Protecting My Kids Against The Bald Truth

My oldest daughter was born capable of speaking in complete sentences and participating in adult conversations.  Well, maybe not exactly, but she is incredibly bright.  When she was a toddler, I often caught myself talking to her about concepts she couldn't possibly understand because she seemed so, well, knowing.

And so it was that when she was about four we were having a conversation in the car about Winnie-the-Pooh.  The library was having a 75th birthday party for him, and she was wondering how come he didn't look any older.  My quick response was, "Well, Honey, you know Pooh isn't real."  Silence.  More silence.  Then, she responded, ever so quietly, "Oh, yeah."

That was it.  That was the moment I crushed my daughter's spirit and shattered her innocence.  I hang my head in shame every time I remember that incident.  Granted, Madeline seems to have recovered well.  I could almost think she's past the Pooh debacle, but every once in awhile she'll give me a look.  And I'm convinced she's remembering the moment I destroyed her childhood forever.  (And yes, I know that after she reads this she's going to milk it for all it's worth.:) )

But, we've moved on.  My  other two children never developed the same affinity for Winnie-the-Pooh that Madeline did.  (See this post.)  A children's show they've all been attached to, however, is Blues Clues.  Especially during the Steve days.  (Well, I guess that's debatable.  See here.)

It is accepted as truth in our household that the reason Steve left is because the actor was balding.  Madeline has seen Bald Steve pictures on the internet, and the other two would like to as well.  But, I've had to put my foot down.  I don't want to run the risk that seeing their childhood friend without hair might somehow devastate them, just like the truth about Pooh hurt Madeline.  So, in our house, Bald Steve is PG-13.

No Pain, No Gain

I’ve been reluctant to write posts of a spiritual nature.  Lately, my personal prayer life has been weak and I haven’t been consistent in personal Bible study.  I’ll read Christian posts in various other blogs, and recognize that I don’t have the command of doctrine or writing ability to express my ideas in a sound manner.  Frankly, I’m intimidated by the thought of writing something that might hamper someone else’s faith.

But, I’ve also recognized that my own laziness has been keeping me from fortifying my own faith.  I could get up earlier each morning to concentrate on personal prayer time and Bible study.  But I haven’t.

Lately, issues have come up in my life compelling me to concentrate on my personal faith. Dave and I are at a crossroads.  We need to determine God’s will for our role in our current spiritual family.  Or, should we find a new church home altogether.

I can’t afford to be spiritually lazy any more. 

So, God has given me a gift.  A few weeks ago, literally on the way home from a particularly difficult church meeting, my back started aching in the car.  For a couple of days, the aching stuck with me most of the day.  Now, I’ve found that while the pain is strong right away in the morning, the sooner I get out of bed and move around, the sooner I’m feeling better.  Sitting with an ice pack on my back, while reading the Bible and having prayer time, also helps.  Usually by mid-morning, if I haven’t done anything too strenuous, the pain has mostly subsided.

Perhaps I should see my doctor or chiropractor to have my back checked.  A new mattress would probably also be a good idea.  For right now, I’m holding off on that.  If I was more disciplined, I wouldn’t need this reminder to tend to my spiritual needs.  For now, though, while I need this pain to help combat my weaknesses, I’ll use it.

I Couldn't Do It ...

Often when I tell people we homeschool our three children, I get a somewhat dismissive ‘Well, I sure couldn’t do it,’ response.  I’d like to use this forum to reply.

Emotionally, sending them to school would be tough.  Simply put, I like having them around.  My kids are smart and clever, each with a distinct personality.  (See Madeline’s blog, here and here, for examples)  We have fun together.  Last night, for example, our supper table discussion, centered on Henry’s proposed scenario – “If you were stranded at sea on a floating cookie, would you starve and stay afloat, or eat the cookie and drown?” 

But, I don’t want to give the impression that it’s total jocularity at our house.  It certainly isn’t.  Having a 13 year old girl, 9 year old boy and 4 ½ year old girl in the same house all day with each other can lead to, uh, plenty of tension.  Some days, I feel like I spend most of the day, um, raising my voice.  But then, just when I’m ready to pull my hair out, I’ll see Madeline working with the other 2, making a video.  Or, Henry will be reading a book to Grace at the top of the stairs.  Then, my heart turns to mush and I’m so glad they have this time to get to be with each other and learn to truly love one another (even if they don’t always like each other.)

However, our decision to homeschool is based on much more than just my sentimentality.  As my friend Mary asserts,  “since we live in a world that has largely rejected God, since so many are actively anti-Christian, we as parents need to gather our children to us and hold them close. Fill them with God's Word and hold them close”  In our particular situation, we believe that the best way to educate our children is at home.

It is our conviction that God has called this family, at this point in time, to homeschool.  We’ve prayed that He would lead us to do His will.  We’ve prayed that our pride wouldn’t keep us from sending them to school, if that’s where He wanted them.  We’ve prayed that if He wanted us to send them to school, He would give us a clear indication.  We continue these prayers, and others, for His guidance.  And He continues to answer.  Not through any lightning bolts or burning bushes.  But by giving us a feeling of peace and a sense of resolve.

I am so grateful that this is the path God chose for use.  It hasn’t always been easy, and  I know we’ll still have struggles, but I believe that the roughest times are behind us.  I also know that homeschooling is not for everyone.  It can be difficult, costly, and is a huge commitment.  If both parents aren’t committed to homeschooling, it’s probably not your calling. 

One benefit of taking the less-travelled path of homeschooling, is that I’ve gained a greater appreciation of God’s design for families.  Each situation is different and every set of parents has the right to make the decision that works for them.

So, if you’re convinced that you can’t homeschool, that’s okay. 

Just please respect my position that I couldn’t not homeschool.

Three Cool Things...

1)  This panorama of the Sistine Chapel is awesome!

2)  I liked this ad for seat belt buckling.  It's had over 7 million views, so I guess I'm a little late to the party on it. But it's worth watching if you haven't seen it yet.

3)  Yesterday, Dave was wearing a pair of pants that we'd gotten at Goodwill over a month ago.  He reached into the pocket and pulled out $71.  Trust me, we never carry that much cash around, and we certainly wouldn't have misplaced that much money without realizing it.  In my many years of thrift store buying, I've never found anything valuable in the pockets like that.  (For the record, the clothes in our Goodwill come from a distribution center which serves several dozen GW stores from a rather large region.  I'm pretty sure we got the pants for 1/2 price, which means they'd already been in the store for over a month.  There's no way to track the original owner.)

Bonus Cool Thing:

While tracking down the seat belt ad, I came across this video of an 8 month old as his cochlear implant enables him to hear his mother's voice for the first time.  Enjoy.

If You Give A Mom A Muffin...

Just wanted to share this:

If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll pour herself some. Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.  She'll wipe it up. Wiping the floor, she will find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the  washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With A Pound Of Hamburger.) The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow. She will look for her checkbook. The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old. She'll smell something funny. She'll change the two-year-old. While she is changing the two-year-old the phone will ring. Her five-year-old will answer and hang up. She'll remember that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. She will pour herself some. And chances are, if she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

by Kathy Fictorie
based on "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
 

More Cool Goodwill Finds

Last night, I was able to pick up one volume of the The Illustrated Animal Library: Fascinating Animal Portraits from Around the World., containing Birds; Reptiles, Amphibians & Fish; and Insects & Invertebrates.  Very cool color portraits, well worth the $2.50.

I couldn't find a picture for this one, but Science Through the Microscope, by Aladdin Books, has some neat, up close shots of everything from a cell, to pollen, to a honeybee pupae, to a human embryo.  Also $2.50.

The Last 1000 Years has a nice timeline, pictures, maps and reference information for the last millennium.  $4.50.

And, finally, The Complete Soapmaker: Tips, Techniques & Recipes for Luxurious Handmade Soaps, is to have on hand in case I decide to start a new hobby.  I've checked it out of the library in the past, with excellent intentions, but somehow they never came into fruition.  Soon.  Maybe.  Soon.  $2.50.

Don't Let Freedom Slip Away - By Kitty Werthman

I pulled this off a history curriculum message board.  It's too good to not share:

Dear Friends,

Kitty Werthmann, an 84 year old naturalized American citizen talks about her life as a youth under Hitler's rule for seven years. She then lived under the Communist regime for 3 years prior to her fleeing to America. Kitty speaks about the subtle erosions of freedoms in Austria and how it paved the way for socialism and Hitler's regime to easily take over her country. She will be speaking at Iowa State Bank, Orange City, Friday, April 30 at 10:00 A.M and Friday evening 7:00 PM at Northwest Iowa Community College Building A, 603 West Park Street, Sheldon. Free to the public with a freewill offering being taken. Below is a short version of the kind of observations she will give the audience.

Don't Let Freedom Slip Away

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By: Kitty Werthmann

What I am about to tell you is something you've probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote.. I've never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force. In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates.

Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn't want to work; there simply weren't any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people - about 30 daily.

The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Many blocks in cities like Vienna , Linz , and Graz were destroyed. The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted. We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany , where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that they didn't have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group -- Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed. After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn't support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

Hitler Targets Education - Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children: Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler's picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn't pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang "Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles," and had physical education.

Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail. The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.

My mother was very unhappy. When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn't do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun - no sports, and no political indoctrination. I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn't exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

Equal Rights Hits Home: In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn't work, you didn't get a ration card, and if you didn't have a card, you starved to death.. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn't have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.

Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service. Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare: When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children.. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls: Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna . After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.

As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing. We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn't meet all the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control. We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

"Mercy Killing" Redefined: In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps . The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated. So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months. They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness. As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

The Final Steps - Gun Laws: Next came gun registration.. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily. No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up. Totalitarianism didn't come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria .. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.

After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria. Women were raped, preteen to elderly. The press never wrote about this either. When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process. They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn't destroy, they burned. We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized. Those who couldn't, paid the price. There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians.

This is an eye witness account. It's true..those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.

America Truly is the Freest Country in the World. Don't Let Freedom Slip Away "After America , There is No Place as free to Go"

on March 07, 2010 12:55:13 PM

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