The Grocery Store With Nod

(Be sure to visit the 239th homeschool carnival, history of home education in America edition! click here.)

... That's Nod, the Three and a half year old ever ready, energizer, perpetual motion, question machine.

So... picture this. I am at the store buying good foods from the perimeters of the store- mangoes, avocadoes, watermelon, chicken, cheese, ground beef (I am shopping the whole foods section of the sales flier, doing what those in the industry call 'cherry-picking'). I have the 3 year old in the cart. I have the 6 year old bagging my produce and doing math (Blynken, put two plus two mangoes in the bag. Put 7 plus 2 peaches in the bag...). The 12 and 14 year old are looking for Sobe drinks because they have scored BOGO coupons, and on their journey, they are looking for a couple other things that are on sale for me, and periodically returning with gifts from the center aisle (peanut butter, toilet paper, etc)

A young man comes up to me at the produce section and says something like, "Excuse me, I saw you at the library, too, and I just feel the Holy Spirit's leading and guiding directing me to pray with you, so could I do that? Would you mind?"
I don't mind, and I tell him so. He doesn't bow his head or close his eyes- he looks straight at me, staring, and begins by asking God to bless me and let me know how much he loves me, but then starts 'praying' by telling me what a wonderful mother I must be, to love these children so much. "you are pouring yourself into your children," he said, "and your love and devotion to them is just showing and you are so kind and loving a mother and your heart is so big and etc, etc, etc."

He went on in this vain (ha!) for a bit, then we talked briefly (what do you say? I asked where he went to church, turned out he was from out of state, here for a camp program), I thanked him, and he walked off. I turned to continue my shopping and the rest of it... well, I am just glad this young man had already left AFTER telling me what a marvelous mother I am:

Nod was sitting in the the shopping cart scowling, pointing at the goodies on the aisle caps (oh, those dastardly grocery store designers know their bidness), cookies, cupcakes, pop-tarts, potato chips, sugary snack bars and nutrition-free salty flake things.
At each one he says, "I want you to buy me that."
Me: No.
He: Why?
Me: Because it's not healthy.
He: But I LIKE it.
Me: I don't care. It's not good for you, and I am not buying you that junk.
He: I want you to buy me those cookies.
Me: No.
He: Why not?
He: But I LIKE it.
Me: I don't care. It's not good for you, and I am not buying you that junk.
He: I want you to buy me those t'ings (he doesn't even know what they are, except they look good and utterly devoid of anything resembling real food)
Me: No.
He: Why?
Me: Because it's not healthy.
He: But I LIKE it.
Me: I don't CARE. It's not good for you, and I am not buying you that junk.
He: I want you to buy me that chok'lit t'ing.
Me: No.
He: Why?
Me: Because it's not healthy.
He: But I LIKE it.
Me: I don't CARE. You have lousy taste in foods. It's not good for you, and I am not buying you that junk.
He: I want you to buy me those cookies.
Me: No.
He: Why not?
He: But I LIKE it.
Me: I don't CARE. It's not good for you, and I am not buying you that junk.
He: I want you to buy me some candy. And my brudder.
Me: No.
He: Why?
Me: Because it's not healthy.
He: But I LIKE it.
Me: I don't CARE. It's not good for you, and I am not buying you that junk.
He: I want you to buy me those cookies.
Me: No.
He: Why not?
He: But I LIKE it.
Me: I don't CARE. It's not good for you, and I am not buying you that junk.
Repeat some variation of the above at least ten times- because you know there is an aisle cap at both ends of each row
He: I want you to buy me-
Me: NO.
He: But WHY?
Me: Because it's not good for you, it gives you cavities, it stops you from growing up as healthy as you can, and I do not spend money on that junk.
He: Why not?
Me: It's rude to ask for other people to buy you stuff.
He: But I want it.
Me: But it's rude.
He: Why.
Me: Because it is not YOUR money. You do not ask other people to spend their money on stuff for you. That is selfish.
He: But you are supposed to share with me.
Me: I am sharing. You rode here in my car, you are sleeping in my house, you are eating your meals at my house with food that I bought and sleeping in a bed that we share with you. You are wearing clothes I bought you and you play with my toys all day long.
He:
He:
He: I want you to buy me those doughnuts.
Me: No.
He: But WHY?
Me: Because. I. Said. NO.

And then at the check-out line when he asked me what the microphone was for, I told him it was for the cashier to call for help from the back when naughty little boys were misbehaving at the check-out stand.

The clerk gave him a sugary lollypop.

Blynken to the baby

Overheard in The Common Room, where six year old Blynken was playing with my grandson, the Dread Pirate Grasshopper, proud owner of four shiny pearly whites he loves to grind together, click, and...:

"Hey!  I did not grow all these fingers just for you to bite them off, you know!"

Music Lessons

One of the articles in yesterday's carnival of homeschooling was a post on the importance of music education.

Here's a post with some ideas for making music lessons more affordable.  They will still be outside the reach of some, but maybe this post will spark some other creative ideas.

Nice picture book

Be sure to visit the 239th homeschool carnival, history of home education in America edition! click here.

The Gardener, by Sarah Stewart- reminds me of Miss Rumphius, a little. A young girl moves to the city to stay with her uncle during the depression. He is not unkind but he is not happy, either. She helps him with his business and gradually creates a beautiful rooftop garden on top of their building.
The story is told through pictures and her letters home. Lovely.

A Literacy Test

Be sure to visit the 239th homeschool carnival, history of home education in America edition! click here.

I came across this while researching the 239th Carnival of Homeschooling post:

"At [the elementary] school shall be received and instructed gratis, every infant of competent age who has not already had three years' schooling. And it is declared and enacted, that no person unborn or under the age of twelve years at the passing of this act, and who is compos mentis, shall, after the age of fifteen years, be a citizen of this commonwealth until he or she can read readily in some tongue, native or acquired." --Thomas Jefferson: Elementary School Act, 1817. ME 17:424

Note, too, the 'native or acquired' tongue.

Black Panther Voter Intimidation Case, Not Small Potatoes

Commissioner Thermstrom has backtracked a small bit in her claim that the Black Panther Voter Intimidation Case is political gamesmanship- you can read about her many concessions here. But Hans von Spakovsky doesn't think she's backtracked enough yet:

Perhaps Thernstrom has forgotten that at the first hearing the Commission held on this case, where the other roving poll watchers who came to the precinct testified, including Bartle Bull, almost a dozen members of the NBBP in their paramilitary uniforms showed up. I was at that hearing and I personally saw — as did everyone else there — one of the Panthers get up and move to the front of the room with a camera, where he proceeded to take pictures of the three witnesses who were testifying against them. What purpose does she possibly believe there was for taking those photographs other than to intimidate witnesses? What does she think would be the reaction of the witnesses from that neighborhood in a deposition after experiencing such intimidation? Any change in testimony by these individuals showed just how intimidated they were and how scared they are of retribution. That in itself makes this an important case, not “small potatoes,” and I am frankly shocked at the commissioner’s seeming lack of concern for those poll watchers and what happened to them.

Seriously?

Numbers That Aren't Nice

Be sure to visit the 239th homeschool carnival, history of home education in America edition! click here.

According to this story, almost 1/3 of American births are C-Sections. A panel convened by the NIH also discovered (not shocking to our readers, I know) that too many women are not being given the option of VBAC births.

A Glass of Good Milk and Three Butter Thin Crackers

Looking for the homeschool carnival, history of home education in America edition? Scroll down, or click here.

Not Under the Law, Grace Livingston Hill:

After sleeping on her newspaper bed, Joyce Radway rises early (though not as early as she intended), smoothes her hair with the small comb and mirror in her purse, and decides to go to the railway station to wash her face.

The little washroom at the station is only four blocks away and is in 'tolerably clean condition,

' so that she was able to make herself quite respectable, although her serge dress did look a bit rumpled from sleeping in it.'

At a drug store she gets

"a glass of good milk and three butter thin crackers at the soda counter."

She comes to a 'small utility shop' where she buys

"thread, needles, a thimble, a paper of pins, enough cheesecloth for window curtains, some blue and white chintz that the woman let her have for fifteen cents a yard because it was all that was left, half a yard of white organdy, and a big blue and white checked apron of coarse gingham that would cover her dress from neck to hem and was only fifty cents."

At the hardware store she finds

canned alcohol and a little outfit for cooking with it... some paper plates and cups, a sharp knife, a pair of good scissors, a hammer, a can opener, some tacks, and a few long nails.

At the grocery store she gets a can of vegetable soup, a box of crackers, and some bananas, having spent just 6.23 on all this.

She takes her purchases home and gets right to work making... well, that's our next post.

Tuna with Sundried tomatoes (cooking with kids)

Be sure to visit the 239th homeschool carnival, history of home education in America edition! click here.


Open and drain 2 5-6 ounce cans of tuna, dump in bowl, fluff with fork (little kids can fluff if the bowl is big enough, big kids can open the cans)
Add 4 Tablespoons Mayo
2 Tablespoons ketchup
4 sundried tomatoes in oil, diced with kitchen shears (if you have a good pair of children's scissors this is a nice job for kindergarteners- they cut the tomato in strips, then snip off bits from each strip into the bowl)
4 tablespoons corn, fresh or frozen (we didn't even defrost it)

Mix well. Dice a sweet onion or scallion and put it in a bowl for those who like onions. Any child with muscles strong enough to handle a food chopper like this can dice onions

Serve over open-faced sandwiches on artisan bread picked up for under a dollar at the day old section of the grocer's baker department.

We had it with mangoes and grapes on the side (they were on sale this week). I would have loved avocado on mine if I had remembered we had some.

Verdict- served 6, no leftovers, and I know the 3, 6, 12, and forty something year old liked it. I didn't ask the 14 or 21 year old.

Adult help was needed only to slice the bread because it was a long, thin, baguette sort of thing (like a cigar, but about two feet long) full of seeds and whole grains and yummy, but stiff work cutting.
Nod, 3, said he did not like the 'red stuff' but Nod doesn't like a lot of things on principle. He ate all of his food and there were no complaints- just commentary (I do not like the red stuff, well I like it but I do not want it because I do not feel like red stuff... Nod is a walking commentary)

From the book Lunchboxes and Snacks

This post linked at All the Small Stuff, Tuesdays at the Table
And also Blest with Grace Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

FLDS Update 7/2010

(Don't miss the 239th Carnival of Homeschooling, History of home education in American edition. Either scroll down, or click here!)

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to FLDS matters because, in my opinion, there's nothing of huge interest to outsiders going on yet.  I always said that it was likely that there were some FLDS men who were marrying underaged girls, and I even listed some specific names based on the Bishop's Record, and I was right.
Those half dozen cases are moving slowly and steadily through the legal mills with no real surprises.

It is going to get really interesting to outsiders again (at least this one), when those cases file their appeals, seeking to have the charges thrown out on the basis of illegal search and seizure of private information from YfZ ranch in reponse to a hoax phone call and a lack of due diligence in comfirming details.  The YfZ case, in my insignificant and merely personal opinion, won't really get interesting again until those cases face another Judge besides Walthers, who signed the search warrants in the first place and isn't about to over-rule her own action.  The first appeal is in mid September.  Oh- and I do recognize that these cases are intensely interesting to those with some personal connection to the FLDS, sometimes painfully and gut wrenchingly 'interesting, as well as those who are so invested in stamping out this religion that they don't care whether or not the initial search was illegal.    I don't mean to be insensitive about that.  It's just that this part of the legal stuff is pretty predictable.

But here's something that is a bit of a surprise to me (not to Hugh, although even he is amazed that it was unanimous)- Warren Jeffs' conviction has been reversed, unanimously, by the state Supreme Court,

Background:  The head of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, has been in jail for a few years now, convicted as an accessory to a rape (even though the alleged rapist has never been charged or tried) that allegedly occurred before he was the head of the group.  He was charged and convicted as an accessory because he performed the wedding ceremony (at her mother's request) between a 14 year old girl and her 19 year old cousin.  The cousin was not charged (and I think still has not been tried) until after Jeffs' conviction, and his attorneys suggest he was only charged because the media started asking uncomfortable questions about whether this was really about this marriage or about taking down an unpopular leader of an unpopular religious group.

But the real problem according to Utah's Supreme Court, is the instructions the Judge in Jeff's case gave to the jury (The Judge in the Jeffs case gave jive instructions, can you say that three times fast?).

According to CNN:

"We regret the effect our opinion today may have on the victim of the underlying crime, to whom we do not wish to cause additional pain," the court said. "However, we must ensure that the laws are applied evenly and appropriately, in this case as in every case."

Jeffs' defense attorney is understandably chuffed:

Jeffs is "an unpopular religious figure in our state," Bugden said, and the media have "had a field day portraying him as an evil, horrible, pernicious individual." The court, he said, was able to put that aside and base its decision on the evidence and legal theories, not on emotion, and determine that the erroneous instructions led jurors to "an erroneous result."
The defense has always maintained that marrying someone, encouraging them to make their marriage work and "be fruitful and multiply ... that is not the same thing as saying to a husband, 'I'm encouraging you to rape your wife,' " Bugden said.

The law required that in order for a conviction to occur, Jeffs must have known that the girl was opposed to the marriage (unproven), and that his intent was that a rape would occur.  Jeffs defense lawyers asked the judge in the case to so instruct the jurors, and the Judge refused.

It really doesn't matter what you think about Jeffs or the FLDS, even if you think he's the Great Satan- the law is the law, and it either applies evenly to all of us, or it isn't the rule of law at all, it's the rule of arbitrary whims against those we do not like.  The Utah court explained that they feel sorry for the victim (although without this case there is, legally speaking, no victim) but :

"...we must ensure that the laws are applied evenly and appropriately, in this case as in every case, in order to protect the constitutional principles on which our legal system is based. We must guarantee justice, not just for this defendant, but for all who may be accused of a crime and subjected to the State’s power to deprive them of life, liberty, or property hereafter.”

Jeffs' attorneys explain how they see the arbitrary way the state handled this case and the possible consequence:

As we’ve said before if Mr. Jeffs would be convicted under this legal theory, then mothers who encouraged their children to stay in an unhappy marriage, parents that encourage their child to use birth control they would be guilty of being an accomplice to rape.

A commenter at the Polygamy blog at the Salt Lake Trib says he thinks the state botched it by not focusing on the age of the girl, as a 14 year old, he says, she could not legally be in a consensual physical relationship with a 19 year old.  I see a couple potential problems with that- is it possible that she could legally be married?  Laws are funny things, and sometimes it is the case that girls of a certain age may be legally wed (with state or parental approval), they cannot consent to a sexual relationship outside of wedlock.  Once wed, it maybe that what was illegal outside of marriage is legal within marriage.  I also wonder if this is something the state did not want to approach because of the girl's subsequent adulterous relationship with a man even older than her cousin (and also equally consanguine in relationship) .  This may not matter legally, but it might have made things difficult with a jury.  I don't know- those are just guesses.

In the discussion at Save the FLDS, a number of people (not all of them friends of Jeffs) are suggesting that there is a reasonable case for doubting if the state will even choose to retry Jeffs.  They may choose to drop the case. 
There was another case against Jeffs in Arizona that was also dropped, and there remain pending charges from Texas through the YfZ case.
I doubt if Jeffs' will be released on bail, given his history of flight it would be most irresponsible of a Judge to permit that.  He still has to face the charges in Texas, which are the most serious.  However, the legal ground there may be just as dubious, given the shaky search warrent they stem from.

Another Lunch at Strider & HG's

(Don't miss the 239th Carnival of Homeschooling!)

Something I failed to mention in our last post is that lunch is our main meal of the day. Strider works second shift, so our meal schedule is a little bit off the norm. We eat a light breakfast, a fairly heavy lunch, and then I send him off to work with sandwiches, veggies/fruit, nuts, chips, cheese, etc. for a late night supper and I just snack on left overs and such for my dinner. It's taken some adjustment to get used to having a full, main meal ready to eat at 3 p.m. instead of at later on in the day. Certain crockpot meals don't work as well and things work so much better if I plan meals in advance. I may change my schedule at the last minute, but at least I have a schedule of some sort.

This lunch is an example of a schedule that shifted. Earlier in the week, I did main meal planning for the next 7 days, and found a yummy looking Tomato Mac & Cheese recipe in one of my cookbooks. It used on hand ingredients (except for the white cheddar cheese it called for, but I figured the orange stuff I had in the fridge would work) and looked fast, easy, and filling. I planned it for one day last week and then found myself (in true pregnant fashion) wanting it over what I had originally planned one afternoon. The cookbook said it could be fixed in half an hour; I don't think it was far off. Thus, fairly quickly we had a lunch of cheesy, homemade macaroni and cheese with grapes and salad on the side. Yes, that's more salad and grapes and two people eat in a meal... Strider took the extra grapes to work and the salad is something I occasionally eat as a snack.

The recipe came from Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious Cookbook.. This was a bridal shower gift from a woman in our congregation. Making it one of the most creative gifts I've seen, she also made one of the desserts from the cookbook and included it with the book.

I haven't made many recipes from the book so far, although I've had fun browsing it and drooling over the gorgeous photography. Many of the recipes require more ready-made ingredients than I'm comfortable using (for the sake of both health and finances), but there are still many gems in the book... the mac & cheese I made, or the fajita frittata I want to do for a Saturday brunch, or the cheddar ham soup I'm determined to make this autumn. I think this would be an excellent cookbook for new brides who are unfamiliar with meal planning and grocery shopping: almost the first eighty pages of the book are devoted to weekly meal plans, complete with shopping lists andrecipes. The recipes are clearly written, with handy general cooking tips. For experienced cooks, I'd recommend More-With-Less Cookbook or Joy of Cooking.

Funny note: I'm slowly getting used to cooking for two. I realized right before starting the macaroni and cheese recipe that I could cut it in half for four servings instead of eight. Duh! I'm used to doubling or tripling recipes, but it takes some thinking to remember that halving recipes works too. ;-)

LINKED AT:
Tuesday Tastes Party at Crazy Daisy

It's a Blog Party Delicious Dishes

Beauty and Bedlam Tasty Tuesdays

Carnival of Homeschooling #239

(Updated at 2:33 Central Time to fix some formatting issues, clarify some wording, add a bit more history and early homeschooling books, and correct a link)

Although a theme is not necessary to host the homeschooling carnival (I have hosted with no theme before), it can be fun. This week's theme is a bit ambitious. It is... the history of homeschooling in America. Please understand this history is somewhat subjective and is in no way intended to be comprehensive.

For easier reading, I have tried to sort the posts into categories and have those category headings in boldface type. The homeschool history information will be italicized and in green, so I hope that makes it easier to read, and to skim ahead if you just wish to find the articles of interest to you.

I read all the entries I received, and I deleted spammish entires. I have tried to give good descriptions of the content (except for a couple last minute entries where I lacked the time for descriptions). 

Please be sure to visit as many of the bloggers below as possible- they help make the carnival possible by providing good content and promoting it to others, so it's nice to pay them a visit and give them some comment or link love if you can.  If you are in the carnival, please show good bloggy manners and link back to it, and if you have a FB or Twitter account, pass it along there as well.

1. Homeschooling in the 1700s:  Most of our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) were educated at home. Nearly all of them had their educations personally directed by their fathers, as this was seen as a father's Duty. Consider this statement by Thomas Jefferson on the education of his daughters:

"... I thought it essential to give them a solid education which might enable them, when become mothers, to educate their own daughters, and even to direct the course for sons, should their fathers be lost, or incapable, or inattentive. My surviving daughter accordingly, the mother of many daughters as well as sons, has made their education the object of her life." --Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Burwell, 1818. ME 15:165

Encouragement:

Take Kim's advice- she says: "I panic needlessly. Don’t we all?" posted at Life In a Shoe. Unschoolers take heart. Schoolers take heart. Parents, relax.=)

Heather Mac presents A Keepers Circle: He sees the bigger picture posted at The Mac RAK: Adventures of a Homeschool Wife & Mother- a very thoughtful post (with cool pictures!). Sometimes we just need a different perspective!

1700s, cont. Jefferson did institute a plan for public education to be paid for by wealthier citizens by taxation, but the compulsory part of that education plan was in the taxes, not in attendance. He wanted public schools available to those citizens who lacked the necessary resources to provide a good education to their children. He wrote:

It is better to tolerate the rare instance of a parent refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the common feelings and ideas by the forcible asportation and education of the infant against the will of the father...--Thomas Jefferson: Note to Elementary School Act, 1817. ME 17:423

And he believed strongly that control of his public education plan should remain in local control, more specifically, in the hands of parents.

Open House

Didja ever want to get a chance to peek into other homeschooler's houses and see what they look like and how they arrange things? Well, you can! See my post on the places we've lived and find out about the upcoming blogger's virtual open house!

Jessica Snajder presents Growing posted at Teachable Moments. Turns out homeschooling doesn't just help the children grow!

1700s, cont.   George Washington did not enter school until he was around 11 years old, and he would only stay for two years. He already knew how to read and write and handle numbers when he started school. His late age for starting school was really not all that late- 5 would not be seen as an appropriate age to begin formal schooling until the forties. The NINETEEN forties.

More on early American statesmen and homeschooling here.

Reporting your homeschooling to the state:

Jenn Casey writes: "I recently received a packet of homeschooling forms from the state (I live in Georgia) and looking through the forms, I quickly realized that they sent me many things that I'm not legally required to complete. I strongly urge every homeschooler to familiarize yourself completely with your local homeschooling laws!" Check out My Official State Homeschooling Packet. posted at Rational Jenn.   I am also a big fan of minimum compliance- just as much as the law requires, no more.

1800's: There's not a lot to say about homeschooling in America for the next century or so- it was the norm, and even when it wasn't, parents were still seen as ultimately and primarily responsible for the education of their children. They might choose to get together with others in the community and hire teachers, build a school room, and see to it that their youngsters were educated there.  They might collectively or individually hire a tutor to come to individual homes, or the parents might themselves supervise lessons with their children, but the institution of public schooling didn't exist in mass numbers. Public school attendance was not compulsory where it did exist.

In 1852 Massachusetts passed the first compulsory attendance law in America. However, in 1893,

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts permitted home education (as opposed to child labor) in Commonwealth v. Roberts, 34 NE 402 (Mass. 1893). The court emphasized that the object of the statute is that "all children shall be educated, not that they shall be educated in a particular way."

General Discussions

Katherine shares some shocking information about the Montana school's new sex education policies (first graders need their teachers to tell them about that? Seriously?) collapse the system posted at No Fighting, No Biting!. You know, it's fine by me if the parents in favor of this either teach it to their kids themselves or hire somebody to do so. But making it a part of required curriculum is just wrong.

It was hard to know where to categorize this post- is it about teaching sign to babies, about special needs kids, about how children learn, about communication, or about mothering? And then I realized that, why, yes, yes, it is. From a new blogger, it's her first contribution to the Homeschool Carnival.

Linda Dobson (her name shows up in my history of homeschooling as well) asks:

Who was it that decided to force your attention onto Japan instead of Sweden? Japan with its long school year and state compulsion, instead of Sweden with its short school year, short school sequence, and free choice where your kid is schooled? Who decided you should know about Japan and not Hong Kong, an Asian neighbor with a short school year that outperforms Japan across the board in math and science?

That's a really good question. There's more at her post The Best of John Taylor Gatto’s “The Public School Nightmare” posted at PARENT AT THE HELM.

It is interesting to note that age segregated schooling didn't really start in American until mid 19th century (borrowed, like so many other bad ideas in education, from Germany, or rather, Prussia as it was then),  and in 1912 one critic would write :

It is constructed upon the assumption that a group of minds can be marshalled and controlled in growth in exactly the same manner that a military officer marshalls and directs the bodily movements of a company of soldiers. In solid, unbreakable phalanx the class is supposed to move through all the grades, keeping in locked step. This locked step is set by the 'average' pupil--an algebraic myth born of inanimate figures and an addled pedagogy. The class system does injury to the rapid and quick-thinking pupils, because these must shackle their stride to keep pace with the mythical average. But the class system does a greater injury to the large number who make slower progress than the rate of the mythical average pupil . . . They are foredoomed to failure before they begin.

Home School Methods and Styles

Amy Mossoff presents Mossoff Montessori posted at The Little Things. She is putting her toes in the water with a Montessori style preschool at home for her daughter, and explains how she's set up a school room and a couple of the activities she does. Love the polishing pennies tray!

Some of you have already seen this post on one aspect of a Charlotte Mason education, The Power of Narration.
 

The 1900s:
An Indiana court  permitted formally recognized the right of parents to educate their children at home in 1904 in State v. Peterman, 32 Ind. App. 665, 70 N.E. 550 (1904). 

The court defined a school as 

"a place where instruction is imparted to the young..... We do not think that the number of persons, whether one or many, make a place where instruction is imparted any less or any more a school." (Peterman, at 551.)

 Quoting the Roberts decision in Massachusetts, the Indiana court said:

"[T]he object and purpose of a compulsory educational law are that all the children shall be educated, not that they shall be educated in any particular way." (Peterman, at 551.)

 The Court concluded; 

"The result to be obtained, and not the means or manner of attaining it, was the goal which the lawmakers were attempting to reach. The [compulsory attendance] law was made for the parent who does not educate his child, and not for the parent who ... so places within the reach of the child the opportunity and means of acquiring an education equal to that obtainable in the public schools...." (Peterman, at 552.)

Oklahoma has the distinction of recognizing home education in its state constitution, deliberately recognizing the right of parents ot educate their children at home in 1907- one of the legislators explained that it was too far for his sons to walk to school, so their mother educated them herself for four hours of every day.

The Arts:

Margaret Garcia-Couoh presents The Vital Need for Music Education posted at Parenting Squad.

Four&Twenty writes a very moving post on Da Vinci moments. Beautiful.

Michelle presents Gold in Florence posted at Lionden Landing.

The Illinois Supreme Court recognized a right to teach a child at home in 1950 when it decided People v. Levisen, 404 Ill. 574, 90 N.E.2d 213 (1950). This landmark case held that a

"private school" is "a place where instruction is imparted to the young ... the number of persons being taught does not determine whether a place is a school." (404 Ill. at 576, 90 N.E.2d at 215.)

The Illinois Supreme Court emphasized the right of parents to control their children's education:

"Compulsory education laws are enacted to enforce the natural obligations of parents to provide an education for their young, an obligation which corresponds to the parents' right of control over the child. (Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 400.) The object is that all shall be educated, not that they shall be educated in any particular manner or place." (Levisen, 404 Ill. at 577, 90 N.E.2d at 215.)

Books and Reading

ChristineMM presents My Thoughts on Various Homeschool Phonics Reading Curriculums posted at The Thinking Mother. She and I both found success with the same program, and I agree with her explanations about why she likes it.

Connie at Smockity shares this fabulous tutorial for helping kids to make their own books. This is so easy and so much fun. They use their books for their copywork, drawings, stories they write, nature notebooks, presents for Grandparents (how about with their own poems or poems they have copied because they think their grandparents will love them?) or diaries. Cool!

Nadene presents Partnered Reading Helps Improve Reading posted at Practical Pages.

The Story of the Buccaneer-Scholar at Barbara Frank: A new book offers encouragement for kids who learn best outside of school....and for their parents.

Pamela shares a book review of a recent Caldecott winner, The Invention of Hugo Cabret posted at Blah, Blah, Blog. The Caldecott medal winner This is probably the most unusual Caldecott winner ever. We are fortunate enough to know one of the people who served on the Caldecott committee this year, and when I asked him to tell me about the book they'd chosen, and that was pretty much all he could say about it, "This is a really unusual book, you should look at it!"

We were also blessed enough to see an art exhibit of some of the artist's original work, and it was amazing!

Denise presents Another Contest: Spilling Ink Giveaway posted at Blogging 2 Learn, a contest to win a book on writing.

The 20th century:   There have been homeschoolers from the beginning of this century, just as there have been in every century.  However, they have been largely isolated from one another rather than a 'movement' for the first few decades of the 20th century.  Gradually, however, the climate was changing to favor a more structured, institutionalized, government controlled approach rather than parent-controlled, and parents began to see a need for more support.

Jonathan Holt is known as the grandfather of unschooling

He began as a teacher in alternative schools, places that ought to have been progressive oases for creative learning. He grew disillusioned and by 1970 was known as an ardent proponent for school reform. He advocated for school reform in the books he published such as  How Children Fail, published 1964; How Children Learn, published in 1967.

There were a surprising number of books published in the 70s which influenced readers and thinkers like Holt to reconsider  institutionalized schooling and look for educational alternatives, even radical alternatives such as homeschooling. They began to recognize that 'school reform' was merely a way to perpetuate the existing problems. Here are a few of those influential titles, all published within a year or two of each other:

Everett Reimer, School is Dead: Alternatives in Education (Garden City, NY: Anchor, c. 1970)

Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society (1971) Reimer and Illich were friends and colleagues, and Illich said that Reimer was the first one to open his mind to the idea that universal compulsory education through the state needn't be a given. In turn, Illich and Holt corresponded often, and Illich influenced Holt.

Dr. Raymond Moore also published an article in Reader’s Digest, October 1972, “When Should Your Child Go To School?”, and this was excerpted from a longer article in Harper’s magazine, July 1972,

Hal Bennett, No More Public School, published in 1972


And...What Do I Do Monday? by John Holt, published in 1972.  He had crossed over from school reformer to home education activist.

PE!! And Science!! Nature Study!! And FUN!

Kimberly at Raising Olives blogs about hiking with kids- and you don't get just get cute pictures of cuter kids, you get tips on what to bring along on a hike as well- and more ! Check it out.

Robin Phillips presents 10 Unusual Birds to Spice Up Your Nature Study - Crack the Egg posted at Crack the Egg.

NerdMom presents WooHoo! PE And a Giveaway! posted at NerdFamily Things.

By the eighties, however, he realized that most of those within institutional schooling simply did not want it reformed, therefore it could not be fixed and so he advocated for home education. He coined the term unschooling.

The 1970s: There were enough parents now interested in abandoning Institutionalized Schooling that John Holt published the first issue of the newsletter/magazine 'Growing Without Schooling' in 1977.

In 1980 he had this fascinating interview in Mother Earth News, a crunchy leftist/progressive publication. Holt was a subscriber and frequently sent the editors letters with ideas, suggestions, and criticisms.   In that interview he appealed to his fellow Mother Earth readers thus:

Many of you folks who read this magazine believe--and with good reason--that government interferes too much in our lives. Well, I think that there is no place where this interference is less justified, more harmful, and more easily resisted than in the education of children. So it would seem to me that those who want to minimize the power the government has over their lives would find the area of their youngsters' learning to be the first place where they'd want to work toward that goal.

 I would guess this probably did for homeschooling in the left-leaning communities what the Moore's appearance on Dobson's radio program a couple of years later would do for homeschooling in the Christian community...

Math:

Dan Scott presents Teaching Kids Estimating: 3rd in Our Math Teaching Tips Series posted at Math Learning, Fun & Education Blog : Dreambox Learning.

Jamie Gaddy presents a link to math website s/he finds helpful posted at Parent Community and Forum. I took a peek. There are electronic flash cards for those moments when you don't have time to flip the cards, a selection of science songs and vidoes (There Might Be Giants and the rainbow song, for instance), and more.

ChristineMM presents Pre-Algebra Plan Decided Upon posted at The Thinking Mother.

Denise presents Introduction to Probability posted at Let's Play Math!.

Naomi presents Revisiting Math posted at Living Charlotte Mason in California.

The Moores? Oh, yes. These devout Seventh Day Adventists were friends and colleagues of John Holt, and, somewhat briefly, Gregg Harris more or less interned or apprenticed with them (the partnership did not end amicably).

Raymond and Dorothy Moore taught their own children at home in the 1940s. There were also pockets of homeschoolers through the sixties (I have met a couple), but they tended to be isolated rather than a movement- mostly, they didn't know anybody else doing what they were doing, and sometimes felt they needed to keep it quiet for their own protection.

IN 1969, however, Dr. Raymond Moore and his wife Dorothy began research on education. They were searching for answers to questions like "Is institutionalizing young children a sound, educational trend, and what is the best timing for school entrance?" Their conclusions led them to homeschooling, and they concluded that formal schooling should be delayed until at least 8-10 years old. They wrote two books, published in the early 80s, Home Grown Kids and Home-Spun Schools, and other books followed. They also, as I said, appeared on Dr. James Dobson's radio program Focus on the Family, which is where I, and many others, first heard of homeschooling as something viable.

The Teacher's Desk: I have a desk, but I do my best planning sitting up in bed with my laptop.=)

nak presents Fall Planning posted at Sage Parnassus. She gives us a glimpse of a typical CM day with her children ages 5,7,9,11 and 17 years old (the 19 year old is at college).

By the eighties, homeschooling had exploded- it wasn't necessarily popular, and people were still going to jail or being taken to court, but it was gaining ground.  As I understand it, tax laws changed in the early eighties, taking away a tax advantage that private Christian schools had, and many of them folded, leaving parents with a dilemma on their hands- could they pay enough to support a school, should they put their kids in public school, or would they be really radically nutty and homeschool?  Many of them chose homeschooling.

Home Education Magazine first published in 1983. Helen Hegener was co-owner.

The Teaching Home started in 1983 as well- HEM was secular, but sought to be inclusive. The Teaching Home was unabashedly Evangelical. Gregg Harris also started his ministry about this time, and that's the year Mike Farris and Mike Smith started HSLDA.

Susan Schaeffer MacCaulay would publish For the Children's Sake, a book promoting a Charlotte Mason education in 1984

Linda Dobson began homeschooling in 1985, and had one of the first, if not the first, articles on homeschooling to appear in a mainstream magazine- Good Housekeeping. There's a 1997 interview with her in HEM posted here.

Curriculum Reviews:

Marbel at Two Kid Schoolhouse reviews a new Bible curriculum by Starr Meade. It's called The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study: A Complete Survey of the Bible.

Beverly Hernandez of Beverly’s Homeschooling Blog (About.com) writes a review of teaching textbooks.

1986, Helen Jackson, mother of five, African American, homeschooler- appeared in court to defend her homeschooling. The lawyer for the state thought he was going to eat her for lunch.

"Have you ever had a job?" He asked.

Homeschooling Grandfather Raymond Moore was there as an expert witness, and he gives his rembrances of her testimony here.

The questioning moved along in what seemed a taunting or disrespectful tone, including his eyes and body language, as if to find out what kind of broom Helen had pushed. She took it all patiently, even sublimely. The attorney seemed irritated at her quiet freedom.
"Yes, sir," she replied.
“Where did you work?”
"In Houston." She was brief, determined not to reveal her surprise until the last moment.
“Where in Houston?”
“At NASA.”
"What did you do at NASA??" At this point he smiled indulgently, as if wondering if she worked in the restaurant or in housekeeping. This was the opportunity she had patiently waited for.
“Well, you see, I am a John’s Hopkins University astronautic electronics engineer. At NASA, I was promoted to be the first black woman in space when I discovered that my oldest son was developing serious emotional symptoms and needed me more than NASA did. So I returned to teach him at home. And he is doing very well.”

Jackson (and others with her in that class action suit) prevailed, and homeschooling in Texas was now safe.

History

The Carnival of Homeschooling has been around for 4.5 years (I hosted the fourth week). Our blogfather Henry Cate keeps an archive of the carnivals and which blogs they can be found here. Heather provided a nice list of the themes which have been used for the Carnival of Homeschooling over the last 4.5 years.

The Archive was updated to include the themes.

In 1988 my husband and I began homeschooling our own children- then just two of them, by 1998 we had seven children at home.  
That year Gregg Harris published The Christian Home School and at some point in the eighties he began a series of homeschooling conferences designed to encourage Christian homeschoolers.  He put them on video so our homeschool group was able to have a small 'video homeschool conference' in Okinawa, Japan in the late eighties.

Also in 1988, the NEA began voting in approval of this statement on a regular basis:

The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state requirements. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.

In 1988 when we started homeschooling on an American air base overseas there were at least thirty other military families that I knew of homeschooling. These are the books one of those other homeschool moms gave me to introduce me to this new venture.  Believe it or not, I read them hungrily, avidly, as quickly as I could, immersing myself in them to the point that I was waking up in the middle of the night having actually reviewed them by rereading entire chapters in my dreams.  It was an exciting, heady time.

• For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School 
• The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality 
• What Are They Teaching Our Children? 
• The How and Why of Home Schooling 
• Child Abuse in the Classroom
• The big book of home learningTeach Your Own:A Hopeful Path for Education by John Holt
• The big book of home learning by Mary Pride (it was one or two volumes then, a couple years later it would be four.  It also wasn't the first comprehensive listing of homeschooling resources, though I didn't know that then.  Donn Reed wrote the first ever homeschool resource book in 1981: The First Home-School Catalogue, and it went into several printings.  Read more about pioneer homeschoolers Donn and Jean Read here) 
• What Do I Do Monday, by John Holt
• Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax 
• NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education and a couple others by Samuel L. Blumenfeld

 As I said, by the eighties, homeschooling had burst into a fully fledged movement, with rivalries, unlikely coalitions, group cultures, and dozens, and then hundreds of books, magazines, and curriculum choices- and so, here we are.  Thanks to all those, left, right, and middle, who have gone before us.

 

This concludes this week's carnival. I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for joining us, and be sure to leave a comment (here and on other blogs) and visit those other blogs!

You can find out more about the carnival at these links:

What the Carnival is About

Where the Carnival will be in the Future

Where to submit your Carnival links

Bookmark us so you don't miss the Four Moms Open House.  It's going to be a lot of fun, I think.=)