This is timely. The Kansas Senate voted in favor of declaring pornography a public health hazard. http://ksnt.com/2018/02/08/kansas-lawmakers-declare-pornography-public-health-hazard/

Is there a poetry resource on echo? Maybe some audiobooks? How do I access audio books? Is there a list somewhere on Amazon?

Can you explain more about the music feature? I just figured out that I can play my music library (songs I've purchased through Amazon digital music) on echo. I'd love to do more with music, though.

I wondered what they all thought about the launch!

Does anyone have any experience with this program? I stumbled upon their website, and it sounds interesting. From the website: Not-for-profit Road Scholar is the world’s largest and most innovative creator of experiential learning opportunities. We have guided generations of lifelong learners on transformative learning adventures from San Francisco to Siberia, and nearly everywhere in between. We are a diverse community of knowledge seekers and explorers, united in the belief that lifelong learning is a vital part of overall wellbeing. We believe in living life to the fullest at every age — by experiencing the world, and not just looking at it. By meeting new people, touching history where it happened and delving deep into the cultures and landscapes we explore. https://www.roadscholar.org/

The rules at this school seem too rigid and not child appropriate. As a former elementary teacher, I constantly had to remind myself that I was working with 9, 10, and 11 year old children. Children who were still growing and learning. Children who forgot things simply because they were kids. Children who needed to be guided. There were rules in my classroom, but there was also lots of reinforcement and practice before there were expectations of perfection. And even then there was flexibility. My classroom was a place of learning, and that applied to learning how to follow rules as well. We encouraged each other, celebrated together, helped each other. I fostered a classroom of trust and friendship. We were a team! This school just sounds like its trying to keep control rather than foster community.

Me too! We were cheering and clapping. So inspiring!

Super excited over here!!

Yes, we had the same experience here (for a different health need), and for a child. The number of pills was unbelievable. We never used them and tossed them all. This was about 5 years ago, but still...

I don't think this is very well known and might surprise a lot of people. I would be surprised, but very interested. I'd ask lots of questions, assuming you seemed at ease with talking more about it.

I agree with this so much. My parents are alive and well, but our kids know that they will die at some point, and they understand that everyone dies. They know what a funeral is, what it means to be cremated or buried, what a mortician does (my grandpa was a mortician, so I guess I may be more comfortable with death.) We were even upfront with our kids about how long our dogs will live. ETA: I am very sorry that your family is dealing with loss. It's hard.

If there are no requirements, why would you need to legally protect yourself? No one can legally claim you aren't doing a good enough job if there are no legal requirements. I don't understand this. Who is coming to knock on your door to investigate?

Yes! This completely came to mind!

I think your ideas are unreasonable in a country where not everyone has health insurance and not every child is covered for visits to the doctor. Immunizations aren't free for all. By the way, I am someone who really struggles with a person's individual rights vs the community good. For example, I think all children should be vaccinated, but I also get the argument of personal choice and freedom. But then I fall in favor of landing on the side of what's better for the common good and health of the community. This issue is harder for me. The common good of having children free from abuse and neglect is important. But I'm not sure the regulations mentioned in this thread equate to creating a better common good. I don't know if the regulations will actually lead to fewer cases of severe abuse such as this or if the result is too much infringement on a person's rights. I don't mean to sound callous, just trying to realistically think through the results of suggested rules.

I buy used books all the time, but never workbooks.

Again I will ask, if the point of new regulations is to protect children, then shouldn't there be talk about regulations for families who don't enroll their kids in preschool? And what about kids who are home with a parent/caregiver until preschool? When I start to think about it in these terms, it doesn't sit well with me. If the goal is to protect kids, then this really should be about more than just regulating homeschoolers. Everyone who doesn't send a child to a daycare or preschool should be subjected to these new regulations, and I think this sounds very unreasonable for many reasons.

If the goal of some kind of oversight for homeschoolers is to ensure that there is no abuse, then why does the oversight need to be tied to academic progress? I disagree with this on principle. As a former elementary teacher, I saw that there were no consequences for students or teachers when students did not meet minimum benchmarks. Students were pushed up to the next grade. What is the result if a homeschool student doesn't meet benchmarks? Are they forced to enter public school? If there is a consequence for the homeschool child/family, then I ask why? It seems like a double standard. Part of why I left teaching was because I did not like the push for all children to meet academic benchmarks at the same time. It's just unrealistic. So again, if the goal of oversight of homeschool children is to ensure they are safe and well cared for, why not make the oversight related to that? I realize that there will be those who argue that oversight to ensure academic progress should be present because there can be academic neglect in a homeschool family. That is not the issue being discussed here, though, so I don't think it's relevant to this discussion.

This is what I was going to say. I was also wondering how on earth the authors of the study were able to determine who was an illegal or legal immigrant head of household. There really is no way to know that. Also, the main takeaway from the article (for me anyway) is that immigrants from Latin America receive the most welfare benefits of any immigrant group. Was that the point trying to be made by the poster who linked the article? If so, I think that's a very different issue.

I agree with this completely. My point is that these expectations line up with what is expected at school. If these 3 kids had any issues with school, then this class may be a terrible fit, especially if they don't want to be there. That's what I mean by having expectations that are too high. A child coming from school who may have had a bad relationship with school may see this co-op as being just like school. To expect them to want to voluntarily participate is just not reasonable, especially if they have no interest and are being forced to be there by their parents.

What you are expecting from them is to act like they are in school. They were all just pulled from school for some reason. School was not a good fit. Now you're expecting them to participate/pay attention in your class, but maybe how they are acting is how they acted in school. I think you need to talk to their parents or accept their lack of interest since they were forced to be there and aren't really interested.

This is a bit how I feel about the situation. It sounds to me like you are expecting too much from the 3 kids whose parents are forcing them to be there. I say this gently, but your class description sounds a lot like school. That's not a bad thing at all, but if the reasons that these kids were recently pulled from school was because of behaviors or problems with school structures or teachers, then your class sounds like a really bad fit. ETA: Also, I've found that families have wildly different expectations about co-op classes. School is so different. Almost everyone (kids and adults) understands how behaviors will be handled in school. If these families are just coming out of school and this is their first experience with a co-op, they may be seeing you as the teacher instead of a parent volunteer. The teacher of a co-op class is very different, in my opinion, than a teacher at a school.

I'm currently reading Just Mercy. Wow, it's an eye opener that has led to other research about prison overpopulation and private prisons. I'm also learning about the history of punishment for juveniles. Again, disturbing...

I agree with this so much!

Any books or resources you can recommend? This will be for 6th grade. I want to go more in depth with ancient Africa so that my kids understand that the history of Africa doesn't simply begin with the European slave trade. Thanks!

Lori, seriously, you're amazing!