MichiBlogger

CoHS #104: Last Carnival of Homeschooling in 2007

CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING: This week at The Common Room.

THE 102ND CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING: The Many Hats of Homeschool Edition.

UMMM, I’ll PASS: Man receives 96 percent APR loan offer

In GR:

The unsecured loans available are relatively small - $1,000 to a maximum of $3,000. But at 96 percent APR, that $3,000 loan with 24 monthly payments of $284.93 comes out to a payback of $6,838.32.

The offer was from an out-of-state lender. Michigan lenders are limited to a maximum APR of about 13% for unsecured loans.

OINK: Feral pigs spreading out into Michigan’s suburbs, parks

FAILING GRADE: Michigan schools report card: Not good

Fewer high schools in Michigan made adequate progress toward meeting requirements of federal No Child Left Behind laws, the state reported Friday.

In the last school year, 489 high schools didn’t made adequate progress, up from 399 in 2005-06. Fifteen of the schools have been closed by their local districts.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan said the results weren’t surprising because the state raised the standards to graduate from high school.

“We are seeing a momentary lag as we prepare for greater success down the road,” he said in a news release. “The reforms we’ve put into place need time to work.”

Let’s hope that’s the case. In any event, this merely reinforces my belief in homeschooling. Michigan is a great state to homeschool in.

Speaking of which, this week saw the 100th Carnival of Homeschooling. Check it out.

THINGS WE COULDN’T SAY: Last night I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Diet Eman, a member of the Dutch Resistance during World War 2. She currently lives in Grand Rapids and spoke to a packed room at the Homeschool Building in Wyoming.

It was quite something to hear about her experiences and exploits following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. She helped hide Dutch Jews, she aided downed Allied pilots, she helped steal ID papers and ration cards for those in hiding, and she basically lived on the run until captured and imprisoned in 1944. Her fiance was killed. Canadian troops finally liberated the area in 1945.

She credits her Christian faith and God’s will for her success and survival. I believe that the things she did and the close calls she managed to escape were not mere coincidence or good fortune.

She refused an honorarium for speaking because of her strong support for homeschooling.

I bought a copy of her book Things We Couldn’t Say and it looks good. It was published by Eerdmans in Grand Rapids. Mrs. Eman was signing books, and I had her make it out to my wife who has read a number of WW2-era stories to our kids, including at least one on the Dutch Resistance. I’ll probably have some excerpts and additional comments once I get a chance to read it.

To hear her stories from her mouth in person was quite an experience. She told us that any of us would do the same thing in the same position, and I would like to believe it. But to hear her speak of what she did, I wonder.

INCIDENT AT THE PINEDALE SHOPPING MALL:

HOMESCHOOL BUZZ: Carnival of Homeschooling: Thanksgiving Week 2007.

And you don’t have to be a homeschooler to find these carnivals interesting. Lots of good informational stuff. Careful…you might learn something.

SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA WONDER: Michigan boy, 13, charged with drunken driving

A police officer checking on a truck that got stuck in the mud at a city park was startled to find a 13-year-old boy behind the wheel.

The boy’s father, who was sitting in the passenger seat, told police he had had too much to drink and let his son drive. The boy had been drinking, too, police said.

“(The boy) even said he didn’t want to drive because he was too drunk,” McLellan told The Flint Journal for a story published Thursday.