It's done! It's done! The home schoolers won!

To see my original post about SB 136 click here.

A few years ago Bunny Girl started a pretty good post victory tradition while listening to White Sox games on the radio or following them on the computer (We are very 21st century) with me. She would get all animated and say "It's done! It's done! The White Sox won!"

For the past few weeks I have been following the SB 136 Homeschooling Registration Bill as if it were a late season White Sox playoff push. I even went on a "road trip" this past Tuesday in Springfield to show my opposition to the bill.


Here is some footage from outside and inside the hearing.






I have received information today that the bill has been tabled. Just like in baseball, government has it's own special terms. According to the glossary at the Illinois Gleneral Assembly website,Tabling means:
Laying on the table or killing. Tabling removes a bill, resolution, or amendment from consideration.



The ILGA site shows that the Bills sponsor Ed Maloney tabled the bill today. This is a great victory for home schooling in Illinois. Illinois continues to be one of the least restricted states for Homeschooling in the nation and I hope the coverage this issue has received shows that this is a good thing. A right worth defending.





Before finding out about the tabling I was all geared up to use today's post to get on my high box (combination of high horse and soap box) and clear up some misconceptions that the bill has brought up. Even though the bill has been killed, I would still like to clear up these misconceptions:



1) In a Daily Southtown Star Editorial against the bill, Maloney was quoted as saying: “There are virtually no regulations on homeschools. No curriculum, no periodic checks on their progress,” he said. “We want more accountability.”

Illinois home schools under the law are considered private schools. (This is I believe why SB136 originally wanted to register both
private schools and home schools. When Maloney started receiving push back about the registration, He then stated he wanted to rewrite the bill to include only home schoolers. Leading many to think that He was after homeschoolers all the time.) The law states that all private schools have to teach the same amount of hours of instruction and the same type of courses as the public schools. That is regulation. Homeschoolers as the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) attorney, Scott Woodruff stated at the hearing (it's in the video clip) that homeschoolers have to provide proof that they are homeschooling if asked. That is regululation. It is ridiculous for Maloney to say that home schoolers do not have a curriculum. I am a home schooler and I have curriculum.e I've driveen to Rockford at 9 a.m. on a Saturday for Curiculum fairs, for crying out loud. I just don't have a government assigned curriculum. No private schools do.

2) There seems to be a fundamenental difference in opinion as to what the state's role in home schooling should be.
In meeting last week with Homeschooling proponents Maloney told them that: since the State was responsible for the education of our children, the State should know who was being homeschooled.

The state is not responible for my children's education. God entrusted them to me, not the state. The state gets their power from the people, not the other way around. Perhaps Maloney will realize where his power base is after the next senatorial election.

Well that is all I have to say at this time. I am very glad that SB 136 has failed and I thank everyone who had a part of defeating it.

Six Words about a smashing time.

Holy flying cars, Batman. It's Six Word Saturday time again.

My 6:

An amazing noisy, greasy crashing adventure.

In my previous post, I talked about the Monster Jam series coming to Chicagoland. Well Spider droid and I just got back and I have to tell you it was epic! The atmosphere was electric. It was a very exciting event. There are 8 cars and drivers participating in 3 events: Wheelies, 2 on 2 racing and Freestyle.

Maximum Destruction won the first two events. The completion was really intense. There were jumps, bumps, crashes and dashes. Spin outs and so much more.



Monster Mutt won the freestyle.

If you are in the Chicago area there are 4 more shows this weekend. $ 20.00 seats at all shows are just $10.00 for all children 12 and under. Check my previous post for more info or go to http://www.ticketmaster.com/ for tickets. Don't forget to use the promo code MOM for a 33% discount on some adult tickets.

Help, I've fallen and I can't get up.

It's a car. It's a pet. It's a carpet. (go to http://www.pillowpet.com/ if you don't understand this joke. If you don't like this joke, take it up with the management.)

And now a special message from Spider Droid . . .

For more six word Saturday click here. For more info about Monster Jam events coming to your area click here.

For VW "Force" Ever is short time.

It's Friday Fragment time.

Fragment #1

Last week I posted that this VW Ad was the "best commercial ever". It turns out that ever did not last all that long cause less than a week later I have a new best commercial ever and like the VW commercial that ran at the Superbowl this is also sports related.



We have to go back to last years opening day baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox. Mark Buehrle who was in between back to back Gold Glove winning seasons was on the mound for the Sox when this happened. The play lasted the test of time and was elected the This Year in Baseball (TYIB)play of the year.



The White Sox generally have very good quality ad campaigns. The initial 2011 season ad came out this week . . .















The announcer is played by Sox announcer Ken Harrelson who along with Steve Stone made the call last year. The guy who says "Not bad" is of course Buehrle himself. As a faithful SOX fan and a great fan of all things Buerhle. This has surpassed "The Force" as my all time favorite commercial.



Fragment # 2


My second favorite super bowl commercial behind the VW ad was this masterpiece from Chevy. It's a great send up of the Lassie show that played when I was a kid. They use a comedy technique that I called piling on.




I'm not sure what is a better line "How did you get stuck in the belly of a whale?" or "I didn't know this town even had a volcano." In comedy we call such a quandary a good problem to have.

Fragment 3.

A few weeks ago, at our home school co-op I saw this sign on the men's room door at the building we use.

Priceless.

Those are all the funny little fragments I have for you today. For more Friday fragments click here.

Jelly and the Telly jellies with you. Jam and you Monster Jam alone.

Two years ago a really cool phenomenon hit the Internet. A cool Saturday Morning type show called Jelly Telly. It was from the mind of Phil Vischer one of the creators of Veggie Tales. It was an odd mix. Kind of the Muppet's meet School House Rock with a liberal amount of Sunday School material and a hint of Monty Python. In short our family loved it. it was even a part of our curriculum.

For a while it was available free and then it went to a subscription service. It has now been revamped and is merged with Focus on the Family. The new site also has other Focus on the Family videos like Adventures in Odyssey. It is again free and I can not recommend it highly enough.

One of my favorite parts of the show are the Fabulous Bentley Brothers, Here they are with A song about 2 Kings.



It is a great song but I do take a bit of umbrage with the line Paddle Boats are not cool. Paddle Boats are extremely cool.

But it's not all bible songs. There is Michael who reviews movies from his seat in his mini van. All the reviews end with the Star Wars plots being syncretized into whatever movie is reviewing. But even when you know the premise the results are still hilarious observe:

Michael’s Movie Reviews: The Lion King JellyTelly

Again, I encourage kids of all ages to check out the new improved Jelly Telly. Let me know if any of you like it as much as we do.
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In other news I was contacted recently by the promoters of the Monster Jam series. They had read my blog and wanted to contact me anyway. They were especially intrigued by Spider Droid and his recent robtics adventures They thought that we as a family and perhaps my readership would be interested in their show that is playing this week in the Chicago area. If you are not in the Chicago area click here to see where and when it is playing near you.

What you may wonder is a Monster Jam? Monster Jam is a truck racing tour and here are some fast facts about the tour:

• At Monster Jam, monster trucks face off in two different forms of competition -- side-by-side racing and freestyle:
  
  Side-by-side racing – traditional bracket racing, where the first truck, with the least amount of penalties, crosses the finish line is declared the winner.
  
  Freestyle competition – allows drivers a limited amount of time on the open floor to show off their skills. In this category, the fans serve as the judges.

• The Grave Digger Team (pictured here) will celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2012

• More than 4 million Monster Jam fans attend events each year worldwide

• Typical monster trucks cost $600,000 yearly to build, staff, compete, transport and maintain on the Monster Jam tour.

• Steel body full-size cars are the vehicles typically crushed during a monster truck event.
  
  Cars, as well as vans, buses, motor homes, airplanes and ambulances, are attained from local junkyards and returned after each event.
  
  Average number of cars crushed per year: 3,000.

That's all cool and good stuff to know but what you really need to see is some footage.

So now let me tell you close enough to the Chicago area about the shows coming this weekend to the All State Arena. There are 5 big beautiful shows. Friday at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 2 and 7:30. The Tickets cost 20, 30 and 55.00 (not including ticket handling charges) depending where you sit. On Friday all $20.00 dollar tickets have been reduced to 10.00 for both adults and children. All subsequent shows have children (12 and under) tickets in the twenty dollar seats available for $10.00 as well. The higher priced tickets are the same regardless of age.



I have been offered a special deal for my blog readers/ facebook friends. If you use the promo card MOM $20.00 adult tickets have been reduced 1/3 to 13.30. . The deal can not be used the day of the show. Tickets can be purchase at the United Center Box Office, The Allstate Arena Box Office and at http://www.ticketmaster.com/ or by calling 1-800-745-3000. Make sure you use the promo code:MOM. Click here for more ticket information.



Spider Droid and I will be attending on Friday Night. When I get home I will post a review here.





So there you have it, a little telly for your jelly, a bit of monster for your jam.

Of Expos and Carnivals

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is a well known resource in the home schooll community. Moreover they have a strong presence in the on-line community as well. Among other things they host an al on line home school convention presented from a Christian persspective each year called The Old School House Expo. The Expo will be held this May from the 16th to the twentieth. May is a long time away, and as my loyal readers know I am a professional procrastinator (A proprocrastinator), so why I am talking about it so early? Because I am a frugal procrastinator. And in my case the frugal comes before the procrastination.

All that to say is that there is an early bird special that ends very soon. How soon? less than 48 hours from now. Tickets are now available at $19.50. But only until Wed Feb 9th at 11:59 p.m. (ET). At Midnight the price increases to $29.00 through the 26th of this month. On Sunday February 27th the full rate of $39.99 goes into effect.

The speakers for this years event seem to me to be an extraordinary group. They are Susan Wise Bauer , Janice Campbell, Dr. Brian Ray, Diane Craft (whose idea we talk about in this post and video), Kim Kautzer, Diana Waring, Malia Russell, Carol Barnier, Maggie Hogan and Tyler Hogan, Dari Mullins, Carol Topp, Jim Weiss, Norm Wakefield, Mary Jo Tate, Terri Johnson, Molly Green, and Deborah Wuehler. There will also be a myriad of vendor workshops for a c list of all workshops click here.

Speaking of vendors, what home schoool convention would be complete w/o a Vendor Hall? The Old School House Expo has a vast virtual vendor (vliteration can be very vexing) hall. Click here to check it out.

Did you ever take one of those job aptitue tests in school? I am pretty sure that my 1st sourt election was Court Jester, which was just a bit ahead of Infomercial announcer. With that in mind, I must get back to the Expo pitch and say:

"But, Wait! There's more."

If you buy a ticket in the next 2 days will receive virtual goodie bags valued at > $200.00. Plus each ticket includes an MP3 download of the entire convention. They call this neat little doohickey: The Expo to Go.

Hey do you hear that? I think I hear my alter ego Crazy Dave of Crazy Dave's giveaways coming over here. Yep I would recognize his ruggedly handsome silhouette anywhere. He tells me that the fine people at TOS are making available a copy of The Expo to Go from the October 2010 conference available to one of our readers.

Here is how you can enter to win it. leave a comment on this post. You can earn another entry by going to the event's facebook page and clicking that you like it. You will have to return to this post and leave a comment saying you had done so. You can win an additional entry by liking my facebook page and telling me so. If you already are a liker of either page just leave that in your comment.

You can enter through the end of the month and I will announce the winner sometime in the first week of March.

Click here to find out more information on the conference and to get in on the early bird rate.



The Carnival of Homeschooling is being held this week @ Bugs, Knights and Turkeys in the Yard. Check out the "keeping it simple" edition which includes my post on SB 136.

Volkswagen Commercial: The Force

Haven't got into the 6 word Saturday swing yet this year. I usually don't steal post ideas from my 9 year olds blog but this was too good to pass up.

My 6:

This is the best commercial ever!










If this is not the six words you seek click here.