I am a certified teacher. I am currently certified in middle school math, science, language arts, and social studies, and I taught high school math out of field one year (before NCLB). I will start by saying that I disagree with those who seem to be saying or implying that education majors essentially learn nothing but crowd control in college. We learned much more than that. We took courses in education including those related to methods, lesson planning, psychology, special education, etc., and we had to show that we could work with students on various levels. In addition to that, especially for middle school and high school education majors, we had to take many courses in our major subject area(s). In order to become certified, we had to pass a test in each of our subject areas. In my case, I also had to go through another long, drawn-out assessment during my first year of teaching (this was in GA and is no longer done here). The list goes on and on. Having said all that, I strongly oppose any type of certification for parents who are homeschooling their children. Homeschooling and teaching in a classroom are in no way comparable. There are so many things that I had to be able to do as a public school teacher that I don't have to do now. For example, I don't have to know how to plan to ensure that 28 children stay busy and out of trouble for 75 minutes. I can plan and instruct individually. If my child is finished with his lessons for the day, I don't have to figure out what to do for the next 15 minutes. With homeschooling, I don't have to worry about the various personalities in the class and who will be fighting with whom that day. I don't have to worry about bullying or who might have brought a weapon to school. I don't have to worry about what child is being abused at home or how much sleep the child got the night before. I don't have to worry about covering standards for a whole group of people; I can go as quickly or as slowly as I need to go. I don't have to know how to write a lesson plan to please someone up above or how to interact with other teachers and administrators unless I choose to do so. I don't have to worry about pleasing other parents and how to deal with them if they're not pleased. These, and many more, are things that most teachers do need to know. As a teacher if I needed to cover a topic that I wasn't very strong in, I brushed up on it before teaching it. I do the same as a homeschooler. In my experience, the majority of homeschoolers care enough about their children's educations that they'll either learn ahead of or right along with their children, or they'll pay someone who can teach a certain subject for them. I do realize that there are some parents who don't fulfill their duties as homeschoolers, but I also know that not all certified teachers do all that they should, either. Basically, there are no guarantees in public school, so it certainly makes no sense to make homeschoolers abide by the same rules. Most importantly, though, I'm a huge believer in freedoms. I don't believe that homeschoolers in general should be subjected to some arbitrary rules simply because there are a handful of homeschoolers out there who might not be doing as they should. As for the "standards based education," I am not impressed. Based on my experience, these so-called "higher standards" that we hear so much about simply mean throwing tidbits of information at students but not ever expecting mastery.

I don't think he was avoiding the question at all. He's not an established biologist, nor is he a Creator. Why should he have the answer to this question?

Both ds and I are allergic to many of the natural products.

I used Magick Botanicals shampoo, conditioner, and gel. I also sometimes use and ds always uses California Baby Super Sensitive Shampoo and Body Wash, No Fragrance.

I'll be thinking about you and all the people who might possibly be affected.

I don't know anything about the school that your dd attended. However, if it's anything like the schools I'm familiar with around here, I do think FLL 3 would be challenging enough for her. It will be a good review at the very least, and it covers diagramming sentences as well (most schools don't teach diagramming anymore). I don't know anything about WWE. We've decided to go with Writing Strands for our writing program this year, but we haven't yet started it, so I can't offer more information on it. From just looking at it, it seems to be a good program, though.

He sounds like a perfectionist. That's a hard place to be. I was always that way, and so is my son.

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'm convinced. I'll go ahead and order it before I change my mind. :p

You've been given great advice about adding more fat to your diet, but this concerns me: Since you are a diabetic and have high cholesterol, I would be concerned about hypothyroidism. High amounts of soy can contribute to hypothyroidism.

Click on the book on the left of the page.

I totally agree. I bought the 3rd grade paper last year and the 4th grade paper (smaller) this year. Ds is actually excited about getting started in his new book.

Those are great! Thank you!

How horrible. :( I'll keep the family in my thoughts.

Thanks for the feedback!

Great post!

I hyphenated my last name.

Thanks so much!

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm in one of them (Georgia).

Do you know which states require membership in NEA? Almost every teacher I know spends a whole lot of his/her own money each year.

I feel that there is no way to implement it fairly. Test scores certainly don't indicate how well a teacher teaches. If you go to a website like greatschools.net, you can compare schools; most of the ratings are based on test scores. Well, I've taught in a school that rates a 10, and I've taught in a school that rates a 2. I had to work much, much harder in the school that rates 2 than in the school that rates 10, yet I "looked" better in the school that rates 10. Ironically, the school that rates 10 also already pays better, yet I'd probably be eligible for merit pay in that school but not in the other school where I'd need the extra pay the most.

I do agree with that, but I don't necessarily agree with this: While there are some teachers who don't do all they can, for the most part, I blame the "system," not the teacher. I was so frustrated with teaching because my hands were tied. Last year I had sixth graders who didn't even know letter sounds, but I had to teach the "standards" so that they could pass "the test." I truly felt unethical, but there was nothing I could do about it. Based on my observations and experience, these so-called "higher standards" that we keep hearing about mean throwing a lot of material at the kids that most will never master.

Exactly, and that's one of the few areas where I agree with the NEA. It doesn't change my overall opinion of Obama, though. It does make me realize that he really doesn't have a clue about schools, but nothing McCain has said in that area impresses me, either. I totally agree.

I am a certified teacher. I taught last school year. In this area, though, very few whom I know are NEA members, and I would not be thrilled with the ones with whom I taught in the past teaching my child. Yes, they speak against homeschooling. They think it's their way or the highway, so, no, I wouldn't want that for my child. Perhaps it's different where you live, but as a teacher, I haven't had good experiences with NEA.

I don't know the history, but that is awesome news! :)