Our Four Ring Circus

Mar. 8, 2008

Breaking the Law in California

I suppose there isn't a homeschooler on the planet who hasn't heard of the recent decision here in California which determined that all children must attend a full-time public or private day school or be tutored at home by a teacher certified to teach the specific grade level of the child.

It is somewhat amazing that a 3 judge panel ruling on a single complaint against one family has managed to effectively make 100,000 parents now criminally negligent for the truancy of their children.

The reality is, this is a day that was almost bound to come eventually but no one anticipated it would come at this time or in this way. Because this was a case of suspected child abuse in a single family, the proceedings were confidential and completely off the radar of our watchdog groups such as Home School Legal Defense Association. We didn't see this coming because unfortunately, the parents in this case allowed themselves to be represented by a court appointed attorney rather than availing themselves of the many Christian legal associations which are set up just for situations like this.

The thing I find most annoying is the reason the prosecuting organization gives for insisting the children in this family be placed in school. "The organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

Obviously Child Protective Services did not find enough evidence of abuse to remove the children from the home but they wanted these children to be watched and they wanted the school to watch them. It puts a whole new spin on the idea of 'nanny state'.

The Department of Education in California has long been in the business of more than just educating. A child who enrolls in public school here must visit the dentist and receive certification of their oral health. They must visit a doctor to ensure their physical health. They must provide proof of several required immunizations. Their parents are asked to provide income information so it can be determined if the child qualifies for free breakfast and lunch programs whether or not the parents actually want to avail themselves of these programs. Free breakfast and lunch are not limited to school aged children nor are they limited to the school year. These school based breakfast and lunch programs are available all summer to qualifying individuals from ages 2 to 17.

The state also provides free before school and after school care as well as preschool services. Special education services such as speech therapy are available to children as young as 2.

Teachers have long been required to report any suspicion of abuse and it seems now, children are required to be seen regularly by teachers to ensure their safety.

The family in this case did have their children enrolled in a private Christian school which acted as an umbrella providing oversight to the homeschooling of the children but apparently, this wasn’t enough to appease the court.

How could a court make such a finding? Because the statutes in the education code pre-date the current homeschooling movement and require "children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child's grade level." No one has ever found it necessary to challenge these statutes until now.

Until now, homeschooling in this state has operated under the statutory provisions afforded to private schools and so, in effect, homeschooling doesn't exist in California and it never has. Private schools here are completely unregulated and all you have to do to be a private school is file a simple on-line form once a year. For this reason, rather than homeschools, we just have a zillion family sized private schools. This is how the game has been played and the state was happy to play along.

As evidence of this game, homeschool organizations here (which aren't called homeschool organizations because homeschooling doesn't exist) have long cautioned us not to call ourselves homeschoolers but to say that we "privately educate our children at home."

Both the Department of Education and the homeschooling community found it easiest just to let sleeping dogs lie on a rather grand scale. Now it seems someone has finally kicked the dog.

What happens next? We have several avenues of recourse and wonderful representation for our cause. I am not the least bit worried.

The Home School Legal Defense Association has already set the wheels in motion on a variety of options any of which could solve the problem. Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute has agreed to take over this case and appeal it to the California Supreme Court (the same court which is very likely to legalize gay marriage in California within the week). Brad's grandmother was a long time friend of my family and Brad is a very competent attorney with lots of experience defending Christians against the assault on our values. Just last month Brad offered to take our case if we chose to pursue our complaint regarding evolution on California state testing.

If all of these legal avenues should fail, our governor has already committed to changing the laws in our favor. Governor Schwarzenegger released a statement yesterday calling the ruling "outrageous" and saying "If the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will." Let's just hope this all plays out before the changing of the guard at the governor's mansion.

In addition to all of these human resources, our greatest confidence is in God. The first I heard of this case was a comment here on my blog from a blog friend all the way in Rhode Island who was already praying about this situation before most Californians new it existed. With our army of prayer warriors, our faithful Heavenly Father, strong legal representation and a governor who has pledged to protect us, I just don't see how we could lose. The worst case scenario is that we would have to move and there are 1000s of families that would move before they would put their children in public school.

To all of you who are praying, thank you. I look forward to the day when this situation is resolved and hopefully homeschooling will gain even stronger footing here in California because of it.

To learn more about this case and to sign an on-line petition sponsored by HSLDA, please click here.

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Mar. 5, 2008

Simplifying the simple

A few worthless observations I've made lately...

If you take something that is already very easy and make it even easier, it will sell.

Two acquisitions we've made recently illustrate this point. For a few years I have considered purchasing new toilet paper holders. Our old holders were still very functional but John had long complained that people would tend set the new roll on the counter rather than load it into the dispenser. Our holders were the pressure bar, spring loaded type - it takes about 2 seconds to take off the bar, drop the empty roll in the trash and replace it with a new roll.

Now I've found an even simpler way. I purchased new hook style fixtures last summer. They don't require removing the bar. You just slide the empty tube off and slide on the new roll. This has completely solved the problem. We've taken a two second job down to a 1.5 second job but somehow that half second made all the difference.

Similarly, a few years ago I changed dishwasher detergent. I found that the little Electrasol tablets were actually cheaper by the load than the old Costco powder I had previously purchased so I switched. I liked the tablets better - you just unwrap, drop and close rather than pouring the powder which often tended to overfill the trough.

Now I have discovered an even easier way. The new Cascade tablets have no wrapper to remove but instead the coating dissolves releasing the detergent. By just eliminating that little step of removing the wrapper, Cascade has me hooked. I don't even want to use the half a box of Electrasol I have left in the cupboard.

From powder, to wrapped tablets, to unwrapped tablets the difference in time and energy required is ever so slight and yet that slight difference makes all the difference.

I still buy coffee in a tin as opposed to the pods. I still buy old fashioned laundry detergent rather than the more expensive all-in-one premeasured packets. But when price isn't an obstacle, appealing to folks lazy nature by making a task even slightly easier is a sure ticket to success.

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Mar. 1, 2008

Back in business

I've been frozen out of Homeschoolblogger for about a month now. I was not able to get any homeschool blog site to load and yet seemingly every other site on the Internet was at my disposal. It was odd. I tried everything I could think of on my end to troubleshoot the problem but nothing seemed to work. I did report it to Homeschoolblogger a week ago, maybe they pushed the magic button because this morning I got in with no trouble. I hope it lasts. More later...

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Jan. 17, 2008

Discrimination pays us a visit

UPDATE 1/23: I'm not the only one who saw the inclusion of evolution in testing as discrimination. Last weekend my mother happened to be talking to an attorney who heads a prominent Christian law firm here in California. She mentioned this situation to him and he told her if questions on evolution ever negatively impacted our scores, to let him know and he would take our case.

Last night as I was resting with Alyssa before she fell asleep, she asked me some questions that came back to haunt me this morning at 3 AM. The more I've thought about them, the more they bother me. I don't know why this took me by surprise but I just never gave it a thought until now.

The homeschool program we joined this year offers us the opportunity to have the children tested by a couple different methods each year. This week Alyssa and Brendan are taking a test made by the Scantron corporation. I've known of Scantron for as long as I can remember as they made the answer sheets we used on all Standardized Testing I took growing up. When their name surfaced as the publisher of this testing, it struck me as a little odd so I did some research.

Scantron is still in the business of making answer sheets but they have also developed testing of their own. It is internet based diagnostic type testing and it intrigued me. Everyone starts at basically the same place, the tests are not different for each grade level as I understand it. The test progresses with increasingly harder questions until the student no longer answers the questions correctly and then the test adjust alternating easier and harder questions until it finds the highest level at which the student is able to function. It pinpoints strengths and weaknesses along the way. It is not timed and the student can take the test in as many sittings as desired as the test can be stopped and started again from any point.

The tests can be taken at home but the homeschool program recommended we use the services of their computer lab as it is a more ideal testing environment. The test has 4 components: Math, Reading, Language, and Science/Social Science. Brendan, as a 3rd grader, only takes the first 3 while Alyssa takes all 4. Yesterday Alyssa completed the Reading and Science portions and last night was obviously still dwelling on some of the questions.

The questions she asked me were on evolution. She is plenty familiar with the concept of evolution and she recognized immediately what these questions were. Though she knows we believe evolution to be false, she did her best to apply logic to the questions and get them correct. When asked to name the animal from which the frog evolved, she reasoned fish was the best answer. When asked to date the earliest turtles, she gave the best answer from her experience though it was certainly not what they wanted. The choices were 3000 years, 30,000 years, 300,000 years, 300 million years. She went with 3000 which, of the choices, is certainly the closest to what we teach. The answer they were looking for was the opposite extreme of course.

Why didn't it occur to me that my children would be tested on evolution? I suppose because in my experience, I don't recall evolution ever appearing on standardized testing. Having grown up in Christian schools, perhaps the curriculum publishers from which we obtained all our testing materials made sure they used versions that were sanitized to suit us. I don't recall evolution appearing on the SAT or ACT tests I took in high school. Maybe I've just forgotten or perhaps 20+ years ago, they didn't test on evolution.

Last year Alyssa took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. If evolution appeared on that, she didn't mention it. We obtained this test from Bob Jones so perhaps they have managed to find testing without evolution.

It is interesting to note that when I checked the California Education Code content standards for science, evolution does not appear until grade 7. The testing we are taking is supposed to match content standards. It seems Alyssa may have made her way up to 7th grade science questions but I kind of doubt it. More likely, the people who wrote the test know very well that children are exposed to evolution in school long before junior high.

Why does this bother me so much? Because America was born of the sacrifice of Christians who believed that people were endowed by their CREATOR with certain rights. Because the educational system now requires that we replace that CREATOR with a system of unprovable scientific theory and it discriminates against those who refuse to do so by relegating them to lower test scores. Because my daughter wasted her mental energy and the logical mind God gave her trying to sift through answers she knew weren't true to questions that weren't relevant and should never have been asked. Because this is probably the first of many times this scenario will happen to my children.

I could decline to have them take the science test in the future. I could decline all the tests. I could choose to have them do the science test at home where I can help level the playing field on the questions I don't want them to answer. But I shouldn't have to do any of these things because I should live in a country with an educational system tolerant enough to make room for the beliefs of the people who founded it; open minded enough to see that something that can't be proven should at best be relegated to the realm of possibility and not force fed to everyone as the one and only absolute fact.

The supposedly tolerant, open minded, non-discriminatory educational system that claims to make room for all in reality has no place for people like me. This is one of the big reasons I homeschool. I make the sacrifices necessary to make sure my children get the facts the way I believe them to be and it really irks me to be blind sided by the educational system I try so hard to avoid.

This concludes my rambling rant for today.

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Jan. 8, 2008

Do I still blog here?

I certainly want to but life just isn't cooperating. I've had so many entries running through my mind but none of them have made it onto the screen.

I popped in to make a quick note of a conversation I just had with Chase. He came up to me and said:

"Mom, you know what's kind of sad?"

"What?"

"We are almost out of milk?"

"Oh, that's OK, we can buy some more."

"Yeah, but it is kind of sad because when you're out of milk there are lots of things you can't have like cereal."

When being almost out of milk qualifies as sad, you know life is good.

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Dec. 19, 2007

A must see for every homeschooler

This video came to me this morning compliments of my friend Allison. I don't think there is a homeschooler on the planet who won't find something to appreciate it this. It's only a minute or two. Link

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Dec. 13, 2007

Christmas Cheer!

I don't know how long this link will last but I thought others might have some fun with this as well. It was very easy to do. Here are Alyssa, Brendan, Chase, and Emily doing the elf dance: link (takes a minute to load - works best in IE) Enjoy!

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Dec. 2, 2007

Our November +1

In my last whirlwind update, I predicted I would update again in mid to late November. I really tried to get this done last week but I've missed the mark by a few days. We had a great trip back to Virginia/DC and we brought back over 300 pictures as proof.

The +1 in my title refers to this picture obviously from Oct. 31. This is the first year we have attempted to use patterns to carve our pumpkins. When Alyssa selected the Trick or Treat pattern, I was a scoffer. I was sure it wouldn't work as it seemed to me to be just too complicated. She carved every inch of it herself and it turned out great. She is so far superior to mom in her artistic abilities. Brendan chose a scary face and did nearly all of it himself. Chase's had a little friendlier persona and I did most of it for him. Emily had a small pumpkin decorated with little plastic pins to look like a kitty. Since I didn't gut hers, we couldn't light it so it is barely visible here.

We headed to Norfolk, VA on Nov 3 to visit John's parents and see the sights. We spent 2 days in D.C. John and I hadn't been there in more than 10 years and of course, things are different after 9/11. We had an appointment to tour the White House at 8:30 AM which meant a very early morning. We arrived in DC the afternoon before so we could go down to scope out our route and figure out where we needed to go in the morning. They don't allow cameras, strollers, or even purses in the White House so this picture was taken on our trial run just outside the gate near where we entered the White House grounds for our tour. It was bitterly cold in D.C. and all we had with us were 'California coats' so we froze.

We arrived for our White House tour a little early and they let us right in. While standing in the Blue Room, Marine 1 landed just outside the window. We watched for a few minutes and soon a photographer came out and positioned himself facing the door of the helicopter. A few minutes later, Pres. Bush emerged from the building, boarded the helicopter, turned to wave for the camera and off it went. That was sort of the highlight of our trip.

After our White House tour, we took the metro back to our hotel about 20 minutes outside the city to retrieve our stroller, camera, etc.

The Metro was pretty empty as we traveled back into the city late in the morning and the kids had a great time holding the poles the whole way. Emily was showing off in this rather dangerous manuever. She's lucky she didn't fall on her backside when the train jerked to stop.

This was our feeble attempt at trick photography. We weren't able to go up in the Washington Monument as you had to be in line early the morning to get tickets to come back later in the day to go up but we took a good look at it.

We stopped by a Target on our first evening in DC and picked up gloves and ear warmers for the kids. This was the coldest day they had had so far. We had been watching DC weather for 2 weeks before we left California and it had been very moderate right up until the day we went.

As we walked along the Mall from the Washington Monument to the Capital Building, John spotted this sign and naturally, had to stop and take a picture in front of it.

Long may it wave!

The biggest disappointment of our trip was not getting to go inside the Capital Building. In the past, we've always been able to walk right in and see the Rotunda and walk down the halls but no longer. Now you have to get in line early in the morning and get an appointment to return for a tour later in the day. We had no appointment so this is as close as we got. While we were sitting at the base of the steps (which are completely blocked by barricades and no one is allowed up them) lamenting our misfortune in not being able to show the kids the inside, Emily announced she needed to pee. We asked a guard to direct us to the nearest bathroom which was all the way back at the Botanical Garden on the Mall. Off we went for unplanned visit to the National Botanical Garden.

The botanical gardens were very nice and wonderfully warm so we spent quite a bit of time looking at the plants and taking pictures of the flowers. By the time we were done there, we were so tired from our early morning (we were up at 5:45 to get ready and get to the Metro station by 7) we decided to call it a day and we headed out of the city before rush hour.

The following morning we drove into the city and John dropped the kids and I off to see the Memorials while he drove the van around. The kids were all very impressed with the Lincoln Memorial and we took the time to read the Gettysburg Address inscribed on the wall.

It was Nov. 9 and they were having a special ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial which included reading all the names in preparation for Veteran's day.

I had never seen the Korean War Memorial as it is fairly new (1995).

These were more preparations in anticipation of Veteran's Day.

A friend's father passed away earlier this year and was buried at Arlington. We were obviously not the only ones to visit around that time because these beautiful flowers were in place when we got there. Because we were there to visit a grave, we got to drive in and we spent quite a bit of time just seeing the sites there. They have several little monuments to various things that you would never see on foot. There are also wonderful views of the Pentagon and other very scenic landscapes. We got several nice pictures.

We also saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier and a very nice wreath ceremony there. I'm not sure if this wreath ceremony was routine or in honor of Veteran's Day. We were also there on the eve of the Marine Corp. birthday which may have had something to do with the special events taking place.

We drove back to Norfolk that afternoon, leaving D.C. around 2 PM. We got stuck in the worst traffic jam I have ever experienced (and I lived in L.A. for 3 years). We literally sat virtually motionless in traffic for 3 hours due to an accident and of course it was a holiday weekend which only made matters worse.

The one place I really wanted to see in Virginia was Jamestown Island. It is only a 40 minute drive from Norfolk so we spent a day there. The A Beka history book we are currently using actually includes a 2 page commercial about this place and that is how I found out about it. It is called Jamestown Settlement and it has a mock-up of the Powhatan Indian Village, replicas of the three ships the settlers arrived in, as well as a full scale replica of the Jamestown Fort.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. Jamestown Settlement was actually built in honor of the 350th anniversary and Queen Elizabeth attended its grand opening. She was back earlier this year to commemorate the anniversary.

Apparently they change the fort from time to time to reflect different periods in its history. The fort we toured was the 1610 version and was a little less primitive than the original 1607 fort would have been.

We got to see this guy fire the musket a few times and he gave a nice little history lesson.

Everything at this place is designed to be very 'hands on' which was a lot of fun for the kids.

Here is Emily trying out a 17th century style broom.

Just a few hours before we had to catch our plane for home, we decided to head down to the beach for a quick peek at the Atlantic. We only had about 30 minutes to spend if we were going to get to the airport on time and we had no intentions of getting wet.

I don't know what we were thinking. Kids+beach+beautiful day=wet

Before it was over, they looked like this. We headed back to the house for a quick change and then it was off to the airport.

We had an hour or so lay over in Chicago and we took advantage of the opportunity to give the kids a last little cultural lesson with Chicago dogs for everyone to share. Sadly, none of us really liked Chicago dogs but once we got rid of the onions and the peppers they were alright.

We got back late on Nov. 14. November 17 was the last day of Soccer season and for us featured 3 games and 3 end of season pizza parties all in one day. I was the team mom for both of the boys' teams and so I got to organize the parties and I spent Friday making 84 soccer cupcakes. It is so wonderful to be done with soccer!

We had my parents down for Thanksgiving and had a nice holiday with all the trimmings.

The last week of November we focused on school and got quite a bit accomplished. With all of the activity during the first 3 weeks of the month, school was nearly untouched so we are now trying to make up some of that lost time. If it weren't for homeschooling, we wouldn't have been able to take such a trip during leaf season and it was certainly worth missing a few days of school for all the things seen and experiences had.

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Nov. 16, 2007

Ruth is having a contest

We are back! It's been so long since I've logged in here, I had a little trouble navigating to the new entry page.

Real life catching up has me running in all directions at the moment but I wanted to get in a quick contest entry. Ruth is giving away some beautiful hand made snowflakes which she has also made available for purchase. Of course I only know Ruth as a blog friend but she is always a wonderful encourager and her blog, appropriately named "Heart of God", is a beautiful window into her heart for God. Stop by and see what Ruth has to say and take a look at her handiwork while you're there.

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Oct. 21, 2007

Catching up: the circus, a birthday, and a trip to the pumpkin farm

It seems like things just haven't slowed down in ages around here and blog time has been nil. I wanted to get a few things on the record for posterity.

The Greatest Show On Earth

We made our first appearance at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. John and I both grew up in small towns so while we saw a circus or two in our day, I doubt either of us had ever been to this one.

We arrived before the doors opened so as not to miss a thing. The kids amused themselves while we waited in line.

The preshow was really cool because we got to be right on the floor with the performers.

They had some great acts all going on just a few feet from the spectators.

The kids and I were standing in the front and Alyssa got picked to be part of the act.

She was a good sport - never one to shy away from the spotlight.

Once the real deal started, we took our seats in the front row of the balcony. We had about the best cheap seats in the place.

The Monday before the circus, we just happened to be traveling a few miles from our home when the circus train arrived. We got to stand on the side of the road as the 'circus parade' passed. They walked all the elephants, horses and ponies from the train tracks to the arena and had them do little tricks along the way. It was an unannounced parade so only a few of us fortunate enough to be on the road at the time got to see it. It was wonderful way to build excitement for the show that was to come.

Emily turns 3

For Emily's 3rd birthday, we took the family to Chuck E. Cheese (thus the crown). We had pizza and let the kids play for a few hours and then returned home for cake and presents.

It was a store bought cake though it had a certain homespun air about it.

Brendan got Emily this strobe light which casts kind of an eerie mood on the room. Emily had the perfect expression to match.

Our annual visit to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm

We just love this place. It is our Columbus day tradition and since John is one of the few who has the day off, it is never crowded when we are there. An added benefit of going on a weekday is free parking!

We started with a hay ride out to the pumpkin fields. We didn't find a pumpkin we liked so we saved a few dollars and went home without one.

They have a wonderful petting zoo and many little attractions for the kids all free of charge. Here our camera had a rare moment of clarity and actually caught Brendan before he hit the ground.

This is supposed to be a jail but it looks more like caged monkeys.

Lest you think we got away without spending a dime, we did spring for a train ride (though this particular train doesn't move) and of course, we couldn't leave without a gallon of fresh cider and a pumpkin cake.

For our next big adventure, we are off to Virginia and Washington D.C. for 11 days. John's parents are in Norfolk and we plan to cram in as much sightseeing as we can while we have the chance. There is so much history in that part of the country and I hope the children will really come away with a better understanding of the people and places we have studied over the past few years.

To be continued... (probably mid to late November).

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My Blog

A few years ago, when our oldest was 4 and her two brothers were both in diapers, my in-laws were a few days into a visit from their home 3000 miles away when my father-in-law noticed that the rug under the dining room table was in serious need of vacuuming. He is not prone to domestic duties (his wife is a great housekeeper) but seeing the need, he decided to try his hand with the Hoover. As soon as 'Grandpa' declared his intention to get out the vacuum, four little feet ran for the toy box to get vacuums of their own. We had one toy vacuum and we improvised a second from a 'popper' push toy. The baby, who was not yet walking, was right in the thick of things on all fours, never one to be left out. Grandpa, trying to maneuver the self-propelled 'Wind-tunnel' around the 10 foot rug while avoiding the table legs and dodging his three little helpers, remarked in exasperation, "I just wanted to clean the rug, I wasn't looking to start a three ring circus." Welcome to my life!

About Me

My name is Tiffany. I am a 39 year old mother of 4. My husband, John, and I planned to homeschool even before we married 17 years ago but it would be several years before our oldest would be ready to start on this journey. We had our children in alphabetical order, quite by accident at first, but once we got started, we figured we had to keep it going. They are Alyssa 10, Brendan 8, Chase 6, and Emily 3. Our 4th baby, D, miscarried at 13 weeks. We have no intention of making it to Z.

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