&hearts Comments (6) &hearts Please Post A Comment! &hearts Permanent Link

First, I want to say, I am NOT endorsing any political candidate.  At this point, I don’t even know whom I will be voting for.  I do not want this post to stir up any controversy.  If you have read my blog for long, you know I don’t usually get into controversial discussions and that is NOT my intent with this post.  I am writing this post for educational purposes only, not to sway anyone’s opinion.  I will delete any comments that are rude or argumentative.  If you want to give an opinion, please keep it civil and respectful.  In fact, if you do know something about this subject, please step forward and give you opinion.  I would love to hear it, since I really don’t know that much about it.  Thank you.

I was talking with my brother about the up coming elections and we were discussing the various candidates.  We normally do not agree when it comes to politics, but one thing we do agree with this go around, we really are not strong on any candidate.  Well, he mentioned he was leaning toward Ron Paul.  Who??? I then realized there was a candidate, I had not even heard of.  Ok, that’s a problem.  So I do what I normally do when I want answers, I jumped on the internet (ok, no snickering!!!!).  Right now, two of my biggest concerns are health care and education.  He seems to be dedicated to changing both.  First of all, he is a doctor so I’m sure health care is a concern for him.  In fact, he was an OB/GYN and has 5 children of his own!!! But what really caught my attention is his views on education.  I really doubt any homeschoolers will find any fault in his views on education.  Here are some quotes:

“The federal government does not own our children. Yet we act as if it does by letting it decide when, how, and what our children will learn. We have turned their futures over to lobbyists and bureaucrats.”

“The federal government has no constitutional authority to fund or control schools. I want to abolish the unconstitutional, wasteful Department of Education and return its functions to the states.”

“To help parents with the costs of schooling, I have introduced H.R. 1056, the Family Education Freedom Act, in Congress. This bill would allow parents a tax credit of up to $5,000 (adjustable after 2007 for inflation) per student per year for the cost of attendance at an elementary and/or secondary school. This includes private, parochial, religious, and home schools.”

“I will veto any legislation that creates national standards or national testing for home school parents or students. I also believe that, as long as No Child Left Behind remains law, it must include the protections for home schoolers included in sec. 9506 (enshrining home schoolers’ rights) and 9527 (guaranteeing no national curriculum).”

“Federal monies must never be used to undermine the rights of homeschooling parents. I will use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to encourage a culture of educational freedom throughout the nation.”

There are several others that I did not include, but I think I made my point.  I will admit, having a President that much in favor of homeschooling is appealing, but the cynical side of me says I am not ready to commit at this time.  I just wanted to get this out because I felt if I knew so little about him, then there may be others who didn’t know anything about him either.  It would be a shame for someone not to get elected, just because they were not as well known.  I think we need to know who our candidates are and what they stand for so we can make an informed decision.

Here are a few other things I learned about him:

He professes to be a Born Again Christian.

He is Pro- Life.

He is a Libertarian.

He believes in a strong Constitution.

He believes that the separation of church and state is misrepresenting the Constitution.

You can find out more about him at his campaign website:

&hearts Comments (4) &hearts Please Post A Comment! &hearts Permanent Link

&hearts Comments (10) &hearts Please Post A Comment! &hearts Permanent Link

I want to thank everyone who left comments on my blog about the $20,000.  It was really fun reading all the answers. 

Last week there was an article floating around about how much a Mother’s job is worth.  So I started to thinking about what all jobs I do around here.  I started writing this little post and then one of my friend’s beat me to the punch and blogged about it.  Here is her link (Sawickis), so you can read what she said about it.  She also has a link to a calculator that you can figure it up individually for yourself.  According to the article I read, a Mother’s job is worth $138,095,  I’ve seen some other figures floating, but they are all in the same ballpark.  But this figure is highly subjective considering all of us have unique lives.  Some moms farm, some take care of pets, all us on this blog school our children so that sets us apart right there.  So what all jobs do I do?  Here’s my list:

1. Guidance Councilor
2. Social Worker (we are advocates for our children!)
3. School Teacher/ Special Education
4. Preschool Teacher
5. After School Daycare Worker
6. Physical Therapist (Luckily I don’t do this one so much anymore, but sometimes)
7. Pharmacist ( I dispense a lot of medicines)
8. Buyer
9. Curriculum Designer (I’m never satisfied with curriculum as is, I have to mess with it)
10.  Short – Order Cook
11.  Waitress
12. Chauffeur
13. Psychologist (Not only do I have the normal kid stuff, but since my kid has ADHD and OCD, I have to read up on his conditions and learn how to help his treatment along.)
14. Social Director
15. Laundress
16. Information Gatherer ( ok, I couldn’t think of a real title)
17. I would say cook and maid, but my husband helps out a lot in these areas and quite frankly, I doubt anyone would pay me for the job I do! *sigh* My hubby and I have gotten in the habit of fixing convenience foods, but I guess with all the other issues going on in our life, that is just the season we are in. 

I’m sure there are other jobs that I can’t think of right now.  I would love to hear about what you do.  Please either leave a comment with your list or if you choose to put it on your blog,  please leave a comment letting me know you blogged about it.  And NO Professional Blogger is NOT a job!!!

      Happy Mother’s Day!!!!

&hearts Comments (13) &hearts Please Post A Comment! &hearts Permanent Link

What you would Do with $20,000.00???

This time of year I always get really frustrated with lack of money.  I start feeling once again how unfair it is that I support the local public schools and I have to scrape together money and make hard choices on how to spend that small amount.  I think it is unfair that I can’t spend what I need on my children to give them the kind of education I want to give them (ok, I know I am whining here!!!).  Several months ago, I saw a documentary on how the schools are failing American’s children and they talked about in Belgium the money follows the kid to whatever school they choose instead of being funneled into a local school.  So the way I see it, in theory, if your home is where your child goes to school that money should come into your homeschool.  The documentary went on to say that, on average, America spends about $10,000 per student in the public schools.  So, I’m going to have 2 students so we would have $20,000 for our little homeschool.  I know I’m dreaming here, but here is my list if I had $20,000 to spend on my children’s education.  Please leave a comment and let me know how you would like to spend that money (or how ever much it is) or if you want to make your own post about it, please let me know you have done it so I can come check it out.

1. Buy equipment to use in our school.

-         Nice digital camera to take pictures of all the activities the kids do,     

field trips, nature studies and just to learn photography.  $500.00

-         Camcorder- So the kids can make their own home movies and learn      

about filming.  $400.00

-         Copier- having a real personal copier would make things a lot

easier.  $400.00

-         Laminator- same as above.  $400.00

-         Binder- Make my own workbooks, ect.  $200.00

-         Large Xyron 900 –Make up to an 8 ½ by 11 page a removable sticker.  $100.00

-         Cricut- Tons of die cut and letter possibilities.  With cartridges $500.00

-         Ellison Die- for all those die cuts the Cricut doesn’t have. (Well, I do have $20,000 a year to spend!!!!) With die cuts $ 1,000.00

2. Memberships

-         Boonshoft- this is our local Children’s Museum $80.00

-         Cincinnati Zoo- $100.00

3. Enrichment Classes

-         Piano Lessons-  $2000.00 (for year/ both kids)

-         Art Lessons-  $350.00 (for year)

-         Violin Lessons- $2000.00 (for year/ both kids)

4. Educational Places to Go to

-         Newport Aquarium- $100.00

-         Ohio Caverns- Unsure of cost but guessing we would need about $50.00

-         Renaissance Festival- $75.00

-         Serpent Mound- guessing $50.00

-         Columbus Zoo- guessing $75.00

-         Cosi- $50.00

-         Dayton Art Museum- special exhibits  $50.00

-         Other enrichment places and field trips I can’t think of- $500.00

5. Enrichment classes that come up $500.00
6. Bookshelves- do I need to say more? $300.00
7. Rainbow Resource and other great curriculum supply places- if I added right I still have $9220 to go hog wild!!!!

Hmmm…. obliviously some of my numbers are off and rounded but it is harder to spend that money than you think!! And just think, the next year you would have to do it all over again.  All the money would have to be used in some way for educational purposes and quite frankly, you only have so much time so even if you have almost unlimited money you still have the time factor in there.  Maybe some longer educational trips could be worked in.  Do you think that Disney would pass as education?

So again, please join me in my fantasy world and let me know what kind of education you would like to give your children if money did not stand in your way!  Also check out my post about living in a Homeschool Neighborhood (click here) if you haven’t already and let me know what you think. 

&hearts Comments (25) &hearts Please Post A Comment! &hearts Permanent Link