island school

(island breezes)
Well, Quebeckers like to keep things interesting, non?

NP:

A new religion course taught in schools across Quebec was intended to improve inter-cultural understanding, but so far it is generating deep division as hundreds of parents pull their children out of class….

….Stéphanie Tremblay, a spokeswoman for Quebec’s Education Department, said school boards across the province have received and rejected more than 1,400 requests from public-school parents seeking to have their children exempted from taking the course. The dissenters represent a small minority of the one million children enrolled in public schools…..

“The course was designed with an eye to respecting the freedom of conscience and religion of all students,” she said. “It is not a religious instruction course. It is religious culture. We introduce young people to religious culture like we introduce them to musical culture. The goal is to better know and understand others.”….

Meanwhile…

The new course is also mandatory in private schools, and Montreal’s Loyola High School has initiated its own court challenge. Parents of more than 600 of the Jesuit school’s students asked to have their children exempted from the course, and all were refused by the province.

Paul Donovan, the school’s principal, said much of the curriculum is already taught at Loyola, but not in the “relativistic” way favoured by the Education Department.

He said the course does not ask children to distinguish between right and wrong. “What it essentially says is that religion is just, ‘You like tomato soup and I like pea soup, so don’t be all offended because someone likes tomato soup. It’s really just a matter of preference,’ ” he said. “Religion could be Wiccan or Raelian or any of the new movements or atheism or agnosticism.”

So far Loyola has refused to teach the Ethics and Religious Culture class. “I can’t tell my teachers to teach that course in conscience. I can’t,” Mr. Donovan said.

I don’t think Ms. Stephanie really understands the concepts of ‘parental perogative’ and ‘freedom of religion’ – or for that matter, ‘culture’!

How many more self immolating ‘reforms’ will Quebec endure under the rule of Monsieur Charest?

We’re talking about the right to free-speech and freedom of religion. Basic rights.

Washington Times has an article reminding us how much today’s universities are controlled by the ‘PC’ agenda :

…Young America’s Foundation once again compiled the “best of the worst” academic abuses for 2008. These stories are usually not reported in the “drive-by” media, no doubt to shield school officials from explaining their radical curricula. The Yuba incident tops the list, although it had plenty of competition, as you’ll see.

Transgendered Activists In, Pro-life Speakers Out:

Administrators at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic institution in Minnesota, inexplicably censored the appearance of prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker.

In April, Ms. Parker, the best-selling author of numerous books, was slated to speak on campus about the devastating impact abortion has on minority communities. Yet St. Thomas bureaucrats, under the helm of the Vice President of Student Affairs Jane Canney, forbade the lecture, claiming they felt “uncomfortable” and “disturbed” by previous conservative speakers at the University.

Speakers that passed Ms. Canney’s litmus test in 2008? Al Franken, the liberal U.S. Senate candidate in Minnesota, and Debra Davis, a transgendered activist who believes that God is a black lesbian….

When helping our young homeschoolers choose a university, we should keep in mind whether the school of choice will maintain the same standards of freedom and integrity we’ve been struggling to personally instill in our children. There still are some private colleges that understand what the ‘liberal’ in ‘liberal education’ means, but not that many!

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(Debbie Farmer is an award-winning syndicated columnist. You can subscribe to her monthly email column at FamilyDaze )

Dear Santa,

I’ve been a good mom all year. I’ve fed, cleaned, and cuddled my two children on demand, visited the doctor’s office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground and figured out how to attach nine patches onto my daughter’s girl scout sash with staples and a glue gun.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son’s red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I’ll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I’d like a pair of legs that don’t ache after a day of chasing kids (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don’t flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to carry a screaming toddler out of the candy aisle in the grocery store. I’d also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you’re hauling big ticket items this year, I’d like a car with fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn’t broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking daughter doll that says, “Yes, Mommy” to boost my parental confidence, along with one potty-trained toddler, two kids who don’t fight, and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools. I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting, “Don’t eat in the living room” and “Take your hands off your brother”, because my voice seems to be just out of my children’s hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

And please don’t forget the Playdoh Travel Pak, the hottest stocking stuffer this year for mothers of preschoolers. It comes in three fluorescent colors and is guaranteed to crumble on any carpet making the In-law’s house seem just like mine.

If it’s too late to find any of these products, I’d settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container. If you don’t mind I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely.

It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family; or if my toddler didn’t look so cute sneaking downstairs to eat contraband ice cream in his pajamas at midnight.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the chimney and come in and dry off by the fire so you don’t catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table, but don’t eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours always…..Mom

PS: One more thing…you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

Well, I have eight kids, a daughter-in-law, and almost 2 grandchildren …but I remember when my kids were younger! (Especially in my joints!)

Happy Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

It’s the final few days before the ‘big kids’ get here , and the last few days of homeschool. Almost out of time to get ready for Christmas!

I brought the kids to the Senior’s home, ‘The Pines’, for a ‘Kids with Heart’ session. We decorated wooden picture frames with the residents to hold their pictures which the staff had taken previously. It went rather well. My kids are the only ‘not little’ kids, and were able to help out a bit. They have certain residents that they’ve come to know over the past two years, and I was pleased to see dialogue and real affection . Whenever an opportunity like this comes up I make efforts to participate. The kids expect to be doing things out of their ‘comfort’ zone with regularity, and they also realize that our family doesn’t measure inconvenience very highly against service. Hopefully, this will stick with them.

Anyone else having ‘clutter’ issues?

Robin at Heart of Wisdom has a great posting on organizing the house.  I’m definitely going to need this one!

Getting Rid Of Fridge Clutter

Is your definition of leftover something you put in the refrigerator until it turns green? Ewwww. The official title is UFO (unidentified fridge objects). Do you have to cram the milk back in or move 5 bottles and 3 containers to put in a new item? Have you ever found an expired item that had never been opened? Do you triple stack? Do you have to rush to shut the door before things fall out?….

Its always a struggle here to keep chaos at bay! When company is coming (even if its ‘just’ the boys!) its a good incentive for an extra push!

We try to save our celebrating for the actual ‘event’, so we don’t really decorate until the last week of Advent. The next week will be full of baking and crafting and practicing our carols. My DH does the major portion of Christmas ’shopping’ and wrapping. I help the kids with their ’secret Santa’ ventures (eight kids means they pull names!) and take care of all entertainment and food. It works for us! This year I’m hoping for a real tree (not that easy to maintain in theis weather!) and a new Nativity set.

Next Monday we are hosting a ‘cookies and crafts’ afternoon for some ‘kids we know’ – I think there’ll be about 20 kids (not counting mine) and some Moms. We keep it simple by baking the cookies ahead, and setting out a ‘decorating’ table. One of the little girls is allergic to dairy, so her Grandma is bringing her own cookies, and I’m trying to find a decent icing recipe without butter.

Monday evening is the ‘teen’ night.(16+) Since the three kids hosting it have some overlapping friends there should be about 30 . I’m not sure they’ve planned it well enough, but I’m leaving it up to them….except for house rules, which their friends are already familiar with. My experience tells me that if there is food and music, everyone will be happy!

Then….Christmas! My favourite part is Christmas eve/Christmas day services. We really try to make Christ the centre of our celebration, and we maintain a fair degree of ’self’ control and decorum on Christmas Day. I love it! I look around at my happy , wholesome family and I cannot be more grateful for God’s blessings, for Christ’s sacrifice, and Mary’s ‘Yes’.

I see Christian living in my living room!

The St. Nicholas Center has some wonderful information on …Saint Nicholas! My children look forward to his special day (Dec 6) and the stories about this holy bishop.

Quite a few countries around the world celebrate Dec. 6 especially. Here’s a bit about the Netherlands:

In mid-November Dutch television broadcasts the official arrival of St. Nicholas and his helper Zwarte Piet live to the nation. Coming by steamer from Spain, each year they dock in the harbor of a different city or village. Wearing traditional bishop’s robes, Sinterklaas rides into town on a white horse to be greeted by the mayor. A motorcade and a brass band begin a great parade which leads Sinterklaas and his Piets through the town. Nearly every city and village has its own Sinterklaas parade.

In the following weeks before St. Nicholas Day, December 6, Sinterklaas goes about the country to determine if the children have been well-behaved. He and his Zwarte Piet helpers visit children in schools, hospitals, department stores, and even at home. The bakeries are busy making speculaas molded spice cookies of the saint. During this time children put out their shoes with wish-lists and a carrot or hay, or maybe a saucer of water, for the horse. When St. Nicholas happens by, the next morning children may find chocolate coins or initial letter, candy treats, pepernoten, and little gifts in their shoes. Everyone hopes for sweets, not coal or a little bag of salt.

There are some great activity and craft ideas in this calendar at About.Com:Homeschooling. A few too many for this family to use all at once!

Today’s list:
* Recipe – Miniature Gingerbread House
* Game – Christmas Symbols Crossword Puzzle
* Coloring Page – Candy Cane Coloring Page
* Craft – Cool Cube Card
* E-card – Send this card to your family and friends
* Activity Page – Christmas Tree Puzzle

The ‘Cube Card’ looks like a winner!

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When I was a kid I always looked forward to the new ideas Mom would have for making Christmas ornaments. Here is a site with video instructions! “Instructables” has some interesting stuff, but I suggest adult supervision – just in case.

Laser Cut?

How to make laser-cut Holiday decorations – More DIY How To Projects

(Add site recommendations in comments and I’ll post them)

We are preparing for Advent, which begins Sunday. We will make a wreathe with four purple candles to remind us that we are making ready our souls for the coming of the Saviour. Dad will lead family prayers and Lenten readings every evening with the candles lit. We will sing Advent hymns.

The house will be cleaned and re-organized to prepare for the great event, the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus. Special food and decorations will be made. We will endeavor to not ‘celebrate’ before time.

We will take all opportunities to share our gifts of money and talent. We will include our neighbours in our ‘cookies and carols’ evening, and reach out to those who are far from family.

These are the things we usually do, and they help us to keep focused on the EVENT, and God’s purpose in it.

This story from today, the day after Thanksgiving, is especially disturbing.
Two people were killed in a mad rush to BUY STUFF. Two people killed, and ignored while shoppers continued shopping.

ADVENT CONSPIRACY has an idea of how to overcome the corruption of the Christmas/Advent season that has become the ‘norm’ in our sad, sad, society.

(island breezes)
Parents feuding over whether or not to allow children to wear ‘costumes’ to school Thanksgiving Feast:
(L.A.Times)

….Among the costume supporters, there is a vein of suspicion that casts Raheja and others opposed to the costumes as agenda-driven elitists. Of the handful of others who spoke with Raheja against the costumes at the board meeting, one teaches at the University of Redlands, one is an instructor at Riverside Community College, and one is a former Pitzer College professor.

Raheja is “using those children as a political platform for herself and her ideas,” Constance Garabedian said as her 5-year-old Mountain View kindergartner happily practiced a song about Native Americans in the background. “I’m not a professor and I’m not a historian, but I can put the dots together.”

The debate is far from over. Some parents plan to send their children to school in costume Tuesday — doubting that administrators will force them to take them off. The following day, some plan to keep their children home, costing the district attendance funds to punish them for modifying the event.

“She’s not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear,” said Dena Murphy, whose 5-year-old son attends Mountain View. “We’re tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It’s not right.”….

gobble,gobble…

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(island breezes):
German Family Court rejected the State’s evaluation of the ‘fitness’ of a German couple to parent their own children. The court did not, however, allow them to continue homeschooling – something they had been doing successfully, though illegally, for fifteen years.

LifeSite News:

….The Gorber children had been removed from the family home in January by officials of the Jugendamt, the German Youth Welfare Authority, because the family was homeschooling, a crime that has remained on the books in Germany since the Nazi period.

The HSLDA notes, “Homeschooling parents in Germany face these types of repercussions on a regular basis.” The Gorbers have homeschooled all of their children over the past 15 years. In January, youth welfare officers arrived at the Gorbers’ home in cars and vans to take all the minor children without any notice or hearing. The children were placed in state orphanages until August, when a court allowed a home visit…..

….German law requires all children to be placed in state approved schools, a requirement that has resulted in numerous cases of homeschooling children being removed by the state from parental care. In the majority of cases, such families are devout Christians who want a less heavily secularised education for their children, one that does not include the explicit and anti-family state-approved “sex-education.”

In a landmark legal case, started in 2003 at the European Court of Human Rights, a homeschooling parent couple argued on behalf of their children that Germany’s compulsory school attendance endangered their children’s religious upbringing. They said specifically that the state-approved sex education clashed with their children’s right, according to the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, that “the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.”

Three years later, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the German ban on homeschooling, stating “parents may not refuse …[compulsory schooling] on the basis of their convictions.”

Ah yes, the good old European Union. Can’t wait ’til Cayman gets sucked into their ‘vortex of evil’ through the London mandated ‘Bill of Rights’. Good Times Ahead!!