Dave Out Loud Beginnings Part VII

Wordless Wednesday Washington and the Waltons

Cleaning up a blog is in many ways like cleaning up a room or a house.  In order to get this blog presentable again, I  found many drafts of posts I had started but never completed.  I also reviewed many old posts and was reminded of memes , pictures, stories and other various components of blogdom  which I had almost forgotten.  Today's post combines many of those components.  A blog, like a house, is meant to be lived in and experienced.  I hope you enjoy today's experience.


In April I participated from another one of my blogs in the a to z challenge where I had participated multiple times form HSD.  One of the best things about the challenge is discovering, reading and commenting on other peoples blogs.  Unfortunately, I did very little of that this year, but I discovered  a blog called Comedy Plus and found that it was hosting one of my favorite memes of all time, Wordless Wednesday. I participated in it on many occasions years ago.  I was glad to see it still exists.

I decided I would participate with a pic from our family trip to Washington DC 10 years ago.

Before I show the pic, I wanted to say that on the way to DC we stopped by Schuyler, VA where Earl Hamner, the writer and creator of The Waltons grew up and stopped by the Waltons Mountain  Museum.  After my picture and before a link to Wordless Wednesday is a 20 minute you tube video that I had saved as a draft here from the 45th reunion of the Waltons which took place at said museum.

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Home School Dad Revisited.

Hello and good morning.  My name is Dave and I used to go by the moniker Home School Dad.  11 years ago I began this blog, as I was a stay at home dad and the home school teacher of the family.  I started home schooling the kids in 2008 and did that full time until the fall of 2013 when I went back to working full time.

I still blog but now do most of it  at Random Acts of Roller. I have started many blogs over the years but my favorite has always been HSD (Home School Dad).  I have been thinking a lot lately of restarting Home School Dad. With that in mind, I decided to post one of my earliest blog entries.  You can click here to see how it appeared on 1/8/9.

If clicking here is not your thing, it's okay cause copying and pasting is mine...

When I first heard about Homeschooling.

First appeared in Home School Dad

January 8, 2009

Do you remember where you were the first time you heard about home schooling? I was at a wedding. At the reception, I was placed at what I call the odd duck table , the table where you sit friends, family and coworkers not likely to know anyone else, I have a name for it because I have been placed at that table many times.

So at the odd duck table there was a lady from out of state, Colorado, I believe, who home schooled her children. This was the mid to late 80's and I had no idea what homeschooling was or why anyone would want to do it. I just sat there as she regaled other wedding guests with stories of her home schooling journey.

I think it's appropriate that I first heard of home schooling at the odd duck table. Home Schooling itself has been an odd duck for many years. People aren't quite sure what to make of it. It can be frustrating as  a Home School parent, when you see the  same reaction from each person who learns you are home educating your children. This is why I asked you to recall your first experience with the concept. Perhaps, your initial reaction, was not unlike those you encounter today. We often expect people to understand things the way we do and forget our understanding is part of an ongoing process often evolving over many years.

Homeschooling over the years has quietly been inching away from the odd duck table. Everybody seems to know someone these days who is home schooling. It is not uncommon now for park districts and libraries to have special activities for home school families.

2020 Perspective:

First of all,   if you did  look back on the original, you may have noticed I did a little editing of my piece.  It bothered me  that I had let regaled be spelled incorrectly for 11 years.  I also had a tendency back then to just end my posts and go on to the next thing. I began this post some hours ago, got this far, and was really tempted to end this post abruptly as I had just finished an overnight shift and was much more interested in sleeping than culminating. Instead, I went the save button route and came back to conclude.

So much has changed since 2009 when I wrote this that it's hard to provide appropriate context.  Obviously most parents with school age children have now found themselves more knowledgeable about what schooling at home looks like.  The Covid 19 shelter in place orders have seen to that.  schooling at home is in some ways different than homeschooling.  I currently have an 8th grader who is home-schooled , a 12th grader who is public schooled and a daughter taking some college classes. Now that everybody is staying at home, my responsibilities towards their school work have not changed at all.  I help my 8th grader with math and I do nothing with the older ones.  When I wrote  the original post they were were 3, 7, and 9 respectively and I was involved with every aspect of their education.

In the coming weeks I will begin to post more here.  I plan to revisit earlier posts as I did today, but mainly I hope to move beyond that.  In June, our homeschooling journey will end as our youngest moves on to public high school.  As the pandemic continues to take its course, our world will adjust to a new normal.  In the same way, our family has been adjusting to a new normal over the past 5 years as our homeschooling has lessened and lessened.  Amid these changes, I have been tempted to change the name of this blog.  I have decided not to yield to this temptation.  The content may be different or perhaps non-existent, but on these pages and in some parts of myself, I shall always be a home school dad.

An Open Letter to Alyssa Milano

 Dear Ms. Milano,

I am writing to you and to an extent all the signatories of your recent open Letter regarding HB 481 to Georgia Governor Kemp and Speaker Ralston and to anyone else who reads it, but ostensibly, I am writing to you.

First of all. let me begin by saying by saying how I appreciate how passionate and articulate you are. I really do commend you that you took a stand on an issue that you are passionate about and related it to your current work situation. I appreciate how you gathered like minded people in the same situation to express your opinions. Expressing social and political concern is everyone's responsibility and I for one am glad to see you doing it, regardless of whether I share your concerns or not.

In this world we live in our opinions can often be expressed in hashtags. #HBIsBadforBusiness seems to express yours. I take a differing view. If I had to express myself hashtagedly, I might say #HBisGood4Babies. The bill ,which I hope Governor Kemp signs into law, protects unborn babies at the point that their heartbeat can be recognized. In my mind this shows them to be something different than a part of the mother, to be disposed anyway she sees fit. We may well fundamentally disagree on this point, However a distinct heartbeat is more than adequate medical evidence to make me think that my view is the correct one.

My Dad used to say to me my right to wave my fists in the air ended squarely at his nose. This is how I feel about abortion and reproductive rights. A woman's reproductive right ends squarely at that cute little babies nose. A fetus with a heartbeat is a far cry from a mass of cells invading a woman's body. 2 years ago my wife had a mass of cells invading her body. Since it was my wife, my opinion was get those nasty cells out of her body anyway you can. Now, my wife wasn't pregnant, she had breast cancer and her cancerous cells certainly did not have any chance of ever becoming viable on their own or having their own functioning beating heart.

Ms. Milano, I would not be surprised at all if some of those disagreeing with your and your fellow signatories opinion might propose boycotting your artistic endeavors. I think that's a bad idea. As strongly as I feel about these issues this does not mean that anyone who disagrees with me needs to be punished economically. I certainly wish you the best in all your endeavors. I hope you in time can come along to my way of thinking that it is babies that need your protection and eloquent defense much more than reproductive freedom ever did,

Dave Roller