"What About Socialization?" If I hear that question on more time...

Sorry for the lack of update ;-) It's been a busy (and AMAZING!) Christmas!


Tonight I decided to do a little research on anti-homeschoolers and the points they're set on. I thought it would be good to think of answers to say to them in defense - sort of like home-schooling apologetics ;-D


Anyway, I found this (rather disturbing...) article that luckily had follow-up comments. I decided to put my own two cents in. Here's what I said, and the author's points are in italics before my answers to them.


~*~

I'm 16 years old and I've been home-schooled my entire life. I wouldn't have it any other way. I want to give my opinion. I know people are going to disagree - but that would most likely be the result of a different worldview, and difference of worldviews are the reason home-schooling debates exist. So while I'll back up most of my points with spiritual motives, I'll try to point out some logistical and common sense points as well.

10. “You were totally home schooled” is an insult college kids use when mocking the geeky kid in the dorm (whether or not the offender was home schooled or not). And… say what you will… but it doesn’t feel nice to be considered an outsider, a natural outcropping of being homeschooled.

Actually, I honestly don't care. I know I'm not a geek. I keep up with fashion, I watch T.V., etc. ... but my point should really be, if somebody judges me based on where I was educated, I consider it to be THEIR problem, not mine. Furthermore, as a devout Christian I believe that it doesn't matter what the world thinks - it only matters what God thinks.

9.  Call me old-fashioned, but a students’ classroom shouldn’t also be where they eat Fruit Loops and meat loaf (not at the same time I hope). It also shouldn’t be where the family gathers to watch American Idol or to play Wii. Students–from little ones to teens–deserve a learning-focused place to study. In modern society, we call them schools.

What does being home-schooled have to do with eating meat and cereal together? Do you really think we're so ignorant that we have no taste buds? But anyway... being able to concentrate no matter what your surroundings consist of is a GOOD thing to have under your belt, in my opinion.

8. Homeschooling is selfish. According to this article in USA Today, students who get homeschooled are increasingly from wealthy and well-educated families. To take these (I’m assuming) high achieving students out of our schools is a disservice to our less fortunate public school kids. Poorer students with less literate parents are more reliant on peer support and motivation, and they  greatly benefit from the focus and commitment of their richer and higher achieving classmates.

Not a problem. Home-schooling isn't nearly popular enough for that to take hold. If it gets to that point, well, then you can get back to me. ;-)

7. God hates homeschooling. The study, done by the National Center for Education Statistics, notes that the most common reason parents gave as the most important was a desire to provide religious or moral instruction. To the homeschooling Believers out there, didn’t God say “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”? Didn’t he command, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me”? From my side, to take your faithful children out of schools is to miss an opportunity to spread the grace, power and beauty of the Lord to the common people. (Personally I’m agnostic, but I’m just saying…)

Ooh, this is a fun one.
Psalm 127:4 says "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." What is the logic of a parent putting their arrows into the enemy's quiver? This branches off into an entirely different conversation that I won't get into now, but basically it's safe to say that (as a Christian) it's wrong to follow the world's standards (Romans 12:2). So if (as Christians) we're not to listen to the world, is 7 hours a day of humanistic teaching a good idea?

Now, about witnessing to others. I won't say whether or not it's legal to witness in school, as that does vary by district. But I will say that there are MANY ways to witness otherwise. I'm involved with many extracurricular activities. Those are the places where I witness. And there's things like charity work and mission trips.

6. Homeschooling parent/teachers are arrogant to the point of lunacy. For real! My qualifications to teach English include a double major in English and education, two master’s degrees (education and journalism), a student teaching semester and multiple internship terms, real world experience as a writer, and years in the classroom dealing with different learning styles. So, first of all, homeschooling parent, you think you can teach English as well as me? Well, maybe you can. I’ll give you that. But there’s no way that you can teach English as well as me, and biology as well as a trained professional, and history… and Spanish… and art… and counsel for college as well as a school’s guidance counselor… and… and…

Guess what? Being able to teach myself has been one of the greatest home-schooling benefits I can think of. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a lot more self-motivated than my friends who attend public school. They've even said it themselves. They have trouble getting themselves to do things. I've found that a lot of home-schoolers I know are more self-motivated - it's a proven fact.

Also, please do some research. Most home-schoolers are involved with co-ops. This is where someone can take classes in which they need a specialized teacher to teach them a subject. I take a writing class. I'm not particularly gifted in that area, thus my teacher has helped me get better so that I can prepare for the ACT.

5. As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off. (That’s good enough for #5.)

Sorry. Do people who specialize in anesthetics get 'pissed off' when a woman decides to deliver her child naturally? I could think of more examples, but I'm sure you get my point. You can't get angry when someone decides not to put you to work.

4. Homeschooling could breed intolerance, and maybe even racism. Unless the student is being homeschooled at the  MTV Real World house, there’s probably only one race/sexuality/background in the room. How can a young person learn to appreciate other cultures if he or she doesn’t live among them?

I absolutely despise racism. Again - I'm involved with many extracurricular activities. I know many, many people who are of different race/sexuality/background than me. As for the majority of home-schoolers, I can't imagine that not being submersed in a certain environment doesn't mean that they aren't completely aware of it. There isn't a crucial difference between the two (complete submersion and being aware) and anti-home-schoolers tend to overlook this fact.

3. And don’t give me this “they still participate in activities with public school kids” garbage. Socialization in our grand multi-cultural experiment we call America is a process that takes more than an hour a day, a few times a week. Homeschooling, undoubtedly, leaves the child unprepared socially.

I've touched base on this earlier. You don't have to be submersed in something 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 or so months a year in order to be able to understand and act on it.

2. Homeschooling parents are arrogant, Part 2. According to Henry Cate, who runs the Why Homeschool blog, many highly educated, high-income parents are “probably people who are a little bit more comfortable in taking risks” in choosing a college or line of work. “The attributes that facilitate that might also facilitate them being more comfortable with home-schooling.”

More comfortable taking risks with their child’s education? Gamble on, I don’t know, the Superbowl, not your child’s future.

This is why many parents home-school for awhile and then send their kids to public school. Or they do it all the way through. It just depends on what they feel the need for. If you've come across a home-schooling parent who has obviously (for academic reasons, not social as we obviously disagree on what social requirements consist of) made the wrong choice, I'm sorry. Can't win 'em all, I guess. But I'm fighting for home-schooling in general. Just like you're fighting for public school in general. And there are kids who obviously got their drug addictions and dirty language from being in public school, so... I'm sure you get my point. ;-)

1. And finally… have you met someone homeschooled? Not to hate, but they do tend to be pretty geeky.

There's really nothing to say about this.

I'll reiterate what I said earlier. The main problem behind the home-schooling debate is a difference of worldviews. The majority of parents who home-school do so because they don't want their child to learn from humanistic and evolution-based curriculum. But for a lot of parents who send their kids to public school, that's exactly what they do want. So I think I'm making my point pretty clear. I say tomato, you said tomahto.

No hard feelings here. I just felt the need to defend myself, my parents, and my fellow home-schoolers. Best of luck in your career. :)

~*~

I hope you enjoyed that. My favorite part was when he used "home-schoolers are geeks" for two seperate points. :-)


Happy Homeschooling. It's one of my favorite things about this crazy, wonderful, wild life that God has given me.

It's Been Awhile!

Yikes! It's been almost two months. And I promised to be more diligent about updating! : P Well, I guess now is the time!

 It's officially Christmas time now for our family. I can't explain how much I love Christmas. Everything about it is so amazing! Of course, Jesus' birth is the first and foremost thing on my mind during the season.

It's officially Winter now, too. Well not exactly, but there's enough snow on the ground to convince me, whether or not the Winter Equinox (Solstice?! Yikes, I don't know!) agrees or not! :P

Thanksgiving came and went, and it was great. I can never concentrate on the holiday very well because of the decorating and shopping the next day! Mom, sisters A & L and I got up at 5:30 to shop at Macy's. I got an early Christmas present (although I can't have it until Christmas!) of a brown leather jacket with gold military-style buttoning... I'm soooo excited! It's Steve Madden and it was originally $130, but we got it on sale for $45!! I LOVE Black Friday!

But in the midst of all the materialism, we have to be reminding ourselves of what life's really about. During the season, when all the beautiful Christmas things have the ability to make us forget about our sin and begin to love the world, it's important to be reminded of this verse and to think about it everyday.

 On that note, I'm off. Happy Wednesday and treat it well. :)


xox Emma

October Sky

 I wish Indian Summer stayed longer here in Illie. I feel like it's scorching one day and freezing the other. Today it was a little more on the freezing side, but still pretty out.

So I took Abby out and took her picture.

I love Autumn! :)
 

 

Mums are so beautiful.

Happy Monday.

Chicago Marathon 2010

Every year, my Daddy runs the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. And every year we go downtown to cheer him on. Even though I had to get up at 3:45 a.m. (yes, you heard me), it was a fun day. And he made it too - all 26.2 (and he says the .2 is the hardest part!) miles!! :-)

Chicago is such a beautiful city - It was so worth it to carry my (kind of heavy) camera around all day so I could get some nice piccies!

 This was how it looked when we left the house at 5 am. Yikes.


(btw, these first few pictures aren't good at all - my camera does NOT do well in bad lighting and I didn't want to disturb anyone with the flash.)

Then around 6 am when we got to the city. 

Off he goes! Looking spiffy in his cap and nylon shirt ;-)

The traditional McD's breakfast while we wait for the marathon to start!

Another tradition - we park ourselves right in front of the Bank and wait for the first runners to come.

The bikers!! So cool to see disabled people using only their arms to push themselves the whole way!! WOW!!

There they are!!! (oh, those lights!! Thank goodness for crop. :-P)

There he is!
"Take my cap, it's making me hot!"
;-P 

Ummm...yes. That's a guy carrying the Eiffel tower on his head. Ooooo...K!

 I liked getting these shots of the buildings.

 Then we went on the Riverwalk before heading to another mile point to see if we could spot Dad. This was my favorite picture of the day above, and a close second below.

 I got REALLY grouchy after that. Low blood sugar.. so we all got some Starbucks.

My favorite part of Chicago - the Lakefront. Less crowded and closed in. I love Chi-town, but I could never live there, it's too busy. But maybe if I lived on the Lakefront.

I liked seeing the sunlight through the trees - and playing with the 60's edit on Picnik. ;-)

 My parting gift to you. This was so encouraging to see. :)


Tomorrow I'm leaving to visit brother E at college, 9 hours away (with no iPod, still - yikes!!) so please pray that we would all be safe. :)

Psalm 94

Those are my 3 favorite verses from one of my new favorite passages, Psalm 94. I discovered it the other day and loved it. Weird, because I've read all the way through Psalms, and it never particularly stuck out to me. Hmm. But it did last night, and I'm going to try and memorize it. I don't memorize scripture for the sake of feeling more "holy" or "diligent" (that's too legalist for me), but because I like to have these things on hand when I need an encouragement and I don't have a Bible on hand. Those times come a lot, I've realized. :)

xox

***ETA***
Until I published this post I didn't realize how much the orange blog template and the purple graphic designs HORRIBLY clash!!! Oops!!! :-P

Streams of Consciousness

Who hates being sick? I know I do. My Mom told me that when I was little, I would get mad every time I got sick. I'm just not a lay around, watch T.V. all day kind of person. Sure, I like to do that stuff every once in awhile, but I also love to take walks and listen to my iPod on full blast. And not to mention it's Indian Summer, my FAVORITE season (although I guess it's not technically a season, but it is in my mind). October is arguably my favorite month, at least as far as the weather goes. Not a fan of Halloween, though. I hate the origins of that holiday. Oh well. Anyway, while we're sorta-kinda on the subject of my iPod, I have a lovely story. I left mine at Oasis (youth group on Wed. nights) because I have a special playlist that we play often over the speakers during fellowship as background music. I left it there and texted my (dear, sweet) friend R and asked her to bring it home. Well, my (dear, sweet) friend left in her pocket and her Mom washed those pants and poor iPod has met its demise. Bye-bye, iPod. You were well used and well loved. My poor (dear, sweet) friend R. I felt terrible for her when I heard the news. It's really no one's fault. I was being forgetful, R didn't know her Mom was going to wash those pants, and R's Mom didn't know those pants had my iPod in its pocket. Ah well, such is life. I'll be getting a new one, for sure. I'm really hoping to get this one. Isn't that nice? I LOVE the color. The 5th generation nano's pink was a hot pink, which I don't like at all. 

Anyway, right now I'm listening to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Can I even begin to express my love for these movies and books? Seriously. I think it's safe to say they've changed my life. I can never, ever get sick of the films, the books, or the music. Ahhhh, the music. Howard Shore is a genius. Right now, "Breaking of the Fellowship" is playing. ::happy sigh:: Speaking of LotR, the other day Mom and I were talking about heaven and I told her I hope that Heaven looks like Rivendell. Although I know it'll be INSANELY more beautiful, considering Rivendell is a place conceived by fallen human minds. I can't wait. On a more awkward note, Mom wondered out loud if we're going to be naked in Heaven. Ummmmmmm. That makes too much sense. No lust, no shame, right? And of course that's how it was in the Garden of Eden. Who knows. Anyway... ::shakes awkward picture from mind:: 

I'm eating granola right now, and it's pretty filling which is probably a bad idea right now since Mom's having Minestrone Soup ready in like, a half hour. Yuummm. Just what I need right now, hot soup. :-) Granola aside, I'll eat the rest later. Speaking of consuming, I've been drinking so much water I'm pretty sure it'll come out of my pores. Typical sick Emma. Speaking of sick Emma, something that really seems to work for me is eating raw garlic. I did that today and yesterday. It's worked in the past, but let me tell you, UGH. And it really does come out of your pores.

So, if you're even in Chicagoland, I strongly recommend you visit Downtown Geneva (about an hour west of the city). It's one of my favorite places in the world. Go to Graham's 318 (the most amazing chocolate fondue), get some clothes at Savannah Rose, get a Hot Apple Blast from Caribou, visit all the antique shops and there you have a completely perfect Fall afternoon. Mom and I did that yesterday (minus Graham's and SavRose) and although I'm sure the fresh air was good for my cold, I walked around and pushed myself too much and it had a bad effect. :-/ Oh well, it was definitely worth it. The funniest part was when we were about to go into Caribou and I saw my Pastor's son, Jackson (remember this post?) through the glass. He was there with his Momma and his two siblings. What a nice surprise! Here's a picture of him more recently, in case you were wondering: 

   
 What a cutie patootie. Oh, speaking of cute, I found a new Etsy shop to fawn over. I especially love that hedgehog and owl - I think I'll ask for it for Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, I'm so excited that a) the day is only 84 days away; b) the actual season (for my family, anyway) starts in only 55 days, and c) my parents said I could have a Christmas party for all my youth group friends. Yay!

Enough streams of consciousness for now. By the way, I ate the rest of that granola. I couldn't resist. And I'm still hungry. Minestrone soup...yummy :-)

Have a great weekend!

Poor Willie.

 

Our Dog, Abby

 This morning, I woke up feeling like I had a head cold coming on. I've been feeling like that for weeks now because of allergies. I ALWAYS get them this time of year. Ugh! But this morning was worse than usual. I went down and sat on the couch in my parent's room. Abby came over, jumped up next to me, looked up at me so sweetly and laid her paw on my leg. Then she laid her head in my lap and looked up at me a couple times. Isn't it funny how animals and little kids just sense when things aren't right? I love our dog, she's just the best! :-)

Her only flaw - considering she's beautiful, sweet and VERY smart - is that she's extremely high-strung. Especially when we take her on walks and when she's in the car. See? :-P The funniest thing happened when we put her in Dog Training School. She barked herself until she sounded hoarse and her eyes were bloodshot. They ended up asking us to remove her from the class because she needed a private trainer. Um, WOW. xP

Now her theme song is that song from Grease, but it goes "Training school kick-out...no graduation day for you, training school kick-out..." LOL. :-)

Pictures From Canada

S

So, ever since my Dad was little (we need not reveal the year...) his side of the family has owned a small cabin, on a remote island in Lake of the Woods, Ontario. I've been vacationing there since I was a baby. It's one of the most beautiful place in the world, to me anyway (:


Me, Mom, Dad and brother E went there at the beginning of August. I don't know why I haven't posted about it until now - didn't get around to it. I need to be more diligent in updating my blog!! I know that years down the road, I'll be really glad that I did.


Anyway, the picture above is of the "Mouse House", where we stopped for cheese. (We live in the Chi-town area, so we go straight north.) Normally we stop at "Humbird" cheeses and we have for I-don't-know-how-many years, but this time, we left a full 12 hours later than usual (at 6 pm rather than 6 am) so Daddy could get in a day of work before taking off.


Here is the place we stop for doughnuts, in Minnesota. If you're ever near Orr, go!! I don't even LIKE doughnuts (I know, I know) but I LOVE these. P:
 

Then we were in Canada! Here's all my favorite Canadian candy.

Ahhhh, here's the cabin. Isn't it so pretty? It's an eight-mile boat ride to our island. Nice and rural ;-P The waves made our boat go up and down. It was so much fun! Small pleasures :-)

This is the view from our cabin. I wish the picture was bigger but that's okay. I may be a little biased, but I do think we have the best view in all of Lake of the Woods. :-)

Inside our cabin. I slept on that futon over there. The nice thing about not having as many people staying in the cabin is being able to choose a better sleeping place! (sister L had to work/go to Cosmo school and sister A and bro-in-law J also had work. We missed them.)

View from one side of the island.

This was the first morning, when I took my bible and devotional notebook down onto the front dock. It was such a pretty time!

One of my favorite things to do in Canada - catch crayfish. They're SO fun. :-)

I caught a total of 5 fish and this was the only good picture ;-P Sadly, they were all about that size and no bigger. Although I think Daddy was more bummed about this then I was. Hah!

Canadian Sunsets are the best.

The coffee that makes my existence that much more worthwhile. :-)