If you haven’t already seen this Salon.com article in defense of home-schooling, it’s worth a read-through. In his essay, Brooklyn dad Andrew O’Hehir touts the benefits of the option, especially in such a field-trip-rich city like New York, as well as trying to squash some outdated stereotypes:
“Some people suspect we have a hidden ideological or religious agenda we’re not telling them about. We may look like your standard-issue Brooklyn creative-class family—two 40-something parents, two kids, two pet rabbits and a battered Chrysler minivan—but who are we really? Home schooling has become a lot more mainstream and diverse in recent years, but familiar sterotypes endure. As Alicia Bayer, a Minnesota home-schooler and blogger who’s one of Leslie’s [O’Hehir’s wife and home-schooler of their five-year-old twins] online mentors, puts it, ‘People think we’re all conservative Christians who hate the government and wear denim jumpers.’”
If you still haven’t had your fill on this hot topic, check out our home-schooling essay from August.
- Kindergartners head to the altar
Cute overload alert! Two German tots, six-year-old Mike and five-year-old Anna-Bell, 5, took off in the wee hours of the morning and headed straight to Africa to, ahem, get married. Apparently, their parents were still snoozing when the kiddies fled, getting as far as the tram that would take them to the train station. Maybe all boys aren’t commitment-phobic after all.
Pharmaceutical company Merck has just filed for FDA approval for the use of Gardasil by boys as young as nine. As men are the primary carriers and transmitters of the HPV virus, this may not be too bad of an idea. Parents, would you vaccinate your little dude?
- Home-schooling rises in NYC
According to the Times, there was a 32% increase in home-schooling in the Big Apple from 2003 to 2007, and a 36% increase nationwide. With the downward-spiraling economy and the ever-increasing private school tuitions, these numbers are likely to continue to rise.
- Green goods for your little goober—delivered
Eager to go green? Love gourmet eats? Lazy as a sloth? Fret not—GustOrganics has every base covered. The Greenwich Village restaurant has whipped up some meals for little ones so delish-sounding, we adults would nosh on them (macaroni with spinach and Parmesan cream, baked squash). All meals are prepared using organic ingredients, and are offered for dine-in as well.
