Escaping the Homeschool Matrix

Hello there family and friends,

I came across this article today and boy this was written for me. Its crazy how I can feel like my kids are behind, house always a mess and I feel like throughing in the towel after just 6 weeks of school. This article gave me the encouragement I needed to hear and I'm excited to plan everything out for next week. Why do I let me expectaions get the best of me?
Enjoy the read.

~Amy




Escaping the Homeschool Matrix
By Steve Walden



The room was brightly lit and cold. She was sitting at a table,

across from an empty chair. She knew the questioning would begin any

minute. The door opened and a man bearing a remarkable resemblance to

Hugo Weaving walked in and sat down in the empty chair.



“Mrs. Anderson,” he began, “we’ve been monitoring your

homeschool. Apparently, you have been living two lives. In one life,

you’re Katherine A. Anderson, homeschooling mother and wife in a

respectable community. You have a homeschool curriculum. You have a

schoolroom. You volunteer . . . to help out with your homeschool

support group. The other life, Mrs. Anderson, is lived in your

pajamas. Your kids are unable to complete their assignments, and if

you can get them bathed and dressed before your husband returns from

work, you consider it a good day. One of these lives has a future,

Mrs. Anderson. The other does not.”



She just stared across the table at this man. “Who was he?” she

wondered. Why was he accusing her of these things?



The man opened up a folder and began leafing through it. “As you can

see, we’ve had our eyes on you for some time, Mrs. Anderson. I think

that you should look long and hard at how you are failing in your

role.” He pulled out a single sheet of paper. “Your son is 6 years

old and yet he cannot read. Your 11-year-old daughter spends half her

time daydreaming and staring off into space. She hasn’t scored

better than a D on her spelling quizzes all year. Your teen,

this . . . Melissa, I believe her name is . . . she hasn’t prepared

for the SAT test. If you really loved your children, Mrs. Anderson,

you would have your children at their desks and hard at work by 7:30

each morning.”



Tears started to well up in Katherine’s eyes. Was she really that

bad at homeschooling?



“As far as your curriculum goes, you’ve switched back and forth

from A Beka to Saxon to Bob Jones and back to Saxon again in just two

semesters. I have to wonder, Mrs. Anderson, if you are teaching them

correctly. How can you jump from curriculum to curriculum without

causing your children to become hopeless, blathering idiots?”



Mrs. Anderson made no effort to wipe away the tears that were now

flowing down her cheeks. She knew all these accusations were true.

There was nothing she could say to refute them.



“Tell me, Mrs. Anderson. What’s it like, living in your pajamas?

Do you enjoy being a slob?” His words began to cut deep, and

somewhere deep inside her soul, a wave began to form.



“How many times did you yell at your kids yesterday, Mrs. Anderson?

Can you really say you love them if you treat them this way?”



The wave began to build, quickly becoming a surge. Mrs. Anderson’s

anger was rising above and beyond the shame and fears this man was

exploiting.



“Your best friend, Laurie, doesn't have any trouble getting her six

children ready to go to eight different activities each week, yet you

always manage to run late . . .”



“That’s enough!” Her waves of anger burst over the dam and began

to pour from her lips. “I don't have to listen to these accusations.

I am a loving wife and mother, and I care deeply about my children.

We may not get to every activity on time or complete every

assignment, but we are trying. My children are well fed and clothed,

and they are learning so much more than they would learn anywhere

else. My son is a gifted engineer. He dismantled three phones last

week to understand how the buttons work . . .”



“You consider that school?”



“Absolutely! He is learning mechanics and science. If I can get him

to put things back together so that I can answer the phone, I’ll be

all set. By the way, Melissa doesn’t need to study for her SAT test

right now. She’s 14! We will prepare for it when the time is right.



“Another thing. My daughter may not always study with perfect

concentration, but she draws the most beautiful pictures. She

understands forms and shapes so much better than her brothers or

sisters do. She is a very bright girl, no matter what your files say.”



These bold statements took the man aback. Mrs. Anderson’s outburst,

though somewhat controlled, was clearly not what he had expected to

hear in response to his accusations.



“You say I yell at my kids, and that’s true. I do lose my temper

when I clean a room and come back in thirty minutes to find it in

worse shape than it was before I cleaned it. But your files don’t

show the breakfast we had yesterday when we sat around and talked

about three things we like about each other. I enjoy my children so

much more than you could imagine. And we truly love each other.



“I stay in my pajamas some days, that’s true. But we are at home

and like to be comfortable while we do our work. Learning is more

important than appearances.”



“But are your children really learning, Mrs. Anderson? I show that

you have lost ground every time you’ve tried to set a schedule. How

effective are you if you can't even maintain a schedule?”



“We may struggle sometimes. I admit, we don’t hit the mark with

schedules, but we do a good job setting goals. We know what direction

we’re going, and we do a good job, even if we don’t end up

completing our workbooks. If anything is out of line, it’s my own

expectations.” An idea began to form in her mind.



“What? We are not to blame, Mrs. Anderson!”



“Of course,” she thought, “it all makes sense now.”



Katherine looked straight into her accuser’s eyes as she spoke

calmly and deliberately. “I know who you are! You’re my own

expectations. You’ve been trying to trap me.”



“Nonsense. We don’t need to trap what we already own.”



“You don’t? Then you would have no problem if I made pajamas the

standard school uniform?”



“Uh . . .” Suddenly, the man became quite anxious.



“And you wouldn’t mind my going to thrift stores to buy more

phones and other things for my son to dismantle?”



“Wait . . . this isn't what we wanted. Stop!”



“Why? Don’t you want to hear about how we’re going to stop going

to so many activities and start spending more time together as a

family? I've got some great ideas, including a bug collecting

expedition and a board game night.”



“Board games don’t constitute an education! They . . .”



“Oh, yes they do. Colors, numbers, counting, reading, and strategy

all work together to educate my children. And the best part is that

they don’t even realize it’s school.”



The man was becoming transparent, and he was quickly fading from

view. “But what about your curriculum? You can’t change in the

middle of the year! It’s . . . ”



“I can change our curriculum whenever I think we need to. If

something isn’t working, we can try something else. That’s one

benefit of running your own school. I would rather find something

that works than have my children suffer through an entire year of

work that doesn’t meet their needs.”



She could see that the man was livid and shouting angrily, but now,

along with his appearance, his voice had faded. He was almost gone

from view when she said, “Oh, by the way, school starts at 10 a.m.

from now on.”



With that, he disappeared.



Mrs. Anderson was about to scoot away from the table when she awoke

with a start. Rolling across the screen on the television in front of

her were credits for a fantasy film about people fighting the forces

of artificial intelligence. She quickly pushed the “off” button

and headed upstairs to bed. After all, she had a bug hunt to plan

tomorrow.



Steve Walden lives in Colorado with his wife, and together they

homeschool their three children (ages 12, 9, and 5). Steve is a

freelance writer and editor. When he’s not blogging at

www.HomeschoolBlogg er.com/SteveWald en, he’s searching for new

opportunities to write about a variety of topics, including

homeschooling, coping with disabilities, and connecting with God.

Steve’s desire is to help others rediscover God as their first love

and the source of their strength.







Copyright 2006. Used with permission. Originally published in the

Summer 2006 The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. www.TheHomeschoolMa gazine.com

Did you enjoy this article? You'll find each issue of The Old

Schoolhouse Magazine packed with great articles to inform you,

encourage you, and remind you that you're not alone. Subscribe today!

www.TheHomeschoolMa gazine.com

Parental Rights Could be taken away if we don't do something.

I copied this post from http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/ and she has 3 videos to watch to go along with this post. Please take the time to read it and please go to http://www.parentalrights.org/ and sign up to show your spport. We can not aford to be silent.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - BAD NEWS
Apparently, it's no longer enough for Uncle Sam to try to force us into taking care of our children Old Sam's way. Now the U.N. is stepping in, on an international scale, and what they are planning to force on families is insane, and MUST BE STOPPED. If you have never been politically active, then YOU are part of the problem! Stand up, and look around you! We are no longer fighting for our rights, and they are being taken away. I am NOT exaggerating, and YES I'm mad. You should be too.Take a look at this seemingly "innocent" commercial for children, about the The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:


'All children will go to "nice" schools.' Do you know what the UN Convention defines a "nice school" as? It's not private schools, and it's not homeschool. It's public school, but with MORE secularism than ever. If Americans allow themselves to be enslaved under The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, then homeschool will be ILLEGAL in all 50 states, regardless of state laws - they will be overrode with federal and international laws. Christian private schools will no longer be allowed to teach Christianity, without equally teaching all other religions - this means there would be no more CHRISTIAN schools. Perhaps there will be in name, but not in content, subject matter or sanctification.Did you do something to upset your child lately? Maybe when your child wanted to eat a box of chocolates right before bedtime, and you said "no." Look out!


Under The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the child could decide to take you to court and claim that you are not feeding them enough. One child took his parents to court (and won!) because he thought it was cruel of his parents to take him to church three times a week - Sunday morning and evening, and Wednesday nights. We need an amendment that stands up for PARENTAL RIGHTS. Take a look at this:



The above video states "if we all stand together and raise our voices, Congress will respond." That's right! Let's stand together for parental rights. The U.N. should not have a say in which school our children go to, or if we homeschool them. Nor is it any of the UN's business if our child does something wrong, and is therefore grounded for it.If The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is ratified, then each child will have a list of rights, of which they will be taught to know by heart in the public schools that they will be attending by the choice of the UN and our government. Here are a few of those "rights:"

The right to privacy - Yep. If you suspect your teenager has pot stashed in his room, you would not be allowed to go in there and find out. Your child could end up dying from a drug problem, but you couldn't interfere, or it would have violated their "right to privacy."

Freedom of expression - If your toddler throws a temper tantrum, you are not allowed to do anything. If your teen starts yelling the 'f' word out the widow of the car while you are driving to the grocery store, you are not allowed to do anything. The parent would have no right to interfere with the child's "freedom of expression." If your child decides to take home another child and go to their room and close the door and have sex, you cannot stop them, else you'd be violating their "freedom of expression" and "freedom of privacy."

Do you think I'm exaggerating? I'm not...Here are a few excerpts from HSLDA:"Under Article 13, any attempts to prevent their children from interacting with material parents deem unacceptable is forbidden. Children are vested with a "freedom of expression" right, which is virtually absolute. No allowance is made for parental guidance. Section 1 declares a child's right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice."

In Article 14, children are guaranteed "freedom of thought, conscience and religion." Children have a legal right to object to all religious training. Alternatively, children may assert their right against parental objection to participate in the occult.Article 15 declares "the right of the child to freedom of association." Parents could be prevented from forbidding their child to associate with people deemed to be objectionable companions. Under Article 15, children could claim a "fundamental" right to join gangs, cults, and racist organizations over parental objection.

Under Article 16, the "right to privacy" is granted to children. This UN sanctioned "privacy" would seemingly establish as the child's right to obtain an abortion without parental notice, the right to purchase and use contraceptives, and the right to pornography in the home.Article 19 mandates the creation of an intensive bureaucracy for the purpose of "identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment, and follow-up" of parents who, in violation of the child's rights, treat their children negligently. To insure State and U.N. control over their development,

Article 7 requires all children must be immediately registered at birth."The above excerpts are taken from the HSLDA.org website. Please read the article in its entirety - Oppose the UN Convention on the Rights of the ChildNext, please read this .pdf file called "THE UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD - The Most Dangerous Attack on Parental Rights in the History of the United States." The information contained in this .pdf document is something that everyone needs to know.As Americans, we need to take steps to make sure America does NOT ratify this treaty. 192 nations have already ratified this treaty. The "Holy See" Roman Catholic Vatican was one of the first ones to ratify it. I make specific mention of this, because I know a lot of Catholics who will NOT support CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child). Therefore, devout Catholics must be made aware, that if they stand with Bible believing Christians in rising up against the CRC, then they are going against the Vatican's wishes. BENEDICT XVI supports the CRC. Roman Catholics, I pray you DO stand with us on this issue. America must not ratify the CRC! Regardless of what religion you are, please stand with me to preserve parental rights.To date, the only nations who have not ratified CRC, are Somalia and the United States. U.S. citizens, we must NOT allow this treaty to be ratified!Please take the time to read The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child for yourself.

You can read it here. Here is a list of "Children's Rights," being taught from a UK website.From what I've read, it looks like Canada and the UK have signed onto this treaty, but have not agreed to every stipulation yet. I know homeschool is still being allowed in Canada and the UK, but I don't know how regulated it is, etc. Obama is pushing for the full ratification of the entire Convention for the U.S, which could make homeschool in the U.S. instantly outlawed. "Primary Education" in article 28 could be defined as government (public) school education only.Please listen to this video, in which the woman explains this stuff so much better than my feeble attempt:


Steps to Take Action - Time to make a stand!STEP ONE: Sign the parental rights petition at the parentalrights.org website.STEP TWO: Contact your state Representatives and Senators. If this is something you have little to no experience in, then consider joining the 10 in 2 program with ParentalRights.org . Here is a quote from their site, summing up the program:"We need 10-and 2 volunteers who can enlist 10 people to do the following: sign the petition for the Amendment, sign 3 postcards to their Representative and Senators, and donate $1. Then, we need those volunteers to recruit 2 more people to do the same thing."I'm volunteering. Are you? Please join me; it'll only take a few minutes of your time, and it could make a BIG difference.STEP THREE: If you have a website or blog, then please put up an article about the CRC and its atrocities hidden within. The media is not going to get the word out, so it's up to us. If you want to, you can just copy this article I've written and put it on your site - just get the word out! Email and call people as well. Let's do this.