I was going to do a Saturday School, but we are out of glue so we were unable to actually do the project I had planned.
If you have glue, you can do what we were going to do. Make toys. I suggest printing these off on card stock. It really is quite a fun little project.
While you are at it, you can find an old box and make some furniture.
Who needs that cheap Chinese stuff when you can furnish your home with cardboard and entertain your kids with paper?
If you haven’t decided who you are going to vote for, you can at least find out who your brain wants to vote for. This is the most interesting of the political candidate tests I’ve taken. You don’t even have to answer any questions related to what a president actually does. I found out my brain likes McCain marginally better than Clinton, but it didn’t seem to see much of a difference. Poor thing.
This is sad. A real life house of horrors.
A little school choice. What interested me more than the program was the reasons parents gave for participating. Mr. Dunbar, for example, moved his children out of his zone.
He said after-school care was a major factor in his family’s decision.
Who cares about things like quality teachers? Or those pilot programs only offered at certain schools? Proximity to daycare is all that matters. I am afraid convenience drives more education decisions than anything else.
And this is just weird. I knew it would eventually be possible. I’ve been intrigued by this technology since the early 90s…showing you just how long it has been around. I always figured the first application would be some military project, not a video game, but I guess the market still drives some things. Or the military is capable of keeping some of its secrets.
For you visual people out there, check this out: The interconnectedness of the bible visualized.
Oy! And the Carnival of Homeschooling. Have I really been that busy? I guess so. My astute readers have likely already finished reading it before I even got to linking to it, but there it is for any who have not.
Have any more good links to share? Feel free…
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
Dana,
Here is a link to an article that was just posted yesterday that I thought you might find interesting. It goes more with your proposed bill post, so I apologize for being late to the party.
http://www.educationreport.org/pubs/mer/article.aspx?ID=9289
It seems that when the shoe is on the other foot, the powers that be are opposed to the testing and tracking of teachers.
Most definitely. That is why I found the testimony of the NSEA (our state branch of the NEA) last week interesting. They are currently fighting other legislation that would take away local control and our current system of testing which is developed at the district level with the input of teachers and replace it with a single statewide test. Mr. Sears used the opportunity to state that the results of such testing should not be used to close schools or negatively affect teachers or students, including homeschools.
It would be interesting in the current testing frenzy if the homeschoolers and the NEA could find some common ground. Other than protecting the jobs of certified teachers, we really do have some similar philosophies about who should be in control of decisions made in the classroom, ie., the home if we are talking about homeschools.
Thanks for the link!
Query: Which is the “poor thing” McCain or Clinton?
Hmm…good question. I think I was actually empathizing with my brain at the time of writing.
Our public school district has had this “school choice” thing at least since my 15-y-o has been in kindergarten. Unfortunately, they are careful to make all the schools similar in the student body makeup, teacher ratio, etc. You’d really just be switching for sentimental reasons (I went to X school and loved it, or X school is a smaller school, etc.) rather than any good, concrete reason like a newer computer lab and specialized classes.
One *bad* thing that happened as a result of this “school choice” is that when the district was implementing all-day kindergarten over a period of a few years, almost all the parents opted for that, leaving our half-day school with only ONE CLASS of kindergarten. So I guess if you don’t like the teacher you can change schools or be stuck.
And more evidence that the real problems with education have to do with parents and not the system on its own. We get frustrated with universal preschool programs, all-day kindergarten and other evidence that our children are spending all their time institutionalized.
But then it seems that is what parents want. Because they look at these programs as good alternative to paying for childcare.