SB248: Withdrawn

Our voices were heard and Senator Cafaro has taken the steps necessary to withdraw SB248--in less than 24 hours!!

I hope the proper changes are made to the proper services that can have an impact and stop this from happening again.

From her FB page:

SB 248 was never meant to be a policy debate about educating children in the home. It was meant to address weaknesses in the law pertaining to child protection. Unfortunately, the true intent of the bill to curtail child abuse has been eclipsed the by the issue of homeschooling.
After consultation with Teddy’s family, we have collectively decided the best course of action is for me to withdraw SB 248, and instead pursue a more comprehensive approach to address the current challenges in the state’s social service and criminal justice system.
It is our hope that this new focus will bring the discussion back to where it was always intended to be: protecting children. I am requesting field hearings to address the impact of current law, government agencies and nonprofit organizations on child welfare in Ohio. I will not include any content related to education in the home in a new bill, or in any other bill.
Through this process, it is our goal to craft a new bill to honor Teddy’s legacy and to protect vulnerable children like him in the future.

For your review, I have included copies of my letter to President Faber indicating my plan to withdraw SB 248 with a motion on the Senate floor, as well as my letter to Medicaid, Health and Human Services Chair Shannon Jones, to request field hearings on the topic of child abuse in the New Year.

Homeschooling Parents: Ohio Senate Bill 248

Senator Capri Cafaro has introduced a bill, Ohio Senate Bill 248, that "requires all parents who homeschool to undergo a social services investigation which would ultimately determine if homeschooling would be permitted. Social workers would have to interview parents and children separately, conduct background checks and determine whether homeschooling is recommended or not. If it is not recommended, parents would have to submit to an “intervention” before further consideration of their request to homeschool."

If you feel strongly against this, please start by visiting this petition and signing it. Then you can contact the offices of Sen. Capri Cafaro (D-32) and co-sponsors, Sen. Edna Brown (D-11), Sen. Nina Turner (D-25), and Sen. Tony Schiavoni (D-33) and tell them how you feel. 

 Another outlet for opinions:
Capri Cafaro's facebook.

Another Resource

As I wrap up planning for the upcoming homeschool season, I want to share a resource I stumbled upon when trying to find material to create a Flat Stanley unit. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/PreK-12-Subject-Area/Arts . 

Teachers share their units/worksheets/etc on all subjects for a small fee.

This saved me precious time and only cost a few dollars.

Just a reminder that I don't need to recreate the wheel every single time. 

Hope you find something helpful there (they have freebies, too!)

Free Summer Fun

Free and Fun

If anyone has kids that are excited about the upcoming(Disney) Planes movie, Lowe's is doing 2 build and grow classes featuring two of the planes; Dusty and El Chupacabra. http://www.lowesbuildandgrow.com/pages/default.aspx

Thinking of Homeschooling?

I will be part of a panel of homeschoolers that will take place at the News Herald office's on Wednesday, June 12th at 7p.

We will discuss why we homeschool, some of the resources we use, and will answer any questions you may have about homeschooling.

If you are thinking of homeschooling or are currently doing homeschooling, please join us!

If there are any questions you would like answered and will not be able to attend the session, please post them here and I will gladly have them answered for you.

Phonics Tip

My kids reading has really been helped by an online phonics lesson that involves the Looney Tunes characters. It gives them several areas with multiples choices where a robot says the letter sound or word and they have to pick it. They read sentences along with the robot, and as we are finding out as we go, they have to unscramble words to make complete sentences. It also incorporates the computer keyboard into the lesson, so they have become very proficient at using the keyboard.

I discovered this program on a living social deal, so when I saw another deal the other day by the same company, ClickN Kids, I grabbed it. It is for spelling and more phonics. It is a lifetime subscription for $17! While it won't have the Looney Tunes characters in it, that is OK. We are 53 lessons into the Looney Tunes one and the kids have asked me to cut out the cartoon content in the middle and only want to do the lessons. They would have never asked me that at the beginning, but their learning style is changing and they want the lessons more than the cartoons. (That program allows you to control the amount of cartoony-stuff in between the lessons.)

It also gives you a report at the end of the lesson to track progress and if 4 or more errors are made it recommends that the lesson is repeated. I have been printing those reports and saving them for the homeschool portfolio.

If you are interested in checking out the spelling and phonics programs, you can go here. I believe the deal is valid for TWO more days.

Lowe's Build and Grow

My kids and husband have enjoyed the Lowe's Build and Grow events over the last couple of years. They got an apron at the first one they attended and they get patches for each build they do. They have a really cute Valentine's Day one coming up. If your kids happen to be Monster Jam fans, as mine are, the one on 2/23 features the truck Grave Digger. They are FREE, you just need to register here.

It's good hands-on learning at the right price! I just registered my kids and thought I'd pass along the info.

Our Goals for 2013

Well, we are a little over 3 weeks into the New Year and we are chipping away at our goals for 2013 as a family and individually for me.

*See 20 movies
* Read 13 books 
* Have a weekend brunch/lunch with 20 different friends
* 13 date nights with my husband
* Visit 13 new places/have 13 new experiences

I've done some of that already. My husband and I had an impromptu date night last weekend that was so much fun. I also stepped out of my comfort zone and went on a large slide at Kalahari. (I do NOT like being enclosed, in the dark, with rushing water.) I can't say I enjoyed it, but I did have a huge rush when it was over and my friend that went on the raft with me said she thought I was speaking in tongues, so maybe I've discovered something else I can do ;)

As far as homeschool goals, one of the things I want to work on is having the kids spelling more words independently. They are reading like champs and have decent penmanship, but they still want me to spell the words they don't know. I want them to get in the habit of trying it first and then after they write it their way, I will tell them the proper way. We are working on that.

Thanks to friends that will be getting married, we will get to show the twinadoes more of our great county and visit the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama later this winter. We will start our lessons about those states in a week or two. I pack an old suitcase (think old school hard sided, powder blue) with books, worksheets,  games, puzzles, and various other things related to the states we will be studying. I've made the kids travel "passports" and have state flag stickers so once we study a state they can get their stamp in their passport.

I hope to get to this blog more often this year and would appreciate any feedback on topics you'd like me to touch on or information you may need if you are starting your homeschool journey.