I regret to inform you all that I'm afraid I must take the next two weeks off from blogging. I will be very busy with school and business projects. in the upcoming weeks and I think I would be much more productive if I wasn't schemeing up another post (although I have failed to do that too....). Thank you everyone for all of your comments, I will try to get back to you in a few weeks.

   Until Then,

          Love to hear from you,

                       Rose

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This is a writing project that I must do for school, but I have wanted to do a post on this subject for quite sometime. My Mother gave me permission to post it on my blog, since I must write it anyway and it is much more fun to write something for a real audience. The following will be two slightly altered versions on the same subject. The first rendering will be for an audience of sixth graders, the second, for adults with little or no previous knowledge of the subject. (My text book selected the ages)"Pros and Cons of Tv viewing"

For Sixth Graders;

    An average American family usually watches a large amount of TV in a week. This isn't really a bad thing, but television does have its pros and cons. Everybody knows that to much TV isn't good for you, it is a fact that most children who watch a lot of TV are overweight, lazy, and don't have much of an imagination, but this isn't always the case. I have known several people that watching television, or movies, has inspired them to do things, and not acting or singing. That is unoriginal, and not something worth aspiring too, but that is for another essay.

Frankly, I would be fine without our satellite, but to please the rest of the family, we must keep it. I do much prefer movies. =)

Pros:

1. It is fun to watch TV every now and then, considering it more as something fun to do, rather than as something that you deserve. I like to watch TV mostly when I am sick, or it is cold and wet outside. It makes it seem like you are not wasting your time, and it is special.

2. Some channels are more worth while than others, for example, "The History Channel" ,or "Animal Planet" are more educational than watching hours of reruns on the "Disney Channel"., also I know several boys who love watching "Man vs. Wild" on the "Discovery Channel" and they seem to have learned a lot from it.

3. It can help us aspire to something, or give us ideas. For instance, I know a boy who watched a lot of TV when he was little, mainly "Animal planet" and "Discovery Channel". For most of his young life, he wanted to be a zoologist, and now, with a little help from his family, he has a sheep, a rabbit, and does 4-H. If he had not watched so many shows on the topic of animals and their habits he most likely would never have wanted to be involved with animals.

Cons:

1. You are what you watch. Everyone has role models, or people they try to be like, even if it is not consciously done. Everybody knows that it is important to have good friends, because if we start "hanging with the 'wrong crowd'" we will probably start acting like them. Same with watching TV. We are influenced by what we see our role models do, and if your role model is an actor or TV star you are most likely going to act like them. (which is usually a bad thing, considering sense of right and wrong most famous people have (or don't). When we watch people we value (even if they are just actors) doing things we will try to emulate them, even if it is subconcious. Commercials, for example, tell us we want, need, deserve ,whatever they are trying to sell. After seeing the commerical over and over and over again, it finally starts to sink in..."I really do want that red-polka-dot Ipod!".....How original!

2. Obssessing ,or being dedicated to watching tv, can take time away from more important things. A couple years ago, I used to watch American Idol every Tuesday and Wednesday night. I would hurry home from wherever I was to make sure I didn't miss them singing, or I would be sure not to have anything scheduled on Wednesday at 8:30 because I might miss ---- getting voted off! My brother cousin and I would play in my grandma's woods every Wednesday night, but we had to make sure to be inside intime so as not to miss it! Think of everything I  could have done, if I hadn't wasted my time worrying about missing a corny talent show! 

  In 7th grade, I went to a large  youth group. Each grade was split up into small groups, in our seventh grade girls small group we started out with about 15 teen girls. Later that year, we had maybe 8 girls. Why? About half of the girls missing didn't want to miss their favorite tv show!  The sad thing is that their parents let them stay home from church (even if it was youth group) to watch tv! Really, television isn't worth it.

3. Earlier I mentioned that most children who watch a lot of TV have no, or a very small, imagination. This is true. While watching tv, everything is given to you on a silver platter. You don't have to think, contemplate, or anyalize anthing. It is all explained in a convinient 1-hour program.

  We didn't get sattelite until I was about 7 or 8 years old, so the only sort of television we had was movies, or PBS shows my grandma taped for us. We played outside all the time.  My friend, Niki and I would play Little house on the Praire (I was Mary, she was Laura) everytime we got together, I'm still amazed we never got bored of it.

  We (Niki and I) have been friends for nearly 10 years and up until the past 3 or 4 years we had never watched a movie together. Not that our families didn't like the same type of movies, on the contrary, we just preferred reenacting them instead of watching them. All that just to say, you don't get creativity from watching tv.

 For Adults:

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As a *homeschooler* I decided that I must do at least when school post, and what better time to do it than when we start?

I'm going to be very busy with school this year ,due to the fact that it is my first year of Highschool. Also, I'm assisting (and taking) with some of Brielle's sewing classes so that will be fun.

My school curriculum this year is rather varied. For Math I'm doing Saxon Algebra 1/2, it looks mostly like review, but that is always good! I'm also doing a bible school Study, it seems to be quite interesting, but only time will tell. I do like that it includes a large amount of verses and it isn't your typical school type bible study, for instance, it doesn't  start at Genesis and have you memorizing all the prophets. (Not that that is a bad thing, on the contrary, it is just that I have done that sort before ,and it is always nice to have something different.)

This year my friend and I are taking a biology class from a homeschool teacher in our area. We are using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Biology ,and I think I am going to like it very much. For the class we mainly just do the experiments (especially with microscopes and disecting), and the teacher answers questions from the students that we thought of during the week, while we went through the modules.

This will be my last year of actual "grammar" ,next year I'm doing American Literature, so i'm using an assortment. I'm using two books for this subject, one is more writing, and the other is vocabulary. I like grammar , and I've always loved spelling. I was one of those odd little kids who thought it would be fun to be in a spelling bee. =)

and last but not least, History. This year we are studying Rome, The middle ages, and hopefully the Renaissance. My brother and I have always preffered American history, so our goal is to be able to do that in the following years.

I hope you are all having a lovely time (as much as it can be...) preparing for school.

                           Love to hear from you,

                                           Rose

P.S

 I don't know if I ever mentioned that I have Chickens, but the oldest ones started laying today. I'm thrilled! I must post about them. =)                                        

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