Fear 1: Our state has been toying with the idea of standardizing the immunization process for all children in order to attend school: public, childcare, or homeschool even. The new law would impose severe restrictions on any parent attempting to exempt their child from any vaccination -even just one. Doctors would be unable to use their own expertise and understanding of your child's health situation to exempt a vaccine, they would have to meet certain government defined requirements for an exemption. It would also increase governmental control over which vaccines are recommended versus required for children in order to attend school at all, without specifying any boundaries to that control.
I am not anti-vax. I am definitely not blindly pro-vax either. I am against government choosing my family's healthcare without my input.
Society is currently motivated by fear and misleading information about vaccines and their supposed safety and the unsafe environment perceived by there being unvaccinated people in our society. Across the nation, laws are being introduced to remove religious and personal vaccine exemptions and increase the requirements for which vaccines are mandatory.
Pro-vaxxers like to state that anti-vaxxers do not have any scientific proof. However, they won't support any research or laws to look for scientific evidence either. The majority of the evidence is first-hand anecdotal accounts. This frustrates me to no end because as with all societal issues in the media today, there is the extremes on either side. No one cares that neither extreme is entirely accurate. No one cares that there may be something to both sides and making the efforts necessary for finding out what that is.
Two of my children were completely vaccinated as young children. No ill side effects. Another child could not tolerate them. No one seems to wonder why. No one seems to care enough to look into what more is going on. At least, not the people who need to the most. The ones trying to impose governmental choice in our personal healthcare.
I am doing my part. I have contacted my congress people and spread the word on social media as best I can. I am even hoping to attend a rally with my children to show the physical support against this proposed law. The rest I must leave up to God. I pray that this bill is defeated.
Fear 2: As a prior C-section mama, I now have the choice of attempting a vaginal birth or having a scheduled C-section. My hubby and I have spoken with the doctors about risks and I have done lots of research as I normally do.
I want to choose the right one. The best one for my entire family. Regardless of what I choose, I have to rely on others to care for my little ones. Our new baby could have issues like our toddler does. Choosing birth control options and the options vary based on what I choose. My support people are farther away and less physically capable than they were a decade ago when I gave birth to my oldest two. There are many, many factors. Lots of opinions online and judgements for and against.
I know what I'm leaning towards choosing, but I haven't worked out all of my hesitations and concerns internally to be able to make a choice and give it to God. I've been praying for peace and wisdom.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Homeschooling Validation
I can't spill the beans just yet on their exact scores, but our girls just finished their first standardized test after being homeschooled for nearly three years. I am just so proud of them and all their hard work! They did well, better than I hoped!
Being their "proctor" as they took their tests, it was natural for them to ask me questions as they worked away. It was hard to refrain from expressing my disappointment when they seemed to have forgotten content of what we had learned this past year...some things they struggled with we just recently finished working on and I wanted to bang my head against a wall!
My oldest is my perfectionist and just like her daddy when it comes to test taking. They both overthink their answers and doubt themselves trying to get that correct answer. Many times I have told her not to make extra work for herself and follow her initial response. We've struggled this year, often with her in tears and both of us frustrated due to her self-doubt and anxiety over making mistakes. Over and over we talk about doing her best, understanding mistakes are just places we need to spend more time learning concepts, etc. Seeing her scores on her test results just filled me with elation. All her self-doubts and anxiety had no foundation in her skill level at all. She scored so well!
My younger daughter is more like me. She catches on quickly to most things and has that engineering mind: able to figure things out and deduce answers by finding patterns, using the process of elimination, etc. I worried that she would be too quick to answer and make unnecessary mistakes (something we've been working on this year). She had very few questions for me during her testing and when I asked her to show me the part of the test she wasn't sure of, she calmly and logically explained why she answered what she did and when I asked if she had any questions, she had answered her own doubts and didn't truly need my help. Her test results showed her weaknesses accurately, but man, her strengths? Wow. It was amazing to see her scores.
Seeing their results was validating for me as a teacher. Not just in being able to teach them, but also in the curriculum choices we've made for them. There are so many options out there for curriculum and you want to have chosen quality learning for your children. Our first year we had so many struggles with curriculum that I worried that I was letting them fall behind or teaching them at too low of a level, that maybe I should have been pushing them more. This test is one that other homeschool and public school peers take. Their percentage scores were high amongst where they fell among their peers. All my doubts have no basis. Now I can use their scores to help me determine where to focus our learning for next year and deciding our curriculum options. God is good!
Being their "proctor" as they took their tests, it was natural for them to ask me questions as they worked away. It was hard to refrain from expressing my disappointment when they seemed to have forgotten content of what we had learned this past year...some things they struggled with we just recently finished working on and I wanted to bang my head against a wall!
My oldest is my perfectionist and just like her daddy when it comes to test taking. They both overthink their answers and doubt themselves trying to get that correct answer. Many times I have told her not to make extra work for herself and follow her initial response. We've struggled this year, often with her in tears and both of us frustrated due to her self-doubt and anxiety over making mistakes. Over and over we talk about doing her best, understanding mistakes are just places we need to spend more time learning concepts, etc. Seeing her scores on her test results just filled me with elation. All her self-doubts and anxiety had no foundation in her skill level at all. She scored so well!
My younger daughter is more like me. She catches on quickly to most things and has that engineering mind: able to figure things out and deduce answers by finding patterns, using the process of elimination, etc. I worried that she would be too quick to answer and make unnecessary mistakes (something we've been working on this year). She had very few questions for me during her testing and when I asked her to show me the part of the test she wasn't sure of, she calmly and logically explained why she answered what she did and when I asked if she had any questions, she had answered her own doubts and didn't truly need my help. Her test results showed her weaknesses accurately, but man, her strengths? Wow. It was amazing to see her scores.
Seeing their results was validating for me as a teacher. Not just in being able to teach them, but also in the curriculum choices we've made for them. There are so many options out there for curriculum and you want to have chosen quality learning for your children. Our first year we had so many struggles with curriculum that I worried that I was letting them fall behind or teaching them at too low of a level, that maybe I should have been pushing them more. This test is one that other homeschool and public school peers take. Their percentage scores were high amongst where they fell among their peers. All my doubts have no basis. Now I can use their scores to help me determine where to focus our learning for next year and deciding our curriculum options. God is good!
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