I'm In Love

Did you watch Sarah Palin's speech tonight? She's awesome. I finally have someone to vote for... and if that means I have to vote for McCain too, well... he's pretty old. ;)

Scholastic vs. Homeschoolers

I was flipping through the most recent Scholastic book orders when I came across a most interesting book. It’s described by Scholastic like this:

Schooled : Homeschooled Cap has never watched TV, eaten pizza -- or even had a
friend! How will he fit in at the regular middle school?

I haven’t read the book but I have read the reviews on Amazon. As it turns out, home schooled Cap ends up being the hero of the book but he’s portrayed as a social misfit. The book reinforces all those home school stereotypes that make people give us funny looks when we’re at the grocery store in the middle of the day.

Scholastic has even featured the author, Gordon Korman, as Author of the Month and, here’s the good part, sponsored a contest to be judged by the author. The contest is based on Korman’s new book. From Scholastic:

In Gordon Korman’s new book Schooled, Cap goes to school for the first time.
Tell us about your first day of school this year (one page or less)! One winner
will receive an in-person Classroom Writing Workshop from Gordon Korman!

Here’s our chance to tell Mr. Korman exactly what a home schooled child is like! Let’s flood his contest with entries from our home schooled kids! Give this guy a lesson in how prevalent and normal homeschooling is!

Fine Print:
Deadline: November 20, 2008. Sent to: First Day of School ‘08, Box 714, NYC, NY 10013-0714
Include: Name, Teacher Name, Age/Grade, School Name, Address, and Phone Number. No Purchase Necessary. Only students in grades 4-6 are eligible. For complete rules: www.scholastic.com/clubcontests (though I don’t actually see any info about this particular contest on their site).

This Kid

This kid has the worst life. He's bored. There's nothing to do. Then I give him stuff to do and he doesn't want to do that either.

Spelling was his undoing today. Last week, he did Bible, math, reading, and social studies. Today we added spelling. He was supposed to do one page in the book which consisted of writing his ten words in the word shaped boxes and then writing them again. It was the only writing he did all day. But he acted as if he were dying. Hw whined that his S's looked like 5's and his U looked like a V. I told him it didn't matter but he was insistent that he couldn't and shouldn't be writing all those words. Finally, I told him if he could finish that page, with no whining, in 10 minutes, he could play PS2. He finished in five minutes.

First Day of School

While the rest of the county's kids started back to school today, the homeschooled kids were all at the park...

swinging...

laughing....

jumping...
tie-dying...
eating...

passing and catching....

and, on the way home, sleeping.

Life Lesson

The boys have spent the past few minutes trying to hook their Playstation to the new tv. It's not as obvious as it should be so they're reading the instructions! They're reading, working together, and learning some new terminology. Voila! There's a reward for all their efforts. It's working!

Now, to get permission from Mommy to play. Bwaaa Haaa Haaa.

We've Got Books

The boys groaned when they saw the box waiting for us on the side steps. But I just smiled. The books are here. School can start. I'm so very excited.

Ingenuity or Stupidity?

This is just mind boggling to me.


Adam has been designing amusement park rides in the yard ever since we got back from Dollywood. Today I heard an ear piercing screech from outside, which isn't really very unusual, so I went out to investigate. And this is what I found.


Adam had hooked the dog's chain to the top of the play set. He then used the other end of the chain to chain Evan into that milk crate. Then he pushed him down the slide. Yes, he chained his brother into a milk crate and pushed him down the slide. And they both thought this was a great idea.

I didn't see it but I guess Evan flipped over the side and landed on the ladder? The chain pulled tight and we could not get it unhooked. I had to use pliers to bend the clasp. The saddest part? I'm sure they'll try it again as soon as Evan stops crying.