Why I don't Like Chester and the Big Bad Bully

I'm all about children's books that promote kindness and tolerance for everyone and, on the first several readings, I really liked Chester and the Big Bad Bully.  As time went on, though, I began to resent that book and the terrible lesson it taught my child.

Now, anyone who has ever read the book is probably wondering at this point what in the world I am talking about.  This whole series of books about Chester the Raccoon are promoted in schools for their value lessons, so how can I say it taught my child something wrong?  You might be picking up your child's copy right now and looking through the book to find anything amoral in it.  You could do this and you wouldn't find a thing.

That's because the terrible lesson this book taught my child was not amoral or unkind...it was the opposite: a saccharine-sweet, totally unrealistically optimistic lesson that will inevitably lead to pain and misery...

"If you are nice to a bad person, it will make them good"

A Reluctant Homeschooler: Four Reasons I Want to be Regulated

Our library subscribes to a fairly popular homeschooling magazine that has regular features about the legal issues that are part and parcel of educating your child at home.  A common theme I see in the editorials on this topic is the idea that we homeschoolers should do everything in our power, including the language we use to describe what we do, to avoid any legal regulations at all.  States like mine, where I have a minimum of record-keeping requirements and virtually no oversight to make sure I've fulfilled even those obligations, are a dream environment for the more libertarian-minded homeschool community.

Personally, I disagree. I want to be regulated.  Now, don't get me wrong, I certainly don't want the type of over-regulation typical of most of the bureaucracy in this country, but I would actually appreciate a bare minimum of oversight.  Why? Well, here you go:

Meditation, Yoga, & the Distracted Child: Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation

A while back, the J-Rex's Occupational Therapist began working with her on a finger isolation technique that involved touching your thumb to each fingertip in turn.  When the J-Rex told me about the exercise, I was immediately reminded of a meditation listed in her yoga book:

A Reluctant Homeschooler: How it all Began

Homeschooling the J-Rex was never something I had planned on doing.  I was educated in the public school system and that is what I had planned for my daughter: