Comments

Episode-1771- Expert Council Q&A for 4-22-16 — 12 Comments

  1. Can you use fake trees in the desert to provide shade for plants until the real ones are bigger?

  2. My mother has a sourdough starter that my great grandmother passed down through the generations. She has made everything from biscuits to pancakes to bread. Its been a great starter even though its been “growing” since the 40’s. Just wanted to write this to pass on a trick that assists with the growth of the starter: Use potato water instead of plain water when you are mixing your ingredients. We just use the water from boiled potatoes. Thought you may want to try it.

  3. Mike & Sue Laprise do you have an example of a chore card? We will be homeschooling our 3 year old son and I love how you are on the council now! THANKS YOU!!!!

    • Hey Nikki – We make chore cards out of colorful index flashcards

      Our 3 year old morning chore cards are, 1-get dressed, 2-fix hair, 3-put clothes in laundry, 4-put hand towels in laundry.

      The 4 years old is basically the same but he empties trash cans too.

      Night chores are, 1-take a bath, 2-put on pjs, 3-brush your teeth 4-pick up toys

      The two little people can’t read the cards but they think they can. It’s pretty cute.

      These change and get harder as the kids grow but starting early with chores helps with gratefulness and team work 🙂 We’ve added rabbits to our morning routine so our 8 and 9 year old compete to finish their chores first and the winner gets to take care of the rabbits. They totally don’t understand that the winner gets an extra chore because bunnies are cute!

      Our 16 year old has regular chores and 3 additional chore cards that just say 1 extra chore, 2 extra chore, 3 extra chore and he does three quick things I need done each morning along with his usual chores.

      This all takes 20-30 minutes if they are quick BUT when I don’t stay on top of it they can really drag it out.

  4. Hey Jack,

    As far as we’re aware there are no obstacles to a grandparent homeschooling in Texas. You can check out the THSC Texas Home School Coalition website

    http://www.thsc.org/homeschooling-in-texas/state-requirements/

    for more information or to ask questions but basically Texas homeschool law is just this:
    To home school legally in Texas, you must follow three state law requirements:

    “-The instruction must be bona fide (i.e., not a sham).
    -The curriculum must be in visual form (e.g., books, workbooks, video monitor).
    -The curriculum must include the five basic subjects of reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship.”

    If I remember correctly in the early years of Texas Homeschool legal battles (The Leeper Case) the state coincidentally decided to test all public school teachers using the highschool graduation test of the time. The teachers overwhelmingly failed to pass this test and the homeschoolers used this in the fight to eliminate government interference in the individual private homeschool.

    In Texas, homeschoolers are treated as a private school, and private schools can hire whom they choose to be teachers in their school. We know several families that have moved to Texas from other states (including us) because other states regulations are so restrictive.

    Please have folks from other states refer to the H.S.L.D.A. (Home School Legal Defense Association) web site for their particular requirements. http://www.hslda.org/

    It’s really ironic in states that require a homeschool child who fails to pass the state test to then be remanded to government school BUT that same government school can fail thousands with no consequence.

    What price is there to freedom? Who is willing to pay that price?

    Our 4 year old’s mom drives 2-3 hours a day to get her son to our house and then to work. He’s here by 5:45 each morning and sometimes stays until 9 at night while she’s in school. I think what she loves best is getting to hear about his day in a personal way and that he’s not just a number or name on a sheet.

    If you’re a homeschooler out there listening to Jack, look around you and see if there isn’t one kid you can help find freedom from the incarceration of government schools.

  5. I love the analogy about the safety net hammock. It fits so well.

    If enough people use the safety net as a hammock eventually the net will fall, and if the people have the strength they will rise up to climb again. Yet those who have atrophied will still perish as worms in wait of scraps.

  6. Michael Jordan – I’ve twice now harvested honey in the spring from a hive that didn’t make it through the winter and it has turned into creamed honey on it’s own. Have you heard of this?

  7. Gary Collins had some interesting things to say, but he missed the boat on a couple of things. To say Western medicine is “nasty,” and leave it at that, is really a cheap shot. Sure, there are a lot of things we need to be skeptical about, and we need to be aware of how to keep ourselves as healthy as possible. And we need to question what our doctors recommend. But Western medicine does tremendous good for millions of people (as well as some harm). We need to do better than diss a complex topic as “nasty.” There will be times for all of us when Western medicine is, by far, the best option. It would help if Western medicine was more affordable. We can start by getting rid of the private insurance scam that adds billions to the cost of medicine. Also, Gary is wrong about soy. You have to eat a huge amount of soy to get estrogen effect. Soy is a great source of protein. And you need to make sure you’re getting plenty of zinc and that you don’t have a vitamin D deficiency, if you’re concerned about testosterone. We’re having a vitamin D deficiency epidemic because of the overconcern with sun exposure. Certain foods can help boost testosterone: flaxseed oil, nettle root, celery, cucumber, kale, spinach, radish, oatmeal (rolled oats/steel cut oats), garlic and pine nuts, for starters. Anyway, thought-provoking podcast, even when I don’t agree with everything that’s said (never do). Glad you added the homeschooling section to the Expert Council. Good thoughts on gluten and sourdough bread, too.

    • As soon as you claimed soy was a good source of protein for humans you showed why you don’t get what Gary said. It is a TOXIC substance for humans.

  8. May I offer a small “counterculture” nugget of wisdom from the Arizona homeschool community?
    “Any family may elect to be a home educating family, regardless of where the child goes to school.”
    My family is a traditional home educating family, yet the wisdom above is offered for the families who are beginning the transition away from the district education model or cannot maintain the lifestyle centered on children at home.
    The quote above was from an AFHE leader who had counterpoise views to the majority of the evangelical board of the AFHE. He also praised the secular minded folks who braved the sea of evangelical fervor at the annual home educating conference.
    Even in the case that a young person begins kindergarten in a mainline district school, an opportunity to educate that child at home may become a realistic option in short order. A transition of the student to home may also occur when the parents are fully provoked.
    TSP has offered great credit to the home educating community in the past 50 episodes. Within the local homeschool community, the district education model is said with disdain, in the same manner in which TSP describes government schools. If a wise individual was to consider the top many priorities of a school district, they would quickly see how educating main stream children is not one of the top priorities (sample list: taxation, collection of state funds, elections, property, maintenance of district boundaries, staffing for professionals, etc.).

  9. Hey Jack, loved the episode.

    One thing I would add for your grandson going to government schools is that he is going to have his foundation in math built with common core concrete and its going to be very difficult for him to transition away from it when he gets into the home schooling. I would suggest you get something like Abeka math for him so he has an idea o doing math in a convention way.

    Thanks,
    Kevin

    • Actually K – 1 is still pretty much the same. I am hoping by then he can home school but I am Pappa Jack not daddy Jack in the end it is my son and daughter-in-laws decision to make.

      BUT our schools here DO NOT TEACH COMMON CORE MATH. At least we have that! Some Texas school districts do use common core but most do not. The state and Governor Perry to his credit told the Feds to F the F off on common core.

      Texas does not endorse or recommend CC at the state level.