Storyteller

Storyteller Simon Brooks was at our local library today. The children thoroughly enjoy "live action theatre". Simon is very animated, has a catalog of voices and keeps the children very engaged.

In the video, you can hear my 2 year old giggling. All 3 of my children who attended had permanent smiles on their face during the program. We own one of Simon's CD's: Second Hand Tales - release date 2006.

I would recommend checking out Simon's website to find out where he will be appearing next. He is definitely worth the trip.
http://www.diamondscree.com

Lost Arts

Today is my daughter's 11th birthday. Now, last Saturday, my girlfriend and I took our daughters out to a local restaurant for their birthdays. Well, during the course of the dinner, I mentioned to the other girls how my daughter has had pen pals and inquired if they would be interested in pen palling with my daughter. The next thing I heard was my friend's 12yro daughter ask what pen palling was! I jokingly explained to her that in the days long before email and texting, that people actually put pen to paper and mailed letters back and forth to each other.

This got me thinking about how detached humans are becoming because of advancing technology. The things that are suppose to make our lives "easier and more efficient" are actually making us isolated and irrelevant. We are losing the art of letter writing. We are forgetting how to spell. (Our children are born with ten fingers and toes, not an F7 key, aka - spell check key). We are losing the art of conversation. We are losing the art of handwriting. Most young people can text/keyboard as easy as they breathe, but ask them to read or write in cursive, many cannot.

For those home schoolers that will be taking the SAT exam soon, be forewarned that there is a hand written essay portion. Poor penmanship can cost you a deserving high score and/or possible scholarship(s).

As a parent, teacher and primary example to my children, I am committed to preserving these lost arts. I write letters in cursive as well as email. I journal in cursive as well as blog. I still have to remind myself, sometimes out loud, that
" i comes before e except after c" when spelling, as well as, hitting the F7 key.

Okay, enough venting. Happy Birthday Bug! I am proud of you as a maturing young lady and for getting you pen pal letters done tonight so they can be mailed out in the morning.

Does anyone remember what time does the Pony Express come by? I keep forgetting...............:)

Read Around Town

This morning, the children and I participated in Read Around Town. Read Around Town is a FREE summer reading program proctored by 2 elementary school teachers. Includes story time, craft project, snack and book give away. Ages pre-school and older. Not recommended for teens but they can "hang out" at the library or GCC for 45 minutes.

Today's story was When You Are Happy by Eileen Spinelli.
Afterwards, the children decorated foam cup holders with stickers. And then they had their choice of snack and drink.

This is my family's 4th or 5th year of participating in the program. Free, entertaining and social.....this program is truly a joy to look forward to on Tuesday mornings.

BUGS

The kids and I just got back from a FREE library program about bugs. The nature program was hosted by Barbara Bald. My 5 and 2 year old sons participated in the learning. My 10 year old daughter sat in the back reading a book with her headphones on. My 14 year old son is on "vacation" until the 22nd of July.

My two little scientists loved it a lot and their attention span remained in tact for the entire program. The event lasted about an hour and a half. They got to touch super-worms and hissing cockroaches. There was also a little craft project at the end.

We had fun and look forward to the next program.

Freedom

On this 4th of July, I am grateful to live in a country where homeschooling is legal. I am even more thankful that I reside in a very home school friendly state. But this personal reflection made me curious about the countries where educating your own child(ren) at home is ILLEGAL.
Some quick internet research turned up the following information on Wikipedia where homeschooling is either illegal or generally illegal.

Germany

Further information: Homeschooling in Germany

Status: Illegal

Homeschooling is illegal in Germany (with rare exceptions). Children cannot be exempted from formal school attendance on religious grounds. The requirement for children from an age of about 6 years through the age of 18 to attend school has been upheld, on challenge from parents, by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Penalties against parents who allow their children to break the mandatory attendance laws may include fines (around €5,000), actions to revoke the parents' custody of their children, and jail time.

Spain

Status: Generally illegal

In Spain, homeschooling is illegal. However, the regional government of Catalonia announced in 2009 that parents would be allowed to homeschool their children up to 16 years.^[2

Sweden

Status: Generally illegal

Children have to attend school. Home schooling is allowed when attending school would be obviously unreasonable.

People's Republic of China

Status: Deemed illegal for citizens, but no restriction against foreigner students.

There are no accurate statistics on home schooling in the People's Republic of China.

The Compulsory Education Law states that the community, schools and families shall safeguard the right to compulsory education of school-age children and adolescents. And, compulsory education is defined as attending a school, which is holding a schooling licence granted by the government. Therefore, homeschooling is deemed to be illegal. The Law does not apply to non-citizen children(i.e. those with foreign passports).

However, due to the large population of hundreds of millions of migration workers, alongside with their children, it rarely happens that the government inspects if a child is attending a licensed school or not. Thus, there usually is no punishment to parents who homeschool their children.

An organization called Shanghai Home-School Association was launched in September 2003.^[37]

Hong Kong

Status: Illegal

Attendance at school is compulsory and free for students aged six to fifteen in Hong Kong. Parents who fail to send their children to school can be jailed for 3 months and fined HK$10000. In 2000, a man named Leung Jigwong (梁志光) disagreed with Hong Kong's education policy and refused to send his 9-year-old daughter Leung Douling (梁道靈) to school. Instead, he taught her Chinese, English, French, Mathematics and The Art of War at home. After 2.5 years of discussion, the Education Department finally served an "attendance order" on him and his child was required to attend a normal school.^[38][39][40]