"These are terrible reasons"

I recently ran across this article from a blog called  ChildrensMD titled "18 Reasons Why Doctors and Lawyers Homeschool Their Children." The article was a coming out by Kathleen Berchelmann, M.D. about how she was going to homeschool her children. She goes through the first part of the article explaining how unhappy she is with the status quo in her life with regards to her kids education. When I read this article I was immediately taken back by some of the 18 reasons that she listed for homeschooling her kids.

http://childrensmd.org/uncategorized/why-doctors-and-lawyers-homeschool-their-children-18-reasons-why-we-have-joined-americas-fastest-growing-educational-trend/

Before I begin my rebuttal, remember what place in life I am at right now. I am a school teacher, an elementary school teacher at that. My bread and butter is in public education and I see the ramifications of proper and improper education on a day to day basis. My view point is skewed, so is yours. Also my viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

My green highlights are the lines that spoke to me, and the yellow highlights are my comments/sarcasm/criticism.

1)      We spend less time homeschooling each day than we used to spend driving.  With four kids in four locations last year (including a newborn at home), school drop-off and pick-up took four hours, on a good day.  We’d get home at about 4:30 and still have homework, music practice, sports, chores, dinner and bath to fit into the 4 hours before bed.  Now we spend about four hours per day homeschooling, instead of four hours in the car. (That's comforting, because those schools over in Japan are spending 10-12 hours a day teaching and learning. Last time I checked we were 17th, they were 3rd.)

2)      We can’t afford private education.  Even on a doctor’s salary, private education has become unaffordable, especially for larger families.  Which choice would you make: save for college, save for retirement, or pay private school tuition?  Few families can afford for all three, and most can only afford one.  As educational debts loom larger for each successive generation, this financial crunch will only get worse. (I agree that as you get more kids, the cost of life increases...no one is going to debate you on that. However generally if you run the numbers, the amount of money that you spend on a quality daycare for a working family is comparable per month to how much you would pay for monthly tuition. And the private school that I researched in this situation offers financial aid.)

3)      Our kids are excelling academically as homeschoolers.  Homeschooling allows us to enrich our children’s strengths and supplement their weaknesses. The kids’ education moves as fast or as slow as required for that particular subject area.  They are not pigeon-holed and tracked as gifted, average, or special needs. (By your standards, there are professionals who have spent most of their career accurately diagnosing strengths and weaknesses. I don't claim to be a doctor, nor do I try to play one at home.)

4)      Homeschooling is not hard, and it’s fun!  We bought a “box curriculum” from a major homeschool vendor, and all the books and the day-by-day curriculum checklist came in the mail.  We have a lot of fun supplementing material through YouTube and online educational sites like Dreambox, Khan Academy, and others.  Our kids do about half of their math online.(Enough said.)

5)      Use whatever public school services you like.  Need speech therapy, the gifted program, or remedial academics?  Homeschooled kids are still eligible for all these services.  Some homeschoolers come into public school daily for “specials” like art, music, PE, or the school play.  Your kids can even join high school sports teams once they are old enough.  Our kids are still in sports and scouts sponsored by their old schools. (This a vague generalization in my opinion.)

 6)      I like parenting more, by far.  As a mom of school-aged kids, I felt like my role as parent had been diminished to mini-van driver, schedule-keeper, cook and disciplinarian.  And there was no mercy from the schools– six minutes late for pickup and they’d be calling my husband at work, unpaid 5 cent library fine and they’d withhold my child’s report card.  Every day I’d unpack a pile of crinkled notice papers from three backpacks and hope that I didn’t miss the next permission slip.  I was not born, raised and educated to spend my days like this.  Now, I love being a mom.( I understand this bullet point and do sympathize, but it reads more like whining because you don't like to adhere to authority other than your own.)

7)      Our family spends our best hours of each day together.  We were giving away our kids during their best hours, when they were rested and happy, and getting them back when they were tired, grumpy and hungry.  I dreaded each evening, when the fighting and screaming never seemed to end, and my job was to push them through homework, extracurriculars, and music practice.  Now, our kids have happy time together each day.  At recess time, the kids are actually excited about playing with each other! (We have quality time each evening, and we make sure that that time is precious and protected.)

8)      We yell at our kids less.  Homeschooling forces us as parents to maintain a loving authority in the household.  We stopped spanking our kids.  You can’t get your kids to write essays or complete a large set of math problems if you don’t have their respect and obedience.  Spanking and corporal punishment establish fear, not effective, loving obedience. (I believe I have a loving authority in my household.)

9)      Our kids have time for creative play and unique interests.  Once my kids entered school, they seemed to stop making up their owncreative play together.  They didn’t have time for creative play during their busy evenings.  Now they build forts and crazy contraptions, play dance parties, and pursue their own unique interests.  My eight-year-old has taken up computer programming and taught himself how to play the organ.  My six-year-old is learning to cook. (Okay but will she be able to write about cooking in APA sytle for her college essay?)

10)   We are able to work on the kids’ behavior and work ethic throughout the day.  My son’s poor work effort at school was nearly impossible to address.  The teachers didn’t have time to make my son repeat work they felt was average quality.  We wouldn’t see the work until days after it was completed.  Finally, we’ve been able to push him to his full potential. (Trust me, the teachers want to help him realize his full potential, he has too want it too.)

-john

Cullen's first ER Trip

On October 19, 2012 it was Cullens last day at Kids R' Kids. We had decided that we were going to move Cullen to Cherita's where Addilynn was starting off at. It was both an economical and time saving choice but we really were satisfied with the move. I had picked up Addilynn who was about 3 months old from Cheritas when I pulled out the driveway and got a call from Corrie saying that Kids R' Kids had called and that Cullen was hurt. They said he might need stitches. I raced over to KRK and picked him up and looked at his hurt. It was long but not too deep. We decided that we would meet at the Nite Light Emergency Pediatric Clinic to get some sort of idea of what we were dealing with. When we got there and were able to be seen, the nurse before she even started writing down our information for the doctor or P.A. on call said that they couldn't do anything for it there because of location of the wound. It wasn't that it was terrible it was just that it was in a place that was too mobile and they would have to sedate Cullen. This wasn't something that they were equipped for. Really? They recommended we go to TExas Childrens Hospital to be seen. This was not the information that we were excited to hear so we ended up spltting up and Addilynn went home with Corrie and I went on to TCH with Cullen. He was in great spirits but we hadn't ate yet. I should of ate at that moment with Cullen knowing the night that we had ahead of us. We prayed real quick for swift decisions and for Cullen not to be in pain. We packed up the diaper bag and headed on down to TCH.

This was my first time to an emergency room really in my life.  I have never had anything major, and anything that I really ever had to be in the hospital for was minute and I was out in the same day.  When we got there, which traffic downtown in the Med Center (terrible), we finally figured out where to park and how to get to the ER. I walked down the long corridor and they had us check in at a station where I had Cullen in umbrella stroller at this time. I filled out the paper work and about 20 minutes later our name was called. They took us to a back room where we able to get some initial vitals and have a nurse check the wound. I thought we were going to be in and out at this point only to find out that we were being triaged and that they were assessing us. We needed a stitch or two, but we weren't emergent so she gave me a 3-4 hour window before we would be seen, and told us that ever so wonderful line of "You can't eat food until after your seen." This would make the night worse. I headed out to the main lobby and was told that they would call us when they could see us. I overheard other people call out number of cases that were waiting to be called at 37. I figured that we would be here a while.

It didn't help that it was the first real cold spell that we had gotten since last winter so the waiting room was really cold, especially with the electronic door. I found a space for us to sit at and the next 3-4 hours you could find us:

1. Pushing around the stroller trying to stay warm.
2. Watching Netflix episodes on the iPhone but trying to not use too much of my battery which was at 47% when we came in. 
3. Looking at anything that had the alphabet in it and seeing if we could name the letters.
4. Watch episodes of Spongebob Squarepants with a bunch of kids that obviously had flu.

However, the only thing we couldn't do was go anywhere near the food cart. I had to suppress my hunger, and distract Cullen at the same time. This was definitely a God thing.

Around 1:00am, a near 4 hours after we had been "triaged" we were called back. Bear in mind, I hadn't gone to the restroom in 12-13 hours myself but was needing to make a call.  When I met the nurse that was getting us to our room, he offered to distract Cullen with some stickers (a great idea) while I found a restroom. When I came back he was sitting on a hospital bed, Cullen was in a full on sticker and coloring mode. He had no recollection of splitting his chin at that moment. He was euphoric. 

The nurse took some information, created a timeline our events that night and then gave us our marching orders of waiting until the ER doc could come over. This was about 1:30 and by that time my iPhone was dead. I had no way of getting ahold of Corrie and had to make the decision on my own for my baby. That was definitely a "big boy" moment for me. 

About 2 hours later, with Cullen resisting wanting to walk around, pick at his chin, or trying to eat anything we finally saw another nurse who took his vital. The actual doctor came in about 3:45am and looked at the chin and said "Ah, we can put some glue on it and that should work." I advocated for my child in that the Nite Light Pediatric doctor had told me that it was in a tricky enough spot that she thought it needed stitches. She didn't seem to think that this was the case and said that they would come back and do the glue in a bit. I was a little dumbfounded, but hey I only went to school for 6 years. 

About 30 minutes later, around 4:15am the doctor came in and said "Looking at it again, I think we might go ahead and do the stitches." Thanks Doc!

They gave Cullen an anesthesial liquid that was supposed to knock any child out so that they can do the procedure about 15 minutes later. My child decided he was hulk and was going to stay awake but be super loopy (which at 4:45-5:00am in the morning was frickin hilarious).  They also cleaned the wound with some liquid pump saline which Cullen being so hungry at that time was trying to stick out his tongue and lick at the same time. Poor baby was soooooooo hungry.

The doctor, who was all of 4 ft 6 inches had her nurse friend that was about 6'3" come in and be the muscle man to hold Cullen down. The man was trained in the art of child restraint apparently because he was able to convince Cullen to put himself in what was supposed to be cape but was more like a straight jacket. He angled Cullen and they had numbed it so hard that he didn't feel a thing, but in his loopy state didn't like being restrained. They eventually got 3 stitches in him and by about 5:15am we were done with our procedure. 

They discharged us about 5:30am and gave us a nice little package of papers and told us to be on our way. They were nice and gave Cullen a turkey sandwich and some apple juice which he ate up real quick. 

When we got home about 6:00am I just crashed on the couch for a while while Corrie talked to Cullen. I am sure he bounced back around noon or so that Saturday, but I didn't get up until about 3:00pm. It was at that point a wasted weekend, but I didn't care because I had taken care of my little man.

A Day At The Movies

Popcorn and Diet Coke in hand

 I took Cullen to the movies today to see "The Amazing Spiderman". The local AMC was showing a noon "Bring Your Baby" showing of the movie so I took Cullen. We geared up, went to go get popcorn and a diet coke, and sat through the movie. I found out he'll do remarkably good if you let him look at a random Mickey Mouse episode on our phone while the movie is building its story line and then he naturally gets interested in it after a while.

Sleeping after movie crouched into our naptime.

July in Pictures

July 2012 from John Portier on Vimeo.

"This is for everyone"

Probably the most overlooked part of the opening ceremonies was not just that Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the internet sent a very anti-SOPA message. It's that he sent that message on a NEXT Cube. NEXT was the company that Jobs created after his exile from Apple in the 90's.

College Football Uniforms

I'm a massive fan of college football, I also like the blog UniwatchBlog. The blog covers a lot of the aesthetics of sports uniforms. Without checking out their site I have noticed over the last couple of days that a lot of colleges are unveiling their uniforms for next year. I think there must of been a huge sponsor shift over the summer.

Here are 3 that are on my radar, and my analysis:

Nebraska:

The B1G conference newest addition has one of coolest uniforms that I have seen in a while. I really like the huge "N" in the middle of the uniform and the number on the shoulder blade where the Captians "C" normally is. This is a departure from most jerseys that you normally see.

Update: Apparently this is a 1-off jersey for the home opener, but I think they should keep it all season. It's pretty cool.

Northwestern:


I'm not going to say that not being able to find a video on the uniforms is major bummer, but come'on Under Armour, get it together. NU did a good job with the uniforms in keeping them in line with the NU tradition and colors. The stripe across the middle is a thowback to way back (circa 1950's) but still looks legit with the purple.

Texas A&M:

I'm a homer, I won't lie, but I'm still undecided about the new Aggie look for 2012. There is certainly a wow factor in these uniforms and aren't outlandishly a compete change. I do have two knocks though, I'm not a friend of the compression sleeves  being that long on the arm and having logos that are representative of the university. It doesn't make sense to the look. I am also over the logo being put together while the hands were put together. It's been done, move on.

Addilynn's Birth Story (as told by Dad)

I didn't think that our second daughter would ever come. Our first child, Cullen, had came 5 days before his due date and we were past that last Tuesday. I honestly thought that she would be here a week after her due date and still in mommies tummy. I also thought that we would have time to get ready. Both of these proved to be untrue!

On Saturday July 21st I got up in the morning and went on my Saturday long run with Fort Bend Fit. It looked like we were going to have a rather uneventful day. I finished my four mile run and came home and showered up. Cullen hadn't woken up yet and Corrie was still resting. I went and played a little on the computer as I was trying to get an idea of where to go on some of my work ideas for next year.

We got Cullen up about 9:30AM as he was sleeping late because we had had a movie night the night before with him. This has been a fun tradition of ours that I hope to do in the future. When Cullen got up he was rather fussy and didn't want to do much of antything we had asked him to do. We know that he is of age that he can understand and follow our directions so when he continued to do things that we asked him not too we decided to send him back to his room for an early nap. We were suprised to see that he would go down for one, but he must of still been tired.

Corrie went for a nap, as did I but I didn't end up napping that long. I got up about 1:00 that afternoon and went to go update our budget. I noticed that Corrie had gotten up but was plugging in her iPhone earbuds and I assumed was going to watch some Netflix on her phone.

About 30 minutes later she comes to me and says "Hey, I'm having contractions." She showed me that that they were about 10 minutes apart. I started making phone calls to put things in place. We would wake up Cullen from his nap, take him to our friends The Bedo's, and would go on to the hospital to see if this was real.. WHen i realized that we had everything and had gotten to the Bedo's, Corrie contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart.

When we got to the hospital it was very anticlimactic as we told the nurses that we thought we were about to have a baby. When we got into a room and the nurse was able to check Corrie out and see that she was about 4cm dilated we were told that we would be staying. We had to wait for Corrie to get lab work from the doctor so that she could get the epidural. I thought that that might not ever come with her going through those intense contractions but they had to clearance from the lab work.

The nurses then began to do their pre-work checkin information but it was rather interesting because they kept asking these questions that were so preposterous that it made you wonder if anyone had ever answered yes to them. They hurried through the questions when they realized that Corrie was ready to push and push hard. They called the doctor and we didn't end up getting Dr. Le who we had been working with this past nine months but rather his associate Dr. McDonald who is a member of our church. I really liked how that worked out by the way.

When all the nurses and doctor came in and it was go time for us I was excited. I had been told to be participative and helpful and to experience everything with Cullen, but the doctor and the nurses were completely opposite with Addilynn on this. I was amazed at how fast she came. We got to the hospital around 3;00 PM and have Addilynn by 5:50 PM.

That night was cool because when we gave our families the notice that we were going to be in the hospital. My mom had picked Cullen up from the Bedo's and was hanging around town. Corrie's mom and grandma, and aunt were on their way up from Victoria. It all kind of worked its way together that Corrie and I got to have our families in the delivery room about an hour and a half after Addie's birth. I can't tell you how awesome that was to have everyone there. It was great that it all happened that way and that our family could be there for us. Addilynn had a low birth temperature so they had her under a tanning bed essentially to warm up her core temperature. It worked out great because all of our family could see her.