Child COURT ORDERED to go to Public School

and we are naive enough to think persecution isn't happening today. Certainly we are not persecuted like our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, but THIS is certainly a form of persecution.

The Alliance Defense Fund is reporting today on a story concerning a child named Amanda who has been ordered by a New Hampshire judge to go to public school because her divorced parents could not agree on where to send her.

Amanda's mother, Brenda Voydatch is a devout Christian who has home schooled her daughter since she entered school. Martin Kurowski', Amanda's father, who is not a Christian, believes his daughter should be removed from homeschooling and put into public school because of issues having to do with "social interaction".

The court looking into this case found that Amanda's mother Brenda was using curriculum that exceeds all state review standards, and Amanda going to public school for supplemental classes, and having also been found to be well liked, social and actively involved in sports and other things that keep Amanda involved with her peers.

However, this isn't the end of the story. Despite the findings of the court, an investigator working on the case discovered that "Amanda appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith" and her "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view." Because of this the judge has ordered Amanda into public school.

Now the Alliance Defense Fund is fighting for the parent's fundamental right to make educational choices for their children.

"Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children," said Simmons. "In this case, the court is essentially saying that the evidence shows that, socially and academically, this girl is doing great, but her religious beliefs are a bit too sincerely held and must be sifted, tested by, and mixed among other worldviews. This is a step too far for any court to take."

If this court feels it has the right to take this step...what's next? Will a Christian school be forced to hire a teacher who engages in homosexual activity to bring "diversity" to their students? Will public school districts feel free to ban Christian clubs from campus because they believe there is one way to heaven? Will Christian students and teachers be forced to remove cross necklaces, "WWJD?" bracelets or T-shirts with a Gospel verse because they might improperly influence other youngsters?

Please remember little Amanda in your prayers... and all home-schooled children for that matter.

Update

Well we are at the end of our 6th week. Aidan got his first two certificates of completion. Awhile back I found packages of award slips in the dollar bins at target, each package has something like 20 awards in it. So I decided that whenever we complete a workbook, or a new concept is mastered, or a theme is finished Aidan will earn a certificate. Then when he gets a certain number of certificates (number is undecided as of yet) he will get a prize (also undecided as of yet). His first certificate came on Thursday when we finished the first book we were using for Bible School. He got the second this morning for finishing up the alphabet in English. He's got all 21 consonants plus the 5 short vowels sounds down! He's also starting to put together some digraphs on his own but we don't officially start those until next week.

I somehow managed to get us so far ahead in math that technically we don't have to do any work until Thursday of next week. I don't know how I accomplished this as it certainly wasn't on purpose... So after finishing up the alphabet with the letter X in English this morning we headed out for our first field trip. We had planned this outing to be the zoo since we have an annual family pass, but of course it was rainy and icky out. So, we ended up at the Children's museum to see the butterfly exhibit. I had planned on getting a family membership for $80 anyway and so it seemed like a good day to go ahead and do that, seeing as if we had just visited for the day and seen the butterfly's it would have been $40.

The butterfly exhibit was ok, I wasn't that impressed with it to be honest and we've heard quite a few people go on and on about it. I mean there were plenty of butterfly's and they were flying around but after you climb around inside a 40 foot child, well a few butterfly's don't seem nearly as exciting.

Yep, we were inside Eddie today. You can climb EDDIE'S vertebrae to his brain, crawl through his heart, bounce around inside his stomach and slide out his intestines. As a model of learning through immersion, EDDIE allows children to use their gross motor skills to discover what’s inside their bodies.

The only problem was that the boys were frightened by some of the sounds Eddie made. When you were in his intestines/stomach I guess the noise was to imitate digestion? Of course you heard the heartbeat when you were in the heart, but the part that really got them was when we got up to the brain, it was very loud and I guess the noise there was to simulate synopsis... that's my theory anyway. There was also A LOT of climbing involved, and a lot of dark tunnels, both boys found this pretty frightening and intimidating the first time through. Then after seeing the butterfly's Aidan asked to go back through, promising not to fuss, so Darren sat with Asher and Aidan and I climbed back through Eddie. Not a peep from Aidan, it was like a completely different kid. When we were finished Aidan was begging to do it again. So he did, this time with Darren.

We also explored a bit in the body works exhibit. They talked about the different types of joints in the body, had a skeleton the boys could control by pulling ropes, a game that determined what/who had the fastest heartbeat: bird, elephant, child or adult. Aidan guessed child, it was acutally the bird. We learned how many bones are inside the body-206! There was also this computerized volleyball thing that put your pictures up on the screen and you had to try to move your real body to hit the computerized volleyball, it was quite difficult actually. The also had an x-ray station, which was perfect since we had gone over the letter x in the morning!

Darren and I were both VERY impressed with the museum, and thought that just the few exhibits we explored were so neat!!! Can't wait to go back!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Oi!

It's been busy around here lately. When I last posted we were at the end of our 3rd week of school and now we are the middle of our 6th week.

School is going...
It is either great or it is horrible. Aidan either puts forth 100% effort or -0% effort, there is NO inbetween. Since labor day I have slacked off on the sticker chart. It worked wonders the week I used it though! Hmm, maybe I should take a cue and start it up again?

Anyway most days school does go just fine. There are a few things however that get up my nose like fingernails on a chalkboard. Aidan has this habit of doing his work and then asking after every single stroke he makes if he is doing a good job, but for crying out loud, I can't even finish answering about the first mark he made before he asks about the second. Therefore, he is not allowed to ask if he is doing a good job until he is finished with an assignment. Besides, he knows when he is doing a good job and when he is not doing a good job, I don't need to tell him.
Our school day is cut in half because it's what works for us. Bible, Math and on Friday's Science too in the mornings, then gym and lunch, then we resume and do English and History/Social Studies. We've been at this long enough that Aidan knows the routine, besides this kid has the memory of an elephant-truly. With that being said I've nixed the asking "are we done with the first part of school yet?" Again, he knows the routine, he knows we're not finished until Math, or Science is done. Also, he wiggles. A lot. He thumbs the pages at the bottom of his workbooks. All the time. He plays with his erasers. These things drive me absolutely bonkers, but I see no proof that they are distracting him-just annoying me, so as of yet he still gets these boyish privileges.

We are nearly finished with our first Bible School Book that our pastor Dr. Sinclair Ferguson wrote. The Big Book of Bible Truths 2. I like it a lot, it's fun for me because he uses some of his Scottish phrases, most of the time Aidan is on the same level as what is being taught or communicated, but there have been a few times I've felt it's just beyond what he can wrap his little mind around.

Math is going so well. At this rate he will need a tutor by 3rd grade. He is so smart. Probably around the time I last posted I began teaching counting by 10's. He caught on so fast it was ridiculous, then all on his own he started counting by 5's which hasn't even been hinted at in the curriculum. He is adding and subtracting crazy big numbers and asking me constantly things like "what's 40 + 40 + 9 +9?" As was my question tonight that made me second guess myself. Then little Mr. Smartypants proceeded to tell me that "yes, that is correct mommy, because two 40's is 80 and two 9's is 18, so the answer is 98." Who is this kid and where did he come from?!? We did introduce place value, which I was so nervous about, but my friend Stephanie who teaches elementary school back in Colorado gave me some great ideas. The first time I introduced the concept he stared at me, but he's caught on and is doing just fine with it now. We've also learned pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters and dollar bills. He knows his ordinal numbers, tally marks.. the kid is a math whiz. He loves it and it shows.

Science... ya. Science I haven't done since my last post. Which I still need to write about, I will-eventually. But we had the labor day weekend, so no school the 4th. And then last weekend I decided to trade Friday for Saturday so Aidan could have Friday with Darren before he had to leave for his drill weekend in Atlanta. When Saturday rolled around I completely forgot about doing science. Plus Aidan really looks forward to having Darren home to do Science with so no big loss there. But as I mentioned in my other blog we've been building an ark in the garage, so I suppose that would give us at least partial credit in Science.

English is our longest subject. We will finish up the alphabet this week with X, Y and Z. Next week we start learning Digraphs. Until today I didn't even know what a Digraph was... Awesome, my kindergartner's curriculum makes me feel stupid. Hurrah! Aidan is doing really well at learning the sounds and it seems like he reads better every day. As part of the curriculum he is required to read a short one page story either before or after our lesson, and then I try at least a few nights a week to spend time reading other books we have around the house with him. I think I am going to introduce spelling tests either this week, or perhaps I'll wait to next week, but he's ready for the challenge. His one issue, and I'm beginning to think it's a boy thing, is penmanship. Now, he actually has very nice handwriting WHEN HE TAKES HIS TIME, does it slowly and stays focused. However, he tends to start off doing a good job but by the time he is halfway through he is so sloppy it's absurd. I don't tolerate this kind of work and typically make him erase it and begin from the beginning, he is less then thrilled with this and I think is beginning to catch on to the idea that if he does it right the first time it really does go faster. I also have learned that this is one of the few areas he needs someone "breathing down his neck" so to speak. As I mentioned he typically starts off writing and does a great job, if I stay right next to him and remind him every so often he needs to do his best, and why(because we're supposed to work as if we were doing our work for the Lord) he stays on task 90-95 % of the time. If however I allow him to work alone he ends of redoing his work 90-95% of the time.

History remains my favorite subject to teach him, I can't say enough about the curriculum I'm using, I just love Love LOVE it! So far we've had 3 memory verses. Genesis 1:1, John 1:1 and right now we're working on Genesis 11:9b. We've covered the Creation week. How sin and Corruption entered the world, and how through that the world became cursed but that God made a promise that He would one day send a Savior. We've talked about Cain and Able and how anger leads to hatred and hatred to murder and how because of that God see's the attitude of hatred and anger as the same as murder. We've discussed the Catastrophy of the worldwide flood and how it was God's judgement on sinful man, and that Noah was saved because he trusted God. This week we'll finish up chapter 3 by learning about Confusion at the Tower of Babel.

Social Studies thus far has really just been busy work or fun activities, which I'm fine with, and I think is a welcome change for the both of us.

Russian is going well, he is learning... slowly. He does surprisingly well understanding what they are saying, he has a harder time saying it himself... normal.

Phonics... I don't have him use the supplement as regularly as I thought I would, our days are pretty full and I miss playtime with the boys so tonight was the first time he's done phonics on the computer since my last post. But he's doing so well and his English curriculum incorporates and teaches phonics that I'm not going to sweat it. It's just a good resource to have to supplement with from time to time.

Shewww, I think that sums it up. I will post about our last science project, probably this weekend.

For now here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

Working on his phonics computer program, September 2nd.
It tells you the proper placement of your tongue and everything!

Aidan watching President Obama's speech to students. Now don't go getting your panty's in a wad. I think it was a great speech, especially coming from a secular worldview. I am not endorsing everything the man stands for nor do I agree with any or all of his policies or agendas. HOWEVER, he is THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. The Bible clearly states in Romans 13:1-7 "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God" and thus in my house the man will be treated and talked about with respect. Now that I've got that out of the way, when I asked Aidan what he learned he gave me the following report, "we should always do our best, even if we don't like going to school, and listen to our teacher and have a good attitude." And that's where the worldview made a difference, the President encouraged doing a good job so the students can make something of and feel good about themselves, when a Biblical worldview would be something more along the lines of, yes, we SHOULD do those things, BUT we should do those things because by doing our best we are honoring God. Doesn't mean what he said was wrong, he just has a different starting point, Aidan knows the difference, I went over it with him and all was good.

Reading and Writing and so darn adorable! September 9th.

Aidan showing off his reading abilities to Darren. Poor Darren was so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open.

Sneak Peak.
Boys after first day of painting the ark.


Asher has a thing for balls. Have I mentioned this. He LOVES them. Give him a ball and he is good to go. This is how he occupied himself one morning during school.


Working on our timeline for history. So far we've got: Eternity Past, and the first four of our seven C's. Creation, Corruption, Catastrophy and Confusion.


Coloring in his history coloring book. IT IS OF HIS OWN ACCORD TO MAKE IT LOOK IDENTICAL TO THE PAGE IN THE BOOK. In the second picture he is explaining to himself that it's ok if the colors don't match exactly, because after all they're close as he can get.

The finished work. OCD? Perfectionist? Nah... he's not at all like his mama. ;)

Until next time, thanks for stopping by Iz'achestvo Academy!

Yes, we're a HOMESCHOOL family!