Friday, August 21, 2009

Winners & New Giveaway & More Randomness

Sometimes I think I'm truly a blond. ::sigh:: As I was busily reading blogs & forums and other stuff I do to waste time on the PC, I suddenly remembered I did not post the giveaway I have for the book, North! Or Be Eaten - the newest book I'm reviewing for a blog tour. You can read about it HERE and just leave a comment to be entered.

And the winner of my last giveaway is.....Christa! (aka The Forest Green). Christa, I don't think I have your address. Drop me an e-mail & I'll get the book out to you tomorrow or Monday.

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Today I hosted my third all day homeschooling workshop. This year it was at my church. We had the Greene's from Homeschoolers of Maine come to do a couple talks for us. They also brought their bookstore which was very cool. I found a very neat Dover coloring book for N about "Famous Trains." I told him he'd have to "color nice" & he spent a happy 30-45 minutes doing just that.

One of the issues that the Greene's discussed today is something that I'm not sure everyone realizes is out there. It's about the UN Rights of the Child. Sounds good doesn't it? Children should have rights. I truly believe that. However, I do not believe that a child's rights should supersede a parents. I do not believe in children having more power than their parents. That is essentially what this treaty would do. It would give more power to social workers. While I'm sure this is not always the case, the majority of the time if an accusation is made against a parent they have to prove their innocence & in the meantime they loose their children. I know that this isn't always the case. I know that there are many times where it is to the child's benefit to be removed from an unsafe home environment, but this treaty scares me - seriously. I'm worried that I will no longer be allowed to homeschool my children. After all, I'm just the parent, how could I know what is best for my child? I'm worried my husband will no longer be allowed to hunt since we won't be allowed to have any guns in our house since we have children. After all, that's an unsafe environment (even though all of our guns are kept under lock & key & the boys are taught safety about these at all times!).

I urge everyone to check out Parental Rights.org. I do not typically get political here at all. However, I feel this is a serious issue that the government is trying to sneak past the American people. Educate yourselves before it's too late. I'd recommend this quick read - 20 Things You Need to Know About the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Dorothy at You Did What? - I now understand far better what you have been working so hard against in England. Please know that you are the rest of the English Home Educating families are in my prayers as you fight for home education freedoms to remain intact.

All of this is making me seriously consider becoming a member of Home School Legal Defense. Are you? Why or why not?

And if you feel the need to leave a nasty comment regarding any of this, just know that I will delete it. I don't mind constructive debate - nastiness - not so much.

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I have some serious decluttering/organizing that has to get done in order for me to start school. I'm really hoping to get that done this weekend. Next week Miss & Mr H start back full-time. Our days will be full of toddlers and babies again for a bit. We have them until December & then have a break until May. It's always fun & interesting that's for sure!

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I'm trying out a lot of new things for school this year. I'm hoping it keeps things fun! Since I'm part of the TOS Homeschool Crew this year, that does mean we'll be adding in lots of new curriculum each month so that I can review it. If you want a sneak peak of some of the upcoming reviews, go check out the Mr. Linky's that are up there. Shhhhhh!

It's pretty exciting around here with all the new stuff! However, it's also pretty overwhelming at times! I know that it will certainly keep us on our toes & we're getting to try a lot of things that I've not heard of before.

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All but one of my siblings are now on Facebook. I think that's pretty cool. Now I just need to convince my older sister! ;-)

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I just popped in Ever After in the DVD player so I'm off to enjoy. Until my next bout of randomness...Ta! Ta!

4 comments:

  1. I completely agree with you on the UN Con on Rights of Child. I did join HSLDA for the first time. With that and the "home visitations" included in Obamacare, I want their protection and I want to support them so that they're there to help other families in need.
    I'm loving all my Crew stuff, too. Though I am having to be really organized. It's going to be a year that I stretch myself and learn a lot! :)

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  2. Glad to hear that the homeschool conference was a sucess!

    You asked why or why not to HSLDA. We are not, early on we didn't meet the requirements as we were very unschool minded in the kids younger days. I know they haven't had those requirements for years now but honestly it is just one more expense. The funny part is that when we didn't qualify we could have easily afforded it and now we do qualify and we just can't afford anything extra like that. I know they do good work though.

    It will be fun to read all your homeschool reviews. It must seem a little like a curriculum addicts dream come true. VBG Not that you are or anything but I think we all have a little curriculum addict in us. LOL

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  3. Holy wow ... what a scary post! I guess it's time for another article, huh?

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  4. Hi Lisa,

    The UNCRC isn't the cause of our current problems in the UK. We've had it for 16 years or something and it's never impacted home-education before. In fact, our HE organisations are talking about using certain clauses in it to help us in our fight to retain HE freedoms.

    It's just this particular Brown government that is anti-HE.

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Oh thank goodness! I'm not here all alone. Thanks for leaving me a comment. It helps that I'm not always talking to myself. Right? Hello?