So, I'm just adding my voice to the poll that Parade Magazine is putting out, asking if Homeschooling should be illegal. Okay, the answer is:
NO. http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_06-01-2008/Intelligence_Report
Luckily, 96% of those taking the poll feel the same way, and that parents actually have a right to teach their children. People, this is fundamental. Take away this right and where does it stop?
It does, and does not, surprise me that California is leading the way on this. A state, much like the state I was raised in (Washington) that is so incredibly respectful of people's rights and choices. But when it comes to kids, both states have a tendency to say "we can do a better job of raising kids than any parent". Hello.....big government??
I'm not even going to go into all the statistics of homeschooled kids, except to say that 2 million kids are homeschooled and they are truly scoring higher on ANY tests than private or public schooled kids. My only advocacy in this is this: the kids are doing fine. And some kids who have what are called "learning differences" are doing more than fabulous at home. Please...this is not about religion or people trying to keep their kids from...??? This is about Choice in its best form. Families choosing a lifestyle that benefits everyone.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Because I really am a Goof....
Embarrassing things that I have done in the just last week:
1. I was trying to fix the pool cleaner. It was stuck on the pool stairs and I thought, "Oh, I'll just yank it by the little octupus-like cord thingy-ma-jig." So I give it a nice yank and the cleaner thing just moves a little. I step back a pace and WAM, SWOOSH...completely and fully clothed I find myself under-water, swimming to the surface. I mean...who stands right by the pool and takes a big backward step?? Me. That's who.
2. Usually, I don't go the movie theater. I don't have the attention span and I kind of freak out about how many people's heads have rested against the chair back. It's creepy (oh, but that greasy popcorn so makes up for it). But I married a media fanatic. My husband could not be described in a thousand-years-of-posts. He loves TV, movies, bad comedy...and he will watch ANYTHING except a chick-flick or the kind of sci-fi stuff (Matrix) movies that I like. I was guilted into attending the new Narnia film by my kids. We went to the cheap 10 AM showing on Saturday...And as I was walking across the parking lot I realized: I AM WEARING MY SLIPPERS! Yes, after my post about tacky dressing, I found myself attending a Saturday popular movie in my fuzzy blue slippers.
3. Kate graduated from 8th grade in a BIG ceremony with a full Catholic mass. Everyone had their huge families there with cameras rolling. So...we are sitting in the pew and two of my kids are bored to the point of poking and whispering. After repeated narrowed eyes from me and threats of early bedtime, the two offenders were still going at it. I guided the loudest one (Maddie, do you need to ask?) up the balcony stairs and to a pew in the back row to sit in time out. As I walked down the stairs, while keeping an eye on Kate at the front of the church.....I TRIPPED down the stairs and fell to the floor. Not only that...oh, because that could not possibly be embarrassing enough, and at the exact moment the priest was giving the sermon...I yelled during the fall "JESUS!!" Yes, I was worshiping and full of the Spirit right in the middle of it all.
I'll be honest. In the first two instances, I really laughed at myself. I do have the confidence and ability to just be in the moment and know how ridiculous something is. But on #3...I really was a bit mortified and felt bad about yelling out Jesus' name...something I am actually not prone to do! Still, had to share. We are only human. :)
1. I was trying to fix the pool cleaner. It was stuck on the pool stairs and I thought, "Oh, I'll just yank it by the little octupus-like cord thingy-ma-jig." So I give it a nice yank and the cleaner thing just moves a little. I step back a pace and WAM, SWOOSH...completely and fully clothed I find myself under-water, swimming to the surface. I mean...who stands right by the pool and takes a big backward step?? Me. That's who.
2. Usually, I don't go the movie theater. I don't have the attention span and I kind of freak out about how many people's heads have rested against the chair back. It's creepy (oh, but that greasy popcorn so makes up for it). But I married a media fanatic. My husband could not be described in a thousand-years-of-posts. He loves TV, movies, bad comedy...and he will watch ANYTHING except a chick-flick or the kind of sci-fi stuff (Matrix) movies that I like. I was guilted into attending the new Narnia film by my kids. We went to the cheap 10 AM showing on Saturday...And as I was walking across the parking lot I realized: I AM WEARING MY SLIPPERS! Yes, after my post about tacky dressing, I found myself attending a Saturday popular movie in my fuzzy blue slippers.
3. Kate graduated from 8th grade in a BIG ceremony with a full Catholic mass. Everyone had their huge families there with cameras rolling. So...we are sitting in the pew and two of my kids are bored to the point of poking and whispering. After repeated narrowed eyes from me and threats of early bedtime, the two offenders were still going at it. I guided the loudest one (Maddie, do you need to ask?) up the balcony stairs and to a pew in the back row to sit in time out. As I walked down the stairs, while keeping an eye on Kate at the front of the church.....I TRIPPED down the stairs and fell to the floor. Not only that...oh, because that could not possibly be embarrassing enough, and at the exact moment the priest was giving the sermon...I yelled during the fall "JESUS!!" Yes, I was worshiping and full of the Spirit right in the middle of it all.
I'll be honest. In the first two instances, I really laughed at myself. I do have the confidence and ability to just be in the moment and know how ridiculous something is. But on #3...I really was a bit mortified and felt bad about yelling out Jesus' name...something I am actually not prone to do! Still, had to share. We are only human. :)
Friday, May 23, 2008
A busy month!
Yes, another busy month at our house. But when isn't it crazy around here?? Just a few highlights of our month:
My good friend, Mahera, had a gorgeous baby girl. Welcome, Hanaa!
Victoria had her 13th birthday party.
My good friend, Mahera, had a gorgeous baby girl. Welcome, Hanaa!
Victoria had her 13th birthday party.
Kate graduated from the eighth grade. She is pictured here with her good friend, Zanobia
Teresa ran for student council and won! Unfortunately, we are moving, but still...she was quite a campaigner!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Orphans in the Earthquake
Oh please pass this around. I know Melody, the woman working tirelessly for these orphans. You will hear her voice on the video
Melody Zhang's website is: http://www.melodyzhangorphans.blogspot.com/
Melody Zhang's website is: http://www.melodyzhangorphans.blogspot.com/
Monday, May 12, 2008
Boot Camp Update: It’s not exactly quitting…
Okay, so maybe it is. I didn't go to boot camp this morning, and I have no excuse, or not really any good excuse. Or, for me maybe it is a great excuse and does reflect my personality: I didn't go to boot camp today for this simple reason: I have gotten out of it exactly what I wanted.
I set out to explore how to ramp-up my exercise routine and how to use "resistance training", which is basically using weights and understanding how to work out your muscles. I get it now. I haven't lost too many pounds, maybe 3 total, but I have definitely tightened up. My arms, tummy and legs are all looking WAY better after 3 weeks, one of which I was pretty sick. I've learned the lessons I wanted to learn and now I'm just hurting myself. My knees hurt for the first time in my life.
About two years ago, even before I had my heart issues, I learned the power of stretching. My skinny best buddy had always wanted to try out a Yoga class. I was talked into a class by Lisette, and was a bit freaked-out because although we did our work on a mat... the floor was dirty (okay, not horribly, but there were two close encounters with insects) and my natural hyperness meant that I couldn't do any of the meditation-like stuff at the end of the (agonizing) work-out. But I felt...loose. And within months I added my walking of 30 minutes. At any time if I abandon the walking or "stretching" (really all the back-oriented yoga moves), I experience terrible back pain. Even after 2 or 3 days. As long as I do a few minutes of stretches and walking every day...I am young and free.
Yoga seriously kicks your hinny without really hurting you. In fact, I had injured my back at 22 pretty seriously, and went from being very athletic to just being "thin" and finally being an "Egg on Legs". When I took this yoga class, my spine became totally free. But the truth is....Boot Camp is just not for me. I've figured out how to tone up my arms and realized an amazing amount of "how to train" tips...but this aggressive, "Just Do It" training this is not my style. My knees hurt in boot camp...my back healed in yoga. My knees hurt in a crushing "you are old and this is permanent" kind of way. This is my personal signal that I am done. I will integrate this great training and quite frankly, flat tummy, and adapt it to my own style. But I can't pound these knees and try to recover for years.
But I will say this....I was walking around tonight after dinner (long story, but I sleep in what I work out in at 4:30AM) with cut-off sweats and a tank-top (never would wear this a year ago) and my husband did this HUGE double take...and said, "Wow, ugly outfit, beautiful woman."
Sigh....
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Breaking the news
After 20 years of living in the "Big Easy", New Orleans, LA, we have made the decision to move. It was a choice not easily made. Three of our five girls cried today as we shared the news, and my heart just breaks for them. Despite the mind-numbing crime (Seven murders just this weekend!)it has been the diversity of people that has kept our roots deeply planted in the soggy soil of south Louisiana. We have made threats for years about moving...forced to send our children to private schools due to being in one of the worst school districts in the USA (less than a 50% graduation rate!) we have stuck with it simply because it seemed overwhelming to actually move our family and put down roots somewhere else.
And then high school tuition hit us. We lucked out with our oldest child..she homeschooled all the way through. Our four youngest attend a private Catholic grammar school which has a huge tuition break for large families like ours. We assumed this continued through high school as well...oh how wrong we were! As of this Fall, our 2nd oldest, Katie, enters high school at the whopping tuition of $8,000 per year, plus $500 for school uniforms AND we have to buy her books. Victoria and Teresa will start high school the year after (2010)...making the yearly tuition & fees for those three kids alone (drumroll please)...$26,4000. For high school. Every. Single. Year. Plus we still have a child in grammar school and another in college!!
So, for the last year we have been going back-and-forth. Can we raise that kind of money? How? What about college? What about retirement? Denial seriously set in. I started the search for public high schools. We seriously considered moving back to my home-state of Washington. Very scary to move across the nation...my work is mobile, but my husband's work is here. Plus he is a Southern-born and bred man who likes the warm year-around weather. My main concerns were getting away from the scary crime-ridden area of New Orleans, but still being in a racially diverse area so that the kids would never be the "token" Asians or minorities. We searched for the perfect place. We really liked Sugarland, Texas, which boasts top-rated high schools with up to 30% Asian population in the area. We spent a weekend there (of course the babysitter got in an car accident with all of the kids in the car while we were gone!) and sadly never saw ONE single Asian person the entire time, nor did we feel any connection to the area. Pretty, yes....but we were homesick for OUR southern accent and our gumbo, red beans, and laid-back people of Louisiana.
We narrowed our search to Louisiana, preferably near enough to New Orleans so that my husband could commute. We had hosted a Russian little boy back in 2005 and I had really connected with several women in a particular area. I eliminated that area due to it mostly being Caucasian. I cannot express how hard we searched to find the "right fit". The entire time I have kept an open conversation going with the girls.
It was Victoria who finally said, "Mom, I know it matters, race and stuff, but all I really want is to feel safe. I don't feel safe here and when I graduate, I'm not going to stay here. It's scary." How heart breaking! Finally, just two weeks ago, we made the difficult choice to sacrifice the same diversity that I continually emphasize to other transracial families, to have a peaceful and safe place to raise the girls. We're moving to an area 40 miles from New Orleans that has the absolute top public schools, but is quite...white. We are committing ourselves to keeping the girls involved with the inner-city art and drama programs that they are now involved in, and seeking out whatever diversity we can find in our new community. We shared with the girl tonight that we will make the move this summer. This has been one of the most difficult decisions of my life. I wish I could be 100% sure we are making the right decision, but I do know that we are making the necessary choice. And that's just going to have to be enough for now.
And then high school tuition hit us. We lucked out with our oldest child..she homeschooled all the way through. Our four youngest attend a private Catholic grammar school which has a huge tuition break for large families like ours. We assumed this continued through high school as well...oh how wrong we were! As of this Fall, our 2nd oldest, Katie, enters high school at the whopping tuition of $8,000 per year, plus $500 for school uniforms AND we have to buy her books. Victoria and Teresa will start high school the year after (2010)...making the yearly tuition & fees for those three kids alone (drumroll please)...$26,4000. For high school. Every. Single. Year. Plus we still have a child in grammar school and another in college!!
So, for the last year we have been going back-and-forth. Can we raise that kind of money? How? What about college? What about retirement? Denial seriously set in. I started the search for public high schools. We seriously considered moving back to my home-state of Washington. Very scary to move across the nation...my work is mobile, but my husband's work is here. Plus he is a Southern-born and bred man who likes the warm year-around weather. My main concerns were getting away from the scary crime-ridden area of New Orleans, but still being in a racially diverse area so that the kids would never be the "token" Asians or minorities. We searched for the perfect place. We really liked Sugarland, Texas, which boasts top-rated high schools with up to 30% Asian population in the area. We spent a weekend there (of course the babysitter got in an car accident with all of the kids in the car while we were gone!) and sadly never saw ONE single Asian person the entire time, nor did we feel any connection to the area. Pretty, yes....but we were homesick for OUR southern accent and our gumbo, red beans, and laid-back people of Louisiana.
We narrowed our search to Louisiana, preferably near enough to New Orleans so that my husband could commute. We had hosted a Russian little boy back in 2005 and I had really connected with several women in a particular area. I eliminated that area due to it mostly being Caucasian. I cannot express how hard we searched to find the "right fit". The entire time I have kept an open conversation going with the girls.
It was Victoria who finally said, "Mom, I know it matters, race and stuff, but all I really want is to feel safe. I don't feel safe here and when I graduate, I'm not going to stay here. It's scary." How heart breaking! Finally, just two weeks ago, we made the difficult choice to sacrifice the same diversity that I continually emphasize to other transracial families, to have a peaceful and safe place to raise the girls. We're moving to an area 40 miles from New Orleans that has the absolute top public schools, but is quite...white. We are committing ourselves to keeping the girls involved with the inner-city art and drama programs that they are now involved in, and seeking out whatever diversity we can find in our new community. We shared with the girl tonight that we will make the move this summer. This has been one of the most difficult decisions of my life. I wish I could be 100% sure we are making the right decision, but I do know that we are making the necessary choice. And that's just going to have to be enough for now.
Inspiration
I know my media-doom-brainwashing comments were a bit frank for some, so I will now add inspiration with the following video of Team Hoyt. This is a dad who was once, as he says in his own words, "old, fat and lazy" who chose to help his son experience all that life can offer:
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