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May. 12, 2007
Some of my history
Sat. evening
In the late summer of 1991, I started my home schooling experience. I taught my oldest two sons that first year. Raymond was a seventh grader and Paul a sixth grader.
My husband Don and I have four sons. The youngest, Brian and Tom, were four and two when I started teaching the two older ones at home.
After the first year, Don and I decided to put the two oldest in school again. I then taught Brian during his kindergarten year except for the last ten weeks. We had him go to the school for that time to see if their special education teacher could do good things with him because he was so advanced. I wasn't impressed and knew I could do better than the school was doing.
During Brian's kindergarten year, I was teaching Tom, who turned four in October, 1992, to read by using the book Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons. That was a great way to teach him to read. Brian had learned starting at the age of two, but not by using any particular book.
I taught Brian and Tom for several years. Brian went to school at the beginning of his fifth grade year and Tom started school when he entered fourth grade.
Brian was the salutatorian of his graduating class at Clearmont (WY) High School. Now, he has earned his associate degree from Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming. He left today to drive to Alpine, WY, to spend the summer working as a computer programmer for Teton Data Systems in Jackson, which is the same company that Paul has been working for since July, 2003.
Paul is a software engineer. Brian is working toward his B.S. degree from the University of Wyoming, in computer science, so will be attending UW this fall. Paul bought a house in Alpine, south of Jackson, last September.
Brian called a few minutes ago and made the trip from here to Alpine in record time! He got there around 9 p.m. and hadn't left home until 1:30 p.m. It would have taken me about an hour and a half longer than that, at least. He said he stopped for about five minutes during the trip!!
All of our boys are still single. They don't have girlfriends at the time, but I pray they will find the women that God wants for each one.
Raymond works for an oil field company here in this area (northern Wyoming). He turned 29 this spring. He will soon be moving into the house owned by my mother, which is the house Daddy built in 1957 and 1958. That's in Story, WY.
Tom is 18 now and will be graduating from Tongue River High School on the 27th of this month. He is the class valedictorian and wants to write the obligatory speech this weekend. He has no idea what to say in the speech. He has searched the Internet, but what he has found hasn't helped, he says.
A couple of days ago, Thursday, he and the other (four, I think) members of his school physics team, went to Denver for an annual physics competition. The competition lasted two hours. While the results were being tabulated, they enjoyed the free rides at the amusement park where the competition was held. The whole park was closed to the general public during that time.
Around ten p.m., the results were announced, and out of at least 3 states, with many schools' teams from each state competing, Tom's TRHS team won first place!! He said a Nebraska team won second and third places. Or maybe he meant two NE teams, but I think he said one team.
Tom said that this isn't the first year TRHS has won (I think first place) in the same physics competition. This is Tom's first year in it since this is his first year of physics.
When Tom goes to UW in Laramie for the fall semester, he and Brian will be going at the same time. They won't be roommates, though. They will hopefully live in the same dorm. Tom isn't sure what he wants to major in but it appears to be computer science, for now.
That's the University where Don and I met each other. He is a petroleum engineer and I earned my elementary education degree. His parents are retired and live in Manderson, on the western side of the Big Horn Mountains (WY) where Don and I lived until 2000, when we moved to the east side of the mountains, near where I grew up.
I taught in Gillette, WY, for a year before we were married in 1972. Then we lived in Hyattville while I taught in a country school. We bought ten acres outside of Manderson, twenty miles from Hyattville, so I commuted for several months until that school year was over. The next year, I taught in Manderson, about a mile from the property we bought. I taught there until Raymond was born in March, 1978.
We were members of the Assembly of God church in Worland, WY, for quite a few years. Now, I attend the First Christian Church in Sheridan.
Don and I became EMTs in the early 1980s. He helped on the ambulance and was a member of Big Horn County (WY) Search and Rescue and of the local volunteer fire department.
May 13, 2007, Sunday evening
I didn't have time to finish writing this last night, so here is the conclusion.
I never worked on the ambulance, but wanted the knowledge so that I could deal with emergencies, especially in raising my children. I let my two-year EMT certification expire, so a few years later, re-took the course. About three years after that class, I took it a third time, so I was an EMT for six years. The last time was in the early 1990s. Don got his certificate renewed on time for many years, so didn't have to re-take the classes.
During the second or third time I took the class, the instructor recommended that any EMT working on the ambulance have the three doses of the hepatitis B vaccine. He told me, however, that he didn't think it was worth the risk of side effects since I wouldn't be working on the ambulance. Thank goodness (thank the Lord, actually) I took his advice and didn't get the vaccine. Don did, though, and I'm pretty sure his hypothyroidism was caused by those three vaccines, but I wasn't aware of it until the late 1990s.
So in 1998, when Brian was entering sixth grade, the school nurse sent us a letter saying that in order to be accepted into seventh grade the following year, he needed the three doses of the hepatitis B vaccine and a booster shot for tetanus/diphtheria.
I remembered what my EMT instructor had told me, so I called the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), hepatitis branch, asking the man who answered the phone if the vaccine had been improved since the early 1990s. He replied that it hadn't been improved significantly since the recombinant version had been developed in 1986.
Hmmm. That was enough for me to start studying the vaccine subject for myself. I only wish I'd done that before having any children. To make a long story very short, my two youngest sons are exempted (religious waiver) from any further vaccines, and for very good reason.
I welcome any comments. 
Susan Pearce
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Posted by 
May. 14, 2007 - Hi, thanks for the comment
It would interest you to know that just in the 6 years between my two youngest children, 1996 and 2002, so many vaccinations were added that it my youngest was given at least one injection every time she had a well baby checkup. I've learned to use homeopathics to counteract the mild symptoms of vaccination, but I thank God I've never had to deal with any major effects.
I really thought people would start opening their eyes when the chickenpox vaccine came out, but I guess convenience always wins in the end. Public schools in our area now require the chickenpox vaccine with all the others. And based on what I've seen, this vaccine is not effective. It gives milder symptoms, but we have heard of at least one child who ended up with chickenpox TWICE after the vaccination. By not allowing kids to just get it, we're either mutating it or we're creating a chickenpox flu that needs to be treated seasonally.
Peace and Laughter,
Cristina