Quick recap on the grocery goals - I'm on week 3 of the meal plan. I did go to the grocery store in that time frame to restock on milk and eggs. I also did a "Quiz Meet" shop that I had forgotten about where I bought snack items, but all were on sale, so I felt good about that and it meant we didn't go out for lunch which we typically do if I don't plan ahead. I can get by this week as well if we stick to the meals I planned.
We went to one store to pick up dog food and saw the price was more than half off. We sent out one of our kids and went back for a year's supply! That'll save us tons of money as dog food is super expensive.
So yes, this past weekend was a quiz meet and the kids, once again, amazed us. One of our junior teams took top place. It still amazes me to think that even if the kids don't place in the top, they have memorized almost the entire book of 1 Corinthians since September. Incredible. To see so many kids with God's Word hidden in their heart is so exciting as they don't even know the impact it is going to have on their lives until they are much older.
As for homeschooling, we recently started a book about Canadian History written in a story style. As usual, I don't know who learns more, me or the kids. I know that government is important, ordained by God and that nothing is a surprise to God, but this Fall, I've also seen how fallen the government is and how much I need to keep my children close to me. The theme that keeps jumping out at us over the last few months has been the negative, unnecessary, self-serving intervention the government played in people's lives over and over again where years later, the Canadian government had to go back and say, "Sorry." A few examples....
Residential schools. I won't go into long history lessons, but suffice it to say, the church may have had good intentions to possibly even evangelize the First Nations families, but by taking away their children from their mommies? Nothing will ever make me say that was a good idea. It is the saddest thing to hear the damage that was done to these people who will forever be scarred, for so many reasons, but mainly because the government thought they could do a better job of raising their children. A crime.
The Dionne Quintuplets. This has to be the saddest story in all of Canadian history. My kids thought I was making it up, I'm sure. We had to go on YouTube to prove it. These 5 identical girls were born in 1923 to a mom who already had 5 children. They were an immediate international sensation, and that's WITHOUT the internet. The government had a hospital built across the road from where they were born near North Bay, Ontario. This ended up being where they spent most of their early years - away from their parents. That's right. They were taken from their parents by the government in case the PARENTS (how ironic) tried to exploit them for money. Instead, what ended up happening was the girls were exploited by the government and the girls' doctor for what they think was a half a billion dollars. HALF A BILLION. The girls were put on display and were treated like a freak show. School buses from Toronto and all over would come with loads of children and their parents and park in the 100 car parking lot and then go see them behind the one-way glass in the girls' "natural environment". After observing them, the visitors would go to the souvenir shop that was run by the parents! The parents, though somewhat in on the whole thing, were discouraged to see their own children, so they were essentially raised by the doctor and some nurses. It wasn't until they were older that they realized, of course, their childhood had been taken away from them. It wasn't until the women were well into their 70s that they received a "sorry" and some money from the government in compensation for their treatment. I told the kids, "Ok, maybe you don't love school and doing work, but at least you are with me and not in some circus freak show because we are a family with 8 kids!" (although sometimes we are treated that way!) Such a sad story for those girls. They never had friends and they never knew about the outside world. Apparently, later on the girls' parents did try to get custody, but the damage was done.
One final example - the Japanese Internment Camps. After the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese, all Japanese people were treated like they had done the attack themselves, including those living in British Columbia. Of course, they hadn't, but it didn't matter. In the name of safety, the Canadian government packed them all up, took away all their property and businesses, and sent them away to internment camps. They lost everything. How was that a good idea? At least this time they didn't take just the kids. As usual, it was years and years later they said, "Oh, sorry. We shouldn't have done that." How do you ever recover from that?
My kids are in absolute shock and awe when I read these stories to them. I'm not trying to teach them that the government is bad. I'm teaching them that they often have an agenda and it isn't often a good one. Not to mention, it seemed like all the Canadian public was good with what went on, too....
Just in case my kids think that doesn't happen anymore....no, it still does. How about a current example...my dentist, for one. Last week I shared story after story of how God had done these miracles in my life, about piano teachers and groceries. I forgot to share how He had also answered a prayer about our dentist! I had asked God to show me who we should have as our new dentist after moving out this way. Seems like a strange prayer, maybe, but I wanted to make sure we were going to one who understood the dental needs and costs of a large family. I interviewed a number of people. Then, one day, at a local fair, I ran into our current dentist. He had a booth up across from where I had a booth selling crafts. I went over and chatted with him. I was pretty convinced he was our guy almost right away. When I told him I basically wanted free care, he laughed and said, "For large families I give a good discount." What? I had never heard that before. He was hired!
As we got to know him it turns out he was a believer! A solid Christian man. I also found out he was a daring believer. He had his kids in the public school system, but he wasn't loving the agenda the government had for them. He decided to take on the school board and, without getting into details for his sake, got into a legal battle in the name of his kids and his parental rights. Was I ever impressed with his nerve and his awareness that as the parent he wanted to be the one as the primary influence. The government said, "No, you're not. We want to be." He lost his battle. Now, he's in a quandary as to what to do. It just goes to show you, government thinks they know better than us as parents and if they have to intervene to prove it, they will. I never take the privilege of homeschooling lightly. I'm the primary influence right now and they don't like that.
I don't write about politics. I try to avoid it, but this week when we had finished studying all these topics, I couldn't help it. Over and over I saw the theme come up where the government had intervened to the detriment of the family. It has made me be grateful for the privilege I have to homeschool, but also how careful we have to be to protect what seems to be to be obvious....the right to be the primary influence over my children, not the government. Am I going to be one of those homeschoolers people accuse of being in a "holy huddle"? No, I don't believe in that. However, as the Maxwells put it in their book, Keeping Your Children's Hearts, I will insulate them, not to be confused with isolating them, in the name of protecting their hearts as long as I can.
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