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For any family who has issues with Darwinism, you must see the Ben Stein movie entitled, "Expelled: No Intelligence Required." If you have no issues with Darwinism, please see it. In it, Ben Stein investigates a number of people who lost their jobs in academia by investigating, reporting on, doing research in, or even mentioning Intelligent Design in publications and classrooms. He talks to those who are serious Darwinists and those who are proponents of ID. He discusses the freedoms we have in the United States, that are currently limited in academics at the university levels, in the media, and so forth. Those who believe Darwinism does not hold all the answers are called ignorant and worse. Many who suggest the viability or alternate view of ID have lost their jobs or have been lowered to a status such that all their work now has to be reviewed. I was startled to discover that even at Baylor University (a private Baptist university near our home), a professor was fired for holding positive views on the possibility of Intelligent Design. The staunchest Darwinists are concerned that if ID is allowed to be taught, particularly in high schools, that this will give a foothold for Creationism and prayer in schools. In this movie, a number of Darwinists specifically stated that the study of Darwinism led to their abandoning religion and becoming atheists. Their view is that Darwinism and atheism will someday lead to utopian societies. We know of such societies, Nazi Germany, Stalinist USSR, and so forth. Research done in the name of Darwinism led to thousands being murdered in Germany under Hitler's regime who were deemed useless to society due to physical or mental handicaps. In the United States it led to 50,000 people being involuntarily sterilized in the early 20th century because they were deemed mentally incompetant to breed. Planned Parenthood also started out of this view in an effort to reduce the number of poor people. Some of the Darwinists assert that the first one-celled being resulted from a crystal mutation. Some believe that creation on earth was seeded by highly-developed beings from another planet who themselves evolved. Scientists are holding that Darwinism points to no god at all; therefore, any science that asserts that there may be a higher being, designer, or god that initiated life on this planet, are not scientists at all. That "true" scientists cannot be religious, even though a number of scientists who made huge leaps in science and scientific theory including Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Boyle, and many, many more, were using science to advance their knowledge and understanding of God and were very religious men. In the US Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson asserted that we are all created with certain inalienable rights given to us by our Creator... If Darwinism continues to thwart any research or views that contradicts their theory, then these inalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness are also at risk. Life then has no meaning, no purpose, no hope. Abortion is meaningless. Killing someone is meaningless. Euthenasia is meaningless. Many remember that in the courts in Pennsylvania that Intelligent Design was banned as a possibility for inclusion in high school science classes in Pennsylvania. I am so glad that I homeschool! I am grateful for the freedom to homeschool my children, but we must be ever watchful so that those freedoms are not taken away by those who want to dismiss religion to further their purposes because we dare to teach views contradictory to their own. At least in our home, I do share different points of view on topics and explain my views and the reasons behind those. Remember that Darwinism was the impetous behind modern public schools promoted by Dewey who recommended grouping children by age and grade rather than having multiple grades in a classroom. Dewey believed that children go through evolutionary stages and should be grouped as such. The older model allowed older students to refresh themselves on material and to learn by mentoring other, younger students who also learned positive behavior patterns from their older peers. This is the model which those of us who homeschool multiple children do daily. We must not become apathetic or pacifists. We must remain ever watchful and advocate for these rights and principles. Some churches are promoting that we are not at odds with the scientific community. Many are not aware that there are those in the scientific community at odds with us who are trying to eliminate religion. If families only send their children to public schools and do not follow God's teaching to teach our children of His ways when we rise up, when we walk, when we go to bed and take children to worship, it will be easy for them to miss out on this and for atheism to take hold of our country even more, with all that that entails - including the devaluing of life. If you happen to have Netflix, Expelled: No Intelligence Required is available for immediate viewing on your computer, or other device that has the ability to download movies on demand. Take the 1 1/2 hours to watch this. It is certainly an eye-opener.
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My older daughter started helping in the kitchen at a young age by stirring drinks. I later gave her her own child-sized wisk that she could use to mix things. She was designated ranch dressing maker for quite some time. She learned to help measure, add, and mix ingredients. She was so proud when I taught her to use a butter knife for cutting bananas. (I want to teach her proper knife skills, rather than the way I learned.) This same daughter also learned to do a very good job of washing, rinsing, and drying dishes - and enjoyed helping mommy. Now our younger daughter started several months ago by mixing drinks. She has also helped mix cookie dough batter. We are working to make her designated ranch dressing mixer, but she still likes to lick the mayonaise off the edge of the bowl a little too much. The younger daughter and I had been sick most of last week. (Still not feeling great today as dd2 is sleeping and snoring next to me.) The clothes in the girls' laundry hamper had piled up. On Friday, I asked if they would like to help me wash their clothes. "Oh, yes, Mommy! We would!" I did a few other things, and as happens when one is ill, I had to sit down for a bit to recuperate from my minimal exertion. I told the girls that as soon as I rested, I would help them wash their laundry. My older daughter said, "I think we could do it," in a very sure voice. I told them that was fine. In came dd1 (6 yo next month) with an armload of clothes and their stool. To the washer she went, followed soon by dd2 (2 1/2 yo) who said, "More clothes, Sissy?" "Yes." "Okay," and back she went for another load. "More clothes, Sissy?" "Yes." "Okay." This process repeated itself about 7 times until dd2 realized that she could save time by simply bringing the entire hamper into the laundry area. (The hamper probably weighed more than half as much as she does.) When the washer was full, I double-checked to ensure it was not overfull, underfull, and that there were not bleeding colors mixed in. It was a little overfull with some too-dark colors. I adjusted that and let dd2 put the laundry detergent and fabric softener in. Later, after the laundry was washed, dd2 wanted to put the clothes in the dryer, but so did dd1. I asked if dd1 thought she could get the clothes out of the washer and give to dd2 to put into the dryer. They liked that compromise. So, dd1 stood on the stool and reached in to get the clothes and handed them to dd2 who put them into the dryer. As I sat in the living room, I heard some thumping and, "Sissy! Don't do that!" from dd2. "But I have to do this to this to reach the clothes in the bottom of the washer!" I smiled. I told dd2 that it was okay. More thumping and handing off clothes, then, "Sissy, I won't put you in the washer and wash you, okay?" from dd2. I laughed to myself at these images of dd1 being half in and half out of the washer and the cute expressions that each had. The best part was, they knew they were being helpful and had fun doing it! Definitely little angels. Now, getting them to clean their disaster area room has been another issue since they would stay in there to occupy themselves while Mommy rested. Anyone with children knows the level of mess a two-year-old can make, knows what I mean. Something to look forward to cleaning when I can bend over without losing my equilibrium. :-S |
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I'm so glad it is September now... so much closer to fall - leaves changing, cooler weather. I like that it is closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas and still have the hope that I can actually get the decorations ready in time. Older dd is wanting to learn to sew. Younger dd is sewing with yarn on stitching boards to practice. At 2 1/2, she is just working on mechanics of in and out through the holes. We had a busy week last week - Girl Scouts, Women's meeting, and many other items. DH had to work 38 hours straight (not counting drive time), got very little sleep, worked another 9 got home and had to go back to work 2 hours later to work 4 more hours, plus extra OT each day, then had to work each day this weekend. He thought he was going to get some rest this afternoon until ds informed him that they had a Boy Scout meeting this evening after all. I have determined that for every new project I take on, two have to be eliminated because there is always a learning curve on something new in addition to an underestimation of time required - or something unexpected coming up as has happened over the past few weeks. I have given up one big project. Additionally, to eliminate excess travel, we are (temporarily) foregoing dance classes and taking them via DVD. I have one project that will be complete as of Saturday. I would still like to eliminate some other items from my plate to focus more on my family. (I guess you may call this a mid-year resolution.) I am interested to learn how other homeschooling moms cope with scheduling of interests with their own families, travel, and so forth. I have tried Facebook recently because of all the comments about how useful it is. I have found it to be fun and entertaining and a nice way to get in touch with distant friends and family; however, for me personally, it has shown itself to be a time vacuum. I will have to limit access to Facebook to weekends or eliminate it nearly completely as I personally do not find it conducive to homemaking and homeschooling. Hope all had a relaxing Labor Day! |
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Hi! I'm new at homeschoolblogger.com, but I'm not new to homeschooling. I have been homeschooling since 2004, hence the HSMom2004. Obviously, not as long as others, but long enough to have some ideas and opinions. Why do I homeschool? It started several years back when my middle school-aged son wasn't making the grades he should have in a class of 6 and I wasn't being notified until report cards came out. I was helping him until about 8:00 pm each night, but if I was blessed with work that provided extra income, he conveniently forgot to bring home his books and his grades dropped again. I figured that if he needed the study time, it was better to just homeschool. We did for a number of years. He learned self-discipline, good manners, and Christian expectations not just from us, but from other friends and families in the homeschool community. The last two years he has attended public school. He is truly growing and sharing that growth with others in the school. They are coordinating a morning Bible study and working on getting a Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter started here. Much to be proud of. The homeschool community has been one of our greatest blessings by having like-minded families come together who see the value of their children and want to teach them so that they can continue teaching God's values to their own children and sharing Christ with others. I also have two young daughters. The older of the two would just now be entering kindergarten if she were in public school, but is too advanced in her reading to be held back that far - she reads and comprehends at a 2nd grade level and beyond. She is also interested in geography and foreign languages and enjoys doing science projects. The younger daughter is 2 1/2. She is learning letter, number, and color recognition as well as her alphabet and counting. I have noticed that most pre-K books just count to 10. She can count to 11, no problem, but after 11 comes 8. It took me a bit to realize that 11 rhymes with 7, so it is ...6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 8, 9,... It makes for a cute scenario. We still practice counting. Both girls love dancing and music. I am more traditional in my homeschooling including Bible, reading, writing, and arithmetic plus science, geography, and art. I'm not terribly artistic, so we don't lapbook a whole lot, but we do on occassion when something we are working on lends itself well to lapbooking. We primarily use Rod & Staff publishers plus Bob Jones University Press materials. We are looking at ordering some materials from Concordia Press for Lutheran-specific items for our Bible time. If you stop by, please leave a note. I'll be happy to do the same for you. Blessings to all of you. |