Troubling

New Hampshire Court orders Christian homeschooled girl to attend public school
Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 8/26/2009 4:45:00 PM
var addthis_pub = 'onenewsnow';

Updated 8/27/2009 3:00 PM (Central)

A Christian homeschool girl in New Hampshire has been ordered into government-run public school for having "sincerely held" religious beliefs -- and the Alliance Defense Fund is troubled by the ruling.

The case involves divorced couple Martin Kurowski and Brenda Voydatch and their 10-year-old daughter, Amanda. The couple split in 1999 when they were living in Massachusetts, and the proceedings moved to New Hampshire after Voydatch relocated to that state with her daughter in 2002. Although Voydatch has primary custody over Amanda, both parents agreed to a parenting plan that included joint decision-making responsibility. A court-appointed guardian served as a mediator. A source of contention between the parents has been the mother's decision to home school Amanda since first grade. Amanda's father believes she should be sent to public school, while the mother is adamant about home schooling. Since both parents have failed to reach common ground, the issue moved to the court. The situation was then analyzed by the court-appointed guardian, who made a recommendation to the court. During the evaluation process it was determined that Amanda was excelling in her schooling and used curriculum that was approved by her school district. The curriculum used in her home schooling was created by certified teachers, and Amanda routinely took standardized tests. Furthermore, Amanda attended her local public school to take art, Spanish, and P.E. classes. Her public school instructors also commented on the fact that Amanda was well-rounded in her social skills. But a sticking point arose concerning Voydatch's Christian faith. The court order stated: "According to the guardian ad litem's further report and testimony, the counselor found Amanda to lack some youthful characteristics. She appeard to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith." The guardian noted that during a counseling session, Amanda tried to witness to the counselor and appeared "visibly upset" when the counselor purposefully did not pay attention. The guardian also noted that Amanda's relationship with her father suffered because she did not think he loved her as much as he said he did due to the fact that he refused to "adopt her religious beliefs." According to the court order, the guardian concluded that Amanda's "interests, and particularly her intellectual and emotional development, would be best served by exposure to a public school setting in which she would be challenged to solve problems presented by a group learning situation and...Amanda would be best served by exposure to different points of view at a time in her life when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief and behavior."

Furthermore the court order states that despite Amanda's mother insisting that her daughter's religious beliefs were her own, "it would be remarkable if a ten-year-old child who spends her school time with her mother and the vast majority of all her other time with her mother would seriously consider adopting any other religious point of view." Although the court noted that it "is extremely reluctant to impose on parents a decision about a child's education," it ruled that Amanda must attend public school. Alliance Defense Fund-allied attorney John Anthony Simmons has filed a motion to reconsider. He says this ruling is dangerous to home schoolers because it will set a precedent for other cases. "Every time you have a court order that uses a wrong standard or misapplies constitutional law, everyone's rights are eventually at stake," the attorney explains. "Because what happens with precedent is it gets expanded -- it gets cited in other cases." Simmons believes this case goes beyond the initial divorce and custody battle with this ruling because the standard used in the decision contained in the court order is troubling. He contends that the child's religion should not have played a role in the decision, and that the court should have focused solely on the academic merits of Amanda's education which proved to be excellent.

Blessings

"The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it." Proverbs 10:22

We are each blessed every day in big ways and small ways, with our lives, our children, our homes, our jobs. This past month we have been more cognizant of those blessings, whether because we have been looking for them or maybe because since Mark's accident we realize more and more how precious each day and each blessing is. Below I wanted to just show you a few of the blessings that we have taken pictures of.


15 1/4 lbs of fresh Salmon, given to us the very day it was caught, from a dear couple at church, who are very generous. DH finally got to use the fillet knife that he bought for fishing.

Some other very generous friends of ours have blueberry fields and they allowed us to come and pick blueberries. B#2 is a very fast picker so we have lots of blueberries in the freezer and we made some blueberry jam. Earlier in the summer, we had the opportunity to go to another farm to pick strawberries so we have those in the freezer ready to eat or make jam with. All of this for free.

You might think this a strange picture. But we were blessed one day when we checked the mail and found a check from the grandparents to put towards fixing up one of our bathrooms that was in need of some TLC. We purchased a new toilet and got a big roll of remnant flooring. After doing the bathroom we still have lots leftover so we can use it elsewhere.

What are some blessings you have received lately? Post me a comment and lets see what the Lord is doing in each of our lives. Maybe we all just need to stop and look for what He is doing in our lives.

To God be the Glory

Don't ya just love the words to that hymn? "To God be the Glory, great things He has done. So loved He the world that He gave us His Son."

He does great things for us everyday that we don't even give Him credit for. Well today I am giving Him all the Praise and Glory...I got a phone call this morning that every wife fears...."hello, my name is so and so, I am calling to tell you that your husband has been in an accident." That was how my morning started out. I did get to speak to DH for a brief minute before he was taken to the medic but I didn't know much more than the fact that a tire piece had flown off of a tractor trailer and went through his windshield and busted the back window as well. When they brought him into the ER he was strapped to a backboard and his face was all cut up and bloody. But he is doing fine other than lots of cuts on his face which will heal and I am sure some soreness will present itself in the next hours. Several people who saw the truck afterwards said that he was lucky. If it had went through the windshield even a foot to the left it could have killed him or at least done a lot more damage. We praise God for DH's safety in this.

Couponing part 2

Ok, so if you read my last post, you know that I am getting into this couponing thing. Hopefully, I will keep wisdom about me and not purchase unnecessary stuff just because. Anyway, I won't tell you about every shopping trip I go on but I did want to share one more. You can decide if you think I did well or not. Feel free to let me know you thoughts and tips. This week I went to four stores, in order of a goal of getting to the farm store on the other end of town so it wasn't a gas waste.

Albertson's
5- boxes cereal
10 more BBQ sauces(I think I am stocked up for a good while)
1-box of Green tea
2-packages of feminine products
3- things of deodorant.

I spent $24.28. I thought that was pretty good. If I had went to my regular store I think I would have spent about $36 for it all. Of course shopping at Albertson's without a sale or coupon would be totally out of our budget as all of this would have been $81.00 there.

Next I popped into Walgreens and picked up 3 rolls of scotch tape(a coveted item in our house) and 5 packages of papermate mechanical pencils. I spent $1.12.

Then I ran into Rite aid while the girls went to the fabric store. I bought 2-boxes of huggies baby wipes and 3- cans of Edge shaving cream. I did spend $8.97 there but will get $3 back in rebates from Rite aid. That made the shaving cream $.99 each.

Lastly, I ran in to Safeway to pick up chips, which is something we buy every week anyway. I bought 5 bags of chips for $5.56.

Well that was my couponing trip. Today I do my BIG shopping at our local cheaper store. My goal is to stay definitely under my budget while stocking my pantry. I will let you know if I manage to do that. Maybe it just takes time:)

Couponing

In years past I used to use coupons but then I started shopping at a local store where most of the store brand products were at least as cheap as those I had coupons for if not cheaper so I let that fall away. Well recently a friend from church has gotten several of us moms started up into coupons again. I signed up for a 4 week trial period for "The Grocery Game" which is a web site that tracks all sales and coupons and matches them up, telling you what to buy to save the most. It is interesting but you do have to pay a fee for it and I actually have been having fun just going through my sales flyers and matching it up with coupons that I have gotten from the Sunday paper. For a family of 10(as we are) it is suggested that you purchase two Sunday papers to help you have a good stock of coupons. Now some may say that you spend as much on two papers as you would save but I felt that it was worth it on my trip to our local Albertsons. Below is what I purchased and how much I saved...

1 bottle of Purex HE landry soap
1 box of Crystal Light to Go(for a friend)
2 packages of marshmallows(gotta keep those handy for smores)
4 bottles of bbq sauce(which were $.49 and had a coupon on pkg for $.35 off making them $.14 each
1 box of Ritz Crackerfuls(normally I wouldn't buy these but by the time I was done I got them for $.99 and it was a good snack for hubby's lunchbox)
1 package of these new weird dishwasher tablets.
Oh, and one bottle of water for B#7 and I to share.

I spent $8.14 and saved $27.30. I used a couple of double coupons, one of the crackerfuls and one of the dishwasher stuff. Anyway, I was pleased with my purchases and my savings. I went through the list for this week and will let you know how it works out.

First Harvest

Finally after the second try and lots of cold weather up here, we have our first harvest of the year...zucchini of course and a head of lettuce. Isn't that what grows best in most gardens? My problem with zucchini is that the only thing our family really likes it in is zucchini bread and zucchini cake. Anyone got some really great ideas for preserving it and what to make with it? I have shredded it and frozen it in the past which works ok but you sure gotta squeeze all of the liquid out before you can bake with it.

Someone to greet me every morning

I have a new friend. Her name is Pippa. She is pretty young, only about 5 months old and there is something strange about her looks....

Well okay, maybe not so strange if you are a chicken...Anyway, for the past couple of mornings, Pippa has been showing up bright and early on the porch off of our dining room. It is hilarious to watch her peck at the window and turn her head side to side trying to look inside the dining room. When she isn't satisfied with that view of life in side the big house she proceeds around to the kitchen window and hops up onto the window sill to see what is going on in the kitchen.

You gotta wonder what is going on in their little heads sometimes.