Delayed Vaxes and Doctor Drama

Posted by Taz's Mom on June 25th, 2009 filed in Homeschool
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Yesterday was mortifying, but thank God my son didn’t notice. We were asked more than once if I was pregnant, what race we consider our child, and then they had the NERVE to ask if we were LEGALLY wed when I said we were married. Uh, excuse me? I bet if I were not in a Medicaid situation, no one would have ever asked me that. How do I know? Because before Medicaid, no one ever had.

We would have walked out at that point if it had not been that my son needs care. He has this weird bone spur type thing on his chest under the skin. I want to make sure it is nothing serious. They cover xrays, so we stayed.

I also got him the last of his series of polio shots. The doctor kept trying to get me to do all 4 shots that he is missing. I told him we will NEVER do the chicken pox shot. We will NOT be doing any mixed serums, either. Then he asked me (respectfully, which was a shocker) why. I then gave him just a bit of my knowledge of vaccinations and their risks. He then says “Autism has not been proven” to which I retorted “Well I would rather not take that risk with MY child”. He respected my opinion! *more shock* After the treatment we received from intake, I would have expected the nurses and doctors to act in kind. Thankfully, that was not the case. The nicest person we saw all day was the one who gave him the vaccine. If she had not been, I would have demanded a different nurse!

Anyway, he came through it with flying colors and no real side effects other than the tell tale sore arm. All in all he had a great checkup. Nothing wrong with him other than that weird bump that is only bothering us, his parents, and not him LOL. Isn’t that always the way?

We are waiting for the paperwork confirmation to get his xray done. He also has to do a blood test because he has not had one since 2004. *We are mostly anti-doctor around here.*

All that said, I still left them a nice little comment on the bottom of the survey sheet they had in the doctor’s office about their service. I even put my name, which was optional. I am not ashamed of my opinion of them and therefore HOPE they call me on it. I expressed that they need to have people more mentally capable of dealing with multiracial children and people who are on unemployment. Here’s hoping they call so I can let them know EVERYTHING that went down while we were there.

Not Mommy anymore

Posted by Taz's Mom on June 17th, 2009 filed in Homeschool
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He has all of a sudden begun to call me “Mom” and say things like “Yes, mother.” I guess my son is truly growing up *sniff sniff*

Trip Planning: Bronx Zoo

Posted by Taz's Mom on June 15th, 2009 filed in Homeschool
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Since we will be moving to the Bronx in the near future, I wanted to see what they had to offer at the zoo. Looks like we will be heading out on Wednesdays.
They have a “do your best donation” thing going on those days. It’s cost effective, that’s for sure. We can plan to do the entire park in 3 weeks and just dedicate time to each section as we see fit. We might not take those trips till October, though.

Simple Schooling Curriculum Contest

Posted by Taz's Mom on June 13th, 2009 filed in Homeschool
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So I just entered a contest to win a free curriculum from Simple Schooling. All I had to do was submit a picture of our classroom, a brief description, and my name/email addy. Easy, right? Voting starts on the 17th so I would love it if you all voted for us. Our entry is here.

DaVinci is planned

Posted by Taz's Mom on May 25th, 2009 filed in Homeschool
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WOOT! Thanks to the fact that I am a homeschool teacher, I get to check out the Davinci museum with my family FREE of charge. From there we will decide if we are going to make it a regular part of our curriculum. We are scheduled to go out there at the end of June. Should be a blast!

Last night we talked about the differences between crocodiles and alligators, then looked over various species of reptile in his Charlie Brown encyclopedia. FUN!

Summer of Science

Posted by Taz's Mom on May 21st, 2009 filed in Homeschool, Science
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We are planning to do a full summer of science. As part of this, I want to include at least 3 trips. One of those will be taken care of by the Y Summer Camp, but the other 2 will be on us. I was looking at DaVinci Center. It’s cheap, close, and has exactly what we were looking for in a museum. I would love to also take him to the Franklin Institute at some point. I don’t know if he could handle the Insectarium, as bugs freak us both out to an extent.

We will also be utilizing his 501 Science Experiments book that his godmother gave him for his birthday. It will be a fun summer of exploration!!!

Review day: Music

Posted by Taz's Mom on April 10th, 2009 filed in Homeschool, Music
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We went over the days of the week and their spellings, as well as the months of the year. We briefly spoke on how many days there are per month.

Then we did the big music review, where he actually remembered all that he was taught that one day we worked on all the different types of notes. He remembered the staff, it’s name, the count for the notes, the names for the notes, and the difference between the treble and bass cleff…

Learning Music

Posted by Taz's Mom on April 8th, 2009 filed in Homeschool
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Going back old skool

Posted by Taz's Mom on February 18th, 2009 filed in Homeschool
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He forgot his numbers. How? We use them practically every single day. I think he just thought I would tell him the answer, though I am not sure how he could ever think I would succumb. He has NEVER just been given an answer to anything school related. Anyway, so I tried to get him to do a few of these count by things with logic and pattern recognition, but that didn’t fly…so off we have gone to writing our numbers repetitively till he remembers them again. Yes, old skool 1-2-3s of it. He is bored and annoyed and I bet you he won’t feign ignorance about that again.

Stop Ogden from stealing our parental rights

Posted by Taz's Mom on February 12th, 2009 filed in Homeschool
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Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:

We previously informed you that David Ogden has been nominated by

President Obama for the position of deputy attorney general of the

United States, the second highest position in the Justice Department.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held their confirmation hearing for

Ogden on Feb. 5. The committee could vote on his confirmation as early

as tomorrow.

Home School Legal Defense Association urges you to immediately contact

your U.S. senator who is on the committee, as listed below, and voice

your opposition to Ogden’s confirmation.

The most important reason to oppose Ogden’s nomination is his belief

that the rules found in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

(http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=6077) are already binding on the

United States under the doctrines of international law.

For background information on this doctrine, see Michael Farris’

article, “A Deeper Understanding of the Threat of International Law”

(http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=6078) in the November/December 2007

Home School Court Report.

This means that Ogden believes that the legal rules contained in the

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are already binding on the

United States, even though this treaty has never been sent to the U.S.

Senate for ratification.

Homeschoolers have long understood the dangers of this international

treaty, which contains the core principle that the government may

decide what it believes is best for each child without any proof of

wrongdoing by the child’s parents. Ogden promoted the use of this UN

treaty in the Supreme Court to reach the conclusion that America’s

courts have the power to overrule state law, using international law

as their guidepost for constitutional interpretation. Unfortunately,

he was successful in doing so in the Roper case.

It also means that Ogden is a proven advocate for the position that

international law should be used to interpret the Constitution of the

United States and bind the decisions of our elected officials.

If this weren’t enough, Ogden has a history of representing Playboy

and other purveyors of pornography in high-profile legal cases. He

also challenged the legality of using filters on library computers to

protect children from seeing pornography. It would be hard to imagine

how Ogden would faithfully enforce the nation’s pornography laws if he

is placed in this position at the Justice Department.

The United States Senate needs to understand right now that the

American public will not countenance the idea of the nation being led

by people who believe that international law trumps American law.

Please call your senator today to register your opposition to David

Ogden.

You can also use our Legislative Toolbox to contact your senator:

http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=6079

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Patrick J. Leahy

Chairman, D-Vermont

(202) 224-4242

Herb Kohl

D-Wisconsin

(202) 224-5653

Arlen Specter

Ranking Member, R-Pennsylvania

(202) 224-4254

Dianne Feinstein

D-California

(202) 224-3841

Orrin G. Hatch

R-Utah

(202) 224-5251

Russell D. Feingold

D-Wisconsin

(202) 224-5323

Charles E. Grassley

R-Iowa

(202) 224-3744

Charles E. Schumer

D-New York

(202) 224-6542

Jon Kyl

R-Arizona

(202) 224-4521

Richard J. Durbin

D-Illinois

(202) 224-2152

Jeff Sessions

R-Alabama

(202) 224-4124

Benjamin L. Cardin

D-Maryland

(202) 224-4524

Lindsey Graham

R-South Carolina

(202) 224-5972

Sheldon Whitehouse

D-Rhode Island

(202) 224-2921

John Cornyn

R-Texas

(202) 224-2934

Ron Wyden

D-Oregon

(202) 224-5244

Tom Coburn

R-Oklahoma

(202) 224-5754

Amy Klobuchar

D-Minnesota

202-224-3244

Edward E. Kaufman

D-Delaware

(202) 224-5042