chickens. We then bought real chicks and built their coop. Marly has been diligently caring for these chicks as they grew into healthy chickens. See more about our Chicken Project on our website.

Constitution Day

September 17th is Constitution Day!

We have several things that we use to learn and study about the most influential event in history...the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America. Take a look at these links:

• Constitution Center
• Constitution Day
• National Center for Constitutional Studies

We are going to watch the movie A More Perfect Union produced by Brigham Young University and I use this free Teachers Guide.

Happy Birthday Constitution!