Is the illness over?

So, yesterday we got our order from LifeBalm: two Kid-e-Mins, one Kid-e-Mune, one bottle of echinacea extract for Rob and I (just in case) and one bottle of Dr. Christopher's lower bowel formula (again for Rob and I).

As soon as we got the package, I broke out some orange juice I'd been waiting to pass out once the tummies were all settled (it seemed like they never were) and we gave the kids appropriate doses hidden inside, with the youngest getting theirs first.

Our firstborn son, the one we've had the most trouble with lately, laid down on the couch for the rest of the evening and didn't move unless he had to. Our youngest boy fell asleep early. The girls all stayed awake but were much more quiet than usual. Meanwhile, I kept waiting for someone to throw everything up.

This morning was the first morning we've had in a week where no one threw up. There are no sniffles now and our boys are (as of this writing) back at full YEAH strength. Now, it has happened before that the kids seemed to be all right and they weren't, but for the past month or two there has always been someone with the sniffles or a low-grade fever, even when they seemed to be okay in all other respects. For there to be no sniffles whatsoever in our house is, in my opinion, a miracle. I hope it lasts. :)

So, we're back to school and the full schedule of before.

A new blog and more herbs

Okay, I don't have my initial blog idea up and running yet. But I do have the secondary one going. It's focus is on frugality and is called Homemaking Cents. I'm working on the layout bit by bit as time goes on. It's not a blog I want to spend a whole lot of time on, but it does give me a chance to talk about some things that I don't think will fit on the other blog.

Good gosh, now I have two active blogs. Will I be able to post on them as often as I like? We shall see.

As for the kids, Rachel and Sarah (along with most of their brothers and sisters) have been dealing with the stomach flu. It turns out, there's a lot of people we know here that can't seem to shake this thing, whether it appears as strep throat, a stomach virus, a bronchial infection or just a common cold. One member of our church has been fighting this for several weeks.

So, we decided we've had enough and are going to bump this up a notch. We'd been putting off getting our cold and flu herbs for various reasons, mostly because every other bug we've been able to battle off using food alone (not to mention the intense cleaning this house has gotten). This one seems to be pretty stout so we've gotten some of Dr. Christopher's herbal remedies that we discovered knock this thing back, but that we're very low on. Hopefully they'll arrive during the weekend and we'll finally get over this illness and back to work.

So, yeah, because we've been sick, we have done next to nothing in the way of school or therapy. Oh, well. I've always said one of the beauties of homeschooling is schedule flexibility.

(On a completely unrelated topic, we ended up giving the dog to our city's animal shelter. That has helped my husband more than either of us realized it would... within minutes actually and within an hour almost all of his symptoms were gone. Most of what he's been fighting off, it turns out, has been his allergies to the dog. Sad, but true.)

Homeschooling in California and Update

First, the update... yesterday, for the first time ever, Rachel gave one of her sisters a piggyback ride. In fact, she gave several. :) I'm thinking it's an herbal formula we've been using the past two months called (this is just something we've found works for us and may not work for others) Complete Bone and Tissue Formula (syrup form). It's from the Christophers. We've liked it so much that we're thinking of using another product of theirs called Kid-e-Trac. That, combined with the nutritional supplements we've been using for years now (we use Dr. Schulze's Superfood recipe and cayenne now and then) should really help Rachel.

(BTW, we believe that herbs should only be taken until the body has healed itself. That means a clear focus on foods and general wellness instead of popping herbs like they're a cure-all.)

Sarah has been having some behavioral issues lately. Mostly talking back and hitting. I think it's the white flour. We don't have her on the GF/CF diet anymore since we found that as long as we kept dairy out, she seems to do better. However, I'm now convinced that white flour is a big no-no. Each time she has it, even in a small quantity, her behavior the next day gets worse. Whole wheat flour doesn't seem to have the same effect. She also seems to do better when we limit the amount of bread (whole wheat soaked and cooked seems to do her the best so far).

As for babysitters, no luck so far. Will widen my advertising this week.

Now, for homeschooling and California's recent ruling.

It's pretty disheartening. In countries like Germany, homeschooling has been banned entirely. And now, in California, the most recent ruling indicates that only a parent with teaching credentials can teach their child at home.

I'm no lawyer, but I do have some thoughts on the scope of this ruling. If only parents with valid teaching credentials can teach their child at home, what about parents of special needs children? It's conceivable that a state could also demand a specialization in teaching special needs children if you want to teach them at home yourself. This is a pretty big, panicky, slippery slope because I'm taking one ruling in one state and applying it to the nation. Actually, I'm taking more than one ruling in the state of California (I'll have to look for it since it was by the Ninth Circuit and had to do with parental rights v. the state) as well as the Nate ruling the other day. It's just I live in one of the best states to homeschool, law-wise, and I don't want anything to change.

It doesn't hurt that I'm a confirmed cynic.

I'm also glad that the CA superintendent has issued a statement (see the first relevant article linked above... fifth para.) that seems to say he won't enforce this ruling because the current system works well.

Update: found this article with this beautiful quote:

But Croskey, without hearing arguments from the school, opined that the situation was a "ruse of enrolling [children] in a private school and then letting them stay home and be taught by a non-credentialed parent."

I was taught from K-6th grade through a correspondence course. Looking back after my time spent in two public school systems (one in Texas and one in CA), I realize I learned far more than others my age and didn't suffer in the slightest when it came to friendships and socialization. Or, I should say, no more than any average pre-teen does. ;) And the primary teaching was by... my parents! It's just the way things work out with a correspondence course when kids are young.

So, yes, this ruling does seem to not only affect homeschooling parents but also those who use distance learning and correspondence courses sponsored by private schools, public charter schools, and universities.

This is bigger than I thought.

Another Update: this article from Albert Mohler found through another site adds yet another gem of a quote. This time, the article quotes the actual text of the ruling (found here in pdf format if you want to look at the original). This is the text from the original... not Mohler's thoughts.

The trial court's reason for declining to order public or private schooling for the

children was its belief that parents have a constitutional right to school their children in their own home. However, California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children. Thus, while the petition for extraordinary writ asserts that the trial court's refusal to order attendance in a public or private school was an abuse of discretion, we find the refusal was actually an error of law. [emphasis cavamil's]

I haven't finished reading the ruling, and I'm not a lawyer, so I can't bring any expertise on this matter, but it sounds like this is the way things have been in California for a long time. It's just that a "truce" of sorts has been in place between the homeschoolers and the public school system there. However, what disturbs me the most is that bolded phrase in the above quote. This, of course, goes back to the argument of who takes care of the child and I've run out of blogging time for the day. More tomorrow if I can.