Education budget cuts

We're all talking about it. We all have our opinions. The sad fact is that for all that 'they' say we're coming out of recession, it's still hitting us hard. Education seems to be getting the worst of the hits simply because there are so many 'extras' that they can take away. Cobb, for example, is looking to privatize the arts (music/art/etc) so that parents pay extras for it. Sports in many areas have already moved away from schools. They're closing schools in DeKalb. All counties are laying off teachers. Let's make class sizes 40/teacher (like in college) to cut down our cost. Then let's have kids go to school fewer days. Didn't pass the CRCT? Too bad, no summer program to back you up. Have a gifted student? You'll have to pay to send them to extra programs to keep them challenged.

Of course, the doesn't include the 'other stuff' that happens at school. You don't need janitors to clean the schools, just have the kids do it. You don't need anyone in the media center either. Kids can check out their books all by themselves, you know they're trustworthy. Of course, why have a media center? The county has a public library you can use (sometimes), unless of course they close that too. You'll have to provide all the supplies too. The school can't afford paper, pencils, crayons, etc. You'll need to copy all the workbooks too so that teachers have worksheets for the class.

Don't like any of these statements? My only true comment is to take a stand and voice your opinion at the polls. This includes the teachers as well as the parents. Only when we actually combine to MAKE A STATEMENT will something happen.

Garden Walk-thru

A walk-thru of my children's garden. It's rapidly becoming more of a family project than a children's project. The last grouping of plants put in was selected by my daughter but planted by me.

The first set of large shrubs are the blueberry bushes. I tried to zoom in on the strawberries, but it was blurred. The pots have labels as to what each plant is, we left them by the plants so we could put out markers later. The empty area by the fence toward the trampoline actually has bulbs planted in it, they haven't broken through yet.

Playing with drawing

My kids some times ask me what I do when I'm acting as a teacher. I rarely have anything to show for it as most of it is instruction and waiting. Then there are the times that I get to be an art teacher. I'm not what I'd call an artist, but I do love to draw and can (at times) do pretty well. This is one I drew the last time I was in art, just before Easter.

Adventure Base Green Screen

It's not the best green screen edit I've seen, but it's a cute picture anyway.

Casio Exilim Giveaway

Check out "Shopping Mama" and the Casio web site for a chance to win a Casio Exilim EX-FC100 camera.

Ultimate Bakugan Battle Brawlers Prize Pack Giveaway

MOMStart is giving away a cool bakugan prize pack. Find it here. Ultimate Bakugan Battle Brawlers Prize Pack Giveaway

Firefly (lack of) Support

I got a Firefly Mobile gloPhone for my kids some time back. I put it on the pay as you go plan with the understanding that (I thought) they'd send email when it was time to put more money in the account, etc. Apparently that doesn't happen and I forgot all about it. So last month, I logged in to the account, only to be confused as the phone wasn't showing up. So I filed a trouble ticket and forgot about it again.

My son went on a scout camping trip this past weekend and took the phone with him. He and his ride left camping a bit early due to weather. When they tried to use his phone to call me to let me know, it wouldn't call. So, later Saturday afternoon I started exploring the firefly website again. The phone still doesn't show up under my account, there are no error messages and I still haven't received a response to the original trouble ticket. I went searching for a solution and found that I'd have to file another trouble ticket. Note; They don't put their 800 number anywhere easy to locate and by the time I found it, I had to wait until today to call.

As best as I can figure, at this point, they'll tell me that I'll have to purchase a new sim card, reactivate the phone and then put it back on a pay-as-you-go plan. For all the effort, I could go to Wal-mart and purchase one of the generic AT&T pay as you go phones instead and get better service.

We'll see how long it actually takes them to respond to the second trouble ticket and in the meantime I think I'll explore other options.

Book Review: After the Hangover

I enjoy a good book and am very flexible in what I will consider reading. It was with some excitement that I decided I would give this one a try. Normally, I don't get in to reading political books and tend to keep my political leanings to myself. However, I decided to expand my base and explore other options. This book, though, fell flat.

Tyrell likes to expound prolifically exercising what profundity he has accumulated over the years by utilizing a multitude of excessive verbosity. What comprehension one gains by reading this book will be determined by the erudition of the reader. The perspicuity remains to be seen. I perceived a distinct overuse of protracted words on the part of the author.

I suspect that most of that is on purpose. While the book itself can be difficult to read, many of the points that Tyrell makes are interesting to read. I found his definitions of liberalism and Liberal to be somewhat enlightening, especially given his satirical point of view. I also appreciated his outlining of 'kultursmog' and how it relates to the current political environment. The history of conservatism, though, was lacking.

All in all, not the best of the books I've ever read.

Dogwood Festival

My daughter and I decided we wanted to check out the Dogwood Festival this year. My son was originally going to go, but as we were going after Scout Blast, he ended up backing out. The draw for him was to be the BSA 100 years Adventure Base. Anyway, we caught the Dog Disc Club demonstration first.

Adventure Base seen from top of hill

AdventureBase was nice, the lines for the rope course were too long. We didn't stay around to try that. The museum was in a semi-trailer. The draw for that for us was the virtual pinewood race. It was more a quiz than a design your car and race it, though. We didn't try to see the movie in the small dome either. Next door were inflatables that cost a minimum of $3 each to try, so we skipped those as well.

I have to admit, all in all that my daughter and I toured the entire park. We also bought very little. Most of it seemed to be paintings or sculptures. All of it seemed to be priced out of our range. Dinner ended up being $20 for the two of us. I think I was a bit disappointed with what I saw, though with the crowds that were out there it looked like vendors were doing ok anyway.

Scene at Scout Blast

Scout Blast is held every year at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. Different troops gather and camp the night before and set up exhibits and activities for the next day. It's also where the district Pinewood Derby is held. We dropped by for a while to check it out.

Village of Stone Mountain renovations

Passing through town, they've pulled up the sidewalks to be redone. Unfortunately, quite a few of the store fronts are still empty. Hopefully with their landscaping and such they'll attract more businesses and visitors.

Grower's Outlet

On the recommendation of a teacher at my daughter's school, we visited this garden supply to help start my children's garden. It had a very large selection of plants at a very good price. My only complaint would be the traffic from getting here (Lilburn) to the supplier. We picked up the blueberry bush for $10, my knockout roses for about $5, herbs for $1 each. We filled the well of my van's storage for about $50 in plants.

Grower's Outlet LLC Loganville, GA

Views of Zoo Atlanta

After our family service day, we visited Zoo Atlanta. I must say it was PACKED. We had a hard time finding any parking either on the Grant Park side or the Zoo side. Fortunately, we're members so we can skip the most busy of the areas and just see the 'highlights'. Anything we miss, we'll go back later to see. They're creating a new exhibit for the tiger and leopard. They're adding a sun bear to the area.

Family Service Day

We volunteered as a family to work with the Piedmont Nature Conservancy to help plant/clear/weed a portion of the park. We ended up on a section where there were lots of leaves and underbrush they wanted cleared away. I generally pruned, hubby raked, kids bagged.. though we all did some of each in the long run. End product, approx. 100 ft of cleared area..

Heritage Girls go horseback

Over spring break, my daughter's group in Heritage Girls went out to a local ranch in Dacula to work on their horsemanship badge. The first horse is called "Pretty", she was trained as a cutting horse but now does riding lessons. This one is "Munson". He was a UGA competitive horse, now doing riding lessons. Learning to curry on Pretty. Riding Munson

Stone Mountain Park Hiking

One of our spring break activities was to meet with friends and walk one of the trails out at Stone Mountain park.

The first part of the trail we were going to do was damaged in the floods (by the playgrounds). So was the bridge between the two lakes. My daughter at the playground

small turtles

Big Turtle

Turtle-pa-looza

The kids

Part of the trail

Scenes from Easter